PGY 161L - The Rolling Restoration

[Reddi-Eng]

Thursday 23rd April 2009

Filled the car to the brim with petrol to dilute any stale petrol and have adjusted the slow running jets along the lines suggested by my friendly MOT mechanic so hopefully a run at the weekend will show the benefits. I've adjusted the auto-box kick-down cable as far as the screw adjuster allows and that's certainly lowered the speed of 2nd to 3rd changes by 10mph. I've started making a new link between the throttle and kick-down cables that should allow me to reclaim some of the screw adjustment and hopefully further improvements.

Made some running repairs to the exhaust which got an advisory for being loose at he MOT. Tightening up one clamp just sheared the corroded U-bolt so as a temporary fix a couple of replacements from Halfords were fitted. A long term solution is needed when funds allow.

I've also started fabricating a cowl between grill and radiator, partly to see if it channels the air through the radiator better and partly to improve the cosmetics of this area. Outside cosmetics were also improved yesterday by washing off the winters dust and giving it a polish. It comes up quite well but does highlight more jobs to do next winter.

Today I changed the oil filter and oil ready for this years outings which start this weekend with the South Midlands "Blossom Trail" run. With the to & from miles and the 50 mile route well see if we manage 75 miles without any problems

[Gilb]

Hi Derek

My friend helped me make a cowl from aluminium for my mk III as I was having a few overheating problems. It did a good job of channelling the air to the radiator, but it also trapped the hot air in a tight space in front of the rad when standing in traffic. I think the rad was knackered, so have bought a new (recon) rad which is fitted and I’ll be taking out tonight. I'll let you know if the cowl works with the new rad and take some pic FYI...

Robin

[Reddi-Eng]

Well we completed about 80 miles on the blossom trail and a 25 mile round trip to the Kit Car show at Stoneleigh with only one blemish. After one of the shorter stops on the Blossom Trail the car refushed to start. It think it was just hot and this caused some issue with the carb. Just beginning to worry when it bust into life. At the next stop I left the bonnet open and there were no further problems.

I decided today to try and cure the exhaust leak and examination showed that whereas the off side exhaust pipe fits neatly into the end of the manifold the nearside was about an 1" short with a bit (or several bits) of pipe forming sleaves to bridge the gap. Stripped the exhaust off and cleaned it up only to find that the end of the manifold has been distorted by a clamp being overtightened hence the need for these misc. sleaves. Previous Owners eh!

The exhaust pipe will not slide into the manifold end with out some remedial work so just pondering what to do next. I suspect the manifold will need to come off to see what can be done.

Once again the joys of Gilbern ownership turn the simple into a mystery trip of discovery

Still with the exhaust off I can just get to the wires on the Autobox inhibitor/reverse light switch and perhaps do some test to see why thats not working.

[Waylison]

Derek.

When I made an aluminium shroud to help channel air into the rad, I found that the carb got hot because I had starved the top of the engine of cool air, so I cut some louvres into the top, two rows of 5 and this helped a lot. If you channel the air just into the radiator it tends to flow down the front of the engine and out the bottom, so that leaves the heat from the exhaust manifolds and block to rise up under the bonnet.





Note: I have fitted a much bigger radiator to the original. It's from a transit and cools brilliantly.

[Reddi-Eng]

Thanks Wayne, I'm already getting a lot of heat from the manifolds and this I think is causing my hot start problem (even with the electric fuel pump). I was only today looking at some old "ducting" I have from a previous vehicle and thinking should I channel some cold air to the carb.

Derek.

Note: I have fitted a much bigger radiator to the original. It's from a transit and cools brilliantly.

I thought on MKIII's they were already fitted with an ex transit radiator but mine looks different from yours?

Just noted that not having bonnet hinges makes the radiator cowl a whole lot easier

[Greybags]

If the end pipe of the exhaust is deformed that you can straigthen it out with one of these..

http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=8702&frostProductName=Exhaust+Pipe+Expander&catID=19&subCatID=30&FrostCat=Engine%20&%20Mechanical&FrostSubcat=Exhaust

A lot of money to buy but possibly the local specialist should have one...

One of my manifiolds was a lot shorter that the other and I had to make the exhaust on one side about 2" longer than on the other. I just put it down to someone had butchered it at sometime in the past...but perhaps not.. Excuse the welding, it may not be the prettiest, but it works.



I made a cowling for the front, but also had a radiator made to my own spec, as it worked out almost as cheap as having what ever was in the front of the car when I bought it repaired, recored and made watertight...

There is also a Ford Capri header tank running from the filler cap overflow, when it gets hot and the fluid expands it dumps it into the tank, along with any air in the system, as it cools it draws fluid back in, sort of a self bleeding system.

The new one is a 4 core high efficency/high flow rather than the more standard 3 core so is a bit thicker. It sits 1/2" above the anti roll bar, and the whole width between the chassis rails. The original Mk11 system holds about 16 pints, but this system now holds 22 pints.



As the top of the bonnet bulge was damaged, when I repaired it the bonnet vents were opened out as much as possible to allow as much heat as possible to escape.



With a 12" fan pulling air through the radiator, it can stand on the drive idling, and the temp never really goes over the mid 90's...

Grahame

[Admin]

I thought on MKIII's they were already fitted with an ex transit radiator but mine looks different from yours?

Derek, there are Transit and then there are Transits.

Just for the record;
Yes, Mk3s are fitted with a Transit rad. - the contemporary Mk1 with modified side members (although the standard item will fit mounted on exhaust bobins) and you can upgrade using a diesel 3 row core.

Presumably Wayne's is from a more modern Transit model.

[Waylison]

One of my manifiolds was a lot shorter that the other and I had to make the exhaust on one side about 2" longer than on the other.

You will always find one exhaust is longer than the other. This is because the cylinders of the engine are offset to each other by about 2 inches. So the exhaust manifolds are offset the same amount. If they weren't offset then the con rods would need to bolt to the crank at the same point! Just look at the front of the two rocker covers/ heads and you will see one is set back more than the other. Simples

Presumably Wayne's is from a more modern Transit model.

Well spotted. It's from a much more modern transit. It's reduced in height to fit lower in the engine bay and is wider, so wide it actually touches the inner wings each side and has meant that the chassis has been adapted to allow it to fit ( previous owner did chassis mods ) I changed his rad because it wasn't up to the job. It has side header tanks, and as Grahames', it breathes into a separate expansion bottle.