1. Start a thread on my own car rather than highjack someone elses!
2. Moved the awfuly yellow from her prolonged winter slumber. I can`t take the flack anymore (Yes jason you were the final straw!:D) Well this and the fact that it dawned on me this morning that its not been out on track since 2009!!! Ok the sciatica kind of wiped out my entire plans last year. So with the 14th of april just over a month away, I took the afternoon off to get started on the jobs that need addressing so i can at least get some road miles in before i go abusing her on track.
I put the battery back on and could not belive that she barely turned over once before striking into life. She realy had been becomming one with nature. From a distance that colour she wears still looks bright but up close she`s covered in green slime!:(


So today mission was to make a start fitting some of the parts that i have been collecting over the last year!
A new alloy rad, water pump, cooler thermostat, oil change etc.. and cambelt it at the same time.

Ive had to get another cambelt today as the original one i had bought was left on the shelf in my shed (for god know how long) and the bloody chainsaw above it had leaked oil all over it.

I moved the car to the garage and found a dirty great oil patch on the gravel beneath it.

But as soon as i got under the car, to my relief i found the cause

Nothing more than the oil filter had wound loose! Most likely my fault for not tightening it up enough last time around (just 460 mile ago) But i cant abide filters that have been over tightened (its a pet hate i have to deal with far too often) I`m just glad i found it now rather than when it had lost its oil and distroyed the engine possibly out on track.

The strip down was going realy well and i had the rad out in mins.

Then i had to make up a quick tool to lock the aux pulley off using a flat bar and with two holes drilled in it and two m8 bolts put through it to line up with the holes in the pulley

You can`t see in the photo, but i made the bar long enough that it would jam against the underside of the chassis rail so i could keep both hands free to pull on the breaker bar to get the centre nut un-done.
Again all was sailing along until i came to the cambelt tensioner......
This is the stupid early type that has a seperate plunger behind the tensioner that had seized solid

My normal motor factors could get me a replacement for monday but at a cost of