Project Plum - The Plan of Attack

[Jim 1]

They look good! Nice garage too!!

[boost monkey 0]

Well I did in fact work on the Plum again last night, and managed to get the head off (manifold still attached!)

 

Sorry there are still no pics, currently waiting on big bro to take them off his SLR.

 

Points of interest:

 

intake valves all had a sandy hue along with sparkplugs so at least it was running well when the pump went...? I can't actually remember if I have driven it since the pump went! I'd have to scroll back through all of this thread to see exactly what happened.

 

couple of piston crowns had a kind of shiny/varnished look with some bobbly bits on too. All black in colour. It almost looked like pock marks of detonation but can't confirm that.

 

I haven't managed to check the flatness of the head yet (Haynes says it should be within 0.1mm but surely the head gasket can mask that???) as the light went and I'm not really equipped for it.

 

Next is the fun job of stripping off the front end - headlights, slam panel, bumper, front panel to pull out the dead 'members with the block and gearbox held up with the jack. Then undo the two rear mounts aswell and drop the block and box off as a one-piece onto a skateboard (on gravel driveway) and disassemble off the car.

 

Hero work.

 

Pics asavp!!

[CazzaVR 0]

Sounds like a plan- don't you need an engine hoist to lift the engine out though? :lol: ;)

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

Sounds like a plan- don't you need an engine hoist to lift the engine out though? :lol: ;)

 

If he's taking the front of the car off then you can just drop it on the floor using a few jacks and then just push the car back leaving the engine where you left it... I've seen it done but it's not something I'd like to try myself! esspecialy If your using a Skate board as engine support! :lol:

 

Sounds like your really cracking on with this now dude... hope this spurt of activity wasn't because I beat you too it!

[CazzaVR 0]

Alex, was just winding him up- old joke ;) :lol:

[boost monkey 0]

The skateboard is engine transport; the jack is engine support!

 

Cazza... remind me? :-s

[CazzaVR 0]

You didn't realise you could take the front end off. Kinda like you didn't realise the screwdriver in the VW toolkit is double-ended :lol:

 

How's bro?

[boost monkey 0]

.....Thanks for that! :-p I am glad that it comes off anyways.

 

Bro is good! His exhaust is blowing a bit, so he's driving about in the Honda mainly doing about 7.2mpg. Perm 4wd.

[CazzaVR 0]

Glad he's good. That Honda is sooooo thirsty!

 

Nice compos by the way! 8)

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

You didn't realise you could take the front end off. Kinda like you didn't realise the screwdriver in the VW toolkit is double-ended :lol:

 

How's bro?

whoops! :lol:

[fla 9]

what a garage! Cant say i'm not jealous ;)

[boost monkey 0]

Ok ok time to fess up. It's not my garage, and nor do I have a set of Compos waiting to go on.

 

It's a CAD render of some modelling I had done previously. I was playing around with the rendering software and it came out pretty well! Here's some more:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FYI it's a Nissan Silvia spindle for a rally car I was fooling about with on placement a couple of years ago. It's a wilwood 6-pot caliper and a custom bell on an unknown brake disc (and yes, I did model all those little screws and the brake pads...!)

 

---------- Post added at 01:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:24 PM ----------

 

caliper carrier is missing btw.

[floppyman 0]

Wow... Thats nice modelling. Really good

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

lol had me fooled! Wish i was good at 3D modelling... not much call for it in the domestic housing market. What did you use to draw it.

[boost monkey 0]

I used solidworks to draw it and then an add-on program called PhotoView 360 to render them in higher quality. the grey wheel with hub took about 10mins each side.

 

I'd love to have my own legit copy but it's about £2k a year with license, so pretty much out of reach unless you're a real established freelancer.

 

Alex, I may be able to do some Dundee Cake for you. Can you give me average raisin size and sponge density? :lol:

[Portent 0]

Nice models there. Back in the day (early 90's) I used to model with Lightwave. sadly the license nowadays is far too much for the casual user.

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

Alex, I may be able to do some Dundee Cake for you. Can you give me average raisin size and sponge density? :lol:

 

you find your OWN sponge density :camp:

 

Draw me a 27.5cm diameter cake with a fruit density of 42 p/cm3 with an average raisin size 4mm, crystallized orange at 3mm and galcé cherries at 5mm (with a standard deviation of 1mm over 50%). It should have a side wall height of 10cm and a height peak at the centre of 12.5cm

 

Chop chop

[floppyman 0]

Nice models there. Back in the day (early 90's) I used to model with Lightwave. sadly the license nowadays is far too much for the casual user.

 

Yes lightwave... Used to play around with that on the Amiga 1200. Heard it was used by many movie makers. One of the best back then.

[boost monkey 0]

i've been back under the plum today, I must be getting in trouble soon with the wife(!) but rain has stopped play for the moment.

 

I'm quite close to getting the block and box out now. I've wedged the jack under the sump to support the weight as i undo the front mount. Then I'll take off the clutch slave cylinder from the box and try to move it somewhere useful - might have to take the hard line off also.

 

The wires are going all over the place. I've swept them all over to the right on top of the box as I undo the completely crippled Mk2 style pas tank holder. That battery tray is fully rotten. About a 2" square hole straight through to the floor and a number of other corroded edges etc.

 

The rad support is fully dead. The cross member is on life support and i'm going to pull the plug shortly. Just wrestling with how to take the front bumper off at the mo: Bentley doesn't seem to be hugely helpful unfortunately. I think i'm right in saying that the front panel and slam can't come off until the bumper is out the way? Headlights are already in the boot(!)

 

So it's getting there quite well, considering i've probably only spent about a week of 1-2 hour sessions working on it. Having plusgas and Irwins handy definitely saves a lot of stress.

 

Will have to retrofit the pictures to this thread.

[CazzaVR 0]

Front bumper is the two large (17mm) bolts on either side. Don't touch the smaller one in the middle until you ready to take the cross member off.

 

Found this pic for you: http://www.the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/download/file.php?id=105&mode=view

 

Yes, you have to take the bumper off to get to the other stuff ;)

[boost monkey 0]

Cheers Cazza!! That's great news. I thought it was the chassis rail bolts, thanks for confirming.

 

Well, still no pics (relying on big bro!) but I cracked on incredibly today.

 

I undid the front mount, but remembered that I actually need to take out those things called driveshafts from the hubs and gearbox if i wanted to drop the block and box out. So I started on them.

 

Even though the car is up in the air, the wheels wouldn't turn. So I undid the hub nuts because I would forget otherwise, and then I removed the wheels. The discs had monumentally siezed in the pads. Luckily it's still the old 256mm setup as the brand new G60 calipers are still tucked away. I half thought i'd keep them for the Golf but that would involve swapping hubs also, and to be honest I think I need the 256 carriers to mount the G60 calipers on (can someone confirm?).

 

Anyways, I managed to get the brakes unsiezed by taking the calipers off, and then obviously when I tried to undo the Torx bolts that hold the inboard ends of the driveshafts into the diff the whole lot would spin. Awesome.

 

8mm spanner to the rescue!

 

I found out that wedging an 8mm spanner with the open end straddling one of the vented ridges on the edge of the disc meant I could brace the disc against the carrier and therefore the whole lot wouldn't turn! Result. NS driveshaft came out quickly after that. I did the same on the OS and had 2 driveshafts!

 

I ended up cutting the 256 calipers off at the bendy hose and then tucking the stubs up out of the way so they wouldn't leak anywhere. I wanted to leave the 2 hard lines on as I still need to replicate them in copper nickel pipe.

 

So I now have no front brakes of any kind and 2 driveshafts out. Once the bumper is off, it will be off with the clutch m/c and then the block is coming out! :D

[dragon green 4]

You need the G60/Vr6 carriers to go with 280mm discs ! The 256 carriers will fit,but you will have to shave the pads !

Good write up,looking forward to the pics

[boost monkey 0]

thanks for confirming about the carriers dragon green. I shall put them on the bin pile! :D

 

I still have a set of VR6 calipers and carriers from Toad's VR6 aka the Hedge Wedge which I haven't really gotten around to doing anything with. Perhaps I wil resto them and sell the boxed G60 calipers i have.

[boost monkey 0]

So here are some pics from today. It's taken me 2 hours to get them up and in some kind of order - seems that Imageshack has done a complete 180 from being a useful image hosting site. Never mind.

 

 

As she stands today. Peeled the tarp back for some pics! Jack is in place to hold the engine but actually all the mounts are still on.

 

 

 

Standard VR6 gas shocks all around allow for plenty plenty droop! Going to look seriously high when it's working again :/

 

 

 

NS hub. Older of the two, but still working well. Wheel spins so freely now. I think it might need a bearing but not sure.

 

 

 

OS hub. Yep, it's an ABS one! lol. Must be off that scrapper car. It's had a lick of paint and a new bearing a while back.

 

 

 

Corrosion of front members at battery end. Must be due to acid, surely?

 

 

 

Overall view of the underside members. Deffo worse at battery end / NS chassis rail.

 

 

 

Even the brace plate on the bumper is corroded! I guesd that could also be due to road conditions etc.

 

 

 

A serious lack of space sees me removing parts from the C... and storing them inside! The seats are dead anyways, so I don't mind them getting messy.

 

 

 

The rear of the interior. Lots of random parts. There's plenty of spares in the boot too, inc the replacement front members.

 

 

 

An overall shot of the engine bay - plenty removed and plenty more to go!

 

 

 

 

This is my main bodywork problem. The oles are big and plenty, and in places it's only the paint or underseal holding bits of it together.

 

 

 

Definitely needs wirebrushing back to see the extent of the damage

 

 

 

Inner wings also a concern. It doesn't look liked the worm has crept too much up the sides, so I'm hoping it's still catchable.

[Jim 1]

Excellent. Drivers seat is definitely the best place to store a cylinder head :D