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Yes mate 23rd May. Ive made an even bigger mistake. I cant make this meet. We are going away a day earlier than I thought. The famous wife phrase of "YOU DON`T LISTEN" is still ringing in my ears. And no, its not because it might be my turn to buy the beers. But I will get them in June. Sorry guys, and obviously still go along if you can.

And we did enjoy ourselves Weather was perfect again and we all had nice long drives around the 50-80 minutes mark. We arrived a day after a Supercar Show had been staged so the Car Park was a bit full, although we still managed to park together. We didn't see any aircraft but we did see lots of classic cars being either driven away or put on trailers. We also had an nice hour or so repairing Andy's car (Wouldn't start, diagnosed as fuel pump failure). Luckily I had a spare pump and we had 4 comprehensive tool kits so we eventually managed to get him going so he could go home under his own steam rather than on a flatbed . Nicely demonstrates what the Club is all about. We were joined by Pete, our newest member, who has an absolutely stunning Ronart car. Donor was a 4.2Ltr Jaguar, straight 6 (Check out the exhaust !!) A good day all round.

Thank you, I was just thinking that a borescope might help to identify if there are hardened valves!

Many unleaded heads have been modified and had hardened seats fitted to the exhaust ports. If you're taking the manifolds off you may be able to look up the port and see if you can spot hardened seats. A "borescope" would be very useful for this but a good torch, a dentist's mirror and possibly standing on your head might get you there.

Have a look at this - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143548367716 It's small, light and 50 Amps rated. I've bought one of these to replace the standard Ford item on the Cobra. I fitted something similar on the 2B's pinto which worked well. Bear in mind that you'll have to modify the existing brackets to suit and may need to provide a +12V ignition feed to it if your original one doesn't have one.

That’s very helpful, thank you! I will remove the manifolds and gaskets and search again!

That mark that looks like an F is enigmatic, not quite a proper stamp, but unusual if its just by chance. The head on my Pinto is stamped with the letter P, but it took me a while to find it. Why? ...well its stamped next to Number 4 inlet port and can only be seen properly when the manifold flange is removed AND it upside down with the engine in place. My assumption is that it was stamped when the head was not on the block during manufacture.

I hope so, you are the route master

Weather permitting I am with you.

***Due to this thread getting a bit long now, I have opened a new thread for NW area meet ups & events***

For those members from the NW area interested in going down to the Kit Car Show at Malvern... A few of us are going to meet up and drive down together on the Saturday morning, some are there and back in a day others are camping overnight, the choice is yours. Let's meet up... Where: Cat & Lion pub car park - WA4 4NB When: Saturday 1st June 2024 Time: will be leaving at 9.30am The only thing we need now is some dry weather (Let me know you are coming so we don't miss anyone) See you there, Darrell

A great morning spent kicking tyres and swapping stories/ advice with some proud owners. One of them even let me sit in their Porsche Turbo (my dream car), Ian and I enjoyed a brew and chat at a busy car meet. Weather was great.

Thanks, Car is a Q plate registered in 2008 with only 5500 miles of history since registered…

Look up the MOT history on the gov.uk website. This will give you milage going back several years. I have forgotten when leaded was phased out but 20 years ago is the right ball park. If the engine is still running after all this time then valve seat regression is not a problem. My 2l pinto has an early head that ford says needs leaded petrol, I decided to see what happened and just ran it on unleaded 70,000 miles later it still runs.

When you say heater I take it to be a standard car heater where the waste head from the engine is transfered to the car through a small water radiator and a fan so 2 to 5 amps depending on fan speed. Lighting 5 amps for each headlight bulb plus 2 amps for everything else less if you have LED bulbs. so 12A. Everything else you mention less than 5A. total. So before electrical heated seats 20 to 25A max. Electrical heated seats are about 10A per seat though some have a higher initial setting for quick heatup but would only be at that setting for short times unless you live in siberia. 10A gives 120W try touching an old 100W bulb in your house after only a short time you get burnt. So I recon that 40A just about does you at night on a cold rainy day.

Enjoy, a little too far for me.

I have been frantically looking around the block, can’t see anything apart from what looks like the letter “F” on the side of the number 4 intake…

Hello Robin Hood hive mind! I’m out and about again enjoying the car in the improved weather since sorting my fuel tank issues and so inevitably, my mind turns to other things to sort and improvements to make. I raised up my steering column last year to make a little more room for my knees. Unfortunately I have noticed since doing so that the shaft is in fact touching the alternator. This is obviously far from ideal. It’s only lightly touching and so it’s not at present interfering with my steering ability, but for longevity’s sake of both shaft and alternator, I don’t want it to be this way forever! My alternator belt doesn’t appear to be doing especially well either, and so I’m turning my attention to addressing all of these things. I’ve been looking at possibilities for installing a more compact alternator to replace the stock Sierra Mk1 alternator that I’m guessing is in there currently. I’ve found a compact alternator on Car Builder Solutions that appears based on measurements to be a smaller diameter than the stock alternator, but it is only 40amps which to me sounds a little low. What are the thoughts on this? My car isn’t massively complex electronically but it does have a few bits and pieces that might be overly costly to a 40amp alternator. I have a heater, windscreen wipers and a Sony Bluetooth headunit. The car otherwise has normal things you’d expect such as lights, dashboard cluster etc and all that’s required to run a standard 2.0l pinto. My wife and I are thinking of installing heated seats from intatrim in the not too distant future and so there is the potential draw of that to consider too. My knowledge of how many amps I generally need and what kind of a downsize is just too low is somewhat limited, so any thoughts would be much appreciated! Enjoy the weather - looking forward to Malvern!

After a change of plan (I've bought a running one instead of building one!) I am selling a complete Dax Rush Bike Engined chassis, arms, bodywork, Wilwood Calipers, sierra LSD, Gaz front dampers, radiator and lots more as a complete package. I have the original bill of sale for the chassis. It has a genuine DAXRU chassis number, and there are other receipts and the DAX build manual included. See all the pics for parts included. I may split if there's enough interest. Looking for £2850 ono. Collection only from Dover CT16

As title. I'm looking for a set of used good or new cams, Kent model number FZ2002 to suit a Zetec silver top, and/or a set of vernier pulleys. Thanks, Andy

Thank you for the info! I have found a lot of that on the burton power website. i will look further around the engine.

I suggest that you scrape the paint off the machined flat surfaces next to the no 4 spark plug, it will then be clear if there are any markings there. If you find an * stamped then look on the other side of the head near the inlet port for no 4, (look there anyway). I have picked up the following information from the various threads on this frequent topic. It might be of use. N.B any marks will be punched not "scratched" or cast in the mold. Unleaded I/D for Pinto next to number 4 spark 1.6-- M,MM,N or NN 1.8-- S or SS 2.0-- P,PP,R or RR Have a look at the shape of the inlet ports. If they are round its no help but if they are cam lobe shape then its an injection head and is unleaded. 'I' OR 'L' stamped next to number 4 spark plug hole= a leaded head most likely to be 1979 - 1982 in age

Sorry Andi, I can't make it last month I'm assuming you mean 23rd May ? but more importantly - who's turn is it to get the beers in ? See you there mate.

OK, decision made. It will be Sywell Aerodrome (NN6 0BN) at 12:00. This is one of our favoutite haunts. It has a nice car park, a nice grassy area to sit and you get the bonus of a free museum (donations) and aircraft to watch and, most importantly, a toilet close by

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, ever since buying the car and moving house, I've lost all the paperwork and receipts. Based on information from other Robin Hood owners and the little information I got from the previous owner a couple of years ago, I think it's a 2-litre Pinto engine, and the donor car was a Sierra. Also, I believe it has R1 carbs. So the tapping is during idle and yes it probably gets a little louder on acceleration.