1985 Lap Rialto 2 (hopefully a more concise version of it) - this may take me time to update it.

1st April 2012

Fitted the heat exchanger today
Hi everyone, I have now fitted the NOS mk1 Robin heat exchanger today. Anyway, I'll let the pics do the talking....


Rialto heat exchanger (from sparesman) motor back and plate with resistor removed:-








Mk1 Robin heat exchanger (from stewpot.2007) motor back removed:-




Then found out that the notch for the resistor plate on the mk1 Robin heater motor is at the front of the heat exchanger rather than the back:-






I then decided to swap the motor backs over. The mk1 Robin motor back plate is now on my Rialto 2's old heat exchanger and the Rialto heat exchanger's motor back from sparesman is now on the NOS mk1 Robin heat exchanger motor.


Mk1 Robin heat exchanger with Rialto motor back and resistor plate installed. I decided to remove those tatty wood screws that held the heat exchanger into place and replaced them with nice new stainless no. 8 self tapper screws using the correct fixings:-






What my Rialto's old heat exchanger motor looked like inside:-




State of the 10 month old coolant before I threw it away:-




I then filled up the cooling system with fresh coolant from the heater valve's hose (in other words from the cooling system's highest point) and started the car. As the car had started to warm up, it had ejected a small amount of coolant (as if it was under a small amount of pressure) but the cooling system seemed to behaved its self after that. I then left the car to cool down for a while.

I had a look inside the radiator later on and noticed that the coolant was about 1/4" below the cooling fins. I will top it up in a bit (I think from what I have read the coolant level should be no more than 1/2" below the bottom of the filler neck?) to see if any coolant will get ejected again, but hopefully this time around no more coolant will be ejected from the radiator's overflow hose.

Posts by others on 1st April 2012

AzzY

Anywhere over the fins is good level wise. BT's system stays full to top due to it holding about 1-2litres more coolant.


kevhallett

I prefere to Pop Rivet the door cards on using Long Pop Rivets, they don't pop off then!

1st April 2012

I have topped it up over the cooling fins and drove it out of the garage. It did spit out a small amount of coolant as I drove it out of the garage but it didn't spit any more coolant after that.

I then took it for a 7 mile drive (3 1/2 miles, stopped for about 15 minutes whilst I took my fiancée's Bedford CF2 horsebox's battery off charge and packed the charger and mains extension lead away, then drove back 3 1/2 miles). The coolant temperature seemed to be ok (about 1/3 way between cold and the middle of the gauge) and I didn't hear any coolant being spat out of the radiator's overflow. I have just re-checked the coolant level and it's still above the fins, so I hope that I have solved the coolant being spat out of the radiator's overflow problem (the radiator cap is a 7 psi one, which I think is the right one).

At least I don't think it will be a head gasket change anyway.

Post by Tickersoid 1st April 2012


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-Inter...CarParts_SM&hash=item1c20df929b#ht_3683wt_ 937

I picked up these kind of things at my local autofactors, cheap as chips. Drill through to the right size and bump them on. Even better are the plastic expanding type rivits.
You can see one on the bottom front corner of my passenger door in this photo'.

22nd April 2012

Hi everyone, I have done a minor update on my Rialto 2 today, which was to replace the plastic door "waterproofing" sheets. I had to try and replace them as quickly as possible when it wasn't raining.

Anyway, I'll let the pics do the talking....


Front O/S door as it was before I removed the bubble wrap inside it:-




Crack in the front O/S door card quickly repaired with epoxy resin:-





[IMG]https://2img.net/h/i106.photobucket.com/albums/m263/phade1971/My%20Rialto%202%20Estate/IMG_0078-1.jpg[/IMG






Bubble wrap stuck onto the front O/S door:-




The front O/S looked a bit dirty, so I decided to quickly clean it up so that the plastic sheet will stick to the door with spray contact adhesive:-






Industrial plastic sheet being fitted and stuck to the front O/S door:-






Front O/S door card refitted:-

22nd April 2012

Front N/S door card being removed:-




The front N/S door card was wet inside and part of the foam was falling off:-




Tatty plastic sheet stuck to the front N/S door:-




Front N/S door after the tatty plastic sheet was removed:-






One of the door card's fixing holes was bodged with a large self tapper and it was starting to split the door, so I decided to fit a no.8 self tapper snap-in nut:-




Front N/S door foam re-glued with contact adhesive:-




Front N/S door plastic industrial sheet fitted:-




Front N/S door card refitted:-

Posts by others on 22nd April 2012 (invalid IMG tags edited out)

Daniel Rodd

I better break it to you that your doors will now leak more water than they did before! the plastic sheet is meant to be tucked inside the door,to guide water down inside it and out the drain holes,they way you have done it it can just come straight in the car


Tickersoid

Looks really neat. Well done!


str8lolly

Afraid I agree with Daniel. Made the same mistake many years ago myself.

22nd April 2012

Oops, I've just realised that mistake ! I'll change that when it's daylight. It won't be difficult to move the bottom of those plastic sheets into the right place anyway as they are stuck with contact adhesive. Failing that, I still have quite a lot of that plastic sheet left on it's very large roll.

Post by nitrowing 23rd April 2012

phade wrote:

What is this foam for?

23rd April 2012

I'm guessing in Reliant's case sound insulation lol ?
I just simply re-glued it as it was already there.

Posts by others on 23rd April 2012

mickuk

where did you get the self tapper nuts i cannot find any


Daniel Rodd

they sell them in packs in halfords


nitrowing

mickuk wrote:

where did you get the self tapper nuts i cannot find any

I have had problems with these spinning when trying to remove the screws


billk

nitrowing wrote:

What is this foam for?

It's to stop the door lock operating rods vibrating against the door cards.
Sorry I can't think of a more amusing answer!!

24th April 2012

Hi everyone,
Just a minor update on my Rialto 2, I managed to correct the mistake I made with my driver's door plastic sheets on Sunday. It's a shame that I ran out of time to correct the passenger's one.

Anyway, at least that may keep the water out of the car (fortunately no water has leaked into the car yet).

24th April 2012

Hi everyone,

I managed to quickly correct the passenger's door plastic sheet this morning before the weather turned really nasty.

29th April 2012

Hi everyone,

A slight update on my Rialto 2.
I finally got round to replacing the starter motor's solenoid ignition switch "adaptor lead" on Friday as the old one was fraying badly:






I have also had problems with two brand new radiator caps, which appear to intermittently dump coolant from the radiator's overflow outlet. The coolant that overflowed from it is clean and contains no oil what so ever. Anyway, this is what the brand new radiator caps look like (both of them have got quite a lot of side to side play).








I plan to replace it with a Ford 7 psi radiator cap tomorrow night/Tuesday morning that I have ordered from my local motor factor. Failing that, I'll try and find it's original radiator cap (I just hope that I didn't throw it away by accident).

Posts by others on 29th April 2012

pop-rivet

Just a passing thought..... without an expansion bottle/tank if you fill your radiator much above the fins it will dump coolant as its being overfilled with no room for expansion..
If this is not the case and the caps are new have you checked the Rad top for imperfections...if its building up pressure when hot then I very much doubt the caps are the problem
Reading a few earlier posts here the only other thing is a hot spot in engine after a run, does it (coolant in engine) bubble when hot and switched off after a run ? you should hear it sitting in car, The usual culprit then is a build up of deposits behind no 4 cylinder in which case it needs a good rake out through the engine block drain hole.


AMAM

its just these new cheap caps, there rubbish quality, the original style ones are much better

30th April 2012

Hi everyone,
I have now found out that those radiator caps are QH ones. The radiator cap I collected from my local motor factor confirms that.
It looks like that I'll be going through my spares boxes to see if I can find it's original one.

Posts by others 30th April 2012

terribleone

Whats QH?


Daniel Rodd

Quinton Hazell


pop-rivet

This is QH :-

http://www.qh.com/

Must admit I have never had a problem with QH items they are made to OE specification.


terribleone

Thanks for that, I never would have got it.

30th April 2012

I think I may have got to the bottom of my Rialto 2's coolant dumping problem. I managed to find my Rialto 2's original radiator cap and it looks like an older design QH one. I compared the two together and found the following (apart from both of them being different colours):-

- The old radiator cap's pressure release plunger had far less side to side play than the new one.
- The old radiator cap's plunger spring is a lot stiffer than the new radiator cap's plunger spring.

I also got Nicky (my fiancée) to press down on both radiator cap pressure release plunger springs to see which cap she though has got a stiffer spring. She confirmed that the old radiator cap has got a stiffer spring than the new one. She wasn't impressed when one of her fingers got antifreeze mix on it, but it was valuable information nonetheless. Hopefully with any luck I will have no more coolant being dumped into the road problems.

19th May 2012

An update on my Rialto 2 during the past week.....

The rather long job list (well most of it is the 6,000 mile service):-




Old fuel pump (I suspected that it may not be working as well as it should):-






Fuel pump removed:-








Old fuel pump gasket (this has been replaced):-




New fuel pump installed:-




I then decided to take the old fuel pump apart to see how bad it was and couldn't really see anything obvious:-

19th May 2012

I then found what looked like an old style Reliant radiator cap, but it turned out to be a cheap and nasty piece of rubbish (it barely fitted the radiator !), so I decided to use the old one:-








After I had done the rest of the car's service, I finally got round to replacing the gearbox's rear oil seal and propshaft flange. The old one was scrap as it was badly scored (I didn't notice that the first time around):-




Just a couple of very minor jobs to do for now (eg. top up gearbox and adjust brakes):-

20th May 2012

Another quick update, I took my Rialto 2 out for a local drive today and sadly it's irritating warm/hot starting problems still persist. The only thing I can think of now is the throttle spindle, throttle butterfly and/or main jet needle.
Hopefully, I will be able to sort out it's frustrating starting and very slight rough running problems (it has always been like that since I bought it) at some point. If I cannot sort that out before long, I may have to get someone to have a look at it to see what I haven't spotted.

Posts by others on 20th May 2012

billk

Your frustration is not unique, and the engine bay on these cars is a real heat trap. This is why so many members have experimented with methods of reducing the temperature, as it is clearly a design fault which has been overcome on other vehicles by better design. My mk2 is not great on hot starts either, once I've sorted the engine issues I will be installing a discreet Land Rover wing vent in the bonnet near the carburettor to allow the heat to waft out when parked. I will need to work out a way of providing a drain/guard under it to prevent rain from getting onto the parts it shouldn't.


Tickersoid

I thought it was a known fault of Reliants that they were poor at hot starting. I usually use a bit of choke when hot starting. Seems to work for me.


terribleone

the hot plenum boils the petrol in the float chamber away.
Results in the need for a lot of cranking to refill it.(1 shot of petrol every 2 revolutions)
I have no such problems with an electric fuel pump.
I also leave the heater box cool vent blowing into the engine bay whilst driving, seriously cuts down my bay temp.

20th May 2012

Unfortunately, it's not the usual hot starting symptoms (eg. foot flat to the floor, it starts then have to wait for several seconds for the car to idle properly). It takes me several attempts to start the engine (the inertia starter motor will not let me continuously crank the engine), it eventually starts, runs horribly with a puff of smoke and then eventually tries to run properly.

One thing I have not done yet is a compression test. The later spring type valve stem seals looked ok as I could not see anything obvious. The springs appear to be holding the valve stem seals in place (eg. they are where they should be). Hopefully, I won't have to replace them (I replaced the valve stem seals on my Rialto SE some time ago) as it took me about 2 days to replace them on my Rialto SE.

Apart from that I am almost running out of ideas as my Rialto SE does not have those symptoms.

Posts by others on 20th May 2012

terribleone

Put at least 1 but preferably 2 heat insulator blocks between carb and plenum.
you may even find that with no insulator the extreme heat may be ejecting the petrol out of the overflow into the catch bowl.
Which on a restart you will be sucking back in to the engine.


Daniel Rodd

the insulators do help a lot.some misbehave worse than others,adding a thick plenum base gasket works really well,luckily i have a few of these that i have used with good results

20th May 2012

I will try that (I do have a genuine Reliant insulator kit in the garage) in addition to replacing the throttle spindle, throttle butterfly and main jet needle and see if it will behave. The odd thing is that my Rialto SE has those wafer thin green base gaskets and it seems to work fine.