I thought it was about time i did a little maintenance, first up where the tappets, i’ve had a little feint rattle for quite a while now, ive always assumed it was the chain tensioner, only very feint, anyway rocker cover off, i found a bent pushrod, changed that, set the tappets, next up i drained the oil, i found some very very small metallic bits in the oil, i checked the inline filter in the turbo feed line and found one in that too. I knew the car was funny fairly well on the trip to Wrexham, but didn’t want to take any chances, so dropped the sump. The remaining oil in the sump looked ok. First off was big end caps, didn’t look too bad, considering it hasnt had the bottom end done since 2004, and it’s had some hammer in that time. Next off main caps, i found scoring on no 2/3 and in particular 1. Opened the oil pump and light scoring in that too. I’m not sure what’s gone on, i have a mechanical oil gauge so know it’s got good pressure still.
After a chat with Brigsy, i was trying to convince myself to stick some new bearings in and run it until the winter and re check, but Brigsy was telling me to just do it properly. I now agree as il probably just be wasting money.
After sleeping on it , and having another look at the crank, i’ve decided to do the right thing.
I had plans for the winter for an engine bay tidy up as i’ve never been happy with the paint in the engine bay, it’s never been upto the spec of the outside, so we may aswell get on with it now,
So it’s engine out, crank out, probably new/new to the car crank as i’m not keen on grinding a crank again that’s already on .25 bearings, new bearings, new tensioner, new oil pump, Engine bay repaint , i also want to ditch the early 2000’s style blue samcos on a red car

and chrome bits, change all the hoses to black silicon, get all the brackets powder coated, possibly the subframe too and tidy the front suspension up.
So with a few hours spare this afternoon i got on with stripping of the engine bay, need to dig out the engine crane and stand tomorrow, it’s been a few years since ive had that out as i steer clear of that work these days.
Bit gutted tbh as i was enjoying using the car, but best to get things sorted while i know the turbo etc are unharmed, and there is always next year
