ibrooks

Not sure why everyone is leaning (must hold camera straight in future). But that's my Mum, Sister and Dad (ballast). Despite the looks we did end up somewhere we intended (she's failed the Phuckawi entrance exam then). After crossing those mountains with the snow we ended up here. Lucern (spelling) and yes those hills are the Swiss Alps. Awesome driving country up there. We weren't far from the pass that they used at the end of the Italian Job where the coach ended up hanging off the edge. Unfortunately the driver wussed out on us cos it was a hire car and he doesn't like driving in snow. We did test it out on the Autobahn though with six people a Renault Espace 2.0t will do 198km/h (he was trying for 200 and apparently his Audi will do 220).

The FR34 will be OK on an injection lump. I have one in a 2.1 which was injected until I took it out of the Sierra (to be fitted to the Hood on a carb). I never got it set up properly (cam was just timed static to manufacturers spec) and so the power was higher up the rev range than I wanted but it could fly. Ask the guys who were ferried up and down the hill to the pub at Wales earlier this year. I could see the fingers going white in the rear view mirror. Or maybe that's just my driving It was only ever in the Sierra as a temporary measure to keep me mobile until the replacement arrived but it is a nice driveable motor that could turn Jekyll when the loud pedal was given a prod. I'd like to get it into one of my Hoods soon and get it properly tuned but I need to spend more time in this country for that. See Jim another excuse but I've got a great route planned for a run next year. Might take a while though Iain

Yeah but think how satisfying it would be when the flames from the rear melted his front bumper (sorry spoiler).

Chris, If your oil pump is up to scratch then it shouldn't need changing. But depending on how old it is and what you are relying on to report that your oil pressure is OK you may want to change it anyway. The warning light is a very crude indicator of pressure and it can really be quite low but the light will still go out. The main thing is to be sure that you have plenty of the slippery stuff around. If you have a guage make sure it shows healthy pressure and you should be OK. If you do change the pump you only need to get the sump off and have reasonable working room in a line directly below the dizzy. This may of course mean removing the engine from your car but normally changing the pump shouldn't require removing the block (I can't imagine being able to do it on my S7 without removing the engine but I think I could do it OK on my 2B). The dizzy will have to come out as the shaft which drives it also drives the pump and if you're fitting an uprated pump you should also ideally fit a stronger drive shaft (never heard of one failing but....). You may also need a special spline bit to remove the two bolts that hold the pump in place. Oh and if you are changing the cam make sure the spray-bar is new or squeaky clean as this is a common area for problems when one of the holes gets blocked. If you get a cam kit there should be a new one anyway. Iain

Wonder if Dr Solomon does house calls.

The ply is referred to somewhere in my build video's but I did the same as Paul Mercer by the sounds of it. I also bought a length of threaded bar the same thread as the wheel studs and used one of the pretty chrome nuts from a Capri I killed for a 2.1. I used one of the huge washers from the top of the mcpherson strut (the one you see under the Sierra bonnet) in the centre of the wheel held on by the wheel nut to actually secure the thing. Looks pretty and I only need the wheel-brace to remove the spare as it is the same sort of nut as the wheels are held on with. I could also at a push replace a lost wheel nut and get home with the spare in the passenger seat. Iain

Personally I'd try a fan cos they should only cost a pound or two (unless you shop at PC World like Bill said). It just sounds like the card is getting too hot now that the fan isn't working. If it was goosed I'd expect it to stop altogether. How big is the fan and what voltage - I may have something suitable I could post. Regarding new AGP cards - buyer beware there are two standards. (4x and 8x from memory) and they use different voltages. There is a divider in the AGP slot and depending on which type of slot it is the divider is at a different end (the cards have cutouts to allow them to fit over these dividers). Basically this is to stop the wrong type of card from fitting in the wrong type of slot as they can be damaged by getting it wrong. Just to add confusion some slots have no dividers and some cards have both cutouts. These are supposed to be universal and should work in either combination but check the motherboard manual and the manual for the card. Or check the manual for your existing card and buy a new one the same. You look silly when you get it wrong and it could end up costing more if you start having to take cards back or post them back. Iain

Isn't this covered under law somewhere - obtaning money under false pretences or something? Maybe it would be worth suggesting that anyone who has had a convicton in the area whether they think it was wrong or not should submit an appeal. There would have to be a threshold where the sea of paperwork is too much to deal with and they just go to their records and contact the people who were convicted wrongly. Is the camera partnership part of the government or is it an independant contractor. If they are a contractor the potential for compensation claims for that many increased insurance premiums would put a fair sized dent in their profit margins wouldn't it. Iain

Why not keep it simple and just stick the Mondy V6 on the normal end of the Sierra box? Have you found one cheap? Iain

I've had good results with tins. I did my S7 fibreglass bits with sme of this new acrylic stuff. It is OK but it doesn't look gloss at first and takes quite a bit of polishing (must finish doing that). The older glosses didn't need much if your prep work is up to scratch (they were probably full of poisonous stuff though). Why is it that all the stuff that does the job best is poisonous (cyano-acrylate paints, asbestos brakes etc, etc). One tip I would pass along though is that the cans give much better performance if they are warm. Do this very carefully by sitting them in warm (not hot) water before you use them. You can also get "trigger" handles for aerosols which I personally think are worth their weight in stainless . Iain

The x-flow is a reasonable alternative but like the guys say it will be more work to get it into the kit. My personal experience is that they can be more powerful than the same capacity Pinto but they will produce less torque. The Pinto is great for torque - hence it's so good in Sierras and Cortinas (and the hottest escorts that Ford put it in the RS2000). Vulcan probably prefer the x-flow for sevens as they are thinking about lighter models than Hoods where power is more important than torque. If you want a track-day screamer then yes go for the x-flow (and probably a lighter kit). If you want a more relaxed drive around town (but with some legs for the country lanes) then I don't think you can top a well sorted Pinto (unless we get towards Vauxhall XE budgets). Even better would be the CVH - just not the one from a Sierra (use an escort/fiesta lump). Again it would be more work to fit but you could use a 1.4 initially and change to a hot one as insurance allows (xr2/3) are cheap as chips. Or if you want more then to keep the torque reasonable use an american 1900 block (they are also stronger) and for mental power use the head and turbo setup from an RS-Turbo. Just be aware you're getting into aluminium territory and they stand less abuse than big old cast iron lumps. Firstly though I'd suggest checking with the insurance people I had the same thoughts but my quotes didn't differ much between engine sizes until I modified the engine. That seemed to start alarm bells ringing and it took a bigger jump going from 2.0 to 2.1 than 1.3 to 2.0 (I was 18 when I was getting these quotes but it seems to be the same now as my 1.6 2B costs about the same as my 2.0 S7 - it jumps by £100 if I fit the 2.1 to either). Iain

I remember the lecturer at college telling us what steps to take if there was a fire near an acetylene bottle (large ones towards the exit). Regarding the fireworks - it'll be a shame if they are banned as I liked the "quiet" family bonfires that we used to have with a small box of fireworks. Unfortunately there are too many people around who can't (or won't) control themselves and this is just going to result in the government having to step in and control them. This is likely to be a knee jerk reaction which ends up stopping the rest of us from doing something fun. Hopefully they will think about it and limit fireworks by size and date rather than a full stop. Iain

I agree with the comments about Ford's injection setup i.e. it's good when it works OK but if something goes wrong it's a lot of complicated wires to dig through. You won't get the full benefits of a cam with an injection lump as it can't be adjusted to compensate (mine spent all it's time wondering what the hell had happened to it). Actually you can modify the Pinto injection setup but it's a specialised job. What you do is get a second EPROM which you give the new settings, this sits in the second socket in the ECU and then there is a connection which has to be "held" at a certain voltage which tells the rest of the ECU to use the modified EPROM rather than the original. Good luck. I'm very interested in the "proper" programmeable ECU that charles mentions. What do you get for your money? how does it compare (or sound like it will compare) with stuff like the Emerald M3D etc etc? Iain

FWD transverse lumps into the rear to make RWD transverse cars is nothing new. There are quite a few that did it with the Mini as the rear brakes can be fairly easily put on the "front" hubs so that you get a handbrake. The Carcraft Cyclone did the same thing with the Vauxhall setup in a sevenesque type car. Personally I'd love one but they aren't available any more. Effectively this is what Lotus have done with the Elise. Iain

Mike, Build a rager and see how much room they leave then. I used to run a 1969 Airportable Land-Rover. It's amazing how many people start to pull out on you and then think better of it. Iain

Anyone know what the position is for avgas (aviation fuel for piston engines used in planes). I was once told that this stuff has about 8 times the amount of lead that 4* had. Did they stop the lead being added to that? can you get it at airports and take it to fill your "plane" elsewhere? Is it as expensive as 4*? What is it's octane rating?. Basically could we mix it in some suitable proportion with our unfredded and not kill our engines (or take off unexpectedly). Or am I talking second-hand cr*p. Anyone work at an airport? Next time I'm at Warton I'll ask the nice girly in the flight crew uniform that I usually see in the canteen. It'll be one of the more original excuses to open a conversation with a pretty girl. But if anyone else knows in the meantime you could save me from embarassing myself. Iain

Kev's exhaust guard looked pretty but it wouldn't do much for performance it was made out of something like 3mm stainless. It started life as a tube which he had cut along it's length opened up and the end formed and re-welded. The whole thing was then polished. Oh and all those holes were drilled by hand. That's why he got so much when he sold it. I'm still surprised it didn't make the car lean with the extra weight on that side though. Iain

Just a thought on head units - In my Mini I used to use a personal MP3 player which fed into a car amp which drove normal speakers. The player is a tiny thing because it uses smartmedia cards (there are smaller ones available too). It also has a basic equaliser and it reads the ID3 tag of the track so you get a display showing artist and title. When you leave the car it goes in your pocket and the only clue that there is a stereo is the speakers (if they can be seen). I'm intending the same setup in the Hoods as it means I only need one player and it just goes in the car I happen to be driving (OK I still need an amp and speakers in each car). Scan have been selling a Napa player recently which uses 8cm CD's for storage and will play either MP3's or normal audio from them. It's a little bigger than my unit but does pretty much the same stuff and the storage media is cheaper (assuming you have a CD-Writer to write the CD's). Last time I looked it cost about £30 including the dreaded. 5 CD's cost £3.50. Only problem is that it's pink. Doing this you just have to be a little careful that the device uses a "normal" jack plug for the headphones where you can plug the amp in instead. Some of them have remote-controls in the wire and so more connections. If this is the case then it's a soldering iron job to interface them. Iain

Demon Tweeks certainly used to supply the correct nuts. Failing that try some of the specialist wheel places (try places that advertise wheel re-conditioning). You'll probably find these places advertise in the Max Tits magazines. Iain

Boggie, I think you're going to be looking at bike engines. for the sort of featherweight you seem to be after but I wouldn't want to carry any weight with one, like maybe he luggage you'll need on a long event like the cannonball, because they just don't provide the torque you get from a heavier engine (the Hyabusa is the closest option but.....). Have you considered a K-series. They are all alloy and cheap as chips second hand. The motoring press reckoned Ford had just caught up to them with the Zetec (and that was 7 years after the K-series appeared). OK so it's not a six or eight cylinder lump but Caterham use them to get Sevens to 60 in under 4 seconds. I think Dave Andrews is the best person to speak to about them and throttle body equipment as he's now specialising in tuning them (I think). Not sure if the KV6 would be an option you should be able to get an oldish Rover 827 for buttons and there you have your all alloy V6. There is a guy in Preston (Moor Lane Garage) who has been sticking them on the end of type-9 boxes and shoving them in old MG's for customers and racing them for himself. Iain

I had the same problem with my EFi when it was in the Sierra. I took the idle valve off and completely immersed it in white spirit for two days (manually working the rod with a pair of pliers after one day). When I took it out I gave it a good wash with clean white spirit and let it dry. Re-fitted and hey presto no more problems. This was recommended by the guy at Minisport's rolling road and he's an ex Ford works rally mechanic so I trust his advice on all things Pinto. Iain

It said the "basic" kit would be around £1000. Like Ant says it's not a lot different to the 2B from a construction point of view just a bit more raw materials. I suspect that the "basic" kit will be somewhat different to what we saw though (remember the differences between the Kaig and the Kaig Vamp). I didn't sign up for details but it's a serious consideration when wondering what to spend the money from the sale of the S7 on (once the 2B finally hits the road that is). Xr4x4's are fairly cheap to pick up. You could use a Cossie 4x4 but that's an expensive option - there were other 4x4 Sierras (Ghia 4x4 and GSi 4x4 to name but two). I'd expend some extra effort to get a late one with the 2.9 rather than the 2.8. More importantly it's an easy job to fit a cossie V6 where either of them came out. I saw a Scorpio Cos for £600 the other day assuming the engine was OK and everything else was scrap it's not a lot to pay for nearly 300bhp. Iain

I got a set of hinges from lolocost (part of RHSC) at Donnington this weekend. They are stainless as opposed to the chrome on soft stuff that came with the hood. They are quite a bit bigger so they should cover the holes from the old ones. I think Mitch has the same ones on his motor. I got a tool from Frost (I could bankrupt myself with them) for crimping the poppers onto my hood and it came with a selection of eyelets, poppers and rivets - the popers are slightly different to the ones with the Hood but they fit together and you'd need to look closely to spot the difference. Failing that like Piddy says caravan/camping plaes or a chandlers are probably the best bet. Iain

Guys does anyone know the difference between the Hoods supplied by RH? I have an S7 which never had any weather gear fitted and I have a 2B which isn't on the road yet but I do have a hood for it (not fitted). Could I fit the 2B hood to the S7 or is it the wrong size/shape. Reason I ask is that I beleive that RHE/RHSC don't supply hoods for previous models but I can get another Hood for the 2B from them relatively easily. I know it's unlikely that anyone has actually tried this combination but since I have all the ingredients anyway can anyone give me pointers as to where to check them to see if they'll fit together? Measurements, drape it over and check here here and here or similar. Other than common sense that is. If the answer is a negative does anyone know where to get one from (Polyfacto?) that they would recommend. How do you go about it? do they know what sizes and shapes or do you have to take the car? etc. etc. I beleive that they won't supply one for a Robin Hood - is that just the current ones that RH are supplying or is it full stop? Iain

I was told I couldn't drive my 2B there which I could well beleive as it hasn't had an MOT or SVA. When I got there the guy had a cursory look under the back "yep that's a Ford axle". He then checked the engine number and asked a couple of questions about the front suspension. He disappeared back inside and then re-appeared to ask where the chassis number was. I told him that I was here to get one issued (they had told me not to make one up) and he said "Oh you should just have made one up". So I didn't tell him he had left his Maglite under the bonnet - one good turn deserves another. All in about 30 minutes waiting and about 5 minutes with a guy looking at the car. He didn't even take all the covers off - never mind get it off the trailer (yes it was persisting down). A couple of days later a letter arrived with my chassis number and registration number. As for the torch - well it works just fine and has come in quite useful thankyou very much. Last trailer I hired (to recover the S7 from Oxford a couple of months ago) cost £30 for 24 hours (lunchtime to lunchtime) but again that was oop ere in't north. Look for Indespension or Ifor Williams dealers as they often do hire as well as sales, they may not be the cheapest but the trailer will always be A1 (we once hired one from somewhere else which turned out to have a knackered winch - not fun when the car being moved isn't running). Iain