Bob Tucker

If the car has been standing, the friction plate can get "welded" to the flywheel with rust. Try jerking it free by puttin the car in 1st (engine off) depress the clutch & get someone to rock the car backwards & forwards. No mates? Footbrake on, & depress clutch & engage starter briefly.....at your own risk tho' Bob.

I solved this for my SVA using 19mm water hose from Halfords. It already had a curve from being stored in a roll, I slit the outside edge then put double sided sticky tape on the edge trim fitted onto the dash to hold the pipe in place. Acceptable in 2002, but maybe not any more? Bob.

RS JIGTEC can supply stainless steel pillars, not sure on price, but probably less than £30. Speak to Bob or Sue. http://www.rsjigtec.com/

Hi Karl, I bought a stage 2 head & Fr32 cam from Euro engines, & they have worked faultlessley. Good price, slightly cheaper than Burton or Vulcan. My short engine came from Hayes Engineering in Erith, Kent. Check that any supplier is a member of the Federation of Engine Rebuilders. 7500 miles of serious abuse in 18 months, including 1/4 mile drag strip use, without a hiccup. Bob.

Its all Archimedes fault..or was it Pythagoras? The geometry of the Sierra wishbones means that the wheel has more than an 1:1 ratio to the spring, because the spring is a fair way inside the wheel. If the wheel goes up by 4 inches, the spring is compressed by something less. Plus the 2B is a bit of a porker anyway..... Most other 7 types use wishbones at the rear with inclined coilovers connected much closer to the wheel.

If you want to remove the servo & keep the Ford pedal & master cylinder you need a different (longer?) push rod. Tiger Racing can supply one. Bob.

RS Jigtec's 7ish TRAKSTAR was fitted with a 6 cyl. BMW at the Stoneleigh show. It looked pretty good, but was one lump of an engine. Anyone got any idea of the weight of engine/bellhousing & box? Bob.

Be careful about overrunning your mileage limit. Technically they could refuse to payout if you hit anything, plus you risk prosecution for being uninsured. Graham Sykes insisted on seeing my MOT cert. before renewing earlier this year, to check the mileage. Cheers, Bob.

Gotta go back a year or two for mine.... I was at school with Steve Harley (the Cockney Rebel) Same school, same class with Paul Hills, son of Dick Hills who co-wrote the Morecombe & wise show. (I never met a more miserable SOB.) I swam for Beckenham Swimming club and appeared on a black & white TV programme called Seeing Sport demonstrating butterfly. Its all been down hill since then...!!

I used Newhaven - Dieppe this year & can really recommend it. The A road from Dieppe is a real joy except for the state of the road surface through Rouen. I have a shortish standard Ford sump ( 6 & 1/4 inches ) & had no trouble getting on or off the ferry....... BUT HM Customs at Newhaven has decided to install the highest, hardest, shortest b***dy humps Ive ever seen & theres no way round them. Smugglers using 4x4s would laugh at them, but anyone silly enough to try using a Hood to carry loads of booze will struggle. Just take it easy & let your passenger walk thru' Bob.

So Jim, I guess you need age & experience to bend your tool in two different directions at once?? Seriously, can you just heat up & bend a spanner? Must be better than removing the manifold...

PS Wait till you try & adjust the valve clearances......!! It's quicker to take off the manifold than faff around trying to fit an 8" spanner in a 2" gap

Best coil cover I saw was in black & gold & had GUINNESS printed on it.....

The correct way is to keep the donor V5, send it off to Swansea & give them the new engine no. They return a new V5 with your new engine no. At Sva they take the donor age as the age of the engine from the V5. Worked for me.....

Take a look at what else you can get to take the 2.7 V6 Honda/Rover motor. Pretty or what? I spotted the demonstrator at LeMans this year.... http://www.phantom.uk.com/ Definitely my next kit..... Bob.

Having more leisure time than is good for me (SHE says!) we recently visited the Science Museum. They had three displays of common domestic appliances from the 50s, 60s and 70s We had a good laugh at the 50s section "I remember my Mum & Dad had one of those!" (A valve powered , mono music centre) We got to the 60s section "Hah! Look at that! We had one of those when we got married!" (A Dansette record player) After the 70s section, she dragged me out in a huff.... "We've still got one of those B***dy things in the kitchen!" (An original Kenwood Chef.) Education has proved to be costly!!!

Not sure of the exact details.. It seems to stay shut at idle, but opens above a certain mimimum setting. Mine was allowing air to enter the manifold at idle, which screwed up the mixture when accelerating.

Hi Dredd, there are now a few Suvners with Hoods of various sorts. Mine was a father/son build too....it seems very popular. We have owners in Orpington, Swanley, Bexley, Bromley, Dover, West Malling to name a few. We have been meeting up at a pub in Ryarsh recently. I'll let you know when the next meeting comes up, or feel free to pop up & take a look & maybe a test run (passsenger only tho'!) when I get back from Holiday (20th September) Cheers, Bob Tucker

Yup, the DGMS has two identical chokes & uses identical jets for each choke. It also has two idle adjusters, one against the cam cover, & one facing the outer chassis rail. Adjust them identically. Check for any air leaks into the manifold, vacuum hoses, brake servo pipe. Also check that the acceleration pump is squirting equal fuel into BOTH chokes . Check the crankcase one way breather valve is working correctly. Finally check jet sizes. (see Jim's note on the NW hoodies site). If that doesn't work, my wife may just sell you my twin 40s.... Cheers, Bob

Another thought, I had a similar problem which proved difficult to trace, finally on a rolling road they found out that the one way valve on the crankcase breather had become a 2 way street. Either replace it or remove it, block the manifold & vent the crankcase to a catch can (see Dave Andrews site for details).

Hiya, My 2 pennorth..... I've had both DGAS & twin 40s fitted to the engine. The DGAS (with two off 27mm chokes) runs as sweet as a nut, hard initial acceleration, but runs out of puff above 5k. 30-35 genuine mpg. The 40s (with 4 off 36mm chokes) pull far harder from 1200 rpm, flat to the floor, no hesitation, & scream round to 6500 with more to come but at a risk to the engine (standard bottom end). I've been out today, hammering it in low gears. I started with a full tank, & refilled it after 52 miles. It took 14 litres. That's about 16mpg. Best I've got on a run was 23 mpg. The family accountant says the DGAS is going to have to go back on soon......but I know I'll miss the 40s, the induction roar, the smell of petrol inside the car when I accelerate, the petrol smell in the garage, the rapidly shrinking hot hatches in the rear mirror... Honest dear, I'll change it next week....

Andy, can you reconfirm your carb type? The DGAS was never fitted to the Pinto by Ford. The standard (early) fitment was a DGAV with sequential choke opening. The DGAS was fitted to the V6s and both chokes open simultaneously. Jet sizes are very different from the DGAV. Also check that there is no leak in your pipe(s) to the brake servo. If need be disconnect it from the manfold, plug the manifold hole & try again....BEWARE the brake pedal is much harder without the servo. Good luck, Bob.

Hi Guys, I have a stainless 2B, with a 2.0 Pinto, big inlet valve head, ported & polished, FR32 cam & twin 40s. I ran it a few times at North Weald drag strip last year. Same engine, but fitted with a 38DGAS carb ran 82 mph, and 16.7 secs for the 1/4. Fitted with the 40s reduced the time to 15.2, speed up to 87mph. I was beating production cars which got to 95+, but were much slower off the line, its all down to the bricklike aerodynamics of a 7. Bare car at SVA weighed 710kgs (no windscreen), but they allow an extra 200 kgs for two passengers and luggage (you wont get 50kgs in my boot!). HTH Bob.

Hi Nigel, If youve still got the Ford cam wheel, mark a line on the vernier where the woodruff key fits. Align the Ford wheel so the woodruff slots line up, then transfer a mark onto the vernier where the pointer of the Ford item comes. Then follow the Haynes manual. After that you really need the dial guage & protractor for fine adjustment of the hotter cam. Cheers, Bob.

Yup, tunnel top is the way to go. I replaced the half moon with a smaller pulley narrower than the tunnel top. Then I added a S/S sheet extension from the tunnel sides, up over the handbrake, nice rounded top, covered in carpet looks pretty neat. Cheers Bob.