richyb66

gaz I bought a box with a load of assorted sizes from wickes recently for under a fiver. I'll try and match some up to my dizzy and bring them along on Wednesday. Rich

I see that the nuts and bolts you've used are A2 stainless steel - remember that the tensile strength of A2 fasteners is slightly less that Grade 8.8 steel ones. I personally wouldn't use stainless fixings in any high load application such as seat belt or suspension fixings

Graham, I'm busy fitting the side panels, bonnet, scuttle and rear wings on my 2B wishbone at the moment. I've been posting photos on my website as I go along - there's no captions but most are pretty obvious. The link is here: http://www.oldschoolannexe.com/photos/inde...p?album=0000%2F If you're not sure what model yours is, there's a Robin Hood spotters guide on the very useful North West Owners site: http://nw.rhocar.org/identification.htm Richard.

I cut mine down last Saturday, I marked it out with masking tape too but used a hacksaw across the big radius of the bonnet to start and then finished off with just a hacksaw blade with gaffer tape wrapped around the end to protect my hand. Granted it's not the fastest way of doing the job (took me about an hour to do both halves) but the cut is really neat, no nasty sparks and no danger of costly or unsightly slippages. I used a decent quality fine tooth blade which cuts easily without snagging if you take your time. Looks like this now

Mike, they're free, just collect from Tamworth if you're passing anytime or I could see if I could get them taken to one of the shows (I don't get to do shows because I live in Wales at the weekend). Could possibly be posted out but perhaps not the best option due to the size and shape. Just let me know what you want to do and we'll sort something out. Rich.

Mike, If you need the fibreglass edges for the rear wheelarches I've got 2 surplus to requirements - I've gone with one piece superspecs ones on mine (£125 a pair from GBS). They're blue and yours if you want them. Rich.

Randall Motorsport do them - as used on F2 stock cars https://vault2.secured-url.com/randallmotor...p?ProductID=266 Not cheap but work well.

Think you need to put some prices - as per Rule 7.

I hate to see people littering but the best one I've seen is as I was passing a car on the motorway I saw the driver rolling his window down and seeing that he had a fag on, I knew he was going to throw it out of the window. Now I'm not sure if the sidedraught of my van being alongside caused it but as he thew the butt end out of the window, it promptly blew back in behind him onto his jacket on the back seat - priceless. For a couple of seconds he wasn't sure where it went but when he realised he was frantically pulling over onto the hard shoulder to retrieve it - what a tosser.

We use it at work for scanning full size clay models of cars, it's fast and you get a lot of 3D positional data but as the beams only travel in straight lines and you have to have cameras positioned around the target to record the data it's only really suitable for scanning the outsides of things it can 'see' around. www.3dscanners.co.uk

Jess, as something cheap to try have you considered using some of this: http://www.racelubricants.co.uk/product.as...35&P_ID=512 I know some F2 stock car boys use it to help theirs Pintos run cooler and it would be a lot easier to try than making big changes to the cooling system Just seen they're only in Brierley Hill too so it might be worth a trip over there?

No, it's well clear of anything that's likely to move about.

Isn't that just a clear powder put over the top of polished parts?

I used steel pipe too, run down the tunnel, high up so it's well out of the way of the prop and clipped in rubber lined P clips. This is it in position before shaping the front end around into the engine bay.

You might want to try this to set the base idle (with the engine hot): Turn on the ignition and wait 10 seconds then remove the stepper motor plug. Turn off the ignition and wait 30 seconds or until you hear the main relay click out. Next replace the stepper motor plug and turn on the ignition and wait 10 seconds. Remove the stepper motor plug again. Turn off the ignition and wait 30 seconds etc. Then repeat once more this will ensure the stepper motor is fully closed. Now with the stepper motor plug disconnected start the engine and set the idle speed with the throttle stop screw. Then replace the stepper motor plug.

I'm based on the Lleyn at weekends but sadly my 2B is still in pieces in the garage in Tamworth - hopefully on the road next year. Visitors more than welcome thought even if it's just for a cuppa and a slash after a drive out.

No reason why you shouldn't as long as your welding is decent. Might be a bit hit and miss on the setting as you need to make the cut, adjust it, tack weld it, re-assemble everything, check the alignment and then re-adjust / finish weld as necessary. I can see why someone would want to use wedges.

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.