Those with good memories may remember me buying a 2.5 estate off ebay in September, complete with "bad engine noises". This turned out to be a disintegrated cambelt tensioner and slipped valve timing so it was towed home.
A good secondhand set of rollers and tensioner were fitted temporarily and the engine ran cleanly so no major damage had been done but the camcovers were leaking worse than the Torre Canyon and there seemed to be rather too much corrosion in the valley for the age and milage.
I have been busy all summer building walls and laying a patio so the car had to wait for attention on Marks new drive where it sullenly dripped coal-back lubricant and polluted Nottinghamshire with cigarette fumes vented from the interior.
Then last week we sprang into action and promptly stripped the threads on the oil cooler
So a new oil cooler had to be fitted and the thermostat re-sealed to fix the coolant leak in the valley. With the camcovers off we could see how filthy the engine was inside, the cams were to be replaced with 3.0 items so the followers were cleaned out and re-filled, at least two were jammed shut and were changed. Before refitting the cams we removed the T vents to flush fresh oil through the head oilways and found one of the T vents was blocked.
So now the engine is running again but a quick test drive revealed :
1) You need to fit wipers before test driving if its raining.
2) The engine is lacking oomph and wont go above 5k (pet theory is fuel filter)
3) It handles like a whale on an ice rink.
4) It has the OAP gearbox option fitted.
It is far from ready to take to the road but it is safe from the scrappers. Its quite shocking how badly maintained some cars are, this is a '99 with 50k but has only had the first two services (to keep the warranty?) and the steering is so bad it should not be on the road yet it has a recent MoT.
Many thanks to Marks DTM for his help in getting it running and also for allowing me to store it on his drive for so long. Im sure the stains will fade in time.
) one door check strap is detached and the noises sound like a failed cambelt tensioner.