And so begins the second year of the project If I seem overly chuffed, it’s because I was worried I might get hacked off with it all early on and chuck in the towel after a couple of months – so to get this far is cause for celebration in my book But, you lot don’t want that – no, you lot want updates, pictures, questions, bizarre bodges and clearly signposted…
Amazing as it seems, this thread is now almost a year old Thanks for all your help and encouragement folks All of which means that the car’s due for an MOT . I took the opportunity at college this week to get the car up onto the ramps and have a good look around underneath, attack any surface rust on the chassis sections with a wire brush, clean up old fluid…
As part of the continuing adventures with the Capri, we took it out for the weekend round North Wales on a trip organised by Aled (alminera) and Dave. “Classic Ford Snowdonia Mountain Trail 2007” it said on the plaque attached to the bumper … I think we managed to contain our glee at such a gesture – little touches like that are what it’s all about as far as we’re…
Well, just like I said I would, I took the car out to college tonight – nearly didn’t make it though as I only just remembered it needed fuel as I was almost level with the garage I’ve got to deduct one dancing banana from the previous points haul, though, as when I got to college I noticed a small leak from my old friend – the thermostat housing. I’m sure…
I took the rocker cover back off this evening, and the first thing I saw was nice fresh yummy-looking oil and no stray shards of engine Loosened each head bolt in turn, as per the Haynes, and torqued them up to their final 80 lb/ft. Rocker cover back on, static timing checked again, engine fired up and all seemed tickety-boo. I then plugged the old Gunson timing light into number…
Well, after a day mostly spent moping around and feeling pretty pissed off, I decided that I could either continue sulking, or get the car sorted out. In my experience I’m pretty crap at the former for any proper length of time, so chose the latter I ordered a replacement head gasket set from the Gaskets for Classics chappie on eBay – knew it rang a bell when Dave recommended them the other day … turns…
Well – what an anti-climax With the assistance of my neigbour, I finally got the head back on and spent most of yesterday refitting all the bits and bobs that go with it. Ran out of time to get any fluids into it before dinner guests came round, though, so I had another day’s anticipation build-up. Today didn’t start off too well though – left the house at 6am on…
Well, this afternoon I finished putting all the valves back into the head, checked the endfloat, set the valve clearances, refitted the cam gear, and the belt tensioner and the thermostat housing. Put on the new exhaust studs whilst it was easy to get at them and then I then gave everything a damn good clean. After popping into B&Q the other evening, I picked up some 12mm studding and…
Due to a highly amusing incident involving a “Delete” button, the first half of tonight’s update is somewhat bereft of pictures Last remaining bit of clean-up work to do before starting to re-assemble was to grind (or lap) the valves into the valve seats. To be honest, I’ve no idea if my technique was right or not, but I started each valve with a smear of coarse paste on the…
Only a short update as I couldn’t feel my toes anymore so had to come in… Before I went away, there was just the one piston crown left to clean decoke, so I got that done and out of the way. I then slowly worked my way around all the holes in the block and the head with the relevant taps (and some oil) and cleaned all the sludge, goo…
I hate to think what the book rate for this job would be – it’s taking me bloomin’ ages Alright, I haven’t got all the whizzy tools or experience a garage setup would have, but you can’t escape the time it takes to systematically de-coke and clean the head, valves, pistons and block Before running up against the night-time power tools curfew, I managed to start off by cleaning up each…
You’ll all be pleased to know that the head’s lighter when you take all the bits off it All above suggestions duly noted, thanks. It’s wierd, but in three days of a Bank Holiday weekend spent not really doing anything, I’ve only managed a couple of hours out in the garage. Oh well, motivation must be low Hadn’t noticed it when I first got the head off, but once I’d spent…
Finally got some time last night to take the head apart ready for cleaning, and as usual took my time – so compared to some it probably looks like I achieved about five minutes worth of actual work Doesn’t bother me though, as it’s only when I’m taking stuff apart that I’m getting to see how they work, in ways that a book can never hope to manage One slight problem…
It’s finally off – Graham’s “softly, softly – catchy monkey” approach was the winner No-one mentioned how bloomin’ heavy they were Here’s a couple of photos for your collective amusement – as I’ve not really got much of a clue about what I’d be looking for. There’s no obvious signs of cracks, breaks or tears in the gasket itself. If you see anything amiss, or reckon I need to get a…
Hmm We’re gonna need a bigger boat… I’ve got progressively more assertive with it and it’s still not shifting. The length of 2×2 I was using to get a good swing onto with the mallet sheared before there was even a hint of movement from the head Now stripping down the inlet side to see if I can attack it better from that side – but Selina’s just got home and…