An eventful few days has ended with some bad news.
First up, I changed the oil because the car was running too rich on idle, due to no lambda. I had some spare 10/40 and it was fine for a quick flush. Plan was to do it again in a few weeks.
No dramas there. The petrol smell had died down and I tested the lambda, with great success. It drives nice low down and no over fuelling on the overrun.
Only two issues to resolve now: Bleed the coolant properly and then swap the plugs out.
I had some BCR8ES plugs, so gapped them to 0.025 and installed.
Even this simple task is all learning for me, never done any of this stuff before!
Ran the car and it drove sweet, but still hits boost cut when giving it maximum beans. Plan was to go back to Wayne @ Chipwizards to have it all finalised after I'd made the improvements he suggested.
Barring a decent pressure plate I was ready to go back... but I still had to bleed the coolant, no big deal.
So I'd been trying to bleed it properly for about a week. Maybe 3 or 4 times, I can't recall. Each time doing it the way I thought was right (10 years of saxo ownership) but last night I was getting pretty annoyed. I had been bleeding it correctly all along. There was never any air in it.
I drove it to test, each time, but when I got back, there was air.
This time, I went mega professional and balls out with the header tank!
Bled it cold and then topped up and ran until the fan kicked in an out.
When the thermostat opened and closed a few times, the coolant became darker and traces of K-seal (copper residue) from previously using the head on the old engine, came through. You can compare the two photos above. The darker colour was a worry.
There was no air in the system at this point. I let it cool down, checked the level and went for a test drive.
All seemed well, I did a 3rd gear pull (clutch doesn't like it much):
https://youtu.be/yfkr5oXDEi0
And then after that, the funny business with the water temp surfaced again.
https://youtu.be/gF1DFzX6jMg
When I got back, I let it cool and opened the radiator bleed screw, to discover air in the coolant.
At this point, it is safe to say that I'm OK at bleeding these! But, it does mean the head/head-gasket is toast.
As I didn't even touch the head from the previous engine, I can only admit to the mistake of not a) having it rebuilt and b) having it skimmed and checked over.
You live and learn. I'm not a mechanic, so it is by definition that I would make assumptions that would turn out to be not in my best interest.
I've got the car booked in for a corner weight session on Sunday. It's approximately 6 miles from my house and if I stay off boost, it should be fine.
Will update with the weight info. But, that'll be the last ride of this year I'd imagine.
Sad times, but it'll be back.
Cheers to all those who've read/commented on the thread. And those who've helped me along the way. Not many left on here now!
