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Hi all,

began work on my magnum this weekend, thought I'd start an ongoing restoration thread as i enjoy reading other peoples

first job was to get the head off as im getting it converted to unleaded (i intend to use it as an every day ride and dont want the hassle of additives etc)

forgot to take a pic before i started, but here it is with just the rad out -note its a late model so only one carb.. might have to do something about that eh? twos bound to be better than one



Inlet and carb off, took much persuasion with a big bit of wood to get the bloody thing to come free!!



here i found an interesting repair.. looks like its sprung a leak in the water pump at some point and some not-too-clever chappie has "fixed" the leak by wedging a bolt and some araldite in the drain hole at the bottom of the pump not going to put it back like that!!



next off was the exhuast manifold (plenty more fun trying to get this little b***h off) and its broken as soon as i started to loosen it off a crack appeared and got bigger... and bigger
on closer inspection it seems to have been cracked for some time as the inside of the crack is well carbonised - hopefully its weldable



head off at last, not much of a carbon buildup and the bores are nice and smooth - was nice to find something good after the water pump and the borked manifold!
bit of a wipe with a rag revealed its been rebored at some point, pistons are +40thou, the engine number doesnt match the V5 so looks like its had a reconditioned one in at some time...



last job of the day, valves out - these look to be in very good condition too! seems it cant have done many miles since the recon engine went in, nice!


contated the club spares dude about the pump, hopefully there is one i can get from the club as the only one ones i've seen on ebay so far are 30-40 quid why is the magnum one more expensive than all the others?! bah!
its part QCP955 square mount like the victor ones but with the hole in the end for the viscous fan to bolt in - if the club dont have any i'll be posting in the spares wanted i guess!

next jobbie is engine and box out - syncromesh on 2nd and 3rd are very much dead on the one in at the moment, got another one thats hopefully ok though

stay tuned!!

-Matt-

Good work and well chronicled.

Like you, I enjoy reading these restorations. Looking forward to reading yours as you progress.

Thanks for starting this thread,
I will be reading it with interest.
Slant 4 exhaust manifolds are great fun to remove aren't they
Good luck with your project.
Andrew.

hehe "great fun" wouldnt be my first choice of words

having to undo the engine mounting that side and jack the engine up to get it out is hardly an elegant solution! but ive read on here that people have done it that way and the Haynes manual suggests the same so perhaps it's the intended way

Dropped the head off to be converted to unleaded today, should have it back by wednesday

112 quid plus vat! bargain basement!

That sounds nice and cheap for unleaded conversion.
What sort of price are others paying to have this done?

Phil

Double good news today

My springs arrived (thanks Adrian!!!)
My head is converted and ready to pick up! a day early too

I have no idea what the usual price for the unleaded conversion is, basically it was £80 for the inserts - i dont need to change my valves as they are in very good condition which made it a fair bit cheaper overall i expect,

very much worth the effort and cost i think especially since i intend to use it as my daily ride once im done

£80 for the inserts fitted is a bargain, the metal alone normally costs that!! Cost me £100 to do heads up here.

right, no update for a while but the work has contined!

front suspenion, engine and box are out much hassle dropping the whole lot out in one go as one of the crossmember mountings refused to come undone!! "gentle persuasion" with a big bit of wood and the jack handle eventually got the whole lot free

now the war on grot and rust has started! all bits stripped down to their componets and getting washed / attacked with drill & wire brush

will post some pics when i get back from work tonight...

Ok, ill start with todays bad news...

while i was busily de rusing bits of the front suspention today (new bushes and shocks have turned up so thought i'd better get a move on) the old man decided to take the speedo drive out of the gearbox we had bought to see if its a 15 tooth (2300) or 16 tooth (1800) type

It turned out to be a 16 tooth.. so hey we bought an 1800 box - no biggie we thought.... we will just use the speedo drive out of the box that was in the car when we got it!!

well.. here it is

KNACKERED!!
so thats why the speedo didnt work it wouldnt even turn without some serious force so the metal gear in the box has just mashed it to bits!

ok so thats problem one... now for problem two.
take a look at the box we bought.. can you spot the obvious mistake?



its a victor box not a magnum box!! DOH!
the linkages on the outside are different and the gear lever assembly is only 3" down the rear section rather than 6" so it wouldnt fit even if i tried

so now ive got to make one usable gearbox out of two
so "swap over the bellhousing" has turned into "strip two gearboxes and make one" yay! not!