garybee

Bricol - Yours may not have any depending on what's been done. You could have a crank and pulley that have been accurately keywayed during a (non Rover) engine build. The cam locking tool doesn't solve this issue for you I'm afraid. I have a K-series in the row of engines that are in my garage at the moment. I'll make a quick video tomorrow to show how much movement there is.

You can still do that on a K. You cut it in half with the engine running and top cover removed. Still needs the crank pulley removing though so no use to the OP as he doesn't know if the keyway has been shimmed. I've done it that way on cars when I'm changing the belt due to age but know the tensioners/anything else on the belt you might want to change haven't been on for many miles. Got to be careful to keep your Stanley knife held straight though.

Bricol and Wrightpayne are both right in that there are times when you do and don't need to time the cams after removing the crank pulley. With that spec of engine it will likely have been assembled with enough care that the slop in a standard crank pulley/key is enough to throw your timing out. Some builders however will shim the pulley keyway so that there is no movement. If that has been done then you do not need to time the cams so long as you reassemble the pulley/shim/keyway the same as it came apart. So the answer for your engine specifically is that it depends what you find when you undo/remove the crank pulley. Did that make sense?

Yep, loads of room. Do you have an apollo tank? Only ask as one of the hoses will need removing if so. I would suggest marking the pulleys and old belt with tippex then transferring the marks to your new belt. Can't get it wrong that way. I wouldn't bother changing the tensioner if I was only doing it on age, not mileage. edit: What spec is the engine? Is it EU2 or EU3, VVC or fixed timing, wet sump or dry etc?

Presuming it's fuel injected as I'd add a couple of extra steps for carb's. I'd syphon the fuel out if it's that old and fill with fresh. A check of the rest of the fluids, tyre pressures, a couple of big stamps on the brake pedal, check the fuel hoses for cracking, unplug the injectors and spin it on the starter a few times, injectors connected and start it up. I'd podge the brakes a few times as I pulled away, you'll know if they don't work. I think you can make this far harder than it needs to be.

I wouldn't mention it unless it had already been brought up... It is worth noting that there is currently a bill in parliament to change the penalty for illegal plates from a minor fine to a big fine with points on licence. Nobody opposed it at the first reading.

That's how I have mine. During the winter I put a charger on the battery a couple of times but it always switches to 'charged' after a couple of minutes. That is with a (£30, lawnmower spec.) gel battery though which has a lower rate of discharge than wet lead acid. I think that battery's been in about 7 or 8 years now. I never bother arming the immobiliser. The only downside to this is that as it never gets armed/disarmed you may get caught out by a flat fob battery at some point but I suppose this could happen anyway. I need to get round to learning how revilla's (very kindly shared) ECU programming tool works and just disable it. I have always had a suspicion that you could leave the keys for a 7 on the bonnet and nobody would be able to drive it away anyway. Particularly so with a cut-off fitted.

May as well just stuff a load of £20 notes in there! You lot just throw money around don't you!

I use the same type as Andy has shown above but still had a huge fight with a Sigma filter recently due to it being insanely tight. I've found that a band of cardboard or similar between the filter and band makes a huge difference and helps the steel band grip the smooth filter can.

I'd be stripping the brakes and cleaning all the sliding parts to ensure the pads/pistons move freely.

That must be a relief

I think you've missed my point. What I was suggesting was to swap the fronts of one on to the rear of the other to make the string method easier.

Reply to #27 - Just take a few minutes to measure it. Always better than trusting either what someone else tells you or what's in a manual. Also to make the setup easier...don't you have 2 sevens? That's 2 sets of front wheels.

If you've changed the rake you've certainly changed the castor. That one is a given, the others less so. Are you happy with the weight and sensitivity of the steering? If so there's no need to touch castor.

I wrote a quick excel spreadsheet (well, the open office version because I'm cheap, the string should have told you that though) that takes the track difference into account. You just measure between the string and the tyre chine (or between the string and a straight edge held on the chines for toe in) and it spits out the toe measurement. So long as you understand trig' it's easy enough. You can make this harder and add equipment but there's no need to. Edit: you need to know/input the total width across the front and rear axle of course.

If you stretch a piece of string across the face of both wheels on one side of the car then it will contact each tyre at two points. If not then the wheel must be angled (toe in or out). If that piece of string has elastic keeping it tensioned then you can adjust the toe without constantly re-tensioning the string. Does that make sense?

I have a couple of sections of nylon cord with a strong piece of elastic in the middle. When hooked onto the car inboard of the front and rear wheels they stretch tight across the tyres and make toe alterations a very quick exercise. Much easier than setting up a string box around the car.

If you search eBay for 1374179 that's the part number for a Ford lifting bracket. They're only £4 each and a good shape for attaching to most engines. If you buy a couple of those you'll have no trouble with lifting points. I'd loan you a couple but by the time we'd mailed them back and forth it'd be more expensive than just buying them. I'd suggest removing the exhaust manifold to give yourself more room and reduce the chance of damaging the side skin. Edit: I don't remove anything like as much as the fella' above. That's a very safe way of doing it though.

OP - with no fuel pressure sensor on the K-series you're obviously not going to be able to see what's happening via the ECU. As yours is an EU3 car however it is OBD2 compatible which makes basic data logging easy and you can look for indirect effects of the cause of your misfire. If you can make it happen whilst looking at the lambda reading that will show you if the exhaust is lean or rich when it happens. If it's rich then you're losing spark because of an ignition fault. If it's lean then you're losing fuel pressure. You then need to find the cause still but you won't waste time guessing if it's an ignition or fueling fault.

John, my apologies for the above misunderstanding. My patience for blatchat has been worn thin by by a handful of unpleasant individuals. I had wrongly lumped you in with them. My error entirely.

Grumpy and unnecessary comment removed.

It is part of the answer to the question about swirl pots. Which was asked here.

Nothing heard, I'll list it on ebay later in the week if you still want one.

Haha, understood. In which case I'm sure that not letting the fuel drop too low will mean you'll be absolutely fine.

Scott has the gist of it above. If your return line from the fuel rail goes directly to the fuel tank then as soon as the fuel pump 'pick up' isn't submerged you lose pressure at the injectors. With a swirl pot you have a low pressure pump supplying the pot then the high pressure pump takes it's supply from there. The return from the fuel rail then goes to the swirl pot instead of the tank. That way if the pick up in the fuel tank is not submerged the circulating fuel in the front half of the system ensures there is always sufficient pressure at the rail/injectors. It isn't required in a carb' car as the float bowls give you a reserve that achieves the same thing. A well designed injection fuel tank will often have a 'sump' that the pump sits in. I'm not criticising the way your system is designed here, an alternative method may well have been used when it was converted. It'd be interesting to know what happens on track though.