Project "Silver Streak"

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Update

Well, as I currently have a grand total of about Â£24.03 to my name, all mods to the 19 have had to be homebrew jobbies.

Remembering that I had several tins of primer, paint and lacquer collecting dust under my bed, I decided to colour code the interior air vents to smarten up the interior.

Here is the result:

Works well with the gearknob, handbrake and pedals don't you think?

Am thinking about doing the plastic handles in the door in the same colour which will look mint when the doors' fabric is replaced with black leather. As you can tell black and silver is the theme I'm going for with the interior!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Big Update!

Just did an inspection on the car, just to see if there's anything requiring imminent attention.....

Levels of gearbox oil, engine oil are at acceptable levels. Engine oil is exactly halfway between the two notches on the dipstick, which I was very surprised by, given the amount of oil she's been leaking. Also, I believe I've determined the source of the leak, but more on that later....

Got the two front corners off the ground and inspected the road wheel assembly. I'm pleased to report that both wheels had no play in them, I'm not sure exactly what it means, but I know it's a good thing! Embarassed

The two front tyres still have tread across the whole width of the wheel, and the depth left on them are just about legal, much to my relief, since plenty of wheel spinning goes on in my car, especially when it's wet!

Bulbs and electrics are working fine, although the headlight lights and the choke light in the speedo instrumentation flicker a fair bit.

Brakes are working fine, although the discs and pads deserve a change. I'm not sure of the recommended mileages between disc and pad changes but the current items have covered a good 15 to 20K since they were replaced. I reckon the calipers are seized a little, because sometimes when braking the steering wheel feels like it's being wrenched out of my hands - it's always to the left, so it will be the drivers' side caliper that's seized if any.

Hopefully the brakes will serve me well for a couple more months, as I'm going upgrade me' brakes to 16V-spec then in preparation for the Williams engine transplant I have planned. Hopefully that will come sooner rather than later so I don't have to continue to sink money into keeping the 1.4 lump going, given it's current condition.

The 19 is still reluctant to go into gear at times, haven't a clue why but some days gear selection is not a problem, whereas other days the 'box is a right swine, to the extent where I either have to come off and back on the clutch half a dozen times or I have to force it into gear. Bloody thing! Evil or Very Mad

As regards the oil leak, I'm pretty certain it's a minor head-gasket leak. As stated earlier last week, the entire bottom half of the block is caked in oil, from the transmission side all the way over to the water pump and engine mounting. When I first got the leak, the first parts of the engine to get covered were the clutch bell housing and the gearbox. After going over the entire engine with a fine tooth comb and examining every join closely I found oil seeping out of the join between head and bottom end, equidistant from the manifold heat shield and the thermostat elbow.

At first I was reluctant to believe it was the head-gasket since performance has not suffered and there has been no obvious cross contamination of water and oil, either in the expansion tank or in the oil. However, as I have now seen oil seeping from the head/block join first hand so it would appear I can now lay this one to rest.

Annoying Things

As regards other niggly things, I have a pair of new crystal-effect side repeaters to be fitted. The reason for these other than an update in style is that one of my current Ford Focus-style LED repeaters is taking on water, and rust can be seen within it and it is rather unsightly.

My subwoofers and amplifier are still waiting to be wired in properly, in fact I've no idea why they aren't working in the first place, they were fine before I put the false floor in, but nevertheless I know the owner of a local radio shop very well and I know he will sort it for me for a decent price.

One of my 6x9 speakers in the parcel shelf is missing a terminal. This is an easy thing that even I could rectify, but unfortunately a lack of soldering iron/money to buy a soldering iron is holding me back!

As always the condition of the bodywork is still something that bugs me day in day out, but Tony Forster in the RSC is going to overhaul all the bodywork and give the car a complete respray in the not too distant future, hopefully!

He's also agreed to spray and fit the 16V bumper I bought from Chris, along with a pair of Chamade skirts and a one-off rear bumper (don't worry Nedophobics - it's not too over the top!) That's all that's going on bodykit-wise, all the other work he's going to do for me involves removing and colour-coding things. The door handles and locks are being banished and the mirrors and door handles are going to be properly colour-coded, which will remedy my shite attempt at doing it!

The boot is also going to be flushed and the back end lowered. There are still one or two other special things I'm considering for the 19, but I'm not divulging anything until I've decided!

Right that's about it, there's not really too much wrong with the car, at least in terms of safety - brakes, suspension and tyres all seem fine with no obvious cause for concern. Other than the oil leak/gearbox, most of the things wrong with the car are either minor, cosmetic and/or do not impact the running. Overall I'm pretty pleased but then again it does seem like I'll never get to a point where I can say hand-on-heart that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the car!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

MOT Time!

The car's going in at 9am for it's MOT, pretty certain it's gonna fail...again!

The blowing exhaust has been fixed, and it now sounds like a new car! Damage was Â£41 inc labour and VAT for a new manifold to centre section pipe.

Bad news though - while in at the exhaust fitters, they noticed that the back tyres all have nails in! In addition the front tyres are bald on the inner edges so depending on how eagle-eyed and lenient Brian is will depend on whether I have to replace 2 or 4 17" tyres!

Probably will stick the front ones on the back and have two new T1-S's fitted to the front unless it fails on all 4 tyres, in which case I'd better be ready to spend Â£300+ quid.....

If that's the case then I should be thankful that I've been outbid on the Infinicar 16V I was winning! Evil or Very Mad

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

you would be rather stupid to fit new tyres to the front and not the back you know.

But you do drive like a girl so thats not a problem Razz

I have nails in the toyos as well, they pick up bit of paper in them they are that soft!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Right well against all odds the tyres were not condemned, but overall the car failed. Reasons being:

OSR brake poor effort
Windscreen washers inoperative
Driver's seat insecure
NS bottom ball joint
NS wishbone loose front bolt

Well, the first port of call on my last day of being road-legal was Selecta Tyrem where my ma used to work.

They fitted the new front exhaust pipe yesterday and on the way home the rear section had started to knock on the chassis, so first of all I got them to adjust it so it wasn't catching. Whilst I was there I ummed and aahed over whether to get the tyres replaced anyway, despite them not being condemned in the MOT. Decided I may as well get all four replaced so after that was done I found myself Â£303 lighter!

Inoperative washers was remedied by filling the washer tank up!

NS bottom ball joint was simple enough to replace and the wishbone bolt was tightened up whilst it was being changed. New ball joint cost me Â£4 odd...

Driver's seat height adjusting mechanism was inoperative due to worn teeth on the adjuster. How convenient the seller of the leathers neglected to mention this at the time! Anyway, after drilling one hole and slipping a nut and bolt through it quickly became apparent that it would be impossible to screw the runner bolts back in, since the seat has to tilt forward to access the hole, so a new solution was needed. In the end a bracket was appended across the side that could be screwed up after the seat was bolted back in place.

Only job left to do now is to sort the rear brake. After taking the wheel off and removing the large hub retaining bolt we found that the cylinder had been leaking brake fluid onto the shoes, hence the lack of effort.

Just got back from the local motor factors with a new cylinder and a pair of rear shoes. As somewhat of a bonus it turns out a good mate from my old job works there, and he did me a bit of discount on it. All together the cylinder and the shoes should have cost me about Â£35-Â£40, but me' mate sorted me out for Â£28!

So running putting things right yesterday/today:

1 Manifold to Centre Section Exhaust Pipe - Â£41
MOT - Â£35
Petrol - Â£10
4 x 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes - Â£303
1 NS Bottom Ball Joint - Â£4
1 Rear Wheel Brake Cylinder - Â£21
1 Pair of EBC Rear Brake Shoes - Â£7

TOTAL Â£421.00

As usual this car is costing me more than it's worth to keep on the road, but I love this car to bits!

Forum Moderator Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 7432

could have bought a valver for that Razz

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Just thought that myself, and I was nearly ready to celebrate winning that red Valver I was bidding for, but that's life I suppose.

I'm still up for dropping a Williams in mine though. It shall be done at some point!

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

how much for a rear wheel cylinder! I was pissed off when I have to pay a tenner for my old blues ones cyl!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Well, I've never had to buy one before so no idea of cost, plus not really like I had the time or the ability to shop around locally so I was happy to pay the Â£21.

And Chris let's not forget that you're a tight git!

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

if sensible = tight then yes I'm tight!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

If I choose to have a working brake over an inoperative one then sensible as well.

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Right well Silver Streak finally passed her MOT on Thursday morning so I am road legal for another year.

Mechanically, all that is wrong with the car now is the HG leak and the leaky front shocks - this can be sorted soon once I have received those Monroe Sensatracs I won on eBay.

I think I will wait until I have inherited Neal's calipers and brackets and acquired some new lowering springs (want to drop it 50mm) and then carry out a full brakes and suspension rebuild/upgrade.

In other news I nearly won another silver Phase 1 GTS on eBay but I didn't want to bid any more than Â£80 for it. Would have made a nice source of spares and I could have had a go at more riskier jobs like porting and polishing. Went for Â£110 or thereabouts in the end.

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Breaking News.....

I am now the owner of a Renault Laguna 3.0i V6 engine. I noticed it up on eBay with a Buy It Now of Â£150 and thought what the hell, why not?

Admittedly it may prove to be a troublesome venture but this game's all about being unique, and to my knowledge a V6 conversion into a 19 has ever been attempted before!

If things do go tits up or it looks like it ain't gonna be worth the hassle then I should easily be able to make back the best part of what I paid for it, maybe even get into profit on it!

Now the fun facts:

194bhp
197lb/ft @ 4000rpm
7.7 sec 0-60 (in Laguna)
148mph top speed (in Laguna)

Now the headaches:

- Engine requires a gearbox
- Laguna V6 driveshafts required
- Chassis modifications
- Suitable brakes and suspension
- Management
- Issues with physical fitment/mounting
- Differences in track width between 19/Laguna

That's all I'm aware of. If I've missed out any crucial issues or if anyone has anything to offer in the way of a solution to any of these problems then I'd be interested to hear it!

Like I said, it only cost Â£150 so it's not like it has to succeed. I may still go with the Williams purely for ease of fitting, but I'm more than willing to give the V6 conversion a go!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Right well, after learning that the V6 engine I have purchased is the earlier pushrod effort, this means my anticipation of having nearly 200bhp without mods has been dampened. However this engine still kicks out around 170bhp, which is still 20bhp more than a Williams.

To get a 20bhp increase in power over standard with most cars isn't gonna happen without spending serious money, so assuming that a Williams engine and box set up would cost me nearly a grand, plus another grand on say decent cams, air filter and exhaust to take the power comfortably over 170bhp, you would be looking at nearly Â£2000! Given that the cost of this V6 engine is Â£150, it's quite an economical return for the money I think, and in theory leaves Â£1850 to spend getting the V6 in and running before the Williams conversion becomes the better value option!

Anyway, I'm still interested in the other technical data for this 12V engine and have searched around but with no joy, despite having the world-wide web at my disposal! So if anybody with a running copy of Dialogies would like to find out the torque and 0-60 figures I'd be very grateful!

I have also just been informed that a set of Chamade side skirts are on their way. I bought them off someone breaking a Chammy on RSC and he sold 'em me for Â£25 including postage, which I didn't think was half bad. One bloke offered to sell me some before for Â£25, as long as I travelled 50 odd miles to Preston. So to say postage was included on these skirts you could say that I'm a happy bunny!

I've now more or less got a complete 16V bodykit minus a rear bumper! I'm having a one off made for me by Tony Forster, and it's modelled on the Kombat kit. Somebody did this Photoshop and in my opinion it doesn't look that bad! Don't know why they resprayed the car green though!

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

so is that the rear bumper your having then?

in the photo shop pic?

also dont like the green lol

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Yes it is. It's a Clio Kombat bumper that Tony will modify to fit. And yes the green is rank. I don't know why the person who did the pic did that, the pic supplied was of my actual car.

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Right well my new Sensatrac shock absorbers came through in the post today. A lot heavier than I thought to be honest!

All I need now is a new set of 16V discs and the calipers and sliders courtesy of Neal and I can go ahead with the rebuild of the suspension and brakes!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Is proving to be a busy week in terms of receiving car parts!

My new Ferodo 16V brake pads came yesterday and the 16V Chamade side skirts came today! Now I'm just a rear bumper short of a bodykit, running cost of which is Â£42!

Really need to tidy me' room up, so I can cram it all in!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Well today I received my Retro-Renault sticker and stuck that inside the rear windscreen. Bit dark now to take pics so they will come tomorrow.

Bit skint at the moment so things with the car have come to a stand-still, at least for the next fortnight or so!

Been looking at ISA's today as well!

Site Subscriber Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 2281

Okay pics as promised:

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

looks like a posh area you live in there ben.