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General Poor mans Stratos...

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General Poor mans Stratos...

I pulled a bit of silicone off the inner wing.

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Sometimes blessings are so well disguised they irritate the crap out of you. Half an hours welding later and we're all set. :)
 
Well this is as far as I got...

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...before I had to do a Taxi run for a friend of my sisters again. :rolleyes:


Sorry if you were expecting a step by step guide, there are plenty of those on the internet and if needs be there are more Haynes Manuals out there than cars.

A couple of things the internet or Haynes fails to mention is how I do the valve followers and set the timing belt up. I dip my finger in oil and rim around the bores. This way the lubrication of the oil helps the followers in and the surface tension stops them popping out when you put the cam' section in place. The timing belt goes on as usual apart form tuning the engine over without plugs to ensure the tensioner is working and the marks line up before you put the rest of the stuff in the way. Saves a bit of faffing about later.

Stage one torque for the head bolts is 29ft/lbs so I have a little running in period before I can see if the cleaning and surfacing have improved the engine.
 
She's alive! :D

Zero smoke and a bit of a slow running issue (could be an automatic choke thing as I haven't bled the coolant properly yet) apart from that she sounds better than ever. :)


Okay a couple of things the manuals don't tell you.

Timing.

To set tdc at the crank, jack the car up and take the drivers side rear wheel off, put the car in second gear and use a 30mm socket or ring spanner to turn the hub. Once aligned keep the car in gear and apply the handbrake to lock the crank at tdc.

Under the distributor cap the ht terminal usually nearest the cam' belt mark the distributor housing with a screw driver or tipex pen. Take the distributor cap off and turn the oil pump until the rotor arm lines up to the mark you just made for number one cylinder. This is tdc for the distributor.

The cam' pulley needs to be a couple of degrees advanced of the tdc mark on the cover mount.

Push the pin for the belt tensioner back with a screw driver and secure in place with a pair of clothes pegs. Slip the belt on ensuring the oil pump and therefore rotor arm do not move. You will observe the belt is slack between the cam' pulley and oil pump. Reduce this slack by moving the cam' pulley back to tdc using the same 17mm socket you'll need to lock the tensioner pulley once you've taken out the pegs. Basically you moved the slack to where the tensioner can take it up.

Turn the key and swear because you forgot to put the dizzy cap back. ;)

Obviously this was deliberate to prime the carb'. :rolleyes:

Turn the key again and marvel at the genius of the X1/9 :D
 
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I spoke far too soon. The engine ran and sounded nice. On the road she was flat bordering on guttless. :(

Had a look at the timing first as there's a bumping on the starter motor issue that felt like valve fouling but there was no mechanical noise to go with it. As soon as the engine started apart from not idling she ran okay so I had rulled out valve bounce.

Sure enough the timing was a hundred and eighty degrees out cam' to block but because of a rookie mistake dealing with front mounted transverse engines the firing order was wrong making the car run.

Corrected all of those issues and the car ran again. Pop, pop, bang, flame from the carb'.

Hmmmm, that usually suggests the cam is a hundred and eighty degrees out. Turned the cam again and she ran brilliantly until I tightened the belt tensioner. It must have moved the distributor because now she sounds like a VW Beetle having a bad day and popping exhaust.

Off to work now so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.
 
Nice job on the strut tower...
they can be difficult to get the timing right... I found the crank pulley turned when I tensioned the belt up. Took me a lot of messing arround.
Hope you get it sorted. Just got mine back on the road after a two month break. Only 2 months left till its mot :O
 
Poor punto :) is that not easy to replace?
I guess you have seen my thread on the owners club about my tempra swap...

One thing I was considering before the swap, was if I could fit the inlet manifold, loom and ecu to the original 1500 . But i know now the crank sensor and crank pulley would need swaping. The tempra water pump has a v belt slot as well as the flat belt. So maybe the v pulley altrnator could be made to work... probably not worth the hassle. The fuel pump would also need to be blanked off due to the electric pump as well as the distributor.

Also the tempra / tip crank pulley can't be fitted without moving the engine and box over a little.

I will just keep the old carb engine and bits with the car.
 
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Very easy, twenty minute job but the X1/9 needs an engine that fackin works!!!

Stupid topsy turvey thing will not run at all and shoots a flame from the exhaust that sounds like a twelve gauge with all the marks lines up. Turn the distributor a hundred and eighty degrees and she runs as good as before with the flat spot and outright refusal to idle. :bang:

The car has never been closer to the weighbridge.
 
:rolleyes:

The timing marks on the crank are nearly ten degrees advanced compared to the timing mark on the flywheel. :bang:

That'll explain a few things.

So I tdc static timed the car again, turned the distributor a few degrees, checked with the strobe, she's perfect five before but still won't idle.

Oh well I have the worlds first X1/9 with stop start technology. ;)
 
The new filter needs to imitate what the old box did...

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...a couple of cable ties, duct tape and bits of old pipe later...

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...looks good...

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...sounds tremendous. It's nice after a week of having to do stuff I got to do something for the fun of it. :)

One more thing...

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...the clothes pegs on the belt tensioner trick. Works every time. ;)
 
I now have a speedometer. :)

Taking the X1/9 to work tonight so I can use the company pressure washer and leave my tools in the Punto ready to fit a new slave cylinder as soon as I get one.
 
Hmmm. I'm so glad I got that filter to make the car sound nice. Now the speedo' is working she sounds like there are playing cards in the wheel spokes. :D

Okay, decent stereo is now on the list. ;)
 
You know those little jobs that make a massive difference?

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Original 1979 headlights...

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...thirty five years of use and abuse.

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Stripped back to bare metal, etch primed, primed and painted matte black (left over paint from the Fantasia lower windscreen panel repair).

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Nice eh?

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The dim-dip setting is as bright as the old lights used to be. :)
 
Just took her out in the dark and the dim-dip has stopped working. :)

The headlights are now as bright as my Punto ones; even though the aim is a little low on the driver side. I have a month before the M.O.T to sort that out.


A month!!!

:bang:
 
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