this is the beginning of a beatiful relationship!!

[cavy130sri]

this is what i should have started with the head gasket problem, i think most are over it now, lol.

i got these new hoses last weekend an fitted em straight away.

the top one, in the third pic, as some may know was urgent, but got the other two as part of a package, u can't see them where they are, when u open the bonnet, but i know they are there, lol.

[cavy130sri]

the top lot of pics ould be the other way round so the three hoses in the glory, should be at the top, i keep forgetting to work backwards.

here's some more i took...

darn it wrong order again. i'll get i some day, lol.

[branny361]

sweet ... there not cheap to buy though are they?

[cavy130sri]

sweet ... there not cheap to buy though are they?

nah not cheap, but worth it. i got this set for 75 quid motorsport. i rang my local vx dealer and they tell me they cant get the t shaped hose anymore so was either to go to a scrappy or get these, i opted for these, so i know they will last.

[cavy130sri]

hi all, i had to go hospital yesterday, nothing serious just a check up on an old problem. okay, im deaf and need a h-h-he, cant say it but you know what im talking about im sure. anyways, the local hospital is always busy, hmm, perhaps a move should be on the cards, . i spent a bit of time driving, crawling rather, round the carpark, which of course made the engine warm up a bit, it was enuff to blow the hole in my rad again. luckily though i had ordered a new one friday and it arrived today, took me about an hour to change, but i got my rocker cover seal changed as well, as i was in the mood.

here are the pics of the new rad, i should get one of the old where it is split to show the difference, in fact ill do just that tomoz.

[cavy130sri]

and a last, of the completed new radiator and fan

[cavy130sri]

i bougit mid section alongwith the powerflow backbox for my last cav, a 16v sri in blue. i went to fit it last saturday, just to find that its too short for this cav. then i remembred the mechanics that fitted them to the other one put a flex pipe on. doh! so had to refitt backbox. im off to see a guy about turning the upside down spring the right way up tomoz and he will see what he can do with the exshaust too.

[cavy130sri]

ok folks, havent been on for a while, so heres an update for y'all.

the last post was of my midsection, which i have managed to get put on by the guy i originally bought it from, oh yea ive moved back up to scotland as the job in nottingham didnt work out as i had hoped.

she, carla, sounds and runs a lot better than b4, didna realise it wud make such a difference, even though it hasnt been de-catted... yet.

[cavy130sri]

felt like taking carla for a spin today so went to a local scrappy to see about getting the board that sits in the boot underthe carpet, to hold my gear in the boot better. unfortunately, all the three i went to have no cavs no longer ezcept one, who has two, didnt have the boarding but checked the rear seat to see about five grilles sitting there, i forget the other colours, i know two were gold, but i saw a white one under them, so grabbed it. as u will see mine, since i bought her has been just sitting in the holes, not joined, which i wanted to get changed when i cud sogreat opportunity. u will also see that the one on carla did not have the smaller of the rubber strips that run along the top of the grille, so i was chuffed when this one that i got did have it, not that it wud have mattered as i wud have nicked it from one of the other 4, lol.

[cavy130sri]

more of the grille.....

[cavy130sri]

u may recall that i had a proble with the rear spring, which i got sorted, and she sits better now, as u can see...

also when the guy put the exshaust on they managed to straighten her out for me and it now sits a lot squarer...

[cavy130sri]

right well, i went for a drive to the local town on monday, i got to my mates house to find water dripping, which prompted me to have a look under the bonnet. i found that i have a small leak somewhere in my rad, rite under it, i will have to take it off at some point and have a look, but seeing as its not too much, it will wait a bit longer.

while driving home i had a smell of petrol coming thru to the cab, so when i got home i promptly openned up the bonnet again, to find oil all over my nice red hose. i had a good look, but it started to rain, and hasnt stopped til today. so this morning, being nice out, i went to inspect.
it looked like oil everywhere, but only around the water bottle side, i cudnt see where it was coming from so, decided the best thing was to strip everything off the top, sfi box, carberetter, fuel line, the lot. i descovered what looked like leaky fuel injectors, so i cleaned them all up. now they are sparkling, but i still feel they will benefit from new o-rings, so will be on the look out for some of those.

anyway, seeing that i had everything off, i cleaned all my throttle body up with carb cleaner, all inside, both top and bottom, and the breather pipes, which connect to it from the rocker cover too, plus both breather pipes or channels rather that come from the throttle body. having been experiencing problems with shunting thru town, there is a thread on here for that, i took all the advice given and did as instructed, thanks for alll that guys and gals, and now that i have cleaned all the pipes, throttle body, i think the problem is gone.

didnt take a lot of pics, but here are the ones i did remember to take...

[Robsey]

Good to see that it is mostly sorted

Also glad we could gve some useful advice between us all.

[cavy130sri]

.... might be worth pointing out that i had to take the rocker cover off to get at the clips that hold the electric box, that connects to the injectors, was much easier and less likely to lose the clips. i did lose two of the clips anyway but were easily retrieved with my handy telescopic magnet. (if u don't have one, get one! very handy tool)

haveing seen the gasket that is under the throttle body, i now will be on the look out for a new one, its not too bad, just looks like it cud do with a new one, but fine really.

my dad had some degreaser, proper engine parts stuff, which i used on the injectors, they were fairly built up with crap around the seals, so good job done.

i thought while working on cavvy, i may as well check the thermostat, to see if it in gud working order. i took off the rad to stat hose to discover... gunk! bloomin gunk build up again. so i had a think, then decided to give it a good flush thru, for the time being, till i can get the parts needed to change the hg, yet again.

while doing the flush, you have to run the car on high idle for a time, i have discovered, or rather believe that my fan does not work. having read my haynes on the subject i will check it tomoz to see if it the sensor or the fan switch itself that is at fault. will update tomoz, thanks for reading..

[Robsey]

To check the radiator fan sensor,

All I do is bridge the pins of the sensor connector with a 30 amp blade fuse.
Just need to twist the legs a little to get the fuse to go in.

If it's the sensor, then the fan will come on when you turn the ignition on.

If the fan remains dead, then it is either the fuse, the connector for the fan itself, or most likely, the fan has seized / burnt out.

If it has seized, then it should blow the fuse in the fuse box.

[cavy130sri]

thanx for that robsey,
i did it as layed out in the haynes, basically disconnected the fan switch, located on the side of the radiator, i bridged the connectors inside the connector, as there is three wires leading into the connector i played about a bit, with the ignition turned on, til the fan went.

i need a new switch, but for the time being i have bridged the connector, and placed it back in the switch, basically the fan now runs constantly. will have to get new switch before winter though, just so the heat gets up quicker.

anyone any idea if the fan not working will be causing my hg reaccuring problem? i have never run the engine, overheated, for any length of time. in fact it has never got higher than 100 degrees, other than that one time,(at band ca... never mind) before i replaced the hg.

there has to be a reason for th hg going again, i am thinking it may be caused by rad not working, but im not convinced.

[cavy130sri]

well, been busy again, i had a leaky rad problem, the new one i got from vauxhall, decided to come apart so they happily put a new one in under warranty.

had a great day today, i took cavy for an MOT, and to my delight she passed with flying colours. the garage only changed one bulb, and one wiper blade. im fair chuffed like.

[Gaz]

cant arue with a result like that.

[cavy130sri]

no definately not Gav.

i put carla through her MOT the other day, she PASSED, whoop whoop. i'm well pleased with her.

i am still having trouble with a water leak somewhere, so when the wind dies down a bit i will be investigating the problem. must do this before winter sets in, cuz i havent any coolant in, i just think it a waste of time while im losing water. i just have to hope tomorrow is a better, less windy day.

[cavy130sri]

Figured i had best get on and check out this water leak problem today, seen as the sun was shining, (whisper that, coz itwill just sod off tomoz, lol), so i put more water in the header tank, started her up then tried to look for the problem, cudn't see it from the top but underneath i cud see she was still leaking. my fear was that it was the t-shaped hose, which is a pig to get to, and that i wud hav to take it off. so put my hand in and felt it, it was definately leaking from there, and when i pushed the jubilee clip, it moved, so i knew then that it was this pig of a hose that is causing the leakage.
anyways, i switched off the car, took off the sfi box, and just happened to look inside the throttle body to see,

a build up of carb, so figured i'd best check the hoses from the rocker cover to the throttle body. they were choked again, so i proceeded to tighten the jubilee clip on the t-shaped hose, while thinking that the rocker cover must be the reason i am getting the build up of carb in these hoses and throttle body, so i decided that i should clean or de-carb the inside of the rocker cover. which is what i have been doing all afetrnoon.

[cavy130sri]

u may know that there is a plate, that sits in the rocker cover. (i didn't) but i decided, sod it i will remove it and clean in there tooo, coz this is where the two hoses that go to the throttle body come from, ie inside a chamber that the plate creates. here is another pic with the plate removed...arrows point to the old gasket, pretty much withered away when i removed the plate..

plate removed

and the plate itself, mucky as anything...

plate

took me a heck of a long time, and dad's degreaser for engine componants, but i cleaned both the plate and the inside of the rocker cover.

betterer

ok not the best but my motivation was running out, along with daylight, lol.

[cavy130sri]

the plate, placed back in its place, much cleaner...

lucky fo rme my dad had some instant gasket, which i have used for the time being. i will at some point have to get a new gasket for this, but it should be fine for now. so i have left the rocker cover off the car for tonyt, and will replce it tomoz. i will be cleaning the throttle body, a second time and anything else attched to it, ie air intake, wherever they are, i will just look and try and work it out, this also means the icv again, but hey ho, i was told to do this already, but i like to learn the hard way,

[cavy130sri]

just had my mate critisize my cleaning of the rocker cover. should i have done it or was it best leaving as it was???

anyway, been a busy bigger again today, i cleaned the throttle body, the breather hoses from there to the rocker cover, the places the hoses go onto. then put it all back to gether, including the rocker cover i had off yesterday. needed the shop so went to town. thought it must work better now, but... it started shunting again . when i got home, i realized i hadnt cleaned the icv, so when i got back i did so. then as i was in the mood, i took off some of the coolant hoses, and cleaned them, as they have a build up of gunk, again. . as im sure u can imagine im as as a pig.

i also took off the thermostat, just to see if it working. i cleaned it up and placed it in a pot of boiling hot water. nothing happened, ie it did not open, so i reckon its a dud. with it being permanantly closed, i wonder if this has caused my head gasket to blow yet again, what with all the gunk in the lines again.

any suggestions?? gladly received.

[Squig]

Without a working stat the chances of overheating and blowing the head are verily increased

[cavy130sri]

oh cheers squig, i was hoping u would say, 'don't be so obsurd' or something like that, lol.

i shall have one in the next few weeks.