Toyota Celica - Pah!

Why would I want one of them Japanese pretend classics when I have a fully working [well sort of] v8 Beast?! 

It would appear that the distributor was 180 degrees out. And with the assistance of Simon and Ed's timing strobe, the Beast spluttered into life and is now running the best it ever has in the last 3 years. Much also say thanks to a chap named John in Aberdeen with whom I have been conversing via email and a v8 forum.

That distributor is the dogs! We timed it to about 8 dibbles past TDC. Although it is now driveable, it "front fires" from I presume the carbs/filters as opposed to backfiring from the tailpipe. I have taken it to work for the last 2 days and can (sometimes) floor it without any frontfires and now get the great v8 roar. 

I have since spoken to John again, who has set his distributor at 10 dibbles before TDC. He reckons that the frontfiring is because the timing is not quite right, and suggests I try it at 10 dibbles.

The overheating thing has still not gone away though. Could it be the timing? The gauge?

March and April

Pre new Distributor

I have been driving around Offmore every other Sunday for about 5 mins before putting it back again as it was spluttering and backfiring and overheating. I was a little brave the one day though and sat in the car port with the temp guage at 3/4 waiting for it to blow up. It didn't. Looks like 3/4 might be the running temperature?

Post new Distributor
It doesn't start any more!

Toyota Celica

I am about to spend another £100 on this hateful and useless lump of scrap metal which has cost me probably about £2500 so far. And then to highlight my idiocy, a bloke at work spends £760.25 on this:

It's Japanese so will probably not go wrong, certainly not as much. It's not 70's BL and thus will not go rusty. Bits won't fall off the trim. It'll have a stereo in it. I'll be able to drive more than 50 miles a year for probably the same amount of yearly insurance. Oh how very very tempting ...

New Distributor

... will be ordered this week. The Beast started first time today and spluttered around the block and back a couple of times before going back to bed. If a new dis doesn't sort it then it's bye-bye time. And Paul, if you are still reading this crap, sorry for taking the piss with the temp loan of yours, it will be returned very soon!

Oops!

The Beast drove around to the new house without any problems (other than the usual reverse lights and overheating and spluttering). They tend to start and move a little better when the petrol is pumped from the tank to the carbs ...

Happy New Fcuking Year

I am moving house in a matter of days. I had to move the useless sack of crap out of the garage on to the drive so as to fill the garage full of assorted crap ready for the mover man. And surprise surprise, it didn't start. At all. Not a sausage. It was pushed on to the drive and now will have to be towed to the new pad. Great. The new neighbours are going to love me! Useless sack of crap. I hate this fcuking car.

Hot and Cold

I have brought the Beast to work this morning which seemed like a good idea at the time as no rain is planned and I haven't used it for about two weeks. It was very cold! Whilst spluttering and kangarooing down the road, I came to some traffic and a Chav in a dungy Corsa, which has probably cost a great deal less than the Beast to "do up", kindly and happily informs me that my reverse lights keep coming on, which I had honestly completely forgotten about!

By the time I got to work all those 1.5 miles away, the temp guage was edging slowly to 3/4, so I am not convinced that I'll get home now without either blowing up or getting nicked for dodgy wiring/switches. And I've never driven it in the dark before!

And an old MX5 was a couple of cars away just to rub it in a bit. Although the big girl didn't have his roof down!