Week 30 - The Build

 Well. here you are. You wait a fortnight for a week then two come along at once!

Anyway, having got the radiator fan sorted out it's now time to get some water in the system to see what happens. A standard Fiesta should take 5.5l of coolant so I'd expect to be needing a fair bit more to fill the under hull tubes and the extended runs to the heater.I managed to get nearly 7l in before the header tank was full which didn't seem very much but time to run the engine. I've still got this strangeness of non starting unless initiated by the spraying of some flammable liquid into the air intake.

Just on tickover the engine warmed up very quickly and in fact nearly boiled before I turned it off. Either thed (new) water pump doesnt work, the thermostat is stuck shut or there is a massive air lock somewhere. The heater didn't get hot so hopefully an air lock. Lots of sqeezing and squishing of rubber hoses running it again with no improvment then going home while it all cooled down seemed to do the trick. The next day all seemed fine. The heater got hot and the radiator hoses got hot as well. If anything it didnt get hot enough which makes me now think that the thermostat is stuck open. Better than stuck shut but a problem for another day.

Next job is to put some wheels on and see if it starts and stops. 

The answer is here;

Really exciting time but every jar of ointment has it's fly. A number of flies in this case! The brakes are binding to a point where they are almost solid, the rear tracking is about 10 degrees out on one side, the handbrake cables foul the wheels and there is another water leak from the heater end of things.