Marina Roadster

[stevejgreen]

Re: Marina Roadster

So you'll want my spare Land Rover engine mounts next..! Forgot that the single carb sits higher...
As for the throttle linkage I could have sworn all the bits were there...

Which is quite probably the reason why the Single Carb engines have gearbox mounts that are slightly lower, with the intention of keeping the engine horizontal.
I doubt that it makes that much difference in practice as the oil will move around the sump side to side and fore and aft during acceleration and braking.

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Marina Roadster

Perfectly feasible to remove nose cone leaving wings in situ...as you say though, remove the light-bar first.
Re-assembly is the reverse of removal as Mr Haynes might say

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

along with a liberal application of vaseline and a mallet? Cheers guys,

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

Still not happy with the running temp. The sender is always in the top 3/4. Its a standard marina gauge and sender. So new sender on its way. I also did some research on the civic rad. In Steve Green's article on overheating he stated that a racing spec honda civic rad is teh way to go. I googled the Honda engine specs and find that even the lowest generates 95KW, about the same as teh B Series. The same rad is used up to the 2.0 diesel. So Im thinking that a standard civic rad should do the trick. Anyhow, I picked one up complete with fan etc for £20 and will see what's what. If it doesnt work I will upgrade to the higher spec dual core civic rad. Just need to find five mins to have a play.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Marina Roadster

One thing to check first is to measure the 'real' temperature around the thermostat/sensor location with an infra red thermometer or a locally attached PT sensor, to establish the facts. To rely on a damped sensor/gauge combination is risky at best.
My recommendation to use the racing spec radiator was based on my own calculations and the practical experience of others.
The Honda radiator is slightly smaller than the standard Vauxhall radiator and airflow through it will be more critical to obtain good cooling effect, in its standard form the Civic rad is effectively ducted, difficult to obtain in a Roadster.
it would be interesting to see whether a standard Civic radiator can be an effective solution.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

I think its got to be worth a go - for want of £20 its a gamble worth checking out. Good idea about the IR thermometer too, cheers.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

The swap to single carb went well. I drilled the holes in the chassis mounting plates first then jacked up the engine on a piece of timber. Took all the manifolds and stuff off the OS (and removed my little fuel pump heat shield). Lifted it a bit higher and everything fell into place. Lining everything up was straightforward and an afternoon's work saw it all back together.
It started up on the second crank and as it warmed up it was running very rich. So once hot I lowered the jet by unwinding the nut underneath and kept checking with the mixture pin. All went well and I now have a fairly good idle and good throttle response. Too early to tell yet, but it feels snappier than with twin carbs. I havent really tested yet as I need to get an air filter.
singleSU.jpg

singleSU2.jpg

IN the pics you should be able to see the heat shield I made, the new (leaky) washer bottle and fuel pressure regulator etc.

The new temp sender arrived and took five mins to fit - the temp gauge now reads ON the N rather than just above it. I'm still going to swap the rad out and make a remote expansion tank arrangement for it.
Other jobs included looking at the fuel gauge. I checked the gauge for operation by putting the wire to the earth - nothing. I then plugged a wire into the marina multiplug and earthed the gauge that way - straight up to full. So I replaced the wire - nothing. The float in the tank was actually seized too so that had to come out and be persuaded to play. Which it did after a bit of cleaning and bashing. I noticed that the fuel sender unit is not the original ford one so guess its had a marina one grafted onto it. Time will tell how accurate it is when I fill up next.
The new washer bottle was leaking and the guys are sending me a replacement free gratis.
Next job is to get the nose cone off and painted. The car came with a tin of unipart touch up - Monza Red. Unfortunately my local motor factors couldnt match the unipart number to their catalogue so I spent an enjoyable hour on the internet doing some sleuthing. I think its an old TR7 colour and the code is BLVC287 which translates into the proper code of CCB which I believe was subsequently updated to CMV.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

Might have put this in What Did You Do Today section but its part of the rebuild...everything was going well until it conked out at the side of the road. My son had 'borrowed' the car so it was he calling for help, fortunately I wasn't in it! Anyhow, after dropping various kids off at various places I got round to him enjoying a bit of early morning sun sat at the side of the road reading a book on his phone. No attempt made to see what was wrong!
It was fairly evident, the fuel filter was full of milky petrol. Off came the top of the fuel bowl (glad I changed to a HS from the HIF) and I cleaned out a load of rubbish from there too. Engine fired up and ran sweetly and off we set, me in front looking at my little car in the mirror thinking what a brilliant design and how Paul Moorhouse had just got it right. I pulled over at the junction and he passed me and I thought what a boring back end the roadster has - must bling it up a bit. ANyway, two miles later it conked again, same problem. This time I cleaned out the fuel lines all the way to the fuel filter and the petrol coming into the plastic filter looked a lot cleaner - enough to get us home safely (although I then had to go on to get architraving to finish a little job the missus has got me on -"Just build a little porch"...turned out to be 12' x 10'). So now its a case of cleaning out the fuel tank (again) - I'm guessing that new fuel has dissolved some of the old crud that had turned to hard crud whilst the car was sat for 15 years in someone's lockup and I need to get in it to get it out. The tank looks bolted in from the top so it would be a tub-ectomy to remove it. The fuel gauge has been fixed but is reading way out so I will attend to that at the same time. Sunday job? I was hoping so but one of my youngsters needs a lift to his friends to go to Cosford Airshow and then the other two lads need taking to school to go on the Sport Aid trip to Old Trafford later on. And after that doorway has been replaced with a window, and the walls rendered outside and plastered inside, and the painting finished and god knows what else er indoors will find to keep me busy it might have to wait till next week.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

I pulled the fuel sender and feed out of the tank and everything looked fine in there - just a little crud floating around so I bunged everything back together (again) and set off for a quick test run. I got all of 50 yards half way down my drive before the blessed thing died. Again, milky rubbish in the fuel filter so I pushed it back to the garage and stripped it down again. This time I thought I would have another look at getting the tank out so drained it - the petrol came out orangey. Now I would have expected it to look like wee but not tango. So at this moment the car has its bum up in the air and I'm looking underneath it carefully. Lo and behold...the tank is strapped UNDER the chassis - not as I had originally surmised. However, the tub is curled around it at the back so I'm going to have to trim a little grp off to get at the bolts. I also noticed that the live feed from the boot-mounted battery has chafed on something so that will need a stronger casing over it. Onwards and backwards...,

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Marina Roadster

Pull the entire rear tub & wings off.
Once you do it the first time & free up all the bolts (and renew the connectors in the loom for the lights while you're at it..!) the next time is a doddle & it makes working on the rear chassis so much easier.
Last time I inspected the interior of my tank it looked in surprisingly good nick - I think the old Ford tanks may have been tin-lined so I'd be inclined to suspect any rubber pipework first.
I've always found the Ford fuel sender/pickup a pig to refit - especially if the sealing gasket is new and you have restricted access because of the rear tub...another reason to remove the tub.
If you strike lucky & find a new tank at an affordable price (you are after all the man that can pick up a new Civic rad for £20..!) then consider drilling it to take a Smiths sender & fitting a bottom take-off rather than using the combined Ford unit. That way you'll get a sender that plays nicely with the gauges and a convenient way of draining the tank should the need arise.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

life is too short Jez! And anyway I just traded in the TT for an A4 cabrio so the missus wants a mini-break as compensation.
I have just ordered the bilt hamber fuel tank cleaning kit - so will let everyone know how i get on with it. meanwhile I have to pretend to enjoy er indoors thai curry to keep domestic harmony.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

Not a lot happened since I last wrote, the car had its fuel system cleaned out and it still ran as rough as a bear's whatsit. I would get the mixture right (according to the little lift pin under the dashpot) and the car ran lumpier than ever. I checked and checked. I decided to make sure the timing was ok - it has Pirhanna after-market ignition on it - one with a chopper disc. Fortunately the previous owner had kept all the bits and so I rebuilt the distributor using the old points set up. Timing marks...none. Nothing on the crank pulley at all, just the little teeth on the timing case. So using a plastic tie wrap and rolling the car forward in gear I found TDC, finger over the sparkplug hole whilst rolling it ensured compression on No 1. Marked it off with a bit of paint, then set it to 10 deg btdc and popped the dissy back in. Using a multimeter to set the points opening at the right time I disconnected the fuel pump and turned the key. She started up immediately, a fair bit of black smoke is coming out of the exhaust and after a second or two started to run like the old bear again. I'm now wondering whether I have a sticky valve or sommat and should just bite the bullet and put a decent engine in it - it wont be a BMC one if I do! Right ...off for a think.

[lil_red_roadster]

Re: Marina Roadster

You could always try 0.5l of ATF in the oil to see if that frees it up...ATF is often touted as a cheap substitute for "official" valve cleaner if you have some knocking about.
Didn't the crank pulley have a small dimple as the marker..?

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

I will look for that dimple Jez, but now I have marked it up I am confident I have it right. I will do a compression test when I get a minute and see what's going on. How's yours coming along?

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Marina Roadster

Just did Compression test - shows all cylinders at 150psi A squirt of oil brings it up to 170. Im guessing thats good for the 1.8 B series?