WITW - Barn-find Final Edition

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Yeah the B5 parts will hopefully be here on Saturday and I will post pics of how they fit

Mine is currently looking like this:

[MikkiJayne]

No significant progress today as I have a migraine

Botang's grommet fitted fine. Its probably watertight on its own, but I've covered it in seam sealer anyway. This is not the car on which to experiment with water ingress!





New foam on the hvac inlet



Hopefully I can put the engine back in tomorrow.

[Ronin]

with botang's hole I find it harder to photograph than to do work on it

[MikkiJayne]

Very true ^

I put the engine back in this morning



The A4 links arrived - top, compared to the D2 on the bottom. You can see the extra spacer they have



and they fit perfectly Part numbers are 8D0411317D and 8D0411318D (they are handed)





Starter terminal box. I've taken to filling these with waxoyl as its waterproof but not as nasty as the thick grease the factory used.



Put the washer bottle back in and tested for leaks. Of course it did leak, from the level sensing grommet on the windscreen washer pump, which they always do when disturbed, hence testing. I can not get this one to re-seal so I'll print a new grommet.



Mostly back together. Suspension and front panel tomorrow.

[strummagnet]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Oddly I find myself staring at the images of this engine for ages, thinking maybe office wall art?

Is that expansion tank super cleaned like the screen wash reservoir? I have noticed in a few other posts the coolant is pink? I am beginning to think the garage that changed my water pump, which I supplied with the requisite amount of G12 coolant a few years back, didn't put the G12 in. The coolant is 'clear-ish' but starting to turn the tank brownish from the inside

[MikkiJayne]

That is the penultimate-ever genuine new coolant tank. Its impossible to clean them tbh, and I would replace them as a matter of course when doing these jobs, but alas I appear to have used them all The very-last-ever one is of course sitting on my shelf, and bizarrely Tradition don't appear interested in making new ones.

The coolant should be changed every 3-5 years depending on usage. In the V8 it tends to stay clear for a long time as there are very few steel parts in the engine, but in the V6 once the rust inhibitors wear out the coolant will become contaminated with rust and start going brown. It sounds like yours could so with a flush and coolant change.

[MikkiJayne]

A vexing and unproductive day today. I started putting the suspension back on, and then discovered that the springs I was going to use are not in as good condition as my ailing memory thought they were, so they will need to go for powdercoating next week. I need to move the car off the lift next week though so its sitting on a spare set of struts for now and I'll swap them later.



I had the upright mounted on this side right up until I tried to fit the tie rod bolt, whereupon I discovered the edge which holds the bolt head has been smushed in the past and no matter what I tried I couldn't get any torque on the nut This will be going to my local tig welding specialist tomorrow to get the edge built up again.



It took a little while to get the pinch bolt out of the other side and then I was at least able to assemble that





This is how the B5 arb link sits with the suspension on full droop, so its easy to see why the D2 links look ok when fitted.