[engine_work] Mi16 With Bottom End Knock I

[sport1901966 8]

I´d cut the original loom and get some new wires. Be sure to solder the wires to the connectors.

 

That's what i've got in mind, good point about the soldering i,ll do that.

 

You wouldn't know the blade size in the brown connectors by any chance? I suspect they'll be 6.3mm but I don't want to order the wrong ones!

[mmt 15]

I cut off the terminals and used new std connectors. You don´t need the big terminals. Just use std. connectors and isolate them with some heat shrink.

[sport1901966 8]

I cut off the terminals and used new std connectors. You don´t need the big terminals. Just use std. connectors and isolate them with some heat shrink.

 

I see the logic there, but I planned to keep the loom as standard as possible. If I ever come to sell it on it would potentially be useful to the buyer, also it'll make any troubleshooting/removal of the looms slightly easier if ever required

 

Cheers

[adamc 0]

Great project mate, keep up the good work and well done in sorting that wiring out on the engine i know what a mess it was when i sold you that engine.

[sport1901966 8]

Great project mate, keep up the good work and well done in sorting that wiring out on the engine i know what a mess it was when i sold you that engine.

 

Adam, how you doin mate? It wasn't too bad in the end, whoever did the conversion before didn't do a bad job of the wiring, mostly was a case of tidying it up. I don't suppose you remember but did the fuel pump run of the ignition or via a manual switch?

 

Hows the Nissan?

[adamc 0]

i'm good thanks mate, living back in st albans now as i finished my degree. The fuel pump was wired into the ignition when i had the car. The wiring was a complete mess when i bought the car so i did aload of tidying before removing the engine - it had loads of broken alarms and rubbish in when I 1st got it. Glad to see you have managed to create a larger clearance between the brake servo and cambelt cover. I'll keep my eye out for the car in and around hatfield. The 200sx is going well thanks, crippling me on fuel abit though. lol

[sport1901966 8]

i'm good thanks mate, living back in st albans now as i finished my degree. The fuel pump was wired into the ignition when i had the car. The wiring was a complete mess when i bought the car so i did aload of tidying before removing the engine - it had loads of broken alarms and rubbish in when I 1st got it. Glad to see you have managed to create a larger clearance between the brake servo and cambelt cover. I'll keep my eye out for the car in and around hatfield. The 200sx is going well thanks, crippling me on fuel abit though. lol

 

OK, must just be the earths then, I'll go through and make sure they are all as good as possible. I didn't realise you were from st-albans, how did the final year go? Any jobs in the pipeline?

 

I can't wait to get it on the road, just a few issues like the leaking sump to sort then it's off for an mot and the vic check (was CAT C written off before I got the shell). With that exhaust you gave me you'll prob be able to hear it from st albans! lol

[adamc 0]

hopefully it is just a bad earth or something simple (usually the case). The final year went well, alot of work but it was worth it. No interesting jobs as yet but i'm still applying so fingers crossed. A sump leak isn't all bad my 200 has one (not fixing it in this weather), think of it as a contant oil change. lol. I do remember how loud that exhaust is, i have a video somewhere, i'll see if i can dig it out, but yes it is loud!

Fingers crossed for the mot. Hows your course going?

[sport1901966 8]

hopefully it is just a bad earth or something simple (usually the case). The final year went well, alot of work but it was worth it. No interesting jobs as yet but i'm still applying so fingers crossed. A sump leak isn't all bad my 200 has one (not fixing it in this weather), think of it as a contant oil change. lol. I do remember how loud that exhaust is, i have a video somewhere, i'll see if i can dig it out, but yes it is loud!

Fingers crossed for the mot. Hows your course going?

 

That certainly is one way to look at it! although maybe I should elaborate and explain its almost more of a streaming than a leak and I don't expect the MOT man is going to like that.

 

Course is going well but have to echo the final year being a lot of work statement. Would be good to see the video, I'm yet to hear it on the move.

 

I am bracing myself for a few possible nasty surprises on the mot but we'll see!

 

Good luck with the job hunting, all I keep hearing is it's a pain in the arse trying to find a job in the industry at the moment.

[sport1901966 8]

Not much of an interesting update but following up on my posts about shortening the loom as per the earlier picture, I investigated to number of wires in the loom at that point.

 

The wires I found were as below -

 

 

Based on this I ordered some connectors from VWP and the associated terminals - a 5 way waterproof multiconnector for the green wires and a 4 way multiconnector for the remaining. I got some other connectors just in case I decided to do it a different way.

 

I chose the sizes based on the wire OD and cross sectional area info I found on Automotive Electrical Supplies for standard cable.

 

 

Also on advice from welshpug! I ordered the crimping tool with green handles from simtek to get the proper folded over tab crimps on non-insulated terminals (see my topic 'what crimping tool?')

 

I haven't yet been back to the car to begin the shortening, but it won't be done for a while as it's not top of my to do list anyway!

Edited February 3, 2010 by sport1901966

[sport1901966 8]

Also on the topic of wiring I have made a new connection wire for the oil temp sender to the brown plugs. The old wire had corroded and broken away from the terminal at the brown plug end so I ordered a new blade terminal (as part of the VWP order) and set to work...... I'm stuck away from the car at the moment so any work I can do is very interesting to me! .................. The almost finished product is below, I took advice from a friend and used a dymo label printer and clear heat shrink to label the wire.

 

 

Also just to share my excitement .. I bought a shortened AFM to TB hose as part of Stew's (BBM) group buy which I plan on getting fitted this weekend!

 

 

Hopefully there should be some updates actually worth reading next week

Edited February 3, 2010 by sport1901966

[sport1901966 8]

Weekend of the 5th of Feb Update

 

Friday –

 

The first job was re-sealing the sump to stop the leak when the oil is warm. Our Formula Student team at Uni had a presentation from Loctite and they said to ensure the best possible seal using their RTV gasket (5910 I think) one of the two mating surfaces should have a chamfer on the inner edge (i.e. the side the fluid is being contained). With that information I attacked the strengthening spacer armed with a grinder.

 

 

Before re-fitting I made sure all the threads were clean by running a tap through them (m7 x 1.5) and used some thinners to clean the mating surfaces. After chipping the block on an engine in the past due to tightening a bolt into a blind hole packed with gasket, I decided it would be best to fit all the open holed bolts first, I then went round the others with a screwdriver to make sure they were clear. Trying to guide the spacer plate around the oil pick up was fun, like one of those games where you have to guide a loop along a twisty wire! Annoyingly, as I was putting it back on one of the 2 bolts snapped, I really need to get a low range torque wrench to prevent this (10Nm is the bottom of the range), does anyone have any recommendations? I left this as it is only there to hold the space in while locating the sump. I used one of those electric screwdrivers doing all this and it saved a huge amount of time. Fingers crossed this anal approach will mean the damn thing seals!

 

After this I fitted the new shortened AFM hose from Baker BM as per a previous post. I also trimmed some of the breather pipes around the intake so they wouldn’t foul the bonnet and were under less strain. I tested which were fouling by putting talc powder on the suspects then closing the bonnet – it worked very well! Some of them were really hard and stiff to get off but a quick blast with a heat gun and they were nice and supple (thanks to my gf’s parents for a very useful Christmas pres!). At the same time I renewed all the clips to ensure no air leaks.

 

 

 

To finish off I fitted the repaired oil temp wire as shown in one of the previous updates.

 

 

 

Sat –

 

I did some more testing to try and work out why the fuel pump wasn’t activating – according to caps it should run for ~1 second after the ignition is turned on and all the time the engine is turning i.e. the Crank Sensor is sending a signal to the ECU. It seems the fuel pump relay isn’t activating because the ECU isn’t earthing the relay energizing circuit. On the ECU pin 22 is the earth side of the FP relay and 19 is the main ECU earth, in the situations when the fuel pump should be running it stands to reason that the resistance between these pins should be zero, but, in my case, it isn’t so unfortunately it seems to be a duff ECU.... For now I’ve earthed the relay to the earth point on the offside headlight panel, the problem with this is the pump runs all the time the key is in the ignition position.

 

While the dash was loose and access was better I sorted the wiring for the 25psi oil pressure warning light. I put the light in the little panel above the coin tray where hopefully it should be in eye line most of the time, routing the cable was not easy but I got there in the end using a wire hanger taped to the cable. It seemed a good idea to wire it in via a switch so when driving day to day the light won’t come on with the engine not started etc. The switch lights up when it’s on so the driver knows whether the warning system is active or not.

 

 

 

I’ve attached the bonnet release cable but the striker pin still needs adjusting as I really have to force the bonnet down to get it to latch. Before fitting the slam panel I thought I’d give it a quick spray to smarten it up a bit.

 

 

Final job of the day was relocating the washer bottle. I settled on the offside wing in place of the jack, mainly for speed and simplicity. I cut out a strip of aluminium and bent, drilled and painted it. I cut off the old washer bottle bracket and drilled a hole in the remaining flange. I used one of the wing bolts to mount it. I extended the wiring and run across the car under the slam panel. To route the hose to the washer pump I pulled it off the washer jets and turned it round so it was directed to the offside wing, I used some hose I bought from Halfords to extend it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun –

 

I thought I’d get started with an easy job so went round all the hand tight suspension and drivetrain bolts with a bottle of thread lock and a torque wrench getting everything tight. What’s the best way to get the strut top centre bolts tightened; I can’t get enough of a normal spanner onto it?

 

The next job was getting the brake fluid topped up and bled. I had been regularly coating the rear caliper nipples with WD40 and....RESULT they didn’t shear! I started at the furthest corner from the master cylinder and worked to the closest. All was fine until the nearside front where the flexi line seems to be blocked. No fluid was flowing through the nipple so I undid the calliper end of the flexi-line, still no flow, I then undid the solid pipe end of the flexi line and there was flow. A replacement is on the way!

[sport1901966 8]

Work then moved inside the car, I mounted the ECU bracket, routed the ECU wiring over the steering column and assembled the rest of the dash back together. Plenty of cable ties and things were looking pretty tidy! To finish off the interior I need to mount the drivers footwell panel and passenger footwell side plate/bonnet release catch. I also had to adjust the brake light switch as the lights were staying on.

 

 

Just needs a good clean!

 

There seemed to be a few electrical issues – the courtesy light wouldn’t turn on in any position, the fan wouldn’t run and the reading light would turn on in either position. Fixing the lights was fairly easy, just a case of bending out/cleaning contacts in the light units themselves to make sure the connections were good. The fan was a bit more difficult, I took the front panel off the heater controls and probed the circuit board with a multimeter to see where there was voltage or not. I ran a 12v from the battery and kept contacting the fan feed on the circuit board, I could here the fan clicking and eventually it started spinning and now works from the dial – must have been seized! I need to replace a bulb holder in the heater panel and the courtesy light still doesn’t turn on when either door is opened, also the clock is very dull.

Edited February 21, 2010 by sport1901966

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

Is the 205 badge hanging off your keyring?

[sport1901966 8]

Is the 205 badge hanging off your keyring?

 

Haha, Yea had an old slightly worse for wear one lying around and have so many keys so thought why not!

[sport1901966 8]

Right its been a while since I updated this...... and thats an understatement. I have quite a lot to update so bear with me!

 

So first of all back to june

4th June 2010

After re-sealing the sump, fitting the new OSF flexi hose and bleeding the brakes, the plan was to take the car out for a test drive to get the oil up to temp and see if it was still leaking. As the car had been sat for a while I did the usual taking off the cam cover and oiling the cams and down the bores, I then turned over the engine by hand then with the ECU disconnected to pressurise the oil system. I started the engine up and all was well. I then refitted the headlights and bumper. I quickly checked all the exterior lighting, the indicators and brake lights were fine but the rest are a bit hit and miss.... more work to do then!

 

I was all ready for the first drive, got my self comfortable..clutch down... turn the key... and.... engine turns over then the slows, the starter motor clicks and all goes dead. This is followed by lots of smoke from under the bonnet and the unmistakeable stench of burning plastic. I opened the bonnet and was greeted by this....

 

 

 

The bonnet support had closed down on the loom at the branch just after the convoluted tubing earthing the main ECU live feed. Looks like I was to be shortening the excess loom sooner than planned, fortunately I had already ordered all the connectors I needed and had some cable lying around. I had to cut the loom the branching point in the pic below. Conveniently all the AFM wires are green as well as pretty much all the others, needless to say an anal amount of labelling was required before making the cut!

 

 

 

I made a shortened loom template with some old wire; this included the AFM, crank sensor, ignition amp, coil and power distribution block wiring. In my loom I included an inline 25Amp fuse in the main live feed from the distribution block.

 

The next day I fitted the connectors on the car side of where I cut the loom and plugged everything back in…

 

[sport1901966 8]

14th August 2010

 

Firstly I took off front struts to replace bearings (skf parts from ECP) and rubber buffers (group N ones from BakerBM). I then found that the LH side damper was shot, it seems to have over travelled as the bump stop had disintegrated.

 

 

 

Euro Car Parts sell OE spec bilstein shocks at pretty reasonable price, but I had to get the bump stops separately. I had also bought some Motaquip (OE quality) wishbones to put on. This I couldn’t do until the new shocks had arrived.

 

The next big job was working out where the big oil leak when the engine is warm is coming from. I suspect it could be the oil filter. Do to the tightness to the rad I actually had to get the bumper and fan housing off and pull the rad forward a bit. Eventually I will fabricate a whole new mounting rail to bring it permanently forward. I removed the oil filter, cleaned up the surfaces and, for the sake of testing, put the ‘old’ (only done a few miles) filter back on.

 

 

I had also finally found a replacement 7 way female junior power timer plug for the ignition amp because the old one kept dropping off! I swapped over all the wires and jobs a goodun. I found it on EFIparts.com which is a pretty good site for that sort of thing.

 

After a trip to the scrap yard I managed to sort a few little problems including getting a new sidelight bulb carrier, aerial and a ton of new dash bulbs.

 

When I got the new shocks I assembled the struts together and got them back on the car. I had attacked the various parts with a wire wheel and painted them to preserve them.

 

 

 

I then got the wishbones fitted, making sure to bolt up the inner bushes with the hub jacked up to normal ride height. During the fitting the RH headlight lens decided to fall out so I swapped the unit over with one from the scrapyard. Also whilst I was under the car I did a general check of all the subframe mounting bolts calliper bolts etc.

 

The exhaust that came with the engine when I bought it is in good condition but had a ridiculously loud backbox, I decided to cut it off and use the standard back box. To this I used a short length of the old exhaust pipe to make a joiner section which I welded the silencer to the rest of the exhaust with. I was well pleased with the result; the tail pipe comes out in just the right place, quite a success for my first welding job!

 

 

 

 

After all that I wired in an ISO plug for a new radio (wasn’t up for spending ridiculous money on a conversion loom from halfords or the like!).

 

I took the car out for a test drive and the result was bittersweet, exhaust is sorted; I no longer sound like the McDonalds massive. BUT the oil leak remains. After cleaning up the sump and around the oil filter I ran the engine again, watching where the leak originated from. I could see quite clearly it was coming from between the spacer and sump, around where the oil pump mates to the block. At this point I decided to call it a day, the thought of pulling the sump off again was enough to put me off!

Edited September 21, 2010 by sport1901966

[sport1901966 8]

28th August 2010

 

The 28th August brought the 3rd attempt at sealing the sump, before this go I did some searching on this site to see what other people had done, I thought I’d list this below as it may help out other people –

 

• Clean surfaces with petrol/cellulose thinners

• Rub surfaces with fine wet and dry (get really really shiney)

 

Spacer to block

• Very thin smear of silicone between the plate and the block because that's a close fitting joint

• Can use gasket on this joint as well, although not done at factory

 

Sump to spacer

• Sump to spacer – 2mm bead/3mm bead

• Using 1 Gasket on sump to spacer – thin smear of sealant on sump, add gasket then thicker smear on top of gasket

• Use gaskets on both joints with smear of sealant

• You can do this without the gasket if you wish..

• Sump to spacer - a thicker application on the gasket which I apply only around the centre and outside edge of the gasket so it doesn't squeeze into the sump (3mm)

• Timing – fit straight onto engine or let sealant start to dry before fitting (~15mins?) and tighten bolts lightly (middle out) wait 2 hours then tighten fully (20Nm)

• Tighten bolts progressively - every other bolt a quarter turn

 

 

Sealants

• Sealants - Wynn's gasket maker (sump to spacer)/ ThreeBond 1211 (very thin layer both surfaces/ clear window/bath silicone sealant (sump to spacer)/ Dow Corning RTV silicone

 

 

I ended up going with a ridiculous amount of cleaning, sanding the surfaces lightly with 800 then 1500grit then more cleaning with thinners and brake cleaner. I also used the gasket between the sump and block with a smear of Locitite 5910 rtv. I also left the sealant to start curing slightly before assembling, and then waited 24hours to fill with oil. To be certain of not getting oil on any of the surfaces I also took the oil pump pickup off, that way the spacer could be lifted straight on.

 

 

 

I took the car out for the test drive and guess what…. we still have oil leaking….from the same place. At this point I walked away…again.

 

13th/21st September 2010

 

 

I started thinking to myself it’s too much of a coincidence that it’s always the same place, and at that point the joint is above the oil level in the sump. Looking at the leak, it was right in front of the oilway between the pump and block, which has the same surface as the spacer to block joint. This made me suspect the oil is being forced out between the pump and block and through the spacer-block seal (blue circle to green circle in the picture below).

 

 

This could be down to three things – the higher pressure spring/gti6 pump setup (although this should be fine), the pump not being clamped to the surface properly, or poor mating of the machined surfaces.

 

For the sake of eliminating it I swapped the spring over, cleaned the mating surfaces meticulously and put it all back together….still leaking.

 

I then investigated the bolt lengths using service box to be sure none were bottoming out. I got very confused as neither the bolts that were in the engine when I got it matched the service box diagrams, nor did the bolts in a GTi-6 pump I had lying around. The one thing they did have were spacers, which mine didn’t so I subsequently put some on. This seemed worth doing as there was less than a mm clearance at the end of the holes by my measurements. Before putting it back together I also spoke to Matt from QEP about the problem and he suggested a product called Wellseal, made by Stag, it is a non-curing flange sealant meant for metal to metal joints, it has a treacle-like consistency. I ordered some and used it on refitting the pump. I put the rest of the sump back together with the same anal approach as before (I REALLY wanted it to seal!) and left it.

 

In the mean time I have decided to rewire the front end lighting as much as possible. I managed to find some terminals from VWP that with some ‘modification’ fit into the original connectors, not ideal but certainly better than the old rotten ones. I used new connectors and the associated terminals where possible (between the main loom and indicator loom and to connect the driving lamps). I also swapped the earths to more reliable ring terminals. I made sure all the connectors were really well sealed to try and prevent corrosion in the future!

Edited September 22, 2010 by sport1901966

[sport1901966 8]

21 Sept 2010 cont

 

Here are some pics from the wiring of the lighting loom, pretty pleased with the inline joints, feel like I'm, getting pretty handy with the soldering iron! I basically replaced all the old terminals, using old connectors where necessary but new when I could, and cut away and extended any bad wire. I'd have liked to redo the loom fully but it would be a dash out job so this will have to suffice. It seems to be working well.... for now anyway!

 

 

 

After finishing the loom I got it fitted.

 

I then moved onto testing the latest attempt at preventing the oil leak (using stag wellseal around the pump-to-block mating surfaces)......... and the car wouldn't start.... unbelievable.

 

Que hours of searching for ignition system problems, there was still definitely fuel. Initially it tried to catch but eventually not even that. I was checking pin outs on the ECU, researching exactly how the ignition components work so I could come up with weird and wonderful ways of testing them (I don't have access to an oscilloscope).

 

Eventually, whilst getting my Mum to turn the starter whilst I was standing at the engine bay looking for spark, I noticed the alternator tugging on some of the engine loom wiring (shown in the '4th June' update where it had slipped down by the chassis rail. The blades on the alternator had cut through the crank sensor wiring, meaning now control signal to the ignition amplifier meaning no collapsing of the primary coil magnetic field, meaning no spark.

 

22 Sept 2010

 

Based on the events of the 21st my wiring skills were to be employed again, I made sure to use adhesive lined heatshrink to be certain of a well sealed and non stressed joint. After making sure everything was connected and plugged in as required I went to start the engine.... Wahoo started instantly, another successful repair!

 

To ensure this didn't re-occur I set to making an alternator guard that mounts to the intake manifold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then started the engine again to see if I had defeated the infuriating oil leak....... It leaked!...... I'm now beyond getting annoyed with it anymore so I packed up and left it, more confused than ever. I am now certain the pump to block seal is fine, I am also pretty confident of the quality of seal between the sump-spacer-block joints is as good as possible. It has to be pressurised oil forcing through the seal.

 

Going back to one of my earlier pictures -

 

 

I am wondering whether oil is forcing its way past the gold plug, this seems to be in the oilway after the oil has left the oil filter.

 

Has anyone got any thoughts this, its is driving me mad, this same leak has now been there after 4 attempts at resealing the sump/spacer/pump!

 

Geoff

[nick 3]

You sure that the area around the bolt hole isn't "pulled" you say that you snapped a bolt off which can pull the area around the thread slighty and make a tiny bump. I'd put a straight edge across the bolt hole just to check.

 

Nick

[sport1901966 8]

You sure that the area around the bolt hole isn't "pulled" you say that you snapped a bolt off which can pull the area around the thread slighty and make a tiny bump. I'd put a straight edge across the bolt hole just to check.

 

Nick

 

I think it's ok, I did go round with a steel rule after cleaning up all the mating surfaces. The bolt I snapped was one of the two hex heads that hold the spacer plate on (the one at the rear left of the engine). Thanks very much for the suggestion though, I'll definatly double check the flatness again next time round.

 

Geoff

[sport1901966 8]

Hi all. It's been a very long time since I've posted in this thread as I decided to take a break from the project, between the pressure of finishing my Masters at Uni and being fed up with the oil leak it fell back in my interest. However uni is done and the good weather is (or was) here! Anyway - here goes!

 

Tuesday 24/5/2011

 

Today was dedicated to the 5th attempt at solving the prolific oil leak. The latest armoury of sealants and gasket removers is shown below.

 

 

Based on the fact the leak was from the sump-block joint (below the oil filter) which is above the resting oil level line, it had to be pressurised oil forcing it through the joint. At first I thought it may be a poor seal between the oil pump outlet and block oilway connection, caused by using oil pump mounting bolts that were too long or simply a poor seal between the surfaces. This was eliminated by checking the bolt lengths against the thread depths and use of sealant, therefore it seemed it could only be a pressurised leak past the gold threaded oilway core plug positioned after the oil filter. It was changing and sealing this plug that was the task of the day. The sump was removed, followed by the spacer plate. Fortunately the plug can be removed without having to remove the oil pump unit, saving resealing of the oil pump outlet and block oilway joint.

 

 

The plug is a 6mm square drive, which I did not have, due to the proximity of the pump to block oilway to the plug a ratchet would not be usable. Instead I took an old ‘L’ profile Allen key and ground the end of the short length into a 6x6mm square section. I also ground an old flywheel bolt thread into a square section to use to run the plug out with my fingers once it was loose.

 

 

In the meantime I had coated the residual gasket on all the sealing surfaces with Loctite 7200, which dissolves silicon gasket over about 30mins, following this was a simple soft wire brushing and the surfaces were shiny as new.

 

After removing the plug I had a nagging doubt that a leak past the plug was unlikely, it was very tight, suggesting that nothing had changed since it was first fitted, when presumably it didn’t leak. Even so I then applied some Loctite 577 to the threads which is a dedicated thread sealing compound (its a kind of thick translucent yellow fluid). Before refitting it I made sure the threads in the block were totally clean of oil. When it was back in I refitted the spacer plate (taking off the oil pump to make positioning easier) and the sump. To be totally sure the seal was as good as possible (both the thread seal, which is specified to be at full effectiveness after 24hrs, and the silicon gasket) I left the sump dry for 24hrs.

 

Wednesday 25/5/2011

 

Today was mainly filled with odd jobs whilst I left the sealing compounds to cure. These were:

 

- Make a bracket to mount the power distribution box

- Sorting the fog light bulb

- Replacing the old corroded sidelight plug terminals with new Peugeot OEM ones

- Sealing (read wrapping in electrical tape) any exposed connectors

- Trimming the flywheel inspection cover I had to fit

 

The bracket was simply a U shape section of 2mm steel plate, with some holes drilled (no need for excess weight!), welded to the battery tray. Its slightly awkward to get to but was all the wiring would allow, either way it stops the power distribution block simply swinging around so does the job.

 

 

The fog light bulb has been a bit of a ridiculous problem, I have concluded someone has fitted a new bulb holder that takes bulbs with offset pins on the base (i.e. 120deg separation as opposed to 180deg). Ultimately this meant I haven't been able to find a bulb that fits, I’m sure it exists but I have better things to do than manual go through all the potential bulbs I can find. A much easier solution was to simply file down on of the pins on a normal fog light bulb, ‘380’ I believe, and fit that in. The fit is quite tight so the connection is more than secure.

 

I bought a flywheel cover supposedly for the 1.9 Mi16 but either it wasn’t or it was from one with a different sump. Consequently it didn’t fit so out came the grinder and file, I think I made a pretty good job of it as it goes!

 

 

Thursday 26/5/11 – Results of the latest oil leak solution attempt

 

..................... It didn’t work. I was totally stumped, I was totally confident in my sealing of the sump and I could all but categorically say that the oil pump-to-block and oilway plugs were fully sealed.

 

After 5 minutes of quiet contemplation, I had no energy left to be wound up by this particular bane of my life, I got back under the car to have another look. The leak seemed to be exactly as before, coming from the spacer-to-block joint, just under the oil filter. But wait...... I couldn’t see any oil any higher up but I put my finger in the little crevice in the block wall to the left of the oil filter (towards the flywheel) and it came out covered in oil. Oil was pooling in this crevice and eventually spilling over and running down the front of the spacer and sump. The overspill of the silicon sealant from the spacer-to-block joint caused the oil to collect at that joint making it seem as if it was leaking from there. Due to the angle of the engine and lack of space and light there was no way of seeing the oil that had collected in the crevice.

 

This means the sump isn’t leaking – fantastic......sort of, what a waste of many hours of my life cleaning and resealing that sump! However where is the oil coming from? I cleaned out the crevice, and got rid of the dirt so I could see it slightly better and ran the engine again. After a about a minute I suddenly saw oil appear (using a mirror and torch), my heart sank is it really looked like it had appeared from a tiny (invisible) crack in the crevice. Cue some research into the possibility of TIG welding a repair or use of epoxy. I kept getting told no-one would do it in situ due to lack of access. Now you will all know that after the bumper, fan cowling and radiator are removed the front of the block/oil filter is clear for all to see. To prove this, and investigate further, even get a photo to send to people, I went ahead and removed these parts. After this I could see a very faint trail of oil leading up from the crevice, then a pool of oil in a crevice further up the block. Obviously this suggested there was no crack. Looking above the upper crevice full of oil there was a section of loom that was wet just above the crevice and dry either side, above this there is the aftermarket oil pressure switch attached to a T-piece extension. It was clear the leak was coming from here. After sealing the threads with the Loctite 577 I ran the engine again and it seems the leak is finally fixed.

 

To say I am pleased is a huge understatement, I’ve been chasing this leak for ages and its really held up the project, thankfully I can now move on with it!

Edited June 1, 2011 by sport1901966

[sport1901966 8]

June 2011

 

After many months I have some updates. I’ve been doing work on the car on and off since the last update, but so much has been going on with graduating and getting a job etc. that I am only just getting round to writing up what I’ve done. Most jobs were small ones with a couple of slightly larger ones thrown in. I even got the car on the road!

June was a busy month, I wanted to make the most of the time between finishing Uni and starting job applications/work. The first milestone I was aiming for was getting the car ready for its MOT. I wanted to be as certain as possible it would pass first time so went over the car with a fine toothed comb.

 

Brake/Fuel Lines

I hadn’t given the brake and fuel lines any attention so got under the car to check them out. They seemed in pretty good condition but I decided to sand off the corrosion then give them a coat of hammerite to get the maximum possible life out of them.

 

 

Steering Wheel

I fitted an old smaller diameter steering wheel because I prefer the feel it gives. I definitely need to get a quicker rack fitted asap though.

 

Ignition Wiring

When I was working in the footwell I noticed the wiring to the ignition barrel had been a bit butchered, obviously an aftermarket alarm or similar had been in the car at some point. I took some time to tidy up the ignition wiring. I put adhesive lined heatshrink anywhere there was exposed wire, and where bad joints had been made, re-soldered them and covered with adhesive lined heatshrink.

 

 

Outer Trim

I had a new rear hatch outer trim to fit but had no clips. The hatch had a dent right where one of the pins is situated but I managed to bang out enough to work with. I made up some clips by bending up some aluminium tabs and cutting a slit down the middle of them to hook into the hatch pins. They worked perfectly! I used number plate tape from Halfords to stick the badges back on, it was ideal for the job.

 

 

I needed to fit the LH Front arch trim but didn’t want to buy from Peugeot so used some knurled washers (similar to the originals) with some rubber grommets. It worked for a while but the eventually worked loose so I ended up getting the Peugeot version. The part number for the grip washers is – 6992 98.

 

Coolant Pipe Bracket

Due to lowering the rad the coolant pipe in the drivers wheel arch needed lowering. I had made the bracket but finally got round to painting it in satin black.

 

 

Cosmetic Prep

Before taking it off for the MOT, I wanted get the car looking as little like it had been sitting on a driveway for 6 years as possible. I took out the seats and give the carpet a really good hovering, maybe one day I’ll take it out and wash it but time was of the essence.

 

I also went round and polished the car, the LH side came up amazingly well. Unfortunately years of people squeezing down the side of the car on the driveway has left the RH side a bit scratched up.

 

 

I gave the bumpers a couple of treatments with the famous Plasticare, and also did the same with some of the interior trim. It really is as good as it’s reputation suggests.

 

 

Front Bumper Bolts

To mount the front bumper properly (so there were no bolts sticking out through the red trim) I made up some new mounting bolts. I cut a rectangle of steel of the appropriate size out of some 2mm sheet I had, then cut the head of a bolt and welded the threaded shaft to the plate. Apart from the plates bending slightly as I had to make them wider due to the holes being torn out of the bumper they worked superbly.

 

I finally got round to one of those little jobs I couldn’t wait to get done, this is because I knew when I did I’d be nearing the end of the initial rebuild and getting it on the road. A new front number plate! I found an old radio to fill in the hole in the dash and provide a little entertainment for the journey to the MOT. I also had 2 new tyres fitted as the sidewalls on a couple had begun breaking down. The wash wipe systems were in fairly desperate need of care; the wiper arms had started peeling and corroding, the rear washer jet had perished and the rear washer pump had packed up. I spent some time repainting and refitting new bits and when I was done all was well again. In the process I also painted the front scuttle panel. It’s actually surprising the difference all this work made in tidying up the outside of the car.

 

 

 

I had the hatch interior panel off whilst sorting the washer jet and to knock out the dent, but now they were sorted it went back in.

 

New Battery

During the rebuild I had been using the old battery that had been in the car since I first bought it, I could tell it was on its last legs so replaced it with a nice shiny new one, just to make sure I wouldn’t get it to the MOT then find it wouldn’t start.

Edited February 17, 2012 by sport1901966

[sport1901966 8]

June 2011 Cont.

 

Drivers Seat Repair

Ever since I had the car it had had a short section of metal bar sticking out of the bottom of the seat back. When the seats were out it seemed a good time to investigate. It turned out that the right hand side bolster frame (when I say frame I mean bent bar) welds had broken and it had completely separated from the main structure. In the process of stripping the seat down I found a couple of other broken welds, which would explain the lack of seat base rigidity. I welded up all the broken joints and took the opportunity to bend in the bolster frames slightly to get a tighter grip from the seat. I also took the advice from another thread I read and reassembled the seat covers with cable ties instead of the hog rings. With the seat back in the car it felt much better.

 

 

 

 

Other MOT/Roadworthiness Prep

I wanted to sort a few of the other issues before taking the car out on any proper journeys. These were, re-greasing the window regulators as the windows were pretty slow, however the improvement was marginal. I also sorted the radio wiring as it was slowly draining the battery. I repaired the heater thermistor as some of the track had corroded (I just cleaned it up and soldered over any thin/cracked areas of track). I cleaned up and greased the blower motor as I could generate more airflow by waving blinking an eyelid. I even bought a magnetic tax disc holder.

 

I bought a set of aftermarket Driving Lamps from eBay as one had fallen to pieces and the other wasn’t far off doing the same. I stripped them and sealed them up with silicone sealant to try and extend their life as much as possible.

 

I had spotted that the RH side rear wheel was almost contacting the rear valance and had wondered whether the wrong beam mount had been used. I dropped the beam to have a look and it was fine. I then started measuring the geometry around both sides and eventually came to the conclusion that the bumper/valence was deformed. To sort it I slotted the valence mounting holes to gain acceptable clearance.

 

Whilst I was doing the above I spotted one of the rear dampers was leaking (the day before the MOT!). My only option was to nick the dampers of my 306 HDi and buy new ones for that the following day.

 

Prep for Aftermarket ECU

I plan on piggybacking the ECU I have as a way of checking the calibration for things like the crank position-flywheel teeth sync and lambda function before designing a complete new loom. The reason for this is there is no documentation for the ECU as it’s not readily available generally. It’s similar to the Syvecs S8 if anyone has come across it.

 

Power Feed

I added a power feed to the glovebox from the ignition switched live to supply power to the subloom for the ECU. I used a basic 2 pin 6.3mm blade multi-connector from VWP.

 

 

CAS Tap off standard ECU Loom

To enable testing of the crank sync calibration I added a tap off the CAS feed to the Motronic ECU using a Junior Power Timer connector. Although I have used this method before it seemed the signal from the CAS isn’t strong enough as connecting the second ECU caused the engine to stop running. I’ll investigate this further when the time comes.

 

[sport1901966 8]

June 2011 Cont.

 

Boss on exhaust for lambda sensor

I bought a weld on boss to fit enable fitting of a NTK L2H2 wideband lambda sensor to run with the ECU. I did quite a bit of research into the fitting as obviously they are very sensitive pieces of equipment. There are two key points when fitting the sensor. First the sensor should be mounted at least 10° above the horizontal but no closer than 15° to the vertical. This is to prevent condensation forming on the sensor because of being too low in the pipe section and overheating by being too high. The second is to position the sensor about 1m from the exhaust valves (this distance varies depending on the engine configuration, i.e. Turbo etc). This is to ensure the operating temperature is a close as possible to the required, minimising the current required to heat it electrically, and also to maintain the best possible response time. I settled on fitting it just rear of the gearstick, leaning out to the left hand side. The wire feeds through the rubber surrounding the gearstick into the passenger compartment. I made a lambda sensor template to make marking of the hole position on the exhaust easier. I then removed the exhaust and used a step drill bit to drill out the hole; I then welded in the boss I bought from EFI-parts.co.uk. I bought a screw in bung to seal up the hole until I need to use the sensor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TPS

I wanted to get a TPS feed into the ECU, obviously the Mi16 TP sensor is a switch as opposed to a variable resistor. Only wanting to make use of what I had, I found an old fuel pump with a fuel level sensor that I could use. I mounted the sensor to the accelerator pedal and hooked it up to the ECU, after playing around a bit with the ECU calibration I managed to have a usable TPS output. I accept it isn’t actual throttle position but in reality pedal position, and also that I could never run the engine from it as it would be far too inaccurate. But it cost nothing and should enable me to play around with some basic data logging when the time comes.