Saturday 9th September - Minor jobs.

 A few little jobs on the cards today, but none of them very time consuming. The first job was to fit the remaining two group 5 alloys onto the Zetec Cortina. It was then moved out of the garage so I could some proper pictures. I think they suit the car really well. 😊

The next job was to replace the spark plugs in my Green Cortina. I have never done this, so it's well overdue. This is a straight forward job and didn't take long. I wanted to do the ignition timing as well, but I'd wait until Dave Maton arrived to do that as ideally it needs someone to adjust the distributor while someone else reads the strobe light. 

While waiting for Dave I got the Triumph into the garage, got it up on axle stands and topped up the gearbox oil and differential oil. I also greased the propshaft UJ's at both ends. The Club Triumph Round Britain Reliability Run is only four weeks away now, so good preparation is key.

Wheel bearings were my next port of call and the nearside front bearing did have a bit of play in it, so that was adjusted and corrected. When I was at the rolling road session on Tuesday the man working on my car said that the small piece of carbon in the middle of my distributor had dropped out and he had put it back in with a bit of grease. When I took the distributor cap off this morning, it dropped out again, so I fitted my spare and ordered another spare. Cant be having that failing on the RBRR. 

By now Dave Maton had arrived and we set to work on the ignition timing on the Green Cortina. We did this easy enough but the car still didn't seem to have that much power. To be honest, it's never felt that fast, but I just put it down to the fact that I was used to driving a 2.5 litre injected Triumph and a fuel injected twin cam Cortina, and this was just a 1600 crossflow.

Dave removed the air filter cover and looked down the carburettor and it transpired that the butterflies weren't opening fully. The throttle linkage looked ok, but there wasn't enough movement on the throttle pedal to pull the linkage fully open. So we made adjustments to the the throttle pedal so that the butterflies in the carb were opening fully. What a difference! The car now drives a lot better and also a lot quicker. It sounds great with the new exhaust as well. Pleased with the mornings work, Dave and I then headed off for a carvery! 

Tuesday 5th September - Rolling road session

This morning was a very early start for me as my Triumph was booked in for a rolling road session in Sittingbourne in Kent. Why Kent I hear you ask? Well there are very few people around that work on fuel  injected Triumphs that also have rolling road facilities. 

My booking was for 08.30, so with our wonderful rush hour traffic being the way it is, especially over the Dartford crossing I left at 06.30. I was working on the theory of if I leave at half six, I'll be there for half seven, or if I leave at half seven I'll be there for half nine! 

After the usual delays at the Dartford Crossing I arrived at 7.50 and sat outside and read my book until the garage man arrived. When he did arrive he sprung into action and got my car in straight away. I went and sampled breakfast at the local cafe (wish I hadn't bothered to be honest) and then sat in the waiting room back at the garage. 

Its quite unnerving sitting in a waiting room and hearing your engine being taken up to 5000 revs while they tune it. You're kind of almost waiting for the big bang and then the sound of boiling hot water and steam spraying everywhere. Fortunately, this didn't happen and by 10.15 he'd finished tuning. 

To be honest the figures were really disappointing. The first run up only achieved 110 bhp and the best he could get out of it was 116 bhp. The car has a 150 bhp TR6 cam in it, so it should be achieving a lot more than 116 bhp

Anyway, by now it was 10.23 and I was supposed to be at work in Chelmsford for 12pm. With some spirited driving I arrived at work at 11.35. (And I stopped for petrol!) So the car can still get up and go when I need it to! 

When I arrived home from work, I dug out the paperwork for the last rolling road session I had done in January 2022. 126 bhp was recorded then and that's when the car was on carburettors. So it's lost 10 horses since then. Bummer!

This engine is now in its third bodyshell and the last time it was rebuilt with new pistons and rings etc was September 2012, so that was eleven years ago. Eleven years of long distance events and hard rallying! On the last compression test I did the figures were lower than I'd hoped for as well, so I think this engine is now due for a proper rebuild. (Not just replacing the big end bearings like I have done twice already)

However, the 2000 mile Round Britain reliability run is only a month away now and I certainly wont have time to get the engine out, rebuild it and have it back in again before then, so it will have to wait. (Most engineering shops have a six week lead time now) I'm sure it will still cope on the event with no problems, it will just be a bit down on power. 

I'll probably start pulling the engine out around the end of the year when the events have finished. There's never anything good on TV on Christmas day anyway! 

Sunday 3rd September. - A new look.

 I'd been considering a new look for my Zetec Cortina for some time, but wasn't completely sure what to go for. Both of my Cortina's have exactly the same wheels and hub caps on and I fancied something different. 

Retro Ford have recently had some Group 5 Alloys remanufactured, but I wasn't sure whether these would suit my car. After weeks of studying pictures of them I still wasn't certain it would be a good look. These wheels are not cheap, so I needed to be 100% convinced that I was doing the right thing. 

A friend of mine, Dave Maton has an app on his phone which is similar to photoshop, so I sent him a black and white picture of a Mk1 Cortina fitted with group 5 alloys and he had a go at colouring it in. To be honest I thought he did a very good job, as you can see below. 

It convinced me that the dark Anthracite colour of the wheels would go well with the blue of my Cortina, so I ordered a set.  Within a couple of days, they had arrived and I had new tyres fitted to them.

Before I put them on the Zetec, I thought I'd try them out on my Green Cortina, just to see what it looked like. I actually quite like the look, but the majority of people who I've shown the pic to think it makes the car look too dark. But it's my car, so its my opinion that counts. 😊

With the trial fit done I removed the alloys and put them on the Zetec Cortina. The standard wheel studs are a bit too short for these alloys, so longer ones had to be fitted. The car has to stay in the garage at the moment due to running issues, so I couldn't take it out to get some decent photos, but they do look good so I'm happy anyway. 

Wednesday 30th August - More sensor replacements

Carrying on with my recent investigations with the Zetec Cortina, I decided I was going to replace one more sensor and then just leave it until it goes into Redline Tuning in a few weeks time. So, Tuesday morning I rang my usual supplier and ordered an engine temperature sensor. To my surprise they already had one in stock, so I collected it on the way to work.

This morning I had little planned, so I fitted the new sensor. I then filled up the car with anti-freeze and water which I'd had to drain out when I removed the old sensor. 

The car then started and ran ok, but it really needs a test drive to see if I have cured my ongoing issue. I don't have a lot to do this weekend, so I'll give it a try then. 

Saturday 26th August - Replacement bumper.

My Green Cortina has had the wrong rear bumper fitted to it since I bought it. It hasn't bothered me too much as it was a nice shiny item. However, it's always niggled me a little bit every time I've looked at the car from the rear. It's actually an estate bumper that's on the car and the estate bumpers have a small cut out so that you don't graze your knuckles when opening the tailgate. 

Earlier this year I managed to find a saloon bumper on ebay in the Derbyshire area and won it for £40. Good friend Dave Harvey collected it for me and brought it down on one of his visits. Just recently another good friend Keith Halstead had found someone that does Hydra-chroming. This is a chrome plating system that is far cheaper than normal chroming. So, seeing as the price was right, we decided to take a gamble and both had a rear bumper done each. (he needed his done for his Lotus Cortina)

With not much else to do today, I decided to fit it. It looks a lot better although I've still got to do a bit better job of lining it up correctly. It's now on the car and looks ok, but I will give it some more time at a later date.

The next job I wanted to do was to fit a new crankshaft sensor and new camshaft sensor to the Zetec Cortina. I had purchased these during the week and I was hoping that the fitting of these two would cure my issues. Unfortunately, they didn't. 

My next port of call will be to replace the engine temperature sensor as this could be giving the ECU a false reading as to whether the engine is hot or cold, which in turn could either make the fueling system supply too much fuel when the engine's hot, or not enough when its cold. I shall persevere! 

Friday 25th August. Where is that resonating coming from?

 I have to admit to being slightly disappointed when I collected the Green Cortina from having its custom made exhaust fitted at Scott and Hayward. Not at the quality of their work, they've done a great job, but the resonating that I've been getting at around 3000 revs was still present. It's like having an angry wasp in the car! I'd become convinced it was where the original exhaust was sitting too close to the axle and had spent many days over the past year or so underneath the car trying to discover the cause. 

On the drive home from Basildon on Wednesday I unclipped my seat belt and leaned forward when I knew the car was going to make its 'angry wasp' noise and listened intently. I now wondered if the resonating could be coming from the engine bay. 

So, today before work I carried out a full inspection of the engine bay to see if I could spot anything that could be causing it. I couldn't see anything untoward first of all, but then I noticed what I first thought was a bit of silver paint on my strut brace. (And wondering how the hell that had got there!) 

Closer inspection revealed that it wasn't silver paint at all, but that the air filter has been rubbing on the strut brace and had worn the black powder coating away! I knew that the gap between the two had been close, but had no idea it was touching. Obviously the engine is moving the most at 3000 revs and causing the two to connect. I removed the strut brace and with it off of the car I could see the full extent of the rubbing and how much it had been connecting.

Could this be it? Could this be the cause of the resonating that I'd had ever since I'd bought the car?  Could this be the reason I'd spent many days laying underneath it and playing with the exhaust in the hope of curing it? To be honest, the strut brace was one of the first things I bought for the car and I fitted it straight away. In fact I don't think I'd even driven the car before I fitted it, so the resonating has always been there. (It was delivered to me on a recovery truck and I'd never driven it before buying it.) 

It was a lovely day, so I decided to use the Cortina to go work. I was quite excited at the thought that I might have cured an issue that had been bugging me for so long. Sure enough, with the strut brace removed my resonating has finally, finally gone.  With the new exhaust in place as well there is no longer and any banging, rattling or knocking from underneath and the car is now a pleasure to drive. I couldn't be happier. There's something about this car that I really love and I've spent a lot of time and money trying to get it to drive as I would like. I have to say it feels like I'm finally there now and I'm more than happy. The only job left on my list now is to replace the incorrect rear bumper, but I have the replacement all ready to go on. (It's currently wearing an estate bumper instead of a saloon one) 

The drive to and from work was thoroughly enjoyable and I arrived home with a sense of achievement. Not something I've felt for a while! 

Wednesday 23rd August. - The Green Cortina returns!

 I received a phone call Tuesday afternoon at work telling me that the exhaust on my Green Cortina was done and my car was ready for collection. 

The number 25 bus was my transport for the morning and after a long route taking in Rayleigh, Shotgate and Wickford, I eventually arrived in Basildon. (8 miles for £2 is good value though!) I then had a bit of  a walk to get to the industrial estate where Scott and Hayward are and collected my lovely car. 

I'm pleased to say that the drive home was lovely with no knocks or rattles, but the resonating at around 3000 revs that I'd been getting was still there. I'd been convinced that it was to do with the exhaust, but obviously it's not. 

I'm very happy with the job they've done though and I'm looking forward to using the car more now.