J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

[Jin]

Hi mate, did the pump just fail?
From what I've found out it would appear the have the wrong relay box fitted?
Did they swap that or just bypass the ecu?
Not that it matters really but I would like to restore it

Anyway your right about the lights, you chose well mate

[benofbrum]

They just bypassed the ecu

[Jin]

Since fitting the wheel arch extensions it became more apparent just how much wider the front track is compared to the rear, for some reason the front track is 2" wider?
So I measured up for spacers and found 15mm to be ideal to even up the arch to tyre clearance, so bought 16mm - naturally.




Comparison side to side









Since the rear now looked much better and the cars inherent skinny arse stance has now been improved I decided to give the front end a new look by utilising a garage door seal on the bumper base as a spolier,,then since the weather was very nice, now seemed to be a good time for some before and after pics especially since I gave it a wash and polish.

Before








After



















Also decided to upgrade the dim yellow number plate light bulbs for high power LEDs







Best 99p I've ever spent

[b1zbaz]

The face punching part is awesome you need to do it more often its very entertaining your car is looking fantastic

[Jin]

Cheers mate

Yeah, I’m trying to introduce a daily “punch in the chops” from now on, just to keep me on the straight and narrow

[Jin]

Low coolant alarm

since I’ve heard one or 2 faint rumours that the k series can apparently suffer head gasket failure, I thought it prudent to safeguard total coolant loss and engine cooking, even protecting against a leaking rad or burst hose is a benefit even if the head gasket doesn’t fail.

I made one for my quantum 2+2 sometime ago to give me peace of mind

http://quantumforum.proboards.com/threa ... lant-alarm

And the time has come to do the Midas also
components assembled in the same way, humongous superbright multicolour flashing LED



Header tank drilled and 2 stainless bolts sealed in for the probes





One thing I learned from the Quantum is to put the probes at the minimum mark on the header tank and not just below max since it can set the alarm off under cornering - it’s very sensitive.

Testing of the components
this is in reverse obviously but the principal is the same



90db piezo buzzer, all wired up



Small hole drilled in the dash front for buzzer to sound, ill fit a bezel to it later



All finished, final functional test



if all that doesn’t grab my attention that something is amiss, ill knock up a comedy boxing glove on a spring under the dash to punch my in the knackers too

[Jin]

New badgers

The old ones let the car down somewhat so Alistair came to my rescue at stonleigh to provide me some shiny (very) new ones,

Old badgers





New ones





Cos I'm worth it...

[Hans Efde]

Becoming a wonderful Midas with every update. Great job. Concerning the K-series engine I've owned a Rover 214GSI and I found 2 problems with it. The waterpump twice at about 40K kilometer intervals, dumping the water instantly. My wife drove on once but the head and gasket was luckily still good. The car had starting problems, unfortunately it's an old design ECU so it did not have a code to read out. After having replaced several items, replacing the TDC sensor solved it.

[Jin]

Thanks mate, much appreciated
My first foray into k series ownership was in a late model 25 1400 spi, it was a terrible car and I hated it with a passion, fully loaded, electric everything and full leather but it's was horrible to drive,,the build quality was abysmal and the engine barely had enough power to pull the skin if a rice pudding, it had an intermittent misfire throughout my entire ownership gat I could not solve and the head gasket went of course,
Fast forward 5 years and this 16v k series is fantastic, reliable and economical and very fast, on the way back from stoneliegh doing 70 with me and my mate squashed in (and we ain't small chaps) he was amazed that flooring it caused the car to pull like a train from 70 and continuing to do so with no sign of plateauing, more so our mate we were following in his zetec Quantum 2+2 Was surprised when we sailed past him and kept on accelerating ,
I bottled it before the car did,
Only downside is a touch of gunk in the header tank recently, I can't kid myself any longer, it's head gasket swap time so this will be done in the next few weeks, I've already put an uprated pump on it and the wider vvc cam belt so with the mls gasket on its should be super reliable and chug on forever .....

Or until I get the time to Lotus it.....

[Hans Efde]

How does that gunk in the header tank look like? I have some brownish dirt floating my header tank (A-series engine) and wonder what that is. Can this be a head gasket as well? After a long drive the engine was wet from the oil and I never could find where it came from. Can this be a sign of a failed head gasket as well? It was just rebuilt by a professional builder, tick over is stable and power feels good as well. I sorned the car last year due to all troubles and lack of funds to solve it. But I still like to fix it.