1975 Renault 6TL

[CitroJim]

If - and it's a big if - everything goes as well as it seems to be doing, we might be on the road by Christmas.

That will be most excellent Fingers crossed

You must bring her to some rallies next year...

I prefer to think of older & rarer machinery having caretaker/custodians rather than owners

Yes, that's what we are - most certainly!

[vulgalour]

A little more caretaking today then. I might get out into the garage later to have more of a tinker with the engine and put a few more bits on, I might not. We shall see.

It's pretty annoying that I have to take the car apart to put it together again. Mike lent me a hand today getting the front end undone and then it rained and meant we couldn't finish the job. I need to remove the bumper to get the face and bonnet off so the weather meant I had to leave the car looking like this.


On the plus side, I can now see that the car is definitely leaking a lot less. The new boot seal appears to be working to keep a lot of water out, I just need to redo the side windows properly as that is now the main point of ingress at the back. The weather has been quite annoying today, just showers on and off so I called it quits. I hate working in the rain.


The last thing Mike helped with was getting the gearbox located onto the engine. We've got it held on with two nuts for now. The stud for the rocker bar turned up... in the rocker bar. I still can't find the bolts and washers for the timing chain cover which is annoying me as I've got everything else and I'm not sure how they've got misplaced given that all the components were kept together.

[demag]

It's coming together lovely. Yes progress is progress no matter how small. I'm finding that myself with the Synergie. But every bit done is a bit less to do.

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[vulgalour]

Progress is progress, I just wish it was something else. Engines are the WORST.

These boxes no longer have bits of engine in them. That's good.


The boot is staying dry enough for me to keep what few spares I do have in it so the garage isn't so cluttered. This is also good.


My table of nuts and bolts and such is emptying. Another good thing.


The engine is looking like an engine properly, which is really the best thing.


Today, I got lots of things back on the engine. The sump bolts are all tightened up, the gearbox is bolted on properly, the engine-to-gearbox braces are done up and the bellhousing guard thing is bolted on. Alternator was taken off when I removed the head to fit the new gasket, then refitted once the head was torqued down as per the instructions in the workshop manual. While the alternator was off I put the spark plugs in the holes more so I don't misplace them than anything at this stage. The rocker bar was bolted on except for the outer two bolts which require a 11mm spanner which I don't have at home. Likewise, I haven't set the distributor properly as that also needs an 11mm spanner. The straightened pushrods were put back in their holes and the camshaft pulley bolted back on.

There's not a huge amount to do:
- fit timing chain tensioner
- fit timing chain
- set timing, both static and ignition
- fit timing chain cover
- bolt down rocker bar
- set tappet/rocker clearances
- fit belts
- fit any hoses with new jubilees that are going to be difficult to do with the engine fitted, like the fuel pump hoses.

Once that's all done I can plonk it back in the engine bay after the bumper and whatnot has been removed. Nearly there, I'm most likely to be held up by the short daylight hours as I need Mike to be a second pair of hands when it comes to removing bodywork and fitting the engine and he's only available in the evenings and weekends.

Quite anxious about the engine going in and firing it up. I'm fully expecting it to all go horribly wrong somehow and have to come out again at which point I may just lose the will with this car. We shall see what happens.

[CitroJim]

With all the care and attention you've lavished on that engine it's going to be absolutely perfect. It'll run like a fine clock, you just wait and see

Have you found all the missing nuts, bolts and screws now?

[vulgalour]

hahaha, no. It's pretty baffling that they've gone missing, the whole engine was kept together and moved together when I took the car from the unit to home. I suspect there's a small box in a drawer at the unit with all the missing bits in. Worst case, I'll buy new bolts, they are at least standard metric ones so they won't be difficult to replace, it's just annoying.

[CitroJim]

It's almost as if they grow little legs and run away...

You know, the day you are not looking for them and you have a full set of replacements they'll suddenly turn up

[vulgalour]

I'll just have to tile everything with magnets, then they can't run away.

[CitroJim]

I'll just have to tile everything with magnets, then they can't run away.

That's an excellent idea Dead hard disks can yield some very useful and incredibly strong magnets....

[vulgalour]

Luckily, the 11mm spanner was brought back by Mike so I've got the rocker bar bolted down now. I also found the nuts for the rocker cover so that's something. Mike did find the fuel and vacuum hose that runs over the top of the engine which I hadn't realised was missing so that was a bonus but no joy on those missing timing chain cover bolts yet.

[vulgalour]

Huzzah! The missing bolts and washers for the timing chain cover appeared. On my desk. The desk I spend at least 8 hours a day working at. Derp.

[Hell Razor5543]

Ah, you have a friendly workshop poltergeist! The normal workshop poltergeists read your mind to find the thing you are most in need of, and then get said item and bury it under the biggest and most unstable pile of gear it can find. If there is anything fragile in that pile so much the better.

[myglaren]

Huzzah! The missing bolts and washers for the timing chain cover appeared. On my desk. The desk I spend at least 8 hours a day working at. Derp.

It isn't just you - I spent hours looking for my work watch a few days ago - only to find it in my pocket
Only one of many such.

[mickeymoon]

I spent 10 minutes this morning looking for my car keys, couldn't find them anywhere.

They were, of course, in the car, which was ticking over outside the house after I'd had to jump start it.

Love your blog. Brilliant stuff.

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[vulgalour]

Cheers for the support

--

I am stumped so I'm posting this info on all the forums I use for this car. This is going to be a simple fix but one that I can't figure out, I've just ended up confusing myself.

In the book it states there is a V mark on each of the sprockets the chain goes on. My engine does not have these Vs or if it does they are so feint as to be essentially invisible. Here is the helpful diagram (which is printed upside down for some reason)


Now, when I first timed this I did it to "the timing marks" as directed by the Haynes and got it wrong because I lined it up to the two marks I do have on the sprockets that being a dimple on the camshaft and a blob on the crank, as below. The crank is at tdc when the blob is at the 10 o'clock position, piston nearest the timing chain is at the top when the blob is at 2 o'clock and at the bottom when it's at 8 o'clock.





If you line up as per the book instructions, taking the blob/dimple to be an alternative to the V marking, you cannot get a full revolution of the engine, presumably because a valve is touching a piston or something, I don't know. I wasn't inclined to force it, I'm being very gently gently in my approach. An internet hunt was futile, I could find info on how to time jet engines and ECU remaps but couldn't find anything to help me with this, I just ended up even more confused.

So now I'm cold and frustrated both with the job and myself.