As some may have read, I have l recently acquired Daniel Waugh V8 Sport350 (#032).

This car has already been brought back to life once by Richard Sadd, after a nasty road accident
which left the car as a Cat-D write-off.

The car then changed hands and unfortunately suffered an engine failure during a spirited drive
on the Nordscheife - details here:
Catastrophic engine failure

The car is now on its way to me here in France. The plan is to bring the car back to life once again
and perform a general tidy-up while the engine is out. There should be some nice surprises along the way.....

Here are some images of the car loaded in the UK:

Hopefully, it won´t take too long to get here.

Well, it has arrived... although there was some damage sustained during transportation

Once safely inside, work commenced to access the general condition of things before we get started.
I´ll be spending a fair amount on time in there.....

Seats out and check the interior:

Ugh... that´s gotta go....

Spent a while stripping down to the bare block and heads to access damage.

LH head is also looking beyond repair. That is some damage.....

Once what remains of the engine is assessed and salvageable parts stored, I´ll move onto the engine compartment and chassis.
 

Mucky...... that word goes some way to describing todays activities.

Both turbos are in need of a complete rebuild - or replacement in my case. The LH turbo doesn´t rotate at all and the RH turbos impellor blades are in bad shape. The general rot and corrosion makes you realise what a tough life these parts have.

The plenum was next. Stripped down, the throttle body gave a hint to what was in store.

There was some nasty gunk used instead of a fresh inlet manifold gasket.

After several hours of clearing, rinsing and further cleaning, this is what came out of the plenum.... eek - yes, that is another injector clip.

The stripped plenum and cam covers were cleaned-up ready for painting.

More tomorrow

Mike S
 

Short update today being the weekend.

I have decided to install the recently completed 1997 engine in the S350, in order to hot test it.

In order to make life easier for myself, I removed the engine loom with a view to performing the majority of the connections prior to hoisting the engine into place. Out with the loom...

Dan had done a first class job of labelling the connectors - thanks

There were a couple of severed connections to make good.

More good news - Posty delivered my new water injection tank... spanky. Now I just have to decide which system to go with.

One of my ´pet-hates´ is the standard of the finish in the air filter housing. I noticed this on my last project V8 and it was also present here.
The air restrictions in the moulding have got to go...
Before

After


Last job of the day - put the carpet and seats back in.

Günter will please to learn that I´ve employed the use of the notorious ´citric acid bath´ on all of the horrid brown bits

Cheers,
Mike S
 

The beauty of a project like this, is that there is so much to do that you can choose what takes your fancy.

Sunday, I wanted to attend to the damaged from end. This is how the car arrived courtesy of the transport Professionals.

First remove the S350 fibreglass and rubber lip.

Marking out and drilling the new S300 style version (wasn´t really sure how it would look at this stage.....)

After some fitting challenges, the lip is cut to shape and installed

I reckon it looks pretty damn fine, but then I would.

Today was all over the place.... bits and pieces of this and that. But every job doesn´t need doing again

Cleaning up and preparing many of the parts for the next engine. Plus a totally useless single plate clutch flywheel

Cutting and installing new chassis mount heat shields.

The loom is fitted to the engine ready for the installation - some days away due to the need to source some parts...

Finally, some time to admire the tasty exhaust system... well, Nathan certainly approves

Cheers,
Mike S
 

Progress these last days has been limited, but here is where we are at.

The main radiator feed and return hoses were not in best shape, so I replaced them with a silicone set from JAE Parts. I´d had the parts for a while, so I was glad to finally put them to good use.
The old...

The new...

Then came a few little surprises.
Firstly, I wanted to get the rear wheels of to check around.

Right hand seemed fine.

.... but the left hand driveshaft retaining nut had been ´peppered´ with drill holes. I can´t imagine why it´s like that, but it is definately going to need replacing.

Then, I had already decided to remove the decals. They were not if great shape and also in the wrong place.
The right hand side were removed without drama.

But on the left hand side something was wrong - the sill decal turned out to be spray paint and not a decal at all....

The car would certainly benefit from a re-spray, so it´s not the end of the world.

A few other jobs were completed. The wiper assy. was stripped and re-built.

The dash instruments were secured and the centre console was fitted correctly. The switches had been installed with the panel in reverse. An easy fix with the console finally being able to slide into place.

Malc from Espritism is coming to the rescue regarding the RH filter cover
Still looking for a pair of door speaker moulding and cigerette trays, so if anyone has any spare ones kicking around, drop me a PM.

Cheers,
Mike S