Carledo's Way

[oily66]

Hi Steve have you seen my PM, re the bits for sale??

[Carledo]

Well another 18 months have gone by, undocumented and undisturbed by unexpected failures. UNTIL NOW!

With the restoration show at the NEC looming next weekend and the (even more critical) trackday at Castle Coombe booked for April 4th, I gave in to some deep suspicions and pulled the cylinder head off again last Thursday. I've been using the car as my (only) daily since last September, and whilst it's still pulling like a train, it's started to lose a little coolant, miss a bit on first start and accumulate more than the normal amount of mayo on the dipstick and in the cam box. Even with all the warning signs, I was reluctant to blame the head gasket, having only replaced it (and the head) over Christmas 2014. The dark suspicion was that my trusty (but ancient) Snap-On torque wrench that I used to tighten the head might not be so trusty after all!

So a swift hour was spent pulling the head off and my suspicions of HGF confirmed, but with a much more obvious cause than an innacurate torque wrench, albeit a slightly baffling one!





As you can clearly see, the head has been eaten away round the no 4 cylinder fire ring and there is other corrosion damage around some of the water galleries too, the bafflement is because this sort of thing only NORMALLY occurs when one runs an engine with insufficient antifreeze/corrosion inhibitor, something I am definitely NOT guilty of!

I no longer have a spare head and in any case, this particular one is from a 130bhp SEH engine (think SRi Cavalier) and had been further "improved" by Courtenaysport engineering, a renowned Vauxhall tuning specialist.

So with a heart heavy with dread, I transported the lump of duff alloy up to my head specialist in Telford to be greeted with my worst fear, "that's f****d mate!" only ameliorated by a further "well I spose we could do SOMETHING with it, but it won't be cheap"

Then the gaffer rocks out, checks out the debate, inspects the dead metal and, with a quick "hang on a tick!" disappears into the depths to emerge triumphantly a few minutes later with THIS!





It's not a Courtenaysport, but it IS an SEH head (inlet valves are larger) and it's been improved by them with porting, improved valve guides, three angle seats and a good skim. Apparently it was built for someone else a few years back and never collected, their loss, my gain! For a mere £100 it came home with me and will be fitted tomorrow along with a new timing belt. Id call that a result! A perfect end to a perfect trip came when I arrived back at the shop to find my factors had delivered a genuine Payen gasket set to reassemble it with! I love it when a plan comes together! Especially an UN planned plan!

Whilst it's in the shop, i'm going to deal with a couple of other issues too, a pair of track rod ends, a pair of rack gaiters (managed to get a pair of correct ones in their QH box) and a smidgeon of welding on the o/s/r jacking point, ready for the MOT on Friday.

Steve

[GTS290N]

You jammy burger!

[dollyman]

On the way to the head shop..... All the way back.... How lucky can you get.

Cheers,
Tony.

[DazasDolly]

Lucky that Steve

The new one looks like a thing of beauty

[soe8m]

Can you bring them a sprint head for me?

Jeroen

[Carledo]

Lucky that Steve

The new one looks like a thing of beauty

Sure is Daz! It ALMOST looks brand new, the cast edges are pin sharp! It's almost too pretty to use, but only ALMOST!

Steve

[Carledo]

Can you bring them a sprint head for me?

Jeroen

Well I can ask mate, but I rather think you have enough Sprint heads already, don't be greedy!

Steve

[Carledo]

Well, another year has fled by, unremarked and unremarkable, the car has remained the soul of reliability, with the only niggle being a touch of oil smoke on first start up. I suspect that lovely new head had been sat around so long that the guide seals had hardened up. I should have sorted out some new ones before fitting it, I have enough round here! Really a case of "more haste, less speed!"

Now, finally, I have something to report!

Fans of the car will know that when I first built it, I installed the instrument cluster from a Nova SR, a) because I could, b) to commonise the rev counter, temp guage and speedo so they'd work without any bespoke mods and c) because it's a compact, well laid out and informative panel.

I't's not, however, been without problems, The speedo under reads by a massive 40%, a function of using a FWD speedo with a RWD drive gear set and cable. This is, surprisingly, no big deal, the human brain is endlessly adaptable and, within a few miles, mine had adapted to counting in 6s instead of 10s. More worryingly, almost from the outset, the printed circuit board on the back of the cluster would throw an occasional wobbler with circuits breaking down and sometimes smoke! Until recently, i've been reparing the dead circuits with wire and living with it. Attempts to procure another printed circuit have been abortive, they are obsolete from Vauxhall and anyone who has a good used oned is emphatically keeping it!

With this in mind, around last Christmas, I set about building another, more traditional dash panel, acquiring another wood panel and flat dash loom (thanks Rob Marshall) a 3 way 4" minor dial from Alun Nicholas and a Sprint Rev counter and GT6 speedo from my own stock. The speedo turned out to be U/S from sitting around in my garage for 20 years, so i've put a Sprint series 1 clock in the GT6 housing and face. It's anybodies guess how accurate it will be, but i'm betting it'll be better than 40% out!

Then, a couple of weeks ago, my hand was forced by the speedo cable failing, this was the last straw and I have installed the dash although its not finished yet. I HAVE had to get a bespoke cable made by Speedy Cables in Swansea (due here on Wednesday) but the rev counter and temp guages work fine with a mixture of Vauxhall senders and Triumph guages. Just lucky I guess!




I need to relieve a bit of the wood behind the gaping hole in the lower left to fit the brake line lock arming switch, the multidial fouls slightly on the heater temp control mechanism (but I think this will adjust out) and I need to get a small green warning light to go between the speedo and tach for an indicator repeater. Other than that, i'm pretty pleased with it. The only clock I need to move my head slightly to read, is the voltmeter and I don't regard that as too much of a problem!

Steve

[going_downhill]

Looks good that Steve. Good to see the dash looking closer to factory.

I've still got all my Vauxhall clobber sat here. Maybe one day it'll end up in the car!

[Carledo]

Looks good that Steve. Good to see the dash looking closer to factory.

I've still got all my Vauxhall clobber sat here. Maybe one day it'll end up in the car!

Thanks mate, I quite like it!

The good new from your point of view is that the guage match I have got will also work on your car when the time comes! I think i've also found the speedo drive bits for your Omega gearbox and the cable i'm having made for the Carledo can also be duplicated for yours! Isn't too expensive either, less than £40 including VAT and carriage from Speedy Cables.

Steve

[Carledo]

A last quick update on the Dash issues, the speedo cable duly arrived and was fitted without problems and I have sorted the other points too as suggested above and I have a fully functional dash.

On the matter of speedo accuracy, it now over reads by around 11mph throughout the range, so I need to move the needle a bit on it's spindle and I should have an accurate reading. Just need to find a quiet hour to do it! Since I have a Sprint axle and Sprint speedo in the GT6 case and the tyre rolling radius is also close to original, the only unknown was the cable drive gear ratio and it looks as though that fickle goddess Karma has once again smiled on me!

Steve