here's how the car looked when i got her.




not long after having the car the exhaust suddenly sounded like a tank which i found the culprit lol

i fitted a new back box which was an after market item which i regretted instantly as it knocked all the time. i found a custom longlife back box which i fitted and was instantly better and a nice burble from it too.
the wheels where a bit chavvy for my liking so wacked on a set of the BBS's

i dont think the car had been maintained properly for a while as the oil was blacker than black and it was the same for the auto box fluid. i changed the oil and filters on both which then i had an oil leak on the engine after doing it. the gear changes where loads smoother after the auto box oil change too.
i found the culprit after some investigation. damn oil filter housing.

so proceeded to remove it to fit the new gasket and seal on the housing.

cleaned up the mating surfaces on the housing.

if anyone's is reading this with a m40 engine be worth changing the gasket if it hasn't already been done as they go hard brittle and leak. but the main thing is the top oil way drain galley from the oil filter housing was blacked solid of crap on mine. i spent 20 mins cleaning it out on the bloack and the housing its self. i didnt get a photo before but the photo underneath will show what i mean after its cleaned as its the galley at the top between the two bolt holes. no wonder these engines are prone for failure.


months later my auto box decides to keep getting stuck in first :/ and getting worse every day but luckly i have been gathering parts for the manual conversion so i bit the bullet and took the car of the road.
got the car jacked up


getting the engine ready to take it out for the manual conversion yea i could done it in situ but i thought sod it take it out lol

took the auto gear stick out and disconnected it

finally got there now time to take it out



immediately took of the auto box. my god that things weighs more than the engine lol


drained the new manual box ready for fresh oil and changed the out put shaft and gear linkage seals whilst i was there



i made sure the engine was a 1.8 .

i took of the auto flywheel ready for the manual one. also gave the engine a bit of a clean whilst i was there.


fitting the manual flywheel and new sachs clutch with the spigot bearing.


i put the engine back in after mating the manual box with the engine and sort the reverse switch and linkage with the new support for it.


i sorted the wiring and it started back up nicley

had a major issue once i started driving the manual box sounded awful :/ did like 15 miles and had to take the gearbox off and fit a new one. i found the reason it went as the input shaft was the wrong size as the first box looked like it was a 240 from a 2.0 so the spigot bearing wasnt supporting the input shaft properly. once the correct box was fitted its been fine since well so far anyway lol ive done 8k since i fitted it.

i did some well deserved TLC changed the dizzy cap, rotor arm and the voltage regulator in the alternator which i think i did at the right time


well this kinda happened lol

got it at a good price for reasons below lol







more stuff to come.


