Longboarder

Any evidence of a bi-metalic strip in the unit. 17A is a hefty drain if it runs the whole time the ignition is on.

Similar manifold heaters in cars are controlled by the ECU via a relay and their operation is temporary dependant on engine temperature. Once up to a set level they are switched off by the ECU. Are you running TVO? Is your heater like that or is its operation constant?

A length of aluminium angle was used on mine. Just plonked the battery in place on the scuttle, drew around its base and riveted the angle along the front and both sides. This holds the base in place. Strap over the top and job done.

I would second (or third) a change to better quality sierra brakes. My ST engined car makes about 200bhp, no servo and I simply fitted mintex discs and pads on the front and mintex shoeson the rear and a bias bar pedal box so I can balance the effort to suit. Works a treat. Nigel

Couple of basic principles to bear in mind for maximum efficiency. A sucker behind the rad is better than a blower in front. Any fan with shaped/aerofoil type blades is designed to be efficient one way only. To promote cooling air entering the nosecone should be directed through the rad by cowling it in so it doesn't have an alternative route round the sides, above or below the rad. There must be sufficient holes to let air out of the engine-bay.

So that worked as per normal for me. So probably not the board playing up. More likely to be something your end. (Don't ask what. I just drive it.) Nigel

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-MK4-GOLF-BORA-POLO-9N-DOOR-LOCK-CYLINDER-REPAIR-KIT-FRONT-LEFT-or-RIGHT/221776157578?fits=Model%3AGolf%7CPlat_Gen%3AMK+IV&epid=1288992732&hash=item33a2e39b8a:g:gfwAAOSwcwhVOCtv I just copied and pasted a randomish ebay item. Will it work? Nigel

T shirt with this logo.

Why does the brake disc have to go out as well as the wheel. Surely easier and less stressful on braking components to leave the disc and calliper where they are and just space the wheel from the hub. Nigel

I would set timing at tickover, vacuum line to distributor removed from distributor and blocked, at 10deg Before Top Dead Centre (BTDC). That's ten degrees of advance. It's a reasonable starting setting which will be very close to ideal ignition timing. There is a pic below of my old pinto crank pulley (but there are two types of pulley). In both cases the first deep groove is TDC. I can't remember why I chopped part of the blade off. When using the strobe it helps to put a little tippex on the blade and the 10degree groove so they show up well. Slightly loosen the distributor clamp bolt so you can turn it with some resistance (but its not loose) as the engine ticks over and you align the marks. Beware all the twirly rotating bits of engine which can seriously damage you while you do this. When you are happy it's aligned, switch off the ignition, clamp up the distributor and run the engine again to double check. Then test drive. Be carefull both carrying out the procedure and driving. Rear wheel drive, more power and slippy roads will easily have you in the hedge or worse. Nigel

You can post an image up to 1mb direct on the board. There is various Image resizing software available. For instance there is a resize option in 'Paint' in windows 7. As that's as far as I have modernised I don't know if paint is there in vista, 8, or 10 and if it is if it still has the resize option. I would guess it does. Resize the pic to less than 1mb and post it direct. It will then never be lost in a photobucket style disaster. Third party resizing software and many photo manipulating programs will also resize. For those that only live on mobile phones microsoft have a free app for resizing pictures you can download if you have a windows phone. I would guess you could alter the resolution on most phones to take small pics for posting and there may be other phone apps for android and iphone. The reason I try to avoid third party hosting is they are all at the same risk as photobucket. Nigel

Investigate the obvious known problem. Agent_Zed makes a very good point. Failure of the second choke will produce symptoms just like you describe. Your observation confirms problems with the second choke not opening correctly if at all. Don't rush to spend money. Take the carb off the car. Take it indoors in the warm and carefully strip it down, making notes and taking pics if you need to. You can get any/all the bits from a couple of suppliers if you need them. The soft metal of the carb does not rust but forms aluminium salts, white gritty powder which cleans off easily but is high friction, so stops things moving. Look at all the jets and blow through them. Don't poke them with anything metal but you can use a nylon bristle from a broom, gently. Put it all back together and your car may run OK. Once you have done this and tested how the car runs you can look for other problems if you need to. Only if the carb is unrepairable should you buy a replacement. The DGAV is a perfectly good carb. You will need to set the timing. Sierras didn't come with a capacitor in the distributor. There might be one in the wires close to the distributor but it's not essential. Nigel

Duck you forget that he is changing from an 1.8 silver to a 2.0 blacktop effectively. There's torque and BHP gains but not as much as expected. 115/130 to 170. You do notice that. But its not a blacktop. Its a VVT blacktop with big inlet ports but standard exhaust ports. So a policy on what to do with cam timing and opening out the exhausts does yield more power than a blacktop. But, and its a big but, its fiddly, hard and much more expensive to do significantly better than a standard blacktop and in the end just not worth it in my opinion. The ST is difficult to get running well and disappointing. Change to a 2.0 blacktop makes much more sense. Or if he wants power to a 2.0 Duratec. Still cheaper than an ST170 for the same power. I run throttle body injection and ignition by Omex 600, cam control with VVT Pro, CR 10.5 and modified head, particularly the exhausts and get just on 200bhp. Its been a long road and not worth the effort IMO. So my recommendation would be a cheap change to a 2.0 blacktop. Most stuff will just transfer. Auxiliary belt is different and an idler needs to be added to drive the waterpump the correct way. Manifolds will fit. Engine mounts might need slight mod with holes opening up slightly. Alternator mount might need a bit more modifying. Manifolds could do with opening up a bit. But that's about it. Not quite a straight swap but easy mods. Nigel

Take the feed and return direct from the battery terminals. Minimises any volt/current spikes etc. Nigel

Fingers crossed. Good luck. They won't know for sure till they get the histology done. Just had mine on a mole off my face that the consultant was not happy with but the news was good. Not malignant. I have to admit I was wetting myself. So all the best for your situation. Nigel

Robin Hood evolved into Great British Sportscars who still have a few RH spares like a nosecone and try to be helpful. Your 2B will be different to every other 2B in many ways. The chassis is standard. The running gear will be probably ford sierra. The build will be how its builder did it. He may have done all his own electrics, used a ford loom or bought a part readymade loom. He probably bought the switches, fusebox and some of the lights from any number of sources. Partly what I'm saying is you need to be a bit of a free thinker to run/build a kitcar. And you need to look at yours and know it's probably quite a bit different from mine. Like I don't know what seats you have in yours, wether they are on adjustable runners or just bolted through strengthened areas of the floor. I doubt 1% have adjustable pedals so it will be moving the seats. If they are on runners, no prob. If they are bolted through the floor then you can either fit runners or drill and reinforce new holes to move them. There are at least half a dozen likely makes of shocks and springs you might have and several variations of shock length and spring rate and length. Posting good pics with questions is helpful but you're right in thinking getting an experienced RH owner to have a look is better. Have a good look at your problems and you will probably work out your options remembering yours is not a standard car.(Nobodies is!) Then ask on here to increase your information and options. And enjoy the experience of one of the most fun cars there is. Nigel

I'm sure the diameters should be by design but more the design of the engine designer (and they don't always get it right) and subsequent testing (as demonstrated by the odd head gasket holes for flow pattern in the engine). I would be directed by the stubs on the engine not the radiator. If the stub on the water pump is 32mm then 32mm hose to its destination. No narrower but I can't see a section somewhere of larger pipe along its length would make any difference. You do see sections on tintops that start at 32 at the rad and end 38 at the pump on the zetec for instance but that one has a 15mm joining part way along the hose length so the 38 section has a feed of a 32 and a 15. My hoses are a mishmash of what I had in the box of spares, a bit from the sierra, bits from zetecs, a bit I bought and some copper.

This is a big subject Jaimo and needs a bit of learning to get right. I would recommend the book 'Kit Car Electrics' by Peter & John Wallage published by Blueprint Books. You need to decide if you are going to make up your own loom or use one ready made. If you make your own you can invent each circuit yourself. If you use ready made it will come with all the design work done and you just follow its diagrams and use the fusebox it is designed for.

It's from the IVA manual. IVA testers interpret the manual their way. It asks if they can find an exact match for the vehicle in the annexe and Robin Hood/GBS is not in there. Thus the tests defaults to the standards given above. 3.5 and 1200. The other thing that could be said but hasn't been yet is once the test is over you can put any engine in the car you want but it will only ever be tested to the above standard (as the rules currently stand.). Nigel

Keeping it simple the relay comes after the switch. For your system I would use two relays after the column switch. Pic is a simple diagram of how you add a relay. No fuses shown. Numbers on the relay are correct but pins not in correct positions. Nigel

Yes through two switches. Ignoring the side lights the first switch is for power on/off towards the head lights but this first switch doesn't choose which beam it goes to, main or dip. It just sends the power to the second switch which is more like a set of railway points. It doesn't have an 'off' option. Just a choice between sending the train to Paddington or Waterloo, or rather main or dip. It will always be positioned in one of those choices. i.e. whichever beam it was left on when you last used the lights. So whenever you switch the first switch on headlights will always come on immediately but it might be either dip or main beams depending on which position the second switch was left in. Nigel I was going to put in a circuit diagram but I don't know what switches you are planning, fuses or relays. Have a think.

83BG stalks are square section arms. 87BG and onward are round section. 83BG are wired for switching positive supply for side/main/dip. 87BG are wired positive switch for side but negative switching of relays for main/dip. It's a good idea to put in relays for main/dip and switch them whichever way your stalks/switches prefer. (Allows use of low current/any switch and some lightweight wiring for much of the install.) You need to select your light switch, 'Off - Side Only - Side/Main/Dip' (Side needs to stay on when you switch to the main/dip position) or separate switches if you prefer. You need to plan component/fuse layout so that you will have some light available if something busts. On the Sierra the right side column switch is simply 'Off - Side - Side/Main/Dip'. The main/Dip position sends the lectric to the left hand stalk which simply sends it on to either the main or dipped filiaments in the headlight bulbs. Flash function has its own supply in the left column switch (terminal 15) so is not affected by your changes. You connect the output from your Main/Dip On switch to terminal 56 of the left stalk. Nigel

The raceline rail is strange. The idea of moving the thermostat away from the block and out of the flow of coolant seems a poor set-up to me. The only way of establishing a decent flow of coolant over its activating bulb is to drill a fairly decent hole in it so quite a lot of coolant is flowing through it from cold. There are also issues with air locks as it is high on the engine. If you fit a sender in the rear end of it as per the instructions it is no thinner than the standard stat housing so no space saving achieved either. I bought one when I changed to zetec and after thorough study of the rail and its enclosed instructions I never fitted it but sold it on at a loss. The standard thermostat and housing are very much better functioning. Mine maintains a solid 90 degrees under all operating conditions.

Did your mechanic swap over the temperature gauge sender from the old engine to the new one. As was said before the old sender was right for the gauge. The sender in the new engine may give a false reading.

Any of the VAG group of 2005ish vintage you will spend days replacing door locks, window mechanisms and trying to stop water soaking the carpets having leaked through poor door innerskin seals. Family has a bora, golf, fabia and polo of that vintage. They are good reliable drives but twice I've had to break open an unlockable door, replaced at least six door locks, umpteen electric window mechanisms and only the polo has dry carpets. Nigel