GranSport (Fuji White) Running report

gemini

Member
Messages
143
If you want to "refill" your old canister, I did weight mine when i changed them.
The old one
IMG-20200219-141137-resized-20200219-022459370.jpg


The new one
IMG-20200219-141128-resized-20200219-022459584.jpg


About 500g of fuel vapor :oops:
 

gemini

Member
Messages
143
Well, there is a date on the canister, and it says 05/07/06, so it was probably the original one (my car was delivered in november 06).
My car had 54.000miles.
 

Chris155

Member
Messages
196
I replaced mine a few years ago as a precaution as I was unsure when, if it all, it had been changed (they were cheaper then!) although the car was running fine. You’re welcome to have the old one to test if you wish?

That would be very useful, thank you. I'll PM you my contact details. :)
 

sparkplug155

Member
Messages
126
Finally finished putting my car back together.
The good news is it ran fine with no fans running when they shouldn't and no hot start problem. In fact the fans only ran at slow speed even when left idling today and the temp reading on the OBD reader was a steady 90 degC.
So I have only changed the coolant temp sensor, fan resistor, and cleaned the connectors plus replaced the corroded small bore pipe on the secondary air system.
 

TimR

Member
Messages
2,656
The secondary air system is a pain the a55. It's physically so awkward, I havent yet discovered a way of refitting the solid pipework delivery frame without snagging the cam covers, scratching and damaging paint and knuckles into the bargain...!
I m about to chop mine into little pieces and remake them with flexible hose . They occupy prime real estate where they are, so I plan to keep part of the set up but they irritate the bejsus out of me in OEM shape and form....:oops:
 

sparkplug155

Member
Messages
126
The secondary air system is a pain the a55. It's physically so awkward, I havent yet discovered a way of refitting the solid pipework delivery frame without snagging the cam covers, scratching and damaging paint and knuckles into the bargain...!
I m about to chop mine into little pieces and remake them with flexible hose . They occupy prime real estate where they are, so I plan to keep part of the set up but they irritate the bejsus out of me in OEM shape and form....:oops:
Yes it was a bit of a struggle to remove. I removed the breather pipe from the oil tank to main pipe. I also had the air pump off and the air filter, air flow meter etc out.
It wasn't that difficult to get back in but getting the headlights to fit correctly was another matter following my winter strip down, rustproofing and general checks.
 

TimR

Member
Messages
2,656
I’m at this stage with cam covers off, I and still want to butcher them...!
:D
 

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Chris155

Member
Messages
196
My Dad and I have made some progress with the Maserfarti, despite lockdown. Whilst parts have been relatively easy to source, I'm classed as a Critical Worker and have been working full time, albeit from home, as a result.

To be clear, I'm not complaining, I recognise I have relative job security which is better than anyone can hope for at the moment. I'm just trying to put the amount of time we've spent working on it into context.

The first job I takled since my last post was doing something about the horrible number plates. I've always hated UK the number plate style, particularly the mustard yellow rear plate but the blue Country Identifier just makes them look worse. Despite this, it's taken till June this year for me to do something about it.

I also, perhaps foolishly decided to order smaller plates. I was going to keep the rear the standard size and go for a slightly smaller front plate but 4 cans of lager got the better of me and I went for smaller front and rear.

In what was to become a re-occuing theme, fitting them took longer than I thought. I pulled the number plates off and was greeted with this, from and rear....

IMG_6384 by Chris, on Flickr

And a simple job turned in to 4 hours of cleaning numerous bits of adhesive off with isopropyl alcohol and several raw digits....

Looks better though;

IMG_3646 by Chris, on Flickr

(It started raining. Another recurring theme...)

IMG_3766 by Chris, on Flickr

Next up was a couple more simple jobs, change the thermostat (suspect for the hot start issues) Temp sender (cheap generic part so why not?), fresh oil, filter and pollen filter. I was expecting it to take a day, weekend max....

We started with the thermostat. It was kind of a chicken/egg thing as the thermostat is buried and changing it with the engine hot would've been impossible. The down side being the engine oil wouldn't be hot when we drained that.

The 'stat is located on the offside of the car. You can see it from the top;

IMG_3647 by Chris, on Flickr

It's under the hoses.... The larger hose with braided protection leads to it...

IMG_3648 by Chris, on Flickr

You can also see the temp sender which is in the same location:

IMG_3651 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3650 by Chris, on Flickr

Access to bot is found from underneath and through the OS wheel well:

IMG_3739 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3659 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3735 by Chris, on Flickr

Changing the temp sender was relatively easy after finding a 19mm socket that was deep enough - + 1hr...

IMG_3746 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3734 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3745 by Chris, on Flickr

Removing the hose to the thermostat, however, was an absolute bar-steward. It's very short and lacks the room/ flexibility to disconnect it as a result.

It was also welded to the thermostat with corrosion and gunge as per the norm;

IMG_3750 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3747 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3752 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3753 by Chris, on Flickr

It took an hour to remove the hose. And this is where the haynes manual, if it existed, would say "Simply remove the 3 bolts retaining the thermostat".

Access to 2 of the bolts is ok-ish. The 3rd is obscured by the the outlet from the thermostat itself. Problem was, someone had been there before me, and rounded off ALL 3 of the 5mm hex head bolts.

Removing them took 4 hours.

With the stat removed it became apparent that the replacement thermostat didn't come with a new seal and that the one fitted to the old one was not OE and most likely a reused seal from the oil filter - they're almost the same diameter.

IMG_3758 by Chris, on Flickr

It was at this point we decided to call it a day.. Simple job... :rolleyes:
 

Chris155

Member
Messages
196
Moving on to the 2nd day of slow progress...

A new thermostat seal was ordered from Scuderia for a princely sum of £6 and we decided to change the oil, oil filter and the pollen filter thinking it would be easy enough...

A quick test of the thermostat did indeed reveal that it wasn't working properly

IMG_3754 by Chris, on Flickr

Which confirmed the fault code - slow to warm up.

I've driven about 200miles init following all the work we did over the last few weeks and the hot start problem and associated drop into limp mode has not reoccured, so I think this was the problem and the engine management logic being;

Engine is slow to warm up.

It should be x temp after y amount of time given ambient temp of z.

Therefore there is either a problem with the temp sender under reading

or

The thermostat has failed.

Worse case is the temp sender is under reading and the engine is running hot. Therefore turn the engine fans on, limit power and over fuel the engine in order to protect it.


This is why we felt that the engine oil should be changed as it was likely causing some bore wash.

With the engine being dry sumped, it has two drain plugs. On in the oil tank which is located on the offside of the car at the front;

IMG_3739 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3773 by Chris, on Flickr

And the other in the conventional location;

IMG_3775 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3777 by Chris, on Flickr

The was about 4 litres in both the sump and the tank which were left to drain for a couple of hours. As well as lower one side and then the other, we also lput the wheel back on and lowered the car to the floor to ensure as much of it was realeased.

IMG_3771 by Chris, on Flickr

The manual suggests that 7.3l of oil is required to refill it so dropping the oil whilst it was cold (no thermostat so we couldn't start it) didn't cause a problem.

There's nothing special about either of the sump plugs and the copper washers are a standard size which meant my Dad was able to provide some new ones out of his selection.

IMG_3779 by Chris, on Flickr

Obviously the next step was the oil filter. Again, it is on the offside of the engine, mounted longitudinally along side the block - photo was taken from behind the front axle line, looking towards the front of the car;

IMG_3806 by Chris, on Flickr

Access is relatively good for a hand, but it is all but impossible to get an oil filter wrench on it. Which is fine if it is hand tight.

As I am labouring the point, it obviously wasn't. It was silly tight and took 4 hours of swearing, removing brackets and 4 different types of removal tool to finally get the f:censored:g thing undone;

IMG_3817 by Chris, on Flickr

The amount of damage to it is testament to the amount of torque it took to undo it;

IMG_3808 by Chris, on Flickr

After making sure that the old filter was the correct part and the new filter was too, refitting the new one was a simple task - fortunately.

IMG_3813 by Chris, on Flickr

The difference between two filters available for the 4.2 v8 is explained in the short video below;


The difficulty with refilling the engine with oil is, with it being dry sumped, the level is to be checked when the oil is warm (it expands). I expect that the specified 7.3l is enough though.

Just so that oil nerds know, I refilled it with the manufacturer recommended brand, which isn't cheap - 9 litres...

IMG_3823 by Chris, on Flickr

( As a point of interest, the spider type (or planetary) oil filter tool in the above pic is the only one that could be used on the filter...)

After starting it and and rechecking it as it warmed up, it took about 8.2l to refill it which is about what came what out of it. And I've not had to top it up during the time I've had it, which is reassuring.
 

Chris155

Member
Messages
196
In the meanwhile, the other simple job was the pollen filter which is accessed through the windscreen scuttle...

In order to gain access to the filter you have to remove, by my count, an absurd 36 individual fastenings, starting with both windscreen wipers. Both of which were seized and required an hour of genuinely gentle persuasion.

IMG_3782 by Chris, on Flickr

It doesn't look like the driver's side wider needs to come off, does it? It does, because you can't withdraw the filter without removing the wiper motor mechanism:

IMG_3783 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3781 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3787 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3788 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3795 by Chris, on Flickr

And the shield above the cabin air intake;

IMG_3798 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3799 by Chris, on Flickr

As you might expect, it hadn't been related for a while;

IMG_3789 by Chris, on Flickr

And the housing was also full of gunge, spiders and general decaying matter;

IMG_3790 by Chris, on Flickr

But none of the standard hoover attachments have sufficient depth to suck out said debris. This, after the aforementioned 36 fixings required the jerryrigging of a suitable hoover adaptor. It looks simple enough but it took my Dad an hour to fabricate out of the materials available to him;

IMG_3792 by Chris, on Flickr

Nice, new, filter;

IMG_3794 by Chris, on Flickr

IMG_3796 by Chris, on Flickr

and another hour of hoovering and cleaning;

IMG_3801 by Chris, on Flickr

And another, "simple", "routine" task completed...
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,223
Feel your pain with regard to the accessibility of service parts! But this is from a company that hide the dual filler release in the glove box and put a microscope filler on the screen wash on a car that deploys flood type headlight washing!

Keep up the great work.
 

safrane

Member
Messages
16,749
Thank you for the write up.

Is the pollen filter another case of MDs FSH attention to the service plan?... I suspect the 30 odd fastenings make it a item to save tine and effort on.
 

jasst

Member
Messages
2,313
Had exactly the same problem with oil filter on my old 4200, was stupid tight and like you found a spider type was only thing that would work, specified torque setting seems much tighter than I would normally do a filter, done the pollen filter as well, and was much like yours, duct tape and a length of 1/2" flexible hose and my wet vac sorted that problem out, they really are a labour of love!