HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Sat Jun 30, 2018 8:10 pm

It didn't fix it...

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:(

Getting very fed up with this now, I cant afford to buy an engine, nor get this one fixed, definitely not before Market Harborough, and probably not any time after...Plus it has a noisy gearbox, coupled with the fact that it causes me pain to drive a manual at the moment I am really not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel or getting any enjoyment out of it . . .

Really think it's time to move it on and find something else automatic....

Any takers?
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby jpsmit » Sun Jul 01, 2018 3:25 am

you're close - walk away for a while and come back when you love it again.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:18 am

I know what you're saying .. . but it's so frustrating. I wanted to take the old girl to the 50th anniversary, she wont be going now bar a miracle :( I doubt i'll source an engine in time, and i sincerely doubt i'll source the money to buy one even if I do find one, we've just re-decorated the entire house, re-carpeted upstairs and re-tiled downstairs. Plus i've converted the utility room into a salon for the missis...the kitty is definitely dry :(
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby jpsmit » Sun Jul 01, 2018 2:47 pm

lord13 wrote:I know what you're saying .. . but it's so frustrating. I wanted to take the old girl to the 50th anniversary, she wont be going now bar a miracle :( I doubt i'll source an engine in time, and i sincerely doubt i'll source the money to buy one even if I do find one, we've just re-decorated the entire house, re-carpeted upstairs and re-tiled downstairs. Plus i've converted the utility room into a salon for the missis...the kitty is definitely dry :(


I feel your pain, our dishwasher flooded yesterday for the second time in a week, sadly the first time we were out so the wood floor is cupped now - this has been the year of the house for us as well, and we just opened the VISA from a 7 week trips. :shock:

That said, houses and hobbies aren't the same, houses (and happy spouses) are crucial and there will be money in the kitty again. I also hope to have the GT at this year's show though it is increasingly unlikely. There will always another milestone and if you must, do what I do, For a few years with the MG I took the VIN number in a baggie to shows - just because. :mrgreen:

Hobbies are just that, hobbies, if they cease bringing us joy, they aren't hobbies any longer they are jobs.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:10 pm

well...one last ditch effort before i give up for a while to lick my wounds...

I tried a different head, same symptoms.....bottom end then?

Bloody thing :(

I'm going to sit back and have a think, my first thought was ebay . . .

I'll just step back and have a breather before anything like that happens...
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby 1972nail » Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:31 pm

Did you change the oil when you did the gasket? Any water in the oil will still be there and take a while to evaporate off. While its doing that it will cause condensation in the rocker cover just like the photo.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby Johnboy HB » Mon Jul 02, 2018 9:05 pm

Might be a good idea to ignore the car for a while, you're achieved quite a lot in a short period of time & this current difficulty is enough to test the best of us, worst case scenario, replacement engine, not expensive & not difficult on these, you might take the opportunity to source a late Viva/Chevette engine to give it a bit more go
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby 1972nail » Mon Jul 02, 2018 9:34 pm

Did I see somewhere recently that someone had an auto box for sale? Probably totally imagining it however.

If you do get an engine from a donor Chevette don't bother to take the gearbox as it has a shorter tail shaft and tail housing and requires a modified prop shaft and cross member to fit and I think the gear lever may be further forward too necessitating alterations to the tunnel.
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Tue Jul 03, 2018 3:40 am

thanks for the advice guys, yeah i changed the oil, and yeah I know about the chevette/HA gearbox sillyness, and yes i should step back etc...

Been a frustrating few weeks, but i'm kinda glad it went now and not on the way to MH, That would've been bad.

It's had an overheating issue since i got it up and running, but it was useable and never completely blew it's top.
This hot weather has taken it's toll, it's had various parts changed to combat the issue, none have fixed the issue, it's timed correctly, the mixtures correct,different carb, different points, different condenser, different water pumps, different heads, back flushed, re-torqued, different stats, no stat, oil change, new head gaskets , different rad caps . . . all with the same symptoms, or pretty damn close to the same... it just steadily gets hotter, starts to miss and lose power, oil in water and eventually i'm sputtering along limping home...which it always does get home, it's never completely blew it's top. And to get me home I pull on the choke and it runs fine, racing like mad, pinking like mad through the gears, but in 4th runs fine, even under load foot to the floor, what the hell is wrong with it? I've advanced and retarded the ignition, I've had the mixture set lean and rich.... always does the same thing. Is the bottom end just shot? It's the only thing I haven't changed or altered in any way . . . I feel like i'm missing something obvious. . .
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Re: HB SL 4 door RNJ 835G

Postby lord13 » Thu Jul 05, 2018 7:33 am

OK so some issues have now been fixed ...

Only running on choke when hot

This just shouted 'fueling issue' to me but I wasn't sure how because the mixture was right, and when cold it ran fine, so why would it lean out when hot...no idea right? Well I decided to strip the carb to see if there were any blockages, so i started to remove it. I started to remove the fuel pipe union and after only half a turn or so I was sprayed with high pressure hot fuel! It went everywhere... thats odd I thought... never had it under that pressure from the mech pump before. Which got me wondering, was the fuel over pressurising because of the damn hot engine? was the fuel vapourising in the float chamber or the jets because of the damn hot engine? Is this possible?
Anyway, by my reckoning the carb was getting too hot because it was too close to the head, so I fitted the stromberg I have, because it would be further away and would stay cooler ...right? I took it out for a spin and no issue with going lean. Ran like a dream...and pretty bloody nippy too :) so fuel problem sort of solved ...maybe :)

Back to over heating ... I had changed oil when I first did the headgasket, but the next time I didn't. neither did i change it when i swapped the head.
Lets talk about the head swap, I didn't tell you guys what I did for fear of being ridiculed or something...but i'll come clean now.....I fitted a 1256 head :| 0n purpose, as all I had was a 1256 head spare but i figured the engine wasn't working so i'd try anything :D I made up sleeves for the 3/8 bolts so they were centralised in the holes in the head and didn't rattle about or let the head move as the 1256 takes the bigger bolts. and used a 1256 gasket fully smeared with hylomar ... yes I know ..it sounds like a lash up...and it IS a lash up but.....

Anyway...first run after the swap i got over heating and bad carburation as normal (this was before the carb swap)... but it was different...it felt different, don't ask me how it just did. So i did the carb swap as mentioned above...then, I decided to flush the old oil out, with a volatile mix I have in the shed for cleaning parts, it is mostly old engine and ATF oil, with old petrol and a liberal dose of acetone, plus any other fluid I drain out of anything...it's pretty lethal stuff, so i filled the engine, I mean filled it, right up, overflowing , hand turned it for a bit to get the gunk all the way around the old girl, and left it to soak for a bit. Then i drained it out, and topped it back up with the same mix and crossed my fingers and started the engine... ran it on fast idle for a bit, turned it off and drained the *Bleep* out. topped up with fresh clean oil and ran it again......

It took ages to get up to temp, well about twice as long as before, it then started to creep over towards the 'damn hot' mark, but flicking on the heater fan made it drop right back to normal ...which it has never done before, flicking the heater fan on hasn't even blipped the needle before, but now i can bring down the heat with the switch as normal....

Now i'm not saying it's fixed... but it's behaving differently so there is light at the end of the tunnell...

More tests will ensue, but I am a little more hopeful that my 'Frankenstein' engine may just work :)
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