Here we go again, Sylva No3

[philfingers]

thanks David
At the moment i have a outlets top and bottom but both nearside. Will see if i can de-crimp it and then re-seal. Cooling system needs looking at anyway, there's a pressure cap on the rad, one on the XR2 filler cap on the block and both run to an un-pressurised expansion tank. Will let you know if it's of interest
Thinking last night my low cold compression readings could have been due to stuck rings

[deecee]

OK Phil, I'll probably put all my "garage clearout" stuff that's left on Ebay in the new year. For what its worth the rad has both outlets on the nearside.
David

[philfingers]

Sorry my mistake my takeoffs are different, bottom OS and top NS. mailing you David. . . ..

[philfingers]

Well got some more done tonight
Made a alternator bracket adjuster with some rod ends and hex bar which I turned down in the lathe. Came out well, alternator wasn't aligned so spent more time getting that right than making the adjuster. It has LH and RH rod ends, so very easy to adjust. Using a 800mm belt. If anyone else wants one I have some bar left over
refitted the number plate and back light. Least the list is getting smaller. David, my current rad is 520mm too so I reckon your Golf rad will be just the thing for it
Here's the pics

[micha]

SABT a DVLA issued number (SA is the country code and stands for UK)
VRO issued from a local office (Vehicle Registration Office)
XXX (8-10) number of the issuing office
x (11th) year of VIN issue
xxx (12-13) issue date in Julien calendar
xxx (15-17) Unique serial number.


17digit chassisnumbers came into force (by law) from 1981 onwards.

this said, there are some cars which show a SABTVR chassis-number, but the date of 1st reg in the V5c is still from the donor car for example from 1978 and even a SABTVR number was issued those cars did not end with a q-plate.
which would make those cars difficult for exporting as the foreign registration offices can identify such cars built 1981 or later (built date does not match with reg-date), therefore refuse to re-homologate those cars...very strict e.g. in France.

theoretically even a mass-production car could get a SABTVR number issued after it got re-shelled during an accident repair.

[philfingers]

been busy with lots of stuff. Here goes with updates

So the rad was leaking so as I was down south picked up what I think David [DeeCee] said was a Golf mk3 1400 rad. Any way lovely car David and good to put a face to a name, thanks for the rad! So made up a few brackets out of aluminium angle, all quite straightforward. Fitted. I used what I think is a 405 or 205 radiator hose for the bottom connection as the bends were about right and the old bottom hose for the top.


I tie wrapped the fan into the back of the rad', using some bits of plastic as spreaders. All seems to work ok.
Went down the route of using a Clio Mk1/Kango exapnsion tank as per the Phoenix. I like them (£7 delivered!), nice shape and hose connections are about right size, 5/8" for the large hose. Only thing is after fitting this last night I think it's too low and below the XR2 header, there's space to lift it up, that'll be tonights job. before you ask, yes the battery has been moved. . . . . more on that soon.

I turned these up on the lathe, spacers for the clio tank, as the back isn't totally flat

I used some plumbing fittings for the T peice. 15mm T piece, with short sections of 15mm pipe soldered in, with olives soldered on each, stops blow-offs and leaks, something for the pipe clip to seal against

Just need to cut the pressure release plate off the bottom of the XR2 filler cap, the system is now a pressurised expansion system.

I managed to find a 'proper' Aldon 103 FXYS distributor with an ignitor fitted to suit the 234 cam and webers. That's now fitted and all wired in.

I've pulled the carbs off, stripped them completely and stuck them through my ultrasonic tank. They came up nice and clean. here are a couple of before pictures

and some post clean pictures

[philfingers]

So the carbs are refitted, using what appears to be the accepted method of rubber Weber mounts with cup washers at the top [2mm gap- i use a drill bit!] and thackery washers on the bottom [1mm gap]. the reasoning is that thackery's on the top can crack due to vibration and rubbers on the bottom perish with fuel.

Now the breather system was plumbed with the stock block breather and the ally valve cover breathing back into the inlet manifold, which isn't good. So I purchased one of these ally oil catch tanks that are prolific on ebay, inside was what I suspected,empty! The idea really is to catch the oil, out of the oil mist and seperate it, expelling the now oilless air to atmosphere.
So firstly i removed the stock block breather and fitted a 'competition' version which I'd had kicking around for 15 years!

you can see the fuel pump blanking plate below it, this has an addional L plate on the back, which stops oil being thrown up the breather from the cam. nice and easy to make.
So the oil catch tank [£18 inc del off ebay] come with two angled spigots as standard, so I machined the top off it and fitted a third.


Now inside there's a short [40mm maybe] length of 60mm diameter thin wall ally flue pipe, which supports a st/st mesh. Pipes come from the inside of the angled spigots into the tank, passing through some st/st scourer pads and through a opening in the mesh towards the bottom of the tank


The idea is the block and valve cover pipes enter the catch tank and pass through the scourer pads [in their respective pipes] and the mesh [there to support the scourer off the bottom of the tank] to the bottom of the tank. Here the oil mist will move to a lower pressure which is out of the top of the tank through the newly fitted third spigot. This will ultimately be vented through a long pipe down the tunnel and out the back of the car. As the oil mist passes through the scourer it should drop out into the scourer and then fall back into the bottom of the tanks. Well that's the theorey!
Years ago my old Striker was a heavy breather and the pipes went into a plastic catch tank under the bonnet with a K&N filter/breather thing on the top, as you drove along on a sunny day the oil mist would arise out of the hole around the gearstick as a sort of oil mist tornado! Left hand always smelt of oil and the inside of the engine way got covered in oil mist etc. So I’m trying to avoid that with this system. It’s possibly that if it was mounted higher up it could auto drain back into the sump. Let’s see if it works first

[philfingers]

The carb linkage left a lot to be desired so i decided to buy a Sytec one, load of junk, poorly made, stiff, bracket wasn't square, wouldn't fit without major modification. You couldn't even get to the idle screw! So I'm going to make one, using some rod ends an the angle plate spindle and the rod for the twin cables will run in roller bearings. We'll see how easy it is to make tho and how good it s compared the Sytec one and my vision of how I see my DIY one!
More updates and pictures later, battery next. . . . . .

[deecee]

Pleased to see the rad back in action Phil.

David

[adithorp]

"...Just need to cut the pressure release plate off the bottom of the XR2 filler cap, the system is now a pressurised expansion system..."

Early Fiesta's had an expantion bottle and a blanking cap (with no pressure release) on the radiator. One of them should fit... I might even have one. I'll look tomorrow.