[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by funkykar

^^ Very glad to know about your restoration. Please do let us know the details of your 118 NE. Also, do post pictures of your car in present condition and restoration pics.

If you have the time to detail the restoration, please start a new thread for the same.

Thanks Karthik for the support.

Please find the pic of the car.



Its a 1988 model NE petrol, The body is in good condition except for the door beading and the rubber parts inside the engine compartment, the car is OK.

I am planning to bring it to Bangalore next month for the full restoration.

Presently need help in sourcing the below parts:

Door beading (all doors)
Hose pipes
V Belt (Fan belt)

Thanks
Nithin

[funkykar]

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

Thanks Karthik for the support.

Presently need help in sourcing the below parts:

Door beading (all doors)
Hose pipes
V Belt (Fan belt)

Thanks
Nithin

All these are easily available in Bangalore. Door beadings are something I got for my NE 5 months ago. I can double check with any vendor on this. I guess may/should be available in any major town in Kerala as well.

By the way, you need these parts when you are back in Bangalore?

[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by funkykar

All these are easily available in Bangalore. Door beadings are something I got for my NE 5 months ago. I can double check with any vendor on this. I guess may/should be available in any major town in Kerala as well.

By the way, you need these parts when you are back in Bangalore?

If it is available, I can pick up these parts on Saturday 12th June.

As I will be going to Kerala next week for the FC, it has to be in working condition for the RTO to issue the FC.

[chanu]

I know 118NE has come in Diesel versions also however wanted to know more about them, what was the engine & CC. Does NECB has any if so any pics of engine bay would be a favour you guys would be doing to my eyes.

[funkykar]

Originally Posted by nithinnarayanan

If it is available, I can pick up these parts on Saturday 12th June.

As I will be going to Kerala next week for the FC, it has to be in working condition for the RTO to issue the FC.

Sure. Its available in a few shops at JC road. If its an AC variant, the hose is a little different. Just check under the hood before you go. If you are not familiar with shops at JC road, you can reach me @ 98450 46840 and I can let you know.

Originally Posted by chanu

I know 118NE has come in Diesel versions also however wanted to know more about them, what was the engine & CC. Does NECB has any if so any pics of engine bay would be a favour you guys would be doing to my eyes.

No. We dont yet have any member who has a diesel variant. It was called the 1.38D and has a 1366 CC engine. It is the same FNM engine that the 137D Padmini's have. I too am not too familiar with it. The engine is pretty noisy I felt.

[samsag12]

I had this brochure which states the information regarding the changes PAL made in the Premier 1.38D (the diesel version of 118NE). Pretty surprising to see after the rust prevention the car was also prevented from being sold.

[FiatMyLife]

nithinnarayanan: Good to see you in NECB thread. I had seen your thread in GearHeads.

Your ne looks very original. Do you have some more pics of WIP?

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear all - I was offline for some time for personal reason. Back at work now.

I am really very happy to see the 118NE thread. Please ask all your queries, I'll be too happy to answer them. I'll also share all my experiences with NISSAN engineers Mr.Yoshikazu Shirahishi and Mr.Temino when they visited PAL in December 1984 and December 85, along with all my testing experiences at the Pave track at VRDE Ahmednager / endurance runs, performance trials and coast down tests.

The R&D cars were registered as MZM7245 (bright red) / MZM7247 (grey, painted red, then body changed to black, then body again changed to grey) / MZM7250 (orange) / MZM7256 (pista green, then body changed to white) / MGQ8171 (blue) / MGQ8173 (blue) / MGQ8174 (auckland brown, my favoutite car, also my Himalayan Rally support car of 1987, very fast, I did Delhi to Mumbai alone in 17 hours in 1988, there were no exressways at that time) / MGQ8176 (white) / MGQ8489 (grey, used by me as a master car to collect coast down data for use on the chassis dynamometer) / MGQ8486 (white) / MGQ8483 (white) / MGQ8488 (grey) / MGQ8814 (light green) / MH05C39 (white) / MH05C41 (white) / MH05C43 (white) / MH05C488 (dark blue) / MH05C490 (burgandy red). The cars imported from Fiat Italy / Seat Spain / Tofas Turkey for comparison purpose were MMY6234 (Yellow "Especial" LHD with 1600 cc twin overhead cam Fiat engine and Pirelli tyres, superb performance) / MMY6098 (burgandy red with black vinyl top, imported as LHD, converted by us to RHD as a first mechanical prototype) / MMY4975 (dark blue, imported as LHD, converted by us to RHD as a Nissan engine adaptation prototype / MMY5219 (white, imported as LHD, converted to RHD as a Mazda engine adaptation prototype) / MMY7212 (white, importedas LHD, converted to RHD as a Padmini engine and transmission adaptation prototype) / last but not the least, an unregistered metallic light green LHD car kept as a master car for reference in Kalyan plant.

By the way, in November 2009, I was offered a Polynesian Biege coloured single owner original condition non-AC 118NE. I declined as I had too many cars to take care of already.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM

Dear all -
By the way, in November 2009, I was offered a Polynesian Biege coloured single owner original condition non-AC 118NE. I declined as I had too many cars to take care of already.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Sir, Does that color you've mentioned the same as this car below. We are doing a simple Overcoat on this, would appreciate if you can let me know the exact shade or the paint code. Do i get this shade in Dupont / Standox.

Thanks in advace

[FiatMyLife]

B.D Sir, are any of the R&D cars still surviving?

Regards,
Arun

[SILVERWOOD]

My friend has a NE with a Toyota deisel engine, previously this car was owned by a Judge in Hubli.I will get the pictures and post them asap.

Betw:This car is up for grabs. (Its in Raichur,North Karnataka)

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear Pawan - This colour is Ploynesian Biege. I do not know if Dupont or Standox makes it. You may check with their technical cell which I believe is based in Baroda.

Dear Arun - PAL itself has closed down, I don't think any cars would survive. MMY6234, the "especial" was my favourite. I saw it deteriorate and go to ground in front of my eyes. In 10 years, I saw it driven only twice. Those Pirelli tyres were made in Italy and were wonderful just to look at. There was a car which had deteriorated so much that there was a tree growing through its floor pan. When I offered to keep the cars in running order, it was not appreciated and I was reprimanded for it. It is sad but true that the guys who supposedly "control" things really just don't care.

The only car I really took care of from 1987 till 1994 when I left the company was MGQ8174 as it was "my rally support" car. I faced a lot of flak for it but still kept it for 7 years. I used to keep it on a ramp in the R&D workshop to protect it from the notorious Mumbai rains which used to flood the factory every year. I used to clean it everyday after working hours. I don't know what happened to it after 1994. The last time I saw it was on the highway in Mumbai near the airport, it was white in colour and in very bad condition. I just prayed and moved away.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[nithinnarayanan]

Originally Posted by FiatMyLife

nithinnarayanan: Good to see you in NECB thread. I had seen your thread in GearHeads.

Your ne looks very original. Do you have some more pics of WIP?

Hey Arun,

Thanks

The NE is very original with no mods.

I am in the stage of collecting all the parts required for the Restoration.

Will take the WIP pics and post when the work starts next week.

[funkykar]

@ Behram sir: I am truely amazed to find you on this thread. The information about testing of the NE's along with their registration numbers is very charming. I still wonder how you manage to remember 'n' number of automobiles you have had/tested during in yester decades.

By the way, both my NEs seemed to have some troubles. This kept me kind of depressed for a few days.

Firstly, my white NE (Earthquake) showed up some heating issues. It used to reach the half way mark in no time(just 3 kms of moderate driving). When running on LPG, it would heat up more quickly. Once it starts creeping more after the half way mark, the car used to get very very sluggish and jerky. But temperature never crossed 75% mark. I was very worried and couldnt understand what could be wrong. Couple of days ago, I had called Ilango for some thing else. I discussed this with him. He pointed out couple of areas like check if radiator and water pump is fine. Then more specifically, he said the thermo stat valve may be malfunctioning or jammed and asked to get this too checked. As far as I knew, my water pump and radiator are fine. I got my car to garage and had my mechanic check the thermo valve. He said more or less water is not circulating. He removed the thermo valve for now. Car seems to be far much better now. Will run it for a few days and then decide whether to put in a new valve or not.

If I remember correctly, Behram sir had somewhere mentioned that the valve from a Maruti can fit in easily and operates at more or less the same temperature.

[funkykar]

My other NE too had a problem. We refer to it as 3410. The issue with it was it runs very sluggish until engine heats up a bit. Like say 25% mark on the meter. Until then it was terrible to drive. With great difficulty it used to revv. Once it reached a decent temperature, it cruised very well. I did not know what the problem was.

Once day myself, Arun and Sujith checked various things on the engine and finally we suspected a couple of cylinders to be not working, 3 and 4 namely. While engine is running when plugs 3 or 4 were removed, there was no difference in the running of the engine as compared to car loosing RPM when 1 or 2 were removed. Sujith suspected bad plugs or bad wires and we tried swapping and installing new cables and plugs. It just wouldnt respond. We checked that the plug wires were receiving the current from the distributer. Points and condensor too were new.

I also took valuable suggestions from Ilango, Pavan Kadam and Manish. They suggested me many things to identify what is causing it. I tried various things, same result. I then had my mechanic remove the head and got the valves grinded and the surface faced a bit. Now all is fitted, carburater, distributer tuned. All 4 cylinders are now responding very well.

My mechanic confirmed that the head was removed for the first time. Something I felt very happy about. I need to do the compression tests Manish told me to do just to ensure everything is normal.