Daily driving it this week, today I parked badly (half way in two spots, no markings, but...) and came back to find this: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0186285056

Cleaned the rare polaris wheels on this tonight while I had the hose and wheel cleaner out: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 1954898945

After, before, after:

Took this for a gentle spin last night to pick up my spare Suzuki keys from a friend. I actually enjoyed driving it in a cruisy comfy kinda way.

Lower + up torque + fix front doors + respray + wheel restoration = win?

It's certainly at the bottom of the mod list, however it also has a squirter block in it that I'd like to use for another car. Which would require swapping something into this first.

And the lawn got mowed/weed whacked next to it, so the whole left side needs a clean.

Minor upgrade today, leaking oil filler cap removed, cleaned up, and seal replaced with a nice new IPD Viton one:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3081589760
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0667197440







No before shot of the leak mess, sorry.

Did the big coolant flush job on this yesterday!

Started with some weak caustic soda solution.
Then rinse.
Then strong oxalic acid solution for an hour of driving.
Then rinse
Then washing soda.
Then rinse, and rinse again.
Then pulled it all apart.
Found that the tstat was BROKEN not absent! :-D
Cleaned up the housing and head and another tstat and installed that with a new seal.

Still apart now... but only insides of 3 hoses to clean and it can go back together.

Tweets/pics:

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TODOs:

Brake and/or tail light bulbs left side
Pick up and install left corner market light
Clean flame trap and oil/air separator (seal leaks, idle high because hose off to lessen leak)
Replace power steering pump and flush out lines (whining under load and at high RPM, heavy load on engine, not happy)
Lowering springs... OK, this isn't needed, but it would complement the look of the Polaris wheels... :-) Even my WOF man was asking me about them "are they factory" and saying how much he likes the look.

Cleaned the hoses and chucked it back together, doesn't over-cool now, however I think the 87 tstat is too low for the fan settings as the movement on the gauge is wider than I'd hope for from motorway cruising (lowest, about 1/4-1/3 from end to end) and idle fan on point (about half way).

Relevant tweets from today:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5567607808
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Reduced the idle back to a sane-ish 1k no load, 750ish in drive/reverse. Will be ultra low cold now, so next fix will be the idle valve that clearly isn't happy.

See previous post for more stuff to do...

I took this thing for a very quiet sedate lap around the block to do a chore on another car, and bugger me, just up to 30kph up the road when splutter die. She died. Parked where I don't really want to for the night, will have to diagnose which of the common faults this failure is. Sigh.

Guessed that this was the crank VR sensor, took one down to the car a few days later, wiggled the wires, and it fired right up (didn't try before the wiggles, so....). Tried to kill it with more wiggles and failed. Hmmmm.

Yesterday arvo, tried to start it, splutter splutter, crank crank, nothing much. Hmmmm. Tried wiggling the wire again, burst into life. Tried wiggling it a final time, killed it. Yay. Know what it was. So changed it out for a spare and it starts sweetly and is fine.

Tweet tweet, pic pic:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3062506496








Also filled the 70 litre tank up with fuel last night, pushing the limits of engineering once again:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4960391168











Gave it a good thrash this morning and am looking forward to better economy on this tank!

Also planning to tow the caravan with it in a few weeks, should be a laugh :-)

Finally got around to sorting out the right rear flat tyre. Got a couple of photos of the inside of it... https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6096976898








No idea why it rubbed like that in one spot only. Quite odd. Didn't drive far on it like that, if at all, and if I had, the whole inside would be rubbed up and scuffed. Weird.

Replacement: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7635459072

Oil changed/upgraded: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2693&p=44381#p44381

Also gave it a new magnetic drain plug and, of course, a fresh filter :-)

Washed down the block beforehand and had a look after a test drive, we have a head gasket oil leak:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9886746624

Photos are near identical, but subtly different, so you get two, sorry.










Fingers crossed it lasts until I can 3.0 whiteblock swap it and take the squirter block for another vehicle...