alanrichey

And the "End of Season Kit Car Bash"

Doesn't help when your donor engine probably dates from the mid-90s (I think that is when Dicky bought a job lot of Rover 'T' engines), and your age-related plate is 2008

No worries. I lost my 100% success rate with the weather anyway so it would have been a miserable drive for you. My Superspec is now absolutely filthy, and I only had to travel about 6 miles And had to put the top on for the return. Contrary to my previous post saying the next meeting would be on 8th March, Richard has found a new car show close to Lincoln being held on Saturday 7th, so we might go there. More details to follow.

Just the 5 of us then. Definitely don't need to book a table

And just as a reminder, it's tomorrow (Saturday) rather than our usual Sunday so ozz could come

Last call for the Lincolnshire meeting. So far only 6 takers so unless I get a flood of late orders I won't bother booking a table, we can stick 2 together when we get there.

I recall at a couple of shows/meetings/run outs last year someone (Matthew (maw) was it you ?) had his brake lights flashing during pull away. I have just experienced a similar problem, but luckily I was in my garage with the door shut (trying to fix my failed reversing lights) and saw it happening and quickly realised it was the act of depressing the clutch that caused the brake lights to illuminate. The reason was obvious, there was enough friction in the top bolt of the pedal box to slightly rotate the brake pedal when the clutch pedal was depressed. A quick blast of WD40 and a minor adjustment of the brake switch cured the problem. So that might have been the reason and, of course, you would never know it was happening unless a bunch of Hoodies are watching you depart and posted it on here

Same as Ian & Tazzman. Full assembly details are at http://the-superspec-journey.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/one-of-major-projects-was-to-improve.html

Hi all The February meeting for the Lincolnshire (and surrounding area) Chapter will be a 'Southerly' one this time, held at 12:00 on Saturday 14th February, I was going to be selfish and suggest my local pub (35 second drive for me in second gear), but their prices are a bit steep. So I am suggesting the Fox & Hounds at Old Somerby (NG33 4AB) which is a nice 'eatery' pub, reasonable prices, has a large car park and is a bit closer for those of you coming from 'Oop North'. So far I have a yes from Me + Ruth Nigel (niduncan) + Helen Richard (richard7) Please let me know any other attendees either here or by PM so I can see if we need to book a table. I will update this list as they arrive. Cheers Al P.S. Pencil in Sunday 8th March for the next meeting as I am off on a prolonged holiday again on the 12th

I wonder if all Superspecs are like that ? Would explain a lot Any volunteers ?

I think all Superspecs might be like that, mine certainly is, that was the design. But what I meant was how did you figure out the water pump was running backwards ? I want to check mine isn't doing the same.

Was that the original Rover 'T' engine ? If so how did you find out and fix it ? Lots of Superspec owners have similar cooling issues.

Don't suppose there is any way of trading in my '08 plate for a 'Q' plate is there ? Waiting for the day when mine fails the emission test.

Guess I'm not the only Superspec owner with a petrol smell then As per my diagram, my braided pipes are also just attached to the 'polyurethane'? pipes just with jubilee clips. But I don't have any rigid pipes in the system so I guess that is OK. And did another run today (120 miles) and no smell at any time, so I am fairly satisfied I have isolated my problem. I also used to have a very strong smell after a left turn with a fullish tank. Traced that to a poor seal at the filler cap (took the hint that there were fuel streaks running down the back panel). Added a couple of extra rubber rings and that problem was solved. So I am again happy my sender is not the cause. What fun :)

I've got the new pipe in the post so will definitely take a look soon. Although at this stage I don't have any trace of a leak, just a slightly porous line, so I reckon I have some time yet

OK, thanks to all the advice on the forum I think I have convinced myself of the reason for the smell. Following the original post I found the garage had a very strong smell of petrol a couple of hours after I parked up, but this morning there was no smell at all, or any marks on the paper towel I used as per Bob's suggestion, and when I took her for a 20 mile run there was no smell at all. The design of the fuel feed is and the previous owner tells me he replaced the braided hose between the filter and the injector a couple of years ago as it had gone rotten. So, as many of you suggested, this all points to the second piece of braided hose going 'off'. Although it is OK for normal use, if the car is left stationary for any length of time that hose must absorb petrol. Nothing shows during starting, but when the engine reaches working temperature (a couple of minutes into a run) it will start to evaporate the petrol and the smell will be localised to the front of the tunnel. Once the car is stopped in the garage it will continue to 'cook', so the petrol smell will remain strong for a couple of hours. But by the next morning all the absorbed petrol will have evaporated so no more smell. So in the short term, based on the difficulty of replacing the fuel line in a standard Rover engined Superspec. I will live with it, in the full knowledge that a blast around the block and leaving it in the garage overnight will solve the problem. However, I will take Al's advice and buy a metre of cable for when I can fix it. Thanks to everyone for their input and I hope other people with the same problem find the thread useful.

I have the usual red and yellow fuel lines (I assume they are safe) from the tank. The extra black pipe connects to the red (feed) pipe just level with the dashboard and goes abut 12" to the filter. The yellow (return) one continues on to the pressure regulator (I don't think there is an additional black pipe, difficult to see). But if the black feed pipe was leaking/porous it wouldn't explain the symptoms, i.e the smell only starts after driving the car for a minute or so after a layup then goes away after a couple of runs. Having read the Haynes manual it tells me the yellow return line is used only if the pressure regulator on the injection rail senses a pressure of more than 1 bar. So I am thinking the return line only starts to get used after you accelerate the car leaving the house. So I wonder if there is some sort of seal/gasket associated with the return line that dries out during a layup so starts to leak when it is first used, but then gets damp, swells, and stops the leak after a couple of runs. Think I will have to get the car up on axle stands and try and access the filter from underneath and check the return line.

Good thought, I'll try that.

Does that apply in my case ? There are 2 fuel pipes from the pump to the filter, out and return. So isn't the whole system pressurised ? I'll test that next time I have let her sit for a bit (might be quite soon looking at this weather )

I actually had the bonnet removed when I did the run to try and avoid that. And tracing the smell was done while stationary in the garage and it was defiantly coming up from the gearbox area and not the engine bay. So I suspect not.

It's taken over a year but I am getting closer to tracking down the reason for the petrol smell on my Superspec. I had figured out it occurs ONLY after the car has been sitting for more than a couple of weeks. If I drive her regularly it doesn't smell. So coming back from Xmas from a 6-week holiday was an ideal opportunity to do some tests. I exposed as much of the fuel lines as I could to try and see where it occurred. There was no smell initially so I turned on the ignition to let the fuel pump pressurise the system. Still no smell after about 10 minutes. So I started the engine, still no smell after a couple of minutes. So out for a 4 minute 'round the block'. The smell started after about a minute and by the time I got back it was quite strong (and is still there an hour later). Using my trusty nose I could find no smell around the fuel injectors or in the boot around the senders, or at the back of the tunnel. But there was a strong smell coming from the front of the tunnel under the dashboard. So I guess the smell is emanating from somewhere between the dashboard and the fuel filter (about a foot of pipe), but feeling all around the pipe I can find no trace of any wetness. So I'm a bit flummoxed. All I can think of so far is that I have a minute leak (or the pipe has gone porous) and that over a period of weeks fuel is pooling somewhere underneath that area. And then it smells once the car is moving and disturbs it, but eventually disappears when the hot engine has evaporated it. But again, I can see no area where this might be happening. The fuel filter is buried at the back of the engine and incredibly difficult to access so I would like to avoid changing the pipe unless I know for certain that is the problem. Anyone any bright ideas ?

Blue better for me, matches mine

As it is waterproof I just pop the fasteners along the back then roll it up and hold it in place with the bars. Haven't lost it yet

I've no idea, I am not an expert on how this site works. Normally I get a notification flag at the top of the screen and a separate e-mail telling me someone has sent me a PM. I'll e-mail you directly. Anyone else know what the problem might be ?