Garage queen - what to do?
Discussion
Hi all, I'd like some advice please!
My brother bought a Caterham 7 (1982 chassis) ages ago - he used it happily as a weekend car for many years.
It's cart sprung, with a Ford Escort 4 speed box, a Powerflow LSD (he thinks) and a 1.7 dry sumped BDA engine. Quite rapid, by all accounts. Too many wheels for me...
He's been distracted by buying a house, marriage, kids etc etc over the past few (quite a few!) years and it's been sitting in my parents (dry) garage. They want the garage back now and I've agreed to help him sort it out.
It's tidy, in one piece - just not been started for a LONG time. It got driven in and parked late one October and just wasn't started up again the following spring.
How do we (and by that I mean me!) recommission it? New belts, petrol, oil, fire it up? Engine/diff/gearbox rebuild? Play it by ear? Sparkplugs out and peek at the bores?
In an ideal world I'd like to get it back into working order and give it back to him (I think the task is too large for him to tackle or even think about with his limited time at the moment by himself) and I personally don't think it'd be much bother to recommission. I've put bikes back on the road after similar "rests" with few issues. But they tend to have internal camchains and no water pumps etc...
Am I wrong? Opinions (informed or otherwise), wild speculation and hyperbole all welcome!
My brother bought a Caterham 7 (1982 chassis) ages ago - he used it happily as a weekend car for many years.
It's cart sprung, with a Ford Escort 4 speed box, a Powerflow LSD (he thinks) and a 1.7 dry sumped BDA engine. Quite rapid, by all accounts. Too many wheels for me...
He's been distracted by buying a house, marriage, kids etc etc over the past few (quite a few!) years and it's been sitting in my parents (dry) garage. They want the garage back now and I've agreed to help him sort it out.
It's tidy, in one piece - just not been started for a LONG time. It got driven in and parked late one October and just wasn't started up again the following spring.
How do we (and by that I mean me!) recommission it? New belts, petrol, oil, fire it up? Engine/diff/gearbox rebuild? Play it by ear? Sparkplugs out and peek at the bores?
In an ideal world I'd like to get it back into working order and give it back to him (I think the task is too large for him to tackle or even think about with his limited time at the moment by himself) and I personally don't think it'd be much bother to recommission. I've put bikes back on the road after similar "rests" with few issues. But they tend to have internal camchains and no water pumps etc...
Am I wrong? Opinions (informed or otherwise), wild speculation and hyperbole all welcome!
How long has it been stood? Not had too much experience of this directly, but I have been watching Jonny Smith’s Late Brake Show on YouTube where he tries to start lots of barnfind cars.
He usually starts with a visual check over of the engine, including all the belts, spark plug leads, wiring loom etc for any damage from age, mice etc then moves on to electrics, ie fresh battery, any warning lights on the dash, does it respond to the key etc. He then does the common sense stuff, ie has it got a spark to all the cylinders, is it getting (fresh not stale) fuel and air. I think he also puts petrol in the bores to lubricate them and a dash of oil in the cam cover to lubricate the cam shafts.
Once he’s done that he’ll turn it over with the spark plugs disconnected to verify it’s getting oil pressure and only then will he have a go at starting it.
Hopefully that helps, sounds like a fun project!
He usually starts with a visual check over of the engine, including all the belts, spark plug leads, wiring loom etc for any damage from age, mice etc then moves on to electrics, ie fresh battery, any warning lights on the dash, does it respond to the key etc. He then does the common sense stuff, ie has it got a spark to all the cylinders, is it getting (fresh not stale) fuel and air. I think he also puts petrol in the bores to lubricate them and a dash of oil in the cam cover to lubricate the cam shafts.
Once he’s done that he’ll turn it over with the spark plugs disconnected to verify it’s getting oil pressure and only then will he have a go at starting it.
Hopefully that helps, sounds like a fun project!
ARHarh said:
If it has a cam belt, (not familiar with BDA, but don't think they have one) change the belt. If not, rig up a clean fuel supply to the carbs and start it. If it still runs ok. Give it some oil, pump up the tyres and get it MOT'ed. Then fix what needs fixing.
The BD stands for belt driven.First thing I'd do is make sure the engine rotates on a bar, and if there's no obvious sticking points etc, change the belt and proceed with "normal" start up checks as others have said.
ARHarh said:
If it has a cam belt, (not familiar with BDA, but don't think they have one) change the belt. If not, rig up a clean fuel supply to the carbs and start it. If it still runs ok. Give it some oil, pump up the tyres and get it MOT'ed. Then fix what needs fixing.
BDA:
One rather long and alarming serpentine belt!
Not looked at a picture of one before so thank you for collapsing that particular waveform - I think changing that (and the tensioners/rollers) is a no-brainer!
I've just recommissioned a Crossflow, ( same block as the BD ) car had stood since 1987, when acquired it had done 1970 miles.
The car had an original steel fuel tank, which was full of rusty slurry, someone had put tried to start it n the interveneing years and pulled the slurry through the carbs.
The engine turned by hand, but as there was no coolant in the system, I took the view it would be safer to split the motor, on doing this we found all the water galleries totally furred up. The motor then went for a full rebuild, as did the carbs, the block was acid dipped to remove all the substance in the galleries, then rebored to 1700cc, we replaced the fuel tank with an alloy one..
The car had an original steel fuel tank, which was full of rusty slurry, someone had put tried to start it n the interveneing years and pulled the slurry through the carbs.
The engine turned by hand, but as there was no coolant in the system, I took the view it would be safer to split the motor, on doing this we found all the water galleries totally furred up. The motor then went for a full rebuild, as did the carbs, the block was acid dipped to remove all the substance in the galleries, then rebored to 1700cc, we replaced the fuel tank with an alloy one..
Tazio77 said:
I've just recommissioned a Crossflow, ( same block as the BD ) car had stood since 1987, when acquired it had done 1970 miles.
The car had an original steel fuel tank, which was full of rusty slurry, someone had put tried to start it n the interveneing years and pulled the slurry through the carbs.
The engine turned by hand, but as there was no coolant in the system, I took the view it would be safer to split the motor, on doing this we found all the water galleries totally furred up. The motor then went for a full rebuild, as did the carbs, the block was acid dipped to remove all the substance in the galleries, then rebored to 1700cc, we replaced the fuel tank with an alloy one..
Interesting stuff! The car had an original steel fuel tank, which was full of rusty slurry, someone had put tried to start it n the interveneing years and pulled the slurry through the carbs.
The engine turned by hand, but as there was no coolant in the system, I took the view it would be safer to split the motor, on doing this we found all the water galleries totally furred up. The motor then went for a full rebuild, as did the carbs, the block was acid dipped to remove all the substance in the galleries, then rebored to 1700cc, we replaced the fuel tank with an alloy one..
We've got antifreeze so hopefully no fur. First job I've tasked brother with is to see if it will turn over. If so I'll order the belt and pully bearings etc and get up there to fit them.
The fuel I'll drain and mix into my CRV for the journey home if it's not too lumpy - it burns anything! It's a steel tank in the Caterham so I'll play that one by ear... If bikes are anything to go by a full tank comes out looking new (fuel and tank), but a partially filled tank suffers lumpy petrol and rust!
BertBert said:
I'm sue you know this, so apols in advance, no offence intended, but make sure you get the cam timing right!
No offence taken! I'll turn it over a few times by hand too too and make sure the marks STAY lined up after a few revolutions and make sure nothing goes "clunk".I'll not mention the time I changed the camchain on my Jota with a hangover and an equally hungover mate helping. On that thing the marks on the camshafts mean you need to use a 10mm spanner and a woodworking clamp to keep the inlet cam lined up against valve spring tension.
I arranged all this, joined the new chain to the end of the new one and dramatically.... Pulled it the wrong way. It dropped down the cam chain tunnel and jammed. We had to take the engine out, turn it upside down and shake it to get it out, while sweating neat vodka...
Bit of news and some pics!
I got up there over last weekend and did a little prep - cleared out most of the mess around the car and on the car, pumped the tyres up etc.
The engine turns over (I stuck it in third and gave the car a nudge!) so I'll be ordering a belt kit, tensioner roller bearing and a water pump shortly.
It looks like I'll need the rad off to do the belts so may as well do the pump.
The one thing I didn't do was see if the clutch was seized...
I got up there over last weekend and did a little prep - cleared out most of the mess around the car and on the car, pumped the tyres up etc.
The engine turns over (I stuck it in third and gave the car a nudge!) so I'll be ordering a belt kit, tensioner roller bearing and a water pump shortly.
It looks like I'll need the rad off to do the belts so may as well do the pump.
The one thing I didn't do was see if the clutch was seized...
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