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

[MattBLancs]

What outside diameter is the tube you could do with Zel? Not sure I've anything suitable but will check. What you've got now but a big thin wall looks just like some temporary gazebo thing wall painted steel tubing I've only recently got rid of

I think the red plug wires are ok, but you're going to have to treat it to a nice tubular equal length header and a big K&N cone filter to match

[Rp0thejester]

You sure that's an air intake box rather than an exhaust back box? Looks so out of place.

[myglaren]

You sure that's an air intake box rather than an exhaust back box? Looks so out of place.

It's for when the engine backfires.

[Rp0thejester]

Stuff sitting in front of him in a traffic jam!!

[Zelandeth]

What outside diameter is the tube you could do with Zel? Not sure I've anything suitable but will check. What you've got now but a big thin wall looks just like some temporary gazebo thing wall painted steel tubing I've only recently got rid of

I think the red plug wires are ok, but you're going to have to treat it to a nice tubular equal length header and a big K&N cone filter to match

I'm pretty sure it is indeed a bit of framing from something like that. It's not intended to be a long term fix by any means but will be absolutely fine for testing and until I track down some proper tubing. This setup while it is technically a pressurised system runs at the dizzying heights of 4psi, so I think this can take it.

I do wonder how far you could actually tune one of these engines. Probably a lot further than many people would think. Especially as the clever head design means that a lot of the usual headaches of the typical IoE layout are overcome and you do actually have a pretty compact and optimally shaped combustion chamber (albeit upside down to how it's shaped on most modern engines). Even in stock form this was producing 123bhp and a good old slab of torque (I can't find the number right now) and feels far more responsive than the engines in a lot of cars from this era in the way it delivers that.

It's also an excuse to pull out this cross section of the engine, which I always enjoy seeing.

You sure that's an air intake box rather than an exhaust back box? Looks so out of place.

You're closer than you think - the outer casing is purely a silencer for the intake. The filter only takes up about half of it - the rest is all there to keep uncouth things like intake noise well contained.

Without that silencer fitted it makes a noise that is absurdly out of character compared to the car it's in - with a properly visceral howl arriving about halfway through the rev band that turns into the sort of wail that you'd expect from some highly tuned Jaguar D type or something like that...which probably explains why when I had that off that my fuel economy plummeted into single digits. I think I did take a video of that, will need to see if I can find it.

Who knew that a straight six being fed through a giant single SU carb would sound epic?

-- -- --

Spot the difference.



That is the reason the top radiator hose was horribly kinked.

Much better.



I think pulling it apart to change the thermostat anyway was probably a wise call.



The jiggle pin both is installed so it's not at the highest point and was also blocked solid with rusty slime.

I have run the car up to temperature (confirming the gauge does work), and *think* I've got most of the air out. There are no proper bleed points on this system so it's a bit of a faff.



There is however zero flow through the heater core. The linkage to it though is bent (most likely because the valve is jammed) so I'll need to sort that as well. The valve isn't actually that expensive so I'm not going to waste too much time on it if it won't free up without undue levels of violence. I'm expecting the core itself to be absolutely chock full of mud like the last one.

There is no bypass on this heater setup so when the valve is closed the system is just dead headed - with a lot of thes being occasional use cars which are rarely out aside from in the summer it's not surprising that the heaters tend to sludge up. That and we forget how much coolant technology has improved in the last 50 years (when people even bothered to use antifreeze at all - see also why my previous 110 had a huge crack in the side of the block). The whole system will absolutely be getting thoroughly flushed anyway, but I'm really wanting to get the car back to a point where I can take it for a proper test drive with a reasonable level of confidence that it's not going to explode in a giant cloud of steam at the side of the road. I reckoned that driving it with the hoses as they were was just asking for pain.

[MattBLancs]

Wow, think definitely dodging bullets with all the coolant system work you are doing!

Thanks for the cutaways, the IOE arrangement is very odd indeed! Am sure I have read of Land Rover folks being able to double the power output of the related four cylinder Rover engine.

[CitroJim]

Spotted in Emberton Park this afternoon Zel...

Looked almost as tidy as yours...

Apologies it's not a great photo, best I could manage from the cafe area...

[Zelandeth]

Spotted in Emberton Park this afternoon Zel...



Looked almost as tidy as yours...

Apologies it's not a great photo, best I could manage from the cafe area...

Pretty sure I've seen that one at a couple of shows. The black over maroon is a nice colour for them. A good deal tidier than mine if you look closer! This one is always going to be at best I'd say a 7/10, that's my target anyway. I'd not really want to go further than that anyway as I'd worry about using the car then, and I've no intention of this being a show queen.

-- -- --

The paintwork on the car is generally not bad. The one exception is the bootlid where there have plainly been lashings of filler involved. Given how easily these panels pick up dents I'm guessing that someone has gone rather overboard trying to get it totally smooth. They've used so much that as it's cured it's shrunk, and the paint has split as a result. This panel is definitely going to need stripping back and repainting no matter what we do or it will always be the thing that draws your eye.

I didn't realise quite how MUCH filler was involved though until I looked closer at it today with a view to reattaching the latch. At which point I was briefly confused by the fact that the pin didn't seem to be long enough - that's because there's probably about 1/4" of filler in the way!



So to get this fitted I basically had to cut a hole in the filler for the handle.



It'll need to be sorted properly longer term, but at least it latches closed now. I know these are finicky to get adjusted right anyway.

I ran out of patience with not having done a proper test drive today, in spite of it being way too hot for me. Wasn't a long one but I did go for a ten or so minute bumble just around the neighborhood. Definitely have a few things that need some attention.

[] Steering.

There's a good 1/4 turn of slack in the at the straight ahead position - which given with how heavy and vague it is in these cars to start with feels quite unnerving. Especially when you're straightening up after a junction - you end up having to go past where you're aiming for then about half a turn back on yourself. I'll need to borrow a helper to investigate where that play is - there are something like eight ball joints in the system so *plenty* of opportunity for play to creep in, and the steering box may well need adjusting itself.

[] Brakes.

There's a buuuuunch of dead travel, so the pedal is basically here before you get meaningful retardation of your forward momentum.



Which in a car this heavy is moderately unnerving. The brakes DO actually seem to work reasonably well, the pedal travel is just far too long before anything happens.

I know there has been a bunch of work done on the brakes in the not too distant past, so may even be they just need properly bleeding and adjusting. One of the rears is definitely dragging a tiny bit as well.

[] Throttle pedal.

Conversely this needs a little *more* free play in. It doesn't quite return fully to idle sometimes at the moment and the lack of any deadzone makes it really twitchy and makes pulling away smoothly without ending up with way more revs than you need or kangarooing quite difficult. I'm sure with practice you can master it, but you shouldn't need to!

[] Speedometer.

The cable and/or the trip/odometer gear train need cleaning and lubricating as it currently bounces and wobbles around comically.

Rear suspension is distinctly creaky from somewhere. Not really a problem as such but will be investigated and remedied as necessary. I know the springs are terribly dry so that may be all it is. At least it does seem to *have* at least some semblance of rear suspension unlike the last one where it was all but solid.

All in all, it currently drives like I think a lot of people assume cars from this era were all like. Kinda awkward, vague and under braked. To be honest I probably would have expected it to be pretty much like this if I hadn't already owned one that was despite being very worn out, was pretty well set up.

I'm not 100% sure we don't have some head gasket issues. There seems to be a lot of gurgling that you can feel through the top hose and top of the radiator, though given how much of a pain it can be to get the last bits of air out of the system on these I'm not going to raise too many red flags there until it's been fully cycled a few times. Not worried either way as it's not a huge job, and at some point I'd want to pull the head anyway to deal with what is commonly known as That O-ring.



It sits between the head and water pump housing. The pump studs apparently like to snap for a passtime when disturbed so pulling the head is usually considered to be the safer option. It's certainly masses less hassle than dealing with snapped studs in the front of the block.

I would like to change the inlet manifold gasket as a precaution - and because I do appear to have a drip from somewhere towards the back of the engine there. Stripping that off the head, cleaning the surfaces up etc would be a thousand times easier with the head not attached to the car. Particularly as the rear of the mating surface on the head is a fluffing long way away from you when you're trying to remove goodness knows how old gasket and I remember my back really didn't enjoy it last time round.



I'll get everything needed to pull the head in stock anyway then it's there if I decide to go down that road. I'd rather have it on the shelf and not need it than the other way about.

Oh, and the horn doesn't work. The relay clicks but no sound. I've added it to the list.

This may all come across as sounding really negative, but it really really isn't. I knew this was a car that hadn't been in regular use for a long time so there was absolutely going to be a bunch of fettling involved before it was ready to be chucked into day to day service. Nothing I've found here scares me. Once these things are all sorted I reckon we'll have a nice driving car. These will always be a bit heavy in the steering department, and aren't the sort of car you chuck round corners and roundabouts like the Trabant. However they shouldn't feel actively wayward and the brakes when set up properly are every bit as good as anything made up to the point where ABS and such started to become the norm.

On the plus side, the gearbox is far quieter than on my last one, and we seem to have working syncromesh on the three gears we should have (haven't tried overdrive yet, but the seller has indicated it does and I've no reason to believe otherwise). Clutch while I think could do with a tweak adjustment wise is smooth. There are orders of magnitude less squeaks, creaks and rattles from the car in general than the last one. The engine pulls well and smoothly and save for wanting the valve clearances set sounds healthy. Oh, and yes without the silencer on the intake it does indeed sound as epic as I remember when you crack the throttle open. On the subject of sound, the exhaust on this one is definitely louder than the last one was. Not that I'm going to be one to complain about straight six noises! The car seems to track straight and aside from the fact that the steering wheel isn't straight, the car itself seems to track nice and straight.

I reckon with a bit of elbow grease and patience it will be a nice driving car. At least I do feel that I've got something resembling a to do list now rather than a bunch of question marks and that makes my brain happier.

[MattBLancs]

Good summary / job list creation. With exception of head gasket most sound like those nice "tinkering" jobs where there's a meaningful improvement as the pay off - I love that kind of task!

With regards to the lack of bleed points, I was going to suggest drilling and tapping your new thermostat outlet but realised it is both lower than the hose and radiator header tank and secondly wouldn't bleed much with a "shut" thermostat beneath it!

Could you create a flat and add a point here:

Appended image with crude arrow

The Peugeot/ Citroen bleed screws would be a simple addition if there's room

M6 bleed screw

[Zelandeth]

The usual bleed location is the heater inlet. You basically just let air and water dribble out there until you haven't got any air coming out. I think that works far better though when the whole circuit works and you have actual flow through the heater. It's the only area that's substantially higher than the rest of the system as well. Rest of it in theory should be simple enough that it will just burp itself pretty quickly.

[MattBLancs]

Interesting, given you've the heater to tackle at some point, assuming the heater hoses are a similar size, perhaps this type would be worth grafting in somewhere on that route:

Just an example, from eBay, 206 heater hose with bleed connection.
(Not a great example, thirty quid for that fairly tired looking hose!)
https://ebay.us/m/78zIDq

[MattBLancs]

Just a thought, do you think it's worth shoving some flush into the system? - might be optimistic it'd fix the heater (but fingers crossed!) but given what you found in the thermostat housing everywhere might benefit.

P.s. Can't believe the thickness of the boot's filler!!

[Zelandeth]

Interesting, given you've the heater to tackle at some point, assuming the heater hoses are a similar size, perhaps this type would be worth grafting in somewhere on that route:


Just an example, from eBay, 206 heater hose with bleed connection.
(Not a great example, thirty quid for that fairly tired looking hose!)
https://ebay.us/m/78zIDq

Not a bad idea that. Though I'd not be looking at an old one of that type, I had one of those snap off on a 306 many a year ago...though I imagine there are plenty of other options of the same sort of style.

Just a thought, do you think it's worth shoving some flush into the system? - might be optimistic it'd fix the heater (but fingers crossed!) but given what you found in the thermostat housing everywhere might benefit.

P.s. Can't believe the thickness of the boot's filler!!

We'll see how it goes with a good amount of old fashioned flushing. I'm always a little wary of using flushing agents on things this sort of age because of the potential for it to cause other problems. It may be necessary though so we'll see.

To be honest the coolant that was drained out of the radiator and main system really didn't look too bad, it was only the heater line which was really manky. Though given the state of the thermostat, there obviously is a good amount of gunk still in there.