Dave's la(te)st buggy build...

Bit of an update then...

On Sunday I got back and just parked the buggy in the garage, and locked the door...

On Monday afternoon I had a couple of hours off so I had a quick look at it...

 

Starting with the oil, it was clean and fresh, as I only filled it last Wednesday, and not emulsified, and right in the middle between the lower and empty marks, as I'd added 3.7L of fresh oil.

The radiator was lacking coolant, as it had boiled over a bit, but I left it as it was (read on)

And then tried cranking it, and it started fine, idled, and didn't throw any smoke out?... the plot thickens?

So I wandered around to the local friendly garage and booked it in for today, Wednesday, as I'm writing this after just dropping it off...

Tuesday, I had a few more hours off...

 

Having a wander around the buggy, I noticed the rear wheel arches are, as feared, a little too narrow... I'd made them during the build by cutting large lorry wheel arches exactly in half, so that I have four fitted to the buggy, and four spares for cutting to shape when the inevitable damage occurs from those pesky trees stepping out into the 'lanes But... I have actually got five spare, as I cocked up the cutting of one, so I'll sacrifice that one and cut into wide strips and join them onto the inside edge of the rear arches to stop the spray going everywhere as seen in the above photo...

 

I then thoroughly washed the buggy as I couldn't pass it round to the garage in the state it was... and then parked it up over the road to dry in the sun...

Walking back, I noticed my NGeeVee could do with a wash too, so I did that, and then thought I can't wash mine without doing the wife's? And once I'd washed the Queen's Mokka, I realised the Princess's Audi needed a wash too, she popped her head out to say say thank you, and then Alex one of our employees, popped her head out of the shop and cheekily asked "Are you doing mine as well then?"... She has worked for us for around 12 years, so she's more like family, so I ended up washing all five cars! :lol: And then walked the Ladradors too...

Anyway, so to today...

I've dropped the Boogie off at the local friendly garage for him to do some diagnostics... He's going to -

Check the coolant / radiator for any traces of engine gases
Check the oil, but it looks okay to my layman's eyes
Check the exhaust gases / emissions to see what's coming out of the engine

And then he'll give me the prognosis...

He's also looking at the power steering too, as you have to have lumberjack's arms now all the fluid has leaked out

So, a day off, and and empty garage :lol:

I'm sure I'll find something to do, before the wife writes a list!! :ohmy:

Just a thought could the problem be
That the air intake is getting to hot from being over the engine 

Thanks Jack ,but no... it's as feared, I just got back from the garage after being summoned round...

I'll try and explain this as much as I understood, and in my layman's terms... "I don't do enjins" is one of my phrases! :lol:

 

The Boogie wired up to a virtual compression tester...

 

So there's an induction loop thingy around the (engine) battery's live cable, and an earth wire connected...

And another wire (seen in the photo below) that goes to one of the coils so that the gizmo knows what's firing when...

 

And a compression testing radiator cap?!

A box of tricks feeds the data via USB to a laptop...

 

... which shows the results...

Ok, my understanding... You crank the motor and the gizmo detects the current draw needed (by the starter motor) to compress each cylinder, meanwhile at the same split second, the radiator cap sensor is checking for any added pressure in the coolant system, and the gizmo / laptop software puts it all in a pretty graph for you! Amazing... this is why garage's charge £50 an hour (well mine does) to cover all the equipment they have to have to do all this, and overheads of course...

If I zoom in on the photo of the graph...

 

You can (apparently) see that the top line is the amount of power needed to compress each cylinder, and the bottom graph shows any pressure in the coolant system, so two cylinders are weaker than the others, and at the same time the coolant pressure goes up...

So either the head has gone (cracked?) or the gasket has gone...

We had a good chat about it today, which started on Monday too, and he's had good successes in the past with a product you pour into the coolant system, let the vehicle run until it's operating temperature and the thermostat then opens, and you run the engine for a while, then shut it down and let it all cool down overnight, and then run it again the following day, and then he'll perform the same tests as above to see if it's better / fixed...

This product is £35 a bottle and sounds like super-"RadWeld" kind of stuff, he's got one customer who is still running round in a Grand Vitara three years after having this done, so I'm game to give it a go, before shelling out hundreds of pounds to get the head off, skimmed, tested and a new head gasket fitted, and all the labour and messing about this would take... I think it's worth a go at the end of the day? So the product is on order and will be delivered by one of those little vans that scoot round delivering to all the garages in the area, and added to the coolant system this afternoon, left to do it's magic overnight, and then retested tomorrow...

So we'll see how The Boogie comes out of surgery tomorrow? 

I noticed Martin had omitted something from the BigJimny Meet sticker... so I fixed it :woohoo:

 

Ha, thats really good, although I am surprised you did not put it fully at the righthand side of the evolutionary scale

Oooh, no, I know my place  
 

Head gaskets do not usually just die. The cause in many cases is overheating. This can be locally because a cooling channel is clogged or general because the cooling system does not work properly. I had one damaged head gasket because the visco clutch was defective and the temperature gauge showed too little and the engine just overheated.

Taking off the head also has the advantage that you might see a clogging if there is one and could redo the valve seating etc. Also I personally do not really trust the magic liquids that repair in this case your head gasket. I once used one and then the water pump died and then the internal radiator and .. . I ended up with having to acid pickle the water side of the engine, a new head gasket, a new radiator and cooling water pump.

Be careful of magic beans, if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is.

Yup, the head / gasket has indeed gone, so I gave my mate John the mechanic the nod to proceed... head stripped and indeed 1 and 4 are leaking, so the head is off to be skimmed and pressure tested...

The timing belt note says it was fitted 200 miles ago, which agrees with what I understood when I bought the donor Jimny a few years ago... So either the head wasn't tested, or there was an error when it was replaced / re-assembled (John noted the head bolts varied in tightness?)

Either way, it needs doing, John says it will be done in a fortnight, he'll squeeze it into his agenda around other customers vehicles already booked in, which will be before our next group outing in the Peak District on the 27th of June. There's not enough time though - with the bank holiday, etc - to get it done for the 13th of June though, when I was due to go down to Hawkstone Park Follies for the annual punch-hunt, which is a shame, so I've let the organiser know I can't make it, as numbers are restricted to 30 due to current COVID rules, (so I was going on my own as I couldn't take my passenger / winch bitch Alan either), but that should be plenty of notice for someone to take my place... Which means there probably won't be a Jimny winning this year :lol:

John's also sorting out a leaking water pump (that won't of helped the head!), and a leak in the power steering too...

But the Boogie will return soon-ish!
 

Quick Update - Called in the garage to see John yesterday...

 

He was working on the Boogie when I popped in... The head is skimmed, pressure tested, reassembled, new head gasket set on, new water pump, idle control valve out and cleaned, and everything is being re-assembled ready for a couple of shakedown trips before rejoining the group for their next trip on the 27th around the Peak District and surrounding areas...

Well done!

Great news!