We got moved into the new house in Askern, Doncaster, got loads to do lots of decorating and new carpets to pay for, its looking like another six weeks before I can carry on with the project, in the meanwhile its just a case of spending the odd 100 quid here and there.

I really want the new engine in, along with a BE conversion, but I also want it painting.
There's the smal matter of having no garage either that's not helping.
I've a new drive to lay at the front of the housean plus I need to lay a concrete base for the garage (which will be one of those ally...

Well coming to the end of the month, and we had a house sorted, then it fell through at the last minute
We are continuing to save up which means there is no money available for the car, well very little anyway.

I've just got some new diff seals, as there is a small puddle of gear oil left on the floor at work when its been stood a couple of days.
I need to get my original struts rebuilt with the spring cups welded and new wheel bearings in. I'd like some B8 billies but there is no spare cash for those.
So it looks like it ill just be rebuilt struts with...

Dues to family crisis we are having to move. We have no place to move to, she is going to stay with her mother and as I'm a lorry driver I'll be staying out in the truck most of the week and joining her at weekends. This means I have now lost my garage. All of our stuff is having to go into storage along with all my garage stuff, car parts and tools.
I'm well pissed off but needs must.
I fitted the new lower arms, well the offside one as when I fitted the nearside arm it appeared that the new balljoint is loose in the arm.
So I got both of the coilovers fitted (the shit...

Last week, a new clutch turned up along with a new clutch cable

And today I received some parts for the front suspension.
X2 refurbished wisbones sporting powerflex front bushes, new ball joints and new rear bushes.
Floflex anti roll bar bushes, another VT front roll bar, a pair of new drop links and a pair of new track rod ends. Along with new strut top bearings that should improve things at the front.

I have now decided to stuff the comforts and strip the car and go crazy with the power to weight ratio.
With me sat in the car its a porky...

Well the alt belt slipping and being noisy was doing my head in, so finally got round to fitting the new belt. The adjustement bolt was well seized, had to use mole grips on the top part of the bolt as well as the 5mm Allen socket on the bottom.
Eventualy got it moving but damaged the threads with the mole grips.
Took it out in the end and rethreaded it, and ran a tap up the tensioner part too for good measure.
Covered the bolt in copper grease, fitted the new belt and tihtened it up.

Sadly there is still a bit of a squeaky belt noise, which frighteningly...

Took a trip down to Coventry to pick up the new engine from vtr_Chris. Had a good chat and a brew before loading the 206 with a boot full of J4.

Very impressed with the rebuild that Chris has done with the bottom end
Its had all the essentials done including balancing.
So I've ended up with-

Block cleaned, checked and honed.
çrankshaft checked, measured and balanced.
Rods checked, measured and balanced.
Pistons checked, measured, new rings fitted and balanced.
All ne bearings and thrusts fitted.
Oil pump checked,...

Not much to report, weather has been crap, fell out with the Mrs, got back with the Mrs.
Got my kenwood 4 channel amp running a jbl 10" sub now. Hadn't a clue what all the settings on the amp were about, but I think I've figured it now and it sounds half decent.
I'm finding it difficult to work ot which way to go with it now as I like the lightweight stripped out feel of a car, but I also like the comfort and music.
I might try to drop some weight via some lighter panels, strip out the back end and save weight where I can but mounting the sub and amp more centrally...

Well, I say relocated battery, it started out as a "quick clutch cable adjust" but while the battery was out I thought it would be rude not to fit it in the boot. Its not finished yet as I need to use the car for work but its in the boot lol.

I had a nice length of heavy duty battery cable lying around, so whipped out the passenger seat and got the carpet it, fed the cable through the usual gromet and cut down the OE battery terminal for the positive and crimped the new cable to it. The original earth got bolted to where the battery tray went

I've left...

Friday night the Mrs found another 206 she liked the look of, the seller was asking £350 for it, diablo red four door 02 plate 1.1 lx.

As her current 206 (a 98 S) is well and truly shafted (rear beam) she decided that this red one would be a good bet, it was close by so we took a look.

The guy was honest enough, telling us what the running fault was (advertised as running on 3 cylinders) he thought it was the coilpack. There was no tax or test and it had done 110k.
I was thinking 350 was too much and the more I looked round the less I was prepared to give....

I'm hoping the excessive white smoke I'm getting is just crap and water that's been sitting in the standard system that I refitted on Saturday.

Coming to work this morning at 3am it seemed to be chucking a LOT more than the normal amount of smoke, its not oil, and the engine temp went up to the right place as normal, heaters working fine, oil levels not changed.
I'll check the water level later when I finish work.

Hoping its just the exhaust, it just needs to hold itself together another month while I get the new engine sorted. Fingers crossed lol!