The journey of one man and his Mule(s)

[GeorgeL]

Fantastic little read there Phil .. Seems like you had a great time away and the smuggling I'm impressed with haha got me thinking of ways to avoid the import tax on some parts I'm after!

You planning on keeping this for a good while now?

[Magic Beans]

It has to be a Vette next time though as fuel's so damn cheap. We only used £130 ish in the Camaro, covering 1250 miles! In contrast, we used £350-400 worth of fuel in the 2L Mule during the Le Mans trip! Although the Camaro was only a measly V6, not the monsterous V8 we were hoping for Still sounded pretty good and pulled well (325bhp for the 3.6 V6) but in a world of MASSIVE V8 trucks etc a V6 just doesn't cut it. Fully sold on the whole drop-top thing though and it was a great cruising machine, which is what you tend to do in the deep south. There's no small overcrowded island issues there, unlike here..

A man after my own heart. I am sold on a vette now. They are just bat xxxx insane to be in... And so wide feeling. Try make the pesky mr2 feel like a die cast!

I'm surprised you've not found one yet.

I definitely need to own one in the future. Especially as I think there's ways of making them pay for themselves.

[Magic Beans]

Fantastic little read there Phil .. Seems like you had a great time away and the smuggling I'm impressed with haha got me thinking of ways to avoid the import tax on some parts I'm after!

You planning on keeping this for a good while now?

Always a good excuse for a holiday too

Yeah, I'll have this in my world for the foreseeable future. Beyond that I might take a break from having a car solely as a toy and move focus towards making these money pits into money piles

[GeorgeL]

Fantastic little read there Phil .. Seems like you had a great time away and the smuggling I'm impressed with haha got me thinking of ways to avoid the import tax on some parts I'm after!

You planning on keeping this for a good while now?

Always a good excuse for a holiday too

Yeah, I'll have this in my world for the foreseeable future. Beyond that I might take a break from having a car solely as a toy and move focus towards making these money pits into money piles

Exactly mate. It's cheaper for me to fly to Arizona to pay for my parts and collect. Then try smuggle them back in two cases (wrapped big time with towels ofcourse) and hopefully manage this than it is to :

Pay for sending them and then the 20% import tax and handling duty.
It's terrible!

If u didn't manage it though I'd be scuppered big style.

Well I'm glad to hear you are keeping it. As much as I was all for you going for something like Simons mr2... The westy is a nailer. A really nice example of one. Plus you haven't tracked it yet

I'm intrigued by that last bit though lol

[Magic Beans]

Simon's car did appeal, however after putting some thought into it I realised it didn't meet my requirements for the future. Besides, I'd have to question my logic when selling the last one if i were to buy another. Especially when I spent a LOT of time coming to that decision.

How the last bit works out is dependent on where we are this time next year

[Magic Beans]

Nick's been slaving away on the Westy and has made fantastic progress

The head's built, timed up and shimmed.





The block has been honed and cleaned, the rings gapped and fitted and the pistons installed with the new shells. Looking resplendent it is too



The "New old stock" oil pump I bought turned out to be a lemon. It was full of rust and the pressure release valve was seized





Looking at being a replica too...



We've opted to give the old one to Guy Croft, to have it fully refurbed. Should be as good, if not better than new.

To ensure we had good clearances the stock head gasket was sacked off, with a Guy Croft racing gasket going in it's place. Adds around another 0.6mm of clearance, as it was pretty tight in there before. It's cost a pretty penny but should the last thing to fail on the engine.



Head back on



There a bunch of new bits I need to drop up when the pump is ready:

New spark plugs
New dizzy cap
New thermostat and gasket - 74 degrees, as opposed to the current 84 degree one in there.
A couple of new oil filters

All being well we should be firing her up again in the next couple of weeks and the bonding process can start again.

Hats off to Nick again, it wouldn't be a happy car without his help

[pistol pete]

Good news

Nick has worked wonders

[ashley]

Progress!! Sounds like the original engine was a bit of a bodge

So you gotta run it in now...that's gonna be frustrating

Nice one Phil

[matt-mr2]

It's getting there bet you can't wait to get behind the wheel again

[Magic Beans]

Progress!! Sounds like the original engine was a bit of a bodge

So you gotta run it in now...that's gonna be frustrating

Nice one Phil

Pretty much a bodge, yes

Running it in will be interesting, given the weather we're blessed with from now on. Might be a few days of medium distance runs out, wrapped in every piece of clothing I own.

[Magic Beans]

It's getting there bet you can't wait to get behind the wheel again

Very much so. There's some much needed bonding with it ahead, as it was bought with the intention of being accessible fun, with less fettling required and turned into a bit of a burden (physically for Nick and financially for me) within weeks.

As with the last one, the first drive after the work usually pays for the work emotionally.

[craig]

Awesome news Phil, bet you're well chuffed. Top work Nick.

[Nickp]

It's been hard work and it's fought me on several stages along the way. But, I've still enjoyed doing it and am glad I've been able to do it in such a way that Phil should see some serious performance improvement. I would've hated to just slap it back together as it was, a xxxx state. It's very close to been done now but as Phil says we're racing against the weather at the moment, and probably losing!!

[slipping clutch]

Progress!! Sounds like the original engine was a bit of a bodge

So you gotta run it in now...that's gonna be frustrating

Nice one Phil

Pretty much a bodge, yes

Running it in will be interesting, given the weather we're blessed with from now on. Might be a few days of medium distance runs out, wrapped in every piece of clothing I own.

As you know Phil I work outside in all kinds of weather so am pretty hardy so let me be the first to offer my running in services - drop it off with me for a couple of weeks and I will make sure the jobs done properly

[Magic Beans]

A very kind offer, Martin. I'll bear that in mind

The oil pump has now been refurbed by Guy and is being collected on Tuesday, for delivery to Nick on Thursday. It's almost alive again, almost..

[Magic Beans]

More words! "Hooray" I hear you say

During reassembly of the engine Nick spotted that someone had been a little overzealous with their welding in one of the exhaust header pipes. Possibly as a repair, however apparently it was so thick it was blocking around a third of the pipe!



It's now been cleaned up, however I don't have a photo of that. One for the imagine *wavy lines descend*

As the replacement oil pump which I got turned out to be a turd we opted to send my old pump to Guy Croft for refurbishment. Well, I went to pick it up today and he's done an outstanding job with it. Condition wise it's pretty much as new and the performance is likely better than the original. It's a complex character but there's no doubting the quality of his workmanship



In theory that's now all that's outstanding, in order to finish the build and fire her up. Well, apart from oil of course. Dropping it off to Nick on Thursday, along with the others bits I've amassed

He'll be needing the space, what with the new purchases...

[slipping clutch]

All good stuff Phil

[Nickp]

More words! "Hooray" I hear you say

During reassembly of the engine Nick spotted that someone had been a little overzealous with their welding in one of the exhaust header pipes. Possibly as a repair, however apparently it was so thick it was blocking around a third of the pipe!



It's now been cleaned up, however I don't have a photo of that. One for the imagine *wavy lines descend*

After much grinding...

[slipping clutch]

Good work Nick, it will be good to see Mr Bean's car back on the road

[Magic Beans]

Some bonding needed with it, as it's been a rocky start. Sh*t happens I guess, so onwards and upwards