The ultima granny

[55starchief]

Well after discovering some muppet had sheared the exhaust manifold studs off of the drivers side cylinder head I now have all the gaskets and bolts to repair the damage.

I could only get a complete top end rebuild gasket set as Ford no longer suport this vehicle. So along with repairing the missing studs which i need to remove the head so i can drill out the broken ones it will also get a top end rebuild along with a little port work

All this will be done starting friday pics to follow as the work takes place

[FUBAR]

[ianjpage]

[philoldsmobile]

hope it runs better after..

[F Body]

Quoting: 55starchief

The ultima £400 granny

[55starchief]

£400 it maybe but its still better than paying money every month on a new car. Other than this and a couple of little bits of rust there is nothing wrong with the car

[philoldsmobile]

this is very true, i HATE the way cars are so artificially depreciated, thousands of cars are scrapped every year for no good reason at all, simply because they have little value, this seems SO wasteful to me..

in mainland Europe, ANY serviceable car has some value, in Mediterranean areas of Spain France and Italy you still see lots of older cars running around, a typical early 90's cavalier for example is still worth upwards of €1000

When you consider its more environmentally friendly to keep older cars on the road than produce more new ones, it really is hypocritical for the government to keep pushing new cars while we are wasting thousands of perfectly serviceable cars..

example - ebau.es reveals an alfa 166 like mine, for €7900 - £6222 in the UK the same car is about £3500 - £4000

http://cgi.ebay.es/Alfa-166-2-4-JTD-2002-Coche-de-Directivo-7900_W0QQitemZ120235100798QQihZ002QQcategoryZ9834QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://cgi.ebay.es/Alfa-166-2-4-JTD-2002-Coche-de-Directivo-7900_W0QQitemZ120235100798QQihZ002QQcategoryZ9834QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[F Body]

Quoting: 55starchief

£400 it maybe but its still better than paying money every month on a new car.

I'd never do that anyway, but running a newish daily driver allows me to divert what spare time I have to my other vehicles

You finished MY Trans Am yet ?

[philoldsmobile]

or ya could be like me, and have a new ish (sort of, its from this decade, thats newish for me!!) car that takes all your time and money!

[55starchief]

Quoting: F Body

I'd never do that anyway, but running a newish daily driver allows me to divert what spare time I have to my other vehicles

I have had newer cars both with paymments an with out and still spent time fixing them because i dont trust a garage to do the job properly

Quoting: F Body

You finished MY Trans Am yet ?

Need to get a couple of bolts to put the block on the stand and wait for USPS to deliver the damn rings and then i need to get the car to my place which is proving more difficult than 1st thought

[Roadkill]

Quoting: 55starchief

then i need to get the car to my place which is proving more difficult than 1st thought

Strangely enough I have spoke to my brother today about that.

He's been nursing cracked leafs on the truck which have now gone completely.

He got sent the wrong set but should be up and running again in a few days.

We'll see . . . .

[Gator]

umm whats the crack then why is you messing with this when the starchief needs doing

get it sorted

[55starchief]

Quoting: Gator

umm whats the crack then why is you messing with this when the starchief needs doing

This is my daily driver and my only transport to and from work which makes money to spend on the other cars.

I have to pull the heads to drill out the broken manifold studs so i can replace the manifold gasket so that a) it will pass the MOT and b) give me back some fuel economy as the exhaust blow is right next to the lambda and the resulting leak makes the ECM think the motor is running lean and injects more fuel.

The other work is simply being done as i have to pull the top end apart to remove 1 of the heads

[55starchief]

Well that was a waste of 3 days

I now own a 1800kg paper weight

The work was relatively easy and completed in 2 days unfortunately thats where the problems start. I managed to get it to fire once and then no more. I have spark,fuel and compression. But will it start will it feck. I now think a module has died else where and this as far as i am concerned is the end for this car.

pics of the rebuild can be seen here

http://www.mkb.cc/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.mkb.cc/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=137

[Titsy]

have you thrown any codes?

[F Body]

Quoting: Titsy

have you thrown any codes?

Is it sparking ?  Can you smell fuel ??

[F Body]

Quoting: 55starchief

pics of the rebuild can be seen here

http://www.mkb.cc/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=137

\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.mkb.cc/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=137

[55starchief]

Quoting: F Body

Is it sparking ? Can you smell fuel ??

Yup spark and defiatly fuel as y place smells like a refinery. Im leaning towards the ignition module. To be honest its not having anything more spent on it unless its under £20. This may end up being crushed.

I have the truck to get to and from work this week whilst i speak to a couple of people and then if its not running by next weekend im gonna go look for a new car

[philoldsmobile]

a friends scorpio sufferd a mystery ignition failure some years ago, turned out to be the hall sensor in the dizzy..

-edit- ok scrub that... i see you have spark.. its the old adage, if it has spark timing compression and fuel it has to run....

[F Body]

Quoting: philoldsmobile

i see you have spark.. its the old adage, if it has spark timing compression and fuel it has to run....

Well if it's sparking the module should be OK, it smells of fuel so that should be OK, gotta be a timing issue ???

Did you number the plug leads before you took them off ??

The Astro van leads were completely the wrong way around according to the manual

[philoldsmobile]

dizzy 180* out? thats happend many times before....

did you set it on the correct revolution of the crank? an otto cycle is 720* so even of the dizzy is right and the timing marks match, you could be 360* out.. if thats the case, you'll be sparking on the exhaust stroke.

[55starchief]

Quoting: philoldsmobile

dizzy 180* out? thats happend many times before....

Nope wasnt removed

[55starchief]

Quoting: F Body

Did you number the plug leads before you took them off ??

ford prints the numbers on them as standard

[philoldsmobile]

hmmm.. odd one..

seems ford are good at producing untraceable faults...

[55starchief]

The stupid thing is that it fired and ran for 30 seconds all be it with me holding the revs at 3k but as soon as i let of it doed never to start again