My Car in 2006

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8th October 2006

I thought I would do a photo shoot of my Scimitar around some of Coventrys historic buildings in the city centre including the old Coventry Cathedral, Council House, Tourist Information Board etc.  The Scimitar is running well, I have covered just over 1,000 since the engine rebuild.  One of my front shock absorbers has started leaking, so that will be my next job!

3rd September 2006

Scimitar on display at the Coventry Festival of Motoring  

Glorious sunshine greeted us as we gathered at the Coventry War Memorial Park ready for our 60 mile tour of stunning countryside around Coventry and North Warwickshire.

26th/27/28th August 2006

Scimitar on display at the Town and Country Festival at Stoneleigh

Car polished ready for the event

    The scimitar lines up in front of my dads 1967 Mk2 Lotus Cortina

  A magnificent Lancaster Bomber flies overhead

      My Scimitar on display 

For more pictures of Scimitars at the Town and Country Festival 2006 visit:   http://www.sporting-reliants.com/Town&Country2006_1.htm

I am pleased to say that my Scimitar has covered just over 680 miles since the engine rebuild and all is going well.

22nd June 2006

A huge "THANKS"  to:

Barry, Dave and Carl Hollingsworth for all the help with getting my Scimitar back on the road!!

  Hooray, after a lot of hard work the Scimitar is finally back on the road.

  After putting right our deliberate mistake , the gearbox was checked to make sure I had all the gears before refitting.

  Oh bugger!!  Once the gearbox was back out we took the top off to investigate why we could only select third and forth.  We found that one of the gates on the selectors was fitted in wrong!!

  The car was placed on stands and the engine was started for the first time.  After initial problems with the timing, it fired up quite quickly.  We checked for oil/water leaks etc.  Checked gears and to my horror we could only get third and forth gears!!  Gearbox had to be removed again and checked.  Luckily on the SE5 you can remove the gearbox from the bellhousing leaving it connected to the engine.

    All ancillaries and pipe work refitted.

    Rebuilt engine now fitted and tubular exhaust manifold refitted.

  New clutch is fitted and aligned using a spare input shaft from my old gearbox.

  A new three piece clutch was ordered from Graham Walkers.  I originally acquired a clutch from an SE5a, but soon found that the clutch pressure plate did not fit the SE5 flywheel as the PCD is different. 

  My Laycock LH type overdrive was fully reconditioned by Dave Twigger from Overdrive Spares in Rugby, before I refitted it to the rebuilt gearbox. 

  Gearbox was totally stripped down.  Worn syncro and 3rd/4th gear selector were replaced.

11th June 2006

  Heads Fitted and torqued.  Valve clearance set to 0.41mm/16 thou as per setting for V63 cam.

  Flywheel fitted

     Sump, steel timing gear and cover fitted

        The engine I used was from an SE5a.  There are a few differences including where the dipstick is located.  My Se5 has the dipstick located at the front, through the timing gear cover, therefore I had to remove the SE5a dipstick tube (which is located on the side of the engine block) and plug the hole using a cut down bolt, which was then press fitted

  Inlet Manifold cleaned and ported

    Ports polished and valve seats cut

  Bought a good quality set of Payen engine gaskets.

    The original Ford nylon toothed timing gears can be a week point on the Essex engine.  They can shred their teeth and cause disastrous results.  It is recommended that you replace your nylon gear with a steel timing gear.

June 2006

Above: Block was painted with two coats of black smoothrite before fitting the crank and pistons.

Above: Acquired +20 pistons, reground crank, uprated V63 camshaft, new piston rings, big end and main bearings and refaced flywheel.

Above: Rebored engine block back from the machine shop and ready for painting.

Special thanks to Keith Carter from Coventry Classic Engines Ltd  

May 2006

Well the Scimitar is now off the road while I replace the worn engine and fit a new clutch.

The big end were worn and so was the crank.

Although the clutch plate looked fine the flywheel and clutch pressure plate were very worn and shiny

I had O-port heads and inlet manifold on my engine.  By using D-port heads you gain an extra 10 -15 bhp.  O-port heads were used on the SE5 engine (dipstick at the front) and D-ports were used on the SE5a (dipstick at the side).

Here is my spare set of D-port heads being stripped ready for reconditioning.

My spare engine block is being Rebored by Coventry Classic Engines Ltd to +20.

April 2006

I am pleased to say that the Scimitar sailed through the its MOT!! 

Once again I had to change the poor quality water hoses due to them cracking in less than a year, so I decided to get some Silicon Hoses made for the Scimitar.  I contacted SiliconHoses.Com to enquire about getting some made.  They were very helpful and before long they sent me a full set of prototype Silicon Hoses to try out on my Scimitar.  

I will let you all know how I get on with the new silicon hoses soon and will hopefully have a cost of a Silicon Hose kit for the Scimitar GTE SE5/5a.

Easter Bank Holiday April 2006

We went to Chester for a long week end over the Easter Bank Holiday.  We stayed at Birch Bank Farm Caravan and Campsite in Christleton.  On the Sunday the sun was shining, so I decided to drive to New Brighton Promenade and on the way back I stopped off at the east float docks in Birkenhead to see the historic warships, but it was closed.  I covered 330 miles in all without any problems.

March 2006

The Scimitar outside the new Coventry Ricoh Football Stadium 

March 2006

The Scimitar towed the caravan to the New Forest, the Scimitar covered 480 miles without any problems .

Even though it was very wet and windy until the day we were leaving, it was a fantastic week.  The Scimitar was great fun for driving around the country roads and I visited Lymington, Burley, Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Sway, New Milton, Barton on Sea, Milford on Sea.  The only other Scimitar I spotted was parked in a garden on the way to Sammy Millers Motorcycle Museum.

February 2006

My Scimitar is still running well, but I decided to upgrade my caravan as it needed more work than I could do, plus I am going camping in the New Forest at the end of March, so I needed one that had hot and cold water, a shower and hot air heating so I treated myself to a 1992 Swift Corniche 15/2E caravan

Although the caravan is much bigger than my Cheltenham caravan, it tows much better and is seems more stable.

My Car 2009 | My Car 2008 | My Car 2007 |  My Car 2006

My Car 2005 | My Car 2004 back to 1998