kevin the chicken

I plan to do mine in the winter as they are not quite long enough for my liking. I was wondering how to get them out, now I know and it sounds right up my street. I thought that when I put the new ones in I would put them in the deep freeze before I wound them in, don't know if it would make it any easier but it can't hurt.

Damn you bob, must type faster

Definitely. The viscous fan is only turning over at the same epeed as the engine. The electric one will turn over mega fast, when it cuts in you will see the gauge drop. If you have just done 350 miles without boiling over there's not much wrong with your cooling system and I would expect the electric fan would stop your bum making worrying noises. Not only that the viscous is absorbing engine power when it is not needed, the electric one would only cut in when needed in traffic. Get a puller if you can fit it in, if not a pusher will still be a massive improvement.

As above, the chassis is the item that keeps the log book. Hence the popularity of old landrovers, lots of them are used to build up vehicles which look fairly new but are tax exempt due to age

I'd go for that. As soon as I had the final payment in my hand they could have the car

Can you not lie it down and run some penetrating oil in to it? You do seem to get a sort of crusty deposit forming on the sender. Maybe if you can get some lubricant in it and worki it up and down it may free it off. I don't think they are that expensive if it fails, well mine wasn't but its not a smiths one.

I sometimes carry a special warning system with me. It shouts SPEEDBUMP at 150 decibels in my ear. You should hear her shout at the children.

Factor 50 would be a good idea

Check timing. When you get it running try it from cold with rad cap off, surging of water and overflowing means you still have air in system. Bubbles means head gasket, hope not. A compression test will rule it out Drill one or two small holes in the edge of thermostat to help vent air when you fill, think I used one 3mm hole. Together with a header tank this cured all my problems. Before I did these things I tried everything to get rid of the air including jacking the car up to no avail, still had a big ol air bubble somewhere. If I can get around it with my lack of patience and knowledge you can!

I take it you are not in Leicester. Curse of the British summer here, flies, lots of them.

Valve stem oil seals that are worn quite often show up with a cloud of blue oil smoke when the engine is started after being sat for a little while as the oil has had time to run in to the cylinders from the head. The smoke clears as the engine warms up and burns the oil away.

My wife is thinking of replacing the knackered hood on her spartan with a Surrey top which she intends to make herself. What is the material your mum used on yours? I saw a top yesterday which used awning rail and I was impressed on how neat it looked, for a moment I half considered having one made for my car. Are there any hints and tips for a would be roof maker?

I think if you haven't had a very good feed of cold air to your intake and you put one in you will probably notice the difference in performance, it may not be much in terms of horsepower but you will feel it. Many years ago I put a new stainless exhaust system on a forward control landrover, identical to the rusted out original except that the balance pipe between the two sides was much better formed with a much better bend with no constriction. The difference was immediately noticeable with much better pickup and throttle response. All these little things add up, a bit better intake with cooler air and better exhaust extraction and a bit less power absorbed by the mechanical fan if you put an electric one in. After all car manufacturers have millions of pounds for r and d to get these things right. That's why it's fun and a great achievement for every little step forward you take.

I am on top of my cooling now I think but spotted some lovely shiny stainless steel vents on somebody else's car at a show so am going to fit a couple of those to the side of my bonnet to help get more hot air out. We spend ages trying to get the cooling air in but forget that it has to get out somewhere. If you type in marine vents on fleabay you will see the ones I mean, they come in several different sizes and they look good.

Managed to scrounge a family pass for duxford flying legends air show today. It's the only way I will be going as adult tickets are 34 quid and children's tickets are 18 quid! That would be an exensive day out by the time we have had something to eat and an ice cream. Should be good though as the weather forecast is good fine.

Should be a good turn out of hoodies. The weather forecast could be better but it's only for showers. Have you got a stand booked dave? I am going with the east Anglian kit car club and we are stand 38

Maybe they were on the other carriageway and were unable to gain access. We are told time and time again to not stop on the motorway. The police are very thin on the ground nowadays, sometimes they can't even give an eta time if we go to a car fire of doubtfull origin so tha vehicle is recovered and all evidence is disturbed before they even get there. They always turn up in large numbers if it is an rtc though so there was definitely a breakdown in communications somewhere.

The corrugated plastic that estate agents use for their for sale signs is what I used. It's light, easy to cut and curves in one plane and folds in the other easily if scored. It's free if you collect after winter storms!

Running on is usually due to a build up of carbon giving a hotspot which ignites fuel. Is it a lumpy running on or like normal running? Try it again with your spare key, might be a lot of wear in the barrel or key. If you turn the ignition off it should kill the engine whatever the carb tune. Hopefully it's the barrel as these are cheap.

Happy birthday Dan

Ditch the viscous fan, when it's not needed it is just a waste of horsepower. When the engine does need the fan on an electric one will move far more air through the radiator, a puller is best but a pusher will still be better than the viscous one and it will only operate when needed. A thermostat is a necessity as it allows the engine to warm up quicker before allowing the water access to the cooling effect of the radiator, in essence it is a temperature controller. If The fan were to stay on and over cool the water the stat would close up again to allow the engine to warm up again. This was happening with mine on a cold day until I turned it up. Block up all the spaces around the radiator so that any air entering the front of the car has to go through it and as others have already said the air has to get out somewhere. I have louvres on the top of my bonnet but the area there through which air can exit nowhere near matches the area of entry through the nosecone. I have seen some nice vents on another car and may well put one or even two pairs of them on the sides of my bonnet rather than propping up the rear of the bonnet. I went out on the hottest day last week and had no problems but you can never have too much cooling in reserve!

Mine has an eight gallon tank and I try to fill up before the gauge shows less than one quarter full due to pick up problems mentioned earlier. My filler goes directly in to the top of the tank, this makes filling up much easier as I can actually see how much fuel is in the tank but you have to be careful not to tip fuel in the boot when removing and putting in the nozzle. I think with brimming the tank I can easily do 120 miles if driving fairly sensibly. The engine is a redtop with twin 45s. That makes it quite thirsty really but on putting it into perspective my civic type r would only do 28 mpg if you drove it like your grandma. I don't worry about it, just put some more fuel in when it needs it.

I'm too tight to spend fifty quid on a rollover valve so reasoned that if the breather pipe went above the fuel tank as high as I could get it and then low down below the fuel tank bottom fuel can't run out of it whichever way up I parked the car.

Happy birthday. All your effort and hard work is appreciated

Yep, I changed both my pistons and the seals came with the kit. If its binding you may find that you need change the pistons as they probably have rust on them. Think the kit was about a tenner a side