1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

[Mr-G]

Well after finding a large amount of rot on the estates chassis and figuring the cost of welding it and the other things that needed doing i decided that the best place for the car was the scrapyard.

Now i needed somthing to replace the estate with and it needed to be somthing that would make me smile. So after a lot of discussions and decision making a deal was made.

Now could i welcome you to the newest member of my fleet











Yep i boughts Mels cabby. The cabby was up for sales as Mel wants a hatchback for the turbo conversion so i nabbed it.

The plan with the car is to keep it 100% as it is, nothing is going to be changed as i want it to be the chalk to the GTE's cheese. The GTE is my playtoy and this will be my daily driver.

Thats not to say that i wont be doing anything to it, the car will basically be a rolling restoration and improved over time. Any help would be greatly appriciated as tbh i have had very little experience of the 1.6 engine. Mr Pigeonrat that means you lol.

A few more pics.

[Pigeonrat]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

LOL with pleasure sir, I hope you enjoy the 1.6 litres of goodness My 1.6 is a big block but I've had several small-blocks in the past, so feel free. It's a bloody tidy car though, if it's half as good as it looks you shouldn't have many issues...

Glad you've given it a good home, I must say. Fancy scrapping the estate, what a waste of those (cough cough) shiny, new, genuine GM and doubtless very expensive brake shoes!

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

The estate didnt have genuine brake shoes lol, they were drivetec ones from a motor factors, i have just ordered Genuine Bosch ones for the GTE though for *cough* £10 *cough*

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Have got one question actually, would you happen to know if the 16SV uses a Pierburg 2E3 carb?

[1800turbogte]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Hi G and welcome to the 1.6 convertible gang

[Pigeonrat]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Have got one question actually, would you happen to know if the 16SV uses a Pierburg 2E3 carb?

Yes, it does - unfortunately in my experience the auto choke is pretty poor (over-complex and the cover is both water-heated and electrically heated), otherwise it's not as bad a carb as people make out. If it gets on your nerves it can be swapped reasonably easily for a Weber 32/34DMTL - although surprisingly my one of those caused more grief than the Pierburg ever did...

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Its going to take some getting used to as its an automatic lol, my left foot keeps wanting to press pedals.

The reason i ask about the Pierburg 2E3 is that the VW T25 campervans with the 1900 watercooled carb engines use the same Pierburg 2E3 carb and at work we sell this Weber conversion kit.

http://www.justkampers.com/shop/type_25/type-25-original-vehicle-parts/carburettor/carburettor/weber-carburettor-conversion-kit-j13646.html

I wonder if that would fit the Mk2 if thats just designed to replace the 2E3 ??

[Pigeonrat]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

That was the problem I have when I get back in the 944 if I've not driven it for a bit...my left foot feels completely redundant.

I would hazard a guess and say that should fit. The main gasket (light brown one) looks identical, and the mounting plate looks close enough. Question is, do you want to bother? A Pierburg in decent condition is fine, clean them out and keep the choke mechanism lubricated and they're pretty reliable. 3 of the 4 I've had, there was a knack to starting them from cold - following Vauxhall's instructions in the manual (slowly depress the accelerator just once and turn the key) rarely worked for me, it either flooded or ran very lumpily. Best way I found was to turn the ignition on, floor the accelerator twice quickly to prime the choke and them just turn the key. It would start then cut out immediately; but then just turn the key again and it would fire up and run really well in the coldest, wettest weather.

Of course, my Weber didn't have the cold-start quirkiness. But it only added 3 bhp despite a rolling-road setup by Track&Road, was heavier on fuel and had a couple of vacuum/gaskets fail quite early on... If it ain't broke...

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Ah that might explain my problem then, the car has been sat in the garage for a while now and when i drove it home it was misfiring a lot, would that be cos i just started it up without priming it first??

[Pigeonrat]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Yeah, you have to prime a 2E3 first or the auto choke simply doesn't operate. You can take the air cleaner off with a cold engine and check it primes - the choke valve should close when you floor the accelerator and stay closed until you start the engine. Once the engine's started, if the choke is working well it'll idle at something silly like 3000rpm (or 4500rpm in the case of one of my old 1300s LOL!) but a gentle dab of the accelerator should drop the fast idle speed to 1500-2500rpm depending on the weather. As the choke cover warms up (both from the coolant and its' own little electric heater) the idle speed should drop to normal.

The occasional quirk is to be expected - very occasionally all of mine would decide to stay idling at 3000rpm+ until the engine was warm, or worse simply keep cutting out whenever I lifted off with a cold engine! - but they're quite a clever carb when they're working well.

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

I can see this being a very amusing adventure lol, I have no experience of 1600 carb engines and even less experience of automatics, mind you its all a very good learning curve.

I can see an order being placed with Bosch soon though, basic service items that are needed

[Pigeonrat]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

I have a love/hate relationship with carbs, I love the response and induction noise (even with a standard airbox) but a carb with a problem is such a sod. The other irritation in winter is they can't adjust the idle speed automatically depending on load like injection can, so turning on lights/blowers/rear window etc just kills the idle speed and makes the car shudder while idling. It's even worse if you've got PAS or an auto box Happily adjusting the idle speed on a carb involves just turning a screw, so you can bring it up a bit. I usually go for 1200rpm idle in winter with no electrics on, and 1000rpm in summer. As yours is an auto (with PAS??) you might have to go higher.

You'll have to explore the interesting ignition system on the 16SV next

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Yeh i noticed that it has an electronic ignition system, crappy square coil and the dizzy has some kind of hall sensor on it, i plan on taking the cap off at the weekend to have a look inside and see what the contacts are like, and have a look at the plugs to inspect them.

[Pigeonrat]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

It's a breakerless system called MZV (or should be, it was changed at the end of 1988 but yours should be earlier). It is actually controlled by a proper ECU and microprocessor surprisingly, this is the black box mounted on the bulkhead. As long as the basic timing is right on the dizzy, the ECU makes small adjustments for different loads, engine speeds and engine temperature. You can manually switch between 95 and 98 octane on some cars too. There is a sensor in the dizzy but I think it's an inductive sensor, the Hall sensor was fitted to the later system and looks similar but won't work with your early system...

[Mr-G]

Re: 1.6 Automatic Cabriolet rolling resto.....

Well here we go........

After spending £104 on monday taxing the cabby she rewarded me today by revealing that the fuel tank has a very bad leak. Had to drain about 3 gallons of fuel from it tonight.

I have got tomorrow and friday off work so basically i have 4 days to find and fit a tank for a carb model 88 reg cabby.

Beevers list them but they say Hatch/Saloon, are these the same as the cabby tanks, Also its gonna work out nearly £100 by the time you add VAT and delivery......This is not really what i needed the month before xmas.