Hiya all, ok so i had to take my beloved turbo 2000 my97 off the road over five years ago due to starting a family. So i parked her up all snug in my garage. Iv been waiting for the glorious day when i can drive it again so much it hurts. So iv been saving up what i can and finally i can see it happening soon so i might need abit of advice on a few things. It needs the full works now.
The list :
Cambelt kit
Water pump ( might aswell do it when doing cambelt)
Full service
Full set of brakes plus new fluid( im gonna fit braided lines too)
Gearbox oil change , diff oil change
Tyres
New coolant
M.O.T.

Its alot i know but i just couldn't get anything done until now so its all mounted up. Is there anything you can think of that you would change on it as its sat there for so long ? Its only gonna get used at the weekend's and wont be on track (yet). Cheers.

 

Tax

 

Ha ha ha funny, that and the dreaded insurance , booooo

 

how cold has the car got? id it have proper coolant in it?

 

I don't know exactly how cold but its been in the garage and im in North West uk so not that cold even in winter. Yeah it did have proper coolant in when i put it in there. Iv started it around every 3 weeks or so and drove it out of the garage and turned it around too so the drivetriain and steering didnt seize up. Its been parked with the handbrake off too.

 

What i was thinking of shouldn't be a concern if you have been running engine regularly and had proper coolant with anti freeze in it.

Car i now of was parked for 3 years, no antifreeze in the coolant, engine froze, lifted the heads and it just spat the head gasket out as soon as it came on boost, plus split the heater matrix.

 

I'd drain and replace the fuel also, as anything that's in it at the moment will be useless.

 

Cheers mate, i put the odd gallon of v-power in it every few months or so. There's less than a 1/4 of a tank in it. Only just off the empty line really. How do i drain it ? And will it need priming through again ? Or shall i just fill it right up when i get it running and let it mix up ?

 

Best place to get your cambelt kit from is ICP, they supply good parts for a decent price.

 

Cheers mate I'll have a look. Is there much difference between brands as in quality ? The Dayco ones seem cheap, but is there a reason they r cheap or is it just like paying for a certain brand name ? Surely they must all need to comply with certain regs.

 

I'd have a close look at the tyres!

 

Its been sat on an old set of bald tyres, but iv got another set of speedline rims with eagle F1's on, they have been stored inside too with no weight on em. The F1's are probably around 6 years old, maybe even 7 im not 100% sure. Still have a fair bit of tread left on em but i was gonna fit new rubber just to be safe.

 

New radiator too ???? Its still got its factory original one now.

 

Mines (sti3) been garaged since 2006, start it up every couple of months and run it for 10 mins or so - only thing I'll be doing before it goes back on the road is a service (engine and gearbox oil, antifreeze, etc) since it's been garaged it's had new tyres, new suspension and it's about to get the front calipers overhauled. Still original rad, gates timing belt fitted shortly before it was garaged so that should be ok.

 

Thanks for the input mate. So that means that your timing belt is getting on for ten years old now then, i thought they needed changing after 3 years (or 45k) ? Mine ain't done the miles yet but i wouldn't dream of driving it with an old belt on. Im even on edge when i start it up.

 

Does anyone know the lifespan of the standard oil pump ?

 

Maybe I like to live on the edge, if it fails it's no one's fault but mine, and it gives me an excuse to rebuild the engine.

 

Cool, that's fair enough , it is your car after all mate.

 

Far longer than the standard big end bearings....

 

Really ? Wow, do you know from experience ? Don't suppose you know what the standard big end bearings are capable of do you ? My car is on 96k miles now and had full service history from new. I always warm it up before playing and always let it idle for 2 mins or so before switching it off.

 

Mine lasted until 98k miles.
I've got two engines in the shed that ran the big ends, my mate has had two that ran the big ends, and I just rebuilt one for another mate that was ready to run the big ends, right down to the copper.
These engines won't do high performance and high miles, one or the other maybe.
The oil pump is not the problem, it's the width of the bearings that is.
Oh and letting the engine idle for a two minutes isn't going to do any favours to the engine at all, or the turbo.
Your faaaaar better off driving along at a steady rate with little throttle on for a few minutes then turning it off when you arrive at your destination.
Sod sitting there letting everything heat up then switching it off and letting the thing cook in it's own heatsoak.

 

Oh right, i was always told that i need to let to turbo slow down and cool down before switching off . I usually do that slow light throttle thing a few miles before parking up too. How hard to swap the big end bearings? Is it just a matter of sump off to access em, then undo to caps and swap ?

 

The very last thing to remove when stripping the engine is the big end shells, it's a major job, full rebuild required when doing so. No other way to do it.

 

Your turbo will continue to Cool after switch off anyway due to the natural convection of water! Although this is very true, it is also advisable to run the last mile or so of a hard journey steady away!
It's also the reason why turbo timers are utter bo11ocks

 

I bought gates belt, and full kit including water pump. But heard of others buying Dayco kits, never heard anyone having any problems with them, everywhere else wanted £250+ got my full kit for £180 from ICP.

 

People go over board on the turbo front, your mean't to let the car idle for 2 mins after booting it before turning engine off. Reason why is turbo is still spinning and you can starve it of oil.


As boosted said, all you do is drive off boost for 2 mins before you get home, Job done.

 

Cheers lad's, thanks for the advice.

 

Well its finally done!!! Had my first drive of it on Monday. Picked it up from the garage, brimmed the tank with v-power and went for a spin. Wow i have REALLY REALLY missed my car . It feels so small and light compered to modern cars. Brakes are still bedding in now though so i haven't had a "proper" go yet. Over all im glad i kept hold of it instead of selling up years ago, its been worth the wait.

 

Get some pictures up mate

 

I've never put pic's up before, I'll have a go though.