Fast Marina Magazine

Hello all.
Just completed a two week road trip around the north island of NZ.
The night before we left I committed absolute blasphemy and applied a tint film to the rear window..



The tint was primarily to keep the sun off the speakers I was fitting in the parcel shelf - as they suffer plastic fatigue in the heat. We ended up with dreadful 'canyons' in the tint due to the curvature of the window, but from this distance it looks ok.
We stayed with friends and in various out-of-the-way-places like a few nights on the island across the water in the above pic - they supplied us with an aluminium dinghy with outboard - I was a bit worried about leaving the car in the carpark pictured - but all was well.
The tint actually gives much more privacy in the car - even when you look in from the front - the dark rear window tends to make even front seat occupants harder to see..



We covered 4900k in the two weeks - so I figure the new 2 litre motor is officially run in. Only problem was bursting a heater hose on the way home. Fortunately I was keeping a close eye on the temp gauge and saw it unfolding. We stopped by a river (co-incidence), so I disconnected the burst hose, and used the other to bypass the heater. Strolled down to the river and filled our water bottles to refill the cooling system. Apart from losing all the antifreeze - no drama. Lucky..!




Great trip. Great car. Lotsa fun. The 2 litre motor certainly adds that something extra..!

Cheers all,
Kilroy

SWEET! Doing good work there bor!

mmm a 2 litre eh sounds like a plan does the suspension and brakes etc cope well with the extra power are there any differences between brake/suspension set ups on 1300s and 1700/2000s
stu

Cheers guys - its such a pleasure to drive BBK that I find myself using any excuse to do so..!

The week before we went on holiday, I removed the recently rebuilt suspension from this car, and fitted 4 leaf springs and 21mm torsion bars from an estate.
Certainly stiffened up the ride a bit - but unfortunately did not cure a front suspension noise - see reply to Stu's suspension prob - that had to wait until we got home...

The brakes are all stock - albeit in excellent order, having just replaced rear wheel cylinders and linings - but the 205x60's give a lot more grip under braking too. They seem to be up to the task in hand. Although the 2 litre motor accelerates harder, I doubt that the top speed is much different - havn't tried it yet.

All in all, I feel that it is a much more capable car with the extra cc's, and the handling mods were more to suit my enthusiastic style..

Here I am beginning the running in procedure..



Very sedate.

Kilroy

I have to confess that im not the biggest fan of mk3's (prefer mk1's) but there is something about your cars Kilroy that just look "right" im not sure whether its the wheels and the lowered ride height or what but hats off to you man

I think she looks bloody great Kilroy !! especially the wheels !! are you still going to respray ?? 8)

nice looking motor kilroy and the scenery surrounding your trip looks excellent.

8) New Zealand still looks beautiful Kilroy, .....but not as nice as that little motor!! , that ride height is spot-on, she really looks the business, nice work mate .
Frank,
PS, i haven`t forgotten your windscreen rubbers mate, i`m having trouble finding someone to ship them to you without demanding a kings ransom!!, leave it with me and i will come up with something

Thanks for the comments people - the car certainly got lots of comments on the road too.
The north island is much more populated than the south - with a faster pace, so very few older vehicles in evidence. Only saw one Marina the whole trip - a blue Mk3 estate - whose owner did not seem to register that we were related...
Doubt the respray Jim - not for this car anyway - was really only checking the possibilities. The purist in me finds it hard to picture other than the original shades. Either they got it right, or we have just come to identify with the colours the factory chose..!
Frank - thankyou for the consideration - I would be loath to let those rubbers elude me...
I'm also happy about the look of the car - in fact I notice that having the car level - as opposed to the usual (over here anyway..) drooping at the front, makes them look much perkier. Funny how the nose-low attitude tends to suggest tiredness..
Yes - the scenery was fabulous - despite the rather drab weather - and the only boring bits were the motorways - which over here only extend about 50k from the major cities - the rest of the highways are a joy.
Did notice though, that despite the 100k speed limit, you had to be doing 110 to keep up with the flow.
I felt that the cut-and-thrust style of driving in Auckland would very soon take its toll on a car such as the marina - on and off gas and brakes all the time - easy to see why many drivers have cars they don't care about..
Managed to ground the auto sump quite a few times on speed humps and irregular surfaces. Ouch.
The day before we left home, I retightened the head. There had been a slight oil leak somewhere around the back of the motor, and I figured it might be seepage from the head gasket. On the morning of the day we left, I washed the car, and took it for a blow-dry down the tunnel road.
Looking in the mirror, I was aghast to see clouds of smoke out the back..!
Quietly returned home, and found that the leak had greatly increased, and the oil had dribbled down the side of the auto onto the exhaust. Visions of preparing another car for the trip flashed through my mind.
Then I recalled how the final head stud had felt strange when I tightened the head. A close inspection revealed that the oil was indeed coming from the rear corner of the head gasket - where the oil feed goes to the cam.
After backing all the studs off, I removed the rear (RH) stud to find that the hole was full of oil. I cleaned it out using a small rubber hose, then torqued again - this time it tightened smoothly.
I thoroughly cleaned the whole area, then went for a drive over the hill and back. Checked with tissue paper - not a drop..!
Disaster narrowly averted. It would seem that the hydraulic action of the oil in the hole prevented the stud from tightening properly.
I kept a very careful eye on the gasket for the trip, but not another drop has appeared in the 5000k since. Yay!
Presumably I should have retightened the head a bit sooner and then the oil would not have made its way to the stud in the first place.
Apart from that - smooth sailing - except for the heater hose. Sue always manages one photo of me under the bonnet on every trip.. :roll:
Cheers,
Kilroy

Fantastic! ! What a road trip! Well done :P