Mightymetro

I’m not sure you can feed the oil hose through once it’s up there but I’m not 100% sure

Thanks all. I think SJ sell the Renault branded stuff. wish me luck trying to reassemble the gearbox

What’s the current favoured sealant to use when re assembling the. Gearbox cases?

Fingers crossed for you Ian. I teach a driving instructors child and he has had to stop. My wife who can only drive an auto was going to take advantage of his cancellations to try manual but now he has stopped it means the esprit is still safe

I’ve just given a first FaceTime lesson. It’s not too bad as it is a long term pupil and we have a great rapport but might be difficult with the younger ones. Let’s see how it goes

Well, no piano teaching for me for a bit. No support seems to be forthcoming at this time for the self employed that will make a difference. Have told them I have a V8 esprit so hoping they take pity

I just had mine powder coated and they said it was flat silver . He wanted to knowing I wanted them like the new cars are with a slight sparkle but I said no to try keep them original

Brilliant, thanks Mike

Does anyone have a driveshaft insertion tool I could maybe rent from them for the UN1 box? thought I would ask before buying one

Problem is, if it breaks down the recovery service won’t pick it up. I’m not questioning Mikes work, it’s the 2 years of standing and my own work that I don’t trust Towing test is about £800 . And my car isnt heavy enough to tow over 2000kg which is less than the trailer and esprit i could just buy a transporter but I don’t have the funds available after this episode

Ah, here is the problem. I don’t have a car with a tow bar and the car is t heavy enough to tow an esprit and a trailer and I’m only a baby so unfortunately I’m not allowed to tow a trailer as I passed in 1999 and after 1997 you must take a trailer test. the car also has no Mot , which means I can’t tax it and with it laid up for 2 years in bits I don’t want to have an issue on the way home as I can’t get breakdown cover if the car doesn’t have tax / mot knew I should have bought that v8 before you did

Hi All, after more let downs I’m now in the position that I can no longer get my car over to Mike S who is rebuilding my engine due to not being able to hire the transporter and I just cannot trust a Shiply company to move the car as my insurance won’t cover it and it’s £2200 for a reputable company to take her over and the same to get her back, So....... how do-able is Refitting the engine by myself. My main issue is that it wasn’t me who removed it so I have no idea of where things route, what connects where , what, if anything, needs connecting while the engine is half way in etc (little tips like when I fitted engines in my old race metro it was easier to put the rear hoses on with the engine half in as access in situ was a right pain). I’ve got the parts diagrams and from what I can see to get the engine in situ is lining it up with the 2 engine and 2 gearbox mounts. Mike S has been really good over the last few months, especially taking on a half cooked project and having messed him around regarding the car coming and going etc he still helps out loads with advice etc but I feel like I’m taking the piss a bit with all my questions so thought I would ask the wider world ive ordered a long reach 2 ton engine hoist and am hoping to pick the engine up complete with turbos etc attached providing it will fit in an Alfa 159 estate thanks all

I took mine out the same way but the new radiator is pretty heavy and I was struggling to find a way to keep the radiator in place while o got the duct in place without damaging it. it also looked a bit of a pain to line the radiator up once in position so this way made it much easier in my opinion

Steve at SJ said the parts diagram was wrong and there wasn’t an alloy isolator . Maybe they were going to and decided against it so kept with my rubber one

Finally have it all fitted back, what an absolute cock about. I did manage it by myself in the end with some wood as chocking and a jack. Also note that luckily I don’t have a chargecooler radiator or air con so it was a bit lighter. However, now I know exactly how I did it I’m much more confident doing it all again. Turned out the new radiator had the frame on wrong which delayed a bit while I head scratched!!!!!!! Heres a rough guide I went for a new three core radiator which had the frame included. I replaced the top and bottom foam with closed cell foam to stop water retention. I think the top one was 50mm x 50mm and the bottom one was 30mm x 30mm (the top wedges to the underside of the body but the bottom one doesn’t touch the bottom of the radiator tray as I guess the gap is for water to run out). I fitted Spal fans to the original abs fan shroud as can be seen in an earlier thread. Don’t know if I just caught a break or lots of luck but they fit back up in the gap without hitting the radiator braces but there’s only a couple of mm clearance. If you bolted straight to the rad frame I’m sure you would have loads of room anyhow, here’s the order I refitted with pictures. Bear in mind my front bumper is still fitted and you could maybe fit it complete if you removed it’s 1 - bolted the radiator into the radiator tray / duct with the 2 x m6 bolts and put thread lock on the top bolt but not on the bottom one as I had to remove this later to fit the oil cooler ducts 2 - fed the oil cooler cross pipe through the radiator duct and then put the inner half of the oil cooler ducts onto the pipe so they are next to the main duct but leave them loose and only held on by the pipe. If you fasten them to the radiator duct with the bottom m6 bolt I struggled to get clearance when lifting. 3 - fasten the chassis to radiator duct (triangle) brackets into the radiator duct through the slotted hole. Tighten them loosely as you need to be able to move them side to side. I tried fitting with these fastened to the car but it didn’t leave enough room to lift the rad pack 4 - slide the rad pack under the car and push it roughly into position. I then lifted each side 50mm at a time and kept using wood to pack it up. 2 people really would make this much easier. It’s quite tight past the fog lights but it is do able. I was too far committed to drop it again but if you could remove them it would really help with clearance. 5 - I got the top of the triangle radiator support bracket bolts in first on both sides and then gently jacked the radiator duct up checking for any obstructions until you can get the bottom bolt through (the one that shares the ARB clamp bolt) Careful with the L/H water hose as the thinner pipe goes through the triangle bracket. Initial I went over the top and it ended up getting trapped 6 - put bolts through the under bonnet area to the duct underneath and got it all fastened up. I needed another pair of hands to help with a couple of them as I couldnt reach above and below the car 7- back under the car and undo the bottom M6 bolt that fastens the radiator to the duct and move the half oil cooler duct that had the hose though it and bolt it together. I used threadlock this time 8- get the other half of the oil cooler duct and put it in place and fasten the two half’s together. I used plastic push rivets which I think is what Lotus use. Easy to get out then if you need to remove 9 - put the central bumper duct in place and fasten it to the radiator duct using the 3 central bolts and 2 up under the bumper / body at each end 10 - refit the oil coolers and pipe up ive still got to fit the under trays but they look pretty straight forward and I have replaced the foam on these for some closed cell foam