kevin the chicken

Bob is such a cheapskate, I'll give you a hundred if you fill it with petrol. A quick look on eBay shows a couple of cars one at 3800 or best offer and one at 4650 which is optimistic I think. Now is the time to sell though.

If nobody comes up with the goods, you might try the guy I use, advertises on eBay. Just type in weber and open up a couple of ads and you will find him. The trading name is fast road cars and the service is very good with most stuff arriving in a couple of days. Reminds me I need some manifold studs.

Problem is now resolved. I can now see what happened. The person who put the engine in carefully measured where the dipstick needed to go through the sump and then drilled the baffle plate at the right distance from the edge. Lovely neat job. Unfortunately at the wrong end of the baffle, whacked the sump on with loads of mastic oozing out both inside and out,jammed the dipstick in and went for a drive. Job done. Badly. I haven't even watched top gear, can't stand Evans and everybody said it's pants anyway.

Thanks mate, honestly you couldn't make it up could You? It's amazing that I managed to get a dipstick reading, must have just been sliding around in the oil on the baffle plate.

Probably a really stupid question but here goes. Is there any reason why my dipstick should not go all the way down in to the Sump? I am just swapping over the sbd sump on to my new engine and found that there is no way the dipstick will go in the sump as there is no hole for it in the baffle plate. There is however a hole a similar distance from the edge at the other end of the sump which has been drilled after casting so I am wondering if the numpty who built the car measured up and drilled in the wrong place and then didn't realise as the dipstick is quite bendy and slides along the plate. The picture on the sbd website only shows the frying pan shaped hole for the oil pickup pipe. I am guessing I need to drill a hole in the correct Place?

Compression test before you do anything else. That will rule out a broken piston ring which is worst case scenario hopefully. Does sound like cam or followers though if you think it is from the top end. Good luck.

Don't start me off. I used to have to deliver the dole money cheques before it was paid directly in to the bank. I had one little toe rag follow me around constantly asking if I had got his dole money until I told him to foxtrot Oscar and get a job. He said he wasn't well enough to work to which I replied you are well enough to wander around town all day drinking lager with your mates. I was nearly on the dole after that one. We still have to deliver letters to people who are on some benefit or other and there are an amazing amount of them, very few with non English names. Most of the foreign nationals around here come to work and work very hard. Hard luck on getting laid off, hope you get something soon. It makes your blood boil when you work hard nearly forty years like i have watching people who have no intention of ever working

Frequently. You need them occasionally so that you can appreciate the good ones. Little pleasures like getting the grass cut before it rains without breaking two mowers.

Postage is very difficult with some people quoting a price for a maximum size, some for weight and some couriers you just can't fathom it out so I can see how hard it must be for them when you are posting things as varied as a bulb and a radiator. They do however give a first class service so I would always use them if I was not sure about what I needed because they would know the answer or if I wanted it asap because it would be here the next day. Also their preferred courier is interlink and their depot is a two minute cycle ride away if I'm out when they call!

Damn too slow typing after a hard day at work

You will need a different intake manifold, after all you are putting two carb's on where there was only one. Different throttle cable arrangement too, twin cable is the norm I think. You will have to change the fuel lines to feed both, easy. A fuel pressure regulator is important as the webers don't like too much pressure, just lots of flow. Too much and they leak like sieves. If I remember correctly the standard pinto fuel pump will cope if it's in good nick. Thats enough expense to be going on with!

Brilliant. I might get spirit of day off award if I get this engine out today. Found one wacky piece of engineering already, the support for the clutch cable at the bottom end is a piece of bar with a deep 10mm or similar socket welded to it. That might stay because it looks solid and is out of sight but the cable will definitely not be going back through the carb linkage. Got a new long one to go on.

Did anyone see fith gear the other night? I don't usually watch it but there was nothing else on. There was a guy on who ran a company called wacky racers who had built a 1980s bedford van with a calibra turbo engine. They gave it bit of a try out and then put it up against a 500 odd horsepower Bentley they were road testing in a drag race. The Bentley won but it was very close, looked like inches at the flag. It's probably available on demand if you look. I think he said that it was his everyday transport.

Just for once I am ahead of the game. After having three hoses perish over the winter I decided to replace mine with correctly marked marine grade. My car was drained down yet the old ones just cracked and perished. Maybe we should just treat them as a consumable and replace them at regular intervals during servicing. The only downside that I can see is the marine grade I have is much bigger even though it has the same bore and may look a bit clumsy where it is visible.

Tim, Some years ago I had a land rover canvas repaired by a small boatyard at Chesterton near the river near the green dragon bridge. They may well have gone by now but that's the sort of place to try. Simpers ropework as was made a custom trailer cover for me and I know they still exist selling work wear, they were located off east road near the Elizabeth way roundabout. I don't know where they are now as I moved out of cambridge. Ely would be another good place to try as it is big on boating and is a good place to go for lunch while researching!

I use weber 45 dcoe on my redtop, I like them and they perform well if set up properly but they do use a lot of fuel. My rolling road man thinks that they are good but dellortos are better on a road car. From what I have gleaned bike carb's offer similar performance but are smoother in operation. They are plentiful and a lot cheaper. You will need a different manifold to fit either. Plenty of people have used both successfully, probably would be cheaper to go bike carb's.

I think a lot of people have used Soft bits for sevens,just Google them. You will probably have to make up a pattern for them to use. Some people have made them up themselves, I think the hard bit would be to get the shape right on the pattern. Once you had done that though someone like a sail maker would be able to knock it up for you if you got the material. Jones boatyard in st Ives would know where you could get it done, they are close to you. You must be the closest person on the forum to me, bit of a desert here. Is your car on the road?

I feel your pain Dan, I managed three hundred yards to the mot station and then the same to the petrol station before something major broke with a crunch!

I am going to have a look at it at some stage but I have had a very good offer already of a known engine with good specification which would kill two birds with one stone, namely giving an increase in performance and hopefully longevity. After all I don't know what sort of state the rest of my engine is in. It certainly needs to come to bits to clean out all the loose bits of metal and who knows what else is going to need replacing, I don't really have the time or facilities for major engine works so I think will probably go for a replacement that has already the works done on it.

As title, Ideadly I need an engine that is known to be in good running condition. I don't need any ecu, injectors or anything like that but I would consider anything if it came as part of the package. The plan is just to swop everything straight over from my engine which is full of metal swarf! Can pick from most places and cash is waiting

Thanks for that, not too far away from me either. I think it might be lot worse once I take the head off and there is metal everywhere so it needs to come completely to bits to clean it all out. I am going to see if anyone on here has one in reasonable nick before I start to tear it to bits.

Things just keep getting worse for me. Firstly I broke a wing stay then a fox killed most of my chickens and to cap it off my redtop engine has failed. On trying to start it there was a brief crunching noise ano no start. Trying it again just produced a strange popping noise as it turned over so I left it until today. Thinking about it I decided it must be valve related so took off the cam cover for a look. Couldn't see anything at first but on closer inspection I could see flakes of metal around and under number three inlet cam so I guess I need a new engine if anyone has a good one.

Things just keep getting worse for me. Firstly I broke a wing stay then a fox killed most of my chickens and to cap it off my redtop engine has failed. On trying to start it there was a brief crunching noise ano no start. Trying it again just produced a strange popping noise as it turned over so I left it until today. Thinking about it I decided it must be valve related so took off the cam cover for a look. Couldn't see anything at first but on closer inspection I could see flakes of metal around and under number three inlet cam so I guess I need a new engine if anyone has a good one.

Did you ever sell this as mine has just destroyed itself.