SA Dealers News and opinions about topics in general

So a while back my wife decided to go pay her mom a visit, naturally she took the Tazz (our other car being a Ford Ikon with a noisy power steering pump).

Unfortunately on this trip the Tazz ended up not being as reliable as it has been for almost 10 years, so after some neglect and a lack of a sevice in a long time the cam belt broke, leaving the wifey stranded. Luckily our insurance has a free tow in service, so the car was brought back to the house and pushed into the garage.

I started stripping the car the next day, being a Sunday, in the hopes that no valves were bent, but as soon as I had taken off the tappet cover I realised that this would not be a quick and easy fix. When the cambelt broke the piston hit a valve forcing it up, which in turn broke the rocker, I later saw that 2 rockers had been broken.

So grudgingly I removed the head, and phoned Steves Auto Clinic’s cylinder head division to find out how much it would cost to have the damage repaired.

The head was sent in and a few days later I got the head back all nice and shiny and new. Boy was it clean!

So clean in fact I felt obligated to take pictures! From the top,

On the inlet side,

On the exhaust side

and showing the valves, the head was incredibly clean, leaving me wondering what method they use to get all the crud off.

As the car is used primarily for city driving the pistons had years worth of carbon buildup on them. I used a wire brush to get the carbon buildup off the top of the pistons as well as to clean off the remnants of the old gasket on the block.

Photo above shows hoe much better it looks, was so chuffed I took another picture!

Not too bad….

Once I had the block mating surface fairly clean I proceeded with getting the cylinder head on

What you were supposed to see in the above photo is the marking used to set the cam timing, were supposed to…..

Cam chain tensioner replaced even though new does not feel very different from the old one.

No gasket was supplied for this in the set I bought, and I noticed that a sealant had been used when I removed it, so I got some high temperature gasket maker, made by Bostik. This seemed less ‘oily’ and much easier to work with than the ‘Car’ silicone sealant also made by Bostik.

Now I don’t remember if I had had enough for the day (I work kinda slow) or if this was just checking where things go.

One thing I realised is that when I had taken the head off I had taken it off with the carburetor attached. When I replaced the head I did so with the carb removed, which made work more difficult because it’s a real pain trying to get bolts tightened in the small spaces you have to work in when the head is already bolted down.

It took another weekend before I had the car completely assembled and running again, and by then I was too tired to take pics, I just wanted to get done!

What is unfortunate is that I had to go and buy a new torque wrench (got it the cheapest from Litt’s Motor Spare in Kempton Park), mine seems to have ‘disappeared’ when we moved, probably along with my Black & Decker drilling machine, that was older than me.

So the service I was planning to do got pushed forward by a few weeks, and costed me a whole lot more! Lesson I won’t neglect my car again.

Posted under Uncategorized

So heres the story, a few months (yes months!) ago I had a Wednesday off and decided to go to an auction at SMD. Now the auctions at SMD are for accident damaged cars (mostly), so i was hoping to see the prices of cars so that when I had the time and the money I could get myself a small project car. Note the word small …

What I ended up with is a car that would not fit into my garage until I had moved a large number of boxes that were neatly stacked. My wifes Tazz or my Banntam could fit in there no issues.

So what did I end up buying? A 1998 Ford Falcon XR6
Why did I buy it? Errmmm, by mistake actually. It’s really a funny story, and maybe one day I will laugh about it.

You see I have always liked these cars, they seem to be a cheap way to easy speed and power. So when I saw one standing amongst the 300 other cars I gave it a closer look. And when the time came for it to be auctioned off I stood closer as I had wanted to see how much it went for. The bidding stopped at R4 000 with the auctioneer calling R4 500 once..twice, at which point I looked at my wife and she said ‘buy it’, so I quickly pulled my registration card out my pocket and bid on the car.

Then no-one else did. So I had a car.

And all I had done was give the front of the car a quick once over, again I was not planning on buying a car, I only wanted to get an idea of the prices. Besides what better way is there to spend your day off watching other people buy fubar cars?? You can only get your car when the auction is done, so while we waited for the auction to end, my wife quizzed me on what was wrong with the car, was the back damaged, how was the interior, was anything missing? Sadly I could not answer her on anything so I began to get a little (VERY) despondent. Had I bought a dud that was destined for the scrapheap?

Thankfully when I got it home and sarted I could find no obvious reason for it to go straight to the heap, phew.

As I was busy preparing for exams I forced myself to stay out the garage so I could concentrate, so the car stood gathering dust. But only till the very day after writing my last exam.

Here she is! By the time I took the first picture I had changed the one wheel, which was so damaged I could not pump it up, and taken off the bonnet and the lefty hand side fender.
It looked better with them on but the bonne had been pushed back so I could not open it fully and the fender had also been pushed back, far enough that you could not open the passenger door.

Just a shot to show you how scrunched up the left hand side is, I am guessing the previos owner went off road and smacked a tree

Here you can see the damage to the front at the bottom of the radiator, naturally I did not see this on the auction day as I was not expecting to buy the car. Beginning to regret not taking a closer look before bidding now. Photo does not do the damage any justice though, it gets worse.

Closer view of the crumpled left hand side. Lots of work, lots and lots.

Pic may seem confusing but the engine is at the top left hand side of the pic, bottom right shows how deep in the damage goes, right up to the top of the shock absorber!

Here I made a cut (using a hacksaw) through the damaged front section where the light would be situated. I did this so that I could get the radiator out. It had been pushed way back and was up against the engine.

Still only one cut, but I bent the front section forward after taking the radiator out. I bent it to about where it should have been, starting to realise the damage is much worse than I had originally thought.

A view from the top, Sheesh, if you look at the engine you can see how close the front lower section is. Its almost touching the bash plate, while on the richt hand side I can easily fit my hand between the chassis and the engine

1 X radiator, stuffed. I wonder if this can be repaired? Going to have to make a trip to a radiator place and see. Also in the pic is the radiator for the aircon. It’s not that clear but that radiator is warped, I can probably bend it straight.

Stuffed cooling fans, If you look at the left you will see that there should be a rectangular section at the bottom left, what you cant see is that the housing for the fans is cracked all over, going to have to replace the whole thing I think.

Progress? I am not so sure, but here I have drilled all the spot welds and removed the whole front section. I am hoping to get better access to the engine as it’s going to come out. Without the front section there I dont need to lift the engine as high to clear the body, it can just come out the front!

Closer look showing how badly the the bottom section bent, if you look at the right hand side chassis rail (on the left in the pic) you can just see that it is bent. Oh dear, a fair bit of work will go into getting that right!

So am I mad? Should I sent it away, admit defeat? Naah. I prefer bumping my head again and again and again and ag…

Posted under Project Falcon