Zel's Fleet Blog...Rover, Renault, Peugeot, Trabant, Invacar & Sinclair C5

[Zelandeth]

Or you could pop a 4.6 engine in.. im sure there's a lot of broken range rovers near you

I'd rather not have to deal with the nonsense of trying to insure a vehicle with mods like that again thanks!

Oooh tell me more!

When I had the Xantia Activa it had a manual boost controller fitted. Finding anyone who would insure it with that (for less than £3500/year) ended up taking roughly a day and a half of ringing round everyone under the sun. Eventually, through a different broker ending up back with one of the first providers who said no...Similar story back when I had the Cappuccino which had a larger than standard exhaust on (not that you could even get stock systems for them, so find me one that didn't!)...I basically swore off ever having another car with what were deemed performing modifications on after that second round of nonsense.

[Zelandeth]

Started stripping down the right hand head today - though literally got five minutes in when a flash of lightning and almost simultaneous crack of thunder aborted play.

Pretty much the same story as the left hand side, bit dirtier though and with the same evidence of it being sitting for a fair while with some moisture present.





Had a bit of a battle getting one of the bolts holding the alternator bracket onto the front of this head to crack loose, but got there in the end. Hopefully get that head off tomorrow.

A full set of valves has been ordered - there goes another £200. I really need to find a cheap hobby one day.

My target (assuming no horrors are found when I pull the second head) is to have the car back together by the end of the coming week. Which if the valves arrive Tuesday or Wednesday should be doable I reckon. I'll start getting the heads and block cleaned up while waiting for them to arrive.

Going to be fed up of lapping valves by the time I'm done, that's for sure.

With the possible exception of oil (will need to check what's in stock) I think once the valves arrive I should have everything here I need to finish the job now.

Biggest surprise so far was finding that last time I used it that I did actually put the torque wrench back away on the shelf if lives on...nearly died of shock at finding that.

A coolant hose set will definitely be going on the wish list shortly as several are pretty tired, but that's going to have to wait a month or two or I'm going to end up living in the car I think.

Did save something old today. We were having a smart meter installed, and the fitter took out a time clock which was original to the house, but probably hasn't been used since the early 80s. Not actually sure what it was originally for to be honest, as there haven't ever been any large electrical loads like storage heaters which would have warranted it.



Really nice quality Sangamo unit, which would have just been going straight in the recycling bin. As unlike the actual meters which are traced end-to-end, this doesn't do any actual metering and as such wasn't on the inventory list, the engineer said it was mine if I had a use for it.

Technically I don't...but I'm sure I can come up with one. Use it for something for which it's utter overkill like switching the light on my fish tank or something like that. I'm a sucker for really nicely made electromechanical things and it seemed a shame for this to get binned.

[Dick]

Keep us informed what happens with the new meter, so far we've managed to avoid it.. a lot of people have been having problems since they were installed.. as I have a heat pump and several large machines which have overloaded smart meters at clients houses I'm reluctant..

[suffolkpete]

The clock was used to switch off-peak tariffs for storage radiators etc. Good piece of kit, it has a spring reserve so it keeps in time if the mains fails. I've had a smart meter for several years and it hasn't caused problems. I find it useful to keep a check on what's switched on and my supplier can send accurate bills, rather than running up a surplus or deficit based on estimates.

[Zelandeth]

Keep us informed what happens with the new meter, so far we've managed to avoid it.. a lot of people have been having problems since they were installed.. as I have a heat pump and several large machines which have overloaded smart meters at clients houses I'm reluctant..

Great...phone decided to eat that whole reply. Let's try again.

We were basically forced into getting one. Our existing meter was reaching the end of its certification period so needed to be replaced. We were given the option of having a smart meter installed or switching to a more expensive tariff.

I will be keeping a close eye on our usage versus historic going forward in case of any issues, though realistically there shouldn't be.

At the end of the day we've had an electronic rather than mechanical meter in our house since 1994 without issue. The metering head on a smart meter is no different to any one of those, it's just got a cellular modem bolted onto it to allow it to phone home and a Bluetooth transceiver to talk to the little display box you have inside. The meter installed here is rated for 100A, which is the same as the authority fuse on our supply. Issues arising are far more likely to appear at the billing side of things than in the metering kit itself.

At least the fitter this time was able to understand the concept of there being a three phase supply into the meter cabinet but only one leg connected. That apparently confused the last one to visit a couple of years ago no end.

I imagine that time clock was just installed as an element of covering all the bases by the original fitters given the somewhat experimental nature of some of the build. Or maybe was used for wider switching of exterior lighting during the original home expo or something like that. We've never had electric heating here, so it's not been used for that - why I was slightly surprised to find it once I thought about it.

-- -- --

Second head is now off the P6.





That was several orders of magnitude more awkward than the left hand one because a couple of fasteners were more difficult to get to.

The rear most exhaust manifold bolt in particular was an absolute joy...



Left hand side you can just about sneak up on it from the back, but that's not an option on this side as the reserve fuel diverter valve and brake master cylinder are both in the way.

From underneath with my hand wedged between the chassis rail and the starter motor was the only way I could get a tool onto it, undoing the thing 1/32 of a turn at a time.

Speaking of the proximity of the brake system to the exhaust, looking at another P6 at a show yesterday I note that there should be a heat shield between the manifold and brake master cylinder which I appear to be missing.



Which would explain why those two bolts were missing. I'll need to have a dig around in the box of bits in the boot to see if it's in there. Failing that, sure I can make one.

Getting that head off took me about three times longer than the opposite side, and definitely involved about ten times as much swearing. Admittedly about 70% of that was from when I managed to grab hold of a disconnected radiator hose while under the car which decanted about a pint of coolant in my face - which ended up about half in my mouth and half in my left ear. Yes, it definitely is coolant with the bittering agent in so animals won't drink it - this was about five hours ago and I can still taste it.

Did spot another issue which won't have been doing us any favours.



Broken valve spring on No 1 Intake. Cue sending me out yet another order for parts. This is why you *really* shouldn't order anything until you have absolutely completed all the strip down work...my impatience has cost me probably £30 in extra carriage charges now rather than if I'd just waited till I had everything stripped down and ordered everything in one hit.

I'll remove and inspect these valves later and report back anything of note, but I don't think you need to see closeups of another eight valves unless there's anything noteworthy - they're being replaced anyway. Definitely glad I made that decision as while it looks fine from a cursory glance it's entirely likely that one has been smacked by a piston a bunch of times if it was hanging open.

I can only assume that valve was being pushed shut by compression, or the spring was allowed to fall fully apart when the preload from the tappets was released, as it's totally floppy now. However I didn't have a miss on that cylinder when I checked!

As with on the left, there's no visible signs of the head gasket being breached, but given the amount of moisture in the engine it certainly wouldn't surprise me. Both coolant and oil levels were spot on when I got the car for all that means, and there was no sign of it pressurising the cooling system when running - though admittedly I've never subjected it to a sustained run under load yet. The suspiciously clean cylinder there is of course right next to one of the coolant passages, so if one was going to ingest water that would be a likely candidate.

[Luxobarge]

Good stuff, enjoying this.

Does this engine have valve stem seals on the intake valves? If so, you'd be wise to replace them as you're pulling all the valves anyway. Just mention it as it looks to me like that engine has burnt a bit of oil in its time - not critical, but not perfect either.

Cheers

[Zelandeth]

Good stuff, enjoying this.

Does this engine have valve stem seals on the intake valves? If so, you'd be wise to replace them as you're pulling all the valves anyway. Just mention it as it looks to me like that engine has burnt a bit of oil in its time - not critical, but not perfect either.

Cheers

Nope. The valve guides are simply a tight enough fit to prevent excess oil from getting by. The lubrication to the rockers is just a very slow drip as well, so it's not as though the valve train is swimming in oil like on an OHC engine.

I think the sooting there is largely because it hasn't had a decent run in years and has mostly just been getting shuffled around while cold/on choke. Historically the heads have definitely seen a fair amount of gunge getting drawn in through the PCV lines it looks like - which doesn't tally with it currently seeming to have barely any blow by at all - so I reckon predates the work being done to/replacement of the core engine itself. Guess we'll see for certain once it's back up and running and I can properly test it. Notable that even running as it was with the fuelling all over the shop because of the miss that this engine didn't seem to smoke at all.

-- -- --

Apparently getting the P4 back here was timely. The brake lights on the Peugeot have stopped working. Switch is open circuit. Turns out they probably haven't been working for some time given that part of the switch is actually missing and I've not found it in the footwell.

Obviously it's not going anywhere with no brake lights, hopefully new switch will be here tomorrow and will restore normality. So the P4 has been back on daily duty today!

If I've not had any more interest in a sale from where I've currently got it advertised I'll just put up an add on Car and classic I reckon. Means dealing with the nonsense which comes with the open market, but I've had very little interest so far and I need the room back.

Valves and the replacement valve spring for the P6 were both dispatched first thing this morning so hopefully should be here tomorrow.

[Zelandeth]

Brake lights which I discovered on the Peugeot weren't working yesterday are now sorted. Dodgy switch was to blame.



Really easy switch to change on these. It just attaches to the pedal assembly by a bayonet socket. The original one was completely missing the plunger (which in theory I would have expected to cause the lights to be stuck on rather than off), so was definitely knackered. I do have to wonder how long they have been out as I've never found the plunger in the footwell.

Also discovered that there was a dodgy connection on the nearside bulb, so gave the socket a bit of a clean up while I was in the vicinity.


Got the valves out of the second Rover head this afternoon.

Yep, that spring has seen better days and definitely won't have been helping anything.



Didn't realise it was actually in more than two pieces until it was out.

Judging from the wear on the side of the guide where it's been rubbing this has been an issue for a while.



Thankfully none of the damage is actually anywhere in contact with anything and the guide itself doesn't seem to have been compromised. The valve actually does appear to be undamaged, but it's getting changed as I don't trust it.

Nothing really of note on any of the valves that came out of the second head, much as with the other side in that the exhaust valves are all quite tired. The seats all look fine and just need to be cleaned/lapped in I reckon.

[Zelandeth]

A package arrived this afternoon containing goodies for the P6.



Full new set of valves and a replacement for the broken spring.

Which meant that I got to spend several hours hunched up in a really awkward position lapping valves in - A job which with a workbench would simply have been tedious rather than tedious and exceptionally uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, we got there in the end.



Couple of darker spots on a couple of the seats (which the camera really seems to have made look worse), but they're all nice and smooth with no pitting I can detect.

Valves have now all been safely bagged up ready to be refitted, I just had them laid out there for the photo.

Next up was the first pass at cleaning things.

Any suggestions as to the best way to get shot of this - what I assume is utterly baked on residue of a previous head gasket (but not the one I just took off!)?



I'm obviously not in a hurry to go to town with a scraper given how easy it would be to scratch the head with it being aluminium and I'd rather not make myself more problems to deal with. You can't actually feel this with a fingertip, but it looks to me like it really should be removed, even if whoever put the last set of head gaskets in apparently didn't think so. Pretty much every head I've had off myself before has been cast iron, so I'm probably being a little paranoid about damaging the mating surfaces on these.

If I had a local machine shop I had a working relationship with the best solution probably would be to get them to just re-face the heads, but I don't - and last time I wanted to get something like this done I got a gruff "We don't do car stuff" from the two I did try speaking to.

Looking a lot better than they were though.





If I could just get that crud to shift from the head surfaces I could start looking at getting things ready to go back together. Weather however put paid to any plans for getting anything else done today as it's started raining, and I was pretty much out of time anyway.

In other news, it's been quite a journey but would you look at this?



Yes, that is a working Toshiba T1600, working entirely on internal power with only the original 12V input being used.



We've got a Pico ATX power supply doing most of the heavy lifting, giving us the +5V and +12V supply rails, and a separate DC-DC module providing the -22V rail for the display bias. Getting hold of that module turned out to be a pain in itself as it seems that it's a market that's rife with mis-labelled parts. Given that this was being used for a negative rail, I needed a supply that was isolated - plus I also needed it to be a boost converter as we were putting 12V in and looking for 22V out. It took me six attempts to get one which was actually as described. Shame it's not 24V, as I could have easily got a sealed PCB-mount module from RS etc to do that, however I needed something adjustable on account of this not being a commonly used value.

If it survives a couple of overnight soak tests I'll look at tidying up the installation. You're not getting to see it as it stands as it's seriously ugly in a few areas as proof-of-concept prototypes tend to be!

This system will be coming apart again anyway as it's disgustingly filthy in a few areas so wants a good deep clean - plus apparently we have an issue with the video memory on this motherboard. It's absolutely fine in text mode, but we have some issues when running in certain EGA graphics modes.



Odd that it's only in very specific modes it does that, others it's absolutely fine.



This isn't a huge surprise given that the VRAM is directly underneath the power supply board and was showered with the corrosive goo when the caps leaked. I do have a few spare motherboards though, most of which look less crusty than this one. Given I was mucking around with the power supply I was more inclined to risk trying a somewhat suspect board than one I expected to be fine. Contrary to modern laptops, completely stripping this down to having *everything* out of the case is about 15 or 20 minutes work. In all honesty, 99.99998% of the things I'm likely to use this for will be in pure text mode anyway so that video artefact issue really isn't an issue as it doesn't seem to happen in any text modes.

Now we have a working machine though rather than a large beige door stop I'm inclined to actually tidy up my work and get all the best bits of case together to give us a nice tidy machine.

No battery power available, but I'm not too precious about that. The original battery packs would need to be re-stuffed anyway, and that's not something I'm interested in delving into at the moment.

I really don't want to try to figure out how many hours it's taken to get to this stage! It's definitely been the most obstinate retro tech project I've got myself into in a long, long while.

I will - at some point in the future - investigate how much work would be involved in doing a similar mod for a T1200 as they very commonly have identical issues with dead power supplies. Nice to be getting towards a point where this project can actually be labelled as properly finished.

[Dick]

I'm disappointed your local engineering shop wouldn't help with the heads, although my local company told me to bring my axle in for repair, then denied all knowledge of my visit and phone calls..