Boosh, 2014 Review. I basically completed the conversion, and proved it all worked. The car covered around 700 road miles, during which I ironed out all of the niggles that arose from re-wiring the entire car and combining all the various bits of 106 and saxo.
So, this winter is all about tidying it up now. Things I've learned are, I love the non-PAS steering as is, and I don't get on with the Bilstein suspension, so that's going to make way for some form of adjustable, stiff as a badger setup, along with strut top plates etc.
The big winter project is an engine bay tidy up though, the engine never got cleaned up before fitting, the cam ladders are pissing oil, and despite going well, it looks shit and the oil leaks need to be addressed, so it's getting a tart up / overhaul.
To that end, the other week Muz and I whipped the engine and box out. Turns out that's not even a figure of speech, with a lengthy tea break and doing a proper job, it took under 4 hours to get the job done.
Stuck it in the garage, drove in:
Then cracked on removing the bonnet and wings so they didn't get scratched / for access. Removed the bumper, lights, radiator, drained the engine, slam panel, and disconnected the wiring harness, fuel lines, throttle and clutch cables, gear linkages, and exhaust, before popping out the driveshafts and draining the gearbox.
Whipped the hoist out and pulled it out, then enjoyed a nice tea break
And then built the car back up for storage over the winter, popping the bonnet and wings, slam panel, lights and bumper back on, job jobbed:
Deano_123 kindly lent me his engine stand for a bit while I sort the engine out:
In true french style, 3 of the 4 gearbox > engine bolts came out beautifully, and the last one just twisted the inside of the hex nut out:
I figured I'd just weld a nut on and use a socket rather than a hex key, but sadly it was "proper" stuck and the bolt simply snapped
I decided a big boys nut was in order, so lashed this on and welded it from the inside and around the outside for good measure:
and gave it some warmzzz
Huzzah!
Box off, I could get the engine on the stand finally:
which made it nice and easy to start removing ancilleries, so off came the exhaust manifold, oil breather pipes, oil cooler and filter, and alternator and tensioner assembly:
and from the other side, the intermediate driveshaft housing, the water pump fittings and the inlet manifold:
And after removing the crank pulley and timing covers, voila:
So that's where it's at currently, next step is working out exactly what I'm doing with the engine, whether it will be simply fixing the leaks and tarting it up, or a bit more of an in-depth rebuild while it's out.
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