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

[Michel]

Zel, get some carpet off-cuts and wrap it round the rungs on the ramps. It helps loads.

[Zelandeth]

I have tried that before and it helps a bit, still a real sod to try to get onto the ramps with the undriven axle though. Got onto them just fine today, they just became heavy, orange projectiles though the moment I attempted to drive off them! No idea where the bits of carpet I've used before have got to...

Front of the Lada was the one that I outright gave up on when I tried it last time...being the heavy end and undriven I just ended up chasing the ramps around the driveway no matter what I tried!

I do reckon that this is a car that with a bit of TLC has huge potential, and I think a lot of the downright annoying gremlins have probably now been resolved (especially the electrical dodgy contact lottery)...it's just a case of changing out a shedload of bushes that have seen better days and bit by bit clearing up some bits of bodywork. Most of those are things which can be done bit by bit over time. I don't think there's anything which is going to disintegrate rapidly at this point.

Had briefly forgotten this moment of "...?" which happened right when I went to take the car off the ramps this afternoon...

This pretty much sums up the joys of what you have to expect to happen now and then when owning one of these cars I think!

[Gibbo2286]

Have you tried some of these extensions, I find you can get most cars on without them skidding away.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... &_sacat=0

[Zelandeth]

Might have to look into those. To be honest once the first couple of feet of garage are clear I'll just be able to brace them against the threshold. There's a good inch or so lip there at the edge of the slab there... don't reckon the ramps would go anywhere once backed up against that.

The extensions would help reduce the heavy handedness the clutch has to withstand getting onto the ramps though, which can only be a good thing to my mind...always feels like torture! If there's anything I can be accused of it's usually driving with excess mechanical sympathy...

[daviemck2006]

I have a set of them. It does mahe life a lot easier, in fact the 407 would not go up without them.

[Michel]

I have not got a pair of those but I do place a scaffolding board in front of the ramps if putting the non-driven wheels on the ramp. Lay it at 90 degrees then one plank is just long enough to go in front of both ramps.

[CitroJim]

Any chance you could snap a photo of the page of the manual dealing with setting the valve clearances Jim? Want to double-check those as I'm sure one in particular is too wide and making a horrible racket. Mainly just need to check the sequence as the clearances are shown on a label on the air cleaner. Pretty sure the usual "rule of nine" applies here, just want to be sure.

Here we go Zel




Clearances are 0.15mm Inlets and 0.20mm Exhausts...

Good to see the good old 'rule of nines' work on this engine

Best i can do now. Mental energy is non-existent today and it may be a while before I'm back - late this afternoon hopefully...

Still to have a proper read of all you've been doing... My brain can't cope at the moment

[Zelandeth]

Cheers Jim. Will need to double check (it's marked on the car) the clearances, but pretty sure they're all 0.2mm on the 120/130 - the 105 I think had the difference between inlet and exhaust, just to be confusing.

[Zelandeth]

Went out to car, air cleaner off, rocker cover off, spanner and screwdrivers out, reach into toolbox for feeler gauges...Not in usual spot. Hmm...Go into house, check tool drawer where I know there's another set. Not there. Into garage to second tool box for the less used stuff...One that lives there not there either. Grumble profanities and start checking all other likely places a set of feeler gauges might be hiding...followed by less likely but still possible...followed eventually by every place in the house and garage I could think of.

...Eventually admit defeat, stick the rocker cover and air cleaner back on and lock the car up.

Walked back into the house, and immediately see a set of feeler gauges sitting on the dining room table - Suffice to say my response at that point was unprintable.

[myglaren]

Isn't it always the way though

I searched and searched on Sunday for a bolster I knew was in the toolbox I had taken with me to fix a socket in one of my daughter's houses.
Couldn't find it and made do.
On clearing everything away, there was the bolster on the bench, probably the first thing out of the toolbox.

[Xantianut]

Been there. Done that. Got the scars.

[Zelandeth]

New (82C) thermostat for the Skoda has now arrived.

I shall be testing this momentarily to ensure it opens at the specified temperature, and all being well will get it fitted tomorrow, once that's done I'll ring up and get it booked in for a test.

I'll thoroughly reverse flush everything while I've got the system drained down to change the thermostat as I'd be daft not to. Surely I'll have dislodged some crud while doing the head gasket.

Edit: New stat tested and okay. Starts to open right at the stated temp, and opens smoothly without and sticking. Seats properly when closed too, unlike the last replacement one I got for the Saab.

...if anyone hears loud swearing from the vicinity of my place tomorrow, you know fitting went as easily as expected! ...should be a five minute job.

[CitroJim]

...if anyone hears loud swearing from the vicinity of my place tomorrow, you know fitting went as easily as expected! ...should be a five minute job.

If you plan for it to be difficult Zel, it'll end up easy... It's always the way - or at least, that is the case with Xantia jobs

I will be well out of earshot tomorrow but will be looking forward to hearing how it went... I'm sure it'll be fine...

[Hell Razor5543]

Zel, you had better leave Jim SOMETHING to do, or he might not get to enjoy the early Skoda experience!

[Zelandeth]

Oh I'm sure there will be plenty left to do! I'd just like to hand the car over in the best order I can.

Plus I'd like one last crack at dealing with that odd intermittent overheating issue. It's distinctly different to what it did before I changed the head gasket, so I'm pretty sure that side of things is now behaving.

Before I did the head gasket, the behaviour was pretty predictable. It would behave fine so long as you were gentle, but occasionally the heater would go cold and the gauge would start to creep up. My theory there was that enough combustion gases would get into the coolant to cause the water pump to become air locked. This seemed to be backed up by the fact that normal operation could be restored by turning the engine off for ten seconds then restarting.

After the head work was done, it behaved impeccably for a couple of months, before once more overheating (well, getting towards the top of the green section on the gauge anyway - it's one of those cars where the gauge generally sits rock steady at one point under normal use, so it's pretty easy to spot when something's amiss). On this occasion it looked to actually be doing so properly, with all manner of angry noises coming from the expansion bottle, and a significant portion of the coolant winding up spit out the overflow onto the road. The first time this happened I was willing to put this down to a residual air lock I'd failed to bleed out from when the head work was done causing trouble. However when it did it again a few weeks later, that was when I lost patience with it and parked it under the tree in disgrace and then ignored it for the next six months.

There's no sign of bubbles in the expansion bottle or tell-tale gurgling nonsense from the heater that there was before, so I'm tentatively pointing at something other than the head/head gasket at fault. The fact that it happened both times just randomly when driving lightly around locally, not during or immediately after working the engine hard, and happened very suddenly is what has me pointing at the thermostat. Especially as it wasn't changed when the head gasket was done (supplier had sent me the wrong part). While I have previously pretty thoroughly flushed the system out, it's entirely possible that I've dislodged some crud during the head work that's gone and got itself lodged somewhere it shouldn't. Hence planning to do another thorough flush. I did previously ensure though that I had good flow through all hoses, fixed pipes etc (as I know the alloy pipes running to the radiator like to silt up), and checked that the whole radiator core was doing its job (borrowed a thermal camera). The water pump was also swapped out for a known good one in case that was causing issues.

If this doesn't sort it, I don't know what the fluff is wrong with it! Guess attention has to turn back to the head, and it will need to be looked at more professionally than I have the equipment here to do. Do kind of wish I'd seen the thread over on another forum where someone did a "poor man's head skim" using some thick glass as a flat surface with wet and dry paper attached - the results certainly looked absolutely convincing! I'd probably have cobbled something similar together here and done the same sort of operation to ensure it was in fact absolutely flat. On the plus side, it's only a half hour job to get the head off - especially as I've already done the battle with the exhaust downpipe nuts from hell - and it's compact enough even with the manifolds both attached to be easily manhandled. Unlike the one off a Jag XJ40, which is emphatically *not* easily manhandled single handedly. If that becomes necessary I'll probably farm that out to D&A as my first bit of work sent their way as I know they have their own machine shop on site. I'm intending to throw the best part of a grand's worth of bodywork their way in the future, so a small job but one that requires a bit of precision as a starter isn't a bad tester in my view. Who knows...The Activa may well end up getting resprayed by them one day too if I'm impressed enough with their work...

My intention here is to change the stat, flush everything out thoroughly, do a bunch of static testing, and drive it to the MOT like I stole it and see what happens. Hopefully it just behaves! Oh, and I'll stick the original water pump back in while I've got the system drained down as it's got a far larger impeller than the replacement (originally from my old 130GL) and just generally seems of better quality. ...Plus the fact that the current one is missing the grease cap (sealed for life bearings rather than having the external grease cup on the factory pump) nags at my OCD every time I look at the engine.

...If this gremlin does rear its head again after the car moves on to Jim, I fully intend to put my hand in my pocket with a view to sorting it. My intention here isn't to offload a problem onto a friend. At the same time, a fresh pair of eyes looking at it may well point out something utterly daft that I've missed!

As for changing the thermostat - *hoping* it will behave, given that it was apart when I did the head gasket and I greased the bolts before I put it back together...Nevertheless, I'll get the whole toolkit out just in case!