richyb66

0.8mm thick spacer works out OK to drop the compression down to about 8.4:1. Is this going to be a low enough CR if you start to wind the boost up? Trawling back 20+ years me and a mate put a RO34 blower on an Essex V6 and headgasket life was short to say the least despite having pistons machined for a lower CR. A number of solutions were suggested including solid copper gaskets which work well if the head is machined for Wills rings but in the end we just had the head machined for Wills rings and used decent quality (Reinz I seem to remember) head gaskets. I think the issue here is how many things you're prepared to try to get something that works reliably. If you only want to do the job once then get 0.8 turned off the piston crowns, have the crank balanced, get the head ringed and use a genuine Ford head gasket. This would neccesitate pulling the engine out but is guaranteed to work. Cost TBA... Ok, spoke to my pinto guru and 4 Mahle or Schmit pistons machined to suit is going to cost around £200 and then another £100 to get everything lightened and balanced - but he also suggested the Transit low compression pistons which are designed with a lower crown height but he's not sure exactly what CR these give but in terms of fitting this would be an easy job. They're probably not a forged piston like Mahle so wouldn't be the best if you start to crank the boost up but you could fit them with the engine in situ. If you're thinking of investigating this further I can put you in touch with him which means you could speak to him directly and get some more info (he's local to you too).

Dan, I assume 90.8mm bore, 76.95mm stroke and standard 2 litre head with 50cc chambers. I can check your calcs but need to know what thickness head gasket your planning on using - and presumably your going to try and get away with just one head gasket ( I have known them to be doubled up You could use the 93mm Cologne V6 piston which has a lower compression height than the pinto piston which would also take your capacity up to 2.1 and don't bother with having the block decked like you would with a naturally aspirated 2.1. Obviously you'd need to bore the block and I'm guessing you don't want to drag the engine out which is why you're considering a spacer. I you don't already use one you'll need a vernier cam pulley if you alter the deck height with a spacer.

Can anyone confirm that this is indeed a Sierra hose - preferably before 6pm today otherwise I'll just buy it anyway. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...em=270379249106 It looks like what I'm after but I'll need a pair and all the sierra hoses I've seen have male threads at both ends. None of the catalogues I've looked at show a banjo end

It's a sliding caliper so it moves relative to the wing bracket so a hard pipe between the two isn't suitable. I'm trying to steer away from braided lines, my personal view is that they're not as flexible as a rubber hose and in applications where they're subject to a lot of movement they won't last as long as a rubber OEM style hose. If I can get a standard hose to go on I'd rather use that. I just had another look tonight and the hoses I've got will probably suffice if I route them under the wing mount tube and P clip then in place. The only think that doesn't look brilliant is the threaded end that fits the caliper looks a bit long. I'd use a locknut on the thread too and tighten that against the caliper to prevent the hose undoing.

That's a possibility and as my hoses have a rubber sleeve on them half way down, I could slive the sleeve down near the tube and P clip round that.

bit difficult to see the hose end as the pic's a bit fuzzy. The wing mounting brackets are different too - the tubes are more outboard than mine - in line with the top balljoint pivot. This would allow the hose to pass under and inboard of the tube more easily.

I'm looking at fitting my front brake flexi hoses. I got a couple of new Jag hoses with male ands both ends but on fitting them I've found out that the hose outlet in the caliper is pointing straight at the rear tube for the wheelarch support, it also passes close to the round quadrant plate bit of the support too, but this could be trimmed back locally if necessary. This means that the hose needs to bend and pass either over or under the tube and I'm concerned that as the wheels steer, the hose will be pulled tighter over the tube or pushed harder against it. The hoses are long enough to accomodate this but it doesn't look pretty and I don't think it would pass SVA/IVA and I'm not happy with it. What I think I really need is a hose with a banjo end on it to fit the caliper and a male end to pass through the side panel. Does anyone have any suggestions to narrow the search down a bit These images give a view of the general problem.

It needs a Reliant Kitten front end on it.

Kirkey seats are widely used by the stock car boys I know. Shouldn't be any problem structurally but be aware that oval track seats may have more support (and headrests) on the right hand as this is the side that generally requires the most protection. They might well not be the most comfortable for extended use, probably best to try and sit in one if you can. Plenty of Superstock and F2 meetings up you way, might be worth a trip to one of the meetings or maybe give Randall's a call in Wisbech as they stock Kirkey. http://www.randallmotorsport.co.uk/contact.htm

If you're looking to waste a bit of quality time surfing t'interweb, have a look here http://www.chinacartimes.com/ and have a look at what the worlds greatest economy has in store for the (not so) discerning car buyer. The best stuff is in the recent news section on the right but as a taster I would like to draw your attention to these: http://www.chinacartimes.com/2009/04/20/ge...the-baby-rolls/ http://www.chinacartimes.com/2009/04/20/geely-gt-wow/ http://www.chinacartimes.com/2009/04/20/roewe-n1-concept/ I warn you now - some if it ain't pretty but at least it'll raise a chuckle.

You need to up the ante

Found on another forum http://www.barryboys.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=31318 (Note: does contain some strong language so if you're easily offended, just look at the pictures)

Dizzy info here http://nw.rhocar.org/tuningdizzy.htm

If anyone does it there people will - http://www.coh-baines.co.uk/ You might have to use a round U section and trim one leg off it. The will send samples if requested.

That'll buff out.

What a t1t - and the really worrying think is that he's actually a delivery driver.

The Rebel Racers are Reliant based, you could try giving them a call, they're down in Uttoxeter. http://www.rebelsracing.com/html/documents/2009PriceList.pdf

Presumably Wednesday week, 25th March but I'm sure Gaz will post a reminder.

I knocked out the rubber bushes on mine and then cut some discs of 6mm plate to fill the holes in. The discs were fitted in from the top so that they just nest in the tapered hole in the subframe and then I welded them all round on both sides. An aluminium bush was used to make up the distance back to the fixing on the floor and I also used the second bolt as per the dvd (just to be safe) and welded a small steel spacer by the hole to make up the gap to the floor. The finished job looks like this - not too clear due to the powdercoating. The extra hole by the aluminium spacer is to drain out any water that might collect in the recess

It locks the diff bearing housings into the diff casing. The bearings as adjustable in and out of the casing so that the position of the crownwheel on the diff can be adjusted relative to the pinion. This would only need setting once to get the correct mesh between the crownwheel and pinion.

Well done to Gaz for stepping up to the plate and taking over the reigns. I know that he's already got a few new ideas to increase our area's profile over the coming months - now if he could just do something about the weather!!!

The basic problem with the old MG Rover was that they pi55ed away valuable engineering budget on projects that would never make money e.g. the V8 engined 75's, a LWB 75 and the MG SV. These were just pet projects whose sole actual achievemet was to give the directors something nice to drive around in - the actual public sales figures were minisule. The money would have been better spend on an MG TF replacement as the TF was selling well but was an old car and a decent cheap small car - a bit like what they tried to do with the re-badged Tata Indica, but that was too expensive and had a nasty feel to it because they used Indian spec materials for the interior trim rather than the dearer European spec stuff. MGR was a pretty well a dead man walking from the time that BMW pulled out and took the one car that could have saved them - MINI, but then they were only ever in it for a new small car and LandRover's 4x4 expertise for the X5. The suprising thing for me was that BMW achieved nothing in terms of raising MGR's profile during their ownership which is something that they should have been more that capable of doing if they'd had the will to do so.

here http://www.joeybrown.co.uk/quickshift/quick.html which is basically the Dave Andrews info.

Get these: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35853