Linear's EP91

[Linear]

The past weekend I made the long trip down to Essex to meet up with my mate and reseal the sump. After braving the horrors of the M1 I made it quite late in the evening. We had a bit of a crack at the sump on Saturday night after I got there, but with the light fading fast and not even the use of the patented Active Swearing System (ASS)™ managing to get the thing to budge we called it a night, parked up the Starlet and got down to drinking. Eventually on Sunday we got up and got to work!


Here she is, up on axle stands and with the nearside wheel removed for easier access and more "bashing room".


A much better shot of the bay during the day


In order to make the sump easier to get to, we also removed the splash guard. Unfortunately the nuts are more rust than metal at this point and all of them on the front snapped off, despite great care and liberal application of WD-40. I've got some drilling to add to the project list hahaha!




Going into the belly of the beast.


After loosening the downpipe, and with a bit of "gentle persuasion", the sump came off and I was met with this rather NSFW engine undershot.


Here's the sump out and on the garage floor. You can't really see it here, but the sealant was loose and decayed near the front of the crankshaft, which explained the oil coming from there!


After a lot of time spent with a screwdriver, a scalpel and sandpaper, my patience was rewarded with a clean sump that was ready to go back in. I cleaned off the block using the screwdriver and scalpel and then we whacked on the sealant. We used Vauxhall sealant since many people (my mate included) swear by it.


The two of us carefully moved the sump into place and then did it back up, first putting in the bolts hand-tight and then tightening them at opposite ends to avoid bending the sump. Here you can see the finished seal; not bad if I do say so myself ;)


And here it is with everything back in its proper place. I ran the engine for a while and gave it a quick spin to see if the leak was fixed. At first, seeing oil dripping once again I feared the worst, until my mate asked if I'd screwed the oil cap back on. I had not. I've never been so happy to pop the bonnet to see oil spraying everywhere! A bit of rag-application later and the visible oil was all gone, though some remains lower down and drips still to keep me on my toes.


Finally, here's a picture of the problem area after I parked up back home last night. No more oil! As I say, some oil is still dripping down from the stuff that splashed out so I'll have to wait for a while before I can say with certainty if the leak is fixed for good. As far as I can see though, the sump leak seems to be fixed. At the very least it's better than it was before!

And so concluded my trip to the far-flung land of Essex and my first ever sump re-seal. Next up on the list is sorting out the worrying noise coming from my rear nearside drum, getting a new air filter, finishing the scratch repair and sorting out the splash guard.

Edited August 31, 2016 by Linear

[Linear]

Quick evening update: cable tied the offside splash guard so it doesn't dangle worryingly anymore. Drift-spec ;)

[Linear]

Sorry for the long absence! Between work, a breakup (more power to weight now!) and curtain installation, it's been a busy Month. The car side of things has been no less busy however.

I've also gone back and resized all of my images so they're not so obnoxiously huge!

First order of business was to finish off the rear brake shoes. When I replaced them previously I discovered that the previous owner had replaced them asymmetrically; the nearside ones were practically new. Not wanting to continue the cycle of asymmetry, I changed them over so they should now both wear out at more or less the same rate.


Earlier on in the month I also went to a meetup at ASDA with my two (slightly faster) mates.


Of course, I think this is the better photo ;)

After trying and failing to get a K&N panel filter I eventually caved and just got a bog standard one. Looks like it was in need of a replacement! Not seen here: a leaf that got camera shy and left the filter before the shot was taken.


My alternator also started whining, so I replaced it along with the belt. Above is the old, noisy unit.




Here she is nestled snugly in the bay. The torrential rain made this rather interesting, with the garage flooding about twice! Well worth it to hear the engine purr instead of scream again though ;)


And finally I couldn't resist a cheeky evening post-downpour bay pic. Thankfully most of the rain was stopped by the garage door and the bonnet above, but enough got through to create a nice artistic effect I think

Next up is to replace or braze the sump. Although resealing it fixed one leak, there's also a tiny hole/crack in the bottom where oil is weeping through, which is a shame. Still, onwards and upwards!

Edited August 31, 2016 by Linear

[Ralph1]

Great work mate.

Pete

[Rich-k]

Awesome work mate glad too see your car is being so well looked after

[Linear]

Great work mate.

Pete

[Pikey009]

I got my k&n panel filter from eBay mate - k&n themselves

[Linear]

Well, after a long absence I'm back once more and with a whole heap of updates! It's been a busy few months and though I haven't neglected the Starlet I have neglected my progress blog a bit. So, starting from last year, I'll get bang up to date over a few posts!

September 2016

September marked the first time I went drag racing. I and a bunch of mates went down to Shakespeare County Raceway for the RWYB weekend and it was an absolute blast. Some of us brought tents and some of us (myself included) slept in our cars, another new experience. It was surprisingly comfy lying on the back seats but I managed to fall asleep on the seatbelt in my less-than-sober state and had an awful hip pain the next day.



Although originally I didn't plan on racing, eventually I couldn't resist and so I took to the strip and had four runs, the best of which is above. My first run was 21.21 seconds, since I cocked up the launch massively and had no idea what I was doing Given enough time I reckon I could shave it down even more.



And so ended my first racing experience with the Starlet. Towards the end of the month I also ordered a new sump to fix the previously mentioned crack issue, but unfortunately it wasn't the right one and I had to send it back.

October 2016

October marked the beginning of my crusade against rust. Or, rather, my attempts to prevent it before it occurred. I got two arches undersealed, though with the weather turning grim my progress was slowed.

I also finally got my scratched passenger door and cracked bumper repaired and sprayed, a big improvement in the looks department.





And last but not least I replaced my injector seals, since why not? I did get some funny looks from my coworkers when I bought a big tub of vaseline on my lunch break, but the innuendos were worth suffering to get the new seals in easily and cleanly ;)

Well, that's two months down and I've still got a few more to go, but those have some rather more involved jobs so I'll post those in more detail tomorrow!

[Bluebear]

Charlie looking suave as fuck on that picture, as always.

[Linear]

Haha, he certainly is photogenic!

November 2016



Following my order of the new (but incorrect) sump, I decided to take a closer look at the crack and see if I could fix it with some JB weld, as I was getting very fed up with having to carry a paint tray everywhere with me to put under the sump to catch the drips of oil. When I looked more closely and gave the crack a little prod, a big chunk of some kind of sealant/epoxy broke cleanly off of the sump, revealing that the real culprit was a small hole! Apparently this had been fixed in the past, not very well though I took a wire brush and some sandpaper to the area, after draining the oil, then resealed the area with the JB weld.

I left the JB weld to dry for more than the recommended time, but with the air being so cold it was still a little tacky. A blast with a hair dryer finished it off however, leaving it dry and ready to go. It hasn't leaked again so far, so I'm willing to call the fix a success.





I got a bit more undersealing done too, namely the rear nearside arch and the rear crash plate. As the cold winter months rolled in, I didn't do any big jobs on the Starlet for quite a while. My battery failed on me after filling up at a petrol station in January however, resulting in a bump start, a jump start and two embarrassing cut-outs at two roundabouts. After a rather chilly recovery process I got the car back to my flat and got a new battery in and it was business as usual.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Linear

[Linear]

With those updates finished, here's what I got up to this month!

Around January/February I noticed that my clutch had started slipping. I think 78,000 miles combined with a trip to the strip were too much for the poor old thing In any case, I got in touch with my mechanical mentor and asked for some guidance (and brute strength) in clutch replacement. With very short notice, I ordered a Blueprint clutch kit and travelled down to slay the beast.



In a surprisingly short time we had the car up on stands, the transmission oil drained and the CV joints out. Also surprising was that none of the bolts gave us any real trouble, with each one cracking free rather smoothly. The speedometer cable put up a struggle as the nut was seized to the cable, but some mole grips and creative wrenching sorted it out in the end. We removed both mounts from the transmission and lowered the gearbox on the jack you see in the picture, before my mate pulled it out.





There's the clutch in all its dust covered glory.



And here's the release bearing. This was nice and easy to replace. The fork pops off of a little ball joint, allowing you to easily slide the bearing off of the splines and then off of the fork. After re-greasing everything, the new bearing slid back on just as easily.

A big improvement, I'm sure you'll agree!





The above pictures show a good before and after of the friction plate. The old one was half of the thickness of the new one and in some places the rivets were flush with the material. If your Starlet is pushing 80,000 odd miles, this could be the state of your plate too so consider getting it changed!

Using some kind of witchcraft my mate aligned the new clutch by eye and then came the task of putting the gearbox back in. At this point, tragically, we learned that the Blueprint kit I'd received was actually for a 4A-GE and so, while very similar, the friction plate would not fit on the gearbox splines. Lesson learned: test fit in future :b We had to refit the old, slipping clutch and I made the long trip back.



I ordered a clutch from a different supplier this time and went for an Exedy one instead, along with a timing belt, tensioner and pulley since it was last done in 2005! I'd never done a timing belt before in my life, but there's a first time for everything ;) The top cam cover came off reasonably easy, though some wiggling and manhandling is required to slip it out past the power steering gubbins and engine mount.

To get the bottom cover off, I first removed the alternator and power steering belts, which were easy enough, then turned my attention to the crank pulley. Four bolts hold the power steering pulley to the crank pulley, and then one big one holds the crank pulley to the crank. This one at first was a nightmare to get off as, of course, turning the bolt also turns the crankshaft. Eventually I tried a trick that a chap on youtube called Per-Gunnar H Ågren recommended. I took a wrench and place the socket on the bolt, then rotated it so that it was touching to bodywork while still being on the crank pulley bolt. I then took out the 15A EFI fuse to stop the car starting and then turned the key to crank the engine. Just one crank and it was off There are probably other ways to do this and be very careful if you choose this method; I won't be held responsible if you send a wrench straight through your bodywork! After that, the crank pulley pulled off pretty easily with a little persuasion and then the bottom cam cover could be removed.



I made a mark on the belt at both the cam and crank gears using a white marker. This isn't strictly necessary as there are timing guides on both to help you, but it made the task much much easier as I was able to transfer these marks onto the new belt in exactly the same space, making putting the new belt on correctly very easy.





After removing the belt I then removed and replaced the pulley and tensioner...





...and then the belt itself! The marks look off in this picture simply because at this point I'd turned the crank several times by hand to triple check the timing. It was then just a case of replacing the EFI fuse, starting the car to check it was all working as normal and then replacing the covers.

Last weekend I travelled back down south once again with my new clutch kit in hand to finish the job. This time it went much quicker thanks to us knowing exactly how everything came apart; We started at 11 and were done by about 4-ish, just in time to drive to the pub for a meal and for me to stall three times on the way as I got used to the new clutch



My mechanical mentor in high spirits after aligning the clutch and with the prospect of an impending pub trip.

And so, that's my blog bang up to date once more! This weekend I'll be polybushing my front ARB as the current bushes aren't looking too good to say the least and hopefully sorting out two dodgy wheel studs on my front hubs, ready to fit some new wheels I picked up...

[westie]

Good stuff dude, great write up.

[MR-2]

Nice written, points for your efforts