|
Just thought I'd add my experience of the Santana in here for future
reference...
I got my Santana about a year back (just before I started working for
DEC) and since then it's done 55,000 more miles, with about 103,000 on
the clock now. It's a B reg ('85 I think) with 1600 engine which is OK
for passing things on country lanes but sluggish with four people in.
Great economy on the motorway. It's been thrashed up and down the
country mostly at motorway speeds and it's only ever needed a new
exhaust on it. It recently blew the head gasket (i.e. yesterday!)
because of the cold weather and me not having enough antifreeze in the
radiator top-up... =:*(
Anyway, if you get the chance of a Santana and it looks like the kind
of thing you're after (a cheap run-about for example), then don't niss
it! Just look out for the seats, normally the drivers seat is
sagging badly, but after 100,000 miles, can't complain.
Chris.
|
|
I had the Sanatana engine rebored and rebuilt and still have the
problem with the oil that I described in another note, but there's
something else that's confusing me (not knowing too much about how
engines work) :-
The car's done about 400-450 miles since it was rebuilt and we've been
keeping the car at fairly low revs since then. At first the power
there was negligible, but it's slowly starting to return and the engine
is regaining some smoothness to it. At first it was sluggish and at
anything above 3,000 rpm sounded like it was gonna fall apart. Now
it's sounding better up to about 4K rpm...I assume that this is because
it's being run-in OK. Will the power and smoothness continue to
increase as the engine is run-in? How long should it take an engine
like this (1600-ish) to settle down (mileage-wise)?
Chris-who-apologises-in-advance-if-the-answers-to-his-questions-seem-
obvious-to-others! =;*)
|