More waiting on parts required, most of which is my own fault!
The tensioner spring, correct flametrap and injector seals arrived from Brookhouse on Friday, imagine my disappointment when I realised that rather than ordering one
set of 'fat' and one set of 'thin', I had ordered one
singular of each.
Completely my own fault. Simon and I had a laugh about it when he rang to check that I only wanted 3 of each on my latest order.
Never mind, I can get the belts on and everything else done.
Except I had previously decided to not bother replacing the rear timing cover as 'it was only cracked in one place".
Cambelt back off, thought I would wipe out the oily mess that the rocker cover / filler cap leaks had created and the second I touched the rear cover it disintegrated into about 15 pieces.
The belt would be exposed, and while its unlikely a stone or something might find its way in, I'd rather not risk it. Partsmonster was cheapest at £17 delivered, we'll see what the quality is like when it arrives, its only a piece of moulded plastic.
I ended up removing the power steering pump bracket to get the remnants off, it seemed easier than removing the intermediate pulley. Of course the cam pulley had to come back off again. Since my old belt has no teeth on it I have created my own Top Tip - the crank holding tool does a good job of holding the cam sprocket, braced against the water pump.
I fitted the new flametrap, the one that came off didn't actually have a trap in it. The hose and the port into the manifold were clear, but I replaced the small hose as it was quite hardened.
I'd forgotten how awkward it was to get to on the injection motors.
Gapped the new plugs ready to go in - they were more like 0.9mm out of the box, now set to 0.7mm
Then I decided to prepare the injectors for the arrival of the new seals. I had found Laird Scooby's very detailed thread from almost a decade ago:
Quite a relaxed time sat in the garden:
The thin seals were hardened so they were more like plastic than rubber and three of them snapped when I removed them.
The fat seals actually seemed fine, but are being replaced anyway - I gave up trying to maneuver them off and carefully cut them instead.
I actually cleaned the plastic holders with soap and water in the utility sink.
Everything is now nice and clean in plastic bags.
Next I spent some time with the carb cleaner, some rags and the vacuum cleaner cleaning the ports in the head, so when the seals arrive everything should go straight back together.
Next up was a the cooling system clean out. The coolant in it was red(ish) so most likely the wrong OAT type. Hopefully that hasn't caused too many problems.
I found pretty much what I expected under the thermostat housing, given that there was clear silicone splurging out round the edge of it. Some corrosion of and pitting on the head and in the housing:
I've seen much worse before now, mind.
I do wonder if any of it was caused by the silicone if it was acid curing.
The thermostat seal is all hard and splitting but the thermostat itself is fine so I'll just get a seal.
I'm currently vacillating between putting it back together with a new seal and a smear of some plumbing sealant (if its ok with hot water and corrosion inhibitor it should be ok with coolant) or cleaning out and filling the pitting with some JB weld applied with a stanley blade or similar.
(back in the day we made new seats in the block for the cylinder liner seals on a 1957 B275 tractor with a product called belzona, that tractor is still going today)
Inside the block and radiator is nice and clean. The radiator is a volvo one, but I don't think it is the original - it doesn't look 34 years old, at least.
Flushed out the heater matrix - removed the top hose and then used a section of bike inner tube cable tied to it to adapt to the hosepipe fitting.
I noticed this crazing on the header tank:
Probably not urgent, but I'll add it to the 'soon' list..
Next up I decided to get the oil changed. When I was removing the old filter I noticed a scotchlock connector on the charge warning wire on the alternator, with the wire that used to be joined to it snipped off. With that, it fell off - a perfect example of why not to use scotchlocks:
While I was clearing up the ubiquitous oil spill that comes with removing the filter on these cars, I noticed that the starter cable and earth wire that run on the crossmember were chafing together - there was quite a divot in the earth and a smaller one one the +ve. A bit of 10mm fuel hose cable tied over it wil solve that for the next 34 years:
(I had run out of any more substantial cable ties!)
Overall quite a productive few hours just taking my time and pottering about over the past couple of days.
