Rainbird's LCR
- Thread starter rainbird
- Start date
FFS.
LCR was in for MOT on Friday, but the garage didn't manage to fit it in. No biggy, shared lifts to work with Soph and figured I'd pick it up this evening.
No contact from them at all, I popped my head down at 1700 and they'd not yet done it. Promising they'd put it through today,*I've been keeping half an eye on the Gov.uk site for any signs of it being completed only to find this:
A cable tie for horn wiring (which is secure, just a tad longer than essential as the horn has been moved a few inches) and a rubber exhaust hanger.
Are. You. ****ing. Kidding. Me?!
Still, at least they don't say anything like this on their website that makes it even more annoying:
Will be having a word when I go and pick it up... Back to my regular guy again next year for sure, even if he is a little further away.
LCR was in for MOT on Friday, but the garage didn't manage to fit it in. No biggy, shared lifts to work with Soph and figured I'd pick it up this evening.
No contact from them at all, I popped my head down at 1700 and they'd not yet done it. Promising they'd put it through today,*I've been keeping half an eye on the Gov.uk site for any signs of it being completed only to find this:
A cable tie for horn wiring (which is secure, just a tad longer than essential as the horn has been moved a few inches) and a rubber exhaust hanger.
Are. You. ****ing. Kidding. Me?!
Still, at least they don't say anything like this on their website that makes it even more annoying:
Will be having a word when I go and pick it up... Back to my regular guy again next year for sure, even if he is a little further away.
More slow progress (longest engine build ever haha - grabbing 5 minutes here and there rather than doing it in one hit).
Rings have been gapped, fitted to pistons which were fitted to rods blah blah blah. Oil pump, chain and tensioner fitted.*Yeah, that's the old pickup pipe for those who've spotted it. I have a new one standing by but figured since this one is in good order functionally I've just given it a clean out and it'll do for running in the engine (or at least the first oil change) so makes sense to use it for that
Unfortunately I put a bit of a dent in the oil seal so have had to stop there until a new one arrives.
Did get another sump through today though (bargain price of f**k all as it's in a pretty nasty state. Here it is (next to the one from this engine I've already cleaned up) after a quick spray with carb cleaner. Will get it all nice and clean of any stubborn deposits then it'll be time to work out a template for some baffles, perhaps...
Rings have been gapped, fitted to pistons which were fitted to rods blah blah blah. Oil pump, chain and tensioner fitted.*Yeah, that's the old pickup pipe for those who've spotted it. I have a new one standing by but figured since this one is in good order functionally I've just given it a clean out and it'll do for running in the engine (or at least the first oil change) so makes sense to use it for that
Unfortunately I put a bit of a dent in the oil seal so have had to stop there until a new one arrives.
Did get another sump through today though (bargain price of f**k all as it's in a pretty nasty state. Here it is (next to the one from this engine I've already cleaned up) after a quick spray with carb cleaner. Will get it all nice and clean of any stubborn deposits then it'll be time to work out a template for some baffles, perhaps...
Cheers dude! Yeah as much as having it all done would be nice, it'll be a while before it goes anywhere near the car so best to do it slowly and right than to rush it.
Need to get a VVT tensioner into the head (AYP doesn't have it as standard) then I'll be pretty much there engine wise. Turbo all bought and paid for, so there's a fair bit of behind the scenes progress going on too
Need to get a VVT tensioner into the head (AYP doesn't have it as standard) then I'll be pretty much there engine wise. Turbo all bought and paid for, so there's a fair bit of behind the scenes progress going on too
In a slightly random order due to being away, grabbing 5 minutes here and there between errands and bad weather
Car's been looking like this for a couple of days while we've been up and down the country
Trimmed/tweaked slam panel to create a little more room for the FMIC and remove a few siezed/snapped bolts/welded nuts. Will replace these with rivnuts for longevity.
Quick bumper repair for the lower crack
And a trim at the rear to tidy things up a little. When I fitted the FMIC I'd only got a drill to hand to this was trimmed very badly and looked rubbish. Quick Dremel to do things properly
Hotel room last night backed onto the Porsche dealership rear car park. Few nice bits of kit in there (including a nice Z4m coupe) plus this Cayenne on stands which would have been prime for donating its brakes to the Leon!
Old, "temporary" bracket (a piece of scrap 1mm mild steel) was meant to last me until the weekend when I got the car home and could pop something more permanent on the car. 9 months later...
New bracket on (4mm, 35mm square section alu) and a nice load more space between the crash bar and the 'cooler as a result. Core is around 30mm further back than it was before.
Big box arrived (banana for scale)
Which contained
Another box of course
...which contained two more boxes
...which contained new lights
Most importantly, they've got a full set of these!
Pulled the manual adjustment out of the new light units as I'd like to keep these road legal for obvious reasons.
Adjustment motor in place
Another package arrived with some more goodies
Oh and I finally collected another piece of the puzzle too
Car's been looking like this for a couple of days while we've been up and down the country
Trimmed/tweaked slam panel to create a little more room for the FMIC and remove a few siezed/snapped bolts/welded nuts. Will replace these with rivnuts for longevity.
Quick bumper repair for the lower crack
And a trim at the rear to tidy things up a little. When I fitted the FMIC I'd only got a drill to hand to this was trimmed very badly and looked rubbish. Quick Dremel to do things properly
Hotel room last night backed onto the Porsche dealership rear car park. Few nice bits of kit in there (including a nice Z4m coupe) plus this Cayenne on stands which would have been prime for donating its brakes to the Leon!
Old, "temporary" bracket (a piece of scrap 1mm mild steel) was meant to last me until the weekend when I got the car home and could pop something more permanent on the car. 9 months later...
New bracket on (4mm, 35mm square section alu) and a nice load more space between the crash bar and the 'cooler as a result. Core is around 30mm further back than it was before.
Big box arrived (banana for scale)
Which contained
Another box of course
...which contained two more boxes
...which contained new lights
Most importantly, they've got a full set of these!
Pulled the manual adjustment out of the new light units as I'd like to keep these road legal for obvious reasons.
Adjustment motor in place
Another package arrived with some more goodies
Oh and I finally collected another piece of the puzzle too
Not going to type much as people don't seem to be too interested. Will let the pictures do the talking.
Got the head mostly back together again with new VVT tensioner and timing chain. 16 pins between marks as per Bentley
manual.
Back up here again for a couple of months with work.
Few fun cars on the way up.
Multistory on base is all well and good, but ramps are a little steeper than ideal and my (roughly stock height) front
bumper is not a fan
Fortunately there's a small outdoor section that only requires one change of level to get out of. Also has the bonus
of one slightly larger space in the corner, which I've unofficially nabbed in an attempt to stay a little further away
from idiots.
It hasn't worked.
There's absolutely NOTHING to do here, not even a garage on base I can play around in. Some fairly scenic drives are
about the only thing keeping me vaguely sane at the moment.
Got the head mostly back together again with new VVT tensioner and timing chain. 16 pins between marks as per Bentley
manual.
Back up here again for a couple of months with work.
Few fun cars on the way up.
Multistory on base is all well and good, but ramps are a little steeper than ideal and my (roughly stock height) front
bumper is not a fan
Fortunately there's a small outdoor section that only requires one change of level to get out of. Also has the bonus
of one slightly larger space in the corner, which I've unofficially nabbed in an attempt to stay a little further away
from idiots.
It hasn't worked.
There's absolutely NOTHING to do here, not even a garage on base I can play around in. Some fairly scenic drives are
about the only thing keeping me vaguely sane at the moment.
Cheers dude, appreciate the reply! Will be nice to get a few more bits sorted on the car itself rather than in the garage but until I can get the head back on and adapter plate made it's a little boring at present. Once I've got the turbo bolted to the head I can think about lines and DP which should be a tad more interesting again
Looking good Luke, progressing so well considering you spend more time in the ocean than most fish!
Cheers gents! I'm pretty disappointed that the engine work is taking so long as realistically it's only a long weekend's work, but I've simply not had a decent few days on the trot with which to do it all so have stretched it out and used it as a learning experience.
Talking of which, I grabbed half an hour today:
Block has been sat a few weeks, so first thing to do was to clean up the section I was working with:
Grabbed a water pump to fill the hole:
Pulled the studs out of the exhaust side of the head:
Had a very quick/crude look to get an idea how much room I'll have for the adapter etc. Shouldn't need anything toooooooo thick:
Touch tight at the intake but once there's an adapter in the mix that'll be fine:
Cleaned up another sump - this one has an oil level sensor fitting which the original AYP doesn't. Picked it up cheap locally but it was a state so it's been scrubbed, carb-cleanered and now "degreased". Unfortunately I got caught in the act this time and had a bit of a telling off!
Gave the rocker cover and oil filter housing a quick once over while I was at it. All looking much better now.
Have been working on a few little bits in the background too. All slow but steady progress. CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) becomes CAD (Computer Aided Design).
Talking of which, I grabbed half an hour today:
Block has been sat a few weeks, so first thing to do was to clean up the section I was working with:
Grabbed a water pump to fill the hole:
Pulled the studs out of the exhaust side of the head:
Had a very quick/crude look to get an idea how much room I'll have for the adapter etc. Shouldn't need anything toooooooo thick:
Touch tight at the intake but once there's an adapter in the mix that'll be fine:
Cleaned up another sump - this one has an oil level sensor fitting which the original AYP doesn't. Picked it up cheap locally but it was a state so it's been scrubbed, carb-cleanered and now "degreased". Unfortunately I got caught in the act this time and had a bit of a telling off!
Gave the rocker cover and oil filter housing a quick once over while I was at it. All looking much better now.
Have been working on a few little bits in the background too. All slow but steady progress. CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) becomes CAD (Computer Aided Design).
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Another quick moment grabbed this morning. I'm going away again for a couple of weeks so wanted to get a tad more done before heading off but got cut a little shorter than I'd have liked.
Had a sheared bolt in the crank pulley. Removed it, fitted pulley with new crank bolt.
Stuck the (now cleaner) sump on to keep things a little more protected. Not sealed up as I suspect I'll be pulling this again before I'm done.
Reason for using this one rather than the other:
Killed another 1/2-3/8" adapter. Really should just grab a few new metric 1/2" sockets haha.
In vaguely related news.
Had a sheared bolt in the crank pulley. Removed it, fitted pulley with new crank bolt.
Stuck the (now cleaner) sump on to keep things a little more protected. Not sealed up as I suspect I'll be pulling this again before I'm done.
Reason for using this one rather than the other:
Killed another 1/2-3/8" adapter. Really should just grab a few new metric 1/2" sockets haha.
In vaguely related news.
Car was about to tick over to 120k and I had a couple of hours free this evening for the first time in a while so I went for a bit of a lap around Dartmoor, up to Princetown and back. Used it as a chance to play around with GoPro positioning for future use too, including this one rather sketchy front mount placement. Bit shaky using the long extension, but with an adhesive mount on the lower bumper to firm it up a bit I think it should be pretty decent. Was actually lower and I had to pull it up a bit for fear of running it into the ground and driving over it
Anyway, off to bed before an early start so that'll do for words.
Anyway, off to bed before an early start so that'll do for words.
In this week's edition of "things Luke looks into to pass the time but will never actually get around to fabricating":
Excuse the appalling CAD work - having never really used it before this is all a bit new to me so things are a bit rough, thrown together and no doubt technically awful but enough to give an idea of whether my thinking is along the right lines!
Excuse the appalling CAD work - having never really used it before this is all a bit new to me so things are a bit rough, thrown together and no doubt technically awful but enough to give an idea of whether my thinking is along the right lines!
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In this week's "Nothing to Report", I have nothing interesting to report.
I've managed to nab myself a small compressor. Need to pick up a few tools, but should give a little more grunt and open up some options down the line.
Drove back to Hampshire, where I'm now based again for a while. Passed this pair on the way.
On base and after a week or so of settling back into routine, it'll be time to try and get myself some workshop access. Will cross that bridge next week, all being well.
I've managed to nab myself a small compressor. Need to pick up a few tools, but should give a little more grunt and open up some options down the line.
Drove back to Hampshire, where I'm now based again for a while. Passed this pair on the way.
On base and after a week or so of settling back into routine, it'll be time to try and get myself some workshop access. Will cross that bridge next week, all being well.
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