:: Diary - August 2008 ::

:: Saturday, August 2, 2008 ::

As usual, the first entry of the month is TVR Car Club meeting day. Again, as usual I clean the wheels before I set off, this time polishing them properly (well, by properly, I mean polishing all four with metal polish in about 20 minutes, so it's not really "properly", it's just "a bit more than a quick wipe"

I meet up with Dave, Jim and Mike and lead off on the journey through. We set off roofless, but within a few miles it becomes apparent that we're going to have to stop and put the roof on, because the rain is getting heavier and because there's a dirty huge black cloud hanging over the horizon that we're heading for. It doesn't take long, apart from the near-death experience manouevring around the lorry who decides to move up the layby just as we are entering it. After putting my own roof on, I have a 5-minute break while Mike does his.

When we get there, it's good to see that once again there are new members joining for the first time: two cars this month.

I have a nice drive back, although I am sure that I can still hear that exhaust blowing a little bit.

The fuel gauge is working, and when I leave the meeting, it's at the top of the red section on the gauge. By the time I am nearly home, it's at the bottom of the red section (that is, it's showing abolutely, totally, completely empty, not a flicker when you put the ignition on. Judging by the mileage, I think there's about a gallon in the red section on the gauge, but I want to know what the "reserve" at "empty" is. When I fill up, it takes just over 51 litres. The tank is rated at 54.5 litres, so there's just over 3 litres left in the tank when it says "bone dry". Fine, that was what I wanted to know (what I really wanted to know was that I wasn't going to run out of petrol when the gauge says I've got plenty left!) I'm happy with that.

The whistling from the roof struts is getting on my nerves too. When I get home, I squeeze some silicone into the ends and then stick some black duct tape over that, and trim it to fit. Another test drive proves that the roof struts are now as silent as an angel's fart.

:: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 ::

I am off on holiday tomorrow, so rather than leave the car in the drive, I take it back along to the garage - the first time it's been in the garage since the 3rd of May.

When I start the car up, there is a distinct valve clatter, especially after you rev it and it is slowing to idle again. I've noticed it a couple of times (in fact I noticed it the first time I started the car after I did the oil change on the 29th of June but put it down to the hydraulic tappets needing to re-prime or something). It's done it a couple of times since but today it's really noisy until the car warms up. Once the car is warm, it's fine.

When I bought the oil, the motor factor didn't have the 10W40 semi-synthetic oil I was using before (and which I used throughout 140,000 miles in a Granada with the same engine) so I bought another oil which he said was the same but it was as cheap as chips. Probably only good for frying them, as well, apparently. I think I'll change the oil again to a decent synthetic.

:: Friday, August 15, 2008 ::

Back from holidays! I walk along to the garage to collect the car. Again, there is a noticeable clatter when I start it up (but not as bad as the day I brought it over here)

I go up to the motor factor and buy a tin of Mobil 1 15/50 fully synthetic, and a couple of Ford Sierra brake disks. Don't have time to fit them though because I am too busy doing sod all.

:: Saturday, August 16, 2008 ::

First job is to drain the old oil, and refill with the Mobil 1 I bought yesterday. I also remove the oil filter and empty it out, just to reduce the level of dilution of the new synthetic oil.

When I start the car up, the clatter seems to be gone - but then I hear it slightly again as the car is "backing off" after being revved. I get my stethoscope (it's actually an 18-inch piece of broom handle that I press on the engine and press my ear on the other end) and listen to the rocker covers - all I can hear is the regular hum of the valve gear moving. I listen to each cylinder in turn by pressing against the cylinder head - again everything seems ok. Strangely, when I am on the left side of the engine, the noise seems to be coming from the right - but when I move to the right, the noise seems to move to the left. After listening to the water pump and the alternator, it takes me 5 minutes to deduce that this ticky clatter noise is actually coming fromn higher up - I think it's a fuel injector. That could also explain why it's noisier on over-run than under load (because it's not lubricated by fuel if the throttle is shut, maybe?)

I can't get my broom handle in there to each injector, so I need to think of another way to listen. I have an idea - I have a pair of earphone things that I got on a tour bus in Nice 2 years ago, to listen to the commentary of the tour. They are essentially hollow rubber tubes attached to earpieces. Is that not what a stethoscope is? I'll have to find them and give it a try!

Then it's on to the front brake disks. I remove each wheel caliper and the old brake disk. The offside one needs a bit of a hammering to shift it but other than that, easy peasy.

The new disks have a protective lacquer coating which has to be cleaned off the braking surface with white spirit. Then I clean up the hub flange to make sure that there is no rust or grit that might prevent the disk from sitting flat and so introduce "run-out". Then I apply some copper grease to the hub face, and the inner face of the disk, then replace the disk and caliper.

I take the car for a drive and it seems to be going ok, and the oil pressure is fine, and the brake wobble has gone.

When I get back, I jack up the rear of the car and adjust the rear suspension upwards a couple of turns, to prevent the rear of the exhaust from bottoming out.

:: Sunday, August 17, 2008 ::

Well the first news is that my attempts at a Dr Kildare stethoscope failed miserably. Couldn't hear a bleeding sausage. So instead, I found a broken wooden spoon (I must have won it in an "amateur mechanic of the year" competition or something, I dunno) and used that instead. It worked! Most of the fuel injectors sound the same but one in particular just sounds more "clicky".

I go out and buy a bottle of STP injector cleaner, fill the tank with Shell Optimax and horse the cleaner in there too. We'll see how that goes, before we try ultrasonic cleaning (which only dogs can hear).

Then I decide to tidy up the engine bay by giving it a spray and brush with engine degreaser, and a jet wash down. Brings it up right nice like.

Then in a fit of uncharacteristic keenness, I decide that the top suspension wishbones look rubbish, where the paint has worn or chipped off, so I repaint them.

:: Thursday, August 21, 2008 ::

The car is entered for the Culzean Autoclassica this weekend, since I am organising a stand for the Sporting Bears. I don't really have much time to polish the car up properly, but I want it to look reasonably nice. The outside just needs a wash, but under the bonnet, the slight rust on the cylinder heads detracts slightly from the overall impression. So I decide to paint them with "Manifold Gray" which I used before and dries to a nice "cast iron" satin grey colour.

By the time I am halfway through painting, it's starting to get dark (serves me right for being a gannet and having my dinner first). I pull off the plug leads so that I can get the brush in and around the spark plug recess.

:: Saturday, August 23, 2008 ::

I am meeting Dave at 8:00 for the drive through to Culzean, so I have to be up early to make my sandwiches etc up for the teddy bear's picnic. I start the car up and do the "two-car-shuffle" to get the other car out of the way first. As I am doing that, I can't help thinking that it's taking a long time to warm up, it's as rough as hell.

When I (finally) get organised and set off, I realise at the first junction that the engine is running like a bag of farts. Flashbacks happen. Damn. I know what's wrong. I stop at the side of the road and put two of the plug leads back on (fortunately before they melted on the exhaust manifold). Plonker.

Then meet up with Dave in his wedge for an uneventful drive through.

The show itself is pretty good, although I don't get much time to look around, by the time we have the tent up, the bears set out, the cars arranged, and stuff like that. My son washed it yesterday so it looks not too bad in the sun!

:: Sunday, August 24, 2008 ::

Second day of the car show. This time Dave decides to take his S.

The roads are much busier this morning. We pass a huge convoy of Jaguars all proceeding at a stately pace, and then we stop for petrol in a garage which is obviously a rendezvous for some Ford Escort type guys, then a dozen Triumphs come in. Then a Rover SD1. And a couple of Porsches.

When we set off again we catch up to a whole parade of Porsches going a wee bit faster. Be sure to make plenty noise as I pass the Porsches!

Again we get the stand up and the cars parked up.

I go over to ask the commentator for the day if he wouldn't mind mentioning our charity drives during the day. His response is to hand me a microphone and ask me to explain it to the waiting millions (well, hundreds...) which is great fun when you haven't thought about it first.

During the day we manage to sell every teddy bear we had with us, including the big huge fat one that I've had since October. We also do a number of charity parade laps around the show circuit, with passengers who have made suitable donations. Add that to the general collection -can rattling and we collect a tidy wee sum over the weekend for kids' charities.

I end up giving a run to a 5-foot bear called Buddy, who spends the lap waving at kids and spectators. He's part of a youth theatre who have been performing at the show over the weekend.

The show is pretty good, and I get a bit more of a chance today to wander around for an hour or so. It's a cracking location (even without a car show) and the concours and other displays set it off beautifully.

By the time I get home, I've used a whole tank of fuel over the weekend (about 320 miles), my ears are ringing, my head is sunburnt (again!) and the car hasn't missed a beat (apart from the ones it missed yesterday morning when 2 spark plugs were disconnected).