Just came across this thread while looking back at the bangers and cash episode and promptly signed up to post on here
I owned JNH 820T for a few years
I bought the car if I remember correctly when I was 21 so that would be 1998 and I think it was around October time
It was fir sale from a dealer in hemel hampstead and I lived in Bradford at the time I drove down with a friend had a look over the car and bought it
On the drive back it was a nightmare overheating all the time it took ages to get home stopping at every services to top up with water
After I got it home I started looking for the cause of the overheating and drew a blank I changed many parts just incase and nothing helped I eventually learned that if I drove quite slowly it was fine but as soon as you were at motorway speeds the needle started to rise back off a bit down to say 50 and it dropped
This had me puzzled for a long time
Any way I was picking up some service parts from Rodley motors and happened to mention about my problem to Richard I also told him the ignition timing would never be the same when as when it was last set
He told me to check the timing chain and cam shaft
So after work that night I set to and stripped it down I was in the garage until 3 in the morning and had work at 8
As Richard suspected the cam shaft was worn really badly with some lobes hardly lifting the valves and the timing chain and gears were the plastic coated type for quieter running and all the plastic had come off in lumps leaving the chain very sloppy
In my lunch the next day I went back to Rodley and Richard sorted me out with all the bits I needed and that evening again after work I put it all back together
I was really eager to try it but I had to resist as the neighbours would be less than happy at the small hours of the morning especially as I had to break the cam in so would have to keep it running for a while to perform the procedure
So later on after work I fired it up and instantly knew it was a different beast it sounded so much better
On the first test drive I couldn't belive it it was so fast compared to what it was before and the overheating was a thing of the past
I used the car daily for a few years and went to a couple of car shows with it I did quite a lot of mechanical work on the car as a lot of things had obviously been let slip with the previous owner I also re painted it myself I had the stripes colour matched and the white paint i think was a Ford white the original colour underneath was competition orange that i revealed
for a diy paint job it was actually really good i got a run in the air vent behind the front wheel and at the back while leaning over to spray the inside of the suger scoop fin a bead of sweat driped down into wet paint and caused a blister but the paint was hugely improved and I was very proud of what I had acheaved
before long I started to long for another corvette
So I bought myself a red 89 c4 with red leather it wasn't without its issues but it drove so much better than the old 77 and the 77 started to never come out of the garage
So after a while I decided to sell it and it went off to Adrian dromey it had all the files and everything with it when it went
And until bangers and cash I never saw it around at all it had buckskin colour interior at that time that I noticed had been re done in black
I owned JNH 820T for a few years
I bought the car if I remember correctly when I was 21 so that would be 1998 and I think it was around October time
It was fir sale from a dealer in hemel hampstead and I lived in Bradford at the time I drove down with a friend had a look over the car and bought it
On the drive back it was a nightmare overheating all the time it took ages to get home stopping at every services to top up with water
After I got it home I started looking for the cause of the overheating and drew a blank I changed many parts just incase and nothing helped I eventually learned that if I drove quite slowly it was fine but as soon as you were at motorway speeds the needle started to rise back off a bit down to say 50 and it dropped
This had me puzzled for a long time
Any way I was picking up some service parts from Rodley motors and happened to mention about my problem to Richard I also told him the ignition timing would never be the same when as when it was last set
He told me to check the timing chain and cam shaft
So after work that night I set to and stripped it down I was in the garage until 3 in the morning and had work at 8
As Richard suspected the cam shaft was worn really badly with some lobes hardly lifting the valves and the timing chain and gears were the plastic coated type for quieter running and all the plastic had come off in lumps leaving the chain very sloppy
In my lunch the next day I went back to Rodley and Richard sorted me out with all the bits I needed and that evening again after work I put it all back together
I was really eager to try it but I had to resist as the neighbours would be less than happy at the small hours of the morning especially as I had to break the cam in so would have to keep it running for a while to perform the procedure
So later on after work I fired it up and instantly knew it was a different beast it sounded so much better
On the first test drive I couldn't belive it it was so fast compared to what it was before and the overheating was a thing of the past
I used the car daily for a few years and went to a couple of car shows with it I did quite a lot of mechanical work on the car as a lot of things had obviously been let slip with the previous owner I also re painted it myself I had the stripes colour matched and the white paint i think was a Ford white the original colour underneath was competition orange that i revealed
for a diy paint job it was actually really good i got a run in the air vent behind the front wheel and at the back while leaning over to spray the inside of the suger scoop fin a bead of sweat driped down into wet paint and caused a blister but the paint was hugely improved and I was very proud of what I had acheaved
before long I started to long for another corvette
So I bought myself a red 89 c4 with red leather it wasn't without its issues but it drove so much better than the old 77 and the 77 started to never come out of the garage
So after a while I decided to sell it and it went off to Adrian dromey it had all the files and everything with it when it went
And until bangers and cash I never saw it around at all it had buckskin colour interior at that time that I noticed had been re done in black
