1985 Opel Manta 16V and '09 BMW E92

[ChrisT]

Managed to get a replacement bleed screw from Rimmers the other saturday morning but still had problems bleeding the system.

Drivers side caliper has always been problematic so as there was one at a good price on Ebay I thought I'd get it, a couple of days later it turned up.....





Advertised as damaged seals they weren't too bad but I've got new seals on the other caliper.
It cleaned up ok and was is good working order apart from one sticky piston.....





Took piston out and cleaned up bit of surface rust on top of bore, seemed to sort it.

All bolted up with newer seals, pins and springs from old caliper...



Result - better but still not right

Knowing front brakes were good turned attention to rears.
Jacked the back of the car up, wedged brake pedal down and found it had no effect on the passenger side.....
Wheel cylinders were relatively new and looked in good condition - no leaks, piston moved freely but even after bleeding was not working.
Peeled back the rubber boot to find brake fluid running out!!
Rubber was in such good condition it wasn't allowing it to leak out.

Offending item.....



New one got from local motor factors and fitted yesterday.
I now have working brakes again

[ChrisT]

After sorting the brakes I took it out for a drive as I still need to get some miles on the engine to run it in, seem to have developed a misfire over 4000rpm, didn't have one last time I used it
Hoping it's the crank sensor so ordered a new one......

In other news, finished off the bulkhead paneling, made a curved centre section and wrapped it to match the rest, which it does despite what it looks like in the photos....







Got a local village classic car show to go to next weekend (the same one I did this Stag engine bay for last year) so doing a few tidying jobs to try and get it presentable, such as refitting the remote brake fluid reservoirs and proper air filter....

[07lilredwagon]

that looks super clean in there!

JP

[ChrisT]

Jun 2, 2018 2:29:55 GMT 07lilredwagon said:

that looks super clean in there!

JP

Thanks, the photo makes it look better than it is but it's getting there....

[peteh1969]

Looking very nice and tidy Chris.

Have you used tec screws to hold the wings on or riv-nuts and bolts?

[ChrisT]

Tec screws?

They're all Rivnuts and stainless bolts

[peteh1969]

That's what I was hoping you would say.

Tec Screws are a self tapper with a washer and a hexagon on the none pointy end.

[ChrisT]

Jun 2, 2018 9:41:35 GMT peteh1969 said:

Tec Screws are a self tapper with a washer and a hexagon on the none pointy end.

Yeah, did know - it was more of an indignant response, as in you think I'd be using Tec screws?


Decided to tackle the remote fluid reservoirs today.
Think the reason for the leak was maybe the hoses were a little short so not seating at the master cylinder properly, made a new longer bracket....





Looks good so far, see tomorrow whether the fluid has stayed where it should be.

Went for a little drive later, misfire showed up again, this time got a lot worse, so much so I had to find somewhere to pull over.
Took the plugs out, gave them clean and it fired up and ran a lot smoother

Hopefully replacement crank sensor will sort this.

Gave me the opportunity to get a photos in a different location.....

[peteh1969]

Chris

I didn't assume you were using tec screws but the were no close up pictures so I thought it would be better to ask than to assume you were.

[ChrisT]

Not to worry, no offence taken

Chasing the misfire this week...
New crank sensor fitted, result - no change.
Replaced the colder grade plugs with standard (also noticed the colder plugs electrode didn't protrude as far as the other plugs), result - no change.
Fitted new coil, result - no change.

That's about ruled out the ignition side of things.
Doing some searching online I found a useful carb setup guide which mentions that Webers go from idle circuit to main circuit around 4000rpm, which is where my problem is.....
Maybe as the engine is slightly smaller in bore (0.5mm - works out to 1% decrease in capacity (I think)) it needs rejetting, so ordered some new idle and main jets and air corrector, all one size smaller.....



Result - not fixed it but I'm thinking it's not as bad as before and the plugs are a better colour than they were before, might be on the right lines but I think it needs to go to a professional to be checked over as I'm just guessing at jet sizes.....



Won't be taking it to the local car show now, still don't trust it not to breakdown so had to spend the morning cleaning the SX to take instead.....

[ChrisT]

Bought myself a new toy, should help get to the bottom of the fueling issues, or at least give me a better idea as to what's going on....



A bit of rejigging of the gauge layout I settled for this position, doesn't sit quite as flush as the others as the bezel is a lot deeper......



Moved the nitrous pressure gauge that was there up to dash vent next to the EGT gauge...



Already welded a bung in the exhaust manifold so fitting the sensor was a quick job, the longest task was trying to hide all the cable supplied - I could have mounted the gauge in the boot and still had wire spare

So, at idle, after a little mixture adjustment, I have this....



Near enough for me, problem is revving the engine it goes right over 20+ which is far too lean.
Now I need to go read up on DCOE jetting......

[ChrisT]

First off thanks to peteh1969 for sending me that info, I now have a much better understanding of how the DCOEs work so should put me in good stead when tweaking them.

I have richened the mixture at idle as apparently they run better towards 12.5 rather than 14.7, which improved things a lot.
Took it out for a test and it would appear the 4K misfire has gone

However, I don't think its down to any of my rejetting and more to do with putting the proper air filter back on
I won't go into detail of all the changes I've made but out of curiosity I'm back on the original jets and it seems to be running fine with no misfire, not taken it out for a proper drive yet though, that's for tomorrow.....

Another problem has shown itself though the other morning, after a bit of stopping/starting the engine and tuning the carbs it decided not to start, first it was like the battery was dead and then it just turned over but didn't fire
Came back to it at dinner time and i fired straight up. Not sure what's behind this, had something similar a couple of weeks ago when it broke down....

In other news, when swapping out the original brake fluid reservoir for the remote ones, despite being really careful, I think I got some air in the system so made up a 'cap' for them so I could use the eezibleed kit....



Not the quickest thing to install but didn't want to drill one of the caps to fit the kit, did the job without leaking, which is nice

I often wonder why manufacturers don't do a couple of different colour brake fluids so when you're bleeding the system you use a different colour to what's in and it's obvious when you've got new fluid coming through........

[ChrisT]

Sunday morning drive last week showed that under load at low revs the engines not happy
Found there's a guy in town that knows carbs so hoping to take it up to him on Tuesday and get it sorted....

Decided to make some wheel centres, started with a bit of round aluminium bar and after a bit of time in the lathe I have this, a bit basic compared to some of the machining work on this forum but I'm fairly new to it with a fairly basic machine.....



Cut down and a hole drilled and tapped on the back face....



Not fitted, just held in place....





Needs painting black, and another one making up.....

[ChrisT]

Number 2 in progress....



Looks a bit more subtle in black.....

[ChrisT]

Turns out local guy who can sort carbs has sold all his Weber jets so can't help me
Has recommended someone else but a bit of a distance to go with a badly running car.
So I bought this, should be an interesting read sat round the pool next week on holiday....



In other news, got on with the welding flagged at the MOT, just a bit of a patch needed along passenger side sill. It's solid again and undersealed. No time to be stopping to take photos of any of the work.
Did manage to get underseal a lot of places it shouldn't be, came off the exhaust ok with petrol and a rag, had slightly less success getting it off the door using the same method, there's a bit less paint on there now

Also remade the rear ARB drop links, was using modified mk 2 Golf ones but they didn't really sit right so modified them some more.....





And a shot of the whole underside for no reason.

[peteh1969]

I have used these guys for DCOE jets and service kits before very good service.

fastroadcars.co.uk/store/

[ChrisT]

Thanks for that, I used webcon.co.uk for the last lot of jets.
I'm thinking at the moment, depending on what needs changing, it might be worth getting a set of drills and opening out the smaller jets until they're right, if I go too far I'll still have the original ones to go back to....

[ChrisT]

Been reading up on setting up/jetting the carbs and the more I think about it the more I thinking the problem is more likely to be an air leak, maybe the Misab plate seals breaking down with heat or the nitrous fittings leaking... If it were jet related the problem would be constant rather than intermittent and only after running for a while.

One of the manifold nuts under the carb was loose so tightened that up, had to resync the carbs after so that's maybe not been sealing as well as it could.
Got the engine warmed up and sprayed carb cleaner round as many joints as I could get to but it didn't show up any leaks.
Will probably change the Misab plates anyway, along with new rubber mounts as I notice the Thackery washers are fully compressed, so there's no movement, a little of which is required for good carb performance.

Gave it a quick wash this morning in the hope that I might make it to a local car meet tomorrow.......

[ChrisT]

.....didn't make it to the local car meet, got halfway there and engine started misfiring, continued a bit further but it wasn't getting any better to returned it to the garage

Back from holiday yesterday, parts have arrived so on with them today.....

New Misab plates, rubber mounts, manifold studs and nyloc nuts....



Old ones don't look in the best of health, cracks and splits here and there, don't know why I reused them on the rebuild



New studs fitted - when originally fitting the old ones I'd cut the top ones down to make getting the nuts on easier, with Thackery washers there's still enough thread left, the rubber mounts are a lot thicker.....



Carbs are now refitted and tightened up almost to proper specs - allowing a small amount of movement. Had to go slightly tighter as the thread was barely engaging with the nyloc part, could have done with slimmer nuts TBH.



Balanced the carbs and tweaked the mixture a little, engine's sounding good, hoping to get it out on a test drive tomorrow morning.....

[SmokeEm]

Is there a reason why you won't get it rolling roaded? Would sort your issues out in 1 session?

My mate Chris from Novatech in Slough would sort you out but don't know where u r based?