Are you going to try and keep the odometer showing the same mileage? They don't look too far apart so hopefully you can just wind the new unit up/down to the correct mileage. Word of warning: When doing up the thicker nuts that are behind the fuel and temperature gauges only do them up hand tight, don't use a tool otherwise you'll likely brake the thread and they are necessary for the gauge to work. That hat is amazing by the way

just read through this. great work and love the originality. I like the bumpers and front lights a lot

@86c: I'm making do with the one I've got for now, but eventually I would like to get a fresh one to modify and then replace the existing one with. Doesn't need the wiper or spoiler, just needs to be clean and dent free ideally. Going to be a while before I'm in the market for one though, things are pretty tight cash-wise at the moment.

@Mattloaf: That hat is indeed amazing, it's the reason I bought it (TK Maxx for a tenner, would you believe it? Pretty good quality thing too, I love TK Maxx sales). Got some options with the dials, but I think in the short term I'll just put the original one back in as it'll be easier. I really need the car in one piece sooner rather than later and some of the jobs I wanted to do like removing the windscreen to deal with the very starts of rust are going to have to wait a bit.

@mini mayhem: Thank you :) Sorry it took me so long to reply!

___

I had turned this into a secret progress thing (but forgot to mention that here) because my brother and I were a lot more hopeful that things would be sorted quickly. As it is, things took a different turn and things stumbled to a halt again, which isn't a good thing when you're working to a deadline.

So, to keep up the motivation, I'm removing the shroud of mystery and carrying on as normal again. My camera is still being a tart (I think it needs a new card reader) so there's no pictures at the moment, I have to catch it when it's feeling cooperative, but here's what's happened.

4th March 2012

Paid for a pair of second-hand Austin A35 sidelights without plinths for front of car. To fit on the front wings. This came about because the sealed beam quads I'm switching to don't incorporate sidelights and I'm told I need sidelights for the MoT.

6th March 2012

Headbolts tightened, needed it. Tomorrow plan is to rebuild the engine and get him running again, see what’s what.

8th March 2012

New fuel hose fitted to replace cracked and perished hoses.

New fuel filter fitted

Three old gaskets and red hermatite removed from thermostat housing and replaced with fresh Instant Gasket.

Exhaust manifold refitted, radiator and other ancillaries connected.

Car started and runs noisily but evenly. Exhaust to be properly reattached.

11th March 2012

Exhaust refitted

Air filter box refitted

Timing adjusted to aid smooth running.

No water circulation or pressure in water bottle.

Water bottle cap no longer working.

Water pump making a different noise.

Engine won’t idle without some choke

Steam smell (I can't smell this, my brother can, worth noting it's also the water pump side) from cylinder one area of engine, but no visible steam

No apparent water loss.

Some water out the exhaust, could just be condensation from being laid up since October/November 2011

Today, 13th April 2012

The Polo now runs, without the erratic revs, but the water pump no longer seems to work, water isn't circulating and after a while the temperature will just start to climb. I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with the engine, if I'm honest, but going with what's been advised and my gut instinct, I think the water pump is probably knackered which means water isn't circulating properly leading to overheating issues. The weird inability of the engine to idle has me properly foxed, especially since the carburettor appears to be working as normal.

Providing I can sort out this idling issue there's no reason that the car can't be pressed back into service with a few, not-too-costly items. The new headlight brackets are well on the way to being fittable and I have a source for new headlights. I've discovered that the reason my horn kept not working was blown fuses - checked the horns on the Princess and they work fine. Dad is going to help with the rewiring of the lights to get all the new stuff plumbed in properly.

If (and I suppose it's a big if) work continues to be stable and work is nice and steady there's no reason I can't hit my deadline providing I can get to the bottom of this weird issue.

Shopping list currently stands me with:

Can of Petrol (drained the tank for use in the Princess when the OMGFUELKHAOS was happening) - £5

2 part-worn tyres (4 if moving to the steels all round) - £20-80

Water pump - £30

Timing belt - £7-12, I think

4 headlights - £20

Road Tax - £75ish for 6 months

MoT - £30-50 depending on station

Rather than focusing on the cosmetics of the car, I need to focus on the mechanical side of things. This means getting it running properly and using the car for a week or two before the Waddington show (that's my deadline) so I can iron out all the bugs. The last thing I want is for the car to break down to or from the show since my housemate will be driving the Polo for me as I'll be driving the Princess.

So the next job is to pull the water pump and have a look. It has been making an odd selection of noises that I was assured were not to be worried about but I'm expecting to find broken things. If it turns out the water pump isn't broken I have to find out why the water isn't circulating in the system but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Removing the water pump for replacement will mean a new timing belt as well, obviously.

I feel frustratingly close to working out what's wrong, I just hope I can muster up enough skill to fix it.

Spent some time removing skin from my knuckles in the garage today. Decided to get a look at the water pump to see what's going on, yet another job I've never done.

The Haynes manual (which I really ought to put back together with some duct tape, it's falling apart!) is less than clear with some of the procedure for removing the water pump, but this is what I managed to do.

1. Remove the bolts on the belt shroud and lift it free. Fiddly, but relatively easy.

2. Line up the timing marks which are a dot on on one of the teeth on the cam sprocket and a groove on the alternator pulley.

3. Remove the timing belt. There's no tensioner on the timing belt, the water pump does that for you. So it's a case of using a wide, flat, blunt instrument (I used an old wood chisel) and carefully and slowly knocking the belt from the sprocket a bit at a time.

4. Unbolt the bolts you can see to lift the backing plate/timing cover free. Wiggle it. Unbolt the bolts you can't see, and which none of your tools can really get to and try again.

5. Lift the waterpump and plate free.

These will get degreased, wire brushed and then given a good coat of VHT black before being refitted as it's as good a chance as any to tidy things up a bit. Providing the head is okay, of course.

Happily, the water pump appears to be okay. There's no obvious damage and it spins freely and without noise or grittiness to the bearings. There is a peculiar rust staining to it, but I suspect this is in part from the car being stood for a while. The rubber seal has also gone very flat, so I'm wondering if I'll need to replace that when I refit everything.

This sort of rules out the water pump as being the root cause of the problem. I had a look at the side of the block and sure enough there's some new water marks there right by cylinder 1 and where my brother could smell the steam. This makes me suspect that the head gasket has gone again, probably water to compression like it did before... twice.

New plan is now back to the pressure testing of the head. I've sort-of got funds for this so next week I'm hoping to whip the head off and get it pressure tested. If it proves to still be good, I'll get any repair work - a skim, or a polish - done to it before refitting with new gaskets. I've got a new Rover radiator from a neighbour that's very close to the Polo radiator dimensions, but provides better cooling that I'll probably use.

Best scenario - head is fine, just needs a bit of a skim and polish, gets bolted on and everything works.

Worst scenario - head is buggered. Replacements are nearly impossible to source. This would end up with either new engine as an option or breaking this car and using the good bits on a replacement Polo.

If the head gasket has blown again, which now does seem very likely, it would probably explain the odd running, the poor temperature control and the lack of pressure in the system. I'd still like to know what's been causing the odd squeaky noise that became a shimming noise on this side of the engine, none of the belts appear worn and the water pump is silent when turned by hand... could the noise have been a small amount of escaping steam, from the head gasket perhaps?

20v turbo would be set the looks of the car off nicely or a v6

I take it you'll be paying my insurance for me then? :p Insurance is cripplingly expensive, it's already at £1200 and I can't afford for it to go any higher, really so putting a significantly bigger/more powerful engine in is both not affordable and not really what I'm about.

I'll get the head tested and find out if it's buggered. There's a chance that the issue is somewhere in the bowels of the engine, or that it's one really minor thing I've missed, but if I'm honest I'm expecting a cracked/warped head with all the grief I've been having from that part of the engine.

Replacement engine might happen, but if it does it'll be at most a 1300 because of insurance and I might end up buying another Polo and swapping good bits from one to the other. We shall see. I'm putting it from my mind for a week or two while I focus on work and getting my Austin Princess show-ready.

An Austin Princess? Christ you have some weird taste! . I'm interested in how you declare the changes you have made to this car to your insurers because obviously you aren't just buying bits and bolting them on, your custom fabricating and such. I'm guessing that they ask to see photographs of the modifications?

You got that hat for a tenner? Well now I feel like an idiot, my fedora cost £30.

You got that hat for a tenner? Well now I feel like an idiot, my fedora cost £30.

if we are talking about getting ripped off for hats, at autosport in jan I spent £20 on a renault F1 cap. my excuse is, I had been driving for four hours, I was tired, I was dehydrated and I had some money.

also its good to see you back angyl! I want to see some more custom goodness.

I asked Admiral when I set up the policy and this is what they said. It might be different for other policies of course and my renewal is due in a few weeks so we'll find out what the next insurer says.

Interior - it's a cloth retrim, so it doesn't change the premium, but thanks for letting us know.

Paint - it's a flat colour, so it doesn't change the premium, but thanks for letting us know.

Bumpers - replacement non-stock part, not an issue.

Headlights - not asked yet, I didn't have them when I got the policy first time.

Alloys - VW aftermarket, so they do raise the premium a tad, but not much.

Chrome bits and bobs - accessories, you don't need to tell us about any of that.

Suspension - That'll be another £100 please, it's a performance modification.

Interestingly, they didn't want to see pictures of the mods, just that I declare anything I've done ideally before I do it. If I want to save money and revert to non-lowered suspension I do need to provide them with an engineer's report to prove I've done it, which I thought was novel. Most of the modifications on the Polo are not massive deviations from stock so it doesn't really hit my insurance that hard, I've been careful to keep body panels as stock as possible without compromising what I want to do so if I did have to replace anything (which would be a total loss anyway, you know how it works) the insurer could. All about being a bit canny with it, though I suspect that when I finally get those spats made a regular insurer wouldn't know *what* to make of them so I'm going specialist when I renew if I can as I think they'll be more forgiving.

I'm itching to get the head on the engine inspected but my hands are tied for a few weeks with other expenses and it's driving me to distraction. I'll get there.

@Mattloaf: More Princess info can be found here, it really is a stupid car for me to have bought, but I love it because of that: http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?...p;thread=123005

@Leon: £20 for a baseball cap? You really must have been tired! Might be a couple of months before I can start throwing money at the Polo again, I'm hoping to get a few smaller bits and pieces sorted like the grille bars and a few under bonnet bits and pieces in the meantime.

Work is pretty heavy at the minute, but I'm getting through the worst of the backlog now and new work is trickling in steadily. I've got so much to do here it's ridiculous and plans for the new garage locations later this year means I've got to move a fair few plants and rocks and stuff in the garden to get it all sorted before it gets too late in the year to be moving plants, I'm cutting it fine as it is with some of them. We shall get there, eventually, and I'm nothing if not patient when it comes to my cars and getting what I want.

Edited 25 April, 201214 yr by Angyl

The love has returned, I'm actually doing Polo things right now! Okay, so it's only stripping paint from the grille bars so I can polish them, but there's only so much you can do at half past one in the morning.

Optimistically, I'm hoping things fall into place so I can be sorted for the Waddington show on the 30th of June. There's a good chance I won't succeed, but if I don't try then there's zero chance I'll manage it, right? I've found a useful thread on another forum about a Mk1 Astra with similar engine problems to the Polo which has given me some pointers. I now have a shortlist of items after having eliminated quite a few other things to date.

Head gasket - there's a chance I haven't actually blown this. There's no loss of water and no water in the oil or vice versa. I might not need to do anything here.

Radiator - Good chance it's blocked. I have a similar sized Rover radiator I'm borrowing from a neighbour that is brand new which will at least allow me to check if my current radiator is blocked and slowing or stopping the circulation of water in the system, and also causing cooling problems

Carb - Because the carb has been cleaned and the engine has had quite a bit of remedial servicing done, there's a good chance my settings are off and causing the idling issue. It's functioning perfectly fine otherwise, but a badly set-up carb can cause a whole host of odd problems.

I'm off work next week, a much needed break I can tell you, so I'm hoping to get on with going through the above in a few days time. There are some expenses I know I'm going to incur if I'm to get the Polo ready for the Waddington show, but they're not impossible costs.

MoT

Road Tax

Exhaust fix/replacement, mainly the back box which I might just chop off

4 new headlights - nearly got the proper quads sorted out now

2 tyres - not vital, but good for peace of mind. Part worns will do.

2 sidelight bulbs - my new sidelights came without bulbs, how annoying!

Petrol (to get me there, and to actually run the engine, he's completely empty right now)

Various sundries like pipes and clips and whatnot

I'm fairly confident he'll go through an MoT once the engine is fixed because the suspension and brakes are good and there's no welding needed. We shall see what happens.

Optional stuff is getting my 50/50 split rear seat retrimmed to match the interior and likewise getting the door cards sorted, but these items aren't vital. Mostly I'm going to concentrate on getting him back in one piece, running and tidy. My housemate has said he'll drive the Polo to the show as long as he gets an opportunity to get a feel for the car beforehand and really, I don't blame him. He's used to power-everything and the only other old car he's driven is a late 70s Capri which has considerably better brakes than my humble Polo.

I've been watching this thread with interest since it started.

I love what you're doing with this car, the vision you have for it and the way you've borrowed parts from all sorts of marques. No - it's not to everyone's taste - I'm not even sure I'd drive it myself - but my hat goes off to you for the originality you're showing and I *love* the colour scheme :)

I'm starting to wonder whether I can get away with Imp bumpers for mine, but not sure I have the engineering prowess to pull it off.

Keep the updates coming - can't wait to see it all in one piece again.

The tricky bit with the Imp bumpers is reshaping the brackets or making up new ones. Originally, I wanted to just bolt the Imp bumpers onto the original Polo bars in the metal bumpers, but it need too much trimming and fettling to get it to work. You don't have to stick to Imp bumpers either, get some measuring and ask around to see if you can find others that'll work. I think Dolomite bumpers are a close match, but I couldn't find any when I was looking for a set and pretty much fell over the Imp items.

I can't WAIT for my week off. I've got a few more hours work to do tomorrow, which is mostly e-mails and paperwork, and then I can get in the garage and get the spanners out. Money is ridiculously tight thanks to a cock up with nPower but things have been worse and I've still got stuff done so I'm not letting that get to me. Game plan is really to get everyone bolted back together on the engine, filled up with fresh coolant, a jerry can of petrol in the tank and try and get him running properly. It's entirely possible most of my problems are down to a bad airlock and a carb that needs a tweak, just about everything else has been eliminated. Very much one of those things where I've needed to step back and give myself some space from the car.

More people should build cars that they want, to their own tastes, not to popular trends. Popular trends aren't necessarily a bad thing, but what's the point in following the herd if it's not the car *you* want. I'll never win any shows, or make it big on the internet, but that's not why I built this car this way. I'm seriously missing driving him though, the Princess is a fantastic old boat, but she's hard work compared to the Polo and has a bit of a drink problem.

Thank you for the positive vibes, they're always appreciated. Hopefully my little bit of madness will give you some positive vibes in return :)

Update time, though not a huge one. This is more outlining my plans for the work I want to do over the next couple of days. After all the despondency about not being able to sort the Polo out and money and blabla my brain seems to have clicked into productive mode.

Today I pulled the rear seat out of the car, and my new split seat I got from a breaker recently They're a similar basic design, so I'm hoping I can remove the cover I made for the non-split seat, modify it a bit, and reattach it to the new 50/50 split seats. In theory, it shouldn't be too difficult but we shall see what happens in practice.

The other thing I liberated from the garage were the new headlamp mounts. One of these still needs trimming, then both need stripping down and the backing plates painting up, probably just in black so they're less visible when fitted. After that, I just need to use suitable screws or bolts to fix them to the modified original light brackets and I'll be good to go once I have some more sealed beam units to slot in there.

I've got everything I need to put the front end back together and I think if I focus on getting the Polo looking like a car again and out of the garage, I'll be more inclined to work on him. Sometimes, I forget the car is tucked away in the garage and I'm sure that's prolonging the rebuild more than it needs to. I even took one of the front wings out of the garage and put it in the house so I'm encouraged to actually get the flatting back and minor repairs to the paint finished.

I think this build has been suffering from rather too much procrastination of late, and it's high time I got stuff done, the engine running and an MoT booked!

Amen to that. I'm suffering from procrastination syndrome also. Having my motor in a different village really doesn't help. I think I need to get an mot booked and just pull my finger out!

Keep it up!

@Prankstar: an MoT is as good a motivation as any! I remember when I lived in Sheffield and the Polo lived in Lincolnshire... difficult, challenging times... but we got there in the end.

___

After pushing the Polo out of the garage yesterday and getting him into view so I'm encouraged/shamed into working on him I actually did today. I'm really very pleased with myself because today I managed to do some spannering from experience rather than having to consult a book every five minutes, something of a milestone for me.

I knew I had to reinstate the water pump and the timing belt in order to get the Polo running, but a look around the engine bay also highlighted that the coil needed to be reconnected and of course water needed putting back in the system. I had my doubts in my abilities because I'm nothing if not under-confident when it comes to mechanical things, but I worked through methodically and got everything connected, checked the labels we'd put on the wiring and was sure I'd got everything as it ought to be.

When I removed the water pump I had made sure (or thought I had) that the static timing was where it should be so I didn't think to check that. This is something I will have to go back and do, but I'm getting ahead of myself...

I've never done a timing belt before, but I knew what should happen and that tension was very important. First of all I bolted the water pump and back plate in place and then found I couldn't get the belt to go on the cam sprocket at all.

I quick search of the old memory bank made me remember that the water pump assembly appears to have an eccentric rotation, or rather that the rotation point is not central on the whole pump assembly, which made me realise that must be for adjusting it, especially when combined with the long curving slots the bolts go through. That was how to sort out the tension on the belt.

So I slackened off the stupidly awkward bolts and rotated the back half of the water pump in situ with the bolts loosely in the holes.

This gave me enough slack in the belt to get it located correctly both on the pump...

... and on the sprocket.

Eventually everything lines up neatly, and the belt can go from this...

...to this.

My camera has eaten the pictures, but on the water pump housing there's a notch that you can use to push it around to tension the belt, once you've pushed it as far as you can, tighten up the bolts and the job is done.

Next thing was to put Mister Bunny in his run because he was in the firing line of the exhaust and I didn't want him getting poorly. Then I filled up the water and burped the system, I think I did this a total of 5 times until the water level didn't drop and I got no air bubbling up and then did everything up. A few last checks to ensure everything was where it ought to be and nothing could fall into belts and fans and whatnot and I connected the battery. I had no idea if there would be any life in the battery as I hadn't thought to put it on charge the night before, but happily there was.

This clicky video is the engine running. I managed to mechanic something!

The good news is that there the water now circulates, the temperature on the hoses is as it ought to be and the cap on the expansion bottle pressurises properly, all things that weren't happening before. Diagnosis: really bad airlock, now resolved.

The bad news is that I think I've cocked up the static timing, the engine now hunts badly and won't run without some choke applied. My current thinking is that I need to reset the static timing properly and fiddle with the mixture setting on the carb as it's probably running too lean so that's something to look into.

However, I am happy that the car no longer overheats, even under load, and the system is working as it ought. I've ruled out head gasket failure completely now, there's simply none of the signs I'd look for apparent for that.

After some tinkering that confirmed rotating the distributor did nothing to alleviate the hunting, the house reeked of exhaust fumes as it had got sucked in through the kitchen window (just as well Mister Bunny was out of harms way). Since the car was running, I thought it would be sensible to turn him around under his own power, which went swimmingly until I got stuck.

As I came off the bottom of the drive, the corner of it that had begun to break up collapsed under the weight of the Polo, leaving one wheel stuck in a hole and the other on slippery mud. I tried very, very hard to free the car, chocking the wheels, putting stuff with better traction under the wheels (which mostly just gripped the tyre and slid on the mud, scooting out across the lane), using smooth and even revs without too much power... but all the theory failed me in practice and I had to admit defeat and call my Dad.

He and my brother have rescued stuck cars before, so they knew what to do. A bit of weight over the passenger side wheel got the much needed traction on the rough concrete slab I'd been using to try and get better traction than the mud, and the car was driven up onto the drive by my brother. When he came to a stop, he put the handbrake on and the cable decided that was the perfect time to snap, adding itself to the list of things I need to buy or fix.

If it's not one thing it's another! I'll add it to the list. Still, the car did make it up the drive under his own power, allbeit hunting and running a bit rich because of the choke, and we chocked the wheels before putting him to bed for the night.

I had better update the plans for the car now on what needs doing I suppose.

> MoT

> Road Tax

> New backbox

> New handbrake cable (unless existing one can be repaired)

> Finish trimming and fitting new headlight brackets

> 3 Sealed beam headlights (got one already)

> Fit new sidelights

> 2 good tyres (at least)

> Finish grille

> Retrim new back seat

> Finish off the paint

> Lots of cleaning in the engine bay.

Not a huge list, but a lot of work to get it all done. I'm just happy my little car is sorted, and it *does* feel little after tooling around for a while in the Princess. Most of what needs to be done won't cost any money, thankfully, as I don't have any money at the moment.

good to see some progress mate!

waterpump sounds nackered in the video though!

as for the hunting idle, check for air leaks, (paticularly the carb gasket), and make sure your cambelt is tight (mine was so loose the timing was all over the place!)

The waterpump is odd, I can't figure out if it's broken or not. It still does it's job, but that funny squeaking doesn't seem to be coming from the water pump. Certainly, when turned by hand there's no grittiness or squeakiness about it so I'm not sure where it's coming from. The engine has always had a funny squeak, it's just more pronounced of late. Carb gasket is new, was replaced very recently so I don't think it's that.

On another forum, it's been suggested the timing belt might be a tooth out, which it might, it's possible the belt hasn't got quite enough tension on it too so I'll give that a try as well. It's about time I made some meaningful progress on this one, he's been sat in the garage for far too long. Felt weird getting back in the Polo after having been driving the Princess about lately, everything felt very small, but comfortably close to hand.

my old 1.3 made the same noise and it was the pump, i couldnt work out at the time what it was either untill the person i sold it too changed the pump and it fixed the problem mine was a bit louder though!

heres a vid, you can hear it just before it gets back to idle

timing may be out yes, but it shouldnt be hunting just from it being a tooth out id have thought?

I see what you mean about the water pump now. That's a bit of a bugger, because the pump that's on is less than a year old, but just old enough to be out of warranty. I was thinking about the tooth out thing as well, and I don't think it can be because the timing belt would only go on in the location it is. It's possible I've not got enough tension on the belt, and also that I need to reset the static timing since I have probably disturbed it, wouldn't hurt to check anyway.

I'm still learning stuff, but I'm guessing that the choke having to always be on has nothing to do with the timing, but it is more likely to be a carb that's set up too lean?

Here we go, update time. After some fears that I was going to throw in the towel for no reason that's readily apparent, I've been convinced to stick at it and set some goals and actually make some proper lists of what needs doing. I think I've been suffering from a lack of direction with the Polo, probably due to my life as a whole having a lack of direction of late. Buying the Princess kept me on the road, but probably exacerbated my issues with the Polo and he's therefore been neglected.

Today, after determining initially to make up a Want and a Need list, I actually did something productive again, the first time I have since sorting out the air lock in the system.

Once I'd bolted one front wing on and made the car look more like a car I realised that maybe it was foolish to give up, it started to remind me of why I was building what I'm building. Sounds a bit daft really, but it really is less disheartening to see the Polo looking more car shaped and less abandoned.

After I'd done this I started to get to grips with resetting the timing that was out and causing the lumpy running. As if by magic, Dad appeared to have a natter and ended up helping me understand how to set the timing best since the Haynes Book of Lies was of little significant help in the matter.

To set the timing, we first needed to find out where the timing marks are, as follows. I had a wheel brace in the toolbox that was the same size as the pulley nut, how handy.

This demonstrates how far off the timing was, fat lot of good the HBOL was helping me to set that up.

Then, it was a case of getting the bottom timing mark to line up properly, slacking off the water pump bolts and removing the timing belt so we could rotate the cam pulley to get the timing mark there to line up too. Once that was done we found it was indeed one tooth out as had been suggested previously, so all was rebuilt and tightened up, the water topped up to replace what was lost and the key turned.

With a bit of choke the engine fired up and ran almost evenly, certainly a lot better than it had before. A few adjustments were made including tightening up the throttle and choke cables a bit, which helped further, but we couldn't get the engine to idle without a smidge of revs or choke.

More headscratching was done and the carb fiddled with a bit. Eventually, the mixture was made a lot richer and that replaced what the choke was effectively doing. The car will now run at idle, but it's set up badly and the timing is still out.

We investigated the timing again and now the timing belt appears to be half a tooth out, but I'm not sure how that can be or how to rectify it, or if that's the cause of the problem. Before this running problem everything worked fine and hadn't been fiddled with, it's like the running problem has just appeared.

The prime suspect at the moment is the carburettor, a known problem on these engines. The rubber gasket under the carb is brand new so I don't think it's sucking air in from that even though it's behaving a little like it did when it was. The head gasket is not, as previously suspected, blown and the system is pressurising and temperature regulating as it should.

I'm out of my depth again with this one, I really can't figure out what's causing the problem. Here's a clicky video of the engine running, that loud squeaking is most likely the water pump that, apart from the noise, is doing the job it should do.

Once we'd got the engine to the above state, where if I had to I could drive it, I gave him a wash. Looks a bit more like a car, I don't feel as meh about him as a project now I have a short term goal and am not worrying about the long term and just maybe I can get to the bottom of this problem and get things moving again.

The goal is to have him ready for an MoT by my birthday at the start of November, but not to necessarily have to put him through said MoT.

Here's my lists, I'll go around the car again tomorrow to see what I've missed and maybe tick some things off.

NEED (to get the car on the road)

> Refit passenger side wing.

> Refit driver's side wing.

> Refit bonnet

> Replace fuse borrowed for Princess

> Sort windscreen leak

> Fit headlights

> Fit new grille

> Paint bulkhead repair so that I can:

> Refit dashboard

> Fit horn

> Refit air box & filter

> Refit back seat

> New backbox

> Fix/replace handbrake cable

> Fit sidelights & bulbs inc. new wiring.

> Fit mirrors.

> repair back valance (gaffer tape if need be)

WANT (to get the car where I want)

> Finish paint

> Fit pop-out rear windows

> Fit Bruce wheels

> Fit chrome trim bits

> Acquire and fit exterior sunvisor

> Whitewalls

> Smooth boot properly

> Acquire and fit spats

> Rear light mod

> Retrim new back seat

> Construct and trim new door cards

> Clean, trim and fit Lexus carpet

> Construct and fit new headlining

> Retrim boot area

> Acquire/fabricate and fit interior sun visors.

It feels a bit more directional now, as though I know where I'm going rather than just flailing at picking at the seeming mountain of jobs. Dividing stuff up into Want and Need has really helped me gain some perspective because most of the stuff I though I 'needed' to do is actually on the want list which gave an inflated sense of what's left to achieve.

nice bit of work for you there, just keep at it slowly slowly and it will all come together in the end

Fettling again. I don't think I know what I'm doing, if I'm honest, so we'll see what you make of what I've done today.

Points: Gap of .38mm, opening and closing as normal. Didn't check for spark, only just realised that, but I suspect they're okay.

Plugs: Didn't check these either (again, only just realised while writing this) so if I should do let me know. When the engine was put back together they were healthy.

Carb: Fiddled with the screws for idle and mixture and got it running leaner, but not as lean as I'd like.

Air box: Refitted. This did actually make rather a large improvement and reminded me that when he went for his first MoT in my care one of the running issues was an air pipe on the underside had come off.

Ignition Timing: Fiddled with it and ended up with it back where it was as it's making no significant difference to the way the engine runs.

Choke: I can get the car to idle without the choke light on now, this is a good thing.

Conclusion: I don't know what to do now!

Here's a clicky video.

As you can hear, it's hunting a lot and I can't seem to improve on that at all. The temperature gauge gets up to 3/4 before the fan kicks in which is normal, the expansion tank pressurises properly and nothing is leaking out. I can't hear any air leaks, in fact the only thing that makes any noise similar to an air leak is the air box itself, but that always has.

Theories:

Carb - set up wrong now it's bedded in after being cleaned, especially now that we've fiddled with it. I don't have the relevant CO meters and the like to test it properly to know whether or not it's set up correctly.

Timing belt - could it be stretched from being on and off a few times? The belt is only about 3,000 miles old, but I wonder if maybe it's become misshapen after running the car when the head bolts needed tightening (which I didn't know at the time) and the recent on-off of it while trying to resolve the engine issues.

Your advice, as always, is very welcome. I'm at a point now that I don't think I personally can do anything else on this engine without a guiding hand because I simply don't understand why it's doing what it's doing.

is your rubber carb gasket buggered by any chance?

I hope not! It's been suggested so many times now that's going to be checked next time I have a look at the engine. The original gasket was borked, we replaced it with a brand new one about 3k miles ago so I'd be surprised if the new one has now gone, but having a look won't hurt.

Borked? interesting word.

You do seem to be very unlucky with the engine.