Bit of an update... done a few bits over the last couple of days.
New radiator arrived from Alyn. Shiny
And fitted up with fans after giving them a clean.
Went with the blob one with the rad cap as it was available quickly. I thought it was just a hose tweak (Alyn threw in a t-piece and length of hose to do the job) but now realised the metal overflow pipe that runs along the top of the radiator fouls the cap
Could bend it but it seems a bit fragile and don't want to create a tiny crack/weakness so need a blob equivalent. Anyone got one spare kicking around? Otherwise will pop into JPP before the weekend.
So... on with the oil leak. Always suspected this was caused by a bad seal between modine and engine block, so removed the modine hard pipe first. Old vs new:
And once out the way, modine removed and O ring replaced
Looks clean enough above so hopefully it was just a failed O ring and job done. Now all re-fitted with a new oil filter. Topped up oil (only lost about half a litre removing filter/modine) and its only about 500 miles old so didn't do a full change.
Also noticed that the heatwrap on my uppipe had nearly all gone, was obviously not very good stuff as it had all gone brittle and split - sections (basically anything not under a steel tie) had disappeared! It'd been on the car for 8 or 9 years though. Had some decent wrap spare so with the car in the air, looked at the options of wrapping it in situe. What a pig of a job, but its done. Combination of access from underneath by removing nearest header heatshield, and from behind the subframe (arm inserted through gap above the driveshaft), whilst the old man helped from above (airbox removed). Still preferable to taking turbo out to remove uppipe though, as that's another fairly big job in itself... you can see it freshly wrapped on right hand side (ignore the rusty oem headers!)
Hopefully get her back on the ground and running this weekend!
