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Another GTE 8V back on the road....

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  • Just finished off the last few Resto Jobs on the Car

    Repaired a small spot of grot on the corner of the Rear Tailgate





    Annoyingly, the end plates of the Fuel Rail started to weep fuel which blistered the paint job



    Bought some fuel resistant gasket paper, removed both end plates and installed a gasket, that sorted it.

    Managed to pull apart the L/H Driveshaft trying to remove it from the Diff.



    Fitted a new replacement Driveshaft, it's the ABS type but fitted the non-ABS hub OK.



    Could not get the Hydraulic Tappets to stop tapping, so I bought and fitted a brand new set of INA tappets.
    That sorted them, no more tapping.



    Restored and refitted the whole Interior, the only thing that needed replacement was the rear view mirror.

    Got the car insured under a Classic Car "Agreed Value" Insurance Policy and trundled off for the MOT/

    And it passed.....

















    This Resto has been a long journey, but I am now looking forward to driving the old girl.

    Moral of the story, never give up, you will get there in the end....


    Comment


    • Nice work Andy, It looks stunning

      Shame as I have a set of hydraulic tappets in my shed that I got for mine way back in the early (Astrasylum forum) days but never fitted them as mine cleared up and only chattered on a rare occasion.

      So I'm sure you will have fun driving it now, though its a shame the fine weather is over its best for this year I fear. But enough time to pick up any little niggles before winter I'm sure .

      Laurie.

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      • i was trying to refresh my memory how you dealt with the exhaust? (specifically getting an exhaust nicely sized for a 16v, also having the awkward 8 valve bus stop round the gear linkage)

        p.s much praise again with the resto

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        • Thanks for the comments Laurie, and you were right about the weather, up here it has rained every day since the MOT.

          Darren, the exhaust is a stainless steel Magnex made for the GTE 2.0L 8V.
          When I installed the 16V Redtop (with a standard exhaust manifold), the existing 8V Magnex exhaust would not line up with the manifold, it was too long.
          So I cut the pipe in front of the front box (which is behind the 8V gear linkage) removed about 1 and a 1/2 inches of pipe and welded it back together again. The exhaust now fitted a treat.

          As I have said before, it sounded great with the 8V, but is a bit loud on the 16V.

          Comment


          • Originally posted by AndyGee View Post
            Thanks for the comments Laurie, and you were right about the weather, up here it has rained every day since the MOT.

            Darren, the exhaust is a stainless steel Magnex made for the GTE 2.0L 8V.
            When I installed the 16V Redtop (with a standard exhaust manifold), the existing 8V Magnex exhaust would not line up with the manifold, it was too long.
            So I cut the pipe in front of the front box (which is behind the 8V gear linkage) removed about 1 and a 1/2 inches of pipe and welded it back together again. The exhaust now fitted a treat.

            As I have said before, it sounded great with the 8V, but is a bit loud on the 16V.
            thanks andy, aftermarket 8v exhaust will be perfectly sized for 16v too (think from memory they increased 8v from 1.75 to 2 inch)

            Comment


            • It's been a wee while now since my last post, but I still have the old GTE..

              The car was MOT'd and Taxed last year with the full intension of taking her to a few shows, but the Covid saga put paid to that as everything got cancelled. Really frustrating, I spent the best part of 3 years restoring the Car, then when it was finished I couldn't go anywhere in it.. I did however manage to do a few "Essential Shopping" trips in her, but these where limited to my local area.
              Eventually I took the car off the road in August.

              Hopefully, the end of the Pandemic is now in sight and I have started to prepare to prepare the car for the MOT and going back on the road.

              First job to tackle is the Exhaust System, it is not blowing or leaking, but it is however too loud for my liking. It is a Stainless Steal MAGNEX System (2" Bore) with two Silencer Boxes.
              I have read somewhere that it is possible for these type of Straight Through Boxes to have blown out all the sound deadening material from the inside of the Silencer Box, so I decided to remove the Exhaust so that I could cut apart the Rear Box and re-pack it with new sound deadening material.

              Unfortunately, removing the Exhaust turned out to be a pain in the arse, try as I did, the Exhaust would not split apart at the centre joint so I was forced to remove it in one piece.
              To get the Exhaust off in one piece necessitated removing and lowering the Rear Beam Assembly, not the fastest way to get an Exhaust off a car, and definitely not in the Kwik-Fit normal procedures manual.





              Eventually managed to get if off the Car in a one piece.






              After a lot of time and patience with the grinder and cutting tools, I managed to remove the outer casing of the Rear Silencer.
              To my disappointment, the Rear Box still had most of the sound deadening material inside it and the whole job may have been a waste of time...





              Having gone this far, I have some new sound deadening material (AcoustaFill) and will now try to re-pack the box, refit the outer casing and weld it up again.
              Oh the joys.....


              Comment


              • Eventually managed to separate the front and back halves of the Exhaust using penetrating fluid and big Hammers, that made it easier to work on the back Silencer Box half without having to cart about the front section which would have been like working on a Pole Vault.

                First job was to re-pack the Box with the new AcustaFil material and temporarily hold it in place using Selotape, i know that sounds a bit iffy but that's the recommended method apparently.





                Then it was time to refit and weld up the Silencer outer casing. I have never tried to weld Stainless Steel before, and I believe the weapon of choice is a TIG Welder, but I don't have one of those so I bought some Stainless Steel wire for the Mig Welder and decided to wing it with the existing 10 per cent Argon 90 percent CO2 gas bottle.
                Using all sorts of weld clamps, straps, bits of wood e.c.t, I managed to keep the outer casing to the original shape whist welding the seams.
                I was surprized how different Stainless Steal is to weld compared to Mild Steel, it is so much softer and the weld pool is created much quicker and the torch has to be moved much faster than Mild Steel.

                The finished job wasn't as good as the original factory Tig Weld, but what the hell it won't leak and it won't rust...








                Refitted the Exhaust and Rear Beam, lowered the Car back on to its wheels ready for for starting the engine using my quieter Exhaust?





                Started the engine, and, absolutely no difference at all to the sound level.
                Bummer, but looking on the bright side, at least I can now split the Exhaust and I can now weld Stainless Steel.

                Next up, find out why my Fuel Gauge is reading empty when the Tank is half full..

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                • Great car ! Well done restoration.

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                  • shame it didnt help, but fair play you did a great job repacking it.

                    i would say your issue is the centre box (or lack of) if it was the size of the rear silencer it would make a big difference (dont have much choice i guess without replacing it)

                    Comment


                    • Thanks for the advice Darren, maybe that's the answer, replace the existing Centre Box with a much bigger Oval shaped box.

                      I've been looking on-line and a 3.5" x 7" x 14" Stainless Steel Silencer Box can be sourced for about 45 quid, but not sure if it would fit. I need to do a bit of measuring tomorrow.

                      Interestingly, the exhaust parts supplier website I was looking at backed up your advice with the quote "Rule of thumb is the bigger the silencer, the quieter the exhaust sound"...

                      Comment


                      • Gave up on trying to quieten the Exhaust for the moment, that will be back on the menu when the Car is MOT'ed again.

                        Time to sort out why the Fuel Gauge is reading zero, even though I know there is fuel in the tank. I put 12V onto the wire to the Dashboard Fuel Gauge and the Gauge shot upto full, so there is nothing wrong with the Gauge.
                        So the fault is with the Tank Sendor Unit, strange as it only about 5 years old.
                        Whatever, time to remove the Fuel Tank to get the Sendor Unit out to try and find out why it has gone tits up (or tits down as it turned out!).

                        Fuel Tank removal, a dammed sight easier now I can get the Exhaust to split at the middle joint.





                        And now I could get access to it, Tank Sendor Unit removed.



                        It looked brand new, but as I was removing it from the Tank I noticed it appeared quite "heavy". This was the hint to what was wrong with it, the Float was full of fuel and not floating at all...
                        The Float has developed a crack in the plastic allowing fuel to seep inside the ball and send the ball to the bottom of the Tank causing to read empty.

                        The crack can be seen in the middle of this photo





                        Just to be sure, I knocked up some extension wires so I could connect the Sendor Unit to the car wiring and test it with the Ignition on.
                        Moving the Unit "Float" by hand produced perfect results, empty, half full and full all showed up on the Fuel Gauge perfectly.
                        So it was confirmed, nothing wrong with the Unit, it was just the Float that was not floating.

                        At this point I had no idea where I would get hold of a new float, so I set off to quiz my local motor parts shop, I know the owner well by now..
                        I showed him the knackered Float, and in his own words "Its your lucky day I can help you with that".
                        Turns out that he is restoring an old Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (as in Jimmy Saville mobilee), he has it parked in the storeroom at the back of the shop, and is working on it in between visitors to the shop (this is Scotland and it aint the busiest shop in the world), and by pure chance he had removed the Fuel Tank Sendor Unit from the Rolls Royce yesterday.
                        The Rolls Royces Sendor Unit was kaput, but the Float was OK, so we fished it out of the bin and decided that it would fit the Astra Sendor Unit with a bit wire bending.

                        And it did.



                        I know the Float is not the same shape is the origonal, but having peered into the Fuel Tank I don't think it will snag on any part of the inside of the tank, so I am giving it a whirl.

                        I will refit the tank tomorrow, and hopefully the Vauxhall/Rolls Royce tank sendor unit will work a treat..

                        Comment


                        • Fuel Tank, Exhaust and Handbrake Cable all back on the car, then it was time to add fuel to the tank and see if the Fuel Gauge works...

                          Added about 25 Litres of petrol to a completely empty Fuel Tank, the Haynes Book of Lies says the Tank capacity is 50 Litres so the Fuel Gauge should read about a 1/2 Tank.

                          And....



                          Result, maybe under reading a wee bit, but that's not a bad thing and a dammed sight better than not having a clue how much fuel is in the Tank.

                          Next up, give the car a thorough check over and clean, then off for the MOT.

                          Comment


                          • Top work with the fuel sender!

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                            • Thanks for the comments Dosher, its good to sort a problem out for Zero cost in parts..

                              Booked the Car in for the MOT on Monday, and it passed with flying colours and no advisories.

                              Looking forward to taking the car out for a few long runs,,

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