Popular Post yoeddynz Posted November 9, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 9, 2016 I thought I might try on top of the updates and post more often so avoiding such a long catch up session giving a subsequent easing of pressure on my brains hard drive.Distributor time. I had two dizzies. One was from this engine and one from Andres stock pile. I took then both apart and rebuilt one from the best bits. The original has at some point in its life had a proper battering. I reckon it can only have been from the weights breaking away and smacking the inside. I cant think of anything else that might have caused it?I also discovered that the early dizzy has a smaller amount of advance allowance of 25 degrees. This is specced for my lowly 7.0 to 1 low comp engine. At the risk of upsetting the initial running I have swapped in the shaft and weights from the other dizzy to allow for a full fat 33 degrees of advance. I do plan to uprate this engine if it seems OK. My near future plans are to swap out the current thicker head gasket for a standard one and have a much more useful standard comp ratio of 8.5 to 1. I believe (hope) I'm correct in that this is the way that Vauxhall changed the compression on these engines.With it all painted black and looking about as sexy as a distributor can look I fitted the electronic ignition module. Quite neat it is too. Then I slung the lot into the block and moved on to the next item..Radiator fan.All the fans I have sitting on shelves collecting dust are suckers. I wanted a pusher to mount in front of the radiator because there just isn't enough room for a sucker plus it looks ugly. So off to the local wreckers with a peice of plywood cut to the size of my radiator front. After 5 minutes I found the ideal fan sitting on the front of an old Mitsi Pajaro. A few bolts removed and it was mine for $10. I got home and discovered it fitted perfectly within my Radiator, almost clicking in place Old mounts removed, new ones cut from some 1.6mm steel and welded in place with nuts welded in for easy removal. A bit of paint and it looks all good to me... 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted November 19, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 19, 2016 I am quite happy to say that I have managed to get quite a bit of work finished on this little wagon. With the evenings being brighter and warmer and having a new dose of enthusiasm I have spent more time on it and its been fun. So where was I last update. Lets start with the doors. I knew they had rust but not too bad and in places that’s easy to get to. I have been putting off repairing them so now is the time after having just finished the last few bits on the tailgate (hatch..) Luckily the rust was mainly on the outer skin wrapping over the inner strengthening panels that the hinges are welded to. I cut it away and let in some nice new thick sheet. I actually ground back the welds afterwards because it it made sense to have it all finished properly in a place that is hard to get to once the doors are back on. Plus the seals, speaking of which I will need to get some decent second hand ones with the originals having fallen apart, will need a good smooth surface to squash against. There was minimal rust along the inner bottom of one door and they fixed up well. Really glad they are in good condition otherwise with minimal dents on the outside (just dented enough I say..) While I was working on them I also had one of those ‘expecting it to be a arse but it was actually easy’ moments when I had to remove a broken screw from a window winder stub. The screw was small, broken unevenly and I sure that Id not be able to drill it central enough. But I did, it worked and I was happy.. With the doors repaired and the repairs painted over I put them aside and started on the wiring. I enjoy wiring and have always planned to tidy all the original stuff up. I got carried away and its now pretty well hidden from view. I added some extra wires for the fan etc and decided to run the main loom out of sight via a hole I added in the tunnel. The original bulkhead grommet worked perfectly. Once I started hiding things I got even more carried away. I disliked the look of the fan wires running externally along the top of the bulkhead so they were carefully re-routed then back through the heater box and through another added hole. The main loom sorted back through inside the car and I was happy with it all. So onto the heater hoses. First I fitted them as per original. Oh dear. No, no ,no.. this will not suffice !… Damn they are ugly hoses, just running over the engine like an afterthought, looking like a scaled up version of a badly designed Lego tecnics kit with poorly scaled pneumatics. Nup. No sir..I don’t like it! So I rummaged through my always handy supply of random hoses and found a few Mazda items that will help in my quest for neatness, a Toyota bottom hose and a ideal tee piece. I also found a heater pipe from the Crysler Northstar quadcam V8 I have been gifted (another story…). Still not enough pieces to complete my puzzle. Back to the wreckers then… I love going to wreckers, especially when they let you roam about by yourself and get your own bits, a rare thing these days with so many OSH rules. Luckily Hannah enjoys it too because she was along for this sortee. We found a variety of hoses from a Datsun something, a Mitsubishi Mirage, a Honda Shuttle and also scored an ideal inline heater valve from said Honda. A few hose clips and other handy bits. All this for $10 free image uploading Back home and I assembled my scavenged findings together and came up with a design. I cut that steel pipe down, welded on a bracket so it mounts onto the carb support bracket beneath the carb. Chopped the excess bits off the heater valve and mounted that in the original place using various bends from my even more awesome stash of bends. Added the Tee into the Toyota bottom pipe. It worked out fine except for one thing.. the heater valve works backwards. Hot is cold and vice versa. Luckily my other Viva, with its Chevette sourced heater valve is exactly the same. So no confusion for us.. just everyone else.. After finishing them I noticed my exhaust was not yet connected to the manifold. Then I discovered holes. Bugger! So old towels out to protect things and I carefully welded in some repairs. I am a bit upset in that the blobby welds might well restrict things and lose me a pony or two. However I shall learn to deal with this. Then on to the breather and brake servo hoses. I have decent PCV valve to use and some pipe now. But nothing matches. Out with my stock of alloy bits and I worked out a plan using my 1/8th bsp taps. I machined up an adaptor and it worked a treat. Finished and mounted.. With that lot finished and looking a lot neater it was now it was time to sort out the throttle pedal to carb interface system. I am using a HC Viva floor mounted pedal like in Viva one. The original top mounted pedal system uses rods and is..ugly. I copied the design of cable clamp and pedal mount from Viva one. Noted how much cable pull was offered by the pedal. Did some maths and worked out the diameter of pully needed. Then I machined up a pulley from a lump of alloy on the trusty old, leaky, English lathe. Made a new cable bracket and used some old bike barrel adjuster. It was an easy enough job but just time and I’m glad its done. Cable clamp so the nipple will go at pulley end for neatness... Measure cable pull.. Pedal mounts here on new base... A leaky (because English made) old but trustworthy lathe and a lump of alloy.. A new pulley.. I wont mount it yet as some wiring to do for the starter solenoid yet to be done. But I’m not far from firing the little 1159cc block of fury up and I’m quite excited. Here's a photo of the new hose layout. I'm much happier with it and it was worth the hassle... Back soon 29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted November 26, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 26, 2016 Happy update time.. it runs! After chasing around electrical gremlins which ended up in a instrument cluster swap among other things I finished yesterdays efforts by filling the carb with fuel, pulling the choke out and turning the key. Two seconds later and it fired up easily. I'll get a video later. Couldnt run it for long as Id not filled it with coolant yet. I'm so happy. I'll be happier when Ive taken it for a drive and confirmed it has not got any issues like BHG etc.So going back a few days here's some things that have been finished..First off.I finished the wiring and mounted the solenoid, tucked out of the way under the servo..Then I thought I'd better fit the speedo cable. But it didn't turn. It was seized solid in one spot. I tried so many things to free it up, lots of wd40, plusgas, twisting, wiggling, pulling, pushing etc and finally it freed up but only one half...Luckily I had a spare cable from when Viva one was swapped over from cable speedo to my home made electronic setup.But it was really long, made to suit the Mazda rx7 gearbox and how do I shorten the inner down? I tried years ago to grind a new square end and it doesn't work. So I looked it up and the square end is actually squeezed into shape! I made a little form tool from some steel and at 5mm a time I squeezed my new cut down inner into shape...It worked a treat!..The sparkplug leads that came with the car are horrible old red Repco branded items. Not a chance they will get fitted... I priced up leads in NZ and the prices were stupidly high, even at trade. Plus most are coloured blue or red. So Ebay Uk and the nice people at..http://stores.ebay.co.uk/The-Green-Spark-Plug-Co?_trksid=p2047675.l2563.. had just what I needed.7 days later and I had a nice new set of good quality black leads for only $25.50 inc postage!!! Its great this weak Pound Sterling thing!Yesterday was finishing little things and sorting out why instruments didnt work. I found a defective circuit strip thing plus a broken plastic casing on the cluster so I swapped the parts across from a spare..While I did that Hannah did some other jobs.. like clean the mucky sunvisors..That is it really.. I'm hoping to do a bit more today and then take it for a drive to check it out. Very excited. It currently sits here waiting.. 24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted November 27, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 27, 2016 Fitting out the interior this evening. Hannah has cleaned the seats and they came up great. Now contemplating just having rear seats only and simply extending the pedals and steering wheel back.. so comfy in there being able to stretch out. Kevin agrees... 25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 5, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 5, 2016 A very exciting evening was had for us. We drove the wagon for the first time. In fact it’s the first time its been on the road since around 1999. I had been intending to have it ready to put through a Wof test on Thursday so we can hopefully take both Vivas to the Nelson area Oldschool meet in the weekend. But it turned out that my wof fella was booked out then. So I booked it for tomorrow and with that little carrot dangling in front of us we both set to work pronto to finish lots of little jobs. We almost had the list checked off but for fitting the bonnet, a side mirror and getting the windscreen washers sorted. The mirror will have to be a little purse mirror taped into the empty side mirror shell that I nicked from the Datsun 120y sitting out back. The windscreen washer is the original old push button type that I just need a reservoir for and the bonnet is now on in place after some quick rust repairs… I also pinched a filter from Hannahs Triumph wagon. It fits well enough and will do until I get something nicer.. Before it got too late in the day I thought I’d better take it for a drive. Its not idling right and shakes about a bit. My timing light bulb is blown so I cant check the timing. I can’t do it statically with a bulb and some wire as it now has electronic ignition. So I just twisted the dizzy until it sounded about right. The carb jet height is set at two turns down since I stripped it, as per Mr Haynes advice . I have no idea what’s going on but it runs. I jumped in and left the shed. I drove down the slope from the shed and heard a loud sound. Ha..I forgot that I had not cut the front lower corner of the front arches away to clear the wider wheels (a standard mod needed for Vivas) . Back into the shed again and out with the angle grinder. Then back out again and this time a little drive just up our driveway to start with. Brakes needed a good application to scuff off the rust on the discs but otherwise it was OK. Took some photos when it was at the top of our drive… I really like this next photo I took from our field with all its spring growth.. ( I have given up on mowing up here).. Hannah walked down and got the recycling bin and tried out the wesome useful load space.. Then back to the shed. I grabbed my tool box, phone and a shirt to stay warm for a possible walk home. First drive on the road here we go. OK not a biggy.. just 3km down the road to the beach. Hey wow.. it goes well! It wanders a little bit and needs and alignment but peppier than I expected. Steering is very light and the clutch is fine. Pretty quiet for a car with no bonnet and no carpets etc. It fun. Excited. Happy! Wow.. I did it. Yay. Down at the beach some old lady remarked how she used to own a Viva when she spotted it as I snapped some photos. I was sort of in an elated but slightly nervous, excited mood and didn’t really concentrate too much on what photos to take. I just snapped away and was happy to be there in the sun after all this time working on it. Drove home and showed the neighbour over the road. We spotted a weeping header tank seam on the radiator… Oh well.. hopefully it’ll hold for a trip to town and the test and I’ll get it sorted out later on. Water pump leaks too but I have 3 spares so will swap one in. Hopefully tomorrow I will also get the bulb for my timing light and properly have a crack at tuning it better. Next to Viva one and getting Kevins approval.. Please wish me luck with the test tomorrow! 34 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 6, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 6, 2016 So as mentioned in the discussion I made it to the wof garage with no major issues. I have learned to ignore the temp gauge.. it tells lies. Maybe wrong sender for the cluster I'm using that's the old one from Viva one.The fuel gauge ain't working. The alternator light randomly comes on ..I suspect a bad earth. The speedo cable has now snapped at the other end !But I made it and it was in good hands.. After wowing the tester as he's never seen an HB wagon before I walked off to do some shopping. I was hungry as and had a nice pie while I waited for the result. Whilst going shopping I spotted this.. I chatted to the owner, an old boy who's very proud of his Viva. He actually has a Datsun engine with a 5 speed box, fitted by the fella doing my wof. Finished shopping, walked back to the garage. Car was moved inside... Did it pass???? It did! Yes One of my sidelight bulbs was out. I'd known about it but forgot. He chucked another bulb in and passed it! (I have to fix the speedo asap which I will do so tonight). Yay!!!! Straight to the post office for some rego. So I drove home happy, checked the ignition timing with a mates light and it was indeed probably 10-15 degrees to advanced! Its also running lean but damned if I can move the jet down. Might put a slightly smaller O ring in that wont jam up. Got home. Took photo of this... Hung these in place... and sat back for one of these... A very, very happy man I am ! So speedo cable to sort then tune the engine. Change the oil. Get radiator leak soldered. Then in between driving I want to sort out the boot floor with some plywood and make it all flat ready for bikes etc. 51 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 8, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 8, 2016 While Hannah and I were having a coffee yesterday morning we got out some old brochures for a read. I had bought this one from England ages ago as a bit of 'inspiration' while taking on the worst of the rust. I thought I would share the virtues of the mighty Viva HB Estate 'Space curve styling continues'....'Note the smooth, sleek line of the rear of the Estate with its fast-back tailgate'....'An exterior rear view mirror on the drivers side is regular equipment for all models'....So many features... (btw..my Estate is a '90 de Luxe' model from which someone in the past has stolen its mighty 70bhp engine from)For those who want to win at the pub quizz when they ask about the specifications of a Viva HB Estate...Now I need to find a Triumph mk1 Estate brochure for Hannah so she can stay motivated on her quest to restore her rusty wagon! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 11, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 11, 2016 I have just popped in to give sort of a quick "hey there fella..how's your car working out so far and what do you think of it?" update like thing.Well.. glad you asked.Note one; Its not very fast but keeps up with traffic fine if traffic drives slowly. Hills scare me. In the other Viva, Viva One, hills are fun and something to look forward to. In fact I often plan a passing move on a hill to really put a point across to what ever I'm passing, really lay down the house rules in a quick simple move No such fun with Viva wagon I'm afraid. Now all I plan is where can I wind up the rubber band and how fast can I take a corner so not to scrub off too much speed.Momentum is king.Note two; Its light. Lighter over the front end which makes for really light steering and a throw it into everything, chuckable sort of fun drive. Great for not slowing down *see note one.Note three; The brakes need a lot more effort to stop. Suspect servo maybe not playing its part and has decided its going to just sit in the bay taking space and to hell with assistance. The brakes work fine but you have to push them hard. So best not to bother using them and just hold that speed which is good again for speed.. see note one.Note four; Its only running on 3 at idle but smooths out when revved? Or is it me thinking its smoothing out and its actually only running on three most of the time. I wonder if its the worn dizzy cap and once up to speed it doesnt affect the engine. But I think its more. I will check the plugs in the morning. The exhaust knocks the cross member in a very noisy horrible way when the engine bounces about on three. This totally goes with the style of the car though. Passers by probably just think 'old cars.. aint they so sweet with the clouds of smoke and noise'Note five; Its not burning any oil. This is good. Instead its doing a very British car thing and leaving puddles on the floor. I thought it was mainly the rear main seal but then I noticed I had not re-tightened down the rocker cover since its been run a few times. Hopefully this might help. If the car continues to behave well with regards to oil use then I may well just dump out the 15 year old oil and treat it to new stuff.I really should change it shouldn't I... I'm so mean.Note six; It needs music. The wheezy little four pot struggling up a hill, gasping for air, stumbling and hurting when I try to make the gigantic leap over the hole the size of the Isle of man that is between 2nd gear and 3rd gear is not music. I have been given an 80's tape deck stereo headunit and I have some plastic speakers that cost me nothing. So perfect for this car. I will fit them and then hunt out the best music the local recycling center will have on tape. I will post up the build of this mega sound system as we all like ICE.Anyway- we took both Vivas to the OS Nelson area meet today. It made it there fine and did not have too large a queue built up behind and didn't blow a cloud of smoke. So that was nice. Event went well and I took some photos. There was actually 4 Vivas there in the end. This is a record surely. Certainly for Nelson..Then we drove back home- Hannah following in Viva one which she now claims as hers..pfff no taste. Snobbery.It was a nice day out and as I drove home to the sound of rattles, bangs and clunks I made my list of things to fix. I will report back as I sort through them. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted February 9, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 9, 2017 I will now rummage through all my fading memories the happenings of the last few weeks since the wagon became legal, weeks of holidays, drinks, sunshine, fettling of various old car things. Hopefully as I type it will become clearer.. Since getting the car back into life I have just kept using it for all sorts of trips and its been fun. I love the looks it gets. Often I get thumbs up, usually from young folk who might not even know what it is but certainly like the fact its shabby. Older people often smile too. Many comments But it was never 'right'. I felt it had better potential and didn't believe that the engine was knackered. It was not using much oil but enough to make me look further than just the patches it left here and there. Every time I drove it Id discover afterwards a new fresh coating of oil mist over everything. I checked the rocker cover and sure enough that was loose. But still the mystery mist kept appearing.. hmmmmm… Finally I worked out that it was spinning off from the front pulley. Luckily my stash of Viva spares had a new seal. I popped off the timing chain cover and swapped out the very very hard old seal. The nice soft new one stopped the mist. Yay. But that rough idle was annoying me. More so the engine shal=king about and making the exhaust knock the crossmember. This I had to fix. It was too close and sat quite low as well.. So I cut off the down pipe and while it was off I repaired my previous ‘repair’ to the manifold joining flange which had started to leak. Knock be gone but still the car idled rough. I checked the compressions and they were all good @ 150 psi each (which is way higher than the 130 Mr Haynes tells me to expect so I either have a gauge that lies or someone in the past has skimmed the head?) But still the car ran rough. I finally bought a new timing light. A self powered one. So good not having to plug in the battery leads! With my new light I was able to check the timing which turned out to be only about 5 degrees out. So I was happy that Id managed to get it so close just by ear but not happy that it was obviously not the cause of the poor idle. I checked the valve clearances. Now things got messy… the manuals all say check them hot and many sources out there say the best thing is to check them with the engine running….. NEVER AGAIN will I try using feeler gauges on a idling engine! What a kerfuffle and resulting mess! After I had spent many clean rags clearing up the oil from everywhere I set the clearances hot. They were all pretty good actually. I screwed the rocker cover down and started the engine. TINK TINK TINK TINK TINK…. WTF?!!! Where’s that coming from. Oh no.. have I dropped a valve? Sounds like piston slap or a broken piston top but higher pitched? Oh dear I thought. I popped the cover off and started the engine. Sound has gone! What? Looked at rocker cover and I could see marks underneath from where a rocker was just touching my altered breather gallery… Oh OK. So tightening the cover down further on a new hot cork gasket just pulled it down that bit more to touch. One swift smack with the hammer and the sound was gone So what is causing the rough running then. I had been pulling the plugs after every few runs to look at the condition. Always the front 1 and 2 plugs were clean and borderline lean. The rear 3 and 4 always a touch oily. Hmmmm. Then I looked at my servo and breather lines heading into my inlet manifold- remember back when I changed the positions?.. I popped off the servo one and sucked on it. Hang on… no resistance! What? Bugger me.. I have a split diaphragm in the servo causing an air leak. Which also explains the hefty brake pedal ( I’d just put that down to poor brakes bedding in or not being manly enough..) I plugged the tee on the manifold and started the car. Wow!! What a difference!!!! So smooth. I was able to lower the idle speed right down. Then double checked the timing, tweeked the carb jet a little and it was heaps better. Next drive was way smoother, engine had more pull and no lurching. Heaven. But I knew it could be even better. So I undid the breather pipe from the inlet and re-routed it down the back of the block, holding it in place by the bottom of the bell housing with a zip tie. I plugged the remaining takeoff on the tee and started the car… even better! Yes!! Having got rid of another ‘air leak’ helped no end plus was also explaining why the rear two plugs were constantly oily. I will source another HC servo and for now just put up with a harder pedal. The brakes work well but just need a shove. As for the inlet take off I will move the position to just after the carb in the middle so its even across all cylinders. The breather can remain to atmosphere. Now I knew the engine was actually OK I gave it an oil change. The old oil was not too dirty but it did smell. It burns a little oil at start up past the inlet valve stems. I have found out that this earlier engine doesn’t have stem seals but a friend who owns many Vivas said they used to slide an O-ring down the stem so most oil ran over the o-ring rather than down the guide. Nifty idea I might try if I do pop the head off. Im now a little reluctant to take the head off as its running well..but I am a little curious to see how carboned up it might be?. So my once rough running Viva is now a very smooth little car to drive. In fact its an utter joy to drive, allowing for a general lacking in power. My fears about driving up hills have been removed. Yeah it’s a bit slow but only on one very steep section do I need second gear, otherwise its third gear and cruise. Its ideal about town and fantastic for popping to the beach, a trip it has done many times now. I like it. I like it a lot. I just cruise. Windows down. Chilled out. Lifes a breeze. I love the way the car handles with the tiny engine up front. Steering is very light and it fun to flick around. Many more little things to tidy up now and make it a nicer place. Hannah’s mum is over from the UK on holiday so I made the most of her baggage and got her to bring over lots of stuff I got cheap on ebay Uk. See here… New dizzy cap, rotor, a full set of mint Vauxhall service manuals (only £1.50 ), full head gasket set (cheap), a few magazines, adjustable electric fan controller, a chrome air filter which doesn’t quite fit but I’ll sort that. So that’s where I’m at now. Just using it. Transporting mountain bikes (easy pesy).. Going to the beach.. Sitting pretty in the afternoon… Taking me down to my local village for moonlit strolls along the beach.. Just generally being a very good fun wee classic daily 32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted August 23, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 23, 2017 Update time on Viva two.... Lesson learned. Don't leave Vivas parked up for two months on damp ground. I went to move it the other day and the clutch is stuck ! I have tried all the usual things to fix it and no luck. Its now sitting out there with a stick holding the clutch pedal down. Funny thing is that I have only recently worked on a mates Viva HC and it had come in with the same problem, which meant we had to remove the box and free up a very corroded clutch. The reason for this mighty wagon of mine being laid up? Well it ran out of WOF at about the same time as I had picked up a genuine Viva '90' engine. I had plans to fit it but its not happened yet. Hannah went to the UK to see family and brought back some parts, seals etc so next week we will tidy it up and fit it soon. What is a Viva '90' engine you ask? Its the uprated 1159cc engine that was offered as an option on HB vivas, and standard in the Brabham spec model. It has higher compression, high lift cam (that found its way into the 1256 Chevette/Viva HC engine), twin outlet exhaust manifold and Stromberg carb. Possibly some other things too.. some foamer can quip in here.. It all combines to give a very useful jump in power from 50 to 70 bhp! Twenty extra ponies is not to be laughed at when you only start with 50. My wagons chassis plate states in the options that it came with one of these engines but at some point it has been stolen from the car. The engine I have scored actually came from this ropey old car here... ...which Slacker Sam had bought and then sold on to the fella I bought the wagon from. He split the car down as it was rusty as (although some of its shell has also made its way into my wagon) , hung on to the motor and I managed to score it a few years later for $100. Its been rebuilt and apparently goes really well he said, useful for towing other Vauxhalls around etc ... Came with all new ignition parts too. Pretty happy with this lot and looking forwards to fitting it! I have cleared a little area in the workshop to work on it.... 32 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted September 5, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 5, 2017 As per the suggestion from Adoom I jacked the back end up onto axle stands, started it, clanged it into gear, gave it some revs, clutch in and slammed on the brakes. Ping! Clutch freed off! Smiles and much punching of air. Removed stands, pumped up flat front tyre and took it for a spin up the drive. All good. Parked it inside and wiped all the pine tree pollen off making it look concours mint... Rang my friendly garage and its booked in for a WOF. Meanwhile the new engine has now got new crank seals. I looked down the inlet ports (all two of them..) and the valves look a bit oily and mucky. Because I have a spare head gasket set to suit this engine I think it makes sense to give it a look over. Because I like to treat people to fun things I think I'll get Hannah to pop the head off, strip it down and give it all a good cleanup. She can re-grind the valves in. This is an early engine without valve stem seals but a friend who knows these engines well said they used to slide an O-ring over each inlet stem and it serves to stop too much oil running down the stem? Seems legit? Anyone heard of this? Answers on the back of a pie packet please and post to Bodgit and Scarper race engines, Marahau. Once back together it can get a coat of fresh paint and it'll pretty much be a fully re-conned race motor. Took the exhaust manifold off because its studs look like future anguish in waiting. I shall deal to them while its out. I don't see them coming out in one piece.... 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 Well then... the idea of fitting this engine has ground to a halt for now It was raining yuck outside this afternoon so Hannah stripped the head off and removed the valves. While removing the head a couple of valve springs were noted as being quite loose. Loose enough to spin freely by hand. Hmmmm. Bugger. Number two valve removed, an exhaust valve, had a broken spring. Two of the exhaust seats have deep recession and the other two are on their way. You can see how pitted the seat is on the one with the broken spring. Note the amount of recession (probably also had much lapping of valves through out its life by some old Barry owner) Note how bad the surface is on the valve head too. The inlet valves are quite thin having been lapped in a fair bit by the previous owner who rebuilt this engine.. obviously a fair few miles back going by the amount of slop in the guides. With the valve heads pulled out to max lift most of the valves have upwards of 2-3mm of sideways play at the head. Also noted is a repaired crack. This doesn't worry me as usually once fixed they wont do it again. But its not the smoothest repair. Plus there are some bloody hefty scrape marks from some heavy handed gasket removal evident. The block has been bored out .030" with new pistons but has worn enough to have a decent lip. Not so bad its not usable but noted anyway. So suffice to say I am very happy we decided to strip the head off for a look and found these faults now, rather than having fitted the engine only to discover after doing so that its a dud. Saved quite a bit of grief. I have stashed away all the bits and will now re-think the game plan. Considering the engine currently fitted is purring along nicely with its only gripe being a bit slow on the steep hills (I suspect about standard level of slow to be expected though) and that it likes to leave a little mark from its leaky rear main seal, I think I will just happily putt along with that engine for now. The other Viva is advertised and one day it may well sell. Then I can look at re-powers. Between now and then I'll keep my eyes open for another cylinder head in better condition than this one. I'm not sure if the 1256 heads fit straight on? Any ideas/info welcome. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 20, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 20, 2017 In more recent news.. these turned up in our mailbox couple of days ago. They're off a Toyota 4AGE 20v Blacktop engine. About 3mm larger diameter bore than the ITBs from the earlier silver top engine. They have a taper bore and seem very similar in dimensions to the SBD units (though not quite as sexy..) http://www.sbdev.co.uk/Duratec/Fuel Injection Kits, Backplates.htm I wanted these Toyota items as they don't have built in injectors points plus they have a decent enough size bore to suit larger engines compared to many of the bike units..I am aware one can go too big on ITBs and create slow flow rates at low revs and with this in mind these ones would really be best suited to a larger engine, 2.0- 2.5. I think the 20V gets away with it because there are three inlet valves and good flow at high revs are needed for those engines to breathe properly. The Mazda V6 has a neat injector setup Id want to keep if I went down the V6 route again (however I'll need to find another set if I go that way) If I go with a four pot then I'm good to go. I'd like to trim these down a little and fit them with the injectors below to keep things really neat. Make an adaptor plate to take the ITBs and also have bosses to insert some injector into. Anyway- its nice just having them sit about looking good. Hannah and I had to visit Nelson for shopping today. We popped into a wreckers and had a look at some motors and did some measuring/photos. Hannah jotted the sizes down. I'm very romantic like that. I like to show a lady a good time...in a wreckers yard, full of old engines. It was very exciting. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted December 29, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 29, 2017 So because its near the end of the year and I wanted to finish it off by showing Hannah a lovely time we went to the wreckers together. Again. Honestly.. she does love taking cars apart. It is fun. So yesterday while out in the wagon I popped into my local wreckers to browse for engines..as ya do. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse on a Duratec from a 2001 Mundano. $150 for whatever I need from the car because the engine was unknown and that's what it was worth to them to sell to the Middle East (where pretty much all their engines go). We checked it turned over fine with no horrible noises and it seemed fine. I thought it was worth a punt as I could on sell the gearbox and it it all turned out bad I could make money back on the alternator and starter etc. So I paid the money before I changed my mind and came back with Hannah near the end of the day our trusty old van filled with tools. I wanted to get as much of the loom as possible. Even though I will most likely run it all on speeduino with those ITBs it would still be nice to have the option to go somewhat factory (except I'd bin the horrible plastic inlet for a home made nice alloy one!) There were also some other bits we wanted. The dash cluster is quite nice. A bit modern but still good to have in case. Hannah fell in love with the cup holder. Yeah.. seriously. It is quite cool the way it pop outs and would be so neat to build it into a centre console really neatly. So that had to get removed too. So some photos of the afternoons work and later in the evening in stripping the engine... The Mundano in question. Sans heart. Looked it up on carjam and the car has done only 136,000 kms. Barely run in. Or trashed within an inch of its life with no oil changes and spun bearings. Who knows. Its a gamble. Its had two owners. Fun times for all.. One engine and box... Back home and out with the old hoist.. Uglyness with all the crap on... I started removing bits. The exhaust cover came off and revealed a not too shabby looking set of headers! I reckon they might even sit in the bay without much hacking needed. Time will tell but at the very least I have a decent flange and start point to build my own if needed. I pulled the remaining bits off. Power steering pump, FWD engine mount. Left it as a complete engine including the very very heavy dual mass flywheel. Lowered it onto my scales and it came up at 120kg. No starter but the hoist chain on top would easily equal the starter. I think the single mass flywheels are about 10kg lighter. Here's the horrible boat anchor flywheel I speak of... I had weighed my complete spare Viva engine setup a couple of months ago. That lot came to 106kg. So there we have it- if what ever inlet setup I use stays close to the weight of the stock Duratec (horrid) plastic affair I am reckoning on adding no more than maybe 10kg over the front axle. I can handle that. Other things to consider are how far back I can mount it and how heavy an mx5 etc box is. But its all pretty close. The alloy sump will need cutting and shutting and I'll need to fabricate a new thermostat housing to get the stock one out of the way. But as it sits its already looking like a neat unit. I love the fact the inlet is on the passenger side so I'll have plenty of room for what ever inlet setup I decide to fabricate. Here it is sitting ready. Waiting. Next thing is to spin it over and see what the compression figures are. The strip will continue. Oh and the dash. I quite like its gauges. I might use it in bits. Maybe. I have a fondness for the old strip speedo but I did like the gauge setup I made in the last Viva. Back soon with more engine photos to delight you all. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted December 29, 2017 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 Hmmm. no photos working? . will fix... Fixed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted January 14, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 14, 2018 We stripped the engine down and although there was no sign on the head gasket of blowby the head had a .010" warp. Banana shape, low in the middle. OK I thought.. Not too bad. Valves came up fine with a clean. Hannah put the camshafts back in place without valves to make sure the warping was not causing any binding and they came up sweet.. My mill is too short in travel to skim it in one hit and I thought I'd better get a second opinion anyway. Better check the bores we thought. Hannah cleaned them out and discovered this... Not sure but I think it's just corrosion from where the piston sat a while with water in the bore. Took it along to machine shop and yeah they think so too. But costs are now adding up. Having a re- think because the car is just so damn sweet even as it is. Hmm. Could avoid certification and added costs by just fitting a Chevette engine and playing with that instead. Or maybe a v6 again. Got all excited about the prospect because I have all the parts I need so I decided to weigh one again. All up, starter, alternator, manifolds, injection etc the v6 comes in at around 145kg. Really light for a complete v6 but still 40kg heavier than the stock standard viva 1159cc as it sits in the bay. (plus the mazda gearbox is 10kg heavier) So how can I save weight over the front to offset this?... Fibreglass bonnet could be a start. Hmmmm. No rush anyway. Cars projects are playing second fiddle right now. We've been given enough heaps of decking so itching to start on our cabin build up here... 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted January 25, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 25, 2018 Enjoying the lovely simplicity of the little 1159 for now. Perfect car for the beaches we cant be bothered to ride to or shopping etc. Still gets nice comments every time out. Hannah jokes that we have to add 10minutes onto every journey to allow for the conversations with folk about the car. In other news a few weeks ago my brother and I met up in Tapawara with our friend Andre who has a lovely Firenza Droopsnoot and a HB GT. We jumped in his car and travelled out to a place near Murchison where a fella has a few old Vauxhalls and Bedfords siitting in the bush. There's a Viva HB sitting there and luckily Andre had covered it with a tarp a couple of years back to keep it better protected. We both needed parts off it. There were also a huge amount of sandflies and they wanted us. So we covered ourselves in Deet and cracked on with parts removal.. I scored this lot. Very happy with it. All very much needed! First bits to be fitted were the vents. Hannah cleaned them up and swapped them over. Now we have working vents that can be closed. All last winter we'd have to stuff rags in the holes to stop the cold air. They are grey, not green as the originals but they'll go quite well with what will most likely end up as a red based interior colour scheme. Next job was the bumper. The one my brother managed to get off the parts car is in good condition but for a slightly dull finish. It also has two holes where spot light brackets had been mounted. Not really noticeable and anyway- I now have a front bumper. Hannah took charge of this job too. She cleaned it up, wire brushed the surface rust away from the back and treated it, followed with a coat of paint. Then she fitted it and the only photo I have is of her cleaning it after fitting... Next job to happen will be sort the door locks..which don't lock.. then swap the quarter windows over. The new ones have proper good seals in them. My current ones don't have seals at all.. Then the door cards. One of the ones we grabbed was really warped. I had an idea. Hannah soaked it with a hose until it was sopping wet and then we squashed it flat between two sturdy bits of plywood. I have been moving it about and its slowly dried out nice and flat. Happy with that outcome. We have also taken on some pretty extensive scientific road testing. When one goes out in experimental sports cars like this with a 30kg bag of potting mix parcel taped onto the bonnet you are bound to get a few odd looks. Which we did. I have also confirmed three things... One : The extra weight does indeed affect the steering somewhat, but not in a huge way. Enough though to lose the easy turning of the steering wheel with one hand and make the twistys more of an effort. Two : It was really noticeable how the extra weight mounted up high promoted extra roll at the front in corners. From this I have deduced through some clipboard scribblings and man maths that I will mount the next new engine below the bonnet line, as per original... Three : Brown parcel tape makes a sticky mess that nothing seems to touch easily. I now have vertical stripes on my front wings. (really, they should be called guards. But Blighty terminology eh) Now I have to spend some time cleaning the marks off to return the car back to its former glory! 21 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted February 3, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 3, 2018 I will soon be entering the OCD zone. I am preparing for an afternoon of much deliberation and careful planning. It wont be perfect and will end up getting changed over time but I have to start somewhere. 'Start what though' you say?... Organising my boot is what, for I have 'compartmentalised' my boot floor area. I have been planning this job for ages and looking forward to it. Since getting the car back on the road the various tools, jack, spares have been rattling about in the back, wedged with towels so they don't slide across side to side when taking corners at great speed (20mph..). Without a false floor in place it meant that the level of the folded down rear seat was higher than the current floor. This is just unsatisfactory and will not do! Hannah had already made a lid for the battery box so that was sorted now. No batteries will be falling out when we do barrel rolls for laughs. So to the floor. Take one sheet of hardwood ply. Mark out. Cut. Trial fit. Mark again. Cut again. Trial fit. Mark some more...cut again...... I ended up with this nice level floor... With little compartments which I can now carefully compile tools, jack and spares and then stow them neatly away into... Hannah has been painting the old floor and we'll put some sound deadening down before the plywood goes back in for good. Then last week storm hit us but I think we came off fairly lightly at our local beach 3 km down the road. There is normally a nice wee beach over to the left of this photo... Not far from crossing the main road in... With the horrid weather that morning Hannah decided to drive rather than ride her treadly. I got a phone call 5 minutes later... "the car has stopped... its just cut out. Now the battery is dead" I drove down in the van with another battery and found her in the Viva with waves lapping at the wheels. It wasn't full tide yet and the waves were coming in quick. Most of the places along the front there got waves into their yards later on. We pushed it up the road, swapped the battery and it started straight away. I suspect one of the big salty puddles Hannah drove through splashed over the dizzy and shorted it out. Then with a couple of minutes to dry off from engine heat it was fine again. Further up the road she had to drive it through a 30 meter section a foot deep of seawater. Poor little car! So when it returned home, storm now past, I spent a good deal of time giving the whole car a good rinsing off... Then wd40 into any areas I deemed they needed it. This all reminded me so much of the days spent in the UK with my Rx3 where I would carefully hose it all down after a winter drive if they had salted the roads. The car would never seem to dry out at all in winter though. I dont miss road salt. Not one bit! 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted July 16, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 16, 2018 Here's an update...it's been a while. We have both been using this wee car heaps as our daily and apart from the rev counter dying, creating a short to the coil and cutting ignition its been reliable as. That one took a bit of head scratching to work out. I checked everything and finally had a guess at the rev counter. Well it did only cost $7 secondhand 6 years ago.. That has now been disconnected and every thing is back to being tickadyboo We got bored with sliding sideways in the original vinyl seats when corning enthusiastically and I had a pair of Mx5 seats waiting for the Imp project. Decided I might as well fit them and put them into use rather than just sitting there wasted. I made all the mounting points to certification standard as it'll be going through the cert process when the Duratec is fitted. They are so much better in for driving with! Not as heavily bolstered as Recaros I have had in the past but good enough. This pair will find their way into the Imp when its ready and I'll keep a look out for other seats to fit the Viva. The mounting points looked so similar in placement to the points for the Momo branded (but actually Recaros) Alfa Romeo GTV seats I had fitted in the Viva. So I'm am figuring that Recaros might hopefully fit in place fairly easily using the new mounts. Seats... Now the eagle eyed among you might have spotted the Motolita steering wheel. Yep- its the one I had in my V6 Viva. I kept it as part of the sale agreement and made a boss to fit it into the wagon. This time I have moved it backwards even further and its great to have back in my hands. Much nicer the than skinny, torn bus wheel that was originally there. Here it is with the old seats in place... Yep- this little car has been great to use and is even better now. Handy car for carting mowers (I do quite a lot of mower repairs in our valley as one of the bread earners)... But the car is gonna be so much better with more ponies. So I have been slowly chipping away at collecting things. I cant do the actual engine swap until the Imp is on the road though. No pressure then On this front I have to shout out a big thanks to @chris r and @Gozza who picked up and transported the gearbox from Auckland down to Nelson. Chris picked it up from the seller, packaged it onto a pallet and delivered it to the airport. Awesome. Then it got a first class flight in Steve's private jet. Steve then brought it out to our place. What a neat wee trip for an NA Mx5 gearbox... Thanks fellas!!! I opened up the packaging... With the box here I propped up an Rx7 bellhousing next to it. You can see the difference in length that will allow me to use an adaptor plate without having to space the flywheel back. A lot of work? Yeah but I have continued looking for a bolt on NC box and they just aint cheap here in NZ. I have looked in the UK, much cheaper..but in the UK. So for now I will continue down this path. It's one I have trodden before and its pretty easy. Next up... the elephant in the room that is the Duratec that needs a rebore. Not any more! Another big thanks goes out @Tumeke and @chris r, again !, who found a free Duratec engine, offered it to me and then @64vauxhall brought it down in the back of his Falcon on the way to the Oldschool nationals. Its in good condition but the head has been popped off bu the previous owner for inspection/cleaning. The bores are really good and the block is very clean. Its what appears to be a good honest engine. So I am back on track. I'll be getting a headgasket set and new headbolts from England very soon and will build this up over time. Its great that I now have a spare engine which I can use for the mockup. Much nicer lifting a stripped out lightweight block and head. New engine... Also- @NickJ was one of the fellas who came up to collect the Datsun 120Y. He brought up a collection of electronic components he had spare from building his Speeduino ECU and he and Hannah sat in the morning sun and sorted through bits I needed for my ECU build. I just need to get the main Arduino Mega chip and a few other bits then assemble it. Right on track for a decent $100 ECU though Thanks Nick!.. But for now...its back to the Imp. 20 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post yoeddynz Posted November 4, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 4, 2018 So not long after having fitted the Mx5 seats I locate a pair of Recaro fishnets. I had gone down to chch for the swap meet and about a half hour into looking about I spot a par of dirty but complete and unworn Recaros. I sat in them, ummed and erred and bargained. Got them for a price I was happy with and carted them away. Then completed my day of looking about at various tat for sale happy in the knowledge that I'd got my bargain for the day. Back home and Hannah gave them a clean with some rug doctor upholstery cleaner stuff. They came up really well... Then she removed the mx5 seats and I started modifying the rails on the Recaros to suit. Luckily they were pretty close in dimensions (although the burlier Recaros weighed 7kg heavier each!) and the Recaro rails seem to be a modular thing that lends themselves well to being retrofitted into other cars and they went in fairly easily after making some 5mm thick plate adaptors. Fitted them and sat back happy with results. Apart from being a fair bit more supportive they just seem to be more 'period' in a modified old car way. Still nothing like the Momo seats I had in the other viva as far as blending in goes but these actually a lot more supportive than those slippery leather Momos. This weekend we went over to Blenheim in the Viva for Dads birthday. The Viva drove really well and keeps surprising me with how good it goes for a tiny little 1159cc engine with less than 50bhp. Sat on about 90-100 (tailwind permitting) and over the hills fine. Filled up and it had returned 34 mpg. As someone noted in the discussion it had also been spotted by a member of the public today ... Kevin the cat came along for the trip and upon returning home it was pretty obvious that white fluffy cats and dark coloured Recaros dont mix... I have also picked up a Magnum 1800 axle, same as I used in the V6 Viva. Slowly I have almost accumulated all the bits I need for engine conversion.. just need to finish the Imp so the Viva can be pulled out of daily service. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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