I had been looking for a valver for a while, simply miss my old ones, i like the mk2's but they aren't the same!
The problem is these cars are now rare and expensive, last week i saw a crappy blue one with yellow wheels sell on ebay for £1136
This one came up for sale fairly local to me for £1000, at the time i ignored it as i was in the middle of buying a turbo kit for my 172 however the lad i was buying the turbo stuff from told me he had sold it (after agreeing to sell it to me and organising a day for collection, the collection day was missed because he didn't have it all off his car, then 2 days later told me sold it!?) so i went back and put a deposit on this hybrid.
The car was £1000 came with piper 285 cams, supersprint manifold, renault 21 green injectors and a remap @ 175 bhp with a lot of other parts fired to - Gaz coil overs - short shift - new gearbox with bolted in diff, All these things were done within 11 months! however it didn't run as the owner said the timing had slipped and bent valves, a car courier was organised and the car was delivered to me on Friday.
The car does have other issues, the rear of the sills are rusty (new ones came with the car) one arch is rusty, the other arch has a dent and its just generally untidy, however as it was cheap at £1k with all the nice bits on it it didn't bother me as the absolute worse case scenario would be to sell of all the parts and be in profit.
These are the sellers pics
This is the only pic i took on Friday when it got delivered
Initial plans were to brake my phase 2 172 and use the engine in this and get hold of the required phase 1 172 bits separately, but a friend of mine said 'why don't you just rebuild the head?' Which initially seemed daunting but then i guess if it goes wrong I'm just in the same position i am now so I decided i'd give it go.
The seller said the timing had slipped, he told me he believes this because the compression is low on cylinder 2 and 3, to me that screamed head gasket but he said he was sure it was timing, So today i decided to start getting some bits off to get ready to take the head off.
But you know whats like when you get stuck in -
I was going to line up to TDC but i was trying to avoid taking the lower pulley off and the plastics so i just marked it where it is and ill use these marks when i put the belt back on
And then off with the teniosnor (can someone help me with this, it was on its loosest setting before i even undone it, its very tight, going to be an absolute nightmare to get the belt on as there is no useable adjustment on it, is there a better one to buy?)
And then off with the head, as you can see the gasket has gone between 3 and 4 and is starting to go in between 2 and 3 (i can only assume the seller was mistaken when he remembered the compression test showing 2 and 3 low, although i am now wishing that i tested it myself and also wet tested the cylinders, but the bores look good enough)
And now a boot full
And thats where i am now, i have ordered a new head gasket and head bolts, i will clean the head and block tomorrow/tuesday, i will get the head checked to see if it needs skimming (its been done at least once before and i want to avoid it if i can)
Long term plans are to fit 172 phase 1 wide track and also hold an F4R for when/if its needed so I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap phase 1 for sale, i will do the bodywork/welding myself but most important at the moment is to get it running! hopefully by the weekend.
The problem is these cars are now rare and expensive, last week i saw a crappy blue one with yellow wheels sell on ebay for £1136
This one came up for sale fairly local to me for £1000, at the time i ignored it as i was in the middle of buying a turbo kit for my 172 however the lad i was buying the turbo stuff from told me he had sold it (after agreeing to sell it to me and organising a day for collection, the collection day was missed because he didn't have it all off his car, then 2 days later told me sold it!?) so i went back and put a deposit on this hybrid.
The car was £1000 came with piper 285 cams, supersprint manifold, renault 21 green injectors and a remap @ 175 bhp with a lot of other parts fired to - Gaz coil overs - short shift - new gearbox with bolted in diff, All these things were done within 11 months! however it didn't run as the owner said the timing had slipped and bent valves, a car courier was organised and the car was delivered to me on Friday.
The car does have other issues, the rear of the sills are rusty (new ones came with the car) one arch is rusty, the other arch has a dent and its just generally untidy, however as it was cheap at £1k with all the nice bits on it it didn't bother me as the absolute worse case scenario would be to sell of all the parts and be in profit.
These are the sellers pics
This is the only pic i took on Friday when it got delivered
Initial plans were to brake my phase 2 172 and use the engine in this and get hold of the required phase 1 172 bits separately, but a friend of mine said 'why don't you just rebuild the head?' Which initially seemed daunting but then i guess if it goes wrong I'm just in the same position i am now so I decided i'd give it go.
The seller said the timing had slipped, he told me he believes this because the compression is low on cylinder 2 and 3, to me that screamed head gasket but he said he was sure it was timing, So today i decided to start getting some bits off to get ready to take the head off.
But you know whats like when you get stuck in -
I was going to line up to TDC but i was trying to avoid taking the lower pulley off and the plastics so i just marked it where it is and ill use these marks when i put the belt back on
And then off with the teniosnor (can someone help me with this, it was on its loosest setting before i even undone it, its very tight, going to be an absolute nightmare to get the belt on as there is no useable adjustment on it, is there a better one to buy?)
And then off with the head, as you can see the gasket has gone between 3 and 4 and is starting to go in between 2 and 3 (i can only assume the seller was mistaken when he remembered the compression test showing 2 and 3 low, although i am now wishing that i tested it myself and also wet tested the cylinders, but the bores look good enough)
And now a boot full
And thats where i am now, i have ordered a new head gasket and head bolts, i will clean the head and block tomorrow/tuesday, i will get the head checked to see if it needs skimming (its been done at least once before and i want to avoid it if i can)
Long term plans are to fit 172 phase 1 wide track and also hold an F4R for when/if its needed so I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap phase 1 for sale, i will do the bodywork/welding myself but most important at the moment is to get it running! hopefully by the weekend.
