My '91 GSX - front strut brace
My old daily, the diseasel, was in the process of dying again.
Here's a nice pic of it by the harbourside:
So last Monday I started a casual search for a replacement daily.
I'd been feeling the Micra love again for a while and found a '91, 187k, red 4 door 998cc facelift K10 with MOT until December and tax to the end of the month, oh, and no 3rd gear, for £50 on freeads.
By 10.30pm I was driving home in it.
When I got home I had a quick look for a replacement gearbag on ebay, found one, same county as me and sent the guy a message.
On Tuesday I took it to work to get it on a ramp and have a look under it, I also wanted to try a wheel on it, just out of curiosity y'know.
BMW E30 14 x 6 1/2:
Shame the centrebores on them are to small and I've only got 3 of them.
Got home from work to a message from the guy with the gearbag, it was still on the car and he was also selling the car complete. A couple of messages later and I was on my way to look at it.
It'd had the cam snap between 3+4, he'd replaced the cam but couldn't get it to run right. He'd also sold the n/s mirror off it and removed the carb.
It had 3 weeks MOT, 1 1/2 months of tax, 86k, 5 100nx wheels, a 5 digit numberplate and a tow bar!
£75 later I was being towed home in it!
Wednesday evening was spent doing a little research, which is how I found this place(Y)
Thursday evening we did a compression test, discovered no compression on cylinder 4 and removed the head to find out why. This ended up taking rather longer than expected as the front centre 3 head bolts were a b'stard to get out. 1 of them rounded and I ended up having to weld a socket onto it!
Friday night we took the head off the 998 and stripped both of them down.
Bent inlet valve:
I spent Saturday morning putting a mates Transit through it's MOT but managed to pick up a headset, coolant, oil and filter, a set of 5mm spacers and got some new tyres in a more suitable size put onto the nx rims whilst on my travels.
Saturday lunchtime I finally got to get on with the head.
If you've got the head stripped bare already it'd be rude not to 'tidy up' the ports wouldn't it?
Valves back in
Spot the difference
That's right, when the cam snapped it took a chunk of the distributor body off. But where did it go?
Ah, there it is.
By 9pm and having drilled out and retapped the snapped exhaust manifold to downpipe bolts, it was all built back up and ready to go back on.
But I thought I'd leave that for daylight, so I went out and removed the rear lights, front indicator lenses and repeaters, took them into the garage and tinted them instead.
Sunday morning I treated myself to a lie in and then went out and got the head back on.
Having run it up to temperature, I did the timing and reset the valve clearances. Runs very sweetly too.(Y)
With all the stuff back under the bonnet I got onto the fun part.
Bolted the wheels and spacers on and measured how much slam I could get away with. Jacked it back up, took the wheels back off and removed the struts. Dismantled them and carefully cut off the spring platforms, moved them 2 1/2" down and welded them back on.
Reassembled, refitted and photo taken
Fitted my gearknob
Drove it properly for the first time Monday morning, the journey to work highlighted a couple of issues.
The tracking was a mile out, it had a little flat spot, the N/S/R shock mount had rusted out of the top of the turret and the towbar was tapping the rear beam over bumps.
I fabricated and welded in a new turrent top and sorted the tracking after work and swapped the carb over when I got home.
Here's what I discovered when I unbolted the towbar
Third time lucky getting the holes in the right place eh?
Then out for a bit of a bimble round and a couple of pics again
I'm really quite enjoying it.
My old daily, the diseasel, was in the process of dying again.
Here's a nice pic of it by the harbourside:
So last Monday I started a casual search for a replacement daily.
I'd been feeling the Micra love again for a while and found a '91, 187k, red 4 door 998cc facelift K10 with MOT until December and tax to the end of the month, oh, and no 3rd gear, for £50 on freeads.
By 10.30pm I was driving home in it.
When I got home I had a quick look for a replacement gearbag on ebay, found one, same county as me and sent the guy a message.
On Tuesday I took it to work to get it on a ramp and have a look under it, I also wanted to try a wheel on it, just out of curiosity y'know.
BMW E30 14 x 6 1/2:
Shame the centrebores on them are to small and I've only got 3 of them.
Got home from work to a message from the guy with the gearbag, it was still on the car and he was also selling the car complete. A couple of messages later and I was on my way to look at it.
It'd had the cam snap between 3+4, he'd replaced the cam but couldn't get it to run right. He'd also sold the n/s mirror off it and removed the carb.
It had 3 weeks MOT, 1 1/2 months of tax, 86k, 5 100nx wheels, a 5 digit numberplate and a tow bar!
£75 later I was being towed home in it!
Wednesday evening was spent doing a little research, which is how I found this place(Y)
Thursday evening we did a compression test, discovered no compression on cylinder 4 and removed the head to find out why. This ended up taking rather longer than expected as the front centre 3 head bolts were a b'stard to get out. 1 of them rounded and I ended up having to weld a socket onto it!
Friday night we took the head off the 998 and stripped both of them down.
Bent inlet valve:
I spent Saturday morning putting a mates Transit through it's MOT but managed to pick up a headset, coolant, oil and filter, a set of 5mm spacers and got some new tyres in a more suitable size put onto the nx rims whilst on my travels.
Saturday lunchtime I finally got to get on with the head.
If you've got the head stripped bare already it'd be rude not to 'tidy up' the ports wouldn't it?
Valves back in
Spot the difference
That's right, when the cam snapped it took a chunk of the distributor body off. But where did it go?
Ah, there it is.
By 9pm and having drilled out and retapped the snapped exhaust manifold to downpipe bolts, it was all built back up and ready to go back on.
But I thought I'd leave that for daylight, so I went out and removed the rear lights, front indicator lenses and repeaters, took them into the garage and tinted them instead.
Sunday morning I treated myself to a lie in and then went out and got the head back on.
Having run it up to temperature, I did the timing and reset the valve clearances. Runs very sweetly too.(Y)
With all the stuff back under the bonnet I got onto the fun part.
Bolted the wheels and spacers on and measured how much slam I could get away with. Jacked it back up, took the wheels back off and removed the struts. Dismantled them and carefully cut off the spring platforms, moved them 2 1/2" down and welded them back on.
Reassembled, refitted and photo taken
Fitted my gearknob
Drove it properly for the first time Monday morning, the journey to work highlighted a couple of issues.
The tracking was a mile out, it had a little flat spot, the N/S/R shock mount had rusted out of the top of the turret and the towbar was tapping the rear beam over bumps.
I fabricated and welded in a new turrent top and sorted the tracking after work and swapped the carb over when I got home.
Here's what I discovered when I unbolted the towbar
Third time lucky getting the holes in the right place eh?
Then out for a bit of a bimble round and a couple of pics again
I'm really quite enjoying it.
