1984 Granada BOA; small progress & Civic 25/10/24

[mk2cossie]

Right then, suppose I should start with 2 weeks ago and the cause of the battery drain!
At work on that Saturday morning, and trying my rattle can of chrome paint again to see if it performed any better than before. Only to be disappointed yet again

Had a look over the car after Russell had polished the passenger side panels and headlight covers, and found 1 of the 3 relays in the add-on fuse box was warmer than the others. Quick check with the infrared thermometer confirmed everything at 20degrees, and the suspect relay at 40!

Turns out I had the permanent and ignition feed supplies the wrong way round I the relay holder, and the injection relay was always energised
Scrabbled around the shed to find the old relay holder, and see what wires went where.






Thankfully the terminals de-pin and replace nice and easily, so a quick swap over of the 2 wires had that sorted




And todays jobs was sorting out a slightly suspect brake pipe, and welding up the cracks in both lower front wishbones










It would appear i didn't get photos of the welded up bits, but I did of the brake pipe

[grizz]

MOT pass is always a good thing.

Well done.

[mr]

How did they get cracks? Do I need to check mine?

[mk2cossie]

Oct 22, 2021 19:04:41 GMT mr said:

How did they get cracks? Do I need to check mine?

Fatigue at a guess, and old age

And possibly the coilovers going coil bound (or using the coilover bump stop) before the upper arm contacts the original bump stop

It was easy enough to check them tho

[mk2cossie]

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos on Saturday, but I visited my friend Paul at Milwaukee Motorcycle workshop. And he did a rather lovely job of machining up a couple of aluminium spacers for me to locate the alternator properly

And on Wednesday last week, I made an unnecessary eBay purchase!
That arrived on Friday, and I do have a photo of that

[mr]

theres no such thing an unnecessary eBay purchase ,they're all good .you gonna ask father christmas for the bits that sit on this bad boy then???

[mk2cossie]

Nov 8, 2021 7:17:39 GMT mr said:

theres no such thing an unnecessary eBay purchase ,they're all good .you gonna ask father christmas for the bits that sit on this bad boy then???

Well, there is that I guess. But I'm not really much of a user of ebay generally

And throttle bodies can wait. It will be a slow burn collection of parts for that, as I need to get the modified inlet manifold fitted up and used first to see what difference that actually makes

[mk2cossie]

Up until Wednesday evening this week (15th i think) there has been nothing to report or progress really. Been mental busy at work, and not in the mood for any tinkering outside of work hours!

Wednesday evening was pop across to Bromley to pick up my friend, and then head along the A21 to the Vineyard in Lamberhurst for a lads night out/catch up.
Got to Bromley, and noticed an oil whiff from the car, thought nothing much of it as the steering rack still leaks.
Got to the pub car park, and was aware of it being a bit more than the usual weep and discovered the drivers side cam cover gasket has popped out and is covering the middle of the vee in oil







Topped up the engine oil, drained the catch can and gave the cam cover bolts a tweak incase any were loose, and then back to Bromley to drop my friend back home, and then home along the M20 driving as consistently as I could so as not to do too much damage/make much of a smoke screen!

Ordered a set of gaskets and a bigger catch can yesterday from Burton Power, just what I needed a week before someone's birthday bash

[mk2cossie]

So Friday was payday, and in one fell swoop, back to zero again as all items I ordered Thursday night from Burton Power were in stock

All of Friday patiently awaiting some kind of confirmation of the items being despatched and nadda!
Thought nothing more of it til yesterday, and checked my spam folder for something and APC had messaged with a tracking link. (And a box of text that said something about the tracking not being active til after 22:00 on the day of despatch! )

This morning I got another email saying it would be delivered today, and got home to this waiting for me...




I know, I can hear it already "whats in the box"
Well, it didn't stay wrapped for too long




Off work Thursday and Friday this week, and spent a bit of time making a CAD bracket for the modified inlet manifold today. So hopefully I may be able to make some progress on my own car at work at the end of the week

[mk2cossie]

Today was spent at work, although not work working

Managed to strip down the inlet manifold to get to the cam covers, and ordered a new pair of inlet manifold gaskets that will arrive tomorrow.

Had to take the studs out of the cylinder heads for the inlet manifold to get the gaskets out, and trial fitted the lower section of the ITB manifold







So that was a little lift for me at least.
Also got the larger oil catch can fitted up, although still need to sort a lower bracket to prevent it wobbling around




Although cleaned out and fettled the barbs and refitted the existing small catch can, as that has a separator plate inside instead of just an open can.





Also took a few pics of the cause of the oil leak

[mk2cossie]

Merry Christmas to you all on Retro Rides!

No tinkering on the car til Wednesday for me, as the inlet manifold gaskets that I ordered turned up yesterday, and were a pair valley gaskets for a 12 valve Cologne V6
And no one has stock of the BOA ones til 4th January.

[grizz]

Merry Christmas mate, to you and those you get to share time with.

You have a nice chunk of time, so hopefully your progress is swift and successful.

Have an awesome break.

[westbay]

Merry Christmas !

[johnthesparky]

Merry Christmas

Hope you had a good one!

[jimspolicev8sd1]

Just realised i was parked close to this at the late brake show back in the summer, one of the few shows i actually got to!

[mk2cossie]

Thanks for uploading those photos here jimspolicev8sd1

I did see you at the Late Brake Show, but didn't want to interrupt the conversations you always seemed to be in

Johny Smith mentioned the police car in his chat later on in the day, and I did witness you chasing the 2 hoodlums on kiddy transport with the sirens going

[mk2cossie]

Well, an early "Happy New Year" from me, as I'm off up t'pub tonight with a reserved table

Managed a few more hours tinkering today, and got the cam cover back on and hopefully sealed up




The oil breather section was tickled out and the baffle attached a bit more substantially this time too! Holes were drilled out and tapped for M5 flange head machine screws, and flange nuts on the other end to prevent them unwinding hopefully







The cover and the receiving part of the cylinder head were coated with some orange schmoo to hopefully seal the cover without a gasket. The thinking being that it can't blow out a gasket that isn't there




The catch can is now securely mounted (although not fitted, as it needs some innards first!)







And made up the plate to be welded on the bigger inlet plenum for the throttle linkage to bolt to




And fitted the space jacket over the brake pipes nearest to the exhaust manifold primary

[mk2cossie]

Well, what a way to see the new year in!
Table at the pub wasn't pre-ordered or pre-paid, so didn't end up there for NYE! Went to the Chopstick and Bowl to get Chinese takeaway, and that was queued out the door and an hour wait once ordered.
Ended up going to the chippie and got burger and chips, and was in bed by 10:30!

My friend with a Lambo was going to Brooklands for New Years day, and had a spare seat. But I'm too much of a diversion to pick up on his way, Sunday was the Hazzard Retro meeting, and my lift in a 2CV van was cancelled as it broke down after doing 1000miles in a month

So for me it has been a superb start to the new year after the last 2 rubbish ones!

Hopefully my inlet manifold gaskets turn up tomorrow (4th Jan) and I can get on with reassembling the engine and seeing how badly the cam cover now leaks

" if you expect disappointment, then you can never really be disappointed" someone recently said

[johnthesparky]

Still going slightly better than mine



So much I could do with a week off and locked down, but am stuck in the bedroom

Got to look on the bright side, by not going out, you stayed safe!!

[mk2cossie]

Jan 3, 2022 11:34:01 GMT johnthesparky said:

Still going slightly better than mine



So much I could do with a week off and locked down, but am stuck in the bedroom

Got to look on the bright side, by not going out, you stayed safe!!

That is very true!
My friend has been to a few concerts and work do's before Christmas, and has been worried about everyone else at them spreading!
I'd rather not go if its that much of a risk

Is there many in your household you've had to isolate from?