107 fettling… now identifying as an oil burner 😆

[yes oui si]

Note wheels?

[Notyou]

47 minutes ago, yes oui si said:

Note wheels?

Z11 cube wheels 

[Notyou]

The MOT looms! 
 

shall be taking the old knacker in early to avoid all the bank holidays I think. 
 

can’t see anything obvious and after purchasing all the rear brake parts. It turned out that the hot n/s rear wheel was because of poor handbrake adjustment and brake dust buildup. (I need to stop activating parts canon before investigating things)! 

someone has already been in there and fitted Ferodo shoes and Bosch drums along with the wheel cylinders and both rear hub bearings which is a bonus.
Probably fail on emissions or some other such nonsense now 😆

Having man flu from hell isn’t helping with getting anything done either. 

[Notyou]

Well that was a pleasant shock! 
 

Pass with 0 advisors and there isn’t even any rust underneath!! 

[Notyou]

Well, we went down a rabbit hole! 
 

went to Nottingham yesterday and collected the Cobra Monaco seats we have saved up for along with the the 4 point club sport harnesses for the next step in shitbox racer conversion 😆

Test fit completed on drivers side completed but sits way too high on side mounts. To rectify this we ordered some ultra low profile subframe plates from SW motorsports so we can get the desired seat height. Turns out I am too portly now for the Sparco Sprints seats and there only about 3 options that fit in there properly. 

[Notyou]

Because I am still a child at heart and also because race car! 
 

At least my knees are no longer in the way of the steering wheel. 
 

up next cage with harness bar for added safety, but it will do for now.
I am aware of risk potential with floor mounting the rear of the harnesses, but, being such a tiny car I suspect that would be the least of my worries tbh. 

[Notyou]

BE GONE FOUL WIPER! 
 

 

Also went leak hunting as it’s like driving a portable swimming pool when it rains. 
 

when removing the rear wiper motor we found one of the leaks (where the bolts go through the glass to secure the boot handle)…

After cleaning this up with the dremel and using the correct medium of clear all purpose silicone, that particular leak is gone! 
 

also sealed up the high level brake light with silicone on top of the useless seal as it’s too cold to do it properly 😆

 

I massively prefer these with rear wiper deleted as they look much cleaner and all the wiper ever did was smear even with new blades because it was rotten on the spindle. 

[colino]

Unfortunately deleting the rear wiper, especially in this weather, will highlight the aerodynamics of them. The rear window will be filthy in 5 minutes. 

[MikeR]

I found a cheap 12 inch Halfords  clothes hanger  wiper worked well ..

The rear lights take some sealing up to stop leaks , as does the boot lid seal , but it's worth leaving a wheel well bung out 

[castros_bro]

Left field question,

Do you still have the 14 inch steels? Do you want rid of them ?

 

 

 

[Notyou]

5 hours ago, castros_bro said:

Left field question,

Do you still have the 14 inch steels? Do you want rid of them ?

 

 

 

I do yes and they have my winter tyres on them unfortunately (currently in use). 
 

[Notyou]

13 hours ago, colino said:

Unfortunately deleting the rear wiper, especially in this weather, will highlight the aerodynamics of them. The rear window will be filthy in 5 minutes. 

It helps with the LeD shitstorm in my rear view mirror 😆

I think you will find dirty window is in seconds not minutes too haha 

[Notyou]

Almost forgot, we also added 7 inch LED spotlights too. 
At least now I can see properly on the unlit roads that we travel on regularly at night! 
 

I find it strange that people still see the need to hit mains at me even though running halogen dips/mains. They are LHD lights but are beam corrected so the pattern is extremely flat. I even went out of my way to get them checked properly and they are fine. 
 

At least now it’s much more obvious to oncoming traffic when I dip lights …. I will of course oblige in proving a point briefly if needed. 
 

I did learn during this process that the lighting circuit is negative switched (very Japanese) so took a bit of wiring diagram help from someone that had done these before. 
Both lamps point slightly outward but they give a great flood spread of light on mains. 

[Notyou]

 

who knew a simple oil change could shed light on such a huge oil burning issue? 😆

 

Oops 

[sierraman]

Stick some thicker oil in see if that helps. 

[Notyou]

13 hours ago, sierraman said:

Stick some thicker oil in see if that helps. 

Going to compression test it today and see how bad it is or isn’t. 
suspected piston ring wear (1kr-fe) is weak here if neglected. 

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, Notyou said:

Going to compression test it today and see how bad it is or isn’t. 
suspected piston ring wear (1kr-fe) is weak here if neglected. 

If it’s burning it then the cat will probably be ruined. Probably bung some more viscous stuff in and move it on. 

[St.Jude]

What oil are you putting in this? 5w30?

Toyota (who made the engine via Diahatsu) changed it to 0w20.

[Notyou]

46 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

What oil are you putting in this? 5w30?

Toyota (who made the engine via Diahatsu) changed it to 0w20.

5w30 at present. Tried on 0w20 but it burns too much. 
 

interestingly we removed a little oil (it was a tiny bit overfilled) then gave it a good high rpm drive and the smoking has stopped being a visible issue. 
 

also ran that compression test 

all within specs, 210psi would be perfect. 
it does make me wonder if number 3 ring had stuck as that cylinder is a tiny bit lower than the rest. 

[Notyou]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

If it’s burning it then the cat will probably be ruined. Probably bung some more viscous stuff in and move it on. 

The cat tested well within limits on the mot which surprised me with the oil burn. 
I guess the emissions limits on this is on the forgiving side? 
 

I won’t move it on, I have owned it for over a year and it’s solid, it’s never once left us stranded and asked for very little cost wise in maintenance.

I would rather re engine than dispose of this one as we are quite fond of the little try hard 😆

[Brigsy]

Looks like white smoke /condensation in the pic, not uncommon in cold weather. Id expect oil to be a nice tinge of blue.

Worth doing a leakdown test if you suspect rings. Can have good compression with knackered oil control rings in some circumstances

[St.Jude]

1 hour ago, Notyou said:

The cat tested well within limits on the mot which surprised me with the oil burn. 
I guess the emissions limits on this is on the forgiving side? 
 

I won’t move it on, I have owned it for over a year and it’s solid, it’s never once left us stranded and asked for very little cost wise in maintenance.

I would rather re engine than dispose of this one as we are quite fond of the little try hard 😆

Saying this as a man who has owed one for 16 years, but has neglected to put tyres on it and has no MOT, they are well worth keeping. They’re not going to go down in price anymore, and they’re fun to drive. Pennies to run too!

[Notyou]

2 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Looks like white smoke /condensation in the pic, not uncommon in cold weather. Id expect oil to be a nice tinge of blue.

Worth doing a leakdown test if you suspect rings. Can have good compression with knackered oil control rings in some circumstances

It was definitely 100000% oil smoke … I overfilled it a smidge by not paying attention and it’s near impossible to see on the stick with new oil. 
 

There is a very large difference in smell between oil and water vapour and this was oil (growing up in the 80’s taught me that smell).

Grey/white smoke can be quite normal with certain oil burn scenarios. It’s not doing it now after dropping level a bit and running for a bit on fast roads, takes a little while for the residual to burn out of the exhaust. 
Problem with cameras when they sometimes don’t show exactly what our eyes can see and our noses can smell. you can see in this picture the hue of blue with direct light though. 
 

I do have a leak down tester but it means dragging the compressor out and that’s both noisy and too much work at the moment with the weather. I got rained on doing a compression test 😆

[St.Jude]

How many miles has it done?

And you’ve changed the air filter haven’t you?

[Notyou]

57 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

How many miles has it done?

And you’ve changed the air filter haven’t you?

81k just over and it is getting ready for a filter but still not looking particularly dirty …. Current filter done about 8k miles