Post by grumpynorthener on Mar 30, 2023 21:37:25 GMT
Ian - Nice wheels but the last thing that I would do from a lot of experience is to diamond cut them - You will reduce the life of the wheel massively - many wheels can now only be recut once so should you pick up any damage once they are cut then you may find that the damage cant be repaired and the wheel becomes scrap - might give you the look that you want but nothing but a major headache in doing so
Chris, thanks for the advise, obviously there is a finite amount of times rims can be skimmed, I will see if they can be cleaned up, one rim has a bit of kerbing, not serious, but nether the less, I know its there, I suppose my options are Chemically strip, Blast, Machine, or sit in the garage and do them myself, somehow, I cant envisage that, I also need to get them sealed, as I live about 200mtrs from the sea on the south coast, even on top of a cliff the salt spray can be impressive,
Changed the lifters this weekend, wasn't bothered about the timing marks before removal, just put the engine to TDC checked the cam marks were UP in about the correct position, pulled out the cams, did the lifters and went to put it back, it seems the engine rolled back then the cam belt was removed, so I put it back to TDC using a DTI down no1 plug hole, put the cams back, with the marks to the top, put the cover back, which has the cam timing marks on it, unfortunately it looks like somebody has removed the flange and marks from the cover..... BUMHATS, I have bought another cover now to allow me to set the cams, So what to do with the polished and now scruffy cam cover, I know, hit it with some paint.... Meet the triumph version of a C20XE
At last things have started to move on again, waiting for the lovely stuff to appear drives me nuts, BUT I can confirm I now have 95% of the bits I have ordered, which has allowed me to move on a bit further
While waiting for the spare cam cover to arrive I thought I would deplete my bank account a bit further, its not too hard to do after a few beers,
Today the spare cam cover sans timing marks turned up today, it was Bogging, full of rust and grit ;( ;( I did find out it had been painted sparlky metal flake green in a previous life..... didn't make it any cleaner tho, so with a clean and a wash and a blow down thrice, a few displaced spiders too, went about setting the engine to TDC which should never be an issue, this engine has a life of its own when you are not looking, walk away and it rolls off TDC, The verniers did not have any setting up marks, and if there were, they could not have been seen when they were on the engine as the bonnet lifts forward, with a bit of faffing about I transferred the marks from the verniers, but transferred them to the rear of the verniers, so I could see them..
before anybody tells me off for using a bit of welding filler wire held in place with a bit of tape it has got a thread on the end and screws into the DTI, I just had a BrainFart and taped it on for "just in case" covered the cams and head in blue tissue, and then a bit more blue tissue "just in case" and put the old cam cover on the engine, A lot of trial fitting and refitting of the belt eventually I got ALL the marks in the right place, Lubed the cam up with some high zinc assembly lube, and fitted my permeant cam cover, it does look the dogswhatits
After a few turns, the engine fired up, but after 5 mins the Tap Tap Tap of a noisy lifter is still there, I hope its not an issue like a bent valve, although a compression test failed to show anything except for piston leak down/blowby. on a big positive, the re-designing and re-plumbing of the waterworks may be a success, I managed to fill the engine whilst ticking over without getting the water spat back out at me, alway a bonus, all I need now is to beat it around the block and see what blows up.....
From my day out, One of the obvious things that this car needed was something better than the one interior mirror, It did gave a mirror hung the door frame which fell off within 10 mins of driving the car for the 1st time. sooo, not quite the lover of wing mirrors and mirrors that fall off, I could have gone down the road of big Tudor door mirrors, but again, I'm not a lover of these, I eventually went for Life Line formula mirrors, wide angle and glass lens, win win,
I needed to get them tucked in and out of the way, I have a small triangle of metal at the front root of the 1/4 light, ideal, drilled thru that, which turns out to be hollow, made a quick crush tube and ended up with this,
and as an added bounus, I can still open the 1/4 lite...
Im still mulling over mirror ideas for the Viva and like your doors the Viva has the little triangle at the base of the quarter light, only trouble is the pivot for the quarter light runs through it which isnt helpfull but that style might work
One thing that has been bothering me with the engine installation was the cam cover breather system, or the lack of it, in summary, a piece of rubber tubing hanging down the side of the block, TBH nobody would have noticed or probably bothered, but it has been a mind worm to me, Scrolling thru FB marketplace I came across a new catch tank I had spied elsewhere, but wasn't willing to pay the price asked. this one was JIC-8 fittings, Black, Brand new, but half the manufactures asking price, and came with 2 new JIC elbows..... Result Now the issue with this was the fitting on the cam cover, its a push on fitting,
I was very unsure if this would work, but it did fit over the breather stub, and tighten up sufficiently, its not under pressure, so I'm using it,.
I had to reroute a few wires and fuse holder to get the catch can where I wanted, but its in more or less where I envisioned it
the pipe is a rubber lined black nylon overbraid with stainless steel inner braid, overkill, but it stays put when hot and close-ish to the cam belt, ably secured using D clips, and radiator retaining bolts that just happened to be in the right place,
all I'm waiting for now is a breather cap for the can, which is, "in the post"