316 - 1977 - petroscf - Greece

uwbuurman · Post by **uwbuurman** » Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:05 pm

Very nice!!

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:01 am

thanks!
Now waiting for
1) Toyo Proxes T1-R
2) Centre Caps

Opinions on these Toyos? Will be my first time with this brand

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Sat Dec 09, 2017 11:48 am

What is happening with tyres?
I really did not imagine It would be difficult to find 205/50/15 and 195/50/15 !!
I really thought that passing to 15's would compensate finding bigger variety!

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:02 pm

Untitled by Petros Tavaniotis, on Flickr

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:03 pm

YES
I think I made it
(Just another quick picture in order to see how this works)

Hopefully I'll restart posting (eventually)

uwbuurman · Post by **uwbuurman** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:46 pm

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:09 am

My news
BAD

This is the history, in brief:

Had arranged to take the car, abt 10-12 days ago, to a carb specialist guy as we had arranged to fit a couple of 45mm weber dcoe in replacement of my 40mm (which were fitted by the same guy when the engine was assembled by my old mechanic, just for history)

However, my problems with overheating and mysterious coolant loss not only had they not been solved (after all my old mechanic efforts), but, as I saw two days before taking the car for the 45, they were going much worse. Newest issue (these 2 days) was the following: Engine hot (overheated or not, no matter) and let's say for some reason I stopped for some reason and rpm would fall at idle: When retried to accelerate, car would not respond, rpm would not climb no matter how much gas pedal pressure, fell instead, and engine would die. After a couple of minutes waiting with the engine off, everything would be back to normal when I turned on the car. And, later on, again the same story. I do believe this was a sign of coolant on spark plugs, which my mechanic should have already seen before (I took the car to him lots of times all these years)
Day for 45s came. I took the car to this mechanic who is based at the north of Athens, so I had to do about 30-40 km. Car overheated twice at least. I had to stop and then wait etc etc.

I arrived to the guy and said: “You were waiting me here for different reason, and for other reason it seems I am coming”

So I left the car there so that he tries to find a solution which my old mechanic seemed not to find.

FINDINGS
He applied pressure on the radiator with the engine hot and the indication on the gauge was falling very quickly. I saw this with my eyes, although I am no expert, I also think it was quick. Also, he removed the air filter boxes, and the blow-by gases were A LOT! (Just to remind you: I used to have a lot of blow by gases coming out of the valve cover hole from the beginning of the build. Mechanic said this is going to decrease as the engine is still very tight. So we did a lot of solutions such as small filters, oil catch cans and finally air filter boxes where we turned, via hoses connected to the valve cover, the blow by gases.)
The new mechanic (let’s say from now on: New Mechanic, and Old Mechanic, in order to understand said that these gasses were mainly water vapors (with some oil of course)
This guy (the new mechanic) has a very good reputation in Greece and abroad.
So we decided to remove the head in order to see what happens. In this case we would be very lucky if the issue was just a gasket, right?
Opened the engine and found the following: Cracks on the block. (there were a couple of cracks already on this block when the old mechanic assembled the engine, but he had told me he had dealt with them safely and securely and I believed him then. Indeed, I saw the block and I have pictures here. I compared the cracks and these points are ok, as they were in the beginning, no worse.
But now, cracks exist everywhere else on the round holes of the block, which means that he applied more pressure than he should have, when tightening? Could the msd have caused the problem-or accelerated an already existing issue?
The new mechanic said that the spark plugs were not no 7 but no 5 ! (and the old mechanic had told me 7, as msd seemed to require colder plugs! Did he know that I had vapors inside the engine so he thought a hotter plug would decrease them?)
Even worse: The cam sprocket is CRACKED. A whole piece is missing and the cam is screwed on the remaining (crescent shaped) of the sprocket by 4 screws with no safety lock that locks 2 of the screws (which means that old mechanic knew it, as 4 screws were there, and not one screw missing). Of course 2 out of 4 screws were not fitted in the holes where they should, as the sprocket part was missing-I have photos here as well, but they were fitted just where possible.
Ok this last issue was that overflowed the glass. Although the cam was working (??) and I had no issue with it so far, I don’t think I wanted this to be the engine I paid for.

I know I wrote too many words, so I do stop here.

Now we are starting to build a new engine.

Jeroen · Post by **Jeroen** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:12 pm

Pfffffff looks like someone made a mess of their job! Definitely time for a new block, I would never have worked on an engine block that already had cracks. Too late now, time for a different engine. Sorry for all the issues you are experiencing, but it looks like a complete amateur, no not amateur, idiot, has worked on the engine.

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:28 pm

I am still waiting to see what exactly happened, even though facts talk for themselves.
The old mechanic is definitely not an amateur (and I guess no idiot) as he has been working on 2002s and E21 all his life, abt (or more than) 50 yrs now.
And I know this, and at the moment a couple of racing 02s among the most successful in our country are being serviced by him.
So as facts show, the guy decided to cheat on me, I can't see anything else.
Will see...

Hopefully better luck with the new mechanic and engine

gerrit323 · Post by **gerrit323** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:17 pm

What a story.. not everyone is honnest with their clients.. hope you have more luck with the new engine so you can finally start to enjoy the e21 without worries ..

Keep is posted!!!

gerrit323 · Post by **gerrit323** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:17 pm

petroscf · Post by **petroscf** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:20 pm

Thank you

I still can't believe my own eyes...
I am still looking for a cause on this, something that can justify these things apart from cheating, but...