steve in stockport

Cheers Phil, hopefully I'll get down to join the group.

Are there any times for the run out?

I can't make the weekend, niece's 18th birthday on the Friday night and working on the Sunday but wouldn't mind tagging along for the run if it's the Saturday afternoon/evening and my hangover has subsided.

Is the run open to all or limited to those attended for the weekend? If the weather stays dry all week the ford at the Bently Brook should be passable for a mass splash.

What dash gauges are you actually using?

If it's the Sierra clocks they don't require an additional voltage stabiliser. Some of the Smiths gauges, usually fuel and temperature, require the stabiliser to stop them fluctuating with voltage changes.

It didn't smell too bad when I opened it up, but the oil is horrible black and gets everywhere.

When it all goes back together I'm going to do a cheat on the EGR valve. The ECU expects to see a set amount of air either through the air flow meter or the air flow meter and the EGR valve, so if I just block the valve off it will throw up a fault and go into limp mode. So to fool the ECU you block the feed from the manifold and then cut the pipe to the EGR valve and fit one of the aftermarket crankcase breathers and then when the valve opens it draws in clean fresh air instead of exhaust fumes full of particulate, the ECU doesn't see a fault and hopefully a cleaner inlet tract.

I'm currently working on our Toyota Rav4 trying to cure what I thought was a blown head gasket, slight misfire at tickover and blowing oil from the filler cap.

The Toyota 2.2 D4D engine is apparently a piece of crap that Toyota aren't very proud of, in fact it's that bad that they were doing engine swaps under extended warranty up to 100,000 miles or seven years old for cylinder head gasket failure and as luck would have it ours is too old to qualify. They also insist that the engine and gearbox have to come out to do the job and want the best part of £1000 in labour fees just to get to the stage where they can say whats wrong.

So I set about having a go myself and the brief version is two of the diesel injectors were seized into the head and until they came out the cams couldn't come out which in turn meant the head bolts were inaccesible. And then the cold weather came and it all got put on the back burner. Fast forward to August and after not touching the car for months I have finally got the injectors out and the head is now off the car.

Only I don't think the head gasket has gone, I think this might have something to do with the problem

That is a tarry mixture of oil and exhaust particulate that is admitted via the exhaust gas recirculation valve and has filled the inlet manifold and ports to such an extent that the inlet valves in number 4 cylinder look like they are not seating properly, allowing blow by and causing the misfire. There's no sign of head gasket failure, no cross contamination of oil and water and no warping of head or block so I'm hoping a good clean up, new gaskets and a cheat on the EGR valve will see it back on the road.

This is what a bit of time and a lot of nasty chemicals gets you

Then comes the saga of ordering new gaskets. The head gasket comes in five different thicknesses and generic head gasket sets all seem to come with the wrong thickness and there doesn't appear to be a dedicated turbo gasket set either. So I've had to order a generic full engine set to get all the bits and pieces, a decent quality Elring head gasket of the correct thickness and a set of bolts all from different suppliers at the cost of £258 - which is still cheaper than Toyota want an engine set minus the head gasket and then the head gasket and the ten head bolts that they want £12 a piece for.

Hopefully it will be back up and running in the next couple of weeks, then there's the brakes that will all need looking at and the small matter of the MOT.

Jaimo, don't take this the wrong way but you're like a moth flitting from one bright light to another - pinto, zetec, pinto, duratec, weber, bike carbs, zetec, pinto bike carbs pinto, edis, zetec, duratec....

My advice to you would be to build up the engine you got off Keith, stick with the weber and get it in the car and running properly, put the fast road cam in if you want but that will need better fuelling and exhaust and if you're dead set on fitting a zetec you can still use the car and gain a bit mechanicing experience while you do a bit more research, saving and preparing.

Pinto to pinto swap with what you have will be easy and cost very little, pinto to zetec is obviously more involved and unless you get very lucky on second hand parts is going to cost considerably more to do the job halfway properly.

MK do the grid system too, probably a bit more expensive but if it lasts anything like the double pole switch I changed for my mum last year that finally packed up after 20 years it's worth paying the extra

It's some fancy new broadband system that they are using to send MOT info to the central computer that keeps dropping out.

Had my MOT at 1pm on Monday and the system was offline until 11.30am, the garage were about to ring me and tell me not to bother coming when it all came back on line.

Guess I was lucky as I got a test and a pass.

Popping and banging in the exhaust on over run and hesitation on pick sounds more like a fuelling issue to me. Have you had your carb/s set up properly or are you running on a best guestimate?

You've only changed two things so it's got to be one of them. Did you check the pick up pipe for leaks or blockages before fitting? Did the gasket/seal on the pick up go back on properly?

Are you sure you can use this manifold, won't your wings be in the way too or are you planning on fitting cycle wings?

No you'd only get the number wrong, it's 326 lol

That's Kevin and Gayle's reg- no wonder you gave up being area sec when you don't know your members reg numbers!!

A pass for me too yesterday, just an advisory for a cracked front number plate after my excursion into the scenery a few weeks back.

The place I use only check for visible smoke and do the brakes out on the road.

Caterham or A Frame Engineering

have a look at your previous post on this same subject, I gave you an answer there.

Was going to link it in to this reply but it's far too complicated for me now since the forum upgrade

somethings not right there, firtst thing to do is get it back to Bogg Bros without touching anything, ask them what they did during the time they had it and take one of them out in it. A motor may well produce 150bhp on the rollers but how that feels and drives in the real world is a different matter.

You post earlier in the year about the engine bogging down and dying under load and it's probably that problem that hasn't properly been resolved.

I'd be wanting to see what they did to the ignition as that will have a major effect on driveability. Hopefully they wil have saved a copy of the ignition map that they used.

I managed to set my red top up with the cam belt one tooth out once, I noticed it felt a little bit flat compared to before the belt change but it was still fast and lively and if I hadn't driven it before I wouldn't have known any better.

But get it back to Boggs, they had it 11 weeks and charged £500 so they need to sort it.

Hi Mark, wiring up a set of gauges is relatively straight forward. You can have a look at mine later on this month at Tatton and I'll talk you through what I did.

the XE should have gone under your bonnet without needing to cut it, but seeing as you've already cut the bonnet you probably want to look at the Dax Rush bonnet bulge which should be big enough or you could do as these guys did here

I quite like the effect they got.

or just solder an earth wire to the body of the sender

Passes have arrived for the kit cars and I'll post them out soon.

They have not sent any passes for the non kits, so Mick and Pete I can only suggest that if you want a pass for the show that you apply as individual exhibitors by following the link at the beginning of this topic.

They did the same to Lee and Barry for the June show and I think it's down to the demand for passes from all the club's.

Paperwork all sent off, passes will be sent out once I recieve them, usually about a week before the event.

I'll take the windscreen please Ian.

I'm seriously considering going to the 24hr again next year. Have been looking at 1st tickets too, if possible I'm looking at bleu nord for camping as it's only 5 minutes from the main entrance, pits, museum etc

Where are your pump and swirl pot, under the bonnet?

If they're suffering like that when the temperature goes up just a few degrees I'd be thinking about relocating them to the back of the car and away from the under bonnet heat.

Swirl pot in the boot and the pumps where they might get a bit of airflow over them.