A Street Sleeper is reborn! THE END

[procta]

Just charge the battery up and wait for starter to cool down, that'll be fine.
I've smoked a few in my time

I will do that piggy, but again the battery is starting to get hot too, and that will fail.  I will have another go this week, when I finish work on Friday morning, ( it will be the afternoon when I get my arse out of bed and crack on)
I was really hoping that this bastard would have fired up, long before now.  Looking back at doing the timing etc, all seems easy now compared to getting this fucker to fire!
been nearly a month now since its had the head gasket changed and I am still in the same boat, I will give this a little more time, and then I will just look at calling it a day with it. It will make a good bases for a racing car, ( has the chassis setup for one)

[306carter]

Tow start. Then leave it running for an hour to charge the battery.

[procta]

Tow start. Then leave it running for an hour to charge the battery.

laugh is I cannot get the thing tow started, my dads landrover has failed its mot, and I don't want to mess about with the 306. I had a bump with the rear bumper a few years ago, and the tow eye I think is practically bonded back into place, So if I go near that I recon I will open up more nightmares.
I did watch a video on you tube of a Rover 400 starting up, after having a headgasket job done, They did have the same trouble, they just cranked the fucker over, till it fired up. Which I think I will do tomorrow after work.
If I kill the starter and battery, then so be it now. I have had about enough, and really do you lads blame me?
Its been nearly 6 months since it was pulled off the road, 6 months of insurance and mot wasted.
its just a shame that i cannot give you lads anything positive at the moment, all the love that i had has practically gone now.

[Piggy]

Seems like you need to just step away and have a brew.

All this work and you are considering giving up just coz it wont start....??

[306carter]

Quick blast of clutch and brake cleaner in the air pipe?

[procta]

Seems like you need to just step away and have a brew.

All this work and you are considering giving up just coz it wont start....??

piggy I have already stepped away from it and had a brew, I left the thing for nearly 2 months,  also piggy I have spent a f*cking fortune, this repair has cost 1k! so I am pretty pissed that it will not start. The car itself has had some money spent on it too, so you would think it should be sweet as a nut. But it will not play ball, how far do you go on with something, that keeps taking and taking and you are not getting the pleasure of driving it.   

Quick blast of clutch and brake cleaner in the air pipe?

I might try that today, if I have still have a tin.

I hope to Christ something good happens today,

[Mattcheese31]

nearly there from an outside perspective old lad, keep at it and keep breathing, you'll get there and it will feel so sweet when she finally catches

[allye]

Right, how common is this swap!!!?

Last night I was driving along a nice stretch of road on the Dorset coast in the (bone stock HDI) and this metro come up behind me, I floor it best I can slowly creeping past 80 and this fucker sails straight past me! Thumbs up exchanges all good fun.

Def was not the advertised 1.4, was a very clean H reg, dark red colour.

[C2K]

It was a very common swap back in the day, and i've been out of Rovers for 6 years already. There were always a good number of them about on the Rover forums I used, and I never went near any Metrot forums.

At the end of the day it's 160bhp in a shoebox, more if it's a Lotus derived VHPD unit.

[procta]

nearly there from an outside perspective old lad, keep at it and keep breathing, you'll get there and it will feel so sweet when she finally catches

cheers matt for push on wards!

Right, how common is this swap!!!?

Last night I was driving along a nice stretch of road on the Dorset coast in the (bone stock HDI) and this metro come up behind me, I floor it best I can slowly creeping past 80 and this fucker sails straight past me! Thumbs up exchanges all good fun.

Def was not the advertised 1.4, was a very clean H reg, dark red colour.

it was very common right up till a few years ago, mind some are not all VVCs mind, some got the 1.8 non vvc engine in which is more plug and play,
it could have been a 1.4 16v those are not exactly slow cars either, 100 bhp in a tin can is quicker than a standard HDI, Due to the weight.
There is a too much shite about dropping that engine there, depending on what Gearbox you used. In the end we did it our way instead, the info was so conflicting its unreal!  I am into 6 years with this conversion!  
 

It was a very common swap back in the day, and i've been out of Rovers for 6 years already. There were always a good number of them about on the Rover forums I used, and I never went near any Metrot forums.

At the end of the day it's 160bhp in a shoebox, more if it's a Lotus derived VHPD unit.

The vvc side of things wasn't that common in the metro world, the 1.8 none vvc was due to how plug in play it was, and the cost. that's going back to the days of 2003 to 2006 It was  2007 up till about 2010 that VVC engines in metros started to be popular. That was due to the cost of the VVC engine dropping in price.
Wont be many knocking about now I tell you c2k, most of the ones I saw on the forums, were broken up for parts.

Lotus derived VHPD units in metros is very rare to see been done sadly due to the cost, I have only seen 3 good builds in a space of 12 years. All are now no longer running sadly.

[procta]

Well after I got my arse out of bed, after been on nightshift. Me and my dad spent 4 hours on the car.
We tried to start it again after charging the battery, and it would just spin and spin and spin. We even tried shoving down some brake cleaner, like carter said and it didn't do anything.
We whipped out the spark plugs and gave them the old lighter trick, in case the car was flooding, Still f*ck all.
I said to my dad shall we test the spark plugs again, just to double check, No spark, on lead number 1, tried lead number 3 the same thing, no spark!
Which lead us to the coil pack again, This time I went under and unbolted it from the engine. I removed every f*cking lead and pushed them back on, and thought f*ck it I will swop the wires around again, to see if that made a difference,
Went and turned the key and the little bastard, FIRED INTO LIFE!!!!!!!   My dad nearly broke his neck running out, as he had went in to make a brew and have a think.
So what ever it was has been something with the coil pack, either a loose connection with the loom or something.
I had it running a little bit to get some charge back into the battery, but it decided to blow a hose, happened to be the one that I bought recently too!
So we electrical taped it up just to see if everything else was ok, any other leaks etc, and all seems fine.
The thing I have now, is that the throttle cable is on its last legs, and trying to find a new one is simply impossible,
Rimmerbros are fuckin useless, stating that they have it in, and when you come to buy it, the fucker is on back order! I might ring them up about that and complain about that.
I might have to fit a SPi one which is longer but it will do the trick no doubt.
Car just needs a good bleed, but I am not going to bother with that, until the replacement hose is sorted.
Tomorrow I am going to fit the coil pack again, and tie up a few odds and sods.
One major upgrade for you lads, and that's this,



 
I have another feature to wire into the car too, which will be another neat touch, This one is from an MG metro.
but at the moment we are just ironing out a few things,
Engine seems very happy, and there are no nasty clatters or bangs.
So we have done something right there, Coil pack side of things is a little worrying for that to cause some trouble.
I am looking at upgrading the starter and putting a new battery on, but that will have to wait.
Pissed off about the hose mind, as that was 50 quid OEM!
Got a few more ideas to come, while its off the road, but at least now it f*cking runs!

[306carter]

Nice one! Glad to hear it's sorted. The bay is looking tidy too.

[procta]

Nice one! Glad to hear it's sorted. The bay is looking tidy too.

cheers carter for the tip,  The bay I wanted to keep OEM and neat, a few things I want to do, IE cable tie up etc,
I do have a New spark plug cover too, That is red, but that needs a little modifying.
I may sort out a few more things tomorrow, and give it a clean inside.

---

[Piggy]

Great news

Maybe the oem one had sat on a shelf for 10yrs?

[Paul Baldwin]

Well done :-)

As Piggy syas maybe the OE one is literally past its shelf life? I used to have problems with certain sort of perishable Cortina bits for my kit-car years ago, maybe what's happened here. I take it you're going to return that pipe for a refund as it's clearly not fit for purpose.

[Danny Wideboy]

Wahey! She's back.

Good news mate, worth the perseverance.

[procta]

Great news

Maybe the oem one had sat on a shelf for 10yrs?

Well done :-)

As Piggy syas maybe the OE one is literally past its shelf life? I used to have problems with certain sort of perishable Cortina bits for my kit-car years ago, maybe what's happened here. I take it you're going to return that pipe for a refund as it's clearly not fit for purpose.

More like 20 years piggy,  you maybe right about it been past its shelf life. Where it has gone though, is on the bleeder section of the pipe.
No point in hassling about with that paul, I may have binned the receipt some months ago now. Ordered another one anyway.  The throttle cable I cannot get a replacement for the love of money! Its a later MPI one too, either that stuff was well sort after or there wasn't enough spares made up. So of the older stuff you can get hold of, Ie early carb and injection. But then again, those were more common that mpi.
Do you still have your Kit car paul?  midas boys used to share our info on the owners club before the forum came on line. I sold the carb loom from this shell to one.

---

Wahey!  She's back.

Good news mate, worth the perseverance.

one massive balls ache though, The coil pack is a nightmare, with it been at the back of the engine. f*ck knows what the crac is there. Either the connectors were on the wrong way, or the leads at a problem.
Still not out of the woods yet, got to change a hose but all looks stable for now.
be another few weeks before it will hit the road I think.

[procta]

ok I did a few bits today, nothing much I can do under the bonnet yet, due to the hose failure, and I think my battery cut off system has bit the dust.

Anyway moving on to some electrical stuff,
One of the lads from the metro owners club, who lives in malta, he is selling on a few things now. He sorted me out a few little things in the past. The coin holders for the dash and a few little bits of trim for the gta.
One of his MG metros he broke had this little feature, which I think may have been a Unipart extra. Its not common at all, but its a footwell lamp,


 

anyway i sorted him out my Red seat belts that i had, For free last year to go on his MG metro. He returned the favour and sent me this little feature for my car.
So today i had a wire in session.

 ran the wires where they needed to be


down the pillar


behind the dash

installed the bracket behind the centre console, I used the original Tape deck mount

All i have to do now is solder in the wires to the relevant wires and we are away!
Also i got a free little mod to!
with me working as an operator making car trims, we sometimes come across odds and sods left over, which we can either bin or take home,
I managed to get my hand on these

now seeing that my car doesn't have a radio, i used these and removed the rubber wiring protector tubes.

perfect fit!


why have something in place, when its not needed eh,  still got a few daft ideas and upgrades.
mainly electrical work. ( front end and tidying up) I was toying with the idea of better battery cut off system.
But its where to mount it and the switch system.

[procta]

looks like my replacement hose is here, be the weekend when that's fitted, and figures crossed i can try and bleed it.

[Eeyore]

good to see its working again! Wish my bay was that tidy :/

[Mattcheese31]

yarrrrrrrrr nice one fella, could smell you were nearly there, nothing worse than when you're elbow deep and shit's going south tho . . . well done for keeping going, i will solely take the credit for spurring you on lol . . . .

[procta]

yarrrrrrrrr nice one fella, could smell you were nearly there, nothing worse than when you're elbow deep and shit's going south tho . . . well done for keeping going, i will solely take the credit for spurring you on lol . . . .

someone had to spur me on, i was ready to down tools for good and move onto something else. So hopefully i can start going forwards again instead of backwards. It really has been a bad year for the car, but it does show you how much people don't bother doing stuff properly, what i cannot get over is someone spent a small fortune in getting the head polished and cleaned up, then to shove a very early head gasket back on, knowing it will fail again.
the worrying thing i am having is some of the parts are starting to get thin on the ground, The later MPi stuff is starting to get impossible to find new now, and some of the cars are getting thin on the breaking side too.

[zx_volcane]

Keep at it procta, always the silly faults that take time to diagnose and cause heartache


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[procta]

Keep at it procta, always the silly faults that take time to diagnose and cause heartache


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

not wrong there, again sadly with the hose going pop on me, has set me back again. I cannot even get the car up to temperature at all.  also i am going to look at getting a T piece for the Water gauge setup, i am sick of having the wire doing f*ck all, and gauges doing nothing either.

[procta]

well looks like i am going backwards again instead of forwards. Tried to bleed the car today, and start to tie up a few things.
it all started with the coil pack again, ( what a surprise) looks like one of the bolts is decided not to play and its just spinning, then we came down to bleeding.
There was steam going from one of the sensors that i renewed in the water elbow, and guess what, it decided to snap flush!! so i will have to see if i can get that drilled out by a work mate, or just buy a replacement water elbow.
My neat little delay feature for the interior lamp has also gave up too, not even sure if i can get a replacement for that now.
Also my after market gauges is out of the question now, the parts i bought are f*cking useless. So looks like i will have to splice into existing OEM sensors.
Also my mgf interior light mirror wire has decided to snap too, again more electrical work.
This thing really is going down hill rapidly now, only good thing that has come out ok is the battery cut off system.

I was hoping to see if i could give it a little run, but with out a sensor for the clocks i am not going to risk anything,
also i have to replace a electrical connector too, more up roar again!

[procta]

I have managed to find a second hand water elbow, my dad tried to drill out the sensor, ( cause he didn't want my mate doing it, in the process making things even worse)
So I just cut my losses now and going sort the replacement one out with new sensors, My gasket should me ok to use, that's still new anyway. Then I can just go from there now, and hopefully get things back on track.
Not sure about adding anymore upgrades now, due to how bad its been this year and been close of calling it a day. I still may call it a day next year. If all goes well.

[procta]

My replacement water elbow and sensors are on and all plumbed in, i even managed to take it out for a drive! All still isnt well, the car has started have an erratic idle and starting to self rev. So not sure what's going wrong now. System still needs a f*ck off bleed, its still pressuring like mad. Holding its own now and again though so all is not lost yet!
I was hoping to try and get it up and running again for work but looks like that's well out of the picture now.
Be case of bleeding and tick over now for the time been, until all is settling in.
I have forgotten how quick it is with out even pushing the car, I was not sure if the car would Rev over 5k after one of the connectors failed, it was finding a nice stretch of road to take the car over 5k. So the vvc system is working, but then again i may have caused what ever problems its having by doing so.
I may have rest the stepper motor or something, but i cannot why that would cause problems.
So its a matter of pissing about with it now, i may have another look at it tomorrow and have a bit of a play again.
Things are just slow on moving forwards, when they do, its all a bumpy.

[Piggy]

Inlet gasket not resealed right?

[procta]

Inlet gasket not resealed right?

that was torqued down well as stated in the book, plus i did installed that with the head off too, to make things miles easy, What ever it is piggy, it isn't doing it all the time. It did it before when i started to bleed it, so i am suspecting that the systems pressuring that much its causing problems.

[procta]

Well today i have had another look at what the f*ck is going on, Looks like the car has a touch of the old french electrics, its kept popping fuses for one of the fans, in fact one has decided to pack up!
It has had me and my dad baffled, when we came to test the replacement, that kept blowing fuses.
In the end it decided to work, so god knows what the hell is going on!
I also found on why the engine is acting the goat too.
The Throttle Potentiometer looks like its developing a fault, as soon as I unplugged it the car ran at a steady idle, even though a little high.
Now I can buy a full blown replacement Throttle body for 100 quid new with this thing in, or just buy the replacement Throttle Potentiometer for about 40 quid, but by the time you add vat and delivery it works out at about that too.
So not sure on what to do there, Also of my sensors that I have bought is f*cked, so another 20 quid again!!!
Not really making much progress at all, my dads about past him self like me!
All I did was change a head gasket and next thing everything else has decided to go tits up on me!
I would love to see a massive improvement but again we are still fighting problems and then something else goes tits up.