Right, after the best part of 14 months, I finally have my car back!
I shipped it off down to Munich Legends last February after the 'not starting' issue became untenable, and it also needed an MOT. The initial fault finding inspection revealed that the obvious issues had been down to an iffy fuel pick up, 'not too bad' I thought.
... however, it also revealed a slight noisy bottom end and a compression issue on one of the cylinders. In an attempt to rectify the knocking from the bottom end, new bearing shells were fitted, then an inspection of the top end revealed some damage to the block. This engine had originally failed at about 35,000 miles, and had received the usual replacement steel liners from a somewhat well known source. This fact was why I was more comfortable in buying this specific car, rather than most of the others I'd looked it.
It transpires though, that these had not been fitted properly and remained proud of the block by a fraction. This had put excessive stress on the head gasket, which had ended up blowing through, into the block material, which was consequently getting eaten by the combustion.
The liners were removed, the block cold sprayed and re-decked to repair the damage, and new, bespoke, liners were drawn up and fitted. These liners are of an interlocking design to remove any chance of movement further down line. There was also damage to one of the valve seats, which was replaced.
All up (including the MOT, which didn't require any other work), the bill was not insignificant - around £9000. To be fair to ML, they'd been considerate of the economics of the project, and taking them at their word, invested more time into it than was invoiced. Stuart at ML is also an Si owner, with one of his being in the workshop when I collected mine. Given one of the problems with this car is finding a mechanic that actually knows what they're dealing with, it's worth the 300 mile round trip for this reason alone.
Some interesting stuff in the show room too..
E9 and a Turbo...
M1 restoration...
It did take a while, which was a little frustrating, mostly because of worries about the costs potentially spiralling out of control, but since my clutch knee's been banjaxed for months I wouldn't have been able to drive it much earlier anyway. One way or the other, very glad to have it back, and it definitely runs like new, for a high-revving four it is absolutely buttery smooth all the way up the rev range - well... to 4,500 anyway, I'm not taking it higher until it's got another couple of hundred miles run in on it... but it was always good above 5k... should be better now!
Next jobs; get the wheels refurbed properly, get the rear bumper repainted, find a way of integrating a bluetooth display for the live diagnostics - still paranoid about temps
