What Does Your Avatar Signify?

[Les Welsher]

Cheers Andy

[Jon Bradbury]

Andy,

 

If your car is built like that you'll not get it as far as the MOT station, let alone the SVA centre!

 

Heh

 

So, what was that car I need to avoid like the plague? Focus Diesel?

 

Heh

[Guest daveg]

Andy

 

Why is it that bike engines are MUCH more powerful (B.H.P/cc) than car engines? (I am comparing 4 strokes, for get 2 strokes)

 

My 600cc Yamaha is 95bhp....

 

Dave

[Peter Bell]

This thread is like a chinese whisper how has it got here? I guess the answer to the bike engine is fairly complicated but although it has a high bhp figure it will be at high revs with a very narrow power band, also it will have a low torque output which is fine for a light bike with lots of gears. But it won't do 100,000 abused miles without even taking the head off!

Peter.

[Jon Bradbury]

Yeah, and it eats fuel at all speeds because its tuned specifically for that headline-grabbing power output figure. If its a sportsbike that is.

 

(Just chopped mine in for a trail bike BTW)

[Guest rizla]

mine is the other luv in my life............i wish

[Guest Ant]

Well why have I recently had to pay nearly £600 because a silly cambelt idler pully wheel failed ?

 

Bloody hell - there's a co-incidence and a half!

 

My "winter vehicle" is a 1.8 IDI TD escort. I did the timing belts on it at the end of november when i bought it. No mention of tensioner and idler pulleys in haynes ... at least not under timing and pump belt replacement. Last Friday night the tensioner pulley broke. Fortunately I heard the rattles and managed to switch it off in time. It made a right mess of things under the belt cover, but thank god my pistons and valves had no more than a friendly hello with each other. They appear to be undamaged.

 

I'll post a photo of the failed item when I get to work on Monday. The timing belt tensioner pulley has a plastic rim. This fail and when I found it the timing belt cover had been shredded and the idler was in two parts with lots of mashed up plastic all over the place.

 

On closer inspection of the haynes manual, under "timing belt tensioners - removal and refitting" it says "It is recommended that these are replaced whenever the timing and injection belts are renewed. Ford are now reluctant to supply replacement belts without new belt tensioners and idler pulley". So why the F##K didn't it say that under timing belt removal and refitting? Do I have to scour the whole book to see if there's anything else which needs replacing at the same time?

 

Ant

 

PS - Bill ... just to make you sick ... new belts and pulleys cost 60 quid, another 10 for the front crank oil seal, and about 15 hours in my garage removing the bumper to remove the alternator to put the timing pin into the block to time the engine after replacing the belts and the tensioners. And I thought production cars were designed to make things easy to get at!!!

[Guest Ant]

Why is it that bike engines are MUCH more powerful (B.H.P/cc) than car engines? (I am comparing 4 strokes, for get 2 strokes)

My 600cc Yamaha is 95bhp....

 

Because BHP is basically torque * speed. Your torque is pretty much the same as in a car engine, but it has a short stroke and hence revs much higher. Double the rev limit = double the power.

 

So why not have short stroke car engines too? Something to do with only running at full power for short amounts of time on bikes because you accelerate very quickly (the bike is light). The same engine in a car has a higher load for longer, and will fail sooner. Hence bike engined kit car engines shouldn't last as long as car engined ones ... and kit cars are lighter than production cars so that makes the effects less noticable too.

 

Ant

 

PS - The first paragraph of this posting is correct. The second is my own unverified waffle ... if I were you I wouldn't believe a word of it!

[Guest TerryBarry]

And I thought production cars were designed to make things easy to get at!!!

That's funny I thought that they were designed to be assembled at the lowest cost and last the length of the warranty - after that the lucky owner is at the mercy of the after sales industry.

Oh - and the manufacturer gets to screw you for any spare parts required.

Terry

[Guest Stuart Ainslie]

I just thought that my avatar looked good.....

 

Stuart.

[Guest ash]

i must admit stuart yours (are) is proably the best i've seen

i'm sure it has some deeper meaning / significance

cheers me up every time i see it!!!!

 

mine just sums up the feeling when i'm driving

maybe i'll paint it orange ,fit "dixy"airhorns and paint a flag on the bonnet

(yeeee-haaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

may even make it to le mans one day too!!

[Guest Battery Bill]

I'm surprised the "Sexist" lobby have not complained about Stuart's bouncing boobs.

I think they are cool though.

[Guest bloke]

stuart, they both look good....

[Guest bugsy]

Must admit stuart its "Strangely Hypnotic Hmmmmmmm.........."

[Guest jetskijase]

I nicked mine off another forum, think it was fords, it's a guy who lives in melbourne aus. Was gettin jealous of all the cool chinese girls with bouncin boobs