86 Oem Restoration

[ben_r1 0]

Welcome to my 205 project thread.

 

The car is a ph1 205 gti 1.6 1986 model. This is my second project car atm taking priority over the sierra which is more of a long term project.

 

The car was purchased in Jan 2011 with the intention, here comes the joke, to be used as a daily runabout, being as i find 'normal' cars tediously boring to the point of anger lol. Its an iconic french hot hatch and exactly the reason i had my heart set on one.

 

Car history:

 

Its previously owner had been in possession of the car for 5 years and in that time, its fair to say, he didnt show it any mercy. The car was stripped and bucket seated up and spent its entire career with him as an offroad track car until the original 1.6 unit blew up on him. In his workshop it sat amongst other competition cars for a couple of years, an empty shell, until he decided to get it running up again as a trackday car. For this he found an 80k later 1990 spec more powerful 1.6 engine to replace the dead lump. However after fitting he lost time and space for it as the bodywork was suffering so up for sale it went.... as the story went anyway.

 

The car was bought for the low sum of £500 with four bald tyres and only the interior he could find, massively incomplete. But alas the drivers seat was bolted in and seatbelt fitted so i could get it home at least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A nice suprise hiding behind this:

 

 

Watch space for pic heavy updates, im a little ahead of this work so will post a new update every so often to get the project upto date on here.

 

Thanks for reading.

[ben_r1 0]

Engine Issues:

 

Okay the car has been run around for a few days and its evident theres is catastrophic coolant leak, dumping an entire systems worth in aound 100 easy going miles.

 

The car was inspected for the leak and it was soon obvious the leak was coming from the head gasket on the right side of the block, bad times indeed.

 

This was confirmed by this mess found in the oil filler neck:

 

 

 

So the head gasket has blown? Before any work was decided it was time to give the engine a full inspection to see what im up against:

 

The jet washer was cracked out and the engine cleaned as best i could, including a massively oil covered diff casing

 

 

Now shiney and clean:

 

The oil leak was thanks to a leaking camshaft seal hidden behind the distributor, all the more reason to rip it out:

 

 

The head is now going to be taken out.

[pugpete1108 62 1 Cars]

ouch 500 notes for a car with that amount of rust and a fubared engine...

 

still a good little project for you

 

my graphite one has gone in exactly the same place. not quite as bad as that tho.

[Richie 32]

Glad to see someone is saving a phase 1. Good luck finding your interior bits, they are a bit of a pain to get hold of. It needs orange front indicators too, i think its only right on the early cars, but probably the least of your concerns right now Look forward to the updates buddy.

[ben_r1 0]

Thanks for comments chaps, glad to see someones actually reading my ramblings lol

 

Stripping of the engine then began:

 

Intake manifold removed

 

To gain access to the lower section of the cambelt and the tensioner the wheel had to be removed and arch linings stripped down, then two coolant hoses removed plus alot of plastic covering:

 

 

The cambelt was finally removed:

 

 

Back on top and an hour or so later:

 

 

 

 

New head bolts, gasket and water pump were ordered from peugeot, expensive! Whilst there it was decided to do a basic cylinder head rebuild consisting of stem seals and adjusting the tappets via the shim system.

 

Head to be stripped down next.

[ben_r1 0]

The cylinder is to be stripped down and rebuilt with new studs, seals and gaskets along with a skim as a precaution and to raise compression slighlty, no wapring is evident.

It will then be reshimmed by a professional as its abit of a black art with all the calculations and peugeot have seized production on the shims so they are as rare as gold dust, and just as expensive.

 

I've also been toying with the idea of a fast road camshaft. The head is of the later 1990 model so already incorporates the larger valves and better flowing ports, result!

 

Head retrieved from storage lol:

 

Parts stripped off:

 

 

 

Thermostat housing removed but the gasket refused to budge, requiring some good old graft to clean up:

 

 

Alot of emery cloth and an hour later:

 

 

Edited August 18, 2011 by ben_r1

[ben_r1 0]

Still too untidy though:

 

 

Much better, halfords high temp paint FTW:

 

Great finish:

 

 

 

Next job is to sneak the head into the warm house, ideally the bedroom so i can work on it of an evening instead of just weekends.

 

Updates Soon!

[maturin23 10]

Excellent - you've got a good project there

 

Keep the updates coming!

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Good luck with it, one piece of advise I would not buy things like water pumps and service items from the Peugeot dealer as they are very very expensive, and good quality replacements can be had for much less outlay from other sources.

[Eliganza 2]

Saw this project on cliosport.net, good work all the same

[ben_r1 0]

A quick update whilst i have time.

 

Been massively committed to work at the moment so havent had time to work on the old girl much, but heres what i have managed to do since last update:

 

I managed to get the head in the bedroom and can now work on in during the evenings after work as light and weather arent issues:

 

I had to pick this tool up specially as the valve spring compressor i have for work didnt fit around the 205's rather large head! £45 later and we're cooking on gas:

 

Valves removed from the head:

 

 

The valves were, as i predicted anyway, absolutely caked with 80,000 miles of carbon. It only seemed polite to clean it off whilst i was there. If, however, i'd realised just how much of a fight it'd put up i probaly wouldnt have bothered.

This has been the nightmare of my life for 2 hours everynight for 7 days now. Thank god its only an 8 valve!!!

 

Process consisted of bathing the valves in Hammerite rust remover for 2 days:

 

 

I also tried vinegar as theres an old wifes tale of cleaning knackered lambda sensors back into life with a vinegar bath, turned out to be a waste of good condiment:

 

 

Then i went to town on them with different degrees of emery cloth, starting at 60 and finishing at 1200 for that smooooooth finish to aid all that airflow over them

 

 

 

Edited August 27, 2011 by ben_r1

[ben_r1 0]

Few updates from this afternoon as i got off work early so seized the oppotunity as im working the weekend too

 

Committment for you, as this is what i had to work in today:

 

Today i mainly concentrated on a few odd jobs i had been putting to one side, mainly down in the arch.

Firstly as im changing the water pump, precautionary as its run by the cambelt so makes sense to whilst its stripped down, the gasket also made a mess of the sealing surface here too, so required a massive clean up.

 

Required alot of emery cloth, been through a trees worth since i started the project:

 

Came up clean and smooth eventually though, no pre work pictures sorry:

 

 

Should seal nicely now once i've made a fresh gasket for it. Protected it from the elements until shes ready to be put back together:

 

Also went about changing the crankshaft seal whilst i was in the arch.

 

Old seal removed, note the oil pump behind:

 

 

New seal fitted:

 

 

Unfortunately broke the lower cambelt pulley trying to lever it off

 

 

£12 off ebay and another one to replace on its way

 

Thats all for now, thanks.

[ben_r1 0]

Quick update, got the parts in the clio and down to the head specialist today for its rebuild.

 

Cant really progress any further until i've recieved the head back so just collecting parts for now and taking a short break from spending every spare minute of my life working on it lol. Hopefully should be ready for collection next weekend so car can be rebuilt weekend after

 

Parts all boxed up for transport:

 

 

 

Parts for the rebuild are being delivered on a daily basis so collecting up now, spent well over 1k on parts alone so far:

 

 

Until next time

 

Ben.

[MiniGibbo 142]

Car looks good, should be a nice example when you bring it back to life!!

[ben_r1 0]

So with still no news on this illusive cylinder head, i decided this project could not grind to a halt like so many before. As most of you would know when momentum is lost on a project it almost always means the end of it.

 

So got my arse in gear and decided to tackle the trickiest of the jobs... Quatre panel rust!!!

 

Got my brother round who is a professional bodywork technician, so got the job on the cheap

 

One days progress, from this:

 

 

To this:

 

 

Obviously the colour isnt a match as its only primered for now, being sprayed tomorrow as sunlight run out on us.

 

Professional bodyshops assured me another 205 panel would be required but we did the work from an off cut of a scrap Laguna door i had in the back garden, result.

 

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sneaky shot of my bros mini, Immaculate of course:

 

[Sinbad 16]

Good work mate,keep it going.Im going through a full engine build so this is inspiring for me.

[sensualt101 31 1 Cars]

i just read through and am impressed! nice to see a phase 1 being brought back to life and i am loving that you are keeping it as a 1.6 exactly as i am with mine though mines a 92' phase 2. i have had to repair both lower sills beside the rear wheels too although the rot was not as bad as yours but i did it anyway! i look forward to more updates as it seems you havent posted for a while? keep up the good work fella!

[cybernck 400 1 Cars]

Any updates on this?