Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Zelandeth]

Had some errands to run earlier today, so of course I took the most sensible car.



The weather being something actually resembling chilly today has reminded me however that I still haven't got around to attempting to flush out the heater core. Having at least some vague suggestion of a heater would be appreciated at this time of the year and it's currently doing absolutely nothing. The heater box itself is barely lukewarm, so I don't think we have any appreciable coolant flow through the core at all. Given how choked up the supply pipe was when I changed it that doesn't really surprise me. I really should have flushed everything when I changed the coolant lines, but was kind of racing the clock then and just wanted the job done back then. On the plus side it's the highest point in the system so doesn't involve having to drain anything beyond the heater itself.

I have checked and confirmed that the valve is opening/closing when the controls are operated (or at least the actuator arm is moving - whether the valve itself is totally blocked is another matter entirely) so it's not something really simple like that having stuck. I'm really not expecting a huge amount of a heater from a car of this era, but currently it's doing nothing so obviously needs some attention.

[Armidillo]

Don't diss 1950's heaters - the heater in my wife's Austin A90 Westminster was very effective (as was the heat soak from the engine bay). When we were first married it was our only car (I had motor bikes) - the heater never let us down!

The car was a gift from my wife's great-aunt - then 20 years old it had done 15,000 miles. We are not talking Sydney or Brisbane here - the wife's family lived on the plateau of the Blue Mts west of Sydney (about 3,000 feet above sea level - when it snowed only the VW beetles kept moving). We took it on trips to the snow (Australian Alps) several times.

[Zelandeth]

Don't diss 1950's heaters - the heater in my wife's Austin A90 Westminster was very effective (as was the heat soak from the engine bay). When we were first married it was our only car (I had motor bikes) - the heater never let us down!

The car was a gift from my wife's great-aunt - then 20 years old it had done 15,000 miles. We are not talking Sydney or Brisbane here - the wife's family lived on the plateau of the Blue Mts west of Sydney (about 3,000 feet above sea level - when it snowed only the VW beetles kept moving). We took it on trips to the snow (Australian Alps) several times.

Hopefully a good flush will get it going again. The feed line when I replaced it was in a right state so I'd be surprised if it's not pretty well sludged up.

-- -- --

I definitely need to do something about the exhaust again as this car is definitely trying to asphyxiate me. This was an issue back when I got it, but was pretty much solved when I bodged together a hasty repair to the exhaust silencer. The exhaust paste I splodged on there did last a lot longer than I expected but has clearly flaked off again. For the sake of £125 I'll probably just cough up for a new silencer. The rest of the system looks fine, just the end plates on the silencer itself that have gone. If I take it off and try to weld it up I'll most likely just end up blowing more holes in it and making things worse - ending up with me buying a new one AND wasting a bunch of time. I also absolutely *despise* messing with exhausts, so having a solution which involves me only having to fight with it once definitely is favourite.

Trying not to spend money on a car I'm planning on selling...but equally maintenance needs to happen. Which reminds me it's also due an oil change - given that means buying 10 litres of oil that will sting a bit too!

[myglaren]

Chris (White Exec) always highly recommended Liquimoly flushing agent for cooling systems.
Forte Cooling System Flush and Conditioner is another one that seems to be good.

[Zelandeth]

Chris (White Exec) always highly recommended Liquimoly flushing agent for cooling systems.
Forte Cooling System Flush and Conditioner is another one that seems to be good.

We'll see how things go. I'm making a definite point of not touching the block with any flushing agents given that we know that there's a crack in it. Heater core and the radiator however will both be getting some attention. Hopefully a bit of a reverse flush is all that will be needed.

I had a bit more of a poke around at the blocked fuel return on the P6 this afternoon. One issue I'd had with trying to blow the line clear before was that due to the connectors involved I'd really been struggling to get a good seal to the air line to get any actual pressure into it. After a rummage through a fairly decent collection of connectors and such like I couldn't find anything which would help me, so found an area that it wouldn't be obvious and just cut the nylon line in the engine bay. Not ideal, but it will be absolutely fine - it's entirely likely that I'll wind up having to replace the line anyway depending whether the fitting at the other end decides to play ball.

This meant that I could attach a length of rubber hose to it which I could seal properly to the air line. Sadly it achieved nothing - the return line is quite happily holding 120psi with no appreciable decay over a minute or so. That line is well and truly blocked. Next step will indeed have to be trying to get under the car to see if I can get the return fitting loose from the tank and *hopefully* rod out whatever's causing this blockage. Though I'm kind of expecting that the answer is going to be internal corrosion within the fitting having closed things up, so replacement of the fitting will be the only way to properly sort that.

I'd be lying if I said that part of me wasn't pondering the merits of just capping off the offending line and engineering an alternative tank return to get us running until the weather is better and/or I can attack the problem with the car on a proper lift. Really don't think it would be too difficult to set something up.

[Zelandeth]

A plan has been hatched to deal with our fuel return line problem until such point as we go in to replace the in-tank assembly. Which given the fuel gauge sender is also dead I've decided to just get done. As such there's really no point in faffing about trying to clear the return line orifice - which if it's as small as I'm expecting probably isn't going to work anyway.

I'd had this idea rattling around in the back of my mind since the end of last week, but only had a chance today to have a look to see whether it's a viable solution.

The area of my interest.



That is the breather line which emerges from the top of the tank. Helpfully a push fit connection on the later cars, the early ones were threaded unions like the rest of the fuel system, which would have probably kicked my idea to the kerb.

Obviously I can't just hook the return line up to there as the tank needs a breather. However what I think I can do is use it as an entry point to the tank. That's a pretty large bore line and it simply exits the car underneath (I believe in the vicinity of the offside rear wheel), there isn't a roll-over valve or anything fitted.

I established that it's quite easy to thread some copper brake pipe into the tank through the breather line such that it will go a decent distance into the tank, keeping it well clear of the breather port itself.



If I thread that into the nylon line outside the car and run it all the way into the tank there, that gets me something to which I can easily attach our return line to. Pretty simple to crimp the copper line a bit to introduce a restriction to emulate the function of the original orifice if we need to. Aside from slightly reducing its capacity this shouldn't in any way impact the function of the tank vent line - which with the shape of the tank and filler being as they are isn't likely to make any real difference to anything. I might need to fill it a little more slowly, but that's a trade off I'm willing to make.

Doesn't involve any mods to the vehicle itself either, when we go in and replace the in-tank sender and feed assembly we can just pull the copper line back out and chuck it back into the "that might be useful one day" pile in the corner of the garage. Just need to make sure everything is properly secured in place and that we make sure there's a drip loop on the bottom of the line where it emerges from the breather line in case any fuel gets forced out there during filling the tank (it shouldn't) so we can make sure it drips somewhere harmless rather than ending up dripping on the brakes, exhaust or anything else likely to get hot.

Yes, this is absolutely a bodge, which is something I generally steer well clear of when we're even vaguely talking about fuel systems for obvious reasons. However I'd like to at least think that this is a reasonably well thought out one compared to some from my past!

[Zelandeth]

A closer inspection revealed that there are two breather lines attached to the fuel tank in the P6, I'd not spotted the one to the left.



Some quality metal work by whoever put the speakers in evident there too - which I found when I stabbed myself with it.

Turns out that the breather line on the right is blocked somewhere. The tank fitting is fine, but I can neither blow through nor suck through the line which vanishes into the car behind the tank.

The one to the right on the other hand is properly open to both atmosphere and to the tank, so we do have a working tank breather. This arrangement is quite different to the setup shown in my manual, likely as this is a later car. I really need to find a diagram for the later setup as it would be nice to know where these things are actually going.

I think based on the fact that we clearly have one emphatically not working breather, I'm just going to make my life easier and steal the tank port from the clogged one entirely for my return line and to cap that breather line off in case they are connected together elsewhere behind the tank and I unexpectedly wind up with it dumping fuel into the boot.

There's obviously something amiss with the one line so that needs investigating - I think when I go in to change the sender I'll just budget some time to actually pull the tank so I can get to everything in behind there. Wouldn't be the worst idea anyway as I'd like to make sure there's no rust hiding in behind and under there and do what I can to make sure none gets started.

Found this line floating around in the back of my engine bay not attached to anything.



It used to be visible here in the engine bay behind the right hand cylinder head.



I'd originally thought this was a breather from the gearbox, but apparently not as it was just bundled in among the various pipes running down the side of the bell housing under the car. Answers on a postcard?

Elsewhere under the heading of Zel using ridiculously overkill hardware for mundane tasks, this old time clock has now been given the task of switching the light on my fish tank.



It's rated to 20kW...should be able to deal with the 4W we're dealing with here. I did have a closer look at the innards when I first got it, and looking at the contacts I'm pretty sure it's never been used to actually switch anything. Bit silly, but it pleases the engineer in me to see really nice quality kit getting a second chance at life. Plus I now don't need to remember to turn that light on in the morning - which I've a terrible record for remembering to do.

[CitroJim]

I love that time-switch Zel... A perfect use for it!

[c16rkc]

Your fish are spoilt! - I hope they appreciate it

[Zelandeth]

We all know that I have at least one - being sensible, two - too many vehicles, so really need to sell one. That will likely happen in the spring. In the meantime though, it looks as though a very silly deal might be on the horizon which sees the P4 swapped out for something else I've always wanted a shot of. Not something I'd ever pictured as a long term fleet member, but something it would be fun to have around for six months or a year as a bit of fun. However prices have generally climbed to a point which always felt rich for how much car you're actually getting these days, so I've not ever really gone looking. Especially as there's no room at the inn.

Absolutely at the other end of the motoring scale to the P4 or P6, motoring very much reduced to its bare minimum of components and moving parts in the same vein as the philosophy of the 2CV (and sharing a number of technical similarities with the little blue thing in my garage). Also similar to the 2CV and it's German counterpart in having a stupidly long production run.

Might not come to anything yet, but the opportunity has popped up so seems interesting to follow to see what conclusion we end up at.

[c16rkc]

Best of luck - hope it comes through for you.

[Zelandeth]

Likewise. I always enjoy getting to know new cars, and I'm one of those people who can appreciate a car for what it is, irrespective of popular opinion or how it might look on paper. Heck, the 2CV, Mini and Beetle all look mediocre at best on paper, yet all have a loyal following. Of those the only one I've never really got along with was the Beetle, though that may be that I've only ever driven a really clapped out one. The Mini I could see the appeal of, but I simply don't fit in one - my right leg is permanently wedged against the wheel and my right shoulder smacks the window every time I hit a bump.

Every time I've had a 2CV out I've spent most of the trip grinning like a lunatic. Likewise in the past I've had and enjoyed several Ladas and rear engined Skodas. Cars people love to hate, but I always found them to be very competent cars, the Skodas in particular seemed a lot better cars than their reputation would have you believe. Very comfortable, quiet and capable. I think a huge portion of the horror stories stemmed from the simple fact that they were cheap, so tended to get run on a shoestring budget. My Lada Niva was probably one of the most dependable cars I've ever owned, especially as I was hammering it with an 80-odd mile commute to college at the time I had it. Biggest thing to remember with them is just that they are basically 60s designs, so you need to keep on top of maintenance - ignore it to the extent you could probably get away with with a more modern car and you're absolutely going to get reliability issues.

My last Skoda was a bit of a problem child, but I put that down more to it having never been properly recommissioned after a long layup by the previous owner(s) than any real fault of the car I think.

Variety is fun. Hence the fact I had a V12 Jag, an Invacar, a Xantia Activa and a Merc TN camper on the drive together at one point!

[mickthemaverick]

I'm wondering if there is a Bug floating around your world Zel?

[CitroJim]

A Renault 4 by any chance Zel? I had two back in the 70s and they blow the silly old 2CV into the weeds in every possible respect...

If so, you won't be disappointed... I loved mine and would still be very happy with a rust-free example now...

I hope it's not a soggy old moggy minor...

[Armidillo]

Bambino?

Not sure if you'd fit any better than you do in a Mini - and no idea what they are worth in the UK, but they can fetch serious money in the Antipodes!