The new adventures of Brownnova. All my cars are ungrateful bastards.

[mercedade]

I've had a Proper Old Fella come out and fit a sert/helicoil to replace the threat in my supercharged Mini with great success - his view is that if done properly, the repaired thread is about 40% stronger than original. Happy to share details - he's mobile in the North West, but don't know how far into Wales he'd venture.

[Mally]

I was going to suggest just swapping the head. But after watching this, maybe just swap the engine.

 

[Stinkwheel]

3 minutes ago, Mally said:

I was going to suggest just swapping the head. But after watching this, maybe just swap the engine.

 

Id agree, swap the head. The gaskets etc needed are minimal. It will always help an old 2CV engine to have the 'spectacle' pushrod seals changed etc and the old head can be repaired much more succesfully when removed, then you have one to go back on the engine you stole the head off. Stripping a spare engine also gives you good practice for the main job

With a 2CV wing off you dont even need to remove the engine from car.

Go on, you know it makes sense 

[Mally]

In theory yes, no head gasket. and admittedly the lomax engine is stuck out in the weather, but did you actually watch the video?

[Matty]

4 hours ago, Mally said:

In theory yes, no head gasket. and admittedly the lomax engine is stuck out in the weather, but did you actually watch the video?

I just did. It's like a list of things not do do. Tiny nuts with 12 inch adjustable. Knocking shite out of a casting covered in cooling fins with a mallet. Winding studs out with vice grips.

I'd give him a bell @brownnova and ask him when he can do yours. 🤣

 

 

 

(I get the point though Pete. Things tend to be worse than they first appear)

[brownnova]

Two other factors with the existing engine: 

- snapped manifold stud 
- oil leak (which whilst not MoT failure levels has slightly increased over the past 5 years) 

However, any spare engine I use will need a bit of a check over anyway, as to my knowledge neither has run in over 20 years! One certainly looks that way.

In the short term I’m going to focus on the brakes of the green one, in order to help get one on the road for the summer. If the Yellow one needs more work, I can focus on that in the summer holidays once I have sorted the garage out better!

However, of course, my actual likely course of action is just to buy another car and then moan in 2 years that I’ve not done anything with these ones! Which reminds me, I have a man to phone about a car for sale… 

[hairnet]

21 minutes ago, brownnova said:

 

 Which reminds me, I have a man to phone about a car for sale… 

[cms206]

40 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Which reminds me, I have a man to phone about a car for sale… 

Have you bought it yet?

[loserone]

How about now?

[brownnova]

😆😆

Not yet… 

[Sunny Jim]

What's keeping you?

[brownnova]

The 5 hour round trip to go and view! 

[cms206]

3 hours ago, brownnova said:

The 5 hour round trip to go and view! 

Pfffft.

 

Shitebag.

[brownnova]

State of the nation  fleet update:

Basically they’re all currently fucked (except the 9000… at the moment.) 

2CVs… fucked. One won’t go another won’t stop and the other two haven’t been anywhere in many years 

Saab 9-3: Spat a new driveshaft out and is awaiting repair from the garage that fitted the new driveshaft.

XC90: Electrical issues are continuing - thought I had repaired it well, but apparently not. Last time out it came up brake failure and lost the fuel gauge, Yesterday it wouldn’t recognise the keys so threw a immobiliser fault into the mix.  Sometimes it’ll go, sometimes it won’t. All down to a water damaged connector. It’s currently full of stuff to go to the tip. Managed to get it going last night, so hopefully can coax it to the tip and then MoT due next week. If it passes that then I’ll get an electrician to do the business as my ham fisted attempts have clearly not worked. If not…. 

Trans Sport: Came back from a weeks holiday to find the battery dead. So today I put it on charge. Pump primed well, battery gauge showed a good level of charge. Turned the key and everything just died… fan-fucking-tastic. Too dark to investigate properly. 

Yugo: dug the garage crap from in front of it… no reason, just needed to tidy the garage. 

 

It’s still here needing new brakes, new metal letting into the holes etc etc. 

9000: is slowly succumbing to the rust on the wings… and the key fob it hit and miss. 

So… yeah. My wife’s fantastically interesting Renner Scenic works currently and returned 59MPG on our holiday, so that’s good. 
 

Other than that a nice PCP on a new car seems good right now. 

[hairnet]

yes.

youre an edookayted man ffs

 

[brownnova]

18 hours ago, brownnova said:

Too dark to investigate properly. 

This looks like the battery terminal not being well enough connected. A bit of a tighten and we have starting and driving. Will check we still have that in the morning and then will attempt a bigger drive than up my local lanes (subject to advertised storms) 

I think it just didn’t want to go out to Cars and Coffee today! 

[Talbot]

On 02/08/2025 at 23:25, brownnova said:

2CVs… fucked. One won’t go another won’t stop and the other two haven’t been anywhere in many years 

I know neither of them are set up as race 2cvs, but we can do an engine swap in 11 minutes.  Put the engine from the one that will go into the one that stops, and hey presto you have a car that both goes and stops.

</significant oversimplification>

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, Talbot said:

I know neither of them are set up as race 2cvs, but we can do an engine swap in 11 minutes.  Put the engine from the one that will go into the one that stops, and hey presto you have a car that both goes and stops.

</significant oversimplification>

I can see the logic, however, alas, I am not a 2CV race mechanic… so it would be more like 11 days than 11 minutes for a ham fisted amateur like me! 

Plus the ambition is to have two working 2CVs!

One possible plan is get the engine from the D reg project (which we were led to believe was good.) and get that running to transplant over. 

[brownnova]

Pontiac survived a trip to the (sadly closed) pub… 

And many errands as well.

Silver Saab has also been fixed. Awaiting my collection. XC90 MoT booked for Wednesday and managed a tip run today, only fucking up it’s electrics and forgetting the keys threatening to leave me stranded once I had emptied everything out at the tip. thankfully I figured out that locking and unlocking 5 times helps the car remember. So with a wiggle of the wires and that done we also got home. 

Good job it’s the summer holidays so I can take care of fleet admin! 

[brownnova]

Saab back on the Drive. It even goes as it should. 

[jim89]

15 hours ago, brownnova said:

Pontiac survived a trip to the (sadly closed) pub… 

 

Still, got there in the end! 😏🙂

[stuboy]

On 02/08/2025 at 23:25, brownnova said:

 

 

still like these

[brownnova]

1 hour ago, stuboy said:

still like these

It’s causing zero hassle in there, but it’s going to need a fair amount and complexity of new metal letting in I think before it’ll trouble the highways again! 

[stuboy]

3 minutes ago, brownnova said:

It’s causing zero hassle in there

its ready when your ready

[brownnova]

Ok… update: 

Pontiac now starts fine, but appears to have a battery drain. My chances of finding that are slim… so I’m considering fitting an isolator.

The XC90 now has a fresh MoT. It needed a track rod end, but that was a tolerable expense. I’m going to get the electrics looked at and then it will be up for sale as it has effectively been replaced by the Scenic. 

Saab is also now working well. Although I think the other side top mount may need doing soon also.

Whilst at the MoT for the Volvo I chatted about the 2CV issue with my MoT man, and he gave me an idea from his many many years in the trade for a repair for the 2CV… so will be giving that a try over the weekend too. 

[Zelandeth]

33 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Ok… update: 

Pontiac now starts fine, but appears to have a battery drain. My chances of finding that are slim… so I’m considering fitting an isolator.

Boot switch?

I'd try pulling the fuse for the interior lighting circuit and see if that fixes it first.  Second thing I'd try would be unplugging the stereo - especially if it's an aftermarket one.  Wouldn't be the first time I'd seen the switched and permanent 12V feeds flipped around resulting in a drain.

[brownnova]

Thanks for that, some good things to try there. 🙂