Today I didn’t do that much on the car. I re-filled the radiator with coolant. My sealant gasket fix of the radiator sump plug seems to be working, which is great (although I also have a brand new plug on the way to me).
I also torqued the crankshaft main bolt, to 160 NM, which required dropping the sway bar again, and removing some o’ the upper pipe works. And then, not forgetting to reconnect the negative terminal on the battery, it was time to have another go at starting her up. I was totally convinced it would be exactly as before, and not work at all!
So it was gobsmackingly amazing when the engine actually fired and turned over. I’m not a religious man, but… Hallelujah! Seems my timing belt change was successful after all. Sadly this state of bliss didn’t last long; the engine, whilst running, sounded bally awful, spluttering and struggling. So I switched her off, pronto.
Going round to the engine bay revealed an almost explosive looking oil leak had occurred at the rear of the engine. So I had to clean that up, and then take off and re-seat the cam cover. Whilst I was at it I cleaned up and removed the previous gasket sealant. I then refreshed the latter, with a new application, and re-seated the cam cover. Sadly I don’t have a small/low enough torque wrench for the final buttoning up.
So I’ve ordered a smaller (5-25NM) torque wrench, via Amazon (pictured above). That ought to arrive tomorrow. Once I’ve torqued off all the bolts topside, it’ll be time to try again. Third time lucky!?
I’ve learned a lot, and enjoyed working on the car. That said, there were some hairy/sweary moments. And occasionally it was too much like hard work. That one episode where I worked on one nut/bolt for about three hours was not a favourite moment!
And we’re still not there yet. There are at least three things still outstanding: 1) Have I sorted out the oil leak? 2) There’s also a very slight drip-drip-drip type coolant leak from somewhere on the thermostat housing (despite the new gasket). 3) Did I bugger the trigger-wheel when struggling to get the crankshaft pulley off?
This last is a bit of a worry, as it concerns the accuracy of the timing, as did the whole cam-belt replacement shenanigans. Apparently it can quite easily by put on the wrong way round. It’s also supposed to be quite specifically aligned. I’m not sure mine is right in any of these respects!?
My thoughts at close of play today are that I’ll have to wait for the smaller torque wrench, then tighten off ye engine and try it again. If she runs and doesn’t haemorrhage oil again, I’ll take her for a shirt run around the block. But I’ll most likely need to get her to a garage to have someone competent look over her… hmmm!?
And finally, what about work? Last Friday I did a full days’ teaching, for the first time in two weeks. My journeys were long and very arduous: two trains, a bus, and a long walk either end of the day, with a taxi journey in the middle!
Will I be able to teach tomorrow? It looks unlikely. I don’t want to lose that school and those pupils! Perhaps, if I get the car running tomorrow, all will be well and back to normal? But what about getting to a garage and checking the trigger wheel, etc?
* It didn’t work, sadly. So I wound up using a pair of circlip pliers, instead.