:: Diary - May 2009 ::

:: Saturday, May 2, 2009 ::

ACT called to say that my coolant pipes are out of stock but they'll be getting more in this week. I go down to the shops to buy more antifreeze, for when (or rather, if) I get the system back together again.

Then I go along to the garage to collect the S for the TVR Club Meeting tomorrow. Again, it starts first time. I bring it back to the house, without any need to check bus or rail timetables first, or make sure my AA membership is up to date, or anything.

I've spent most of today bringing this web site up to date - I hadn't updated it since the middle of March. I've been arguing with myself: part of me wants to keep this site only for the S, and I was going to start a separate site for the other one, but I've decided now that the site isn't just about the car, it's about the ownership experience (a tale of a man's slide into clinical depression) so it wouldn't be complete if it only featured one of the cars. So with that decision made, we're up to date!

:: Sunday, May 3, 2009 ::

Car club meeting today! Seeing as it's a cracking day, but more importantly, that I can't be bothered checking that my AA cover is up to date, my nerves are already shot to hell and I have no change for bus fares, I decide to take the S instead of the Cerb. First I give the car a wash because it's still dusty from sitting in the garage. Clean up the wheels, wipe over the engine bay, and then I replace a couple of bits of the foam that stop the bonnet rubbing on the bodywork. It's looking not too bad!

Set off to meet Dave and Jim then we head off for a wee pre-meeting run. Over the Forth Bridge in the company of a fleet of BMWs who think that normal lane discipline or even basic courtesy don't apply to them, and then off the motorway past my FAVOURITE ice-cream shop (at least I passed it...) and on through a couple of wee towns (where I see my brother's car parked in the high street - no sign of him though, it's obviously breakfast time) before we get on to a lovely wee bit of road where we can have a little hoon. I take a wrong turn then, though, so we end up on a slightly narrower road that has S-unfriendly bumps.

Back on the main road and then I see a TVR pull out of a side road - we've accidentally gatecrashed another pre-meeting run! The guy in front is completely confused because now he has three S-series in his mirror, that weren't there last time he looked...

We arrive at the meeting and park up - in the end there's 16 cars there, which isn't too bad.

The old S series look pretty good, arranged in "French Flag" formation.

This photo shows the black parcel tape around the windscreen edge - it looks better in this photo than it really is, but it's really not too bad, and a lot better than the bloody mess that's underneath!

Speaking to the other two Cerbera owners, I'm a wee bit reassured that paranoia is par for the course. One has discovered that his fuel hose is routed wrongly after a (very expensive and lengthy) engine rebuild, so that the air-con belt has almost cut through the hose. This is not normally a good thing, because petrol spraying everywhere in an engine bay as hot as the Cerbera's, isn't going to end with love and kisses. Quite a few have been burnt beyond repair because of leaking or perished fuel hoses, so it needs to be fixed.

The other Cerbera owner is worried about a noise from his engine and is going around listening to other people's.

At least I know I'm not alone...

We set off for home, me in the lead again (the other two make out they don't know where they are half the time so they get to relax and follow). After a couple of miles I have a complete brainstorm - I suddenly have no idea where I am or where I am going, and take a wrong turn at a roundabout, but realise before I turn off, so I go right round and back on to the route I meant to take. Unfortunately somebody pulls out in front of Jim so they get held up, don't see where I went so I've lost them! I stop up the road for 5 minutes but there's no sign of them, so I decide to carry on home on my ownsome, dropping off at Mike's house to see how he's getting on with putting his car back together.

I've really enjoyed driving the S today, it's going really well, apart from a slight hesitation just as you go on the throttle, which makes it a bit of a pain in the arse in traffic. It's a great car - fast, nimble, smooth - and on those side roadfs today, better than the Cerb - you can just feel better what the car is doing underneath you, it's all just so direct and raw.

Later on, I decide to check over the ignition system, because that's where I suspect the hesitation lies. I take off the distributor cap, clean the rotor arm and all the contacts inside, and reseat the plug leads. I also set the timing mark to -15 degress and take a photo of the rotor arm position, to help when putting Mike's distributor back.

Then I take off and clean the electrical connections to the ISCV, the throttle pot, the temperature sensor, and the coil. I also clean up the big connector under the coil (beside the RH rocker cover) that connects the engine loom to the ECU. I don't have time to try it out though, but even at idle, it seems to pick up a wee bit better. Can't have done any harm! (it's not a Cerbera after all!)

:: Saturday, May 8, 2009 ::

The cooling pipes for the Cerbera still haven't arrived which is a pity - I was hoping to get started on that today. The fact that it's bucketing rain and the car is sitting outside would probably have put me off anyway, so nothing lost! I do need to have it fixed and running reliably for the 7th of June though - big charity day and I need it! (the car that is, not the charity... although the way things are going, you never know...)

First things first though. Today is a big day for the S - it's MOT day and it's been up late all week revising. I have it booked in for 9 so it's along to the garage to pick it up, and then a wee blooter about just to make sure it's nice and hot for the old emissions test.

As usual, he has to ask the same questions as they do every year:

How do you open the bonnet?
(followed quickly by "no there's nothing on the ramp for the front of the bonnet to hit - oh sorry I didn't realise it would go THAT low...)
Where's the chassis number?
I can't read the VIN plate
Why does the ignition light not go out?
Where's reverse gear?

I'm not that concerned, because I'm pretty sure everything is ok. He lets me have a good look underneath while the car's up on the ramp, and, while the chassis needs a little bit of paint repair here and there, it's pretty much protected. Everything seems ok except that the front pinion seal on the differential seems to be leaking a wee bit. Seeing as I can't get the filler plug out (I tried before but no cigar), it's either going to run out of oil, or I'll have to take the diff out and replace the seal, and gets some serious machinery on to the filler plug at the same time (it's almost inaccessible while the diff's in the car).

Anyway, aside from a bit of advice about the tyres brushing the inner arches on full lock (not written just mentioned) it's a pass!

Celebratory blatt is curtailed by the fact that's it's now bucketing down even harder, but I manage a few miles up the road to meet the man who has just bought the very last TVR S Series ever made. It was owned by TVR for about 20 years, and they restored it in the factory before they closed. He doesn't have the car with him, he's getting a new roof made and today, no roof means you'd soon be driving an outdoor bath. He promises to bring it along to a meeting once he's got it sorted.

Then I take the car back to the garage and dry it down before I leave it. As the old VW ad used to say "If only everything in life was as reliable as a TVR S" (dunno if that says more about the state of the rest of my life than the car, but there you go).

Later on, I go back to thinking about getting the Cerbera fixed for the 7th of June - time is getting short when I can only realistically work on it at weekends (and only if it doesn't rain). Changing the pipes shouldn't be too hard (I have a feeling those words will come back to haunt me...) but what if there's something else that's leaking under pressure and causing the car to lose water and overheat? I decide to buy a radiator pressure tester - the bladder type that should fit any system. Basically you pump it up and see if it loses pressure - if not, it's all right, if it does, then you can look for the leak. At least you know what you're looking for!

:: Thursday, May 14, 2009 ::

Got a new toy today - the cooling system pressure tester. I've thought about getting one for ages, to be honest, and even thought about how to make one, but kept giving up at the "procrastinate a bit longer" stage.

I got it so that I can find out where the Cerbera is leaking water. Hexham said that the cooling pipes in front of the engine were corroded and weeping, but I've never been able to see any leak, possibly because the airflow and the radiator fans keep blowing the pipes dry.

The tester lets you look for leaks while the car is standing still. This is always a safer option if you have the bonnet open and your head in the engine bay, I find.

It works like this: it has a wee bladder that inflates to seal the neck of the radiator or expansion bottle, then you move a wee switch to pressurise the system. Simple enough, glance at the diagrams in the instructions and off we go!

Remove the expansion tank cap and clamp the pressure valve on, move the wee lever and pump up the bladder to 25psi. Move the lever back and pump again till the cooling system is at 15psi, its rated pressure. All is going well until the valve flies out of the expansion tank.

Do you know how high 15psi can throw an expansion tank full of antifreeze? I do. First water sprays everywhere over a 20 feet radius as the valve flies off. Just as I am thinking "Christ it's everywhere I'll have to wash that off", the rest of the tanks contents come pishing down from 100 feet up, and drench the bits of me that the first explosion missed. Manifold deep joy as Stanley Unwin used to say.

Refill the tank with antifreeze and re-read the instructions. Ah. "Make sure that the bladder is 2/3rds of the way through the neck" it says. "The bladder will then expand and seal itself into the neck, instead of forcing its way out". Ah.

I fit the pressure valve again, this time adjusting the bladder further into the neck, but still with an odd feeling that I think must resemble how a member of the Kamikaze squadron must have felt as he set out on his first mission. Pump up the bladder to 25, move the valve, pressurise the system to 15 and leave it to see if it loses pressure.

The instructions say that any leak will show itself as a loss of pressure over about 2 minutes. I leave it half an hour and it doesn't budge an inch. Nothing. It would seem that the cooling system isn't leaking then...

So that leaves the tank cap. The kit includes a range of adapters to fit the cap to, then you can pressurise that in exactly the same way and make sure it's not leaking. The test shows a drop in pressure from 15 to 10 psi over about 20 minutes. Not good.

I repeat the test, this time screwing the cap on as tight as I can turn it (remembering now that when I bought the car, the cap was so tight that I could hardly turn it). This time it's better but it still drops from 15 to 14psi over about 20 minutes.

So it looks like it's the cap then as the first step for repair. I replace it on the car, tightening it as far as I can, then I start the car and let it get warm. I can see the temperature drop as the thermostat opens, and then rising till the fan cuts in at exactly the specified temperature. Another cycle confirms it seems to be working as standard.

I'll still try changing the cap though. It's a standard VW part so shouldn't be hard to find.

:: Saturday, May 16, 2009 ::

Bought a new radiator cap from the local motor factor - grand total of £5.05. Get home, fit it and bleed some air out of the radiator and coolant rails. Top up the coolant and have a trial run where it runs perfectly, with the fans cutting in exactly when they should, but starts to get wee bit hotter after 70 miles or so. I also see a couple of bits of steam from the radiator cap at points.

It's as if the water is boiling at too low a temperature... hang on - doesn't antifreeze raise the boiling point of water as well as lower its freezing point? Yes it does! When the car cools, I use a wee bulb tester to check the antifreeze concentration in the header tank - and it's far too weak - about 30% instead of the 50% specified. I've only got 2 litres of neat antifreeze left so I can't make up a complete new 12 litre batch - so I do some maths, to work out that 12 litres at 30% means there's about 4 litres of antifreeze in there - so another 2 litres should bring it about right to 50%. I decide to take out the existing coolant, dose it up to full strength, and put it back.

I use a wee vacuum extractor (that's meant for extracting oil out of dip stick holes) to empty the antifreeze out so that (a) I don't have to jack the car up and scrabble about pulling off hoses and (b) so that the coolant doesn't get manky splashing out over the engine and chassis and can be re-used. Put the extractor tube in the header tank, pump up the vacuum to empty it, then put the cap back on.

Then I remove the air bleed screw on the radiator. Because the cap is still on, the radiator can't empty itself all over the car. I push the extractor pipe to the bottom of the radiator and extract all the coolant into a big bucket, except for the last 2 litres which I keep in the extractor.

Another test of the coolant in the bucket confirms that it's too weak. I add the 2 litres of neat antifreeze, mix it in and test again - and this time it says it's near enough to 50%.

I refill the system, bleeding the radiator and the side coolant pipes, and then running the engine with the cap off until the thermostat opens, to make sure the water's fully circulated and it's properly topped up. Then I bleed the three bleed points again and put the pressure cap on.

Another (much shorter!) test drive suggests that it's running slightly cooler. I'll check the bleed screws again first thing in the morning after it's been sitting overnight, and that should do it. I hope!

:: Sunday, May 17, 2009 ::

Meeting of the Sporting Bears today, so I decide to take the Cerb - 52 miles each way should at least show up any problems.

First I check the three bleed points: there's a wee bit of air in the radiator but otherwise fine. I top up the expansion tank to the mark.

The journey down is fine. The temperature starts to rise slightly towards the end of the trip but it's barely noticeable unless you've been watching the gauge like a hawk. The car seems to be going well too, so here's hoping...

After it's had time to cool, I check the header tank again and it's gone down slightly. I top it up again just to be sure.

I also have to bear in mind that the S runs with its coolant a good bit below where the level is supposed to be. It took me a while to learn that if I put too much coolant in, it blows the excess out and then stops - then it takes months before it needs to be topped up again.

The problem with the Cerbera is that if the water level drops that far, it's below the level of the coolant rails so you get an air lock, and once that happens the whole cooling system is knackered.

Anyway, the car gets home perfectly, so it's looking promising. While it's hot, though, I decide to pressure test it again to see if there's maybe a crack opening up at higher temperatures. I can't get the system to pressurise well at all but I think that's because I can't get a good seal between the tester and the expansion tank.

I'm still concerned that Hexham reported that the metal pipes are leaking. I doubt they're wrong - they were spot on with everything else on the list. If they are, then that will explain why the system leaks especially when hot, but maybe holds pressure when cold.

I have the pipes on order. I was going to cancel them after the first pressure test but I think I'll change them anyway, and put in fresh antifreeze to a know mix ratio. I'll still be left with a couple of gallons of this stuff but I can use that in the S.

It's doing my head in, this.

:: Monday, May 18, 2009 ::

It's bucketing rain for most of the day so that limits what I can fix on the Cerb. I do nip out to get fresh antifreeze, and see Halfords do an "advanced protection" brand that supposedly protects from boiling up to 130 degrees. A wee bit more expensive but I think I need all the help I can get.

Next door to Halfords is Maplins, so I nip in there and buy a serial port to USB adaptor so that I can plub my PC into the ECU and run the diagnostic software. Not that I need to now but the day will come!

Back up the road and I email the man about the cooling pipes. He says they've been couriered today so I should get them tomorrow or Wednesday. Don't know when I'm going to fit them though, because I'm busy at work and also because the weather forecast is for a week of rain. I need to have it done and tested by the first week in June.

I make a start though, after the rain goes off, by draining the coolant again with my sooky vacuum thingy. Two of the 7 hose clips on the pipes are pretty inaccessible from above, but jacking the car up and removing the sump guard to get to them from underneath seems too much like hard work. I'll see how it goes.

:: Saturday, May 23, 2009 ::

Well the coolant pipes are here so let's have a bash at changing them.

First job is to drain the cooant with my sooky vacuum thing. Then it's time to remove the pipes. I get 5 of the clips off, but as I noticed, I need to get underneath for the last 2, and there just isn't space. So I take off the clips at the other end of those wee hoses (on to the coolant rails bove the manifold) so that I can wiggle the pipes out.

Unfortunately, I also can't move the nut that holds the capillary tube for the gauge. It's tight and rust and if I break it, the car's stuck, and I have to take half the dash out to change it.

What I have noticed though is that some of the hose clips are knackered, and one was a bit loose. I decide to give up, so I refit the pipes, using new clips, and the refill the sytem with a fluorescent orange / pink antifreeze, which has a higher boiling point, which I hope will help.

Then I bleed the sytem while the engine is running (pressure cap off) but it needs bleeding again once it cools. Then I put the cap on and let it run till the fan switches in, then take it for a trial run. Seems ok.

I've read that sometimes the gauge isn't very reliable, because the capillary tube is routed near the exhaust. You can't re-route it unless you can get the tube disconnected at one end! I don't think that's the problem, because it IS definitely overheating, but I decide to check it with the diagnostic software I got, and installed on an old lap top.

:: Sunday, May 24, 2009 ::

Can't get the pc to speak to the ecu due to a com port error. So in the spirit that made britain great, I give up.

I bleed the sytem again - where is all this air coming from? A guy on Pistonheads has an idea - it might be leaking through the cylinder head gasket even when the engine is stopped... Now that would make a lot of sense and explain why it runs ok the first time you use it but not the second time...

I fill the system to a recognisable point, a moulding inside the tank. I have my suspicions...

I order a block tester kit.

:: Friday, May 29, 2009 ::

The block tester is here. It works by "sniffing" the coolant and can detect hydrocarbons in the coolant vapour. Now there shouldn't be any: the fuel burny bits should be separate from the watery cooly bits, so if they're mixing together, there's something burst - probably the cylinder head gasket but could also be a cracked block or heads.

The tester is a glass tube with effectively a bung in one end, and a squeezy bulb on the other end. You fill the glass tube with a special blue fluid, put the whole tester in the header tank neck, and then squeeze the bulb to draw coolant vapour through the fluid. If there's hydrocarbons in there, the fluid turns yellow. Simple pimple, and worth doing to eliminate possibilities.

So tonight I carried out a hydrocarbon sniffer test on the header tank - and the fluid didn't turn yellow, but it went green right in the last 3 or 4 seconds of the minute long test - if it had taken just a few seconds longer I wouldn't have noticed it. But definitely hydrocarbybuggers in the cooling system.

I didn't bother doing other tests to narrow it down (ie pulling off leads one at a time to see which cylinder it might be) because it's either all right, or it's not. And it's not.

So that's it then. Car buggered, and not cheap to fix.

I need to find a specialist to fix it, I'm not doing it myself, it's just too footery and needs special tools for the head bolts, and also a full set of shims to reset the valve clearances. Sod it.

I need to consider my options, which appear to narrow down to 4:

1. Repair engine;
2. Find another AJP8 engine and replace the whole thing;
3. Put a different engine in;
4. Punt the car as it is. Don't want to do that. I suspect somebody else has done that already... remember this car overheated only 2 weeks after I bought it, the first time I took it any decent distance...

:: Saturday, May 30, 2009 ::

I take the Cerb along to the garage and bring the S back. I need to tidy it up because it's in a show next Sunday!

I also completely forget to phone the TVR specialist about the head gasket replacement. Oh well that'll be Monday then eh?

The S is a wee bit hesitant at first but seems to be ok once it warms up. It's a great wee car this.

After my dinner, I go out for a short run in the S - but 20 minutes turns into a couple of hours. The car is now sitting outside the house, with the mileage sitting on exactly 90,000 miles. Magic!