hohocc

Well I must admit it might go bing! But am wary of plugging it in to find out...

The screws holding it together are well stuck with rust and are putting up a fight, might get it apart later today but gave up in disgust at this mornings attempt. 

Hi all,

Going through a bunch of stuff that belonged to my late Father who was an auto electrician. 

Among the items that have been sitting for a long time is the machine pictured. It's a box with a couple of switches, a dial on which you set from zero to 100 of whatever it makes, and a zero to 10 knob. A light plugs into it with a 4 pin plug.

No serial number or identifying tags that I can see.

Any ideas what it is? It's just taking up shed space and there might be someone out there who would like to have it, but since I don't know what it is I can't sell the thing!

Cheers.

Fair enough, I can certainly sympathise with your reasoning!

I forgot to mention above that the 2 o rings that leak are both on the left side more towards the front/around the front edge of the engine mount. While mine was covered in oil from head to toe the first time I took it out, the right side this time has stayed dry so it seems likely that if it's losing a fair bit then that area would be one of the bigger culprits.

Clearly that's on a sample size of one so may be less than scientific!

8 hours ago, mo999 said:

I do wish they went the timing belt route on these, I took be about 5 hours to change the chains, soo much better once I had though, if only stopping it leaking oil was as easy. Other than the rear main, (that I have already done) where did you find the most leaks from? So hard to see when in engine bay.

When I got the car it was the oiliest thing I have ever worked on, so much so you'd think it was British/American...

In reality since it had 290000km (family history so worth doing the work on), there were leaks from front and rear mains, timing cover,  and down below so I removed it and did everything except removing the cradle that holds the mains in place. There was also a water pump leak getting water into the oil.

Unfortunately despite most of the reseal working well it still had a big leak down the left side from just below the oil pressure switch. 

The 2 common leak points that are a bit of a nuisance are the oval O ring between the upper aluminium part of the sump and the bearing cradle, and another O ring between the bearing cradle and the block itself which is the leak that remains. 

So this time around it's out again with the intention to reseal the cradle to the block. It has remained quite clean (this area aside) for the last 12000km so I reckon it'll be pretty right once I'm done. Am also doing a bearing job on the gearbox while it's all out so will no doubt come up with questions when I get to that!

Discovered this video (in 2 short parts) the other day that shows the cradle to block O ring leak really well: 

and:

This is the only good info I've seen on why that area leaks.

Anyway thanks for the info and hope that helps you out!

2 hours ago, locost_bryan said:

There are many Vitara manuals that can be downloaded from this site 

http://www.rhinoman.org/manuals/vitara/vit_manuals.html

Bingo! One of the links in there had the engine manual for an H20a so thanks for your help, that's exactly what I was after.

For anybody else that may have the same question in the future, the H20a main journal diameter is 58mm, and the H25a is 65mm.

I bet the timing belt in the Mazda engine doesn't clatter like the chains in my one used to...

16 minutes ago, locost_bryan said:

The differences between the two engines was discussed on this Mazda forum

https://www.mx6.com/threads/suzuki-h-series-motor-the-same-as-mazda-k-series.183027/

That's a very interesting read indeed...

Just now, locost_bryan said:

I'd be surprised if they're any different to the 2.5, or to the Mazda KL/KE that it's  based on.

My initial thought (in terms of the 2.5) was the same but while I can find a part number to link the rod bearings between the 2 engines I can't do the same for the mains. Added to that I note that rod bearing sets seem to be advertised for the 2.0/2.5/2.7 but mains seem to be only 2.0 or 2.5/2.7.

Hadn't thought of the Mazda line of inquiry. Looks like the KF has the same bore and stroke at least. Will look further along that path and no doubt get confused with part numbers coming out of my ears...

Thanks for the info though, much appreciated.

I'm fixing an oil leak in my old H20a V6 2.0 Escudo, and doing whatever other odd bits need tidying at the same time.

Anyway have the engine in a million bits and while we're in there (yep here we go...) had a look at the rod and main bearings, both of which could do with a freshen up.

Info on the rod bearing dimensions is easy enough to get as they are the same as the H25a 2.5l V6, however the I can't dig up any numbers on the mains.

If anyone has some info or is a better googler than me I'd be keen to see it. 

Thanks in advance.

4 minutes ago, GuyWithAviators said:

Is the vin plate the only original part left?

Still has the same shadow it left the factory with. Can't buy that...

Doesn't happen to sound/smell rich when cranking does it? Almost firing but not quite?

If you do go the new battery route bigger and better is normally not much more expensive than bare bones minimum. 

Cleaning the existing earth straps is always a good idea. Adding an extra one if it's easy can't do any harm either.

Sounds like you are making progress!

300CCA was what my old Hunter had in it's early days so your 325 is probably about what the Moke had when new. However if you do end up buying a battery there's probably bugger all difference pricewise in buying something a bit bigger. Hunter was much better when it had 550CCA.

By comparison, my wife's Mazda 2 has 450CCA in a little shopping basket, admittedly there's more electric stuff in it than in a 70s British car.

1 hour ago, HighLUX said:

Bets are the 02 sensor or ECU coolant temp sensor are cooked so its just dumping im fuel as a failsafe 

1 hour ago, chris r said:

could be coolant temp sensor (2 wire) being cooked  - try unplugging it and see if it changes things

(edit beaten my Mr lux)

Thanks for the leads...

Checking the codes as mentioned gave no results. However didn't know how to do it previously so have learned something...

Unplugging the water temp sensor made the fan go, it started ok and idled a little slow, bogged when touching the accelerator. Engine was pretty cold so given ecu appeared to think it was hot it seems it needed a richer mixture on a cold engine. Plugging it back in started and ran normally. 

Stepdaughter has been complaining lately about her Starlet/4efe occasionally feeling like "the brakes are coming on", so naturally assumed misfire, looked at plugs which were a bit sad so replaced them. Started and ran fine afterwards so job jobbed... Not...

Anyway now it's started to not start quite frequently. Seems to be getting very rich, so when/if it does start it takes full throttle/maximum air to get it to fire then eventually clears itself and settles down. Sometimes it won't start at all. 

Got it started earlier today and left it idling for 20 min or so. After about 10 min heard it slow down and stumble (trying to run on 3ish?) then pick up again about a minute later. 

So clearly fuel air and ignition are working when it's running, but something is getting mucked up from time to time. Have read of leaking injectors flooding the intake on small Toyotas so not starting if parked for lots of hours but starting ok if they have been running recently. On that point it just started normally perhaps 15 min after it was last running.

Stepdaughter is very fond of running on fumes so the possibility of muck getting into fuel system is high.

Aside from pulling the plugs out a couple of times have not done any dismantling to check anything.

Any ideas beyond dirty/leaking injectors?

Thanks in advance! 

10 hours ago, kicker said:

Is it wrong that I wanted the jack to collapse?

Has she measured how much it's actually using? 

My stepdaughter had a similar complaint with her Starlet from a similar era recently. Trying to explain to her how to fill the thing up, then note how many km it goes and how many litres it took when she next filled it was excruciating. She hasn't done it, but has stopped talking about the amount of fuel it uses. 

1 hour ago, ThePog said:

HBI engineering in chch, they did the suspension arms on my Fiat X1/9, and rejigged a ball joint on the Dynafari, mint both times. 

Any recollection of price? Thanks for the info.

1 hour ago, tortron said:

suzuki sidekick in the USA isnt it. Rockauto has your parts ranging from $16 to $60 nzd

Yep have found the required bits on rockauto but given they are heavy and therefore expensive to ship thought I'd look at the recon option since it's probably a higher likelihood of a good part. Well that's my theory anyway! 

My old Suzuki Escudo needs the front lower control arms to have a birthday. 

Anybody got any experience with having suspension parts reconditioned rather than replacing? Replacements would probably be chinese and a lottery, getting the originals reconned makes more sense but I've got no idea if reconditioning is a patch up type job or a really good result.  Naturally company websites offering the service claim it to be as good as new. 

Any recommendations for practitioners of the art in Chch would be good too.

Cheers.

It was Independant Signs Ltd, in Jones Road Rolleston. Very helpful.

8 hours ago, Bling said:

Not sure they do retail on site anymore? I had to get my metal delivered out.

I have a section of 3mm (could be 2.5 at worst) somewhere in the shed, depending on what dimensions you are making the tank.

Thanks for the offer but found a local sign making business that sold me some 3mm and did the cutting and bending based on a cardboard mockup of the tank. Probably get it welded up this week and car back on the road!

Cheers for the advice folks.

Gidday all,

Need to make a coolant expansion tank from aluminium. Rough estimate is about 1.5 square feet/0.2 sq metre of material required so buying a whole sheet will produce a bunch of waste that I won't have a use for in the near future.

Has anybody got any good leads on a scrap bin in Christchurch that might be worth checking, or a supplier that will sell smaller bits? Sounds like 3mm thickness is the way to go but given it's replacing a tank made from milk bottle plastic I can't see that being too critical.

Cheers in advance.

It would be most appropriate if you got a pic of your xjs parked across multiple hairdresser car sorry ev charging point parks. 

Lots of good leads there, thanks for all of them!