Monday November 27th -The Zetec Cortina returns.

 I'd had a phone call from Redline tuning the previous week saying that my Cortina was ready for collection. Unfortunately, I was booked on a two day training course in Greenford, West London for the latter part of the week and couldn't get there to collect it. Redline also doesn't open weekends so it would have to be Monday morning before work. 

The car had also been on a dyno for it's final tune and the Zetec engine produced 136 bhp and 147 pound of torque. Now, by modern car standards that's not a lot, but for an 850kg car that only had around 60bhp available when it was first produced, that's quite an increase. Even the Lotus Cortina's were only 115bhp, so as you can imagine, it has a good power to weight ratio and is a 'bit quick'! 

So, good friend Gavin picked me up at 8.15 and after a quick coffee we went to Redline to collect the car. It was a horrible damp and rainy morning so we didn't hang around too long. 

It was great driving the car again and it now runs a lot smoother and cleaner. (and faster!) I didn't have too long to play with it though, as I had to get it back home and then go to work. I'm looking forward to getting it out for a good long test drive, but now that the freezing weather has arrived and the gritters have started putting nasty salt all over the roads, the drive is going to have to wait for a while. It's good to have it back home again though. 

Saturday November 25th - New throttle bracket for the Triumph

 Since converting the Triumph from injection back to carburettors, I'd become aware of how sloppy the throttle cable set up is on the twin SU carbs. Injection uses a direct link to the throttle cable whereas the carbs set up uses a cable but joined to some weird scissor type linkage. (See below)

As luck would have it, a Triumph enthusiast by the name of Dylan Day posted on Facebook that he had made up a bracket that will do away with this weird contraption. So, after a few messages, I decided to buy one and give it a try. 

Once I received it I found that it's a very well made item and also made of good quality metal. It didn't take long to fit and other than needing a few adjustments to the carburettor link bar and also fitting a stop on the throttle pedal (So that the cable doesn't over travel and stretch and snap) it's a straight forward fit. 

It took out all of the previous sloppyness and has made the throttle much more responsive. I'm very pleased with it. I just need to get the car out for a test drive now. 

Sunday November 19th - Cleaning out the parts washer.

 After stripping an engine down and cleaning all of its internals in my parts washer, it had left it with lots of gunge and old burnt engine oil in it, so I decided it needed a good clean. The engine that I had been stripping had been seriously over heated at some point in its life and the oil had turned to a thick black paste. Most of which was now lying in the bottom of the parts washer. 

I purchased some brake cleaner and set about my task. The first thing was to undo the drain plug, but on undoing it nothing came out. It was obviously blocked up with the gunge, so I stabbed a screwdriver through the hole and cleared the blockage so it could pour out. 

I had to use several containers to get it fully drained and had to scrape out a lot of gunge that had settled in the bottom. With the worst part of it gone, I used about half a gallon of brake cleaner and got through about ten rags.

Eventually though, it was all looking nice and clean again and I was pleased with my mornings work. I just need to buy some jeizer now so I can re-fill it. 

Saturday November 11th - Distributor marker.

A few years back my friend Gavin made a marker for his distributor, so that if ever he removes it, he knows exactly where to put it back so that he doesn't disturb the ignition timing. 

After testing it on his car and finding that it fitted ok, he also made one for me, but because I was running a 123 distributor at the time, I'd never got around to fitting it. (Because the 123 can be tuned with a lap top and doesn't need moving.)  

However, now that I'm running a standard distributor again, I decided to fit it and give it a try. I have to say, it's a very good fit and will serve its purpose very well. I've marked the body of the distributor in line with the pointer, so this will be the exact marker to line up with if ever I have to remove the distributor. A very good idea that I'm surprised wasn't thought of by manufacturers. 

Thursday November 9th - New distributor

 With the weather getting colder I haven't been so keen to get out in the garage so much lately. Also, there hasn't been much to do to the cars to be honest. The car shows and breakfast meets have stopped as well, and the classic car season has well and truly wound down. 

However, this particular morning, I decided to fit my refurbished distributor which had arrived the day before. I'm still not sure about the reliability of my 123 distributor, so I had a Pi distributor rebuilt specifically to my engine spec. 

The fitting didn't take long, but I struggled to set the timing with my strobe light as the sun was very bright and I couldn't see the white flashing light. So I decided to take the car to work try again in our shaded  warehouse once I had finished work. 

With the timing set more accurately the car is now better to drive and no longer feels like it's going to break down every five minutes. Hopefully, that will be another issue resolved.