mikeysr's second rebuild - 512k minimum

[mikey14sr]

Copied and pasted from thread on JOV, edited along the way.

This all started at the end of summer because I knew the 1300 block wasn't going to last much longer, so thanks to novalicious, I got hold of a complete SRI engine and gearbox, and started to clean it up.

[mikey14sr]

Shortly after this, on the way to a jov meet at the end of august, the nova decided to overheat a couple of times, resulting in a knackered head and water spurting out of the plug holes, so off the road it came (luckily I was in the process of getting the astra back on the road), and the real work began.

Fri Sep 08, 2006


Right finally we have some progress!!!

Todays work is all thanks to a mis-understanding at work ths morning resulting in me having the day off, so I got home and at 10:00 started taking the nova apart, lights, grille and bumper were the first things to come off, then I drained all the fluids, including the gearbox oil. the engine oil came out grey, plenty of water in it, and the gearbox oil was brown with a slightly red tint to it, I reckon it had the wrong stuff in, as nearly all EP90 I've ever seen has been green and stinks, this stuff didn't smell at all.

Time to take the head off, found the result of the overheating episode two weeks ago,

the gasket had gone between a water jacket and No.1 cylinder,and then between 1 and 2, then btween 2 and 3 by melting the steel ring;

This is what greeted me when I removed the head, this was after I'd drained all fluids from the lowest points available (back of water pump in the coolants case),

[mikey14sr]

Fri Sep 08, 2006


Got a bit carried away after lunch, (veggy spring roll and chicken nuggets for those wondering ), just took more and more bits off the engine untill all that was left was the drive shafts. soon got them out, as I've found that you can do it by only undoing the two bolts holding the shock to the hub, so then I was left with the block and the box so I thought stuff it, lets just get it out! rear mount bolts out, R/H mount bolts out, box mount bolts out, a bit of swearing and the assembly was sat on the floor (I just let it fall to the ground :: ) Jacked her up as far as I could and what do you know, just enough room to drag it out by the cambelt!

15:00 now, and the drive looks like this,

and the engine bay like this,

here's the rad looking sorry for it's self, it is fooooooooooked

Not bad for 5 hours work, including lunch and fag breaks.

[mikey14sr]

Fri Sep 08, 2006

Time for the rust inspection, starting with the headlight bowls,


Both gone although not badly, but as I need a new slam panel a full upper panel will be going on.
lower front panel and crossmember,




the lower panel is still in it's origional paint from what I cans see, and is in fantastic condition, a little bit of surface rust on the bottom of the crossmember and around the O/S tie-bar mount, but otherwise it's perfect (not even a single stone chip :D :D :D ).

[mikey14sr]

Fri Sep 08, 2006


Front panel to chassis legs, just a bit of surface rust, with a possible hole along the top of the N/S leg just behind the headlight as seen in first pic,

T.C.A. pick-up points, again only some surface rust,

And the last pic from today is of the front of the firewall in front of the battery after peeling back the sound deadening,

I was expecting to see a hole here as the battery tray did look quite bad, but on closer inspection (even dragged the felt out of the way behind the dash to have a look) again it's only surface rust.

So I'm quite pleased really, I have to replace the whole upper front panel instead of just the slam panel, but I've been saved some work by not having to replace the battery tray, and all the visible rust can just be ground/sanded off and treeted with some new stuff I've been meaning to try for a few years now, Graham's just used some of it on his project and the results are looking good. To be honest the rough bits in the pics that are still red are where I covered it with seam sealer last year, so there isn't really that much surface rust anyway, but I'm going to put a plating kit on so any areas that have thinned out we be back up to strength, and I'll be finishing the stitch welding of the engine bay, so once it's all done I shouldn't have to do any panelwork at all in here for the rest of the cars life.

The list of worn out parts has started, and currently reads;

O/S engine mount - centre coming away from the rubber
Clutch cable - rubber where it goes into the bulkhead split
Radiator - slightly blocked and starting to fall apart due to age
Rad fan switch - not working

Injuries - NONE
Cups of tea - just 1, after I'd finished

[mikey14sr]

Sun Sep 10, 2006


Thanks guys, been looking at the bits I need to swap between engines today, and things are going wrong. I can't use the 1.3 pulleys, belt and covers unless I change the oil pump over, so I'll have to use the SRI parts instead, and the SRI cam and carrier have some nasty scores on the bearing surfaces, so I'll have to use the 1.3 cam carrier that the piper cam's already fitted to. This means I won't be able to use the SRI breather between the block and cam carrier, so I'm going to go for a blanking plate on the block, and plumb in a catch tank to the SRI rocker cover which handily has a breather elbow on it, resulting in a group A spec breather system.

I've also been pricing things up as much as I can, and in order to save a bit of money (huge backlog of debt), I'm going to be putting the spare 1.3 head on with the weber, and leaving the SE head and bike carbs until I have paid a few things off. It won't give as much power as I planned, but it should still be good enough to have some fun with, especially with the stitch-welded and plated front end and at long last a close-ratio 'box.

[mikey14sr]

*SAT 16th Sept* *BIG Update*

Started today by collecting the new front upper panel and a sheet of steel,

Then I set to with the wire wheel on the battery tray, thought I'd get away with it, but this is what greeted me after removing all of last years sealer and paint,

Remember the cracked sealer on the n/s chassis leg? This is what was underneath it,

Another hole, bottom of the o/s 'A' post,

And the last hole found on the front end, o/s chassis leg behind the wheel,

[mikey14sr]

SAT 16th Sept

So, after taking those pics, decided to take the rest of the front panel off and do some trimming to the inner wings behind the headlights,

[mikey14sr]

SAT 16th Sept


Got the welder out, freshly loaded up with 5 kilos of wire and a bottle of co2, and got to work on the battery tray and n/s chassis leg,

Also decided to finish stich welding the turrets and engine/gearbox mountings, also did the tops of the tie-bar mounts,

Notice how knackered the right hand engine mount is, must try to find a new one.

Time to get the new upper front panel on, should have taken more pics of this, might get some more tomorrow,

I've also forgotten to take pics of the rebuilding of the inner wings into the back of the headlight surrounds, again I'll get pics sorted tomorrow.
I've still got to sort out the bottom of the 'A' post and the o/s chassis leg, and do some stitching around the bottom of the tie-bar mounts and tca pick-up points, also the chassis legs just behind the tca's need plating, I knew about these last year, but I just filled them up with seam sealer and they've passed 2 mot's since, but I want to plate them up now. Once these bits are done the engine bay will be ready to be prepped and painted, I've decided against putting a plating kit on as she's to far gone to be doing serious track work with (plus I can't really afford it after taking a good look at the budget), she'll manage a couple of years doing maybe 2-3 a year, then it'll be time for something else.

[mikey14sr]

**MORE PICS** Sun Sep 24, 2006

Right, to start with here's how things looked after last weekend's session,