Rexanne - Gold s2 restoration project

David Nock (RIP) · May 31, 2011, 06:00:30 PM

Quote from: David Nock;764544Hi Ronnie. Welcome.

I\'ve picked up your name over the last couple of years in the 2 Ireland Forums. I think I read you had been researching for an FB with Glen. If I can help with anything this side of the water just let me know.

Dave

Message for Spoddy.....Sorry Steve, A quick off post, cannot PM him as he is not a full member.

Spoddy, check out \'How Many 1st gens Still Running\' in 1st Gen Forum.

Blue S3 appeared in Rugby.....could be a bit well travelled but priced to sell this time around.

spoddy · May 31, 2011, 10:42:52 PM

hi mate, cheers i had a looksie, i might be getting a black series 3, off a club mate, in my part of the UK.
i don\'t wanna say too much out of respect for its owner and until i have something to \'talk\' about if you know what i mean, as not sure if he comes on here and its early days etc.

Steve-A · May 31, 2011, 10:56:04 PM

Quote from: johnnyboy;765924Hi Steve.

I know you have just rebuilt your idler arm, but how far did you get with investigating steering rack conversions?

Did you notice that the Ford V8 conversion in "how many still running" has a Nissan rack...
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1985-MAZDA-RX7...ht_1338wt_1141

John

Cheers for the heads up John

I\'m still keen to do a rack and pinion conversion, but its on hold for a bit till I\'ve been able to get out and drive Rexanne a bit on the standard steering.

I\'ve seen a couple of builds using a Nissan Micra rack, including Tim from RX Motors, who\'s got one in his drag car. It\'s certainly worth considering. I\'m also keen to investigate my idea of an upside down LHD mx5 rack!

Steve-A · May 31, 2011, 11:12:13 PM

I\'ve not really spent much time on Rexanne over the past few days. I wanted to try and be a little more social this bank holiday. Between emergency computer repairs...

and listing to loud noises...

and a little hanging out with friends, I\'d not done anything on Rexanne till last night. It seemed a good time to continue to tackle the carb.

I put a couple of hours in last night, with the help of a nice bottle of cider, and then a couple more today.

I\'ve taken it to bits, given it a clean up, made sure the jets are all clear and re-set the floats to factory specs before reassembling. While I had it in bits I spent some time tweaking the throttle butterfly stops to make sure both primaries and secondaries stop at exactly 90 degrees. I also removed all the linkages I wouldn\'t be using e.g. OMP and parts for vacuum operated secondaries. The carb is now set for manual secondaries, with the help of a little tack weld, and I\'ve added an extra gasket to the accelerator pump, as was suggested by various internet sources. I\'m sure the whole carb will need tweaking and tuning once the cars up and running.

It\'s not as shiny as some of the other components on the car, but I was cautious of using some of the more aggressive cleaning techniques incase I caused problems with all the jets and small passageways inside the carb. Either way it\'s only gonna be on Rexanne for a month or two once she\'s on the road.

Today the postman brought me some radiator hoses.

And I assembled the various bits of heater and oil cooler hosing.

It seems there are a whole bunch of little tweaks the s3 must have for this oil cooler, such as different hard line sections for the heater hose, and slightly different fuel hard lines. So I\'ve managed to hook it all up, but it\'s not the most elegant. Again we will see how long it stays on the car.

Due to the practicalities of the hose routing I\'ve ended up with the heater matrix flowing backwards to its normal set-up, but I really cant see this being an issue.

So with that lot installed I dropped the carb on.

Here\'s a couple of photos of me actually doing things, rather than being behind the camera. Trust my lady friend to pick the most exiciting action shots possible :rollin

I then carried on till the light faded too much hooking up the various cables for the carb and the detachable sections of loom.

Just need to hook up the starter motor loom, stick some fluids in her and turn the key now! .....

.... then start on bodywork and brakes.

Ian65 · May 31, 2011, 11:18:50 PM

that engine looks bloody impressive mate.... it should be in a showroom somewhere.

spoddy · May 31, 2011, 11:42:28 PM

oooohhhhh shiney lol

coming along well mate, good idea to get out and away from it for a night too, oh some alcohol always helps, not a cider man myself though. cold bottle of carlsberg now,

David Nock (RIP) · June 01, 2011, 11:27:57 AM

Quote from: Ian65;766130that engine looks bloody impressive mate.... it should be in a showroom somewhere.

2 votes for that.....tremendous Steve......:god

CHC (RIP) · June 01, 2011, 12:51:51 PM

That engine compartment sure does look nice - good job Steve.

Steve-A · June 01, 2011, 12:57:13 PM

Thanks guys

It\'s very flattering that you all seem to think its looking so good. I can assure you it wont look that good for long, as its gonna get driven, lots and lots!

Personally I was getting a little disappointed by how cluttered the engine bay was looking with the loom reinstalled and all the vac hoses and stuff running about the place. I think I just got used to seeing it without that lot!

CHC (RIP) · June 01, 2011, 01:18:52 PM

One thing for sure Steve - she wont go far without them.
We\'ve already seen from previous threads that the best way to get rid of the \'rats nest\' is to go turbo charging - so unless you\'ve considering this path the best thing to do is just tidy up, clean up & paint up.

Steve-A · June 01, 2011, 03:09:42 PM

I wanna use something like this to remove whats left of the rats nest.....

:3gears-rh :Laugh

CHC (RIP) · June 01, 2011, 04:46:14 PM

Nice piece of kit there Steve - is this one of the famous Webers\'s?

Steve-A · June 01, 2011, 04:50:34 PM

Close, but no cigar.

They are throttle bodies, that fit on to the Weber IDA manifold. So should get all the top end of the Webers, but with tune-ability for cruise, cold starts and idle that fuel injection offers

Will66 · June 01, 2011, 05:14:35 PM

Throttle Bodies will be coooooool. They make such a good raspy noise!

Ian65 · June 01, 2011, 05:50:50 PM

Quote from: Steve-A;766216Thanks guys

It\'s very flattering that you all seem to think its looking so good. I can assure you it wont look that good for long, as its gonna get driven, lots and lots!

Personally I was getting a little disappointed by how cluttered the engine bay was looking with the loom reinstalled and all the vac hoses and stuff running about the place. I think I just got used to seeing it without that lot!

once you drop the nikki carb, you\'ll lose most of it... I cut all the redundant wires out of my loom and only had 5 or 6 left, plus a couple of crankcase breathers....
looks much better and less to go wrong