Matra Jet 6 restoration.

I thought that I would continue the finishing touches, fabrication wise, in preparation on our Classic Alpine Tour. One of the things that were bugging me is the water expansion bottle. We got the car without it.

An R5 plastic bottle was used in the interim but because it is mounted so close to the extractors, it was a continuous worry. Not so much on the open road but in town where the airflow was limited.

A quick call to the Matra guys and I had the dimensions. On the photos you'll see what is needed. I have started the fabrication proses by measuring the first cut. I'll add to the proces as I go along.

Frans.
 

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Looks like the new workshop is set up Frans. We'll aim for an inspection in November!!
 
Hi All,

I have slipped up on posting. I have slipped up on taking photos as well.

The tank is complete and installed with the same dimensions as the original except that it is in SS.

Here is a few photos of it and then I noticed a good comparison for size. We all know that the A110s are small cars. The Matra is as small and that must have been the norm of those days. Here you have my wife's Suzuki Swift and the Matra side by side in the garage. How is that for size!!

Regards, Frans.
 

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My (pre renovated) A110 and Ford Focus side by side...apologies for poor photo quality....
 

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Okay, the Matra came to a sudden stop. Mechanical failure, the engine.

During the lockdown I promised myself that I am going to visit a friend of mine up north about 2.5 hours there and 2.5 back. The Matra has never had a good run for a few hours continuously so this might bring out a few weak spots. And it did!

I left here and drove all the way up North to him with no incidents, a real nice run. The car pulling very strong with no uphill steep enough to gear back, just 4th all the way. Had lunch and afternoon coffee and then started the return trip.

It ran very well again until about 10 Ks from home when it suddenly dropped a cylinder and ran on 3 only. Immediately my thoughts went to another spark plug. I stopped at a garage and couldn't do much because the engine was still too hot to work on. Got a coffee and waited and then started the car again, turned it off and felt the extractor temps. No4 was cold. I took the plug out and it was perfect. Then I started to panic. I removed the rocker cover and there I saw the no. 4 pushrod was about 30mm short away from the rocker. I phoned my son and told him to bring a spare and longreach magnet pick-up tool.

In the mean time I got the long piece out and when he arrived I fished around with the magnet but the other 30mm piece was gone!
I changed the push rod and drove the car home, all back to normal but with a piece of rod inside somewhere.

A few days later I started planning and made a special flexable magnet tool with some 2.5 mm2 electric wire. It turned out too soft so I made one with a piece of accelerator cable. Still too soft Then another and eventully a 4th one that was okay. But.....after searching around for a while in the cavity where the cam followers go in the the special tool came out minus a magnet.

So now I'm in the process of removing the head in the hope that I will find the bastards there. They must be laughing at me.

In the early Matra restoration thread I complained bitterly about the crap that I found in the engine and that I built a complete different motor. The exhaust pushrods that came out was from another car because they had a ball and cup arrangement where the G push rods are a ball and ball arrangement. So they must've used 16TS adjusters and some other make and much thicker pushrods. Being the only part that I re-used, it failed on me. I'm now openly cursing the previous builders.

Frans.
 
It's not your style of course Frans, but it did occur to me that you could pretend it didn't happen. The magnet won't be going anywhere and how could 30 mm of pushrod cause a problem? I might have to think harder about the question mind you....

What a bugger of a thing to happen. You made your own pushrods for the racing engine did you not?

Best wishes.
 
You made your own pushrods for the racing engine did you not?

Best wishes.

Hi John,

Yes I did and I will make them now for the Matra as well. Titanium ones.

Frans.
 
Thanks Brian,

Fortunately I'm only going to make 4 off (exhaust). The Intakes are originals. I might need R8 wedge pushrods because I can't remember what I am storing in my other house. I will go and look first and then let you know as well if I can't find here in NZ.

Frans.
 
Thanks Brian,

Fortunately I'm only going to make 4 off (exhaust). The Intakes are originals. I might need R8 wedge pushrods because I can't remember what I am storing in my other house. I will go and look first and then let you know as well if I can't find here in NZ.

Frans.

Let me know if you need any standard R8 pushrods. Sorry I can't do a home delivery!
 
Hi All,

The head is off and I could not get the other bit out but at least I got the little magnet out. Then I removed the cam followers and continued the search with the magnets. I started at no.4 cylinder and worked the special tools into the cam box through the follower's holes, went further and eventually I found the bastard, at no.2 cylinder. It is out!! at the cost of a head gasket. Luckily I found no damage caused by the sparkplug electrode. It must have gone out by the exhaust.

Now I firmly believe that Murphy is actually a woman. No man can give you that much sh!t. Through the years I have made 4 sets of Gordini pushrods with Titanium. Gordini has to ball ends, so I used 2 R8 pushrods to make 1 Gordini pushrod. That means that I used 64 R8 pushrods. I now need 4 cups to make 4 new pushrods. I threw 64 pushrods with cups in the bin during my March clean-up!! Why?? Because I'll never need it again. Yeah right.

John or Brian, whoever has the most old pushrods, I need a set so that I can destroy them, please.

Regards, Frans.
 

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Not that bad Frans, it could have been much worse.

A lot of us know the pain of of deciding what to keep and what to add to landfill. It really hurts when you think of common parts that you have thrown out and they are now almost extinct.
 
I'll go hunting in the morning Frans.

When you say "a set", do you need 8? I guess you do.

I have 8 on the bench for you. Can post Tuesday.

Cheers

John
 
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One of the things that is most pleasing about AF is that it operates as an extended family & someone, somewhere, is likely to have the knowledge or the bit one is after & be willing to help out.

cheers! Peter
 
One of the things that is most pleasing about AF is that it operates as an extended family & someone, somewhere, is likely to have the knowledge or the bit one is after & be willing to help out.

cheers! Peter

Do you need any pushrods? :)
 
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