Looks like my annual update is a bit early this year. I blame this lockdown business!
Where was I...Coolant leak. A little more poking around revealed that it was actually my radiator leaking, which is a shame as it looks in absolutely perfect condition. My options were a chinese aluminium radiator for around £150, a second hand radiator from Woolies for £80, or other more expensive options. At this point I was busy pouring money into a V6 engine swap on the MX5 so the cheapest option won out and I opted for the radiator from Woolies. When I actually came to collect the radiator it was visually in far worse condition than mine, and if I wasn't desperate for a radiator - and if I hadn't been chasing Paul to get it off the breaker car for me for a couple of weeks - I'd have declined it. He assured me that it was leak free though so I bought and fitted it.
I also fitted a new OEM thermostat while I was there:
The circlip from the old thermostat came out in two pieces, so it got a new one of those too.
Once fitted it did indeed seem leak free - but the rest of my coolant system wasn't. Coolant dripping from the bottom of the engine but I couldn't work out where it was coming from! If we briefly jump ahead in this story to yesterday I borrowed a coolant system pressure tester and pumped up the system to 15psi. Within 5 minutes it was down to 10PSI and I'd found a couple of leaks. The first one was at the back of the engine where the pipe from the block feeds coolant to the heater matrix and with the system pressurised I could hear it hissing away merrily. Pulled the pipe off and the reason was very immediately apparent!
Look at all that lovely rust! Some 100 grit emry cloth took off the majority of the rust and the hose went back in place with no discrenable leaks. One down!
The other area that was leaking was the coolant return pipe to the water pump from the back of the engine:
A much smaller leak and more difficult to see. I can't fully disconnect this pipe without draining the coolant system so for now I released the jubilee clip, gave everything a good wiggle and replaced the clip in a slightly different location. Leak reduced but not eliminated however before I drain the coolant and fix it, the replaced radiator was also looking damp so further tests needed
Round and round in circles we go!
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I had a different water related event too. I used the car quite a bit last year, including through some of the rather heavy rain in October. One commute home I came across a bit of a puddle right across the road. The golf in front of me went through and it just about came to the bottom of his bumpers at the deepest bit so I figured it was probably safe. Figured wrong! Went through fine, second gear, nice and slow out the other side no issues. Started accelerating away and the engine hiccoughed and the exhaust started steaming rather badly! Handily there was a layby just ahead:
I'd obviously not totally hydrolocked the engine, but all sorts of bad possibilities were going through my head - namely a little water in the cylinder increasing the CR enough to fuse the head gasket which would then cause the continuous steaming exhaust. For the first time in my life I gave recovery a call. The driver called me an idiot for driving though the water and said the engine probably just needed drying out.
Once home I had a little surprise waiting for me in the airbox:
I can see why it might have been steaming a bit, and I'm very glad I didn't try to drive home as going down a hill could well have finished off the engine. After emptying that lot out I left the engine idling until there was no hint of steam any more. Engine revs happily and after a new air filter to replace the somewhat soggy one a test drive reassured me that no damage was done. That's my luck all used up for the year, and a cautionary tale at my expense for you lot!
And on to the reason why I still actually have the car rather than selling it this spring as was my hope... bodywork. eurgh.
The back end of the passenger side sill was definitely crusty, and there was evidence of filler cracking over the near side rear wheel arch so I sent it off to a body shop to take a look:
Looks like it had a bit of a bump on that side before I bought it, the whole arch is pushed in a couple of cm. It's been beaten back out then covered in a lot of filler. The metal under the filler is going a little rusty and cracking the filler off. That's not what I was hoping to find. After a look around at the best repair options, metal repair panels seem non existent at anything other than exorbitant OPC prices, so a quarter cut from a shell seemed the best bet. There were only a couple around and this was the best one I could find for a reasonable enough £225. Finding a car that would fit it is a struggle though. Just fits in a Passat estate, nothing I own will fit it and we had an offer of an Evoque which I figured might fit it... Not a chance in hell though.
One quarter cut from a rather nice turbo silver rose which looked like it had gone sideways into a tree
My condolences to the owner! This has now been with the body shop for a rather long time on his back burner and he's struggling to cleanly separate the outer skin from the inner arch. The car was supposed to be going in mid Feb but it hasn't happened yet!
In the mean time the bodyshop roughly added some new metal the the end of the sill and some temporary filler to make the car roadworthy and good for MOT in the meantime. Unfortunately the MOT tested disagreed and gave and advisory for rust which is rather annoying! That brings us up to date on that story... Just waiting on the bodyshop and considering going elsewhere (Current one is a very genuine, straight up guy who we've sent cars to in the past and does good but slow work). Unfortunately not having a car that can move the quarter cut myself makes collecting it tricky.
Finally back to yesterday - I've been buried in the MX5 and the Porsche has barely got a look in. Due to this lock in I'm slowly running out of things to do on the Mazda though which is waiting on an MOT, so the Porsche got some attention. While pressure testing the coolant system I saw that the battery tray is looking quite grotty again. Must have been about 4 years ago that we cleaned it up, gave it a layer of hammerite kurust then heavy waxoyl and I thought that would protect it for ages - how naive I was! This time I've wire brushed all the loose surface rust off, sanded the rust areas down further (forgot to take a picture of that step) then gave it all a coat of Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust converter which gets very good reviews and the MX5 is covered in it, so I hope it's good!
That's the battery tray with a partially dried first coat of hydrate 80. It goes on blue as you can see in the wet areas, turns all the rust areas black, and the rest of it dries clear. I need to work out why a couple of areas are still brown, then I'll do another coat today then decide what to finish it in. I have a can of colour coded paint I could use to make it look more OEM, but the finish wouldn't be very good, or I have Bilt Hamber UB which is a self healing rubberised coating that dries - unlike the waxoyl - gives very good protection, but doesn't look amazing when brushed on. Probably leaning towards the latter for the protection it offers.
I think that's up to date now... Hopefully it won't be a year until the next one! My distraction is nearing completion after all:
^ Pretty V6 goodness.
Quick question though - and I won't take offence to the answers - If I'm selling this car would this thread make you run for the hills or give you some confidence that you knew what you were getting? I've not exactly hidden the ugly bits.
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