mk1 gt

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spigven
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mk1 gt

Post by spigven »

Who bought the mk1 GT off ebay while back ? I was very tempted then and wouldn't mind an occasional update.
adamskibx
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Post by adamskibx »

Hi Spigven- I bought that car (ps-did not know that someone off this forum was the other bidder otherwise would have consulted them fisrt at least-thats been cleared up), and I have had the head skimmed today. In fact they had to weld it up first as the pitting was quite bad and I know they've taken at least 0.5mm off as there were some recessed bits in the head going down that far that are no longer there. Thats cost me £45 to have done and I plan to fit the gasket over the weekend. Apart from that the only other thing I can imagine it failing on is the brake pipes in the wheelarch area and the metal section (about 5cm long) of the front strut return pipes which are rusty. Its not dangerous as such but an MOT station will see it and know that the brakes and suspension use the same fluid and therefore it will fail (fair enough really). So fingers crossed it should get an MOT soon and it'll be a pain if it fails first time as the MOT stations all seem to be electronically linked meaning no free retests. Apart from the painful job of fitting the new gasket and giving the engine a good service and adjustment, the actual car itself is lovely-Its more white than it looked in the pictures (Ivory white I think), and the MK 1 interior makes the fact that I cant even drive it yet seem less depressing-The original cassette player is better sounding than any other car stereo ive ever heard as it had the 5 speaker option fitted as new with a kind of primative subwoofer under the front glovebox. Suspension wise, its the softest BX ive ever driven which is odd considering its a GT spec, and its got those refillable spheres (i think they are anyway) . Its so soft in fact that id say its as smooth as the GS's ive been in. I thought the estate was a bit of a boat but this thing is just hilarious. Ill keep you posted as to how it gets on at the MOT.

Adam
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ken newbold
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Post by ken newbold »

Adam, if you think these pipes are going to fail the MOT, so will the tester. Do something about it, if memory serves they're only screwed on with one screw. Take them off, clean them up with emery cloth, oil, grease or paint them and refit.
Save yourself the hassle and expence of fail sheets and retest fees, check the car yourself BEFORE you take it for the test.

Look in the back of your haynes manual and it covers all MOT test points, OK so it's difficult to test the brakes and emmisions but you can check the condition of pipes and pads/discs. Give the car a good run on the way to test to blow out soot from the exhaust, you will have fitted a new air filter and clean oil.

Check the condition of the pipes upside the fuel tank just in front of the rear subframe, a notorious black spot on BXs. and also the front subframe just in front of the rearmost mounting bolts.

Spend an hour or so underneath with a good light, because the MOT man will.
They think it's all over, it is now!
spigven
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Post by spigven »

Adam

Thanks for the update much appreciated. I didn't actually bid. As for the soft ride that was one of the main reasons I was interested. I ran an early 19trs for a few years, that model being a revamped gt. Best car I ever owned from a driving perspective, uncomplicated, fast, frugal(ish) and a very soft ride (inconsitent with the performance of the car but I liked it). Unfortunately the car practically disintegrated before my eyes, every panel became rusty, the interior plastics discoloured going from light grey to mid blue and a colour that looked like a murky pond. I originally intended to restore it but on close inspection it had severe structural corrosion so ended up being scrapped. A decision I still regret.

Good luck with yours.

Mark
adamskibx
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Post by adamskibx »

Hello again. Yeah spigven, the ride quality, I think, is down to the early BX spheres- I dont think any other suspension component is any different but I may be wrong. I know you can soften a late BX up by fitting early type spheres. I have completed the head change but I havent yet tested it as the battery is dead and needs replacing. Im going to jump start it tomorrow. Only problem I had fitting the head was the valve timing. I cant get the two dowl holes to line up perfectly as the head is now a couple of mm closer to the block due to the skimming. If I move the camshaft pully along a whole belt tooth, that would push it too far the other way so its imposible (unless the camshaft is adjustable in relation to the camshaft pully?) And Ken, good idea about painting up those hydraulic pipes- thanks. I spoke to my local BX specialist and he said he's never been asked to replace brake pipes if they arent snapped or leaking but ill sand them and grease them anyway, or maybe ill paint those too. It all hangs on what happens when it starts tomorrow now, so if it all goes wrong ill just change the engine but hopefully it will be OK.
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Post by cavmad »

Good luck Adamski, I wish I had your technical know how!
Can you post up some pictures of the `finished` car when you`ve completed the work?
Vauxhall apologist.
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ken newbold
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Post by ken newbold »

DONT EVEN THINK OF STARTING IT UNTILL ITS PROPERLY TIMED UP.

the skimming shouldn't make any differance to the timing, if the head is closer and its not much, that amount will be taken up by the belt tension.
You need to start from scratch with the timing as you may be 180 deg out.

Get the peg or whatever in the crank pulley, then locate your pegs in the camshaft pulley, tension the belt, remove the pegs and try turning the engine two full revolutions to ensure the pistons dont stike the valves.
DO THIS BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO START IT.
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spigven
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Post by spigven »

Adam

If the skimming removed a [relatively] substantial amount of metal don't you need to use a thicker head gasket to make up the difference ?
adamskibx
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Post by adamskibx »

Right- Bad news- It starts and runs but I think its still leaking slightly as the water bubbles slightly and the oil is still getting water in it, and the exaust gas is steamy. As I need a car ASAP for work, im buying a runnaround and then ill track down another engine. Theres a local 1.6 but I think ill wait till a 1.9 comes along to keep it original. Even if the head gaskets OK (im pretty certain its not-or maybe its the wet liner seals?) , I cant get the engine to run well at all. When I got it, it idled at 1500 RPM due to the auto choke not getting any water, but now it wont at all unless you keep some accelerator on, and is very unresponsive. I'm fed up with messing with the engine so ive just accepted a better route is to get another one for it. Its clear that there are a few problems and when there are many different problems it makes each individual problem hard to diagnose. The valve timing was out by a bit- ie you could get a 6 mm drill bit in the camshaft hole, but not a 10mm, and if I was to move it all forward one tooth, it would be WAY out in the other direction. As it is, its too far out though as it initially refused to start, and then I advanced the distributor timing a bit, and it started instantly, so the valves are out by too much. Thing is, the tensioner just makes a tiny difference but at the end of the day, its on the other side to the side that pulls and there are a fixed number of teeth. Head gasket wise, I was told you cant get thicker ones for the car, etc, etc. The annoying thing was that the engine mounting bottom bolt didnt go in (would need the hole filed to an oval shape really) due to the head being closer etc. Hopefully, ill be able to source some bits for it and collect them in the runnabout before the new year. Im off to a car auction soon so ill probably end up with something harsh like a Fiesta to keep me mobile while its being fixed up:-(
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Post by mnde »

adamskibx wrote:Head gasket wise, I was told you cant get thicker ones for the car, etc, etc.
TBH I think that's a load of tosh. GSF offer two gaskets for the BX16/19:

N11118 CYLINDER HEAD GASKET BX 16/19 PETROL 8V STD SIZE 12.60
N11120 CYLINDER HEAD GASKET BX 16/19 8V REPAIR SIZE 15.60

Think the difference might be 2mm between the two but not sure. Eurocarparts offer a 16V "repair" gasket for skimmed heads which says "+0.2" next to it, which I guess means 0.2 cm thicker... so I assume it's similar for the 8V 16/19

Mark.
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Post by Stewart (oily!) »

Adamski dont jump to conclusions too quickly, oil will continue to appear in the water for some time, and as for the steaming exhaust, that might take a few miles to sort itself out, as for the timing issues you have two totally separate systems going on here, the timing of the camshaft and crank, and once this is beyond doubt the ignition timing, I would make sure you can insert your indexing dowels properly first, get that right and then move on to the ignition timing, most likely using a strobe light. As for the continuing bubbles it is possible that the rubber bits on the gasket have not "vulcanised " themselves yet, a mate of mine usually runs them without water for a few minutes to make sure they get hot enough! and if you are using an older BOL then the sequential head bolt tightening can be very confusing (the first one I did had to be run at 3000rpm for ten minutes, allowed to cool then tightened a further 90 degrees or something like that and it blew bubbles continually until the last stage was done) finally please replace the missing bolt without it the engine will soon respond to gravity, dont ask me how I know :oops:
you will get it running properly soon.
Stewart
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adamskibx
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Post by adamskibx »

Cheers for the encouragement Stuart. Ive bought another car to use for work so ill be able to get bits for it now which was always a pain before- I may well try and sort out the original engine now as i wont be so paranoid about getting it going as ivew got transport. Like you say, the best plan is to set up the dowl holes perfectly first-but I cant do that because its half a tooth out on the belt- It seems like the tensioner should sort that out etc but it wont as the belts dont stretch at all (just as well!) and there is a given number of teeth between the crankshaft pully and the camshaft pully on the side without the tensioner-in fact, when I put the belt on with the dowl holes located properly, it was a job getting that side of the belt on due to the tension, and, in fact, it was too tight, which is why, when i ran the engine round, the tensioner evened out the tensions on each side and retarded the camshaft pulley by about 2-3 mm at the hole-one tooth forward would be way too much if you get what I mean- is the camshaft position adjustable in relation to the pully? Thats the only way I can think it would work. Apart from the running problems (which obviously with a good strategy and time should be sortable), gasket leak wise, I never bothered getting to the next stage. Basically, for these early, hexagonal bolts, it gives a few stages. Firstly, tighten each bolt in order progressively to 47 (i think from memory) Ib/foot, then retighten after complete loosening to 15 Ib/Foot doing this to each bolt individually. THen, stage 3 is to turn each bolt 120 deg from this point. I did this, and it does say to do the whole thing all over again once the engine has been ran to fan cut in temp then allowed to cool for 2 hours- I never bothered with this as I assumed it should all be OK in the first place (as in no leaks etc). Ill give it all another go. Ive just bought a 1986 Merc 190 E Auto (sorry:-)) which is nice, but I miss BX driving already. The seats dont come close to BX seats-in fact if I planned to live with it for years, I would fit BX seats in it.

Regards, Adam
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Post by DavidRutherford »

mnde wrote:Think the difference might be 2mm between the two but not sure. Eurocarparts offer a 16V "repair" gasket for skimmed heads which says "+0.2" next to it, which I guess means 0.2 cm thicker... so I assume it's similar for the 8V 16/19
It means 0.2mm. A gasket 2mm thicker would make the car paractically useless! Most head gaskets are nowhere near 1mm thick in the first place.
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