[Excelsior]

I decided to start a thread for the worklog on wha ti do to the Manta.

Sept. 06, 2002
==========
Picked up and drove 7 miles to home.

Sept. 07, 2002
==========
Registered and Insured (+$80 year Haggerty).
Replaced low beams with Halogen sealed beams.
Super-glued grill back together, needs replacement grill still.
Pulled out 1 bumber post on front and back.
Jerry rigged a new door pin for lower driver side door(gotta order a new one)
Changed Oil (Used Quaker State 10w/30 for high mileage engines, Synthetic after this one).
Replaced Oil Filter.
Inserted ValveMedic per suggestion here.
Inserted ValveSeal per suggestion here.

Total bill so far, minus Ins. and registarion - ~$65.00

Found leak in fuel line near tank.
Wheels need to be balanced.
Brakes need replacement.
EBrake barely works.
Seats will not move forward or bacward at all.

 

[GoinManta]

Do NOT use synthetic in a OLD motor. It can help you spin a bearing or at minimum leak worse than it probably currently does.

Castrol SynTec Blend is what I have found to work great in the Opels.

Give me a holler if you need anything.

 

[Excelsior]

Found my receipt for the 6th...

Oil Drain Pan
2 headlamps
Purolator 11092 Oil Filter
ValveMedic
TransSeal
SuperFlush
ATF
5qt QS 10/30 oil
1gl AntiFreeze
Oil Filter Wrench
Oil Spout

$60.92


Now to what I did today...

Sept. 07 2002
==========

First, The front ride side of my grille shimmied loose and it came off during braking and then both my right side wheels mutilated it. Will post pics later.

I installed the(now glued together) center part of the grille and cobbed some screws from Home Depot to do that.

6 Tornillo Para Sheet Metal Screws #12 c 3/4" Pan Head Phillips SS
6 1/3 flat washers / rubber. Stk #35064B
$4.07

Balanced all four wheels and looked at brakes. Looks like I am going to need to replace the calipers at a minimum, these are too far gone to attempt any fix.
$41.58

Replaced blinker light and purchased radiator hose to ass the air intake and engine return hose that was missing.
$12.75


Grand Total
$119.32

 

[GoinManta]

Found my receipt for the 6th...

Purolator 11092 Oil Filter

Hmm should have been 10028 where the 11092 number come from?

Also I think I have a set of old grilles here at the house your welcome to them.

 

[Excelsior]

That was from the receipt, I will go and dig out the box and correct that as soon as I can.

 

[Excelsior]

Sept. 08, 2002
==========

Flushed radiator and refilled with proper coolant.

$0.00



The filter was the 10028 as GoinManta pointed out.

I have taken a slew of pics close-up and will have a page up sometime soon.

 

[Excelsior]

Sept. 09, 2002
===========

I just drove it around a little today, Around 30 miles or so.

Last night when I pulled myself away from it, I tossed some cardboard underneath to check drips. I have two locations that are definately transmission and two places that are oil. The only way to properly figure out WHERE these are originating would be to put it on a lift.

Also while driving today, the temp guage started where I mentioned before, a little past 3/4. But later in that driving session, it was slightly below the 3/4 mark for a while.

Yesterday I took a bunch of pics and put them on the internet at http://www.theddz.com/manta for you all to check out.

 

[Paul]

Hey, looks good. What it looks like you've got is a 74 Manta Luxus that was originally Maroon exterior with maroon interior.

Keep up the good work and keep us Manta folks posted on your progress. Engine oil leaks can usually be traced to improper cank case venting.

The "normal" position on the temperature gage/gauge ( on my car anyway) was One (1) needle width to the left of the center white mark. The cooreponding temperature was 195F. You may have to check the entire cooling system to find the problem. One way to be "sure" that all of the air is our of the engine block is to park your car up hill, or with the frt tires on ramps. Usually trapped air is not a problem, but I have seen it before. Raising the front helped to get the air pocket to move thru the system and out thru the filler neck....

Let us know how we can help.

Paul

 

[Excelsior]

Original was Silver with Maroon interior. The last owner wanted red and painted it in 1995 when he purchased it. I do not know how good the original paint was, I will just buff this out.

He also did not remove a lot of the trim so traces of the silver can be seen if you look closely at the car in person.

 

[Excelsior]

September 18, 2002
==============

I replaces the tires today. Took out the 185/75 the previous owner installed because one tire valve broke loose and they were all out of round. That happens when a car sits for over 4 years!

Now I have 4 brand spanking new Cooper Mastercraft A/S 165/80R13 with the whitewalls on the inside. 23.3" diameter.

These tires and stock rims will go up for sale when I Plus2 the tires.

$204.93

That price included a road hazard warranty, 30 day ride guarantee, lifetime rotations, lifetime flat repairs and some other misc things.

The new tires ride VERY nice, but I am still getting a slight vibration at 50MPH+. Speedometer is still rating faster than I am going.

Grand Total
$324.25

I also found that the valve cover bolts were a little loose and tightened them up. And while I had the wheels off, I found that the oil pan and transmission pan bolts were tight, but still could tighten them some more.

Does anyone know the proper torque specs for these?

The underneath of the car is very nice looking for its age. I will defiantely have to spend a few days next year and POR-15 the whole underside as a precaution.

If anyone is in Syracuse, NY, gimme a shout and I would love to show it off!

Tomorrow morning I put it up on drive ramps and check the remaining bolts underneath because there is still one leak left.

 

[RallyBob]

Torque the oil pan bolts and tranny pan bolts to around 7-10 ft lbs, no more. If it still leaks, replace the gaskets.

The vibration above 50, is it in the driveline or in the steering wheel? If it's the driveline, it might be a worn u-joint or bad torque tube parts. If it's in the front end (steering shimmy), try this first before tearing anything apart: Torque the bolts that hold the sway bar to the lower a-arms. They are amazingly sensitive to torque specs. I had one off by 8 ft lbs and the car vibrated like hell @ 65-75 mph. I torqued it to spec (87 ft lbs) and the vibration went away.

Bob

 

[Excelsior]

September 27, 2002
===============

Passes inspection today.

I had to replace the side marker lights on the right and argue about no front bumber to the point of him looking it up and seeing that NY State does not have a lawy about it. So long as there are blinkers on the front, it will pass.

Now I drive it 170 miles to Rochester for the weekend. This will make for a good test.

 

[Excelsior]

Its been too long and I have lost track of pricing. I will dig it up eventually.

Purchased over the winter:

NOS Clock
NOS Muffler
Better condition center console (but its black instead of red)
New Gas Cap
Grille
New Instrument Cluster for a template

Installed the Grille yesterday after unwrapping it from a looong sleep. My first steps should be looking into completely new brake setups for the front and replacing the Solex carb.

BTW - a little starting fluid and it started like it never went to sleep.

Still NEEDS (going to be hard to find):
New vent plastic for passenger side

 

[dcm013]

So where are you in Syracuse? I live in MI now but still have a place about 10 mi. east of Caz. that I go to several times every summer. Once I've got my Manta up to par I may drive it back for a trip.

 

[Excelsior]

I am in East Syracuse. Gimme a shout and we can meet up somewhere.

 

[Gary]

Excelsior,
Check out the "Journals" section on the main page. You can start your own "Blog" there!

 

[Excelsior]

7/23/2003

Purchased two Magnaflow mufflers..

#11214 front
Aluminized 4x9

#14414 Rear
Stainless Steel 4" round

and had a local shop do the work.

Many thanks to Rallybob for leading me in the right direction and for letting me bug him a few times about sizes and such.

Before and after pics are at www.theddz.com/albums/exhaust along with a fuel line leak that was fixed at the same time.

The new exhaust feels very tight now that it doesnt rattle around like the old one. It has a slight throaghty sound to it where you can just feel the bass in the tune and the power difference can definately be felt. Plus I can hear a tiny tap in the motor that I never heard before due to a holy exhaust.

Next stop, brakes and suspension.

 

[GoinManta]

sleeping beauties

Funny you should mention just shooting it with starter fluid and getting it to run well.

My Manta has been under a tree behind my brother in laws house for over a year. WEnt and had the same thing happen. Then I drove it for 6 miles to my house where it is now parked and being bpampered by its new owner...

My 12-1/2 year old son. Who wants to get it all working now and have me drive him around in it.. I told him we have plenty of time to work on it.. 3 years is a long time...

That said Kev do you realize its been almost 4 years since I stoped doing the Newsletter, and 5 years since I last saw you at Carlilse?

 

[Excelsior]

Yes, I do realize that and I hope to see you sometime soon again. I don't think I will be doing Carlisle now that the Syracuse National are so much bigger, but we will see. I am hoping to see over 20 Opels at 2004 Syracuse Nationals.

BTW, whats up with your page? It seems to be down. I would like to persuse some parts. And how about those repro pillar vents?

 

[GoinManta]

Website problems with the domain servers.. Its related to the fact I had to buy opelmanta.com from a cybersquatter. Shoudl be fixed in the next few weeks.

In the meantime http://www.goindesign.com/manta/ works

If its the same weekend as Carlilse (or there abouts). I hate to say, I think most in the area will come to Carlilse. Its really changed since you were here. Its a great show and weahter permitting much bigger.

Charles