Part 1. Bought some parts.
Involved a big road trip to the deep South.
Part 2. Changed the brakes and dashboard.
Dashboard has since been almost completed and a dash pocket put in place of the airbag blank on the passenger side.
Part 3. Swapped the engines over.
Ran into a few troubles they are all listed in the thread.
Part 4. Completed the engine change and some trouble shooting.
Since then I have had the car running a month, has gone quick!
Problems ive run into, the PAS pipe rubbed through and leaked everywhere when using the steering, absolute pain in the rear of a job to change the pipe, had to go all the way to Bolton for it and then it took nearly a day to change them over.
Developed a horrible misfire, replaced the plugs with new ones and swapped the coil pack over and the king lead so i was using the turbo coil and magnecor king lead, the old coil was manky so im not suprised.
Then i started work on the battery to boot, was simple enough i thought, ran it all through, but didnt realise the gearbox/engine had to be earthed, earthed that to the slam pannel and worked fine.
Drilled 4 holes in the boot, 3 to mount the tray (boot isnt flat so bit of a pain) and a the 4th hole was for the battery earth. Ive quite a small battery so used the original tray, didnt make a cage. Used the spare wheel well as ive never had to use the spare and it wouldnt fit over the front brakes anyway, tyre juggling at the roadside wouldnt be fun, ill phone the breakdown people!
Once the battery was in the boot, it made way for the cold airbox to put the cone filter in (going to replace this as it looks cheap, ill find a larger branded one). The airbox seemed to foul on the turbo coolant feed halfway down the radiator, so had to cut out a section using the dremel to clear it, used two re-enforced discs up cutting about 5" of metal!
Cant say i notice much if any performance difference but hey, i had the thing so might as well put it on! The distributor block for the wiring needs to be mounted somewhere, havnt decided yet about how/where to mount it.
Then tried to lower my car, the front shocks needed to be seperated from the hubs and trying the rear shocks the bolts wouldnt undo. The bolts had welded themselves to the metal sleaving in the bush so when you turned the bolts the bush took all the slack up. Took the whole lower arm off and drilled the rear of the bolt out so no thread was holding it in and it still wouldnt come loose.
Decided to leave that for the garage since i need my car as a daily drive and put it all back together.
Found a decent garage earlier this week and he seperated the hubs and fitted the front shocks for me, had to order new bushes from rover at £6.95 each plus VAT so werent too cheap!
Used the car with just the front lowered for a couple of days, found i need lots of wood to get on my drive as the road has a daft camber on it otherwise i scrape the bumper/sump/oil filter.
Got the rears done this morning.
The bolt on the lower arm (holding the bottom of the shock) on the other side snapped off when he tried it which was expected, so had to take both arms off which is easy enough to do, especially when its on a lift.
The old shocks were cut off the arms and then a blowtorch used to burn the old bushes out and then pull them out.
Then a hacksaw to cut the outer metal sleaving out of the arm.
The bushes were then pressed into the arms (a lot harder than it looks!) and refitted.
With the rear shocks on the cars level now so doesnt scrape quite so bad, and the ride isnt much worse than standard, especially as i think the front shocks are set to medium firmness, can borrow my mates adjuster and soften them up a little.
Cant help but think it looks a bit daft though with the small wheels on, my 17" straights will be back on the car before the RR day, hopefully end of next week, need to order my tyres and then get it booked in for alignment.
When going around all the small garages, ask for recommendations, they always know somewhere else cheap to help you out!
4 wheel laser alignment and adjustment from the main dealer £74 an hour plus VAT, recommended back street place with the same alignment, quoted around £15 for the same job!
Cost me £40 to get my shocks fitted, which was a decent price, let me do a few bits on the car while it was on the lift and did some other bits too.
I still have a little leak from the coolant pipe which feeds back around the block to the expansion tank, knew this and nabbed a replacement at the scrapyard when i was there, hammerited it up, and this one leaks also, doh!
Leaks a little oil, and ive got a clunk under heavy braking which could be anti roll bar related i think but im yet to trace it, has me foxed a little actually.
Involved a big road trip to the deep South.
Part 2. Changed the brakes and dashboard.
Dashboard has since been almost completed and a dash pocket put in place of the airbag blank on the passenger side.
Part 3. Swapped the engines over.
Ran into a few troubles they are all listed in the thread.
Part 4. Completed the engine change and some trouble shooting.
Since then I have had the car running a month, has gone quick!
Problems ive run into, the PAS pipe rubbed through and leaked everywhere when using the steering, absolute pain in the rear of a job to change the pipe, had to go all the way to Bolton for it and then it took nearly a day to change them over.
Developed a horrible misfire, replaced the plugs with new ones and swapped the coil pack over and the king lead so i was using the turbo coil and magnecor king lead, the old coil was manky so im not suprised.
Then i started work on the battery to boot, was simple enough i thought, ran it all through, but didnt realise the gearbox/engine had to be earthed, earthed that to the slam pannel and worked fine.
Drilled 4 holes in the boot, 3 to mount the tray (boot isnt flat so bit of a pain) and a the 4th hole was for the battery earth. Ive quite a small battery so used the original tray, didnt make a cage. Used the spare wheel well as ive never had to use the spare and it wouldnt fit over the front brakes anyway, tyre juggling at the roadside wouldnt be fun, ill phone the breakdown people!
Once the battery was in the boot, it made way for the cold airbox to put the cone filter in (going to replace this as it looks cheap, ill find a larger branded one). The airbox seemed to foul on the turbo coolant feed halfway down the radiator, so had to cut out a section using the dremel to clear it, used two re-enforced discs up cutting about 5" of metal!
Cant say i notice much if any performance difference but hey, i had the thing so might as well put it on! The distributor block for the wiring needs to be mounted somewhere, havnt decided yet about how/where to mount it.
Then tried to lower my car, the front shocks needed to be seperated from the hubs and trying the rear shocks the bolts wouldnt undo. The bolts had welded themselves to the metal sleaving in the bush so when you turned the bolts the bush took all the slack up. Took the whole lower arm off and drilled the rear of the bolt out so no thread was holding it in and it still wouldnt come loose.
Decided to leave that for the garage since i need my car as a daily drive and put it all back together.
Found a decent garage earlier this week and he seperated the hubs and fitted the front shocks for me, had to order new bushes from rover at £6.95 each plus VAT so werent too cheap!
Used the car with just the front lowered for a couple of days, found i need lots of wood to get on my drive as the road has a daft camber on it otherwise i scrape the bumper/sump/oil filter.
Got the rears done this morning.
The bolt on the lower arm (holding the bottom of the shock) on the other side snapped off when he tried it which was expected, so had to take both arms off which is easy enough to do, especially when its on a lift.
The old shocks were cut off the arms and then a blowtorch used to burn the old bushes out and then pull them out.
Then a hacksaw to cut the outer metal sleaving out of the arm.
The bushes were then pressed into the arms (a lot harder than it looks!) and refitted.
With the rear shocks on the cars level now so doesnt scrape quite so bad, and the ride isnt much worse than standard, especially as i think the front shocks are set to medium firmness, can borrow my mates adjuster and soften them up a little.
Cant help but think it looks a bit daft though with the small wheels on, my 17" straights will be back on the car before the RR day, hopefully end of next week, need to order my tyres and then get it booked in for alignment.
When going around all the small garages, ask for recommendations, they always know somewhere else cheap to help you out!
4 wheel laser alignment and adjustment from the main dealer £74 an hour plus VAT, recommended back street place with the same alignment, quoted around £15 for the same job!
Cost me £40 to get my shocks fitted, which was a decent price, let me do a few bits on the car while it was on the lift and did some other bits too.
I still have a little leak from the coolant pipe which feeds back around the block to the expansion tank, knew this and nabbed a replacement at the scrapyard when i was there, hammerited it up, and this one leaks also, doh!
Leaks a little oil, and ive got a clunk under heavy braking which could be anti roll bar related i think but im yet to trace it, has me foxed a little actually.
Last edited: