Saturday 15th March. - More tuning and test driving.

 After speaking to a weber carburettor specialist about my issues with the Green Cortina, I was advised to try changing the idle jets to a bigger size. Being a twin choke weber there are two jets, a primary and a secondary. 
The standard sizes are 55 & 50, so I purchased two at bigger sizes. The first combination I tried was a 60 & 55. I then took the car for a long test drive. It did make quite a difference and the car felt happier a low speeds and the popping and banging on the over run reduced dramatically. 
I then returned home and decided to change them again. This time I tried a combination of 65 & 60. I went for another test drive, but to be honest it didn't really feel much different to the first run. (Although I didn't go as far)
The car is a lot more drivable though, but removal of the spark plugs showed that they are still quite white, so it appears the engine is still running lean. I think I'll need to having a chat with the carburettor specialist again to see what the next move is. 

Wednesday 11th March. - More progress on the Lotus.

 Every night for the past few weeks I had been concentrating on finalising the engine bay on the Lotus Cortina. The engine bay being finished will be a massive step forward as I'll then be able to start putting the car back together. (I'm sick to death of sanding, cleaning, de-greasing, wire brushing etc.)
Once I felt that the engine bay was acceptable, I gave it a few coats of etch primer and left it five days to dry and harden. I was quite happy with the result to be honest. (See below)

Once the primer had dried and I was happy with the finish, I requested the presence of a guy from work who used to be an auto spray painter. (Glen) He's the same guy who painted the floor for me and the quality of his work is very good. 
I was home a good couple of hours before Glen was due round, so I ignited the diesel heater in the garage to get it nice and warm and also stood the paint in front of the hot air vent to allow it to 'thin' before use. 
After checking over my work, Glen mixed the paint and then got down to the job in hand. 
He laid on a light coat first to form a barrier and give the paint something to stick to, and once that had dried he went full on with a beautiful coat of Ford Ermine white. 
We had a break while we let the paint fumes dissipate and then Glen gave it another coat. We still had some paint left in the gun afterwards, so we painted the front bumper irons as well. (For some reason they are black on standard Cortina's, but white on the Lotus Cortina) 
By about 8pm, we were finished and called it a day. I'm very pleased with how it looks and the temptation to start bolting bits back on this weekend will be massive, but I'm going to leave it a week or so in order for the paint to harden. I don't want to risk dropping things on the fresh paint and marking it. 
At last it feels like progress has been made. Since I've had the car all I've done is removed bits from it and made it worse and less like a car. I've even taken to looking at pictures of when I first bought it, so I can remind myself what it looked like, but now I feel that I'm finally moving forward. 😊

Last August when it looked like a car. 

Sunday 8th March - Another test drive!

With the ongoing tuning issue with the Green Cortina, I have been experimenting with changing the primary and secondary main jets in the twin choke carburettor. (32/36 DGV)
The standard jet size should be 140 & 135, but in recent weeks I had increased the jet sizes to 145 &140, then 147 & 145 and todays test drive would be with 150 & 147. 
The drive went well, but to be honest I didn't notice much difference since the last change of 147 &145.

 So, I've probably gone as far as I can go with the main jets. The acceleration is fine  and the car is very responsive, but I'm getting a lot of popping on the over run. The car also doesn't seem happy at lower revs and doesn't drive smoothly. 
I'll need to do a bit more investigating, but I'm definitely improving the car, so I will persevere. It did feel good driving it again today and it was a nice morning to find a cafe and enjoy a nice breakfast! 😊

Tuesday 3rd March. - New parts!

 One of the reasons my Lotus Cortina has such a solid floor is due in part to the poor design of the rear crankshaft seal on the Lotus twin cam engine. Known as a 'rope seal', these seals have always been known to leak oil and there didn't seem to be any options around to stop it. 

However, a guy that I sold a set of wheels to has three Lotus Cortina's and has recently developed an alloy sump, with a back plate and new seal which will eliminate such leakage. 
Bearing in mind that I have just painted the underneath of my car and I'm also in the process of replacing every rubber bush, the last thing I want is oil peeing out the back of the engine and coating my floor and new rubber. So I bought one of his kits. 
They're certainly not cheap, but will be a good addition to my car. Plus, I took it to my engine builder the following day who thought it was a very good idea. 

Wednesday 25th February - Bush removal!

 Whilst working on the underneath of the Lotus Cortina, it was evident that the car had had an oil leak for a number of years before it was laid up. (Most likely due to a leaking rope seal on the back of the crankshaft)
This has probably had a lot to do with keeping the floor rust and rot free, but had also had a detrimental effect on anything made of rubber! 
The special LC split propshaft has two rubber bushes in the centre and both of these had become seriously contaminated, as you can see from the pic below.

Whilst removing these, I also removed the gearbox crossmember and found that the rubber part of that was totally oil contaminated too. Needless to say, a new one has been ordered and will be replaced once it arrives. 

Sunday 22nd February - Catching up day!

 Since Christmas I'd been hoping to get the underneath of the Lotus Cortina painted, but the cold weather and the damp from the constant rain had been preventing me from doing this as quick as I wanted. I did however, manage to fit in the odd dry day here and there and eventually managed to get the floor finished. 
The first stage was painting two litres of red oxide which was then followed by a good dousing of stone chip primer. The final coat was two litres of Ford Ermine white. 
Once this had time to harden and dry it was time to start fitting up. Good friend Dave Maton came up for the day and we started making progress refitting some mechanical bits. 
The battery lead went on first. (The battery is in the boot, so the lead has to run from back to front.) The leaf springs went on next, followed by the back axle and hand brake cable. The differential was next and then we got down to the laborious task of making up brake pipes. 
Since I've had the car all I seem to have been doing is removing parts and cleaning and sanding, so it felt really good to actually start fitting bits back on. Progress at last!

With it being an ex-rally car it's had a had quite a hard time in the past and although the floor is rust free, the out riggers have taken a bit of a battering. They are still solid though, so I'm happy to leave them as they are. 
While Dave was here, I got him to help me remove the additional 'works' fuel tank. (So called as they were mainly fitted to the 'works' rally cars. 
This is a very rare item and I've already been offered good money for it. However, it's a vital part of the cars rallying history, (Along with the roll cage) so I will be keeping it. (See 'works' fuel tank below)

We'd had a good day, but by mid-afternoon we'd done all we could and called it a day. I appreciated the help from Dave and as said, I now finally feel that I have turned a corner and I'm now moving forward. 

Always carry a spare Maton in your boot! 😄

Saturday 21st February - Billericay Breakfast meet

 What with all the masses of rain and cold weather we'd been having lately, I really hadn't been up to much. Plus I was struck down for a week with the dreaded flu bug that had been doing the rounds. 

The weather for this Saturday looked promising, and I still needed to test drive the Green Cortina after trying another set of bigger size jets in the carburettor, so I decided to make the effort and make an appearance. 

It was a good turnout and there was some beautiful old Fords there. An added bonus was seeing friends again that I hadn't seen since before Christmas. All in all it was a good meeting and I'm looking forward to the weather warming up so I can get out to some more. 

My Green Mk1 Cortina with 1600 Mk2 Crossflow engine

Kelvin's beautiful Red two door GT with Harris engine and Keith's Lotus Cortina parked next to it

Neil Bell's lovely 2 door Corsair GT

John's 2.0 Pinto powered Anglia

After the meet I followed Keith back to his place to pick up some parts and it was good fun chasing his Lotus Cortina through the country lanes. The two cars drew quite a few looks from bystanders and pedestrians. 
My test drive had been good, and the car is almost there, but not quite. I'm going to try another set of bigger jets, but if that doesn't cure it, I'm going to book it in for a rolling road session. Watch this space.