brumster

I would check the process on Zetecs for the big end cap bolts; for engines I have knowledge on, you can't just torque them up once they've been tightened once (pre-stretched), you essentially need to seek advice on measuring bolt stretch and tightening according to the procedures laid down by the engine manufacturer.... or, just fit new bolts, of course, but £££. Might be an ideal time to fit some ARP's anyway if you're getting the wallet out Might be easier to just take the main bearing caps off if you don't want to risk weakening a rod bolt.

Oops, corrected! Ta

Personally, I would (did) : - Plate under the front butresses where the struts mount. You could do the top if the ride height changes worry you but I just put some 2mm steel plate in there and welded it in place to spread the load. - Keep an eye on the seam welds that hold the entire front buttress on. In fact, just watch all the welds stainless steel isn't the most ideal material for standing up against fatigue, so I'm told - The rear diff mounting plate in the "boot" was advised to be strengthened with additional bolts - The engine bay "trays" in the Exmo had upturned folded edges on the inside to add strength/rigidity to the engine bay - all of the monocoque cars I would say are reliant on the folding and structure of the metal, so if *anything* has been cut away, I'd ask what has been done to put something back in. When I cut the trays on the Exmo to fit the K-Series, I welded a length of 1" square section tubular steel along the length of the engine bay, as close to the cut edge as possible. - Put 3mm steel plate underneath the "rollover hoop" ends in the boot area. Now I know this rollover hoop is entirely cosmetic on the Exmo - do NOT rely on it to save your life - but I figured it might do a half-acceptable job if it could at least NOT punch down through the stainless if the car was to end up turned over! Having said that, it's probably a bit academic as I suspec the rollover hoop would rip out of the exhaust U-clamps before it had chance to do anything useful! - If you do a tie-bar conversion, make sure you put a decent angled section of steel behind the tie-bar inner mounts - do NOT just bolt it into the stainless engine bay side! Nowhere near enough strength in it! It needs to be re-enforced on the inside with 3mm+ steel angle, bolted into both the engine bay side and floor. From memory that's all I did on my Exmo... there may be more, others can advise. Rich (Steamer) is the ideal person to comment as he put a V8 in an Exmo!

It's an Exmo, so 1997 build/registration sounds right. If this was the case then an SVA wouldn't have been needed, it was before SVA was introduced. I doubt it was built with a V8 though, not many were back in those days, so I suspect it's been converted some point since. Not a bad thing, but just check the V5 engine number and so forth, just make sure the V5 details match. There's no reason to worry, it looks honest enough, but do check it all the same. If the advert is true, then it's a straight enough car. I would echo what Dan said about the additional engineering into the car for a V8. The Exmo was a nice roomy model so it's great for engine conversions, but the floorpan in the Exmo in the engine bay was structural and chopping any of it away would need some strength putting back in. Exmo's had their weak spots even without engine swaps! So, yeah, £5.5k for an Exmo is strong money... but if it's what someone wants, then I'm sure someone will pay it.

Me +1 booked in to the Fairway. It'll be just the two of us. Put us down for the Sunday thing too the daughter's a little unsure but we'll get her convinced

I'll be there

Those Bosch pumps became so popular on the aftermarket that I suspect a lot were dodgy/cheap clones - I had exactly the same experience as you, from a pump picked up at a kit car show. Luckily it failed in the garage rather than before the car was on the road. Genuine Sytec bought as replacement

Bit late to this party but - have you done this yet? I mean properly, ie. a guage into the fuel rail somewhere, if there's a fitting to fit one, otherwise splice one into the line as close to the rail as you can? I have a guage I can loan you if you need one.

Yeah, I suspect it's all online these days - the emissions testing kit is connected online and the tester just enters the car reg (I assume), and it looks up the requirements off the DVLA computers and tests to it. No-one has ever asked to see my V5!

I suppose everything is clear cut apart from one important irregularity... the use of the term "first use". "First use" isn't something documented anywhere on a V5; you've got a manufacture date and a registered date - and on modern V5's you don't have the manufacture date any more, just 2 registration dates - an "original" and a "first time in the UK". I would suggest the registration date is the nearest logical thing to first use, since "use" implies the point at which the car gets driven on UK roads rather than when it came out of a factory (or a garage). This is unfortunate because obviously if there genuinely was a car that was produced in 1982 but sat unregistered for 30 years, there's little chance of it getting through modern-style emissions! I would be guessing there is some wriggle-room with DVLA/VOSA with a well-written letter to argue the definition of "first use" but you'd probably need some evidence. At this point I'm talking in a generic fashion for all cars. For kits, it's probably a little more awkward. Either the owner/builder has knowingly skirted some of the regulations around IVA/SVA and registered it as the old donor, or otherwise the DVLA has made some genuine mistake in setting up the details on the V5... I wouldn't pretend that neither of these things happens out there in the real world ;)

Chin up mate, you'll get through it... speaking from experience (not me, but family member)...

Ignore the date-related plate; it's the V5 document you have to go off. In this case, you need to look at when your 2B was registered (ie. after it had the IVA). Since it's a 2B, it's almost certainly built and registered after 1998

Bloody hell! I need to get the grease gun out and make up for lost time! I don't think I've ever greased a prop (although in my defence the Exmo would have been lucky to have done more than 2000 miles it it's entire life, and the Zero is on all of 200-odd....) !

Changed what the Honda CRV? That's one definite cure, I'll give you

I had a Puma once, that's the Sigma engine I believe, in which case the inlet manifold was on the front... so by my reckoning, the exhaust manifold would indeed be on the same side at the Pinto (ie. RH side for us hoodies)...

Could it be some bearing, maybe on the cam/fan belt, alternator bearing, something like that.... viscous fan maybe....? I take it it doesn't do it at a standstill which is what's making it difficult to diagnose? Gawd, could be a plethora of things I suppose... :-S

Is it definitely engine-related, ie. if you dip the clutch it's still there? If you turn the engine off and coast, does it disappear? You say under load - if you go to a trailing throttle does it disappear?

Someone say 875mm, someone say 875mm.....

I believe so yes, unless it specifically asks for a cover note? I sent mine, since I had it in place for the IVA (I was paranoid that someone would go into the back of the trailer while I was taking it down there and boom, there goes the whole lot with no insurance!)...

Not to register, but I'm fairly sure the tax now checks for insurance to be in place before it'll allow it to happen. I needed insurance, got it sorted on a temporary cover note based on the chassis number until I had a number plate assigned - then just updated the policy and away we went.

Really coming together now isn't it! The minute it starts to look like a caravan I bet you get excitied/enthused. I remember when the panels went on the Zero and it came back from the sprayshop, there was this lightbulb moment where just by it looking like a car was good inspiration to crack on...

Do yourself a favour and buy a suitable bearing for the top mounts while you're at it, rather than the radial bearings that RHE supplied in the day (completely inappropriate type of bearing for the job in hand). From memory I fitted some tapered roller bearings, maybe not as ideal as a thrust or spherical bearing but felt that the taper would at least stand up to the vertical forces a bit more. I think a spherical bearing would be the best but would pack the suspension up too high; ideally you'd want to figure and engineer some way of it mounting into the top of the buttress rather than having to sit underneath it. Quite a bit of design/engineering work there, hence why the taper roller bearing is a bit of a compromise but easier - certainly better than a simple radial bearing in terms of handling the axial thrust loads that are hitting it... when I removed mine after 1000 miles or so, the original bearing was battered and starting to deform, hence why I swapped it.

Well I suppose the obvious answer is, did you check that the control arm is the right length before and after? A common fit was P100 arms and bushes as the bushes were slightly "stiffer", I believe...? Maybe this resulted in it holding the arm slightly tighter in position? Otherwise if it was fine before and now it's not, I'm not sure what else it could be, assuming the top mount hasn't moved into another hole, or maybe it's slotted in some way and has moved outward?

Is this some sort of automotive LED strip that you *know* is designed to take 12v in? Do you have a link to the specs, for example? Wiring up backwards wouldn't blow fuse, you'd just get nothing. All I can think is one or more of the LEDs has blown, maybe because they were designed for a lower voltage, and have now melted in a fused (short) state, so every time you're turning them on they're just shorting out and blowing the fuse.

The ICO will have far bigger things on their plate. This is unlikely to result in any action. They weigh up a lot of factors in the breach, including the number of impacted subjects, the type of data released and the potential impact (damages/losses) as a result of it. In this case, the impact is incredibly minor. In my humble (and expert) opinion, you could by all means report it but I suspect the ICO will send you a template response back and then, when they finally get around to investigating it, tell us to stop being silly buggers and wasting their time...