Fail morning
Gaaahhhh
This morning the weather was again lovely so off outside I trotted and thought it was time I did a quick once over on RAY before I get back to Marvin. All started off fine, I checked the water, a little down so topped it up and noticed the heater valve I fitted was leaking, so spent and hour pissing around with that and it still leaks. off well leave that for now and do the brake fluid.
Topped that up as it was quiet low, this leads me to think one of the cylinders or pipe joints is leaking. So onto the hit list of a zillion things to do that job goes.
Checked the oil and added a half litre which is more than I expected but so far so good, for an engine that was seized solid. I when for a little road trip and all was fine apart from the tappet noises, I have had all week. On the way back up the drive I noticed two oil patches (new ones) so that means an oil leak, that’s onto the list of jobs to do.
So might as well do these odd job, and now the engine is nice and warm I get out the feeler gauges and do the tappets. Off came the rocker cover and half way through doing the tappets a mate pops over and after a long 20 minute chat off he goes and I realise the engine has cooled down. So back on with the rocker cover screw it all down, back on with the HT leads and re start the engine to warm it all back up again, now it has noisier tappets than before I started? So whilst RAY is warming up I read the HBOL again and confirm the settings.
Off comes the rocker cover and HT leads again and I start all over again, this time I get 3/4 of the way along the rockers before the next door neighbour comes out for a chat, which again allows the car to cool down. So back on with the rocker cover screw it all down, back on with the HT leads and re start the engine to warm it all back up again. Off comes the rocker cover and HT leads again and I start all over again for the third time, only to restart it and find its even louder? I seem to be making this worse not better? SO I think I shall leave the rockers for now I don’t think I can stand to adjust them again and find the car sounding more like a upright piano than a car engine.
I decide its time I take a look at the fan on the water pump its slightly loose (on the list of jobs). When I got RAY the original water pump was rock solid with junk so I swapped it for an old viscus fan unit.
In order to check its tightness I need to get the allen key in and there is no room with the radiator in the car. Having warmed the car up I now realise I am going to have to drain it down fully, hot water everywhere.
The radiator came out nice and easy and the fan finally came loose so I could inspect it, its worn out, the bearing in the middle was loose in my fingers, so off to the shed for a spare water pump. Off comes the pump and on goes the new pump, for once this job went without issue. The radiator is back in and the car is back running , albeit noisy tappets and leaking heater valve, so I am actually two steps back form when I started this morning. This morning was suppose to be a 30 minute look over of RAY for this week, then on with the HA around 10 am its now 2:30 pm. I have sort of run out of Mojo for the day. I spent 4 1/2 hours on RAY and acheved very little.
At least we have light in the evenings so I might have a go again tomorrow after work?
