Dolomite 1500HL SDT655S

[Alexander D Cossey]

THe engine is now running, it burnt a lot of oil but after fitting a new water pump the problem has gone. I am currently searching for the problem that stops the indicators, i suspect a stray brown wire in the engine bay but I cant find where it will plug in. Testing the engine it starts and runs (admittedly lumpy) even with three sparkplugs disconencted, is this "dieseling"? I cleaned a lot of carbon off the pistons so hoped it wouldnt be that

[Alexander D Cossey]

GPad to say my car has now passed it's MOT so is back on track to being restored

[Toledo Man]

Glad to hear it is back on the road. I've just fixed all the Photobucket links.

[Alexander D Cossey]

Hi everyone,

As the car is now running I have been tinkering with engine and driving around trying to get quotes to restore the bodywork. Everyone seems very unwilling either to take my car on or if they are to give any kind of quote before the body has been acid dipped. The only people I have been able to get a quote of are a company called Majestic Motors ( https://www.majestic-motors.co.uk ). The guy seems nice and very professional but after looking at my car the quote comes out at £4450 (this is for labour and parts to repair the front valence, repairs to doors and inner doors,a pillar/scuttle area,repair both rear wheel arches, both corners on the rear valence and 10 hours of contingency time). I have no experience in this field so kindly ask for people's opinions on this, is this expensive for the kind of work (a Mercedes and a Daimler were among the cars in the workshop so it wouldn't surprise me if they were charging the very highest prices for their work), similarly does anyone know how good majestic motors are or if their are any restorers in the midlands that might be more willing to give me a quote? Any replies are much appreciated.

Apart from that I'm also looking for a person to convert my car from its current 1500 engine to a Mazda Mx5 1.6, someone on the forum was going to do it but I think I've left it too long and they no longer can, is anyone else able too or does anyone know of a garage in the Coventry/midlands area that does that kind of work

Cheers,

Alex

[GTS290N]

£4,450 seems cheap to me....but you need to provide more details, respray? engine out? Lots more???

[Alexander D Cossey]

That was just for the body work, I was going to do a complete strip down and have it acid dipped independently, the paintwork would similarly be done by someone else (I've had quotes of £2500 to do a complete body respray over an ecoat) and I was going to rebuild the car myself

[Triumph1300]

Assuming that's a total price, including vat, that doesn't sound unreasonable for what is a lot of work, and parts.

However, i might know a man in the Coventry area.

Where are you based Alex?

I'm in south Coventry

[Alexander D Cossey]

I'm based in leamington spa

[Alexander D Cossey]

Got delivery of the mx5 1.6 engine and 5 speed gearbox

[Alexander D Cossey]

The car has been working well and I have been using it for a variety of small journeys, very recently i noticed a grinding noise, I couldn't tell where it was coming from but I've now found it comes from the front passenger side when turning right. After coming home from the NEC i went to the gym, after the 2 mile journey back to my house i noticed a lot of oil being burnt so am now in the process of checking compression and looking for leaks. The rocker head is off and it is coated in grey/brown Mayonnaise

[Alexander D Cossey]

Thats the Mayonaise, Taking out the spark plug out and looking down the whole i could see a reflection, it was a pool of liquid as it wobled when i shook the car, I'm thinking this is head gasket failure

[Carledo]

Thats the Mayonaise, Taking out the spark plug out and looking down the whole i could see a reflection, it was a pool of liquid as it wobled when i shook the car, I'm thinking this is head gasket failure

I'm afraid I concur with your diagnosis!

Steve

[Alexander D Cossey]

well I've taken out the old one and replaced it, it was a lot easier than last time as the bolts were a thousand times looser. Fired up the engine and it runs, though with bigger vibrations than i remember and a very petrol heavy exhaust smell, the engine does not like to run without choke though slightly less when up to temp. While fiddling around with the sparks I found all of the wires could be taken off apart from cylinder 3 and the engine runs the same, does this mean its just running on one cylinder? Any help would be appreciated.