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oops, read it too fast. What about something like a zero with a bike engine? you can do most of your shifting without the clutch pedal and as you dont need the transmission tunnel so wide at the front you could make the footwell wider and also a bit longer. You may struggle finding a Zero but look at locosts and have a read on their site at what tall people have done.

Welcome pal, What about an auto?

I had my car tuned today at PowerTune in Widnes, Cheshire. It was running like a bag of spanners, as it hasn't been tuned since new webbers were fitted. Mike at PowerTune was really helpfull. He knows his stuff and is passionate about cars (I got the impression he was more interested in getting it running sweet than getting my money) Anyway, after a damp start this morning, I trailered it round to his garage and pushed it inside. I left it there at 11am and went to bed for the day (i work nights!) He balanced the carbs up and tuned them up, then onto his rolling road to set-up the megajolt. I popped back in at 6 to pick it up, sounding sweet as a nut and producing 192bhp from a standard XE with 45 carbs All this for £65 and a very friendly service.

Well done. That must feel so much better having a first time pass. Let the good times roll!

It's not really a speed issue, it is my right index finger having to do so much scrolling!

I didn't have any proof other than a print out of a wikipedia page stating the C20XE was superceded in 1994 by the ecotec engine. I told him Vauxhall wouldn't give me proof as they didn't hold records. He took my word for it and recorded the engine as a 1991. I realised afterwards that my 'proof' was a load of cr@p really as I could have edited the wiki page before printing to say anything I wanted. He was a reasonable bloke though and I wasn't out to con him.

Some people may feel this a little petty, but it is becoming increasingly annoying having to read a post 2 or more times due to people quoting the whole post when replying. I don't think this is done deliberately, most likely by just clicking the wrong button. The green arrow points to the 'fast reply' button, more than adequate for most replies. The red arrow is highlighting the 'quote+reply' button. The 'quote+reply' means that having scrolled through a series of text and pictures, they are then duplicated, sometimes more than once in a thread. I'm not the only one who would like other members to try and change their habits and use the correct method to respond. On a similar note, it is good practice when quoting, to delete the irrelevant part of the quoted text to highlight your response. This will make the site easier to navigate, increase search effectiveness and tidy up long repetitive threads. Your thoughts on this are welcome.

£1200 eeek I spent that just on my engine - twice! My build including kit, engine, carbs, paint, SVA, insurance etc was £7500. I didn't skimp on anything and used new parts where possible. I built it with the Vauxhall engine from the start which I feel is a far easier and cheaper option than adding it later.

I have used bigg red in he past. I usually buy the seal kits, around £22 per axle. You just need to strip the calipers and replace with new seals.

Best advice I can offer is to present a car that looks like it has been built with care. If he sees shonky work on the outside he will be wondering what you have hidden under seats and carpets. It really isn't that bad, and even when you fail, they are reassuring that you aren't the only one! I won't say good luck, as I don't believe luck has anything to do with it. They will look over your whole car, so ensure you are happy with everything before it goes in and you have no need to worry. They aren't out to fail you, just to make sure it is roadworthy. I'd be more worried about driving on the motorway with an untested and potentially unsafe car!

It has to be a red top. Get yourself a megajolt and it hardly needs any wiring up. None of the original loom or ECU are needed. You will see far greater gains than either of the ford engines and the redtop is a strong engine that won't need any strengthening until you get to 250bhp. Standard engine on carbs will see 185bhp and the megajolt will give you a really nice power curve due to the acurate timing.

That sounds good pete. It has been about 5 years since i watched the videos! I was toying with different things and rubber fuel hose was big enough to cover the radius i needed so I'll mage some tadpole beading with that then. I'll report back my findings.

I need some trim to go around the corner of my boot cover for SVA, tadpole beading is too small, but fuel hose seems ok but worried about whether he will see it as temporary. I have seen trim that is like solid rubber with a quarter removed and is glued onto a corner to give a radius. here is a pic I've drawn to try illustrate it. If you know where I can buy it I'd be made up. Been looking on google but wouldn't know what to call it so hard to search for.

zoomzoom, I have a digidash lite as well and mine failed, not on the MPH display but due to the brake fail symbol not being over the light. Ensure that you check the box in the set-up menu for SVA and disable all other menus. Have you got a silencer heat shield? if so that should be easy to put edge trim round. If not, I'd add one as i have a nasty burn on my arm from touching the hot exhaust. Also, ETB Instruments advertise their digidash lite as SVA compatible Good luck for the retest, and get the car down to a rolling road and have a pro set-up the carbs. It is well worth the money.

First in the queue

Just remove the warning light feed to the digidash. Or is that too obvious?

My tester was generally very impressed with the car I presented today. To a point were he said it was the best built Robin Hood he had tested yet! I had a few fail points but most were due to the edge trim I had used was not up to scratch. Here is the list 6. Interior - Contactable edges not radiused to at least 2.5mm - N/S under dash (electric box) [this is my megajolt and it is 15mm too low on the scuttle] - Rear facing bonnet edge [my dodgy edge trim] 9.1. Lights - Front direction indicators mounted below 350mm from ground height [ missed it by 15mm due to altering the ride height last week. doh] - unable to access front position lights [my dipped beam comes on with side lights, this is ok but means he can't see the side lights as he gets dazzled] - Brake lights stay on when not applied [looks like the brake light switch moved during the brake test] 10. Mirrors - interior rear view mirror - missing [oops, didn't realise that I needed one, thought the wing mirrors would do] 13. Exterior Projections, contactable edges not radiused to 2.5mm - Upper seatbelt anchorage metal bar [ this is 12mm flate plate to space the belts right, need to get it boxed in I think] - Upper rear body top cover edging [just needs tadpole beading] - Front cycle wing brackets. [lost a piece of edge trim, he told me not to bother getting more on there and then, just do it for the retest] - Exhaust silencer stud cover. [this projects 7mm, needs to be below 5 like the others to pass] - Holes in bonnet ore than 12mm [the wiper mount holes, I covered them with black vinyl, classed as temporary, need to bond some plastic under the bonnet] 14. Protective steering - Steering wheel - contactable edges not radiused to 2.5mm [ need a steering wheel pad] 15.1 Design and construction - Steering shaft universal joint - Bolt lock tabs not engaged [how did I miss that!] - Steering column upper supprt 'U' bolts - no locking mechanism on nuts [needs nylocs] 15.2 electrics - Wiring to brake light switch not secured at 300mm intervals. [needs a p clip] 16.2 Brakes - Servo/master cylinder nuts no locking device [i used thread lock but he wants to see nyloc] 16.4 Brakes Hydraulic - Brake pedal operation spongy [must be air in o/s rear as it wasn't as good as the others on the brake test but was perfect on handbrake test, needs re-bleed] - Brake failure warning light - symbol (!) is not on illuminated surface [ must contact digidash about their SVA compliant dash!!] And that is it. All in all not too bad, a few school boy errors but nothing I can't handle. Retest is on 27/4/09

Just got back in. Failed, but only minor points. Retest in 2 weeks! The tester was really good, very helpful. The Aries 7 that was tested the same time as me broke the gas tester so I had a bit of a wait, then a go on the bike one. One of my fail points was the (!) symbol for the brake fail light wasn't over the lamp. My dash was sold as SVA compliant but clearly not! I'll have the jobs done in a few days so Hopefully get it next time.

Off to SVA, wish me luck

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to go with the bent flat-bar method. Oh, and my test is on 2nd April!

Well done mate, this time in seven days I'll know whether I've passed or not!!

What have people done to extend the front indicators for SVA? This is my very last job now! Cheers

Mitch, I had a look at those but they are the wrong size. I know i could glue them on or what-ever but I need uniformity with the existing ones I have on the car. Also, thank you to the two people who offered to send me some. PM sent!

I need four plastic nut covers to fit 17mm bolt heads. I know I can buy them online but I don't need a full pack of them. I can either send you some beer tokens in return or I can send you some cable ties and hot melt edge trim. Thanks.

Writing sold as seen on any receipt is just a waste of ink! A private seller asumes no responibility for the condition of the vehicle. It is up to the buyer to be happy to part with his cash and arrange to have any mechanical inspection carried out. A trader on the other hand, must inform the private buyer of any known mechanical issues, if, the buyer asks them.