Now for a bit of nostalgia on one of OOF's (in)famous projects...
Would you believe it, its been virtually 2yrs since Project TB2, now affectionately called Project Tractor, was acquired
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1175205713/0As many long standing OOF regulars know, its been a bit of a journey, full of highs and lows. Well, a lot of lows - I'm no mechanic by any stretch of the imagination (I push pens and press buttons all day at work), and I did find this a real struggle. Regulars will know I have a real love/hate relationship with this car.
My lasting memory of Project TB2 is, strangely, not the car, but the people who helped. In no particular order, but Omegatoy, Marks DTM Calib, LFF64, Kevin Wood, Sassanach, Bo Bo, Tunnie, Jay W, JamesV6CDX, and Auto Addict.
Bought in March, with a serious overheating issue that took ages to pinpoint. Spent most of April and May 07 changing out all parts of the cooling system as it was overheating. Radiator, water pump, thermostat, coolant bottles and caps etc all replaced.
Then I buggered the first gearbox (ar25) mid May 2007:
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1179344678/0and that wasn't fixed until late June.
However, in the time it was off the road, what I didn't know is we cured the overheating issue. But the overpressurising of the cooling system continued, which got us suspicious of the head/HG.
Buggered the replacement gearbox up in early July 2007
AR35 gearbox fitted early Aug 2007, though when we stripped down the failed AR25, Sassanach and I couldn't see any fault with it :-/. I must say, changing gearboxes when you have access to a ramp is much, much easier - I don't think I go to Sassanach's place until 4ish on a Sunday afternoon, as gone by 8pm, and in that time we stripped the old AR25 to look for fault, and fitted a AR35 to car
So, by this time (mid Aug 2007), a decision was made to swap the engine with a (supposedly) known good one, rather than take the head off (really didn't fancy that!). So the stripdown starts...
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1186863576/12#12So, with the help of many, in the pouring rain, we swapped the engine on one cold, wet, windy August day. Didn't quite finish on the day, but refitted all the ancilleries by the following weekend, ready to fire her up. Only it wouldn't start
. After messing with the pump timing, we got it running, and it was perfect on its test run. No overheating, no overpressurising. Was I a happy boy. Until I went to start it the next day. That engine never managed to get the car off the driveway again
So LFF64 and I put the old engine back in - at least that went
Then in early October 2007, Omegatoy, Jay W and I changed the heads over between the 2 engines, which finally cured the engine issues - the overheating had been cured in the summer, and the head change had cured the overheating.
http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1191955645/0So, 6 months, and a lot of hard work, blood and sweat, another tractor had been saved from the scrapyard.
It was bought cheap as a virtually non-running project, in order to do up and sell on. However, the amount spent on it made that less feasible, so I decided to keep it and use it for a while. And here we are 18months on, and I'm still using it as my day to day car
The last 18months have seen very few issues with the car - though I did have to tow it home after ripping the quickdrain sump plug off (they hang low) at 80mph. That happened about 4m from here, well over a year ago, and there is still a bloody great oil slick in the layby where I pulled it up
It has regular rear tyre changes - Avons were the worse, only 4k
, but tyres aren't really a 'cost' to me, as they are a service item. Really since October 2007, its had nothing spent on it except normal service costs.
If I knew in March 2007 what I know now, would I have bought it? Possibly not, or would have bought to break it. But then, I have a soft spot for it, and it has served me very well, so possibly I would have done the same. Its not as economical as I would like, but seems to be on a par with all the other 2.5TD autos. I reckon on a decent run at sensible speeds, it would return good mpg - its the shitty commute it does every day that kills the mpg I reckon. And the ragging it gets.
The car is always for sale, though I don't actively push it. To be honest, I would be sorry to see it go - we've been through a lot together, and it has served me really well for the last 18 months.
But I don't need 3 cars and 1 motorbike when there is only 2 of us (and she normally gets a lift as well!), thus anyone offering the right amount for either of the Omegas will end up with a car that has served me well. And that would leave space on the drive for another project
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Topic: 2yrs in the life of the Tractor (Read 2813 times)