[CartMan]

Coming along wuite nicely there wish I had the time and place to do this too :/

[ally frp364]

When I done my bro inlaws Puma A few months ago about the only thing I never bought was a new vibration pulley.

I remember buying the cam seals. The inlet one was a complete joke about 25quid springs to mind.

You don't realise how much all the gaskets,seals,oil and water pump etc costs when you do a build like this. Just don't tally it up or you'll not sleep! lol

Cheers

Ally

[eldoodarino]

yep, already spent way over what I intended..new altenator and bottom pulley certainly bumped it up significantly..

[Turby]

new oil pumps aren't cheap either!

[eldoodarino]

used my old one..it still seemed pretty smooth.. shame I didn't fit a new one really, got offered one at a big discount too...

have to draw the line somewhere.. />

[Rayy]

This is the attention to detail I like to see, good thread, good work! />

[eldoodarino]

The End is in sight!..

loads more done now.. in fact, the engine is pretty complete bar the aux belt and air con pump..

Took the engine off the stand as it was starting to look a tad heavy...

Fitted new rear crank seal, which seals up the last part of the sump too..



Then a freshly skimmed flywheel...along with new bolts torqued up to 85nm and some thread lock!




Thought i'd then go back and give my Helix clutch another go, I've been missing it's springy feel..





Inlet Fitted with new brackets.. also thermostat and housing..and Breather pipe which was a bugger to get on... such a shambles of a design!!



new air charge sensor too.. (very cheap)



Here's how it's looking now..mostly assembled..with new Alternator too as the bearings had gone very bad on the other one

[Bentleya]

Coming together now Chris . Where did you pick up the air change sensor from as you said 'cheap', I enquired when I got one of my inlets cleaned and I my parts man wanted just over £20.00 for one.

[eldoodarino]

It retails at £8.48+Vat Finis1682035 + it was a stock item where I bought it so I managed to get 10% too... />

definately one of the more cheaper items on my invoice list..

[eldoodarino]

That inlet is so bloody crude it's just unreal...

the place where the breather pipe passes is too thin for the pipe..lol! you have to squeeze the **** out of it to force it in place..which does not feel good after you've just spent £43+Vat on a new bit of breather pipe /> /> what a CRAP design



also the fixing point for the dipstick housing is just not right at all... the bottom where it seals is all bent in to one side at an angle... I seem to remember in the 'early FRP' days one or two loosing all there oil out here..I can now see why!!.. a new shape of tube should have been designed really ..or the bracket on the tube cut off and welded back on 1cm further down...

you can see here the tube is crammed in at the left of the entry...not ideal at all..



All fun of the FRP I guess

[CartMan]

I would so like to have your engien mine woorks just fne, but man, look at it it's so nice, and cleen, and new

Keep up the good work

[eldoodarino]

Just thought i'd close this little story off now, as 453 seems to be doing fine...no leaking that I can see at present and it drives better than it has done for years!..

Had a great run down to Combe in it and make it back to Donnington services on one tank of fuel totalling 275 miles which I thought was very reasonable considering the mixture of driving styles on the day.. ...





-------------------------------------------

On to new things already now...

Have stripped down my original head and have cleaned up the valves ....The exhaust valves took a lot of careful cleaning, they had some right crusty deposits on them..

[happy-kat]

Excellent, must feel better than new />
The last time I saw valves was when I bent two in my old Polo many moons ago, drove carefully from Brighton to Worthing on a slipping belt, made it though with just two bent valves. The belt had patches of no teeth.

[mikecat]

Looking and sounding like all the hard work has paid off mate. Frp is looking spot on these days

[eldoodarino]

Made a cracking local contact recently for 'Aqua Blasting' an awesome bit of kit for blasting fine media mixed with a water and anti-corrosive solution...

Also a cracking engineering business that does excellent engine work and skimming etc...

Building up a nice collection of parts ready to fit to speed up my engine service program which i'll be busy with next season..