Foxy Smith

I know this sounds funny but check your alternator is securely bolted in place.

Thinforth, Ta for the photos, it just makes it worse!! I can't wait for an excuse to get my seven up north, my folks are up on the coast in Cullen now, some fantastic roads up there. Regards traffic, it's not bad down here, worst I've ever seen was getting out of Aberdeen airport at 4.30 on a work day 😬. All the best, Alan

Hey you two, stop it , you're making me feel homesick!!

As per Arnie use a viscous hydraulic fluid, Castrol Response. Also make sure you have the most recent slave piston and seals. As regards testing watch you don't blow the piston out of the bore, you'll have to restrain it somehow.

Anthony, Best diagram I have shows WP (white purple??) as feed and B (black) as ground, this is for post '93 Vx. Hope this helps. Alan

Remember you also have to allow for higher compression ratios in tuned seven engines this will enhance engine braking. You'll get the same effect in a n/a diesel engine.

If your Superlight has plaque it needs to see a dentist 😬

My physics teacher at high school way back then had a beautiful jaguar saloon car and a "hot" Austin A40 which looked completely standard. The A40 was used as a mobile test bed for all sorts of experiments and oneof these was water injection. To the best of my memory he used hypodermic needles inserted through the thickness of the head gasket. The water injection control was totally passive with non return valve in the lines. Metering the water was achieved by varying a restriction in the feed lines. I'm pretty sure he said that he did not feel there was a significant increase in performance but the full economy was astounding. Happy days!

Whilst not strictly an airbox I have built something that approximates. My car is a Vx Swindon with 45 DCOEs, the trumpets are longer than standard which means the much larger air filters really hang out in the breeze with the result the induction roar is horrendous. Over the winter I fabricated in 1.5mm aluminium sheet a shroud which is mounted to the back plates of the K+N filter bodies and scribed to fit the inside profile of the bonnet. Then in addition I have made a box, again in ally which is mounted on the bonnet over the filter opening with a forward facing aperture. It's not pretty but thanks to encouragement and demos courtesy of Metal Mickey I'm teaching mysely to gas weld ally sheet and so Mark II should be along shortly. Does it work? Well according to Mrs Smith it's still a bl**dy noisy car however for myself I can now hear the exhaust which I could'nt before (it's a nice quiet Raceco can) and i find myself driving in fourth gear because gearbox whine has become intrusive in other gears. I wouldn't make the claims that Arnie's making for his air box that's a different kettle of fish but I am confident the carbs are taking only cold external air and I feel that progression is a little smoother especially accelerating at motorway speeds. The reason for doing two part was that I did not want to enlarge the bonnet aperture and also I did not want to have to thread the bonnet over a fixed box because inevitablly the box would get scratched. Hope this helps. Alan

Bu**er, I just bought one of these.

Bu**er, I just bought one of these.

Wash your mouth out!!! 😬 You'll find that the can runs remarkably cool. Heat guard not needed.

Should be on ChitChat mate! 😬

Join the club. It is an annoying leak. My fitted o-ring seems to be of quite thin section is your new one thicker than it should be possibly??

Jimmy, I've had my Raceco can for a little over a year (or is it 2 yrs??) anyway ,like you I get the impression that it's due for a repack. Ammo recommended that I weigh the can and then check weigh on an intermittent basis. Typically though I've forgotten where I wrote down the original weight. I opened the can up a few weeks ago when I was investigating a rattle and my impression was that I had not lost any packing but it had been pushed up to the back end (accelerating too hard I suppose!) leaving an empty space of about 2-3inches at the front of the can, at the time I just teased it allback out again but I really need to get some more packing. I'm pretty sure Ammo said the packing is stuff called E-glass and I also think he said he can supply more as needed however I reckon its easily available. By the way I do think my exhaust has become noisier. Hope this all helps. Alan

AS far as I can see the Subaru line lock is not electric but mechanical, using a steel ball on inclined plane principal. The idea in the Subaru anyway is that facing up hill with the clutch engaged you can lock your brakes on, as you lift your foot off the clutch the brakes are released, so you don't need to use a handbrake for hill starts. This is a purely mechanical set up unless the very newest Subarus have gone electric.

Oliver, I kinda thought that the thermal inertia problem would be the limiting factor here. I was really looking for a solution to the problem without having to spend more money!! I will have access to a wide band lambda sensor soon so I'm hoping that will help, though to be honest I suspect all that it will do is make me want to go to 3D ecu.

Bill, When you say lean off 50 degrees, are you saying that by , in effect screwing in the "mixture" screw, you observe a drop in EGT and that would equate to a mix (AFR?) of 16:1? I was assuming leaner meant hotter and holes in pistons etc. Also if max EGT is at stoich what is a desirable AFR for idle and hence what is a desirable EGT relative to max temp? I will hopefully have access to wideband in the near future as a neighbour has one on order, from yourself I believe. Bilbo, If you reckon you can get cherry red headers at idle you would certainly have a mixture problem. What I did'nt say was that I observed the temperatures rise to the values quoted and then those temperatures were stable over a period of more than 10 minutes.

Michael, Pleased to hear you've sorted it out. Sorry did not reply as have been only intermittently on Blatchat. Yes extension nut is basically just hex bar drilled and tapped.

Anyone like to comment on the following? I generally find it hard to set up the idle screws on the carbs and to be honest in the past I have often resorted to 2.5 turns out is good enough leave it there. I have an infrared thermometer and with a bit of lateral thinking decided that it might be an idea to measure the exhaust header temps at prolonged idle thus giving an idea as to whether each cylinder was running lean or rich with regard to each other. Set up my own car this pm by conventional practice and once happy measured temps which gave 135/187/190/140 at 1/2/3/4 suggesting 1 and 4 were rich or 2 and 3 were lean?? On a friends car also set up carbs by conventional means all nicely balanced etc temps were 207/210/217/200 at 1/2/3/4 which tends to suggest a more even idle but overall more lean then neccesary?? Wide band lambda probe might be nice at this point. Would appreciate some comments on the validity of header tempswith regrd to setting up of carbs, anyone been here before?? Seem to remember that exhaust manifold temps were used as a guide to trim aircraft engine carbs in flight. Any opinions appreciated. Alan

Concur with Mark, two free plugs Rear o/s but I'm also '92 car.

Michael, I have the same set up as you and have had in the past similar experiences. Black crap accumulating in the fluid to the point that the non-return valve on the master cylinder seized, then the usual problems with the slave O-rings. Currently with a new master cylinder and the new version of the slave actuator and touch wood everything is OK. Arnie Webb told me that he had been advised by somebody that Castrol Response Dot4 is the correct fluid for this system as it has a higher viscosity. By co-incidence I had started using this fluid and it does seem to be better and last time I checked there was no black crap. Regarding your problem changing gear it sounds as if your not getting full movement of the CRB. Re bleed?? I find the easibleed works well for doing the clutch. When I had problems with the master cylinder I found that when the engine was cold I could'nt change gear as it warmed up the problem diminished, presumably heating the air fluid mixture pressurised the system to the point that it worked again. Fustrating problem though, I sympathise.

Helicoil or similar would be my choice. Real Helicoil kit is quite pricey but local garage should be able to put you in touch with someone with the kit. Alternative is helicoil look alike kits, I'm sure I've seen inexpensive basic kit somewhere try Cromwell Tools or J+L Industrial supplies, both on line. www Cromwell-tools.co.uk don't know the other one

Just another thought, how about disabling the fueling and use an ether spray like Easy Start down 1 cylinder intake only, can mess about with the HT until you get a bang on that cylinder! Should help to logic check the set up whilst removing other variables like overfuelling and foul plugs.

I know the square root of B all about ECUs but would there be any mileage in dialling out the overfuelling until you get the ignition sequence worked out? Secondly I can't see why you can't gradually advance the ignition, surely the worst that will happen is you'll get to a point where it will kick back??