Jump to content

Dollywobbler's Foxy little number


dollywobbler

Recommended Posts

The weekend in brief.

Pretend this is Saturday morning. It was actually Friday evening, but she looked much the same, only with a bonnet.

D9muY8bXoAE5vOP.jpg

Leigh Delamere. Bonnet off again as I tried to work out how all the oil had vanished. Radiator was full of mayo again.

D9qmfJZX4AAbc2w.jpg

She was driving well though, and despite the temp gauge sitting far too high, she felt ok so I just kept going. 60mph (sat nav, 65 on the speedo due to my new tyres) felt very comfortable, so we just did that for hours. Epic queues across the Severn Bridge and parts of the M25, but no steam detected. Proceeded with caution. By Bracknell, the oil was below minimum again... I added the last of my oil.

Bromley Pageant was achieved. This was about seven AM. Outlaw118 very kindly brought me some 20w50 oil, as I could not find any for sale at this classic car show. DISAPPOINT.

D9uWpPZXsAEmvpP.jpg

Foxanne went down a storm and many people came for a look at my dreadful paint. Most thought it far better than they expected. 

This morning at my lovely AirBNB. I topped up the oil yet again, though it had only dropped as far as the minimum this time.

D9z6mIPXkAAKsDT.jpg

Plucking up courage to tackle the M25. At one stage, we managed 70mph in the fast lane! 

D90FXVYW4AA0uD7.jpg

Banbury. Had to top the oil up again - another litre. That was 2 litres gone in 187 miles...

D90ng-7WwAAi4na.jpg

Wales. She was still overheating, so I went Roadkill and left the bonnet off. This brought the temp gauge down a bit, but only over 50mph. I think that comfirms the rad as key culprit. Handily, a new one arrived today! Three-row as well. Dead posh.

D91jCw2XkAACBSX.jpg

However, I made it home! On getting home, I revved the engine hard and noticed acrid blue smoke. Ah, that's where the oil was going then! I shall fit the new radiator, flush the coolant and see how she goes (at some point). In less than two weeks, I'm off on my jollies in the 2CV, so I can't promise any further progress on the Fox. 2CV now needs to be the focus! So, she made it, with issues, but none that ever brought her to a halt. I'm saying that's pretty good. She buzzes along merrily enough. Noisy, naturally, and all of the revs, but these Reliant motors are so sweet. I did 70mph along the A5 again, just to prove she can comfortably do it. Kill or cure!

The ride is bouncy as hell, so I suspect new dampers would be a good idea. Perhaps new bushes up front as well as she reacts very badly to potholes. Otherwise, she's quite a jolly little thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

very happy to see she made it there and back under her own power despite the fact she goes through Oil like I go through hot chocolate :mrgreen:

so is oil leaking into the coolant system or is the mayo just from crap left in the old radiator? I was just wondering as you dont want to clog up your shiny new radiator with crap if it is leaking into the cooling system!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah... it's astonishing how long the cooling system components can be shedding oily gunk for following a HG failure.
 

If not head gasket though it does beg the question as to where the oil's going...with those volumes vanishing I'd be looking at the PCV oil separator first probably.  Rings being so worn as to use that much I'd have expected to result in notably low compression and poor performance...but she seems peppy enough in the videos...

Really does seem a cheerful little thing...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would suggest valve stem seals; quite possibly they've dried out from lack of use or are just knackered. After you've been to Croatia, see if you get any blue smoke on a cold startup, normally a sign they've worn.

As Zelandeth says also check any breather system the engine has, could be a blocked hose, or even the cap itself is clogged if it has a mesh or valve in it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Have a horrible feeling I've reached the end of the road with this one. I don't get enough pleasure out of driving it to justify it being such a pain in the arse to work on. So I don't think it'll be coming to Chumleigh. Quite what I do with it, I'm not sure. I doubt it's worth much, it has HubNut painted on the sides of it and it is still putting oil into the coolant. Bah.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I still think the oil in the radiator is still stuff which is being cleared out of the entire cooling system. Besides, I can't see any other telltale signs of an ongoing head gasket problem or something like that. Maybe it's my eyes...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

Have a horrible feeling I've reached the end of the road with this one. I don't get enough pleasure out of driving it to justify it being such a pain in the arse to work on. So I don't think it'll be coming to Chumleigh. Quite what I do with it, I'm not sure. I doubt it's worth much, it has HubNut painted on the sides of it and it is still putting oil into the coolant. Bah.

 

A friend of mine has a Suzuki Cappucino engine lying around - that could be an excellent engine swap! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

You could give the Fox away as a subscriber prize on your channel maybe? Say when you get to 50,000 as you are not that far off really. Or just roffle it on here, I would have a ticket for the lolz.

Giveaway? I'm not wealthy enough for that! Already having horrors about the NZ trip, which is why perhaps reducing the fleet in size might be sensible.

Value-wise, it's very hard to say given the condition. I'll give it some thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd stick it in the barn with TWC and see how you feel once you're back - a small van is surely useful for lugging your personal possessions around?

If money gets tight - roffle it on here while you're in NZ, and the lucky winner can pick it up when you're back...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, egg said:

I'd stick it in the barn with TWC and see how you feel once you're back - a small van is surely useful for lugging your personal possessions around?

Yeah, I think I've calmed down a bit now. Just at 'that' stage with the Fox that we all get to. You're right. A break from it is probably what I need. Then fresh adventures!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...