More progress made today, engine and box are now fully supported by their own mounts, all the gear selector mechanisms have been swapped over from sei type to cinq type and the linkages have all been bolted up, it now has a full compliment of selectable gears and a fully functioning reverse inhibitor

Next step, top end of engine. Starting to really fly together now

I'll die very happy if i never see another ****ing valve collet in my life.

Sadly, i will again tomorrow.

It's even worse than i remember. More boring, more fiddly grrrr

16 sets of collets out, 32 springs and their hats, 16 valves removed, 16 old valve seals (which were hard and brittle, so needed to be done), new seals in, valves replaced in order into head and i've only got 2 from 16 fully re-installed in the best part of 4 hours! (held up by issues removing old seals and an old dowel from head tbf, but still)

Once it;s finished I'm never doing this job again, i'd rather pay somebody at an engine shop to do it from here on in

WOO, top end rebuilt, took me about an hour to do 2 more (so 6 done in total), then found a way of making the job easier and did the other 10 in about 45 minutes :laugh:

Next job is to just give it all another quick cleanup. Measured the cylinder head with feeler guages and it doesn't need skimmed thankfully so after cleanup it's refit time. once done and timed up, that'll be the engine complete and i get the fun of wiring

Urgh... wiring... the one thing I detest.

Coming along nicely tho

The latest update is that the cylinder head is in and torqued up, new water pump in.. hit a delay in that the cylinder head extension gasket in the head kit wasn't great quality and when it was put on, the cambox was put in place but not sitting right to bolt down because the cam box was fouling against a clip, so had to be removed so i could get in to remove it. So doing that, the gasket got stuck to the cam box and one of the locating dowels and tore so i need a new one.

Now, i have a couple of old ones and tbh if it was an 8v, i'd have risked it knowing that works case scenario, it leaked and could be replaced in 5 minutes with 4 bolts to get access. Not on 16v. For those who don't know, because it's a cam box setup rather than a traditional rocker cover one, it means it's a timing belt off job and a third of the engine needs taken off to get access. Just not worth the hassle of taking a chance, so we've hit a delay. And of course, Another Bank ****ing holiday means it'll be tuesday, most likely wednesday until anything arrives ffs

There's not a huge amount i can do in between times, prep wiring without the ability to test it quickly seems pointless, i can't do any plumbing etc for similar reasons. All i really can do is finish off setting up the clutch by replacing the inner linkage and maybe line up the exhaust and see what will need done there to mate it up. Wee delay but oh well, just going to need to work harder and faster when parts get here!

Pics... i hate the gallery, the insert image from computer option appears broken on here and cant be arsed uploading to photobucket, meh, will get round to it later.

Click basic uploader and that works

ALTERNATIVELY email me 'em and I'll get a gallery going!

Sounding like good progress bar the inevitable hold ups!

Martyn said:

Click basic uploader and that works

ALTERNATIVELY email me 'em and I'll get a gallery going!

Sounding like good progress bar the inevitable hold ups!

Click to expand...

4
It doesn't

In fact, i don't even have the option of a basic uploader, just a blank grey box if i try to insert in a post. Faffed about with the gallery and uploaded one pic (just the one already on facebook though as a test)

If we're going to have a gallery at all then we REALLY need something better than we have, it is WAY too complicated to find what you need. Even wanting to keep this thread updated i fell into the trap of just updating Facebook earlier because it's so much easier to put pics there than here. especially if you're taking pics on the phone, which most do. Nobody can be bothered downloading from them, then saving before uploading again to here.

Anyway, just for folk who haven't seen it, we're pretty much just stuck at this stage for now




And yes, it WILL be cleaner than that, just been focusing on getting it together rather than looks haha

Hmm.. it now has seats, mirrors.... a clutch pedal that operates the clutch and wires sprouting out the bonnet

It's starting to look a bit like a car.... how'd that happen?

Magic?

Harper said:

Magic?

Click to expand...

Might be

Further evidence of this is my bank balance, which has done a vanishing act

I'm hoping that it'll pop out of my hat again with a rabbit and doves, but it's not happened yet

still waiting on parts ordered over a week ago, so pretty much nothing has been done.

Had one minor disaster that could pretty much have ruled it out from making SICD in the form of the suspension i was after not being in production anymore and the last place that "seemed" to have stock cancelling my order at late notice. But a lot of digging around, i've got a solution in the way of a mega deal on some Spax 60/40 drop sporting springs. Happy days

what suspension were you afteR?

i was just gonna go the fk 60/40 route. Purely because it's a decent option at a mega/stupid good price.

They've stopped making the springs and rear shocks though, probably fronts too, think the remaining front shocks that are easyish to get still are just overstock they are getting rid of. hence how i managed to get mine from FK direct at a really, really stupidly good price (£34 all in, delivered direct from Germany)

I've contacted every single shop that stocked the shocks and springs, even the ones that claim to have stock don't, they order them from fk when an order is recieved. There's certain shops that have orders on back order that have been promised by fk that a delivery will come by such and such time, that have never showed up. Orders that have been pending because of promises made by the manufacturers etc, but there's no sign of any stock even existing anymore, let alone being delivered. Doesn't look good tbh. suspect the makers are in trouble financially.

But hey ho, Spax springs on the way now need to figure out rear shocks still, might just need to reuse the old ones to get through mot, but they aren't at their best!

Good news - does this mean Cupar is potentially back on again?

If the cam gasket ever shows up.... still hasn't.

Ask me again next friday :laugh:

I'm a week behind schedule, unable to put the engine together, everything else is pretty much here to at least get it running, but it's useless without that gasket

Instant gasket is your friend

it really isn't for this one! :laugh:

Though i'd be lying if i said i hadn't considered a similar alternative!

But the fact that if something is wrong or leaks, i'll need to take so much off to replace again puts me off bodging the split gasket or reusing the old massively out of shape one.

sso is this built yet?

Nope, been held up by the cam gasket not arriving

hopefully that and the springs are here tomorrow, i'm really a week behind where i wanted it

If things don't work out and the cinq isn't ready in time for Cupar you're welcome to grab a lift with me if required. I'm heading down Sunday morning and will probably be going through Dundee at about 8-ish