brumster

Don't need to be the same thing, no, but by putting it together as one 'order' it will simplify things at his end - if there's a lot of a single item then he can potentially do a better price on it, but it depends what it is. He's obviously not going to tell me what his margins are, but the more we order the better a deal he can do - but the key thing is no, it doesn't have to be all of the same item. Items are up in Grantham but can be brought down to me (Birmingham) and distributed from here/collected/etc. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

No, it won't be the Cosworth YB (although Mike did suggest they have a few RS blocks kicking about). Sorry, by Pinto I mean the SOHC lump we all know and love. For DOHC, I read this as the engines as fitted to the Sierras/Granadas, the I4 as you mention. I will clarify with Mike and get back to you.

Keep 'em coming guys, I'll collate and put the list to him next week

Okeydokey - what I'll do is let this thread run it's course for a few days, collate all the interest and just send him a request for one quote... sounds good!

PLEASE NOTE all discussion/details are now in the Member Benefits section; please see http://community.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=23159 Hey peeps, Something popped into my head in another thread and I thought I'd gauge some interest. Potentially, my good friend and neighbour (who is a Director at ATC Drivetrain) could sort out engines or engine components to club members if there was enough interest. ATC remanufacture engines for all sorts of vehicles and car manufacturers, including Jaguar and Ford. One of their popular engines - Ford 4-potters in Pinto OHC and (I believe, I4) DOHC form. Chatting with him, I put the idea forward and he's open to discussion. Basically they have EFi DOHC 2 litre units 100% brand new - not rebored/remanufactured, but *new*. Not sure what mix of 8v/16v and 2.0 or 2.3 is available yet. They have carb-type DOHC units but their stockpile of camshafts is exhausted so that is the only component in the engine that couldn't be new but would have to be supplied (exchange, or aftermarket cam for example). They can also do SOHC but these would be more your traditional remanufactured items - new pistons, bearings, gaskets, etc but rebored blocks, reground cranks and so on. Lumps come in long block assembly - so no ancillaries, manifolds, flywheel, etc. and are rig tested for oil pressure and compression. Hot tests on full dynos are doable at additional cost. On top of this, they can also provide just the components of the engine if that is preffered - and they have a long stock list that he sent me which I won't bother recreating here - bearings, piston assemblies (various sizes/compression specs), gaskets, thrust washers, every nut and bolt under the sun, dowel caps, dipstick tubes, sump baffles, piston rings, spark plugs, valve collets, valves, rocker arms, main bearings, reprofiled followers, springs (I'm assuming valve), DOHC cylinder heads, and so on. Before I expend too much effort on anyone's part, would there be much interest? I can appreciate the first question will be how much - if I get a per-unit price for a SOHC 2 litre, DOHC carb 2 litre and DOHC EFi 2 litre that might offer some indication... if there's components you're interested in, put it up on here and I'll collate and get quotes. Cheers, Dan

Hmm, thanks. Maybe a .75 on the rear would have been a better bet.... I'll give it a try and see how we get on then. The OBP pedal box came today but it needs a bit of modification to clear the steering column, and the clutch pedal needs a bit of bending to move it away from the centre of the tub... Anyone any ideas on the other queries, particularly the rear coil-overs?

It's not untold of for engine remanufacturers to have pallets-worth of engines standing outside for months on end, they can keep quite some stock in hand so I'm reliably informed from a director at ATC Drivetrain. Hmmm, now I've just had an idea for a bulk-buy I know they do Pintos, wonder if they do Zetecs too !!

Now that's interesting. Ignoring your move to Wilwoods, you put the .75 on the front and the .625 on the rear, which is at odds with what most people suggest and does seem at first sight to be the wrong way round - but without knowing the slave cylinder sizes of the standard rear drums and Sierra sliding-pot fronts I can't say for sure. Did you ever try them the other way round (.625s on the front, .75's on the rear)? Was it better or worse? I'm ok with the balance as it is when it was on the sierra master cylinder, my main concern is keeping reasonable pedal effort and not going too hard, but the balance for me seemed fine previously. Does anyone know the standard Sierra's master cylinder diameters front/rear? Anyone know the piston diameters at the caliper/slave cylinder ends? I can see a bit of suck-it-and-see'ing here.... Cheers, Dan

Hi all, I've got an Exmo which has been sitting in the garage for far too long awaiting the completion of a K-Series engine transplant, and I'm now thinking about some finishing touches/improvements, given the experiences of others in the past. 1) Fix the front strut top mount issue with some plates and proper thrust bearings. 2) Think about retro-fitting the rear coil-over shocks to the rear... anyone know what specs the original 'optional' rear coil-overs were? Poundage, length, etc - is there an off-the-shelf option that fits the bill or is it a case of ring up someone and get a pair made up to spec? 3) As a knock-on effect from going K-series, the standard master cylinder had to come out to clear the TB's/air filter (no bad thing). After much searching I'm going to give OBP's pedal boxes a try with an adjustable bias on the brakes and twin master cylinders. Has anyone ever done this? If so did they find the normal M/C types of 0.625/0.7 ok with the standard Sierra vented discs/drums setup? 4) I suspect the standard diff might be a little tall given the increased rev range now available, if memory serves me rightly the diff to have was from a Sierra Estate (3.9?)- is that right? If I can find one... was it in anything else? 5) Bonnets - can you still get them? Lolocost don't seem to have it listed, or have I missed it... reason being some muppet decided to knock over a pile of tyres which landed on the bonnet and put a nice crease into it, so would be good to replace it if I can... but not essential, the old one just looks a bit tatty Any thoughts/experiences much appreciated... Cheers, Dan

...or, as an alternative, I've used :- JPEG Optimizer It's handy for doing the sort of stuff you're talking about, for web pages, but it only works on certain file types (JPG, PNG, TIFF, etc) and not GIFs - so if you're after GIF stuff, not so much use maybe. And it's free (with some minor adverts)! Probably lots of others out there too, to be honest...

Err, guys, before you go jumping to conclusions and spreading rumours, Patrick Fitch is the director of GTM Cars... or is there a Patrick Fitch at RH too!?!? Must admit I find it hard to believe it IS GTM as they only recently got "bought out" by an engineering company RDM Automotive. So I'm guessing it's another Patrick Fitch!!

No worries; enjoy! There's some stuff on the website (the brumster one) if you haven't seen it already...

Well, however you cut it, £1500 for a gearbox is ****ing expensive, but yes, it would improve matters. With a suitable final drive you could finally give the car a semi-decent turn of speed AND motorway usability. Nervous at speed is just a nature of front-wheel drive geometry at the back of a car. In front wheel drive cars, it's called bump steer. No different here, you've just got it at the back instead of the front. Eek there are things you can do to improve it, like spherical rod ends, nylon bushes, etc. but IMHO the simple nature of design means it'll never be perfect. Hard top removal/fitting is just a matter of a few minutes, no worries. Soft top is similar but the actual fitting of it takes a little longer. Once it's fitted as an assembly, putting it up/down is very quick indeed. As for the K, you've clearly made your mind up there, so fair enough - but in short, the 1.4/1.6's are nowhere near as problematic. GTMOC used to be great, I'm sure they still are, there's a yahoo groups for them (groups.yahoo.com/gtmoc from memory; I should know, I'm a moderator!! Oops!). GTM themselves are a great bunch of guys too, very helpful, although the Coupe/Rossa have long since left the ranch and are now handled by other guys. Alan Britton took on the Rossa models, and he's a great chap, long standing club member so knows what's relevant still.

Depending on what's touching, we bought a different cam cover that had the filler at the back rather than the front - together with mounting the nosecone at whatever height we needed, we then had no problems.

To add some figures into the discussion, these were taken with the club's performance meter at Curborough a few years ago. 0-60 in 7.0 secs flat, that was an Exmo with a 4-speed box and a mildly tuned 2.1 spluttering away on 45's. No idea of weight (driver only) but the car was in fairly basic spec, no heater, etc. No exact power figure, but nothing groundbreaking - say 140bhp something like that... Just gives you an idea I guess...

Had a Mk.2 for quite a while and was quite active with the owners club. Motorway cruiser - errm, well, this would depend on the diff with a 4 speed. A 3.44 would be fine (MG Metro) but a little tiring at high speeds, or you could go for a 3.1 which would improve things at the expense of acceleration... and these things aren't exactly rapid in the first place. 5 speed box will be rare, and expensive. Let's not beat about the bush, it's not what I would pick as a motorway slugger - nervous at speed and lacking in any serious grunt at that speed. Also had a tendency to overheat but this was only if they weren't sorted - so check it out, but don't worry as despite what anyone tells you, it is cureable! Rear suspension needs to be in absolutely tip-top condition in order for the thing to handle remotely well, so look for tired bushes or worn components. Soft top? Errm, mixed thoughts on that one. Mine was absolutely bloody useless, but some have had them fit absolutely fine. Leaving it permanently outside, though, I'm not so sure... YMMV. Personally I'd just stick with the removable hard top if you can live with it. The crux of it - if you can push to a K3, make the effort, it will be money well spent.

Pfaa, 98 octane? Cool Blue

Oh, the noise level thing is as a result of local complaints (or, more specifically, complaint - I believe) a year or so ago which meant the club, SDCC, had to knuckle down on noise. 105dB is, I hasten to add, bloody loud so any road car breaking that is madness... but ofcourse I know what these Hoodz are like But it's quite normal for a noise scrutineer to be present during the day to test, so don't think it won't be checked - it will Bloody spoilsports, I 'ate this country at times! Curborough has been there for the best part of 30 years so how someone moves into the area without knowing about it, then manages to successfully complain is beyond me. If you don't like a bit of engine noise, don't move within a couple of miles of a race track, you nonce! I'll get off my soap box now... ahem...

Oh nothing serious, we've still got the Hood but the rallying has taken up most of my time and along with working away all week I never made any of the social events whatsoever. Can I say I "took a sabatical" ?! The Hood is still waiting for the tail end of it's engine transplant to be completed (the worlds longest project, as usual) - just passenger compartment wiring and an exhaust to make up. But it won't be done by July, for sure, as I've got a house move to look forward to. Oh, and for those that asked :- http://www.curborough.co.uk Happily come along and help out organise if need be - member of Shenstone & District Car Club and regular hirer of the track for testing the rally car once a year, so can bring some gubbins along (marquee, generator, etc) if the club's interested...? Then again I guess you've got most of that stuff still Last two years I brought along "something different" for the rest of you boys to p1$$ all over and do the "my car cost peanuts and was still faster" thing... which, being an owner myself I was quite happy to take keeps everything in perspective, doesn't it! Laters chaps, Dan

When is C'brgh and are non-members (albeit ex-members!) allowed along to spectate/meet old friends?

Having done the K transplant referred to in the earlier post the sensible advice would be to stay clear of the K, yes, as it's lots of effort for not much reward. If it's power you want you'll spend a comparatively silly amount to get decent power compared to something like a Honda, Ford Zetec or the good old Vauxhall. Surprised no-one has tried a Peugeot Mi16 (XU) block yet, though, they canter over quite a bit so would probably go under the standard bonnet, and they make decent power too - 163bhp in standard form and 180-185 with little extra effort (carbs/TB's). I agree the obvious choice is a Zetec or Vauxhall...