Eunos Chump

This evening the manifolds came off.  I'm glad I didn't try to get the inlet manifold off  when it was still in the car, it was very difficult to reach the nuts and bolts even with the thing sat on a bench.  There's evidence of the exhaust manifold gasket leaking, probably because I re-used it twice - what a chimp!  The valves look a bit mucky too, ugh.

Time to remove the head. After I'd removed all the remaining connections (almost forgetting the water temp sensor at the rear and the heater hoses, one of which has a bracket attached to the exhaust manifold), I cracked off the crank pulley bolt using the rope method , which is quick and easy (with a big enough breaker bar, of course).  I had to remove the anti-roll bar bolts to get enough clearance for my socket.  Next was the cambelt removal.  I'm not going to detail that, a good guide can be found here .  I like to mark up the belt and pulleys with paint (if I was fitting a new belt I'd transfer these markings to the new belt, but this one has only done about 10K).  As the cam pulleys will be coming off, I've marked those too (each is identical with E and I markings, highlight the appropriate one). With the belt removed, the head bolts were next.  Working in a circular motion (each end of the engine first, working towards the centre), I loosened each bolt 1/4 turn

I had a major clear out of the garage last week, now I have loads of room to work so I'm going to pull my finger out and refurbish the cylinder head on the MX5.  The major problem is blue smoke on the overrun, and I'm fairly confident this is valve stem seals. I'm also going to clean up the valves 'cos it's done a lot of kilometres (237K of 'em).  I'm also going to do some preventative work (various seals, thermostat, maybe water pump, replacement of old rubber pipes).  Incidentally, this is the budget originally allocated to the Ro80; I've heard nothing on this recently so I've given up the idea.  I would very much like the Golf but I had underestimated the size of my credit card bill.  There's also a chance of being made redundant in the next month, so no crazy spending for now. This will be the 3rd time I've removed the head.  The plan is to lift the head with inlet and exhaust manifolds attached, as it saves the pain of getting the turb

I've got dibs on a NSU Ro80.  It's been off the road for 3 years, has a stoved-in door, and has a weedy Audi engine in place of the original rotary.  But it is brown, and probably cheap, and I've always admired them.  It's the car that bankrupted it's manufacturer, and it could provide me with a stylish journey into financial oblivion too (imagine trying to get a windscreen or headlamp for it). A safer option might be a Golf GTI 16v which could be coming up shortly.  It would be much more usable and easier to look after, but it's a car I've never had much interest in.  I'm sure once I've hooned around in it a bit I'd change my mind though.  And obviously I'd remove all the paint and put stickers all over the rear window and slam it and call it my 'Dub .

Winter always starts the same here - it gets a bit cold, I turn on the central heating, and it doesn't work because I have once again failed to check and service it during summer.  This year's fix was easy - hitting the pump with a hammer. The MX5 is hidden away in the garage once more.  I've bought some brake caliper brackets from a 1.8 so I can fit the larger discs, but I can't be arsed to do any spannering right now.  I've got a day at Brands Hatch booked for early December, so plenty of time to procrastinate about whether to go for plain or stupidly expensive grooved discs. I was going to Blackpool this weekend to see the pretty lights, but there was so little enthusiasm from the family I cancelled it (I wanted a change of scenery because work has been getting on top of me lately).  So I've blown some cash on games instead - lovely Civilization V (PC), very lovely Halo:Reach and Burnout Paradise (XBOX 360).  All I need now is lots of time to play them