Brick and the Beast
Discussion
Welcome to Brick and the Beast, I have two cars which don’t have much in common except for having four wheels and me as their owner. I’ve owned these two cars for quite a while but until recently have used my two feet for commuting and drove only 5,000 miles a year. A change of job means I now drive 30 miles each way to work and so my interest in what I drive and how well it works has been somewhat reignited.
Brick
Brick’s full name is the flying brick, being red, solidly built and with about the same capacity as its namesake to make a sharp change of direction. Brick is a 2002 Volvo V40, 1948cc 136hp petrol (the old 2.5l 20v 5cyl with one cyl lopped off) in poverty spec trim. Totally practical, mile munchingly comfortable and annoyingly dull.
Brick was bought as a 3 year old from Black Horse Car Sales (I used to work for LloydsTSB so got to see the ‘special’ stock with extra discounts) for £6150 with 61,000 miles on the clock. I didn’t go there with the intention to buy a Volvo but this was a car that for the money was the right size and had been looked after better than the Toyotas and Vauxhalls they had in stock of a similar price. I was quite tempted by a low mileage Citroen C5 estate with lots of toys, but it was a bit above my budget and my prior experience in owning a Laguna (nice but falling apart) had put me off French cars for the time being.
points
Reliability: Brick was built in an age after cars were made with precision but before the cars had to be too clever with gadgets and fuel sipping tech, so they still made cars that could last 200,000 miles without breaking into a sweat. It currently has 125,000 miles on the clock and is much less tatty than it deserves to be, given that it lives outside in all weathers, is used for all purposes, rarely washed and having just an annual service and MOT. Non service part replacement in 7 years has been limited to a bonnet catch and the rear springs.
Practicality: It can move 5 adults and a boot load of luggage with ease. In reality as estates go, the V40 isn’t a particularly good load mover, expect it to work as a large hatchback and you won’t be disappointed. I’d say it has similar space to my old Laguna hatch and no more. However it is comfortable enough in front and back, and rear legroom is good I’ve had passengers fall asleep in both front and back seats which is some form of comfort measure.
points
Reliability: If Brick gave me any proper grief then I would get rid of him, but it would be too easy to purchase a car that had half the miles and twice the problems. As such I have so far stayed with a dull everyday car rather than buying something a bit more PH for my daily transport.
Dull, so dull: You know a car is dull when you can entertain yourself by seeing how closely you can follow somebody else down a twisty B road while only using downshifts rather than brakes for retardation. You can throw Brick down a road at speed and it is basically competent, but it no more than competent.
The rear windscreen wiper: It doesn’t clean the top half of the rear windscreen, it used to, but as time has gone on the rear wiper works on less and less screen. Probably a weak spring of some kind.
Electrical issues: The back lighting on the fan speed selector has failed and… that’s it.
The
Fuel economy: Brick runs at about 32mpg over a tank on my mixed urban and motorway commute. Not really bad, but not good either. I’ve had 39mpg out of it over a tank on a long 60mph drive.
Toys: It has air con that works well without having ever needed a re-gas and the CD player makes a go enough noise (I can play tapes as well, remember them?), that’s about it, but that means there is nothing to go wrong either.
Speed: The 16v motor revs round to its 6500 redline sweetly enough, not that I do that very often and I have run it up to 125mph on clock (approx. 120mph in reality), but it isn’t fast by any modern standard.
The future
Brick has a few scrapes on the off side rear quarter where it was driven into when parked. I really should get a good polish and touch up kit and sort that out, but it can wait for spring. Modifying it is pointless, for the expense involved it would be better to replace the thing. Otherwise it is a question of when to replace it and what with, I’m tempted by various things such as Skoda VRS, Jaguar S type and Volvo V60; but would really like to justify spending about £15,000 on a Jaguar XF to myself, maybe next year; alternatively I will just run it till it dies.
Beast
Beast is a somewhat more interesting animal than Brick. It is a 1974 Datsun 260Z that has been on and off (mainly off) the road in my ownership. Ten years ago, when I hit 30 and shortly after we had moved into the current house (with garage!), I decided to buy myself a sports car. This had two issues, firstly my garage is not very wide, being not much more than a roof slung between two buildings and secondly I live in central Birmingham and have a cruddy postcode for insurance. The answer was to look for a classic sports car.
I looked through the local papers and auto trader to see what was available and found a Datsun 260Z for sale in Telford. I had no idea what it was but prepared a tick list of things to check and set off on a quest with a view to look and learn but not to buy. What I found was a rather tatty (peeling lacquer) but surprisingly rust free 2 seater that sounded fantastic (twin carb, straight six and not much silencing), had the most lovely deep dish dials and a random 80’s body kit on it. I instantly fell for the car and agreed a price of £1450 for it. Initial issues were the fuel tank that leaked when more than ¾ full (solved with some 2 part mash it together sealant) and a gearbox that jumped out of 5th (replaced with one that had no syncro in 2nd, doh). After a while it got a decent gearbox from a 280Z and better carbs from a 240Z, but was always a bit tatty.
Fast forward a few years and I had saved enough cash to get a proper restoration job done, so it went to the Z farm in Yorkshire and there it stayed for a strip to bare metal, replacement of rust with decent metal, tidied up the body kit, fixed bits of trim, new fuel tank, higher compression ratio and fruitier cam. All in all about £8000 was spent. It was then used to go to the 2008 Le-mans classic and other fun days for a year. It ended up off the road with a knackered starter motor and me in a deep funk thinking that I had trashed the electrics and stayed like this for some time.
Last year I sourced myself a new starter a vowed to get Beast back on the road, I changed the starter and found that the rest of the electrics worked, but the starter had the same problem that killed the old one. The issue being that the starter would lock against the ring gear to which the solution was take off the starter, move it’s pinion and replace (I can now change a Z starter in about 5 minutes) a longer term solution was the use of a decent amount of Teflon grease on the starter pinion and ring gear (it hasn’t locked since).
After that I had the joy of draining all the old fuel out the tank, replacing it and then firing the Beast up to which I got no go. The fuel pump at the front of the car wouldn’t prime from the tank at the back, my solution was simple yet surprised me by working first time. I took an old bike pump apart and reversed the direction of the valve then put it back together. I then attached the pump to the fuel feed line for one carb and blocked the fuel feed to the other (fat screw and ptfe tape) and sucked the fuel through the system. Hey presto, once I had fuel to the carbs the Beast fired and ran, it also showed a bunch of other issues. Firstly the radiator leaked, secondly the rear carb was over fuelling and excess petrol was pouring out the carb onto the exhaust (not a good plan). I could get that over fuelling sorted for a short period of time by adjusting the float chamber valve but it still kept jamming open at random times so the car could not be used effectively.
Though I had made a start, I was working away in London much of the time and needed some professional help to sort things out and finish it off for MOTing. Since then it has had… new rear brakes, new underbody protection, wheels refurbished (as they would leak air) and a re-cored radiator but we still have carb issues. The Z uses a Hitachi pattern version (metric) of an SU carb (imperial, the nearest UK equivalent is the SU HS6), but proper SU parts don’t fit and nobody in the UK supplies jets, needles and float chamber valves for the Hitachi. I was thinking that an expensive conversion to other carbs was on the cards but I have found a US supplier of the bits I need, so some are going to be on order very soon. Fingers crossed but the Beast may be in regular service before the end of the month.
The
It sounds glorious, it looks good, it’s fun to hustle along roads at 60mph that more modern cars make dull, it has exclusivity that is hard to match, you can cruise for hours and not be uncomfortable, the boot can hold enough kit for two people to camp at le-mans and return with an extra 40 bottles of wine and it sounds glorious.
The
The fuel consumption is horrendous at about 20mpg, but with rebuilt carbs, I’m hopeful for a decent increase on this level.
The radio only picks up Radio 2
The gearshift is heavy
The dipped headlights lights are useless
The brakes and suspension are 40 years old and sometimes feel it
The future: (what no sci-fi smilie?)
Firstly to use it as much as I can; this includes a road trip to this year’s Le-mans, to find time to go to a midlands PH meet and to use it as a good weather commuting car to keep it in regular use.
Then I am considering getting a manifold that accepts Webber carbs and a kit that replaces Webbers with throttle bodies to go for the full 6 injectors with a high pressure fuel line, mapped fuelling and electronic ignition timing. I reckon that it will cost about £3000 to do the job properly but it will give me a major improvement in mpg and power.
Thanks for sticking with my wittering this far, I’ll write in a regular monthly update on the cars and more frequently when I have something interesting to report.
Brick
Brick’s full name is the flying brick, being red, solidly built and with about the same capacity as its namesake to make a sharp change of direction. Brick is a 2002 Volvo V40, 1948cc 136hp petrol (the old 2.5l 20v 5cyl with one cyl lopped off) in poverty spec trim. Totally practical, mile munchingly comfortable and annoyingly dull.
Brick was bought as a 3 year old from Black Horse Car Sales (I used to work for LloydsTSB so got to see the ‘special’ stock with extra discounts) for £6150 with 61,000 miles on the clock. I didn’t go there with the intention to buy a Volvo but this was a car that for the money was the right size and had been looked after better than the Toyotas and Vauxhalls they had in stock of a similar price. I was quite tempted by a low mileage Citroen C5 estate with lots of toys, but it was a bit above my budget and my prior experience in owning a Laguna (nice but falling apart) had put me off French cars for the time being.
pointsReliability: Brick was built in an age after cars were made with precision but before the cars had to be too clever with gadgets and fuel sipping tech, so they still made cars that could last 200,000 miles without breaking into a sweat. It currently has 125,000 miles on the clock and is much less tatty than it deserves to be, given that it lives outside in all weathers, is used for all purposes, rarely washed and having just an annual service and MOT. Non service part replacement in 7 years has been limited to a bonnet catch and the rear springs.
Practicality: It can move 5 adults and a boot load of luggage with ease. In reality as estates go, the V40 isn’t a particularly good load mover, expect it to work as a large hatchback and you won’t be disappointed. I’d say it has similar space to my old Laguna hatch and no more. However it is comfortable enough in front and back, and rear legroom is good I’ve had passengers fall asleep in both front and back seats which is some form of comfort measure.
pointsReliability: If Brick gave me any proper grief then I would get rid of him, but it would be too easy to purchase a car that had half the miles and twice the problems. As such I have so far stayed with a dull everyday car rather than buying something a bit more PH for my daily transport.
Dull, so dull: You know a car is dull when you can entertain yourself by seeing how closely you can follow somebody else down a twisty B road while only using downshifts rather than brakes for retardation. You can throw Brick down a road at speed and it is basically competent, but it no more than competent.
The rear windscreen wiper: It doesn’t clean the top half of the rear windscreen, it used to, but as time has gone on the rear wiper works on less and less screen. Probably a weak spring of some kind.
Electrical issues: The back lighting on the fan speed selector has failed and… that’s it.
The
Fuel economy: Brick runs at about 32mpg over a tank on my mixed urban and motorway commute. Not really bad, but not good either. I’ve had 39mpg out of it over a tank on a long 60mph drive.
Toys: It has air con that works well without having ever needed a re-gas and the CD player makes a go enough noise (I can play tapes as well, remember them?), that’s about it, but that means there is nothing to go wrong either.
Speed: The 16v motor revs round to its 6500 redline sweetly enough, not that I do that very often and I have run it up to 125mph on clock (approx. 120mph in reality), but it isn’t fast by any modern standard.
The future
Brick has a few scrapes on the off side rear quarter where it was driven into when parked. I really should get a good polish and touch up kit and sort that out, but it can wait for spring. Modifying it is pointless, for the expense involved it would be better to replace the thing. Otherwise it is a question of when to replace it and what with, I’m tempted by various things such as Skoda VRS, Jaguar S type and Volvo V60; but would really like to justify spending about £15,000 on a Jaguar XF to myself, maybe next year; alternatively I will just run it till it dies.
Beast
Beast is a somewhat more interesting animal than Brick. It is a 1974 Datsun 260Z that has been on and off (mainly off) the road in my ownership. Ten years ago, when I hit 30 and shortly after we had moved into the current house (with garage!), I decided to buy myself a sports car. This had two issues, firstly my garage is not very wide, being not much more than a roof slung between two buildings and secondly I live in central Birmingham and have a cruddy postcode for insurance. The answer was to look for a classic sports car.
I looked through the local papers and auto trader to see what was available and found a Datsun 260Z for sale in Telford. I had no idea what it was but prepared a tick list of things to check and set off on a quest with a view to look and learn but not to buy. What I found was a rather tatty (peeling lacquer) but surprisingly rust free 2 seater that sounded fantastic (twin carb, straight six and not much silencing), had the most lovely deep dish dials and a random 80’s body kit on it. I instantly fell for the car and agreed a price of £1450 for it. Initial issues were the fuel tank that leaked when more than ¾ full (solved with some 2 part mash it together sealant) and a gearbox that jumped out of 5th (replaced with one that had no syncro in 2nd, doh). After a while it got a decent gearbox from a 280Z and better carbs from a 240Z, but was always a bit tatty.
Fast forward a few years and I had saved enough cash to get a proper restoration job done, so it went to the Z farm in Yorkshire and there it stayed for a strip to bare metal, replacement of rust with decent metal, tidied up the body kit, fixed bits of trim, new fuel tank, higher compression ratio and fruitier cam. All in all about £8000 was spent. It was then used to go to the 2008 Le-mans classic and other fun days for a year. It ended up off the road with a knackered starter motor and me in a deep funk thinking that I had trashed the electrics and stayed like this for some time.
Last year I sourced myself a new starter a vowed to get Beast back on the road, I changed the starter and found that the rest of the electrics worked, but the starter had the same problem that killed the old one. The issue being that the starter would lock against the ring gear to which the solution was take off the starter, move it’s pinion and replace (I can now change a Z starter in about 5 minutes) a longer term solution was the use of a decent amount of Teflon grease on the starter pinion and ring gear (it hasn’t locked since).
After that I had the joy of draining all the old fuel out the tank, replacing it and then firing the Beast up to which I got no go. The fuel pump at the front of the car wouldn’t prime from the tank at the back, my solution was simple yet surprised me by working first time. I took an old bike pump apart and reversed the direction of the valve then put it back together. I then attached the pump to the fuel feed line for one carb and blocked the fuel feed to the other (fat screw and ptfe tape) and sucked the fuel through the system. Hey presto, once I had fuel to the carbs the Beast fired and ran, it also showed a bunch of other issues. Firstly the radiator leaked, secondly the rear carb was over fuelling and excess petrol was pouring out the carb onto the exhaust (not a good plan). I could get that over fuelling sorted for a short period of time by adjusting the float chamber valve but it still kept jamming open at random times so the car could not be used effectively.
Though I had made a start, I was working away in London much of the time and needed some professional help to sort things out and finish it off for MOTing. Since then it has had… new rear brakes, new underbody protection, wheels refurbished (as they would leak air) and a re-cored radiator but we still have carb issues. The Z uses a Hitachi pattern version (metric) of an SU carb (imperial, the nearest UK equivalent is the SU HS6), but proper SU parts don’t fit and nobody in the UK supplies jets, needles and float chamber valves for the Hitachi. I was thinking that an expensive conversion to other carbs was on the cards but I have found a US supplier of the bits I need, so some are going to be on order very soon. Fingers crossed but the Beast may be in regular service before the end of the month.
The
It sounds glorious, it looks good, it’s fun to hustle along roads at 60mph that more modern cars make dull, it has exclusivity that is hard to match, you can cruise for hours and not be uncomfortable, the boot can hold enough kit for two people to camp at le-mans and return with an extra 40 bottles of wine and it sounds glorious.
The
The fuel consumption is horrendous at about 20mpg, but with rebuilt carbs, I’m hopeful for a decent increase on this level.
The radio only picks up Radio 2
The gearshift is heavy
The dipped headlights lights are useless
The brakes and suspension are 40 years old and sometimes feel it
The future: (what no sci-fi smilie?)
Firstly to use it as much as I can; this includes a road trip to this year’s Le-mans, to find time to go to a midlands PH meet and to use it as a good weather commuting car to keep it in regular use.
Then I am considering getting a manifold that accepts Webber carbs and a kit that replaces Webbers with throttle bodies to go for the full 6 injectors with a high pressure fuel line, mapped fuelling and electronic ignition timing. I reckon that it will cost about £3000 to do the job properly but it will give me a major improvement in mpg and power.
Thanks for sticking with my wittering this far, I’ll write in a regular monthly update on the cars and more frequently when I have something interesting to report.
...........just sex weed over it
Jan 2013 Update
Brick
Work, home, work, home, work, home, etc.
Brick covered another 1300 miles without noticing, it finished January on 126,909 with the next service due in about 3 months. I went back through the old service sheets and realised that the car is on its original auxiliary drive belt and fuel filter, given that they have a 96,000 service life, it may be time to change them.
Snow socks were bought from Halfords (£60), I never expect to have to use them, but being prepared for the unexpected is so much easier than being stuck in the wrong place because of 2” of snow. As it was the socks got used and worked very nicely. After having pushed 4 cars up a hill near my house, I drove up it without any issues at all. The socks can be a bit of pain to get on but will self-centre on the tyres once you start moving.
Beast
A rebuild kit for the Hitachi carbs is currently in transit from www.zcarsource.com in Arizona. The price is a steep $250 plus postage but the kit does contain pretty much everything in a carb that is replaceable except for a new floats. It may seem stupid to rebuild the current carbs at this cost, but changing them for a more UK parts friendly carb will mean replacing the manifold (over £400) and buying new carbs (£200 each) or getting cheaper carbs that will need rebuilding anyway.
Longer term I am looking at the potential of this manifold, matched with this carb to EFI conversion kit. I need to do my homework though as the emerald kit seems to be for 45mm throttle bodies and when attaching Webbers to a Z it is recommended to use 40mm carbs choked down to 30mm. No doubt I can get a 40mm throttle body version of the emerald kit that can match the manifold, I also need to see how people choke down throttle bodies (or if that is needed when using a fine fuel spray). The total cost to do this will be about £2300 for parts and I would budget another £700 to £1200 for help, faff and rolling road time. Hmmm, £3500, maybe next year.
Brick
Work, home, work, home, work, home, etc.
Brick covered another 1300 miles without noticing, it finished January on 126,909 with the next service due in about 3 months. I went back through the old service sheets and realised that the car is on its original auxiliary drive belt and fuel filter, given that they have a 96,000 service life, it may be time to change them.
Snow socks were bought from Halfords (£60), I never expect to have to use them, but being prepared for the unexpected is so much easier than being stuck in the wrong place because of 2” of snow. As it was the socks got used and worked very nicely. After having pushed 4 cars up a hill near my house, I drove up it without any issues at all. The socks can be a bit of pain to get on but will self-centre on the tyres once you start moving.
Beast
A rebuild kit for the Hitachi carbs is currently in transit from www.zcarsource.com in Arizona. The price is a steep $250 plus postage but the kit does contain pretty much everything in a carb that is replaceable except for a new floats. It may seem stupid to rebuild the current carbs at this cost, but changing them for a more UK parts friendly carb will mean replacing the manifold (over £400) and buying new carbs (£200 each) or getting cheaper carbs that will need rebuilding anyway.
Longer term I am looking at the potential of this manifold, matched with this carb to EFI conversion kit. I need to do my homework though as the emerald kit seems to be for 45mm throttle bodies and when attaching Webbers to a Z it is recommended to use 40mm carbs choked down to 30mm. No doubt I can get a 40mm throttle body version of the emerald kit that can match the manifold, I also need to see how people choke down throttle bodies (or if that is needed when using a fine fuel spray). The total cost to do this will be about £2300 for parts and I would budget another £700 to £1200 for help, faff and rolling road time. Hmmm, £3500, maybe next year.
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