SKcats fleet, seat cordoba top end engine rebuild!

[Skcat]

20 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Got any pictures of the 820?

I will get some but it's just parked in a dark garage for now, fitted half the vitesse inteiror yesterday though. 

[Skcat]

The volvo got a new bumper today I found a body coloured one in the right green so it looks far smarter. 

The rover 800 got a new mid section so it is not as loud

Fitted the rest of the vitesse interior:

It seems a hatch interior does fit in a saloon. 

The 800 got some new ball joints which was a pain. Radio and blower motor risistor were fiddled with and now work as they should! 

[Skcat]

This weekend the volvo got a rear bumper in the correct colour, only have this photo to hand. 

For the first time in five years all the panels are the correct colout and are almost all straight and true! 

Picket this bike up cheap with a aim to flip it, too many projects on the go at the moment though! But the rover 416 is done at least! 

We are going to drive it down too southern Italy to raise money for Bowel Cancer! Will get some photos uploaded of the rover, but it's not pretty. If anyone can spare a couple quid it would be appreciated. Donation page! Maybe I can keep a thread up to date on here! 

[Ghosty]

Flippin LOL at the paint on that 416, love it.

[Skcat]

Did the clutch on the gpz500 yesterday, nice easy job! 

Used a oem clutch and ebc springs. Nice easy job and made it really shift far more!

[Skcat]

The rover 416 has a fresh mot now and we are getting ready for the rally! Will get some photos this weekend! 

[JMotor]

Like the Panda 86 look. 

It's ready for the Touge now. 

[Skcat]

Had the driveshaft snaped two days before our planned trip! Had to drive to Birmingham to get a new shaft, was scary as If we could not get jt sorted we could not take the rover. 

Took the time to change the cam cover gasket too. 

Thankfully it all went back together in time and we made it! 

Time to chill out and not push it too hard, Most the French don't seem to approve of it though. 

[eddyramrod]

Which way are you going?  I'm in France right now!  Leaving the east side of Paris tomorrow to drive to Nancy, then the next day will be Nancy to Stuttgart.  If you see a red Vitara on UK plates, it's probably me!

[Skcat]

@eddyramrodToday I'm in Dunkirk, going to Namur in Belgium today. 

[eddyramrod]

Ah, wrong direction for us, sorry.  We're not passing through Belgium until next week, on the return leg.  Never mind, good luck!

[Scrubworks]

On 5/31/2023 at 7:26 PM, Skcat said:

 Had to drive to Birmingham to get a new shaft, was scary as If we could not get jt sorted we could not take the rover.

That would have been a shame. Would have meant you'd bought the Rover for no reason at all, instead of just no reason.

[Skcat]

Need to get some more photos of the trip uploaded, we did 2750 miles in total, we did monoco, stelvio Pass, nurburgring and loads more and the rover really gave us no trouble, shortly after getting home we sold it too a rover fan. A little bit of a shame but I've got other things to get on with. 

As fun as doing a rally was maybe next time I will just plan a trip without the rally part. Just fancied doing things at our own pace.

In the mean time I got around to fitting a new ball joint to the 800, replaceing the broken boot light, fitting wiring and a push button too the centre Console to open the boot (orginal floor mounted switch was damaged), obtaining another nos headlight so they both match, getting a good condition leather steeringwheel and replaceing the sun bleached plastic one that was fitted. Fitting a new pair of sun visors, getting a new grill I will need to fit soon, getting a nos not broken washer fluid cap.

Also got loads of other spare bits like windscreen trim, a thicker anti-roll bar off a vitesse, some new old stock interior trim bits, vitesse black seat belt buckles to match the vitesse rear bench and lots more I've probably fargtten. I also puller a interior carpet out a vitesse and cleaned it with a steam cleaner so it looks nice and tidy when I fit it. 

This one does not have the cut out for the boot realise but I've relocated It too the centre Console anyway! 

Makes me wonder if I'm putting too much effort into the 800 but I'm enjoying the process. 

Just got a gas mig welder so in time will hopefully learn to patch up some holes in it! 

[Skcat]

Fitted the grill, 75 grill is gone! 

[Skcat]

Moved the car from the garage too my front garden (neighbours must love me). Then spent the day pulling the interior again so I could replace the carpet. 

Involved lots of vacuuming and got a chance to clean lots of little bits up while it was all out. Then stuck it all back together. 

Now I'm going to start cutting out the boot floor rot ready for welding! 

[Skcat]

Today's job was refitting the cv boot that strangely came off on the drivers side. Annoyingly the cup would not pull out the gearbox. Looked up what to do on YouTube and was advised to clamp molegrips around the cup and use the cv shaft as a slide hammer. Worked perfectly, I wish I knew that for the 400.

I then noticed the strut assembly was practically removed and I have a much cleaner pair in the boot so took the time to swap over the drivers side. Probably a good idea as the upper mount looks pretty perished. 

Not really sure if I should keep the old set, or just stop hoarding and throw them away. Then I changed the oil, useing a old door card Is handy for preventing mess! 

Next I fitted a new drop link. 

Glad I did it all looking much tidier. 

Then took the time to scrub the wheel arch out:

A good idea as it highlights rust spots that will Need to be treated. 

Hopefully tomorrow I will have the time to replace the droplink and strut assembly on the passenger side. 

Slowly changing the door cards for later ones with the leather inserts to match the seats. 

[Scrubworks]

3 hours ago, Skcat said:

Annoyingly the cup would not pull out the gearbox.

I had the same issue with my shite Daihatsu. My solution was to wedge a pry bar in between the gearbox and the back of the CV joint, then boot the end of the pry bar. Just make sure the driveshaft doesn't clock you when it flies out.

[Skcat]

Started with the other side again, before;

And after;

The fitted the better struts and drop link, this side was actually worn out a bit. 

The a repeat for both rear wheels 

Went through this as the mot history keeps mentioning rear end rust and rear brake pipes, All seems OK though. 

[Skcat]

Sadly failed the mot, but only on emmisions. Not really sure what to do about it at this stage though. 

Maybe it needs a proper drive about but it's sorn. 

[Soundwave]

As a short term bodge, you could buy one of the many MOT emissions reduction potions available and just throw a bottle of that in the tank?

[Skcat]

56 minutes ago, Soundwave said:

As a short term bodge, you could buy one of the many MOT emissions reduction potions available and just throw a bottle of that in the tank?

Might be worth it then give it a good drive about! Not sure how long it takes to clean/ take affect. 

[bezzabsa]

Italian tune up required

[Skcat]

Will stick some magic mot fix stuff in it and bomb around in 3rd gear, see if that solves it. 

Will ask the mot centre to try and get it hot for it's retest.

[Zelandeth]

Most likely just needs to be given a proper run.  Failing that look at the coolant temperature sensor if it keeps running rich.

[RoverFolkUs]

Italian tune up and it'll be fine, the original MOT from the very anal tester didn't seem to flag up anything about emmisions so it's probably a combination of stale petrol and being done without being scorching hot

Despite being SORN, you can drive to a pre-booked MOT or place of repair so you should be perfectly fine doing an Italian tune up on the way there. 

Add a bottle of cataclean and maybe a few cans of fresh E5 petrol depending on how much is in there, and a damn good thrashing, you should be fine. 

Most testers I know will always entertain an Italian tune up before the test if needed and will either do it themself before logging the test on, or leave it running to maintain some temperature 

How much work was actually needed from the original MOT out of interest? 

[Skcat]

3 hours ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Italian tune up and it'll be fine, the original MOT from the very anal tester didn't seem to flag up anything about emmisions so it's probably a combination of stale petrol and being done without being scorching hot

Despite being SORN, you can drive to a pre-booked MOT or place of repair so you should be perfectly fine doing an Italian tune up on the way there. 

Add a bottle of cataclean and maybe a few cans of fresh E5 petrol depending on how much is in there, and a damn good thrashing, you should be fine. 

Most testers I know will always entertain an Italian tune up before the test if needed and will either do it themself before logging the test on, or leave it running to maintain some temperature 

How much work was actually needed from the original MOT out of interest? 

I Don't think the car had emmision tastes on the last couple tests as I'm under the impression if the exhuast is leaking they won't test for emmisions. 

The car needed quite a bit of odds and ends; a exhuast mid section, three ball joints (and I still have a advisory about the last one), cv boot had fallen off, spent this weekend welding up bits around the boot floor, fitted a couple new headlights and lots of quality of life improvements like a fresh interior. The rear arm bushes seemed fine and my tester has not brought them up at all. 

From my reaseach you can drive a un-moted car to a place of repair or mot, but a sorn car can only be brought too a mot.

I got some of that halfords emmisions fixer in a bottle stuff and gave it a good hard drive around the estate for a while. I've noticed it seems to be letting a lot of blue smoke out the back. It Does not seem to calm down after running it around. 

After driving it a while I noticed I was in the hot on the temp gauge and it boiled over, the expansion tank seems to be full of debris which it was not before. It's still bellowing out blue smoke under load but I'm going to see if the retest makes any difference. 

Probably going to get it home and try doing a compression test as its clearly burning a lot of oil! 

[Scrubworks]

1 hour ago, Skcat said:

Probably going to get it home and try doing a compression test as its clearly burning a lot of oil! 

Valve stem seals. Won't be piston rings. So many times people have said to me that their engine is burning oil so they suspect piston rings, but it always turns out to be stem seals.

I think this is down to Americans filling their internet with their ever infallible opinions. In America you can easily do hundreds of thousands of miles in a relatively small number of years and yes, then you may commonly find engines with galactic mileage and worn rings as a result. In the UK it's much more common instead for a car to sit unused for months, if not years, leaving the head dry of oil and causing the stem seals to perish.

[Skcat]

5 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

Valve stem seals. Won't be piston rings. So many times people have said to me that their engine is burning oil so they suspect piston rings, but it always turns out to be stem seals.

I think this is down to Americans filling their internet with their ever infallible opinions. In America you can easily do hundreds of thousands of miles in a relatively small number of years and yes, then you may commonly find engines with galactic mileage and worn rings as a result. In the UK it's much more common instead for a car to sit unused for months, if not years, leaving the head dry of oil and causing the stem seals to perish.

I was thinking head gasket as the t series loves to leak oil out of the head gasket. But it's almost always a external leak! Probably is the stem seals, must have gone in a bad way. 

[Skcat]

Garage tried to test the again and it dumped cooliant everywhere again. Im fairly sure the drive around yesterday caused some kinda damage. Need to get it home and looked at! 

[Skcat]

The results;

Looks healthy, looks like it will be a stem seal. One must be wrecked.