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.

Manifolds and engine mounts

Ok, the replacement eBay manifold arrived yesterday and it's looking good. It has a different collector pattern to the old one (which I believe is a Janspeed) - the new one goes down to two pipes much further up which frees up a bit of space to clear the oil filter. I'm not sure of the make of the new manifold but I think it might be a Raceland. It's certainly stainless steel and it weighs a bit less than the old one (a bonus).

Here's the two manifolds side by side (new one on the left):



And on the engine - old one first:





And the new one (note the clearance to the oil filter):





I've ordered up a new fitting kit with wire gasket and I'll get some new studs and hopefully get some time to fit it by next weekend.

My thoughts have turned to engine mounts. I had hoped to upgrade the mounts to reduce movement but on inspection, the drivers side mount is a basic small capacity mount. This makes sense since the car is built on a 1.1 litre shell. To change to a competition mount will probably require fabricating a new inner wing section. So, I'll leave that for now and just replace the mount with a new one (or maybe look at 205 mounts......) The gearbox mount can be easily replaced and the rear lower mount has already been polybushed so that's easy.

Drivers side mount:



Gearbox mount:



Of course, all of this is just a diversion from doing the cam seals. I've rechecked the cams and flywheel are locked at TDC and found I had it wrong first time round. I'm still a bit nervous about this bit.....

Work on the RacingSaxo begins

Happy New Year !

I've taken advantage of some time off work to make a start on fixing the niggles on the Saxo. The main items that need sorting are the exhaust manifold which fouls on the oil filter, the cam seals which leak and a few bits and bobs to get through the MOT.

I started by taking a photo of the engine bay as it was to help me put it all back together:


Then I decided access would be much easier if I took the bonner and the front of the car off.



It would be even easier if the radiator was out of the way so It came out too and then the manifold just slipped off no problem at all.



The old Janspeed manifold is well bent and bashed on the bottom. I hope the replacement I've ordered off eBay is a better fit.



So, that's it all ready for the new manifold to be bolted in to place. I just need to decide whether to splash out and get it ceramic coated to keep the engine bay temps down.....

Next up, the cam seals.