After another long absence due to this thing called life I've returned with another CGT! The car comes with a bit of a story. The former owner was Mike Smith, one of our fellow petrol heads with a taste for the 4 rings. From what I've been told he became ill and passed on, leaving behind a huge lot of parts and this car. Some of you b2 guys may have some of his parts right now if you went to Carlisle last year. Another one of our fellows was nice enough to help his family by taking that van full of b2 parts and the vehicle to redistribute amongst the community. It was from this gentleman that I got the car.
If anyone knows Mike or this car I would love to hear anything more about them. Considering the story surrounding the car and the fact that our people are a rare breed, I thought that the best way to honor him with this car is to put her back on the road so that a piece of him can still join us as we trail brake into corners and call friends to give us a tow because the CIS is acting up again. I've decided to name the car Mieke, in honor of Mike. I know it's a girls name but all my cars are girls! And German! It was as close as I could get.
As it stands the manifolds, airbox and CIS were disconnected as was the timing belt and cover and some miscellaneous bs. I was told the reason for that is that Mike was planning on swapping the head before he passed. There are 2 heads in the trunk, as well as the on that is currently on the engine. One of them is another KX head, the other is a 2.5 head from a Eurovan. Not entirely sure if that's what the swap plan was going to be.
I intend on getting her running again with the stock head and fuel system for the time being. I still have all the CIS components from this car but I also have all of the mechanical parts (no seriously) from my first CGT, Agatha, and amongst those parts is a CIS distributor that has less than 10k on it that worked perfectly before I disassembled her. Considering the dearth of parts (and wiring) I have as spares I should be able to make that happen without too much pain. Eventually the plan is to go to MS2 so that I don't have to hate Bosch.
Agatha I'm building as a race car, albeit very slowly, Mieke I want to keep almost completely stock with the exception of engine management and the few light mods that Mike had already done. It's on lowering springs (brand unknown for now) and the b3 rear caliper conversion. It also has an awesome muffler on it that is in completely the wrong place for some reason. Blue interior with a nearly perfect dash, seats and carpet are in great shape. Analog cluster but that can be changed because I have 2 extra digitals from Agatha. I have all of the trim that's missing in the photo, the center console stuff i removed so I could get to the shifter cage and the door panels were off when I bought it. The horn switch I pulled off because I'm replacing that steering wheel with one that isn't falling apart.
I'm really excited to really get cranking on her so that I can finally come back to Carlisle driving something worthwhile! Particularly a car as special as this one.
Got the center console apart to find out why the shift linkage felt so off and it turns out that the shift lever itself is bentwhole linkage is pushed back about 1.5 inches off center. Trans still runs through the gears and there doesn't seem to be any binding on engagement so it's a little confusing to why it was like this. I'll have to take a look under the heat shield to really know what's going on. Worst case I have the drivetrain from Agatha that is known to be good to go so I can theoretically get it moving without killing myself trying to get these manifolds back on while the engine is in the car. May as well throw a timing belt and a clutch at it while I have it out. Pictured with trans in neutral and "centered." Originally the ball bushing and retaining spring were installed, making it next to impossible to get into any gear but first and second.
More to follow soon!
