The All New, New "What have you done to your Bay today" thread.

I had the guys at Curdridge take out the engine to swap the fuel tank because I didnt want to be messing with a large amount of petrol. When they put the engine back, there were several errors and omissions. The worst being the end of the engine bay seal foam just off to one side of the cooling fan.

Some of the loose nuts I found were where heat could have had an effect, some werent.

So far evidence is some small metal fragments in the oil and zero compression, plus about a litre of oil blown out of the crank pulley. Not many flakes of metal in the exhaust port.

About 20 miles before it spewed a load of oil, it still had oil half way up the dipstick - I checked at Membury services.

It also seemed to be idling quite hot in Bristol - sat on a steep hill nose down for about 20 minutes in a traffic jam and the CHT was sitting quite high, but inside normal range (122 at the sensor in its strange position - normal is 110 to 125.

Changes I made recently - fitted a thermostat that actually expanded when it should.
Changed progressive carburettor to one that wasnt worn out , but with the same jetting.
Quickly swapped a Bosch distributor with what looks like it had a dodgy condenser for a Chinese one with a good condenser, didnt swap the Bosch back with a replacement condenser while I was checking over the Bosch.. The Bosch + condenser combo was misfiring while trying to accelerate gently .

I think that Chinese distributor was most likely over-advancing the timing sometimes, probably the root cause. I have always used it set at 8 degrees idle, and the high speed timing looked like around 28 degrees. But I didnt check the high speed behaviour recently .

 

I don't really get why they took the exhaust off for example. Just weird. Did they put the apprentice on the job? The foam seal... well... everyone knows about that don't they? Lost your nice copper gaskets? reused half the clamp gasket? I'm getting a picture of slap-dashery/chaos.

 

While I'm on my hobby horse, why do some garages do the job you asked them to do but wreck everything around it without a care? It's really not uncommon.

I was at T2D in it's early days once. Paul was skimming someone's lovely hubcaps across the concrete floor shiny side down just to save himself 5 seconds moving them out of the way from one side of the bus underneath to the other... I mean... how is that acceptable?

 

Because they don't give a sh1t, maybe? I'd doubt many have seen an aircooler before, and if they have, they've learnt their skills from reading stuff in Volksworld magazine.

 

Yeah, they just see you as a wallet and work as fast as they can to empty it into theirs. But not everywhere is like that.

 

Ah, so you changed pretty much everything that affects the engine running all at once for a collection of unknown used stuff. Trial and error swapping stuff with multi-hundred mile test drives at full speed watching the gauges is maybe not the wisest way to look after your engine Mr Mike. ot knowing what your full advance was? I thought you knew better than that. They don't over advance "sometimes" there are stops for that.

I can usually tell summuts not right within 100 yards and turn around straight away. Maybe that's why my engines don't blow up. I've also got good at ye olde "one thing at a time" approach unless I have unlimited time and no pressure.

 

I did nothing today. To avoid TLB disappointment, here are some Japanese ladies playing stuff Extremely Fast

 

used the watercooled heating in anger for the 5am commute this morning... seems to work adequately

then got some hate from my watch.

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Throw the watch away it’s unmotivating


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"Your favourite colour is blue, and you'll marry a sailor"

 

Did some M10 rivnut practice...



Then took him for a good blast down the '303 to blow the cobwebs out. Fired up first time and galloped along

 

Fixed a leaking tap (split in pipe)
Fixed a wobbly plug socket.

Nothing major but rewarding fixing those little issues.

Luckily its driving great so im not touching anything, only cleaning, checking things.

Thought of where to go on a trip.

 

Mine is still full of coal but I did put the glued glovebox lid back on.

 

All of the other changes were done step by step, with at least 20 mile drives including motorways to check. I was just listing all the things that had been changed over the last few months.

It was the distributor swap that was only going to be temporary but I didnt put back the Bosch one with a new condenser, not being sure that refitting a potentially intermittently faulty distributor for a long run was a good idea either.

 

So maybe you just press these little 1600 bus engines too hard for a long life? You do a lot of miles, you know you'd be happier with a bigger less stressed engine.

 

Removed the inside grommet from the front left-wheel arch to insert waxoyl while assessing the the tub, brakes and bodywork. On trying to replace the said grommet it inadvertently disappeared into the arch. Luckily there was another grommet lower down that I could remove allowing me retrieve said grommet. Tricky to be honest and I was fiddling about with some wire, an allen key, and two pairs of long nose pliers.
At least it was a challenge and kept me busy for the afternoon. Result

 

Mr Brake light fights Mr Dremel. Mr Dremel wins

 

I believe Age Concern do sell cable markers, if you look on their web site

Get a pair of Hella spots on! Your life will be transformed.