the engine thing ... putting the thread to bed

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:18 pm

LogIK wrote:Yeah, those are the ones that I was after. Got my dad to go in while I was in work and he rang me back to tell me they had told him they can no longer stock KS parts due to licencing reasons, or something along those lines. Sod's law basically.

I've just found that out as well, Andy. The AAU and 3F rings are a different part to the rest of the 1272cc engines. How odd!

Might not be quite so odd, the other 1272cc engines are lower compression than the AAU/3F, well - that's the only reason I can think of! Unless it's related to the pistons in the 3F not sitting flush with the deck of the block, and the AAU's the same.

Anyways, the link I posted on Porka should help as they're supposed to be the UK Agents for KS.

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:13 pm

I don't think it's to do with the positioning of the pistons, as the HZ pistons also protrude slightly at TDC. Suppose it must be the higher compression.. very odd that GSF don't list seperate parts though.

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:58 pm

I'm not surprised that GSF are wrong, they're sometimes a bit dodgy on GT/G40 parts - e.g. they list totally the wrong plugs for the G40. Just one of those things I guess!

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:50 pm

What the heck are KS parts? Just the people who make GSFs cheap stuff, or a whole manufacturing category?

Ugh. Anymahow. There go three working / etc days i hope not to revisit. Feel kind of dead. Got absolutely nothing done as i've more or less come home at stupid o'clock, had dinner, and crashed out (well ok, tuesday, i went pub, needed to up seriously up my beer quotient before i keeled over). And to top it off, just as i was about to get started on some stuff this evening (after a recuperative 20.. um, 30... no, 45

minute lie down), turns out our mains water has gone off. For the entire street if not further. A major pipe must have split somewhere. Meaning our only fresh water in the house is in the toilet cisterns and so using stuff for oily-hand washing or rinsing off cleaning materials etc (and work-fuelling cups of tea) is strictly forbidden. Grrr.

What i'm kind of driving at is sorry for absence, and, i'm not sure if i have the energy to do anything more than this post tonight. Outdoors, neighbours are congregating and society sounds like it's about to rip apart after a whole hour without fresh water. I beleive i heard a couple of them just discussing who they were first going to kill and drink the blood of.

Don't know about the journals and the like ... maybe it's just as well i've been forced to down tools mere seconds after picking them up, so i can figure out if i've missed something?

Thanks for the offer groovy, i'm thinking hard on it. Seems a bit incestuous and liable to lawsuits if it blows up

but hey, any goal counts so long as the ball hits the net. They'd be ok to refresh the tax and MOT on it not long after buying, right?? (seeing as it'd be kwalitey™ german engineering at a knock-down price... the engine size and number of gear ratios notwithstanding

)

EDIT: Sounds like the water may now be back on, but only out of the hosepipe. Either that or my mum's been secretly on the beers and now has a urine stream that could cut through steel like a laser. Too bad it's 10.30pm...

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:02 am

Urgh. Good luck with the water.. mains pipe burst at the top of our street a couple of months back, luckily the water wasn't off for too long and we got by on bottles from the village shop, but when it did return they had to quadruple the chlorine levels to make sure it was clean, and it smelt and tasted foul. And it had grit in it from where the pipe had burst under the road

Not pleasant.

As for my car seeking friend, I can't imagine she'd worry if it blew up.. this is the friend of mine who drove into a bollard the first time she took me for a ride in her old metro, and told me "Oh don't worry, I always do that!"

Legend of a car that metro was.. got through it's final MoT with an exhaust repaired with a baked bean can and a couple of notes slipped in the tester's direction.. it's starring feature was the cassette player that would only play Meatloaf and in double time - Bat out of Hell, chipmunks style

Obviously I won't blame you if you say you want it to go to someone with slightly less of a tendancy to drive into things, but at least I'd be able to make sure she at least keeps it in one piece, and gets it serviced from time to time

Just a thought really anyway.

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 3:54 pm

Tahrey1043 wrote:What the heck are KS parts? Just the people who make GSFs cheap stuff, or a whole manufacturing category?

KS = Kolben Schmidt, part of the Motor Service International group that incorporates Pierburg as well.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:01 am

Not sure!!

Seeing how cut up my mum was to find her panda wrapped round a lamp post a week after reluctantly selling it (to a workmate's daughter)

then again if she'd just had to shell to MOT and tax it (Â£150 right there, on top of a cursory amount for the vehicle), besides insurance, might be a bit more careful?
Don't suppose she's looking for a polo because she hit one thing too many in the metro and the last of the far-too-few welds gave out and it did a good impression of a clowns car?

i dunno. get the feeling that if i ever get this sh*t finished i might not care about it's final fate any more!

the water came out nice and brown....... then yellow with what was quite plainly brick dust in it (which is how we finally knew it was a bust pipe, not an empty reservoir). stayed yellow for ages - in fact, that was probably the extra chlorine, if i remember chemistry class right. Just left the taps run slowly overnight. Nuts to the water table and the shortage.

Mum had some of the still-a-bit-yellow stuff to do teeth and have as waking-up-thirsty sippage. Didn't look in the best of health next day... Serves her for only giving it a cursory boil - and then ripping into me both for wanting to hold the switch down on the kettle for a good minute and let it settle out in the cup for fifteen afterwards, and for having the devil-given insane urge to do something so inherently dangerous as lift the lid off the cistern of an unflushed toilet (seriously, she seemed to think the world would end) to scoop out some water to wash hands with after flushing a different one and finding out we were dry.

(would have been happy just to go up to the 24hr tesco and scare up some 5 litre bottles of value spring water for all of 37p a bottle (think thats what it was priced at today), but no - that would have been too easy. far better to stand outside and chinwag over who has and hasnt got an attic tank or stored vs on-demand hot water.. god!)

wonder how the rest of the summer's going to go... only last night the news was bleating on about how we were heading for a summer of dessicated reservoirs and army trucks towing tanks of desalinated H2O. then the storm FINALLY broke on the midlands early this morning.
living in birmingham's GREAT. all we have to deal with is the trains going cocko and the occasional oversized puddle or shorted substation. the place is built on far too much brick and concrete, and is at too high an elevation, to worry about floods, landslips, etc..

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:03 am

She's looking for a new car because she flipped the metro on a wet corner last year and wrote it off.. luckily none of the 5 people in the car got hurt, somehow.. but unfortunately being flipped onto it's roof and careering through a couple of road signs was just the last straw for poor old 'Alan'

Still, I think it really shook her up, she's paranoid of taking corners too fast now, and I think she's quite a bit less 'gung-ho' in her attitude towards driving, so I think her next car may stand a better chance of survival. I'll have to ask her what she thinks really, ideally she wants enough tax/MoT to get her through the summer at least, but we shall see.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:57 pm

in that case, mot goes aug 1st and tax aug 31st......

might take a quick walk along to the tool shop see if they're open saturdays

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 9:05 pm

B0LL0CKS!

Wish i had time to put an illustrative picture here instead, but... looks like i'll be getting on to ECP or that Porka link (don't suppose you could copy it into this thread at all please?)

Basically - they don't fit an AAU either. Not at all. Like a half millimetre too thick. Could try sanding them down or something but it would take forever and be a really rubbish solution in any case.

GAAAAAAAH. Doesn't help that all the shizzle i had to do today made me too late for any of this type of shop. Hope it's an internet / phone selling friendly stockist.

*grumble, moan*

BTW, the pistons in the AAU fit flush with the top of the block at TDC, or at least, their highest points do as they're not flat.
And although the keyboard on this toshiba laptop i'm using (quickest boot out of all PCs in the house - im off to work soon) feels really naff and horrid when you first type on it, it's possibly the best one i've ever used for touch typing. Really, really, really fast!

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Sat Jul 02, 2005 10:13 pm

Aw bugger

Well, Logik managed to track some down for his 3F eventually, I'm sure you'll manage to get your hands on a set..

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 6:30 pm

bloody thing's gonna be out of mot by the time i'm done with this (like, i wanna have a holiday this year

) and i bet something will come up to fail it then.....

time to do a porka search

LogIK · Post by **LogIK** » Sun Jul 03, 2005 9:17 pm

What an arse that is. I had to get mine from my machinest in the end. He sourced then from Germany.

I've now got the engine fully assembled and back in the car, only to find out that the twats at GSF have given my the wrong Big-End bearings as well and they're knocking like a b***h.

I'm so gutted and pissed off at the same time.

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 12:51 am

Ach.. let me guess, they sent standard bearings and you've had the crank re-ground? Sounds like GSF

Not what you want when you fire up the engine after a rebuild

LogIK · Post by **LogIK** » Mon Jul 04, 2005 1:42 pm

Nope, crank hasn't been re-ground. The journals were absolutely perfect and all on their upper tollerances, hence why it wasn't re-ground.

I got the shells from GSF, as I only needed standard ones to go back, but I have a funny feeling that they have given me MK4 shells (as they gave me MK4 Piston Rings as well.)

I'm annoyed at the whole thing, but there's not much point worrying about it. Either way, the engine is going to have to be stripped again and the correct bearings fitted.