Post #129
Time to get this thread back up to speed! At the end of 2018 My wife decided she wanted to change career and start her own dog grooming business from home. Which, given it was a complete voyage into the unknown doing it from home meant that she could quickly find out if she liked it or not, and if it was going to be profitable without a huge amount of investment. However, it did mean that being the supportive husband I am (!?), I had to give up the garage and the Rallye’s home for a length of time. So I moved it back to my parents house in Leicestershire but on the 2hr drive home it overheated twice and looked like it was burning oil. In the 11 years of ownership it had never overheated, so I knew something was properly wrong, and I’d noticed it was using a bit more oil than usual a few weeks previous.
After diagnosing that it was a blown head gasket, and lacking in time and space I got the Rallye recovered and sent down to the guys at Pug1Off to be repaired. While there my man maths brain went into overdrive…..What else would make sense to do while the engines apart? I went from a full engine rebuild with throttle bodies and solid lifters (argh, the sound!) all the way to just replacing the engine (I don’t need anymore power do I, I just need something reliable to get laps in!). So, while I’m saving for a cage, and as with most life choices I ended up somewhere in the middle with a cylinder head rebuild, Catcams 4903106 and a Pug1Off remap which I thought gave the most bang for the buck. During the rebuild Matthew said that there looked like there was some staining in the bottom of two of the cylinders where water had been sitting, and that it might need the bottom end looking in the future.
20190630_061417 by
Nick Buxton, on Flickr
When I picked up the Rallye I was really impressed with how it drove. Since I’d had it there had always been an issue with it getting bogged down at very low revs in high gears, and chugging. This was completely solved and it now excitedly revved so much freer all the way to 7,300rpm. It felt like a new engine and the uncorked potential it should have come with from the factory; in terms of spend Vs performance I’d highly recommend it. The engine now felt like it was brought up to the same level as the chassis and drivetrain.
The next big trip out for the Rallye was to Pugfest where Pug1Off very kindly asked me to join their stand. It’s been a few years since I’d been so I was happy to get back there with a fully functioning car that I was happy with.
20190630_131726 by
Nick Buxton, on Flickr
There were so many interesting cars there but here’s a handful of my favourites.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
The Spoox 205 really is something to behold.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Stef’s 205 is such a wonderful build. It was great to see it in real life again
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Nice to see Goldie.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
This guy has got a pretty good Instagram charting his build (axleblackjack)
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
After a couple of hours car perving I managed to get a slot on the weigh bridge that had been sneakily set up towards the top of the hill.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
I haven’t had it weighed since I’d removed some more interior and fitted the carbon bonnet and boot so I was interested to see what difference it had made. It was previously 1,075kg on the scales at Brands
20190630_182731 by
Nick Buxton, on Flickr
So if I believe both scales are correct I’d lost 20kg which I was pretty happy with. I think I had an extra ¼ tank of fuel on this occasion, but I’m not particularly chasing a goal weight (although being sub 1,000kg would be nice) so any added lightness is a win. What I thought was interesting was how balanced the car was in general; 51% cross weight. Has anyone else had theirs corner weighed like this? I’d be really interested in how it compares to other 306s.
The final highlight of the day was meeting Ben on the Pug1off stand who owns the 106 that won “Best 106 Rallye”. A very nice guy, and I spent a while talking cars and pouring over his 106 which was a very deserved winner of the award, it’s beautifully finished and maintained.
20190630_132840_HDR by
Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Given my plans for a rollcage as the next big evolutionary step for the Rallye, I paid close attention to his design, fit, finish and what he’d done to the rest of the car to make it feel so complete. It gave me lots of inspiration.
The weather for Pugfest was amazing and it made the drive home a joy but as we got closer to home the engine started getting noisier and noisier. The temperatures were good so I knew it wasn’t anything to do with the headgasket. It was the end of a long day so I didn’t know if my ears were playing tricks on me, I put it back in the garage and came back to look at it a few days later. Even after letting it warm up and enough oil circulate around the cam lifters and rest of the engine it was still tapping more than ever. It sounded more like a bottom end failure which was annoying given that the top end had just been apart, but not completely unexpected.
So off it went again back to Pug1Off to have it looked at. The eagled eye’d will also notice my tool box and matting out of the garage in the photo. After months of dog grooming in my precious garage I took the opportunity to give it a really deep clean with the jetwash
.
20190330_165240_HDR by
Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Matthew and Pug1Off indeed diagnosed piston slap on cylinder 3 and the big end starting to fail on 2 so it was torn down for machining, new sleeves, bearings, cambelt, waterpump and fluids. All to standard spec.
While the Rallye was away getting the work done I went to Caffeine & Machine in the M3 for the first time with some friends and family.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
If you haven’t been I’d highly recommend it if you get the chance, it is a wonderful place for any automotive geek. The founder describes it as a physical car forum, and it feels like it with an amazing array of cars, bikes and memorabilia. It’s one of those rare places you could take your misses or family members who aren’t really into cars and they’d enjoy it...and you get to indulge in more car perving.
When I got the Rallye back I had a very patient 120 miles of only 4,500rpm running-in to do, which I managed to get in across a couple of trips to see family, and a drive out with the local car club.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Despite not being able to drive it as spritedly as I would of liked it felt tight, fresh, and better than ever.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
With all the slow driving and time away from the Rallye I’d had some good time to consider what sort of cage would suit it. I couple of years ago I spoke quite seriously to JCWeld Fab about fitting a cage and I’d decided that, unlike most other parts on the car, I should invest in the best cage I could afford because A) it’s a safety device that needs to look after me and other occupants B ) it’s not modular, it’s part of the structure of the car that will be difficult to change in the future and C) the 306 isn’t a light car so any added weight needs to be kept to a minimum.
After a lot of website searching and forum reading I decided that a weld in, multipoint cage would be the safest and strongest option and T45 would keep the weight down. I also learnt during my second researching pass that JC Weld Fab had sadly closed, but Jonathan put me in touch with CustomCages and after some more backwards and forwards I settled on a 306 Challenge Multipoint cage in T45 which they would fit.
So just as COVID-19 lockdown hit I found I had some more time at home to strip the Rallye down and get it to CustomCages.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Stripping everything in a single car garage with limited space was a good test of patience but I was very pleased not to find any nasty hidden surprises.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
It also gave me a good opportunity to clean some of the parts of the car that don’t often get any love, like the rear light pockets.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
I spent some time prepping the interior for when it comes back and before it goes to get painted (colour TBC). I want to get rid of any of the brackets that are no longer needed so I got a spot weld remover to remove the rear seat brackets….on some of them I went a little too deep which will need repairing.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
The glue that held the headlining to the roof skin really annoyed me so I spent probably far too long cleaning it off, but I plan on getting the whole interior painted once the cage is in so it will be worth it in the end.
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
Then it was packed off to CustomCages for it’s new climbing frame
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Nick Buxton, on Flickr
99rallye
Posted 22nd Apr 2020 at 08:27
looks wicked mate
