NickJ

Yip, sitting round a camp fire with a few brews sounds like a good idea, chance of bunnies to shoot for supper would be nice too

+1 for Bush inn, has a stack of new food vendors, and centralish

Something something single carb til I have time for the dellortos.... Surfaced the manifold to get a better seal yesterday, just need to fabricate a better linkage mount and they'll go back on.

Long weekend and made it into the shed each night after dinner to tackle the engine Borrowed a bottom tap to clean up the threads and took my time checking and rechecking there was enough room to torque down the head, only just there, but just is enough! With the engine back together and running next stop was to check the valve clearance, while up in Matakana a month back I called in to see Azzurro who lent me some shims and the right tool for the job For laughs, here's my attempt at the valve bucket tool, next to the real deal After all the messing about I really only changed one shim, but it was pleasant having the right tools! Conclusion: Two running, road legal Ladas, or is that Ladii?

Good sunny day for a drive

I'm back to keen status, blew the hanger bearing on the Leyland so no more earthworks this weekend

Poo, as usual I'll be on the farm this meet, unless you wanna cruise to the peg and i'll wander over for a beer!

Keep up the good fight! was good to see it the other week, much radder in person! And now I know why all the shots are with a fish eye, you aint got no room!

I made the inlet manifold for the niva off the cad model, printed out a full scale plan view and front view of each runner to line up on and then normal shots of each curve to aid cutting the donuts, was actually really easy in the end, if only my fab skills were up to it!

we're borrowing a car from zebradude and driving up to matakana for a wedding, I wrote that with thoughts of a scenic drive back but thnking about it the weekend might slip away! i'll let you know if we head that way though

Hmm, theres always wants! but nothing urgent at this stage, quite keen on checking out the nautilus if you're about sunday arvo?

Yeah, it sucks! but the engine has had enough power to be capable for what I use the Niva so i'm not too worried, I think I'll try track down a 1.8/2l engine to rebuild in the coming years for it but until then 1600 it is! by my calcs I have 1608cc block (80mm stroke x 80mm bore) I'd love to claim some rims off ya but it comes down to what weight I can get onto the plane, 23kg aint much/ what ya got??? (not sure the turbines are quite the right look) Hopefully with the right gasket the lifespan should be better anyway

Just ordered the new gasket from Gavin and realised i'll be in Ak tomoro so will call in and pick it up

New Head gasket from Gavin is $40, will order one hopefully tomoro and get it on the way here. Also plugged up the combustion chamber with plastercine to get volume and calculated the CR as 10.2:1 with a 1.5mm HG, would appear quite a bit has come off the head in it's life!

The plot thickens.... Today I called Gavin at Euro - Italian Car Parts to see what head gaskets he had in stock, confirming size and thickness I measured up the bore, its 4mm smaller???? taking further measurements, 80mm bore, 80mm stroke, for a 1800TC it should be 84mm bore, 80mm stroke, seems I was told wrong when I got the motor and it is a 1600, that means the last head gasket was too big (see image above, doh!) So with this i'm certain the gasket failed due to the steel band being too close to the water gallery under the split and the correct gasket should solve the trouble! And, the jetting i've been setting up is all wrong, maybe i'll get further economy......... maybe yay!!!!!

ah righto, might look into that, but the full gasket kit was $250, if the better quality ones are getting up in price it could be an option

Is it worth it as i'm not working the engine too hard/ I thought they were a race thing? Or is it as easy as making the cad file and getting laser cut?

awesome, i'll try make time to call him this week, back to uni tomoro so my spare time could go wither way...

Looks like dud gasket, but it came from Mal, so operator error? I have been suspecting it for ages but never gave solid symptoms, being that the head didn't have much life for machining I have been reluctant to pull it off just to be nosey so when it let go it was almost relief at having an answer! the shit fuel economy, random temperature fluctuations, occasional water useage, it all makes sense! Anyway it won't be getting a plane, i'll scrub it up the best I can and cross my fingers it lasts.

Well I think the gods are smiling in the Canterbury sun, it seems like the gasket has let go, the reason why i'm not too sure Lovely steam cleaned piston, BHG is way better than techron! I was quite glad to see that crack, it appears the gasket has just let go, possibly a lack of torque in that end? I'll get another bolt of the same size this week and make a chaser to clean the threads the best I can before ordering a the new gasket. Also fears of warping the head are gone, straight edge only has a very slight amount of light shining through if any when I put the torch behind it, and thats around #1but might try sneak a feeler gauge under tonight to double check. The scratches on #4 are from the last time I had it off and it slid in the car on the way home from the machine shop, luckily they are well inside the gasket. Also the water jacket holes in the gasket get larger toward #4, I guess this is to address the lower coolant flow that i'm told plagues these engines, anyone know if they should be opened up more to better match the porting?

Yesterday I took the Niva for a short drive, upon starting to head home she decided to have a throwback to the 1800s and billowed steam out the exhaust, with not a bucket of coal to be seen I took this as a bad sign and shut down. Removing the plugs for a look showed coolant in #4 so I left the plug out and made a noisey crawl home. pulled the plugs again this morning for a look and found this: not a good sign! So head off and hope that its the gasket and the head doesn't need machining as it was on its last legs last time I had it planed.... Lada/Fiat gods please smile on my modest wheels.......

Whenever i've been pulled up without a wof (usually checkpoints) they look at the wof sheet and still write a ticket with a 28 day compliance, just have to write in with proof the wof was attained and they withdraw the fine.

With the wof in hand I set out with a bunch of other Niva owners for a trip around Molesworth Station After 450km of mixed road and easy gravel I had chewed through almost 2 tanks of gas, not optimum and should have done that on a single tank! so today I pulled the carb and checked a few details Even thought the carb I got off Azzurro has the book jetting, its larger than the original single of the same dimensions. I've now swapped the original jets in and hope that improves the fuel consumption.

Dust and gunk on/in the cap, had it happen to me like that, not fun! run the car at night, you might see the leak Also could be a shitty earth from the points back to the block if thats dirty

Seems the flooding issues I had are most likely due to spark plug fouling, I have a set of BP6 plugs to try instead of the BP7 that its had since I got my hands on it, fingers crossed! Also failed a wof last week, few small things but mainly the lower front right arm was loose, bloody stoked they found it, hopefully that takes care of the mystery clunk! It appears that the bushings have seized to the bolt not allowing it to tighten up, so after a trip to pick a part for a new arm bolt, and a call to a mate for new bushings, I assumed the position: A bit of grinding and swearing later.... And we're back together, thankfully I had the 2105 looking on to help out and a hefty assistant to show me not only how a hammer is swung but for having a shed full of lada bits including a brand new set of suspension bushings