Amelia's Automotive Adventures - It's a Mini adventure!

[Amelia]

Temporary transportation....

190k rough-as-fuck Seat Ibiza diesel.

Borrowed from my friend who also has an MGB and a Hillman Imp 😁 (And has/had a Rover Sd1 and a Reliant Scimitar diesel at one point)

 

 

[Amelia]

Stripped down ready for HG next weekend 

 

I did have a small issue with the water pump bolts so I may have gone a little crazy (I have a new one on order anyway)

Gasket ..

 

[Matty]

5 minutes ago, Amelia said:

Stripped down ready for HG next weekend 

 

I did have a small issue with the water pump bolts so I may have gone a little crazy (I have a new one on order anyway)

Gasket ..

 

No pissing about here, stuck straight in. Excellent 🫡

[Amelia]

23 minutes ago, Matty said:

No pissing about here, stuck straight in. Excellent 🫡

It's how you learn anything. I don't do things by halves! 

Scary thing is my Haynes manual hasn't even arrived yet 🤣

[Matty]

1 hour ago, Amelia said:

It's how you learn anything. I don't do things by halves! 

Scary thing is my Haynes manual hasn't even arrived yet 🤣

Still be nice to see it with a megane 225 lump in it but that'd be going from zero to ridiculous in no time at all 🤣

[busmansholiday]

I was always taught to put a very thin coating of grease on head gaskets as it helps with any slight imperfections.

Frowned upon these days no doubt.

[EyesWeldedShut]

17 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

... grease ...

Frowned upon these days no doubt.

Yup. It's all moly-this, super-that, ISO99999 stuff nowadays, Grease?  I'll need to ask my Influencer
Back in the day Grease was .....

 

I do like this bit @Amelia 

[Zelandeth]

44 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

I was always taught to put a very thin coating of grease on head gaskets as it helps with any slight imperfections.

Frowned upon these days no doubt.

I think the big issue is that quite a lot of gaskets these days have adhesives which are designed to melt and seal in certain areas (the red bits) at least if my understanding is right - which adding things like grease to the mix of could cause issues with.  I can't vouch for how true or not this may be. 

Just looking at that photo of how things are sitting on the car - it's hard to get a good picture of the relative height of things because of perspective...But it *looks* like the water level in the expansion tank is higher than the top radiator hose outlet on the rad...in which case surely the water should be running into, through the rad and out of there.  Worth making sure there's no blockage in there, as that could result in a coolant starvation issue, leading to HG failure - especially as these don't usually have a temperature gauge do they? 

[Amelia]

24 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

I think the big issue is that quite a lot of gaskets these days have adhesives which are designed to melt and seal in certain areas (the red bits) at least if my understanding is right - which adding things like grease to the mix of could cause issues with.  I can't vouch for how true or not this may be. 

Just looking at that photo of how things are sitting on the car - it's hard to get a good picture of the relative height of things because of perspective...But it *looks* like the water level in the expansion tank is higher than the top radiator hose outlet on the rad...in which case surely the water should be running into, through the rad and out of there.  Worth making sure there's no blockage in there, as that could result in a coolant starvation issue, leading to HG failure - especially as these don't usually have a temperature gauge do they? 

Yeah, there is definitely a blockage, that's what caused the HGF. I'm going to flush everything through before I reassemble 

Also I'm fitting a temp gauge.

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Back in the day Grease was .....

The word...

[Amelia]

That doesn't look healthy ..

 

[sutty2006]

Nackered valve or just large carbon build up and potato lens? 

[tooSavvy]

On 02/06/2024 at 05:22, Amelia said:

Temporary transportation....

190k rough-as-fuck Seat Ibiza diesel.

Borrowed from my friend who also has an MGB and a Hillman Imp 😁 (And has/had a Rover Sd1 and a Reliant Scimitar diesel at one point)

 

 

I've owned an IMP as rough as that.....

*NOT pogged, mind 😎

🚙💨

[Amelia]

Well, the head gasket change went well. 

Rosie is back! 

Few niggles though

1. Water leak from where the top hose goes onto the water pump housing. I damaged it a little taking the old house off, my fault. I'll find a replacement.

2. Heater stuck on permanently. I've bypassed it for now. No idea where to begin with this tbh. 

3. Engine tries to leap out of the bay when you pull away. But is fine when revving not in gear. Suspect gearbox or engine mount failure.

Pics are from first post rebuild run out to Southend sea front, with a friend

I'm kinda proud of myself, that's my first ever head gasket replacement.

Bring on the K series Rovers!

 

 

[loserone]

Fucking mint!

 

I've been out in mine tonight 

 

[Amelia]

1 minute ago, loserone said:

Fucking mint!

 

I've been out in mine tonight 

 

I bloody love her, she's probably the most 'shite' feeling car I've ever owned, but so much character!

[Amelia]

Other pics 

Got two of my car girl friends to come help. Becky is setting valve clearances while Violet and I are trying to avoid the sun 😬

Lowrider style.

Shiny bits

 

 

[DSdriver]

Door cards, who needs 'em 😁

I haven't done a head gasket for over forty years but still have a tin of grinding paste. It came in handy though when I needed to resurface the conical valve on the boats bog outlet.

[Amelia]

Fucking thing has FTP'd again. 

Looks like the head was warped after all. I'm getting a replacement head, already skimmed and ported, going to do it properly this time. 

[Matty]

33 minutes ago, Amelia said:

Fucking thing has FTP'd again. 

Looks like the head was warped after all. I'm getting a replacement head, already skimmed and ported, going to do it properly this time. 

Worth a try. Never mind at least you've a plan in place.

[Dan302]

41 minutes ago, Amelia said:

Fucking thing has FTP'd again. 

Looks like the head was warped after all. I'm getting a replacement head, already skimmed and ported, going to do it properly this time. 

That's a pain however now you will do it in half the time as you have had a practice run!

[Amelia]

I did a thing.

Well, my partner did. 

Meet "Bella"

 

[Matty]

2 hours ago, Amelia said:

I did a thing.

Well, my partner did. 

Meet "Bella"

 

Looks well. Is it a one or a cooper?

[Amelia]

19 minutes ago, Matty said:

Looks well. Is it a one or a cooper?

She's a Cooper. Named Bella x

Transport for today...

Apologies for the lack of collection thread, it was a very last minute impulse decision.

[Matty]

52 minutes ago, Amelia said:

Apologies for the lack of collection thread, it was a very last minute impulse decision.

The best kind 😄

[Drumtochty]

I always found the Land Rover to be less than wonderfull but others love them.

[Amelia]

6 hours ago, Drumtochty said:

I always found the Land Rover to be less than wonderfull but others love them.

Oh this one is positively obnoxious - noisy, draughty, smelly, rattly and uncomfortable. But immensely loveable and fun to drive. A modern discovery turbo diesel engine helps ☺️

[Amelia]

So, the new skimmed head wasn't compatible with the exhaust manifold. Crap.

I've rebuilt the engine with the old head and a new head gasket, she runs and gets up to temperature fine. I'm going to do a few short runs to see how she behaves, as I think the issue was that I didn't bleed the cooling system properly last time.

Sadly though, going to have to sell her as I lost my job.

 

[myglaren]

Damned shame after all the work that went into it.

And the job of course.  Hope a better one comes along soon.

[Amelia]

So, where are we now?

Got a job! Yay 😊 Start next week. Lower pay and a bit of a commute, but I can cope with that.

Renault still needs to go, I can't afford to be having a project car at the moment. 

Mini is due MOT in September, so I'm going to put her through early to see what she needs. I suspect top mount, steering rack bearing, and new plates.

 

I'm so funny... not