Well, who knew that it would rain today – can’t paint in the rain
New crush washer and refitted the sump plug, then drained the oil tank. Time to start
First off, create some space and remove the pipe to the secondary fan and move the return out of the way.
Disconnect and move the spark plug leads, remove valve covers and change the oil filter.
Had a bit of an issuette with the lower OS cover
It wouldn’t clear the SSI heat exchanger. Using a palette knife to protect the valve cover, and having tried a few other things, the air die grinder won out.
Now we’re cooking on gas. Head studs re-torqued – generally all good, although a few took about 1/8 of a turn, then valve clearances.
Using the disse to confirm, set to TDC on cylinder 1
I also moved one of the fan spacers to tighten the fan belt while I was generally in the area.
I’d set the valve clearances on the loose side for the initial run-in, so again, about 1/8 of a turn and they were all snug, and refitting was the reverse of dismantling (without the die grinder)
I had removed 2x5 litre cans of oil (plus a slight spillage), so added about 9 litres of oil to start with, and span the engine over without the plug leads connected to build up oil pressure. This is when I noticed that the oil pressure light no longer works. I checked the bulb and 12V supply - both good – so something to do with wiring or the pressure switch. My goodness gracious, it is not easy to reach the switch. The wiring is correctly connected to the switch, but other than that, I couldn’t get any closer, so still no warning light.
With oil pressure, plug leads were reconnected and the engine started. I checked the oil and added a further 1.5 litres, but need to drive it and get it properly hot before calling the oil set.
The car is now waiting in the garage overnight and will get a proper drive once I’ve rechecked fuel pressures, and reviewed / moved the soft and hard rev limiters in the CDI+ software (I was somewhat cautious with my settings for the initial running).
I didn’t like the way my phone holder sat on the clock, so knowing better than the manufacturer, I located it on the far left gauge
. Unfortunately, I keep knocking the phone off when I change gear or try to use the indicators (for the BMW and Audi drivers among us, they’re the funny yellowy orange lights that work, then stop, then work, then stop
), and it rolls around under my feet – not the safest. So I’ve moved it to the clock.
It’s a bit hidden by my hands, but hopefully it won’t be too much in the way now.
Another issuette was the handbrake. It was a bit soft on the OS, despite me having checked the shoe adjustment a couple of times. The NS wheel sounded different when the handbrake was on, so maybe the issue was with that side, not the OS, resulting in the handbrake cable not pulling enough on the OS.
So, wheel off, caliper off (easier said than done) and disc off. All looked fine, so reassembled and adjusted the handbrake shoes. Then thought more sensibly and checked the cable adjustments – quite a lot of slack in the OS. Adjusted it up and now a good handbrake on both sides. Moral of this – check the simple and obvious before you try and be clever