So ends the weekend of ugh. Some time back, before the salt this year I had a rolling series of "problems" with the grocery getter.......a series of cooling system problems that someone with a longer view and half a brain would have arrested before they caused too much grief. But that's not how it works is it? The coolant seems a little low, I'll just top it up.That weepy stain on the side of the radiator, no point putting in a new one yet is there?....I think it was 12 months ago that I changed the thermostat....just after my car was serviced and they replaced the lpg mixer. What I think happened was the gizzards of the former mixer were rusted out and had migrated through the cooling system where they went about jamming things open or shut and generally restricting the flow. Next I had a couple of curious overheats, then a breakdown when the gas mixer froze.....it seemed the coolant hoses to it were blocked. At this point it would have seemed to be a good idea for a full system flush and a good hard look at the major components. Nope. I'll just wait til it overheats again and splits the radiator, and cracks a head.
So this weekend I went a re-assemblin'. I'd forgotten how much I dislike leaning over a low engine bay. I'd also forgotten how annoying it is doing a one off job like this that you won't be doing again for long time( FINGERS CROSSED)....... I spent most of my time realising how I should have done certain things and marvelling at the hideous mix of metric and imperial threads and caps........
One tiny win was finding a new set of injectors I bought for the SOS a few years ago, they didn't flow enough on the dyno so we didn't use them. The injectors in the grocery getter were filthy, so that was a job that I could do in order to get myself covered in petrol. Yes I used those dumb-ass single use bolts with Grumm's voice in my ear "don't whatever you do over-torque them".........
The bulk of it is done, now I just need to hook everything up, there aren't that many random same size vacuum lines, and the crap on the front of the motor ...tensioners, alt-mount, other things have about three million different length bolts, earth tags.......aw I dunno, I feel my life force draining away.......