Time to turn our attention to the engine bay. As you can see, it was rather dusty and tired looking
So who better to call upon than forum member Teflon and his excellent skills with a polishing mitt.
Cliff came over on two separate occasions and got to work straight away on all of the black plastic components, pipe work, and metal surfaces. His fine brushes and detailing experience working wonders on the 1.8 NA power plant, I've never seen a man happier in his work.
One thing we both agreed on was that there is plenty of space to work in, on these 1.8 engines, in stark contrast to the BMW M47R or Rover KV6 derivatives.
Slowly but surely the transformation started as a beautiful swan began to emerge from an ugly duckling (OK, a bit of artistic licence there
)
One thing you might notice now you can see it from under the grime, is that on the earlier cars the battery strap retaining bolt is huge. It's long enough to stretch right up to the top of the battery box lid, which makes it so much easier to tighten and loosen than the later type that as we all know has to be dropped down to the base of the battery box floor in order to do up. It's a shame they didn't retain this original design.
Also, worth noting is the fact that the coolant expansion tank is not black plastic as was the case for many of the early cars, we don't know if this was replaced at some point with a later cream tank, or whether it was original to the car.
