Soo.... Bought my 5 a few years ago off good old eBay, needing "minor" work to get running and on the road again, the engine had been rebuilt and just needed all the pipe work installing, so with some help of the forum I managed to put everything in place and fire her up, was well chuffed, then a lot of white smoke knocked the smile off my face, the previous owner didn't clean any of the old head gasket off the block or head when installing the new head gasket, really annoying, sooo I rectified this problem, started her up again, white smoke again..... just a little water in the manifold and exhaust system I thought, then White turned to grey
Grey smoke + wobbly turbine shaft = new turbo time, again a little dis heartened to say the least! I bought a t2t25 hybrid jobby from a member and all was well
Sat in the drivers seat ready to turn the key (king lead disconnected to prime new turbo with oil) and turn! Nothing.. Not a single dash light, checked battery voltage, was something like 12.4v, I won't repeat the language that spilled from my mouth.
At that point I really had had enough, so I parked the car up in a garage went to Afghanistan and returned to a freshly built garage enough to house 3 cars, did a few months work on my house and a few other cars and vans, then one night around 9pm I decided to drag the 5 out of my mom n dad's garage tow it to my house and finally finish the bugger.
I made a list of jobs to do and started to crack on, I had concluded the alarm / immobiliser system had kicked in killing all electrical systems, so a few hours after work for a week I had removed all 3 alarms, a Renault one, a Gemini one and a Meta one, one of the previous owners must of been paranoid as hell.
All the wiring was repaired and good as new, time for start up, a minute on the starter motor and a little solvent cleaner down a vacuum hose she fired up and ran fairly well (a little hesitant) considering being stood for 3-4 years. A little test drive was needed around the block.
A list of new problems,
Won't engage reverse, linkage fouls on exhaust pipe
Had to operate accelerator and choke to pull off with out stalling
100 meters up the road started popping banging flames out the exhaust lighting up the entire street, a little entertaining but when it cut out and would not start up again 200 meters from home I wasn't best pleased
After a long push home and back into the garage I slumped onto my stool (half dead from exhaustion) and pondered how to make a fire seem accidental.
Air + fuel + ignition, fundamentals of an IC engine.
I have air
I have ignition (spare plug inserted into the king lead and wound the engine over, lots of bright sparks, lifted the plug away from earth and spark jumped 4-5 cm lifted a little further and I got a healthy shock haha
Fuel, has to be fuel, so I prepared my work bench like an operating theatre, über clean and organised, stripped the carb, cleaned very thoroughly in solvents and ultra sonic bath, inspected everything swapped a few items over from a spare carb and reassembled.
Fitted onto car and diddly squat will not even attempt to fire, gutted, removed the carb stripped again and reassembled, still nothing.
Got so annoyed with the engine I decided to remove the rear bumper it was sagging a little, only to find the bloody side panels are rotten, I'm dreading taking any more body kit off and finding what horrors await me.
And now I'm considering a long walk off a short pier.
Thanks for reading my little rant.