Nearly there with the Saxo

Another couple of hours work in the garage over the past week has seen me fit the cam idler and tensioner pulleys, refit the cam sprockets and get the new cambelt on and tensioned. To tension the cambelt, I used the 8mm square bar from the door handle of the utility room - worked a treat!



I've also refitted the radiator, front crossmember, fan and ECU so its starting to look like a car again.



I'm hoping it won't take long to get the front end back on so I can get the rear raised and sort the back end of the exhaust out. Then I'll be re-filling the coolant and firing it up.

Looking ahead, I've got a programmable ECU on order which will allow me to make the most of the cams and pave the way for some head work and individual throttle bodies....

The refurb continues

Ok, I've been catching a few hours here and there in the garage to do work on the Saxo over the last month. Things are coming along slowly.

First off, the manifold is now fitted but I'm having trouble with the gearshift fouling on the cat pipe. It just makes a clanking noise when changing into second but I'm concerned that when the exhaust heats up it will be more of a problem.





I also got hold of a new alternator. It took me a while to figure out how the tensioner system worked but I got there in the end. This will save having to recharge the battery during events.



I re-painted the rocker covers and got some shiny new bolts to fit them. Just to tidy things up a bit and make the engine bay look a bit more presentable (always helps at scrutineering!).



Today, I spent the whole day doing more jobs. I started by splicing in a new speed sensor connector. This is a three wire connector that plugs in to the speed sensor on the gearbox. It drives the speedo and also feeds back to the ECU. The signal wire had burnt out (I think related to the launch control system the last owner had) so I had to splice into the loom. So, out came the soldering iron and heat shrink - hopefully it will now work but I won't know until I can get the car on the road.

Next, I set about on the cam seals. These were the main source of oil leakage. I started by taking the cambelt off.



Then the cam sprockets came off and revealed the state of the seals. Seeing this, I was not at all surprised that they leaked.



It came out very easily and then I popped the new seal in. Not sure how far in its meant to go - hopefully I've got it right.



Next up, I'll be fitting the new cambelt tensioner and idler pulley before tackling the cambelt.