Beaky a little poorley?

[John Sims]

I ran him up this evening, after having been away for the week, and noticed a very small amount of water at the junction between the head and the block at the front right hand corner under the water inlet elbow. There are two No6 Allen head bolts there and it looked like the front of the two wanted pinching up as the water was seeping through the head gasket. I fashioned myself a shortened allen key, as a standard key was too high to fit under the water pipe, and gave the bolt a turn. It took very little effort to turn it and then it went completely loose - the thread having gone.

Obviously this bolt has been holding very little previously so there may have been this slight seepage before. Alternatively, after not using the car for two weeks, perhaps the head had settled and needed warming up again to seal the gap. I haven't noticed any loss in water up until now and the leak was barely evident as more than a single drop of water.

What to do now? Obviously I have no confidence in the car at the moment and need to get the bolt helicoiled as soon as possible. I'm going to leave Beaky running on the drive tomorrow and see if anything develops.

Essex to Oxfordshire and back is no small trip so I may forego Sundays entertainment and next weekends Dyno Day is also now looking a bit suspect to unless I can get things resolved next week. []

Oh bugger!

 

[Diver944]

Oh crap!

You realise this is the curse of the Dyno Day. I've just been totting up and these are all the people who have had to withdraw due to car problems:

carlmthomson - car wrecked
GarthHusbands - car rolled
Helen - engine failure
Bigglesdan - head Gasket
SidewayBen - engine in bits
Fen - engine in bits

and I'm one of the one's always harping on about how reliable and practical the 944 is. I hope it turns out well John, I don't want to see you on the above list too.

 

[John Sims]

I hope it turns out well John, I don't want to see you on the above list too.

Thanks Paul, I'm not giving up yet.

Funny how these things turn out. This morning, in a fit of depresion [>:], I went out to the garage to have a look if there was any more water. None was apparent. [&:]

I started the engine and shoved my head under the bonnet. There was a drip, but it wasn't from the head junction, it from the hard pipe and rubber hose junction above and it had dripped down onto the head and run into that joint. It just goes to show how you can always assume the worse.

I tightend the jubilee clip, restarted and allowed to run to temperature. We are all dry. [] If I had thought of the jubilee clip first I would never have found out that there was a problem with the bolt.

Beaky is booked in to get a thread insert next week so should be OK for the Dyno Day []. The offending bolt was obviously holding next to nothing previously and so perhaps isn't an issue, but now I have to decide if I risk it for Front Runner or play it safe. The adult thing to do would be to leave the car in the garage untill the bolt is repaired. This would avoid the risk of a head gasket failure jepardising the Dyno Day and the Scottish Trip. [8|]

So do I stick or do I gamble? [8|]

 

[Fen]

To be fair my engine is in bits as a direct result of a foreign object meeting with the sump at 60+ mph which hardly reflects badly on the reliability of the 944, similarly the two more serious foregn object/car interface issues.

I admit I don't know why Ben's (or Helen's for that matter) engines had to come apart though.

HG failure, like old age, will come to us all.

 

[eastendr]

John, see you tomorrow - you could always bring some tissues to mop any excess water up with [][]

 

[Diver944]

Personally I wouldn't risk it John unless you've driven it a fair few miles trouble free today.

Or am I biased because I don't want any more mechanical dropouts next week? []

 

[944Turbo]

I can't make it tommorow so you can't go either.

If you dont go it will be fine if you go it will fail, but then if you have a fireproof tow rope Rick can tow you back he should have some spare torque

Tony

 

[Fen]

If it's anything like last year when I followed Rick some of the way back there won't be any risk of the rope catching fire.

I hope the weather is better this year for those who are going. I would go but my front engined, watercooled car might not be quite the thing.

 

[John Sims]

Personally I wouldn't risk it John unless you've driven it a fair few miles trouble free today.

Whilst I like to live on the edge, I don't want to miss out on the Dyno Day or the Cotswold Rally the following day so I shall take the safe option.

There is no way WUF could tow Beaky back to Essex, my front PU would melt prior to getting to the M25.

 

[eastendr]

I don't know about WUF towing beaky.

I was hoping to follow beaky so that you could 'in-flight' refuel me on the motorway - I don't know what fuel consumption is going to be like until I get some mapping done on Allan's rollers [][][]

4x #72 injectors and a huge fuel pump might mean that I need to fit the petrol tank from the Range Rover (100 L).

Still, I'll probably meet lots of nice people at all the services that I'll have to stop at - and just think of all those Nectar points [][] (Only 24 toasters from Cornbury)

 

[John Sims]

Over at Autostrassa this morning. They couldn't do an insert 'cos the head would have to come off [], but they know a man who does helicoils and, after much discusion on the phone, it all looks good to go.

As the thermostat elbow (well that's what it is on a Ford) has to come off, it was decided all would be done at the end of the month when Beaky is in for his pre-Scotland fettle (Winterizing? []). As the offending bolt is so close to the head bolt, and has not given any problems for 2 years, we agreed it should be OK for another couple of weeks - I could have gone to Front Runner after all []