brumster

Just to answer your question, I believe you car has to be rated to tow the plated trailer weight. So if the trailer is plated at 2800Kg, whatever is towing it needs to be rated to tow 2800Kg - even if the trailer is empty and only a couple of hundred kilos. I know - ridiculous. I've not tested the theory and have no desire to though

Technically, yes. Legally, probably not ;-)

Cost you that in fuel to divert via Birmingham ;-) hehe Good luck with it. My trailer's mah-hoo-sive anyway, 2800Kg jobbie for transporting a rally car, so probably overkill for a hood (and might be some technical legality issues, depending on what you were going to tow it with)

<chuckle> No worries - no rental place near you? They're often quite reasonable for day hire, places up here put them out for £40-60 a day (and a deposit, of course)...

You're welcome to borrow mine but Birmingham might be a bit far!?

Well, turns out my old arms weren't as long as the spec says (295mm) and the cosworth ones were a bit too long to fully thread into the TRE's. However this is easily solved by chopping some off the end of them with an angle grinder, if you really need the extra length. However I've kept the old arms, and dropped the front down about 15mm on the shock platforms... I noticed the sleeves on the Exmo shocks had been tapped on a bit too far and were not fully sitting in the hub carriers. The car sits better now, the camber looks (by eye) better (ie. not positive!) and I don't seem to need quite so much track rod to achieve parallel toe now (again, just by eye at this stage, but the car needs to be MOTd on Friday and I can then concentrate on the geometry....) I'm wondering if, like others, I'm going to need adjustable TCAs to get half-decent geometry at the front (I don't fancy chopping about the top mounts any more as I'll never get the welded-in re-enforcing plates out!)... we'll see.

Hi Guillaume, The Exmo uses Ford P100 (the Sierra "pick up" truck) damper inserts so you should be able to source from your local ford dealer. You will need to retain the machined, threaded sleeve that fits over them to retain the coil spring but these tap out pretty easy.

Well, for the record (and thanks to a friendly motor factors who went through his part catalogue!) the Cosworth/4x4 arms are 310mm - 15mm longer than the base model - so I'm going to try those; should give me just the extra thread inside the TRE that I need to keep the safety switch in my brain from toggling .

Provided the car is tickety-boo (MOT this week!) I think I'll try and pop up and say hello, and re-join after all these years! I've been out of it for a while, but what happened to the track time/sessions? Why did they drop that - health and safety finally got their hands on things, did they?

Hey all, I've just been giving my Exmo a look-over before it returns to the road from it's 12 year hibernation (!), and one thing I've noticed there's not as much thread in the track rod ends as I'd like - it needs toeing out a little but there is no way enough thread left to safely extend the track rod ends on the arms. Now as far as I can remember, the TRE's were new and the rods I assume are off the Sierra we built the thing from, so I'm not quite sure how the width isn't up to it, but I notice on various websites there are a few different track rod arms available - Mk.1/2 Sierra, but also a Cosworth 2WD listed, for example. Does anyone know if one is longer than t'other - are there longer arms or TRE's available that I can fit to give me a little more engaged thread than I currently have?

The HP feed/return on mine are both the same size, I suspect the size may be important to get the right swirl from the pressure of the HP return. Too big, and you get low flow speed? e.g. http://www.sm-engineering.co.uk/alloy_fuel_surge_tank.php Return is smaller, all the other ones are the same. Note the positioning of the HP take-offs, at the edge of the tank and half-way up or higher. I was told there are two kind of things here that people often confuse - one is a 'surge tank' to remove fuel surge during hard cornering, but the other more original reason for a 'swirl pot' was in racing to ensure you get air bubbles out of the fuel and also ensure you're not re-using the warmed fuel from the fuel rail over and over again but allowing it to mix with fresh cool fuel from the fuel tank. So if all you want it an anti-surge device, you can forget worrying about all those design aspects

Details and discussion now moved to "Member benefits" section.... http://community.rhocar.org/index.php?showtopic=23159 Enjoy!

No worries all - Mike is working on the quotes for us now. I've also asked for clarification on the RS lump - I know Mike said he's got tonnes of Focus RS pistons (4-potter turbo, not the Volvo 5-pot) but I wouldn't want to guess what he meant lump-wise. Cheers, Dan

I'll send the summary tomorrow for what we're after and get some prices; in summary, it seems to be (and there's no need to firmly commit at this stage, don't worry) :- Complete bearing set (big ends, Mains, Cam, Auxilary) + thrust washers SOHC Injected 2.0 OHC (reman prices) 92.5/93mm EFi Pinto pistons 2.1 Exchange short lump (if they can do one; not standard, so may be not, but I'll ask) Low compression Pinto short block (would this be a transit derivative?) DOHC 2.0, carb engine - reman and new 2.3 I4 short engine Any more for any more ?!

Ok, I have some clarification here. So the SOHC variant is pretty obviously the Pinto as we know it. These they can do remanufactured, as stated above. For DOHC we are indeed talking the I4 derivative. They have lots of new stock of these, so you can have a DOHC 8v or 16v *new*, and that includes the 2.3 derivative. The only exception is the RS2000 engine, of which there are no heads left and in shortage, so that's basically a short-block only. Or provide your own head, of course. All the DOHC options are available re-manufactured of course, but Mike suspects there will be little interest in this given you can just have a new one... but each to their own. He's getting someone to work on prices of 3 engine options just to give you a teaser of prices and some indication. I've said quote a 2.0 8v SOHC, a 2.0 16v DOHC and a 2.3 short block for you, Iain. All other stuff like parts/etc we'll wait until next week before hitting him with. Apologies for any confusion, I didn't realise the I4 bottom end wasn't the same as a 8v Pinto block, my bad.

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...