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Cavalier MK1 GL Saloon (Automatic)


mepbowles
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3 hours ago, cam.in.head said:

they are a good idea in principle and obviously the reason gm fitted them was to reduce wear on SOME of the cam lobes but i wonder if the downside to having a bath of hot oil sat inside your cylinder head would be eccessive oil fumes at high temperatures or during a long motorway run like the 2.2 is sometimes prone to ?  . i dont recall a 1.6 or early 2 litre do this ? ? 

It was a retrofit due to oil starvation under sprightly driving methods. Guess it was cheaper than having to make a new sump for the CIH 

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ah oh ok thanks. thats different to what i thought but sounds correct .

i always thought it was to help reduce cam lobe wear by keeping them running and splashing in a bath of oil rather than the trickle that would come  from down the lifters and why they changed the material of the cams (induction hardened steel vs chilled cast iron  )and the mod was to help as well. when you see the head running it only keeps the level up towards the rear anyway as the rest drains off by the chainwheel !. so it was only a half hearted system anyway !

 

 

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6 hours ago, cam.in.head said:

ah oh ok thanks. thats different to what i thought but sounds correct .

i always thought it was to help reduce cam lobe wear by keeping them running and splashing in a bath of oil rather than the trickle that would come  from down the lifters and why they changed the material of the cams (induction hardened steel vs chilled cast iron  )and the mod was to help as well. when you see the head running it only keeps the level up towards the rear anyway as the rest drains off by the chainwheel !. so it was only a half hearted system anyway !

 

 

No this is correct (symptom), but cause of oil starvation at the top end was due to oil slosh in sump mate 

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I've been working to remove the heater box for Ian which also happens to mean a much emptier engine bay. An engine bay respray is looking more and more on the cards and will be a nice change to engine work. Though I need to at least get the engine work moving again before anything else starts.

Lacking a stubby screwdriverade the job annoying. One of the nuts lacking a washer on the inner heater box made it a pig. I just pulled it off in the end as it had already melted through. If I'm careful with some epoxy and paint and a nice big stainless washer, it'll be fine.

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Nut melted through the heater box without it's washer. Ample room to ftit a bigger washer.

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It's out! Leaving a pretty dirty and slightly rusty engine bay. It makes sense fore to strip everything I can put now and give it a respray, even if it's more work. I can't just reconnect the bits covering that rust.

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This sound deadening looks like it was cheap 40 years ago. I'd love to upgrade this by lining everything with CLD, sticky foam and Mass Loading Vinyl. maybe some heat insulation on the transmission tunnel as it gets pretty hot.

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Something I love about doing this work is that with every job, things get easier as I gain confidence. I remember being terrified of taking the lower dash off but it's not scary at all. Before I know it might have the screen out giving the corners a touch up.

 

I've got some today to take before the new year so I might take a day or two to work on the car. That should move things along nicely.

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I've spent my odd moments today reading up about porting and polishing. 

Rally Bobs very good guide on porting a 1.9 head for street use seems like a good idea. Specifically just smoothing out the exhaust and intakes and grinding down the valve guides to improve flow.

 

I'm also considering injection or bike carbs for better fuel efficiency but the cost and complexity is almost certainly not worth it.

Snipped so it's all in one place, not my head.

It looks like fairly simple work with a Dremel, but it needs machining first. I keep dawdling 

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cast iron heads are a huge time sink(yes I have done a few 🤦‍♂️), but the flow results can be super impressive. Sadly they do not translate into the bhp into the CIH as it needs to spin more rpm to take advantage then the limit the head allows in reality. The CIH is genuinely a dinosaur of a design where 50bhp/L was great. 

Dont waste time on polishing or exhaust ports as such ( you lose torque) biggest immediate gains are in matching the manifold to inlet. Better money is spent of a later head with higher ports (2.4, 2.2, 2.0) 

When comparing carbs to injection, it’s important that it’s like setup. If your comparing a twin choke Weber, to LE injection to bike carbs - the winner ofc is bike carbs. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Cheers. I think I understand what you're saying. Fortunately the carbide burrs dint arrive so it's not on the cards after all. I will clean up the ports of dirt though.

I had a nice sort out yesterday and then stripped the engine bay. Wiper motor and linkage out, loom freed and only brake to go. I'll remove the headlights and rubber heat shield only when I have to.

Next steps, send engine off, remove brake lines and but new lines/tools,jack car and remove suspension, buy paint and Paint engine bay.

 

Any suggestions on brake line size/material or tools?

Also, presumably the handbrake will remain on if it drain the brake lines as it's a separate system. I'll keep it chocked just in case

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I would also like to media blast the servo but assume the media might get inside. I see my options are either tape the gaps and tackle it with a wire wheel instead or disassemble the servo and do the job properly. The brakes were working fine so I'm leaning towards just taping and being careful.

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3 hours ago, Jessopia74 said:

yeah, problem with media is that it gets everywhere!

AHH, I picked up a blasting cabinet for £30 and have some large plastic sheets/huge sofa sized sacks so mess shouldn't be too bad. My concern is mainly oy blasting media getting inside the servo and ruining it, resulting in dismantling something that was working.

I'll also need to source a rebuild kit for my master cylinder but that can wait until it's off.

 

2 hours ago, ®evo03 said:

Bilt Hamber do great rust remover and treatments. 

https://bilthamber.com/product-category/anti-corrosion/

The waxes are unreal, high carnauba content. Goes along way. 

Nice. I've seen them advertised in practical classics so will take another look alongside the rust buster stuff and lanogaurd

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3 hours ago, mepbowles said:

AHH, I picked up a blasting cabinet for £30 and have some large plastic sheets/huge sofa sized sacks so mess shouldn't be too bad. My concern is mainly oy blasting media getting inside the servo and ruining it, resulting in dismantling something that was working.

I'll also need to source a rebuild kit for my master cylinder but that can wait until it's off.

 

Nice. I've seen them advertised in practical classics so will take another look alongside the rust buster stuff and lanogaurd

That is what Meant, everywhere in the item your blasting. Personally I would either send it for vapour blasting or do it the wire wheel etc. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been trying to get the front suspension off. I managed to get one clevis pins out, the other just broke. 

Does anyone know what size the socket for the nut and bolt are? My 24mm seems a tad large for both and any advice on getting them off? The swan necks are getting a little crusty too.

It looks like I'm going to have to drop the gearbox too for access. I wanted to leave that until later on but I guess it can come out now for a big degrease and some new seals etc. I think I'll read my books over Christmas make some decisions.

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Thanks both. My aim was to drop the gearbox today but it took me all my time to clear space around the car to jack it up and my impatience to jack it up without access to the rear jacking point means I have some minor panel beating/pulling to do later... FML.

At least it's now on 3 axle stands and a gearbox support. The 4th axle stand is lingering just below the jacking point (which has rounded off and won't accept the OEM jack anymore 😅

New year problems 

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16 hours ago, mepbowles said:

Thanks both. My aim was to drop the gearbox today but it took me all my time to clear space around the car to jack it up and my impatience to jack it up without access to the rear jacking point means I have some minor panel beating/pulling to do later... FML.

At least it's now on 3 axle stands and a gearbox support. The 4th axle stand is lingering just below the jacking point (which has rounded off and won't accept the OEM jack anymore 😅

New year problems 

Oops 😬

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