1997 Terrano II 2.4 X-Treme

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Considering the scale I found in the radiator previously the block etc is pretty good. Some of the Jensen engines I have worked on have been awful from the use of plain water. I flushed the heater matrix by gravity and there was very little flow to start with, the hose pipe improved that and dislodged some larger chunks so I gave it a soak and flush with citric acid and that shifted a lot of lime scale. The heater seems to work better now and it was easier to bleed the system. The electric fan fitment has been deferred due to incompetence. :augie
 
In a cost saving exercise we decided that I would use our Vectra diesel for work 4 out of 5 days a week and her Ladyship would use the Terrano as her daily commute is 1/3 of mine. A complaint has now been lodged that hot starting the Terrano is a problem, something I have not suffered with. :nenau

I have been meaning to replace the plugs, ignition leads, cap and rotor arm since forever so before ordering anything a good coat of looking at was in order. I have no recollection of ever noticing there are only 4 leads exiting the distributor cap and the coil is in the distributor! :lol

A fight ensued with the 3 screws as wise old manufacturer Hitachi decided to mould 3 alloy spacers in the cap for the steel screws to cathodic corrode within and crack the cap too. A run through the dizzy with an M4 tap and 3 new screws coated with copper grease has solved that problem. A whiz over all the distributor contacts to remove the fur with a stainless wire brush in the Dr Emel and a clean of the plug lead ports has noticeably improved the starting from cold. :eek:

I'll have a look at the plugs over the weekend, I must have taken them out at sometime in the distant past........:augie
 
In a cost saving exercise we decided that I would use our Vectra diesel for work 4 out of 5 days a week and her Ladyship would use the Terrano as her daily commute is 1/3 of mine. A complaint has now been lodged that hot starting the Terrano is a problem, something I have not suffered with. :nenau

I have been meaning to replace the plugs, ignition leads, cap and rotor arm since forever so before ordering anything a good coat of looking at was in order. I have no recollection of ever noticing there are only 4 leads exiting the distributor cap and the coil is in the distributor! :lol

A fight ensued with the 3 screws as wise old manufacturer Hitachi decided to mould 3 alloy spacers in the cap for the steel screws to cathodic corrode within and crack the cap too. A run through the dizzy with an M4 tap and 3 new screws coated with copper grease has solved that problem. A whiz over all the distributor contacts to remove the fur with a stainless wire brush in the Dr Emel and a clean of the plug lead ports has noticeably improved the starting from cold. :eek:

I'll have a look at the plugs over the weekend, I must have taken them out at sometime in the distant past........:augie

I love reading your posts mate, you have a way with words, you should write some books :thumb2
 
I love reading your posts mate, you have a way with words, you should write some books :thumb2

:lol Thanks, that's cheered me up no end! :thumb2 I did a write up on building my V8 Manta in the 90's that was printed in the owners club magazine, originally an offshoot of the Opel Manta Owners Club that became a separate entity in it's own write for V8 powered cars. From that hand written piece I was asked to contribute on a bi-monthly basis a column for the magazine as they were desperate for content and back then I was not computer literate. That led to me getting into computing to write the column and eventually producing the magazine in MS Word on a shoestring budget to help keep the club going.
It was nothing special other than A4 photocopies and compared to the professionally printed club magazines of today a bit naff, I still have a few copies in the loft and most of my content on disc. My Stepson is involved in producing a freebie car mag which is coffee table quality, just shows how times have changed. ;)

I guess what I am writing here is a diary on the truck in reality, a bit of interest to those who have a similar vehicle and the information may help someone overcome a problem.
 
:lol Thanks, that's cheered me up no end! :thumb2 I did a write up on building my V8 Manta in the 90's that was printed in the owners club magazine, originally an offshoot of the Opel Manta Owners Club that became a separate entity in it's own write for V8 powered cars. From that hand written piece I was asked to contribute on a bi-monthly basis a column for the magazine as they were desperate for content and back then I was not computer literate. That led to me getting into computing to write the column and eventually producing the magazine in MS Word on a shoestring budget to help keep the club going.
It was nothing special other than A4 photocopies and compared to the professionally printed club magazines of today a bit naff, I still have a few copies in the loft and most of my content on disc. My Stepson is involved in producing a freebie car mag which is coffee table quality, just shows how times have changed. ;)

I guess what I am writing here is a diary on the truck in reality, a bit of interest to those who have a similar vehicle and the information may help someone overcome a problem.

Lovely background mate!!! I could tell :cool:

I do the exact same thing with my project threads as you may have already seen, it's so good to go from start to finish and see how far you've come, such a learning curve on the way :thumb2
 
A little update...... My Missus has been running the Terrano as her daily commute is a fraction of mine so I have the Vectra diesel weasel. She's lost a bit of confidence in the truck by spinning it 180° on the Billet roundabout, I was hardly surprised knowing how lively it is in the wet on the old tyres being SWB. I heard her telling someone about it in the pub and commented that she drives too fast in the wet and apparently the spin was in the dry!!:thumb2

I am starting a new job in early November that comes with a van so we don't desperately need two cars so the Terrano will be SORN'd at the end of October as the Mot and insurance are due on November 2nd.

Depending upon how the job goes and if I can thin the transport museum down to my bikes, her car and my mates V8 Manta by the new year I will keep the truck to do some off roading/camping with if possible. I still like the idea of a turbo and a track day too!
 
Well, after 3 months the new job started to become a ball ache so I’m off to pastures new and I need a daily driver so the Terrano is coming back out to play for a while. First job will be insurance, hopefully with a company that allows modifications then an Mot & Tax. It still starts and runs ok as I have moved it regularly over the past 3 months. I’m quite excited about driving it again!

EDIT:

Truck was insured in the week with planned modifications including suspension etc and a turbo. :) Mot'd and Taxed saturday so off to the new job on Monday. The roads were damp and I took advantage of the old tyres, LSD and short wheelbase around a few tight corners........
 
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After the excursion under an artic trailer on the M25 thanks to a muppet in a BMW X5, I have been devoid of a near side mirror. Add the piece of wood for a back left window it’s like a van without a mirror and negotiating the busiest section of the M25 is s chore so I had a rummage round for some temporary. I found a bike mirror from a pair bought back in the 80’s for a project Suzuki that were never fitted. A plate with three tapped holes and a bit of studding plus a spacer and I can see now, saved me buying a Land Rover mirror!
 

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After the excursion under an artic trailer on the M25 thanks to a muppet in a BMW X5, I have been devoid of a near side mirror. Add the piece of wood for a back left window it’s like a van without a mirror and negotiating the busiest section of the M25 is s chore so I had a rummage round for some temporary. I found a bike mirror from a pair bought back in the 80’s for a project Suzuki that were never fitted. A plate with three tapped holes and a bit of studding plus a spacer and I can see now, saved me buying a Land Rover mirror!

I've a pair of red mirrors off a 94 terrano if you need them
 
Elty and others have offered me electric ones but I have not had the time to search to see if there is wiring in the car for them or what would need adding. Are they manual?
 
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Elty and others have offered me electric ones but I have not had the time to search to see if there is wiring in the car for them or what would need adding. Are they manual?

I've sold the mirrors i had.
Still got the rear windows though:thumbs
 
Elty and others have offered me electric ones but I have not had the time to search to see if there is wiring in the car for them or what would need adding. Are they manual?

If you fit electric mirrors to a non electric mirror motor it just means that you push the glass to suite your view no problems, Rick
 
The exhaust started blowing last week and felt like the centre box as I could feel a blow around the joint so I left it to the weekend to fix. We'll on the way home Friday it started to sound like a banger racer so I stared investigating over the weekend fully expecting a quick repair or a bit of welding.

Although the centre box gasket was blowing the banger noises turned out to be the front pipe broken at the manifold 2 into 1 joint caused by the exhaust rubbers breaking.

What a bastard to get off. The 3 downpipe bolts refused to budge so I decided to take the exhsust manifold off to heat them up in situ and of course the EGR tube nut wanted a fight. With heat from the blow lamp I noticed the stainless tube to the EGR had a crack as the cherry red heat stopped in a diagonal line across the pipe, cue the grinder.

Now the manifold to head nuts, 7 off one stud sheared but manifold now loose in the engine bay. Heat the 3 nuts on the downpipe, 2 off 1 sheared, manifold now off.

The O2 sensor eventually came out with a bit of heat but the threads not great in the pipe. Grnder again to cut the downpipe to cat bolts then get the pipeout. Of course not, take the cat off to get a bit more room. Going one bolt, unable to get into the last bolt, the rustiest one of the lot. Try a spanner just in case and the bloody thing came undone!

Cat out, looks okay! Then I looked in the other end and it's melted. Hmm..... This is turning into a bad day in Bosnia. Try again to get the pipe out, just like a Chinese puzzle from a Christmas cracker. Gearbox crossmember out, front propshaft dropped down one end then a bit of fiddling and it's out.

I ordered some mounts and left the whole mess until I was in a better mood! Most of the rusty broken threads are done now and I'm part way through repairing the broken downpipe. After cutting the heatshield off I could see the 2 into 1 section was stainless steel so I decided to do a bit more than Mig welding the break and adding a strengthening gusset.

The weight of the system had twisted the pipe and broken next to the weld, a bit of heat and it pulled back into position so I cleaned it up and Tig welded the break and cracks then ground the welds back partially to add a strengthening plate over the break.

Luckily I had a piece of 2.5" stainless tube so I cut a short length in half and ran each half through the slip rolls to reduce their radius then attacked them with just about all my grinders and linisher to make 2 piece shallow cone. The Nissan stainless was hard work to get clean enough to Tig weld without reducing the tube diameter and weakening it. While i was at it I cut the heatshield ears off to make refitting a little easier.

The broken pipe.
 

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Ready for Tig welding, ears removed.
 

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Looks like a nice repair, be aware the manifolds split, I think I have a good one someplace, but not sure, Rick
 
Thanks Rick, the cast-iron manifold is in excellent shape with very little sign of corrosion and the gasket faces are all good. Even the threads are good if you can get the steel out in one piece! The M10 x1.25 downpipe stud that sheared had enough left sticking out to weld an M12 nut to and get it moving back & forth, a dose of Plus Gas helped it out the rest of the way. I ran a tap through and couldn't believe how good the thread was, they must have used top quality cast iron.

Welded but not very pretty! I need to make something to hold tube for welding so I can rotate it and not drink beer after doing all the prep work.
 

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