Zel's Motoring Adventures...Peugeot, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - 19/04 - HVAC Preemptive Investigation...

[Zelandeth]

4 minutes ago, Christine said:

You say M6...  Do any eastern block cars ever  have any  peculiar threads ?   Good project and write up  anyway  ...ta ! 

Not that I've ever come across so far.  I'm sure if you go back far enough there are some bizarre ones, but everything I've personally had or worked on from that corner of the world has all universally been metric - so far anyway!

[Christine]

Them over there must think us pretty odd  ...   Whit , Unf , Unc, B.A. , plumbing threads, bike threads metric fine ,coarse .... then all the american ones  ! 

[Zelandeth]

3 minutes ago, Christine said:

Them over there must think us pretty odd  ...   Whit , Unf , Unc, B.A. , plumbing threads, bike threads metric fine ,coarse .... then all the american ones  ! 

Working on the Invacar is like that.  Engine is Metric, gearbox is imperial and the bodywork is whatever AC had rolling around on the factory floor on any given day.  Then you have special things like the hubs which are imperial at the outboard end and metric inboard!

[Christine]

Mowers with Briggs engines are like that , but invacars  aren' t  far removed from lawn mowers , eh? 

[Zelandeth]

Simple but satisfying jobs today.

The carpet underlay in the front was switched round so the cutout for the pedals was in the right place.  Still don't know why that didn't occur to me when I was fitting it - though having to work around school kids running around my driveway at the time probably didn't help.

The observant among you may also spot the other thing I forgot yesterday afternoon.  The fuel switch was left on overnight.  I can however now confirm that the needle and seat in this carb are decent enough to prevent the whole tank decanting itself overnight.  Though it did leak by enough that I created my own little recreation of that video of them crossing the border the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall when I started the car up.  Thankfully after five minutes or so of driving the biblical levels of smoke reduced to invisible again.

As I had hoped the carpets had fully dried overnight.  They're not spotless by any means but I think are a hundred times better than they started out.

My suspicion was that once they were in the car that the marks would be far less apparent.

Think I was right.

Perfect?  No.  However it's a 39 year old car, and based on that context I think is entirely acceptable.  The area by the pedals is looking in really surprisingly good shape given there's no separate heel pad or anything there.

Not sure what these carpets are made from, but it seems to be pretty hard wearing whatever it is.

Next issue I wanted to address was the door cards.  Nothing says quality like trim that fits this well.

The main reason for that is that a whole bunch of these clips were missing.

Of the eighteen that should be in that door card there were three present (and four in the driver's door).  With them all present and correct it looks...a bit better.

Being totally honest this card is never going to sit absolutely right as it's been quite badly water damaged and is warped as a result.  It's a lot better though.  Doesn't flap around a bunch when the door closes now either.

Same was done on the driver's side.  That one at least has escaped any major water damage so is sitting properly.

It's actually looking like a car again!

If you're really paying attention you may have noticed that the driver's side window winder has changed from chrome to plastic.  That's because I have two plastic ones but only one chrome one and then being mismatched was bugging me.  Yes the metal one looks nicer, but I'll take them matching over individual visual appeal.

Really need to get the parcel shelf under the dash out to give it the same treatment as the rest of the carpets as it's absolutely filthy.  That might wait till the weather is a bit warmer though so I can just leave it in the sun to dry.  

The carpets will come out again at the same time as I want to get the bulkhead behind the shelf rust proofed same as the floors, and to get proper paint on the area beneath the B pillars so the current tide mark isn't so obvious.  Shorter term all the carpets need to come out the boot so it can be properly dried out and rust proofed as well.  That requires me to empty all the crap out first though!

While in the boot, I did spot a convenient spot to mount some concealed speakers if I did decide I wanted to fit a stereo at some point in the future, which honestly I doubt I will.

Between the carpets being back in the car (and no longer saturated) and the cooling shroud now actually being bolted together the car is waaaaay quieter to drive.  Don't get me wrong, it's still ridiculously loud, but it's a thousand times better than it was.  You can actually have a conversation at 50mph just by raising your voice a bit rather than actually having to shout.

Here's the before and after from the day I got the car and today inside.

Quite the difference.

Externally not much has really changed though!

[LightBulbFun]

Oh my Gosh the interior has an actual colour! that really is quite the difference with the carpets there  

 

all the little bits of fettling are really showing, and also have been really satisfying to read about/see

 

it is always awesome to see a car get TLC like it has been getting  all the little niggles sorted, all the bolts and clips tightened back up and sorted out, everything just re-seated/secured/cleaned up as it should be

satisfying AF as they say!

[High Jetter]

Looking lush inside now, superb valeting skillz

[Zelandeth]

Only a really quick one for today.  Got this fitted to the Peugeot - definitely not a common sight in this generation of Partner.

Of course I had to cut a slot in the cowl for it - not too bothered about this as it's already had a hole chopped in it for the horn button.

Not the prettiest job but you'll not really see it unless you're peering upwards at it.  I need to figure out if the cowl is unique to the Partner, if not finding one which actually has the proper cutout in.  Of course this job was 5% actually doing what I set out to then 95% trying to wrestle annoying bits of plastic cowling back into place.

As expected it doesn't do anything yet and won't until we've told the BSI that it's got cruise fitted.  We're not expecting the limit function to work as that definitely requires a different throttle pedal, but the cruise function *should* work, in theory.  The throttle pedal I want unfortunately is unique to the Partner/Berlingo...and was only for the aforementioned vehicles fitted with cruise.  Of which there seem to have been about three.  So part 1601V1 isn't exactly easy to find.  I'll keep my eyes open but am not going to hold my breath.  I suspect the answer might well be making a Heinz 57 out of the electronics of for instance a Pug 206 pedal and the arm from the Partner one or similar.  I'll need to have a look at what the difference actually is between them.

Hopefully we'll be getting it on the computer on Tuesday to hopefully get the software side of things done.  Tomorrow we'll be getting the tyres swapped out for decent examples.  I'll be listing the ones coming off on here as they're still perfectly road legal and the rear ones especially have plenty of life left and aren't bad.  I just personally like to have a matched set on a car so they're all getting done.

[Zelandeth]

Glad to report that the Partner is now wearing a half way decent matched set of tyres.

Really need to find a new set of wheel trims that don't rely quite so heavily on structural zip ties...

To be honest the ones that were on the rear weren't bad at all and if it were not for the fact that I know that it would have forever bugged the hell out of my OCD if they were mismatched they could have stayed where they were.  These plastic death rings that were on the front though, not so much.  These I am very glad to be rid of. 

They were solidly average in the dry, if rather noisy.  In the wet however they were bloody hopeless.  Attempting to move off in anything even vaguely resembling a brisk manner simply resulted in masses of wheelspin.  Likewise braking with any real urgency basically turned into a game of chicken with the ABS.  That said, having looked it up they do retail for about £30 apiece, and I guess that's what you get when you pay less than it costs to half fill the tank with fuel for a tyre.  I'll stick to my Uniroyals thanks.

On the plus side, when I was digging out the locking wheel nut key for the guys I discovered the two remaining original wheel bolts were in the box.  So I was able to file these under B for Bin.

I do have to wonder precisely WHY this thing had been fitted with locking wheel nuts, especially as it doesn't even have alloy wheels.  Though in the same breath, it did have the all season tyres fitted to the non-driven axle, and has had the positive side of wiring done using household earth cable...so maybe it's best just not to try to find too much logic there.  They won't be causing me any further headaches anyway.

Will be visiting a friend who's equipped with Diagbox (and equally importantly knows how to use it, as I know it's not exactly the most user friendly piece of software) to get the cruise control coded in.  So hopefully by lunchtime tomorrow that will be working.  With 350 or so miles on the motorway coming up on Thursday that would be nice!

In other news, I realised today that I'd not actually got a general photo of the Trabant since I'd done away with the random bolts sticking out of the front of the bonnet, so I snapped one.  Then realised quite how covered in greasy fingerprints the front of the car is - a curse of owning a white (or nearly white) car I'm familiar with from the Rover too.

Need to tweak the wiper position a bit now that there's actually less than 90 degrees of slack in the linkage too.  Think it's starting to look a bit less sorry for itself though.

[SiC]

I forgot you had the P6! Has the Trabbie taken all the focus or is the P6 still being used in the background?

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

I forgot you had the P6! Has the Trabbie taken all the focus or is the P6 still being used in the background?

The P6 is basically waiting for the spring.  I need to permanently (ish) route a fuel return line, and then continue the testing.  Just isn't the time of year to be messing about with a car which hasn't been in use for years and has demonstrated that it's decidedly cranky about being dragged back into life.  So far about 50% of the times it's left the driveway I've either had to limp home or fix something en route.  It's still very much at the "it's running, but I trust it as far as I can throw it" stage so far.

Everything I've done on the Trabant has been stuff that's easy to dip in and out of, plus it was fundamentally up and running when it arrived here.

[grizz]

Not commented as much (must get boring) but you really have done so much for this car. 
 

Well done Zel. 

[wesacosa]

can't remember if i imagined it or not but were you after a bonnet ?

 

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, wesacosa said:

can't remember if i imagined it or not but were you after a bonnet ?

 

Correct, but it looks like one has popped up relatively locally since so I should be sorted there.  Thanks for posting that though.

[Zelandeth]

350 and change miles done today in the Partner without any incident.

Observations: Position of the throttle pedal makes your foot get really bloody sore after two or three hours.  So cruise will definitely be a nice addition when we get it working.  We failed at the first attempt at that as neither of us realised that there's a cryptically named option you need to turn on in the engine ECU options as well as enabling the cruise itself.  It was fluffing windy coming over Shap.

Found a friend in the hotel car park.

Escapade edition as well, didn't realise that was running for three years.

[Zelandeth]

I came back to the car later that day to discover that the other Partner had been moved and parked up next to mine.  I find it hard to believe that this was coincidence!

Sadly I never did bump into the owner.

Sadly all good things must come to an end, so after four and a bit days hiding from the depressing realities of the outside world in our own little bubble of odd but harmless madness it was time to head back home.  

720 miles done on the motorway has brought me even more respect for how decent a car a Partner/Berlingo is.  Far more comfortable a cruiser than you'd expect (especially when you remember there's a fold down arm rest on the front seats...only took me half the trip home!) to look at it.  This is a car which I know is going to need a bit of money spent on it in the next few years, especially a couple of bits of bodywork which are going to need sorting, but I reckon I'll just fork out as needed as I really can't think what I'd replace it with that does the same job any better and also be as pleasant to drive.

We had absolutely torrential rain for a good 2/3rds of the journey south, so I am very glad I made the decision to get the new tyres fitted before we made the trip.  I also continue to be impressed with how well these tyres handle wet weather - though that has always been their selling point I guess.

Back home I finally conceded that the convention was done as I reluctantly took my badge off and added it to the ever growing bundle that hang in one corner of my room.  Really doesn't *feel* like I've been doing this for long, though evidence suggests otherwise.

One of these days I'll maybe find a cheap hobby!  

Also yes, my workstation is a disaster, I know.

Anyhow, back to what's actually relevant to this thread.  Having driven through some properly biblical rain, said weather system then followed us home and came down heavy enough overnight to detach one of the gutters out the back of the house.  So I was slightly curious to find out how much had wound up inside the cabin of the Trabant.  Answer: None.  At least not in any amount I can detect.  Carpet and underlays all feel bone dry.  Given how badly the car leaked when I got it I'll take that!

One area which has really suffered from the long term water ingress is the headlining. Well, such as it is. The "textured vinyl pad stuck to the inside of the roof" would be more accurate. It does a decent enough job of keeping the panel from drumming and dampens echoes in the cabin so what more do you need? Sadly the mould really has gone after it.

Interesting that there really wasn't much of it on the seats, steering wheel or seatbelts where it usually turns up. Just the roof. I have already given that a scrub down with a couple of cleaning products (including one to kill anything still growing there), but the staining really does seem to be ingrained into the texture printed onto the lining. The ideal approach to this would be to attack it with a bleach solution and a stiff scrubbing brush. However that's kind of difficult with it being glued to the roof, and I don't particularly want a face full of bleach or to find out the hard way which bits of the interior can be bleached of their colour. I very much doubt it will come out in one piece to allow me to deal with it on the ground. One thing I do have which I think may be worth a try is the steam cleaner. At the end of the day, a new headliner is €70 from the usual suspects, so I'll be planning on ordering one along with whatever the next batch of parts is I think. If I do manage to shift the grime in the interim that will just be a bonus.

Grubby headlining or not, the car was out and about again this afternoon, making a Fiesta look big.

The car came with a selection of random bottles of two stroke oil which I've been working through. Just finished a Car Plan branded one (never knew they sold anything other than really watered down screen wash and even more awful wiper blades) and switched to some Lucas (the American one) branded oil today and had an immediate reminder that two stroke oil is one of those fields where all oils are not created equal. The engine almost immediately ran smoother and is created better power.

I guess given it is actually passes all the way through the engine that there really will be a difference in how it behaves from one formulation to another depending on the different burn characteristics. Just not used to seeing something quite that measurable just using my ears and the butt Dyno. Something which is very obvious is that with this oil the car is far more willing to drive nicely at speeds requiring a light throttle (maintaining 30mph for example), than before. I mean, it's still a two stroke, but definitely a better mannered one.

I did consider doing some reading on "which is the best oil to use?" however know that's likely to be one of those topics where there are going to be a dozen different factions all of whom will defend their preferred brand at all costs...The only advice I know I have seen widely circulated is to steer clear of fully synthetic oils as (just as in many older four stroke cars) they don't play nicely with some of the seals used. So I'm just going to stick with what I know and go for Castrol R as that's what everyone I know who has actual experience with two stroke engines that I personally know has used since the dawn of time and swears by. Fact that you can't beat the smell is just a bonus. The only downside I know of that is that it doesn't do well if sitting around for long periods, but given that this car is in regular use I'm not expecting that to be an issue. To be fair, John's snowmobile was run on it and regularly got forgotten for a few years at a time, and aside from having to blast the mouse nests out of the fan cowling and air box with the air line, it always just coughed and sneezed back to life after we swore at it loudly enough. Well aside from the one year the pull start rope snapped the first time I gave it a full strength pull and I went sailing backwards straight through the wall of the shed. See also: Moments from my past I wish I had on video as it was absolutely hilarious. Up there with the day I learned the lesson about how high a voltage a starter motor solenoid can generate when you disconnect it from the power supply.

Edit: Several folks have pointed out to me that while R does have excellent lubricant properties, it does tend to result in a lot of problems with gumming and carbon buildup.  Not a big issue where things are being regularly stripped for maintenance anyway but not ideal in this car.  So we'll just be sticking to a good quality semi synthetic oil instead then.

[Zelandeth]

The driver's side windscreen wiper on the Trabant decided to eject itself into the scenery again this afternoon.  Thankfully into such a location that I was able to turn around and retrieve it.  Also thankfully, the screen being Rain-X treated meant that not having wipers was more of an annoyance for the remainder of the trip home rather than an actual problem.

The issue is basically that the outer part of the spindle has corroded quite significantly to the point that it has probably lost a good 1/4 of its diameter.  The arms are held onto the spindles on the Trabant using a U shaped clamp which is tightened down by a grub screw that runs through the base of the wiper arm.  The problem I've been having is that said grub screw bottomed out before it was really holding the arm tightly onto the spindle.  It would stay firmly attached just long enough to lull you into a false sense of security before coming loose again.

My solution in the short term has been to replace the grub screw with one that's a bit longer.  This has definitely helped as you can actually feel the clamp biting onto the spindle now, but realistically I do need to replace that spindle.  I do have a spare, I just need to find time to do it.  Of course the driver's side one is the difficult to get to one as the speedometer and steering column is in the way.  Passenger side is completely accessible just by reaching under the dash.

A protective mat has now been deployed to protect the carpet on the driver's side.  Courtesy of Lidl.  Which is where I dived into to see if I could find a screwdriver to allow me to reattach the wiper arm when it flew off - They didn't have any decent sized screwdrivers, but I did find doormats which look idea for cutting to shape for oddly shaped footwells like this.

We'll see how durable it is, but for less than £5 I'm not going to lose sleep over it if it needs replacing after a few months.

[rattlecan]

Brilliant stuff that rain x 👍🏼

[plasticvandan]

I daily rode my 250 MZ for 50,000 miles,and used westway semi synth off eBay (that mileage I used a lot) when i stripped it for rebuild following a gearbox fault,after 30,000 miles I had little to no carbon build up,the bore was still excellent,and no gummed up rings etc. so I can personally recommend that. I tend to use 40.1,the factory said 50.1 but suspect that was just to keep the smoke to a minimum. Once you get even more used to it,I would recommend switching the fuel tap off a certain distance before home,so that the bowl can empty while parked,this prevents too much gumming up in the carb from crap ethanol fuel and oily residue.

[Zelandeth]

Feeling like absolute death today courtesy of whatever cold or similar I managed to bring back from the convention (to be fair, last time con crud got me was 2017 so I've not had a bad run).  Despite that I wanted to try to get at least something useful done.  So I attacked the boot of the Trabant.  For the first time since I bought the car, it was emptied.  Precisely as gross as I was expecting.

As with the carpets in the cabin, they just lift out once you figure out what bits you need to pull in which direction and which order.  Much the same picture underneath them as elsewhere in the car.

Which was then drowned in Vactan after vacuuming all the loose crap out.

Unlike on the floors inside the cabin I did find one bit of rust that will need to be sorted though right at the right hand rear corner where the floor meets the rear panel.

I don't *think* this will be an MOT issue as I think it's well clear of any prescribed areas (it's even outboard of the reinforcement bar which forms the rear crash structure), but obviously will want to be properly fixed.  Not the easiest to deal with there to be honest as it's butted right up against the Duroplast rear quarter panel, and one of the downsides of that material is that it's very fond of (reports vary on whether more or less so than fibreglass) catching fire.  Guessing wet rags, heat blocking compound and a vigilant spotter are what's needed.  The way the Duroplast panels are bonded in place means that they're not exactly easily removed.  Not in one piece anyway.  Here's hoping it's not an MOT issue anyway as I'd really rather deal with it at my leisure rather than needing to get it done sometime within the next 4 weeks.

[Zelandeth]

Well the base carpet looks a bit healthier after a trip through the washing machine!

The side/back like the ones for the cabin is too big to fit so will have to be attacked with detergent and the pressure washer when I get a chance.

[TrabbieRonnie]

The rear wings are easily removed tbh, the sealant used will be brittle now...  There's a row of self tappers under the black trim strip, and a couple at the bottom... Be prepared for your first view of your rear wheel arches if/when you do though!!!

[Zelandeth]

6 hours ago, TrabbieRonnie said:

The rear wings are easily removed tbh, the sealant used will be brittle now...  There's a row of self tappers under the black trim strip, and a couple at the bottom... Be prepared for your first view of your rear wheel arches if/when you do though!!!

Noted.  Probably wouldn't be the worst idea to pull them to rust treat behind them and renew the sealant then I imagine.  The condition of the bottom of the B pillar and sill would be more of a potential cause for worry I'd think than the arches!  At least repair panels exist for all of the involved areas at reasonable money if it comes to it.

Any particular adhesive that's the preferred go to?  Otherwise I'd probably be assuming windscreen grade PU would make sense these days.  Strong as all hell, won't let moisture permeate through it, but has a bit of flex to it.  Happy to listen to input from you folks who have more experience with these cars though.

[TrabbieRonnie]

6 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Noted.  Probably wouldn't be the worst idea to pull them to rust treat behind them and renew the sealant then I imagine.  The condition of the bottom of the B pillar and sill would be more of a potential cause for worry I'd think than the arches!  At least repair panels exist for all of the involved areas at reasonable money if it comes to it.

Any particular adhesive that's the preferred go to?  Otherwise I'd probably be assuming windscreen grade PU would make sense these days.  Strong as all hell, won't let moisture permeate through it, but has a bit of flex to it.  Happy to listen to input from you folks who have more experience with these cars though.

I needed a bit of work to the rear arches, like you say the repair panels were easy and cheap (back then anyway) to get hold of.

I used a generic silicone sealant, as I did not want them to be impossible to get off again in future... they're probably due off for an inspection now actually, just realised how long ago all this was (2009-ish!). 

I actually want the roof panel off too, need to check/rust-proof the top rail, and should really take the front wings and door skins off too... As always, I have too many cars and not enough time!

[Zelandeth]

I knew it had been behaving itself too well!

I noticed when out yesterday a very slight rubbing noise coming from the nearside rear at low speeds, very much like a brake shoe dragging very lightly.  Not a noise in itself that would cause worry, but I immediately decided to investigate simply on account of the fact that it was a NEW noise which clearly was happening because something had changed.

Well the hub nut being attached to the spindle by about half a thread probably wouldn't have been helping anything.  That's shown after I span it back on by hand.  That nut should be bloody tight according to the specs I've found - as in "tighter than my torque wrench goes to" levels of tight.  Not finger tight.  So it was tightened back up, and I then peened the opposite side of the washer behind it to the one locked into the drum over to lock it in place.  I don't think it's actually intended to be used like that, but it's not going to hurt anything and I'll take the reassurance that there's no way that the nut can now back itself off.  It was clear on the other side that someone had done that in the past - but not last time things were apart.  That side hadn't backed itself off but wasn't locked in place by anything.

Looking back at the photos of the front hubs I took when the tyres were changed confirmed that neither of the front hub nuts had been staked to lock those either, so that's now also been done.

Suffice to say that one of the items now on my to do list is to have a crawl over the underside of the car, particularly the entire rear suspension in general to ensure that nothing else is loose, as loose fasteners seem to have become a very running theme on this car.  I was willing to overlook a few actually attached to the engine as having potentially backed themselves out given the vibration, but this latest round clearly isn't the fault of the car.

Glad to report that the rubbing noise has gone away.  How has the car repaid me for this?  By blowing a head gasket.  A chuffing noise has developed up front which sounds like an exhaust manifold leak, but from a good distance away from the manifold, up by the top of the engine.  I've confirmed this is limited to the fan-side cylinder by disconnecting spark plugs individually.  With that one disconnected the engine runs, not very well but it runs and the chuffing noise is gone.  Switching things around, it basically won't run on just that cylinder, and you can clearly hear the noise when it tries to - so we're obviously venting compression from that pot.

Have a listen and see if you agree.

I'll pull the cowl off tomorrow and hopefully be able to confirm then - but I deemed this to not be a job for this afternoon as it had just started raining.  I am 99.999999% sure it's not just a loose spark plug by the way.  I want to get the cowl apart properly anyway to ensure everything in there is clean, to try to get it properly lined up so the fan to cowl seal actually stays in its groove, and also to check the condition of the bearings in the fan itself.  So it's worth getting everything pulled off for anyway.  Guess it's not impossible that the head/jug bolts have just backed out but I personally doubt it.  I've got a new pair of gaskets on the way anyway, thankfully a local company over in Birmingham had these on the shelf rather than needing to pay through the nose for shipping for such a small order from Trabantwelt as that would have stung a bit.

I did discover when investigating this that the clamp on the heat exchanger to main exhaust pipe was another thing that was barely finger tight, so also nipped that up.

Guess I'll actually need to use the "sensible" car for errands for the next few days then!

[Noel Tidybeard]

2 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Guess I'll actually need to use the "sensible" car for errands for the next few days then!

the raver 3500 then🤣

[plasticvandan]

Head gaskets on these are a side of the road job,and an item to keep on stock alongside a coil,fan belt etc.

[Zelandeth]

17 minutes ago, plasticvandan said:

Head gaskets on these are a side of the road job,and an item to keep on stock alongside a coil,fan belt etc.

Yep.  I've been wanting to pull the cowls off anyway so not the end of the world.  Just the timing amused me more than anything given it's less than 48 hours since I ordered a bunch of parts and could have just included it with that. 

 

58 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

the raver 3500 then🤣

That might depend on whether I can be bothered to crawl around in this weather and attach the return fuel line...Though knowing me, it's entirely likely I'd end up doing that rather than being sensible!

[Zelandeth]

With the weather actually being decent this afternoon I decided to get stuck in to confirming that my theory was correct regarding what was going on with the power unit in the Trabant.

With even just the first bit of the cowling removed and the first momentary visual inspection it looked as though my suspicion of a head gasket failure on the number 1 cylinder was likely to be correct.

The offending cylinder, if you can't tell by the fact that it's covered in oily slime, is to the right in this photo.  The amount of gunge on there suggests to me that this might actually have been weeping for quite a while before the gasket actually let go completely.

Fast forward ten minutes and we've got rather better access.

The rear two nuts were definitely on the loose side I'd say - as were all four exhaust manifold nuts.

Rotating the engine by hand you could very clearly hear a wheezing noise coming from the top of that cylinder rather than being clearly able to feel compression from the other side. 

Once the head was removed this was one of those occasions where we did have a very obvious smoking gun regarding the nature of the failure.

Yep, that gasket has had it!

At least that's a clear failure and an easily replaced part.  I'm just waiting on the new gaskets to arrive (I'll do both while I'm in there as it just makes sense I reckon). 

The bore looks healthy enough to my admittedly not particularly well trained eyes.  There are a couple of small score marks but nothing I can feel, and this isn't a brand new engine and there's nothing here which seems like cause for alarm.  My intention is to replace both head gaskets, give the engine a good external clean once everything is back together to try to get rid of some of the oily slime coating it, then to just put it back together and resume driving. 

I had been expecting the fan shroud to basically just be a box to direct air towards the engine, so was quite surprised by how heavy it was when I removed it.  Turns out that there are quite a few more bits to it than I thought - there's been a lot more thought given to the air flow over the engine than I expected.  The air paths for the heads and cylinders are completely separate, and there are baffles in place to ensure that as little air is wasted as possible.  The cowl is shaped to get cooling down as close to the exhaust ports as is really practical as well.

I'll try to grab a shot of that in better lighting so it's clearer before it goes back together.

Took me 21 minutes from stepping out the door to having the head off and the old gasket removed.  Could probably do that quicker next time as I know which direction you need to pull the cowling to get it off now as that probably wasted me five minutes or so.  Can't complain at that... I've had it take me longer to get into things to get the head off a lawnmower before!

Got some further work done on the Rover as well, but that's going to have to wait until after I've made dinner to be written up.

[Tommyboy12]

I'm actually surprised it has actual headgaskets and not just a mated surface. At least it's an easy fix