Bearded Baldy

I was looking at going efi in the xc, then they changed the rules in april and now it will need certs. Which i don't want the hassle with personally. Will be watching closely, might get reinspired.

Ended up needing to go into town so dropped pistons into block and started cleaning gasket paper off the sump etc. Wound motor over by hand 16 times with plenty of oil on the cylinder walls. Have always done this, was told by an ancient engine reco guy when i was doing my apprenticeship that after 16 turns the rings will be scrubbed in enough to just jump in and drive it without pussyfooting around. I thought he was taking the piss at first but i have never had a set of rings not scrub in since then. Front and rear crank seals next then glue the sump on and get onto the valve stem seals.

Not gonna lie. Have been neglecting the ute after the other weekend, got onto it again this week though. Stayed after work one night to strip the blue ones motor down. A bit sludgy and next to no resistance pushing the pistons out. Had to do an axle seal and exhaust leak on the cruiser yesterday so didn't spend much time on the motor, degreased the sump and rocker cover. Got new rings on the pistons. Might get into the shed today and sandblast the hubs and calipers ready for painting.

Blue ute sitting on lawn minus motor, gearbox and driveshaft. Have ordered rings and gaskets for a slap together smoke stop build. Rockauto for the win again. Want to say a big thank you to @Sambo for selling me a 32/36 weber. Will be great once i have a non smoker under the bonnet. Waiting on the mail again now. Rings etc meant to be arriving on the 9th. Also just bought some gen 2 hubs and brakes. Will clean them up and get them on there eventually.

Brakes reassembled. Bushes all fitted to the swaybar and radius rods. Compression tested the blue motor, 3 at 175 and 1 at just 75. Swapped drivers door glass and swapped steering wheels over too. Has a nice retro vibe going on. Added a full bottle of wynns smoke stop to the white one, will see if it clears up with a few trips around the block. Have a lead on another motor down country, but will need certs if i go that far...

Highbeam warning light works.

Late start today, was still feeling a bit seedy at lunchtime when i headed in. Measured up all the brackets and pulleys across the three motors and decided on another plan for the belts. Mixed up and spaced out the pulleys instead. Straightedge says mission successful. Fired up straight away. Nearly as smokey as the old one once it warmed up. Bloody wreckers said it didn't smoke, just needed a headgasket. Decided to swap the diffs over rather that care too much, dropped complete diff out of white one, lifted bluey onto the hoist and spun the wheels, needs axle bearings at a minimum, going from the muddy water i drained out it may need the diff head bearings done too. Put the white diff back in and came home. Plans for tomorrow are to replace the rest of the front end bushes and put the brakes back on the diff. Then tidy up the shop ready for real work on tuesday. If tomorrow goes as turd as the last 2 days i am considering selling the lot, still not sure.

Because my boss is a GC i have both utes at the workshop this weekend to swap everything i need over. Grand plans that i had yesterday to swap the motor for the one i have done the headgasket on backfired miserably. The crank snout on the later engines is longer, as is the cambelt crank pulley. Which in turn means the alternator and power steer brackets need modifying to suit. So i went home and got drunk with the stepfatherinlaw instead. Too damn drunk. Motor is spares ute only runs on 2 at the moment. Will try get it running on 4 today and if it doesn't smoke will swap it into the white ute. Maybe.

I have not checked that yet. Will do today if i can sort these motors out without stringing myself up.

Oh. It also has an unbroken drivers window.

Well, what a roundabout day this has been. Load motor and crane onto ute to take to work. Try load ute onto trailer and the ramps slip in the ice, great, get ute off trailer eventually and slam door in a huff, window shatters due to slamming when iced up. F$%k it all. Got there eventually. Slow trip to work with a bit of sway going on as i forgot to grab the variable height coupling the boss has for his wagon. Unloaded easy, swapped the hitch and hit the road to pick up the parts ute. With co-pilot of course. After an uneventful trip through the countryside, i rounded the corner and saw the donor, initial thoughts were it looks in the same state as the white one. Second look says nope. But it has bucket seats and some classic 14 inch rims, both a bonus as i was mainly buying it for the diff and speedo gear. Doors and quarter panels all look relatively rustfree for a mitsi too.

Bought another ute today, 85-86 not sure have not seen it yet. Was talking to a supplier about a diff and he mentioned he had bought an old l200 just before lockdown. Made him an offer and i pick it up next week sometime. Will swap the diff and speedo drive over and see what the rest is like as to whether i strip it and hoard the parts and just swap the driveline and sell it off as a rolling project. Hardcase that the dereg parts wagon cost more than the project one.

Found a sport dash with tacho at a good price so fitted that tonight, mitsi in their wisdom must run different looms between models as the pin on the main plug was missing. When i put the gs dash in my xc i just had to untuck the wire from the loom tape and presto, done. Not so here. Quick enough job to run a wire from coil - to the back of the dash and hook it up though. Works mint and speedo has lower kms as an added bonus.

There was a uk crowd way back that had some basic cones you twisted to make longer or shorter. Then once you settled on your chosen length for application you would make fixed ones with bellmouths etc.

Mate had a sunny with A15, hqr grind cam from kelfords and twin 40 dellortos. That thing hauled for a rusted junkheap.

Going back to work monday means i had to reassemble the front end properly today, refit dizzy, power steer pump and crank pulleys. Not happy as the parts from oz still havent turned up so i will have to do it all again when they do. Need to get my other wagon infront of the shed to load up all my work tools and toolboxes so have to move the ute. Started straight away and promptly smoked out 3 properties and the wifes freshly hung washing. #DatMitsiLife

What rust repair?

3rd no photo update, better get my act together. Both wheel arches and front floors nice and blacked out with underseal, got the cheap and nasty motortech stuff, actually seems like it will do the job. Definately has the right health warnings on the back haha. Hoping to final reassembly tomorrow, it depends on whether the seal needs another coat. Should be mint. Need to finish this ute so i can get my new diff into the falcon, so then i start ute stage 2 on the workbench. Oh, found a blast from the past when i was looking for other bits. Hey thats a photo!

Progress. Called my supplier today about the underseal, they called the couriers and chased it up. Has been sitting at the local depot since monday last week. Courier read the business name and decided we were closed, dick did not read the delivery address which was my house. Managed to have it delivered to a neighbours work and have it here finally. So tomorrow i can spray a layer or 2 then reassemble the suspension and get ready for the motor swap. Yeehaw.

I agree with you on the originality part. That is why my xc is still the old 4.1l lump. Just i got carried away last rebuild. But it is fun so it is all good

He is right you know, then comes lightweight billett flywheels and 4pinion lsds....

Roof racks are easy enough to make, just damned time consuming. Including buying a bender this one cost about 325 to make. And a few lazy afternoons.

Box from RockAuto turned up this afternoon, cannot fault that service, 9 days and it was rural delivery too. Put one front shock in before tea, still waiting on underseal before i put the other side back together. At this rate the parts i ordered from sparesbox may arrive before work opens up in 2 weeks so might have more whiteline to instal. Will drive a bit different compared to the mess i drove home. Side note, sparesbox took 8 days to pack my order, do not recommend them if you are in a hurry. Price and shipping price were both good though. Early night before dawn service tomorrow, will wake the neighbours with Reveille at full noise from the shed radio. Lest we forget.

Managed to get most of it ground back today, before the battery ran out in the grinder and i could not be arsed grabbing the power cord off the shelf to do it with old faithful. Cannot find my flapdiscs anywhere either which is a pain. Still waiting on my underseal to turn up so as usual no panic to complete it around here.

Can see the floor/wheelwell seam in the pic, rusthole right above it. Had to do a near identical repair on my old navara a few years ago, panelbeater gave it the all clear so i am doing it the same way. In theory should be a ok this time too.