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Restoration of my Tata Sierra: Starting with the mechanical work first

Went to my old Tata authorised service station (Delta motors, now Arya motors) in Gurgaon, who took care of my Safari for 11 years.

BHPian 123.rishabh recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I have started the mechanical restoration of the vehicle and will be writing about it in detail in two parts.

Mechanical Restoration Part 1.

Went to my old Tata authorised service station (Delta motors, now Arya motors) in Gurgaon, who took care of my Safari for 11 years.
They used to have a 95-96 model white Sierra NA till 2018 which was used as a service support cum tow vehicle and was capable of towing Dicors & Stormes.
Met my advisor and he called a few warehouses and confirmed that none of the parts of the Sierra were available in and around the area.

Then I went back, opened the parts and took the samples to the basic service parts to my trusted aftermarket parts dealer.
Service was carried out with the following parts

1. Oil Filter : Did not find a Tata genuine part, instead found a Mahindra genuine oil filter of the exact same size and spec belonging to the old Scorpio.

2.Engine Oil : Went for the old and trusted Mobil Delvac MX 15W40
(7.5L bucket, already used the same in my Safari Dicor 2.2)

3.Diesel Filter : Removed the old Purolator dual paper cartridge filters and replaced with a new pair of Delphi ones.

4. Air Filter : Initially nothing was available in Gurgaon so had to give the sample of the old filter to my trusted parts dealer and planned to wait for 4-5 days before the new one arrived.

5. Timing Belt : There was no marking / part number on the timing belt, so we counted the number of teeth and started to find a belt with exact same no of teeth. I was very particular about getting a fresh manufactured belt as rubber degrades over time and it would have been a risky part if it was older than 3-4 years.
Luckily we found a 2024 manufactured Tata Genuine part which had the same no of teeth and belonged to a Tata Ace.

Meanwhile we carried out the service and my mechanic put a thick cloth in the Air intake hose to avoid any dust going inside till the new filter arrived and parked the car.

The next day he also changed the timing belt, found the tensioners in a decent shape (will also change these in the future as i find them) and informed me about the same.

I came to the workshop the very next day and directly sat inside the car and cranked it. It took a slightly longer crank (Normally starts in half of it) and suddenly started to make some abnormal noise (As if one cylinder stopped working) and I suddenly shut the engine down.
Opened the engine bay and realized that I forgot there was a cloth in the air intake pipe and the car had sucked the same .
Thankfully no damage was done, we had to open the complete air intake piping along with the intake manifold to pull out the stuck cloth in the upper block. If this was a turbo, It would definitely have done something bad to the turbo blades.

After all this, I made a comprehensive list of parts which need changing and have ordered it from 3 different vendors in MP & MH.
The list is as follows
Mechanical :
Front Suspension Bush Kit (18 No)
Rear Suspension Bush Kit (10 No)
Bonnet rubber stoppers (6 No)
Engine Mounts (2 No)
Gearbox Mount (1 No)
Timing Belt Plastic Cover
Coolant Reservoir & Cap
Windshield Washer Reservoir & Cap
V Belt
Toothed Fan Belt

Cosmetic :
Rear Spare Wheel Vinyl Cover (with Sierra Cursive Font) already received, pic below
Telco Sport Export Spec Wheel Covers (4 Nos)
ORVM (2 No)
Front Door weather strips (2 No)
Fender Indicators (2 No)
Tail Lamp (2 No)
Headlamp (1 RHS) : The reflector is rusted in my car, will try to use the reflector of the new lamp in the old original Lumax STANLEY JAPAN headlamp housing
Roof Plastic beadings (2 No)
ABC Pedal rubbers (3 No)
Gear knob boot
Inside upper plastic trims on doors
Tailgate outside door handle

Need to source these parts which i am still searching
1. All 4 wheel well claddings (The rear ones are not in perfect shape)
2. LHS rear bumper corner (Wont mind buying it for both sides if available)
3. LHS Number plate lamp (Its slightly broken, works well)
4. OE or Similar looking Mud Flaps (4 No)
5. New emblems (All of them are intact but need to see if i can restore the paint on these)

Basis fitment of the above parts, will check what more is required.

Meanwhile i removed the grill ornaments and the hood emblem and gave them a nice clean, planning to keep it this way since it is original and in a pretty decent shape for the age.

BEFORE

AFTER

Here is a pic of the spare wheel cover

Will keep updating in the Part 2, here is a shot of the 2 head turners from different eras waiting for their respective parts. (Cayenne S V8 waiting for a coolant pump)

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.

 
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