Hi. I bought this S2 ERST about 3 weeks ago off my nan. She had owned it from new and as it has been sat in the garage for about 2 years she decided to sell it as it needs quite a bit of work. I have always loved this car so when it came up I sold my rover coupe turbo for £1250 and bought this for £850.Now i wonder what i let myself in for!!!!
As my nan is the only owner, it is completely original with the only change being the stereo (which i fitted for her about 3 years ago!).
When she bought it she opted not to have the recaros (as she is getting on!!!).
I paid her the money and went to drive it away. being my nan, i didnt even think to test drive it and as soon as I started it i wondered what i let myself in for!!! I couldnt get it to start!!!! My nan said you need to crank it for a bit with your foot to the floor. So after that i managed to get it going!!! However drove it the 5 miles home and it was spluttering,hesitating,burning & fuel smelling,no power and clutch slipping and basically drove like a piece of shit!!!! What had i done!!!!
The outside looks very good condition. I believe it had a respray a few years ago and they even put the original grafix back on (though a bit wonky!!!). However, i didnt look underneath.......
I went through all the old mots (got all of them) and found that on the majority of them it had some welding work done. Chassis legs, crossmembers,floorpans,boot floors,arches, you name it it had been welded.And not parts replaced, just patches. And finally looking under the car I saw that the welding was crap!!!! Messy and horrible looking!!!
So I had bought a rot box,crap running but looked good on the outside!!!
The next day I booked it in to have an immobiliser fitted (bearing in mind that my nan had previously had a shitty alarm fitted that didnt even work and lost the fob to anyway!). £130 later and a cobra cat2 was fitted. the fitter said he had never seen an RS so original with no bodgy wiring. At least that was a good thing!!
I went on various websites and asked a few questions on getting the car running better.After a bit of digging around i had managed to sort the bad starting by unplugging the cold start valve. As its rarely needed I have not replaced it as it starts 1st time without any throttle.
I also managed to get hold of another fuel pump relay that I knew needed sorting for £15 off a forum member so that sorted that too.
Next, as i had a spare tenner i got a set of new plugs and put them in. The old ones looked ok but thought id replace them anyway. Didnt really help the running but now i know they are done.
I also managed to get hold of a set of recaros (in 88 spec) to go with the rear seats and trim from a forum member for £40 so cleaned them up and fitted them too. They are not concours condition but look very good and feel alot better - like a proper rs!!!!
Today Ive fitted a boost gauge and tried to sort out the no boost problem. I took off all the turbo hoses and checked them over then retightened them all up. no splits or leaks there. I then checked the amal valve. No clicking when unplugging and plugging it in so thought it could be dodgy. Checked the voltage and found only 5v getting to the valve. Furthur fault finding and i found that the earth was bad to the valve. So i ran a temporary new earth to the amal valve and now its boosting as it should to about 8-10psi.
Just got to sort the hesitant acceleration and it should be running fine then!!!
Ive found that the clutch seems to be alot better than what it was so wondering if there is a small oil leak into the clutch (for instance, when i 1st drove it it hadnt been drove for years so oil could have built up - now ive been driving it more, it doesnt slip as bad at all).
Next up is to get it motd to see what it fails on (due end of nov but tax runs out end of month so will get it done there). There is a local mot place that do an mot and if it fails its free.
Ive taken the car around a few garages and alot of them refused to srt the welding as too far gone, but i have found a guy who said he would sort what he could see for £150 + painting costs. He advised to wait until the mot to see what else needs doing.
Plans for it is:
Remove Grafix (needs to come off anyway for welding and panel work)
Sort out hesitant running issue
Replace clutch (got a new one to fit anyway)
Sort out loose gear linkage
Get welding sorted, strip it completely (except engine and running gear) and stone chip or smooth hammerite everything to stop any more rust.Also get delocked for below.
While stripped fit new stereo system,alarm & central locking system
When running great with standard kit then time to up the power:
Uprated ECU/Chip
Uprated Actuator (-31 should be fine) - apparently can run about 15psi safely.
Rebuild head (may stick a better cam in and get it ported a bit)
Uprate front brakes to cosworth
May Uprate rear brakes to discs too with goodridge all round
Uprate exhaust to a nice sounding stainless
As long as it looks good and has about 180bhp then i will be happy!!!
Heres a pic at the mo: (will update as more things are done with more detail)
