Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Got the Rover's valves measured today. Confirming we do have 40mm intake and 34mm exhaust valves.





Which also matches the part numbers on them. ERC9088 on the intakes, and ERC9089 on the exhausts.

Decision has been made that we're just buying a full set of valves. All of the exhaust valves have a decent amount of wear on, I'm already replacing one inlet valve that's suspect - seems daft not to just do the rest at that point. I'm having to wait for parts at this point anyway. Getting a full set for both banks as there's no reason to expect the other bank to be any different.

The Peugeot was in getting the timing belt done today and the whining noise investigated. Said whining noise turned out to be the alternator, which is a bit annoying as it was the more expensive option.

So an expensive day.



At the end of the day it's done now and shouldn't be something I need to worry about for a good while. The intention is for this to be a long term keeper, so I'm not worrying too much about the bottom line. This isn't work I would have any interest in doing myself really, and as this is the daily driver I really need it to Just Work, I can't afford it to be off the road for a month while I muddle my way through it.

Also yes, I may have been able to get it done cheaper some places - but where? Out of the six places I spoke to, only two were willing to even book me in because they're so busy, and one of them were booking well over a month in advance.

I'd been half hoping I might be able to get the Rover ready to at least limp over to the BL show at the MK Museum on Sunday (it's only a couple of miles), but that's clearly not going to happen at this point given I'm a bunch of valves short of being ready to put it back together which won't likely be here till mid next week. So we'll likely be taking the P4 instead. Yes it's pre-BL but it should be of interest at least.

[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.

[myglaren]

Could it have been for the storage heaters using the off-peak electricity?

Interesting to see it is by Sangamo Weston. I had, briefly a Weston Master light meter:-

Didn't realise they did other things too and presumed that they weren't British. Seems they made all sorts of stuff.

[MattBLancs]

Think yourself lucky on the valve lapping front!

From http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri26.htm

From http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri26.htm
Now that is a repetitive strain injury candidate!

Does look like that head has sat a good long while

[bobins]

Time to invest in one of these ? No idea if they're any good though

Valve lapper tool - eBay

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154865803508

[mickthemaverick]

Looks interesting as long as you have a variable speed drill!!

[Zelandeth]

Could it have been for the storage heaters using the off-peak electricity?

Interesting to see it is by Sangamo Weston. I had, briefly a Weston Master light meter:-



Didn't realise they did other things too and presumed that they weren't British. Seems they made all sorts of stuff.

Electric is the one sort of heating which has never been fitted in this house, which is why I'm a little puzzled by the presence of this timer as that's exactly the sort of thing I'd have expected it to be used for. Given the experimental nature of the build they could even just have been covering all their bases I guess in case it was needed later.

I actually have an identical light meter to that one which is still used.

Looks interesting as long as you have a variable speed drill!!

Have to admit that I've just stuck the stem (carefully) in the chuck of a cordless drill and lapped it that way in the past... Works absolutely fine so long as you're careful. Obviously also needs a drill which has a decent amount of speed control though. Would be way too easy to take off far too much material that way.

On that occasion we couldn't find the sucker tool and were very much working against the clock so it was a case of required improvisation in our case.

[mickthemaverick]

We used to have a similar timer Zel, fitted to control the greenhouse night heater IIRC!

[Zelandeth]

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.

[Zelandeth]

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.

[MattBLancs]

Heat shield looks rather chunky. Zoomed in I saw it was a bit of (hopefully not asbestos!?) Hear resisting material fastened to a still rather chunky piece of steel.

In sure a home made version could be equally effective and a quarter of the weight!

I think that broken inlet spring had given you an "atmospheric inlet" like an old stationary engine http://www.coolspringpowermuseum.org/Ex ... Jargon.htm so perhaps functioned ok-ish being pushed shut by expansion of gases in the cylinder??

Know what you mean about frustration due ordering some bits, then some more bits, then a few more. Postage charges disproportionately annoying to me too!

[CitroJim]

A P6 V8 with atmospheric inlets... I like that

Know what you mean about frustration due ordering some bits, then some more bits, then a few more. Postage charges disproportionately annoying to me too!

Same with my kitchen project! I'm wearing a groove in the road between my house and B and Q there days, not to mention the recycling centre

[xantia_v6]

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.

Heat shield looks rather chunky. Zoomed in I saw it was a bit of (hopefully not asbestos!?) Hear resisting material fastened to a still rather chunky piece of steel.

In sure a home made version could be equally effective.

The insulating material looks similar to that used by Jaguar at the time, which didn't contain asbestos but was a compressed fibreboard (I don't know the exact composition) coated with a high temperature silver paint.

Any piece of bent metal painted silver would work just as well to protect the master cylinder, as it just needs to block the radiated head and hot air flow.

[Zelandeth]

As folks have said, it doesn't need to be anything particularly sophisticated. It's entirely likely that the original one is indeed in the boot, there are a couple of boxes of miscellaneous bits in there I've not had the opportunity to dig through in detail yet.

Brake lights on the Peugeot are sorted.



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.

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.