Minor progress and similar confusion

Another couple hours of tinkering brings the engine ever closer to being removable. It also leads to a longing for industrial stregth velcro to be used to mount components. Wouldn't life be so much easier? The Haynes manual would seem like more fun too. "To rip our the engine, first, rip out everying that's in the way, then rip out the engine."

Talking of the Haynes BOL, it's been at it again. If the manual speaks true, my alternator has migrated from one side of the engine to the other. It's also been mounted by the pump that puts the 'ass' in power assisted brakes. No mention of that in the manual at all...well, not unless you count those squiggly bits between the pictures. This is strange new territiory for me. I've never worked on anything that's had more to assist the brakes than adrenalin. I wonder if they'll still be power assisted when I've finished.

Talking of wondering, the list of things to wonder about was joined by the aircon compressor. It hissed like an angered cat when I gave it a gentle tug which, while being exactly what you'd expect from a cat receiving the same treatment, wasn't what I expected at all from an aircon compressor. I was very tempted to tug it some more to see exactly where the hiss originated but, given that I know nothing about the business end of aircon, decided this would be a futile waste of time.

Talking of futile wastes of time, I was nagged by an ever present desire to drop the sump off of the engine and try and see precisely what is broken in there. Saturday I managed to resist after a mate lured me off to the local for the afternoon, Sunday it was the cold wet floor that put me off.

Other Pajero frolics over the past few days have included removal of one of the running board/side step things. This was driven by a trinity of needs. Okay, one slightly tenuous need and two wants.
1) To improve the crawlunderableness of the car.
2) My four year old doesn't need to use the step so who else would?
3) After two weekends of work, albeit sporadic work, I really wanted to have done something that was actually noticable.

I'd remove the other one but can't get to it - Such is my commitment!!

Finally, Ebay reared its tartsome head again and whispered to me "buy stuff you don't need". Not being one to argue I had a punt on a set of bull bars and some steel wheels but both got away. Such is life.

Disclaimer:
I have never, ever, conducted studies, empirical or otherwise, into the sound emitted by a cat on receipt of a gentle tug. I just wanted to set that straight. I did once go out with a girl who claimed to know a dog fluffer but that's another story and one which I'd sooner forget.

Viscous Coupling

On no!! I realised last night that I appear to have neither the fan nor the viscous coupling for the main radiator. New replacements for these are many many times the £50 i paid for Fiddy.

For the non technical amongst you, here's an example of a viscous coupling:

If you can think of a coupling more viscous that Katie Price (aka Jordan) and Peter Andre, let me know.

Start the strip.

I got down and dirty with Fiddy today and started stripping away obstacles to the inevitable engine removal. Bonnet, grille, rad and airbox are now off and I'm starting to see the fun to be had from stripping watercooled motors. THERE'S SO MUCH STUFF!! (VW's were never this complicated.) So many pumps and compressors and well, stuff! Whoever designed the Pajero must have had a shares in We Make More Types Of Belts and Radiators Than You Could Ever Imagine Possible Plc. It's like a coolant fetishists wildest fantasy under the bonnet.

Things looked grim when the hoses came off the bottom of the radiator as it seemed someone had used it for their secret cough syrup stash. I think it was Blackcurrant Benylin - it certainly looked like it. Maybe it was chocolate sauce. I'm a bit timid with new taste experiences so didn't actually try any. I was greatly relieved to get the thermostat housing off though, and douse the drive in what, by comparison, looked to be mountain spring water, albeit from a mountain spring with a Chernobyl postcode.

I've just had a leaf through the Haynes Book Of Lies to see what the next step should be. A bit ot RTFM action. Section 2E-9, paragraph 2, says I should refer to chapter 4 to depressurise the fuel system. Chapter 4 says 'Don't mess with pressurised injectors OR YOU'LL DIE!!!!'. What it doesn't say, so far, is how to depressurise the fuel system. I'm going to R the FM a bit more but am already losing patience and approaching the stage where I might F the FM. Check mondays headlines. If it says 'Man Messed With Pressurised Injectors AND HE DIED!!!', get that mad bint from Most Haunted to pop round and I'l take back all I said about the Haynes Book Of Lies.


By the way, first evidence of engine damage was seen today. On closer inspection of the tops of the valves I saw that, despite the rocker shaft being out, one of the valves was still open. Now it could be lazy valve syndrome, in which case a good talking to might sort things out, but I suspect other things. More precisely, I suspect a broken or disconnected conrod left the piston high and dry and the valve, far from being lazy, had some Duracell Bunny thing going on and came to blows with the piston. This means there are several possible scenarios, aside from the one where I wonder about the oxmoronic properties of the phrase 'disconnected conrod', these being:
1) Piston 1, Valve Nil
The valve lost, plain and simple. The bottom end is still stuffed but I may get away without too much in the way of replacement parts up top.
2) You should have seen the other guy
The valve has taken a pasting but gave as good as it got, causing damage to the piston, possibly making time to have a pop and the innocent bystander that was the cylinder head. The bottom end is still stuffed but has the piston, valve and maybe the head to keep it company on the ward.
3) My Last Grenade!!
The Valve and/or Piston died a nasty death but, in their dying moment, managed to unleash some shock and awe on the rest of the engine - Mitsubishi Assured Descruction if you will. The bottom end is still stuffed but has the piston, valve and maybe the head to keep it company at the taxidermist.

Personally, I hope it's lazy valve syndrome, although there's always Donald Rumsfeld's famous 'Things we didn't know we didn't know' scenario. That being the case, the engine could be suffering from a surfeit of Blackcurrant Benylin.

Preparation

Look, after some catch up posts, we've reached the present tense. Well, kind of.

The car was moved off the drive and into the car port last week and all accessable fastners doused in WD40. Tomorrow sees the start of the stripdown. Bonnet, grille, belts, hoses, wiring, ancillaries and head should all be dealt with. That's the theory at least.

By the way - the rocker cover was off when the carr arrived and there's no sign of a dropped valve so, unless something very odd has happened, it's a bottom end problem. Getting the head off and turning the engine to and fro' may give me some idea but whatever it is, the engine has to come out.

Getting Fiddy Home (2/2)

Monday morning and, having noticed a couple of ads for vehicle recovery during previous prowls, I headed to ebay for some hunting. The place is full of deals and I sent texts off to a few likely contenders. The guy who eventually got the job quoted £390! No, I'm not insane - I queried it and it turned out he'd got the postcode wrong and thought he was going to Sunderland. The corrected price came back at £100 and he even paid for the car up front. While that saved me a trip to London it deprived me of my chance to meet Ed. Hopefully he'll be reading this and keeping an eye on progress.
Arrangements in place, I left work early to meet the car and ended up having the flatbed and Pajero cross my path at some traffic lights. Having to ever so slightly block the road caused some tasty jams up and down our road but within 5 minutes the car was on the drive, cash had changed hands and I owned my first Pajero.

Getting Fiddy Home (1/2)

So all I had to do was get her home. She was in west London and google maps told me it was a shade over 40miles. How hard could that be?

(Perhaps this is the point at which I should mention she’s a non runner, that her engine doesn’t turn over and that, by consequence, she’s bereft of power assistance to the brakes and steering. On the plus side, the radio works a treat! )

Anyhow, numerous calls to numerous friends and, oddly, nobody was up for the idea of towing all 2 tonnes of my big beautiful beastie behind their pride and joy. Things were looking grim. Then Ed called again.

Many people had called about the car and one had shared some wisdom and he had news both good and bad.
The Good: The mechanical problem could be a simple as a dropped valve and quite an easy fix
The Bad: Given the she’s an auto, I’d best not be towing her without disconnecting the propshafts. (If I had the slightest idea why this is the case I’d share but, to be honest, I don’t, so can’t.)

So that was a tease. I was more determined than ever to make her mine but further than ever from being able to get her back. More calls were required, this time to Greg the AA recovery bloke. He pretty much confirmed all I’d been told but added that towing would trash the diffs as well (for reasons, see under disconnecting propshafts). The only answer was to get a flatbed recovery truck to fetch her.

The day was getting on by this point so I called Ed back, explained the lie of the land and committed to buying the car, regardless of the recovery cost, and said that I’d make recovery arrangements the following day...

Finding Fiddy

I've been hankering afer a Pajero ever since deciding to celebrate my 40th year (2009) with an overland trip to see my folks in Greece. Not having a massive amount of money meant my visits to the autotrader site were less about Pajero purchasing than they were about Pajero porn. Until October the 2nd 2008 that is.

I selected Mitsubishi and then Pajero and hit search. As usual, the default sort order was 'Price - Ascending' and there she was - the first, the cheapest, the Fiddy Pound Pajero!

Listed for £75, the ad said she'd go for £50 to someone who'd make her live again. I called, I enquired, I even grovelled and found the owner, Ed, was away until Sunday and I'd need to wait until then to find out if my enhusiasm was enough to convince him. Nervous times.

Sunday came and dragged until the phone rang. It was Ed. The car was mine for £50 if I could collect it....