Big Jim

I run 195/65's and put 21psi in, it's a matter of choice, too soft and like you said, the steering is "lumpy" too hard, and the ride is harsh and the grip seems to be reduced. Suck it and see what's best for you.

Lots of Hoodies in past years have had problems with overheating, but it can be cured easily. Now I'm sorry if I mention anything that you've already done but these are the steps to sort it out once and for all! 1. Check that the thermostat is working correctly, and in the correct way round, this is a common mistake. 2. You really do need to have either a header tank, or an overflow bottle so that the water is not lost. 3. If using the engine viscous fan, make sure that it is really under power from the engine, rub a piece of wood or something against it as it runs on fast idle, if it stops it, then it's knackered. I had one that looked OK, but I could stop it spinning very easily with 3000rpm up. 4. If you are running an electric fan, is it turning the correct way? are you using a pusher fan as a puller? you will loose effectiveness. Is the thermo switch set correctly? 5. Equally as important, whichever fan you are using, it must be cowled to the radiator, so that it drags, or forces the are through the core of the radiator. If your fan is more than ½ inch away from the radiator core, then it's serriously loosing its effectiveness. 6. Block off the area over the top of the radiator between that and the nosecone. This makes it so that the air HAS to go through the radiator, not over it.

I have the larger of the Custom Chrome silencers fitted, they are much quieter than the RH one, and are repackable (about £10) but they suffer from the constant hammering of road *bleep*e flung up at it from the front wheel, I can no longer get that part remotely looking clean, never mind shinny. After fitting the Vauxhall motor, I have found that it's not as quiet as it was with the Pinto. I was hoping to talk to the "Wunoff" (spelling) gang at Stoneleigh, but they didn't make an appearance.

The mirrors sold by Tiger cars are both very nice, and SVA approved, they are about £35/pair (I think) and ideally are mounted as the top bolt in the triangular section of your windscreen pillars

It's just your new oil, in a few miles it will go back to 60 psi 'ish. No problems.

You've got the wires arse-about-face on the gauge (technical term that!) the sender should be wired to the - 'ive side of the gauge, it's easy to check, just take the wire off the sender, touch it to earth, and the gauge should go full scale up. Thinking about it, the + ive feed to the various gauges should be "common" as all the senders are on the -ive side of any gauge. Is none of your other gauges misbehaving?

You can buy the spares separately, I'll try to find out the address, but I just surfed for "webber carburetter" and found it that way. (that's providing that you do have the genuine Webber linkage.

they are farely easy to sort out. First sort out which is the + ive feed for the side lights, then the - ive earth, then there is another + ive feed to the small gauges, with the individual wires going to the various senders, oil, temp, fuel etc. these are the - ive side of the relevant gauge. Do one gauge at a time and it will sort itself out.

Right, stop buggering about with pans of water! You need to get the correct sender to match the GAUGES, not the engine, or car that it came from. RH was suppling clocks from the Escort mark 5, but anyway it's easy to find out on a 2B, the part number is on a bloody great sticker on the back of the clocks. Once you know what the part number is, go and ask uncle Henry's men to do a "where - used" on their computer, (If they are too thick to, then you'll just have to get them to surf through the models, Escort first) this will show which car that particular set of clocks were originally designed for, now get the sender that matches them. If you are still having problems with the readings after that, it's your cooling system and not the clocks / sender that's at fault.

Contact "Raw Engineering" they do the Toyota alternative engine swaps, but be sat down ready for when they give you the price.................................

Right guys, the rubber coat stuff under the fibreglass arches and wings is the best way to go, alternatively about 3 coats of underseal (get a good thick coating) for the poorer people, and you need to paint over any welded joints on stainless monocoque cars (pre-2B) as he didn't use stainless wire to weld (and the fact that they weren't "best" stainless, they are magnetic....try it!) I can't speak for the 2B stainless chassis, although from memory it looks like it's been done with correct stainless wire, and "proper" stainless tube, so should be OK without being painted.

Check your valve timing again, it sounds like it's out by a tooth.

put the hinges on the inside of the windscreen support pillars, not on the outside.

Don't go back to points, that's like going back to the horse & cart. Get a system from an early (83-85 'ish) Sierra. Dizzy, coil, & module and that's it. There are only 3 wires into it from the main loom, with it's own small sub loom (& I mean small) that join them all together. nothing to it. This is a piccy of the module.

It depends which fron suspension you have on, if they are the inboard springs, then go for 130 lb, also if the rear ones are coil over shocks, then go to 160 lbs. With the radiator, you can either put it in the nosecone and fit a leccy fan etc, or you can make a cowl up (see piccy) the makes the fan drag the air through the radiator and not from under / over it. Also blank off the area between the radiator and underside of the nosecone (make the air go through the rad)

Check out the item about doing this job on our northwest hoodie site (link from top of rhocar "links" page) Silocone is good enough, but make sure that you prepare your metal bits first, ie get the edges smooth. You'll find the article on the build tips link on the NW site.

Twin 40's look nice, sound even better, but drink petrol like it's going out of fashion. When I had them on they made the engine awfull to drive around town etc. I fitted a DGAS and got it set up correctly, result was great, 35 mpg, with as much acceleration as with the 40's. Look for the 2 x ¼ gears on each spindle, also check for wear here.

When I was looking for which engine to go for, I have only found one web site were a K series was being retro-fitted into an earlier RH, and it looked a nightmare! also it wasn't working out cheap. The Zetec will go in, I think that it will fit straight onto the g/box ( those in the know will confirm or not!) but it's a tall engine, so it's either dry sump it, or cut the bonnet and add a bulge. Dave (the gauge) Thomson from the Midlands has done it, have a look at his.

lift the clutch pedal upwards, it should release the yellow ratchet assembly, if it doesn't, then there is a little bracket underneath the ratchet assembly that needs lining up properly. If that's working OK, has it come to the fullest of it's adjustment ?(most of us need to fit a 1" or so spacer on the cable) is the cable free? can you move the clutch arm (G/box end) with a lever, ie. a hammer shaft?

Can you not just cut some off the front pipe? There is only 2 ways of bending tube that size, one, with a machine (forget it, now that it's made) and the other is to weld up all the ends, pack the thing with sand, weld up the remaining end, get it red hot where you want to bend it, and bend the thing, preferably around the correct size block. This way will ruin your finish. So the answer to your question is, NO!

You've got to remember that I don't have one of those nagging things that think they have full control over your money, and time was of the essance, I didn't want it off the road for any length of time, so I bought a LOT of new stuff. I reckon that if you looked hard and didn't go for new parts, you could do it for less than £800. I've just bought another engine (just in case the right foot gets too heavy!) for £250 a new bell hsg is about £140, you see then 2nd hand for £70 inlet manifold, £95 new, 2nd hand, £45 Twin 45's, new £200 each, 2nd hand from £150 pair. Ignition, use early 8v astra, £20 from scrappy, (I daresn't tell you the price of the new MBE unit I fitted!) Sump, either £160 for a tin one, or £215 for an ally one, or modify a Manta one, for £40 And that's about it, plus odds and ends. and you've got 180 BHP All these prices I have seen on the various "for sale" sites since doing my change, they add up to £625 put £100 for odds & ends and you've still got a cheap conversion with megga smiles / mile! Afterwards you can upgrade the engine with cams , followers etc up well above 230 BHP NOTE: You do need to work out what to do about pedals, in the 2B you can keep the Sierra pedal assembly without the servo, in earlier cars, it's just not that simple!

I tell all the new builders to do the mod before fitting the engine, some listen, some don't (then have problems!) actually, the engine tends to slope forward in the 2B as does yours!

The easiest & cheapest way is; nip down to your local scrappy with a 10mm & 17mm socket, long extension & ratchet, hide or plastic hammer, & 10mm spanner. Find his pile of knackered engines (all scrappy's have one) take off the sump & pick up pipe, don't pay more than a fiver (sort out the price before you start) Now cut off the bottom as per instructions (ie 5½" from fitting face) find a piece of metal that you can make up the "box" out of (110mm X 220mm) cut that out, drill the hole for the sump plug, bend over the edges in the vice using a precision knocking stick. Now place the box on the side of the sump where it's going to finish up (make sure it's not the side where the starter motor lives!) draw around the edges with a felt tip / pencil, cut out the 2 "V"s. Find a piece of 3mm or 2mm thick plate big enough for the base, put the sump & box on the plate, draw around them with the felt tip, cut it out with the jig saw or whatever. Now decide if you are going to have a go at the pipe, take your time, using a blow lamp you can "sweat" the strainer off, then cut the pipe down a bit at a time, just prise the opening into the strainer a bit on one side, as you will finish up cutting the pipe actually just onto the bend. once you've got it all to this stage, THEN take it along to your engineering shop and ask them to, A. braze (solder) the strainer onto the pipe (once done, you can put it into the sump and see how it is (hold down on the bracket) then B. Get them to weld the sump plug nut into the box (see Build tips) then weld (preferably TIG weld) the box onto the side of the sump & together at the seams, finally to weld the plate that you've already cut out, onto the base. Ask them if they can test it for porosity (they should have some specialist die & stuff) this means that all you have to pay for is the actual welding and not the rest. Realistically I wouldn't expect to pay more than £20 as it's about 15 mins work for a good welder. If you do it this way, you've not took your car off the road until you decide to fit the shortened sump.

It's about 3 years ago now that Matt persuaded me to do the article on shortening the sump. After our little trip into Wales the other weekend, it became obvious to Jim Robbo, that he should have shortened his long ago (mind you, you do get good MPG when you're on the back of an AA truck!) How have people gone on with this? has anyone paid silly money to have it done for them? I noticed on the old discussion board a firm offering them at £50 exchange. I've also seen both ends of the scale (I think!) £15 and £150 or do you know different?

There are 2 things that should be checked first. First of all, check that the thermostat is in the correct way round, (see piccy) then the sender should match the GAUGES not the engine! ford have about 8 different senders all for different gauges, it's a nightmare until you find the correct one. You can fit a cooler stat (see the NW web site for the number) but this will not cure a poor set up.