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Hi Charlie, Try www.classicfabs.co.uk 01465 710500 he is based in Girvan and builds SS manifolds for classic car restorers etc. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Hi Graham, Did you trace the problem? My Super Sprint aw has suddenly started showing the same symptoms. Plus astrong smell of fuel, but I think this is due to the misfire. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks Blats, Walking boots are close to hand, so shall try the Black's water proofer first. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Can any one recommend a sealant for my S3 hood? Heavy rain finds its way through the stitch holes along the top. Thanks I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

The main thing when faced with a fire is not to panic. Always switch off any fuel pump, distance yourself from immediate harm, then assess the situation. Flames are dramatic, but they mostly consist of vapours caused by heat evaporation, and not the fabric of your pride and joy. Use your extinguisher to go to the base of the flame, and you will be surprised how quickly you will put the fire out. Dry powder is by far the best extinguishent, hence it is used by all fire marshals for "knock down" to put out the flames. They may then follow up with foam to cool/seal the fire source. I had a fire at 80mph when the nut came loose on my front Weber. I switched off, braked sensibly and then used my standard issue CC extinguisher. Result? burnt/ deformed bonnet and some serious scorching of the loom, but I was able to drive home. Yes the powder was a pig to wash off, but at least I still have a car to clean. My advice after 20+ years as a track marshal, fit a plumbed-in system if you are racing or have a super high pressure injection system, otherwise a good 1kg dry powder extinguisher from Halfords will sort most problems. And what about your raod car? Of the seven people who stopped to gape/help me, none carried an extinguisher in their "sensible" cars! I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Three small items I always carry: Disposable gloves- great when having to deal with oil leaks etc Savlon iodine spray- perfect for drying burns, calming insect bites, disinfecting cuts. "Waiters Friend" - combined penknife, corkscrew, bottle opener I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Hi Steve, I did this on my 96 S3. Assuming you are on standard road springs you will be able to replace the rears with some ingenuity and a little brute force. I did it my kneeling over the upright unit and compressing the spring by means of large screw drivers, and simply sliding the spring cap off. The fronts were a different problem, my springs were so tightly coiled I could not get any form of spring compressor in between them. In the end I took the fronts to my local engineering shop who made a sleeve with two bolts protuding inwards to fit over the unit and then used an hydraulic press. Far safer and I guess the only way for uprated fronts. Good luck I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks all. Useful suggestions and a lot to work on. The thermostat tower did show stains at the beginning, but not since I renewed the cap. Have also had a suggestion fom Steve to pressure test the system and see which way pressure goes with the engine running. I definately think the leak is pressure related, because curiously the water loss is about the same irrespective of tthe distance I drive be it 20 miles or 70 miles Cheers I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Can somebody please solve this mystery for me. I have been losing water- about a pint for every 100 miles from my 1700 Super Sprint. I found stains on the thermostat "tower" and replaced the radiator cap and gasket, then found the rad was leaking so replaced it and the hoses (thanks Redline). I did all of this with the front up on axle stands and have used an 40:60 antifreeze/water mix. I have also tightened all of the jubilee clips and cleaned the entire engine bay. I have since done three blats, in total about 150 miles and the water continued to disappear during each run. The engine runs really well, the running temeperature is just a few degrees higher than it used to be. (The new rad is slightly smaller than the old one, but I have put a new fan switch wich operates at 85C, in the rad, so this may be hiding something?). There is no water in the oil or V.V., the plugs are nice and brown and the exhaust pipe is the same sooty black as before. There are no visible signs of antifreeze staining anywhere on the car. This leaves me to think that maybe the radiator cap is not forming a perfect seal with the thermostat tower and that the leaking steam is being sucked out through the bonnet louvres? All suggestions welcome I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks Peter, I'm beginning to think the car was fiddled with whilst out of sight.OH! I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Andy, I had a similar but more spectacular occurance last night in my 1700Xflow. I was in traffic doing about 70 when the screen got wet, I looked down the bonnet to see what I thought was water pouring from the carb hole, then woosh the thing caught fire! I switched off immediately, cruised to a halt, and surprisingly calmly (for me!)got out and applied the dry powder extinguisher I carry. Fortunately the damage is slight, bonnet scorched but little else. The cause was the hollow fuel feed bolts on BOTH webers were less than finger tight! I simply tightened them up and carried on my way. The carbs were serviced some 700 miles ago, so if the engine chappie had not tightened up the offending bolts at the time surely they would have come loose before now? Or is thie sort of thing yet something else I need to add to my daily check list? I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks Norman, Most useful. And apologies to all for misposting my question. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Only 12 days to go. Yippee! Does anybody have recommendations as to the best route south. I want to avoid paris and not spend too much time on the motorways. Thanks I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

I have been advised that my problem may lie with the tube holding the dipstick, which apparantly is often fitted incorrectly on Xflows. I am therefore going to drain the car down again, then refill it with the 3.3Ltrs the sump should hold and mark up the dip stick accordingly. The sump is the original fitment, not a shortened version. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks guys. A great help as ever. See you at Le Mans I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Changed the oil and filter in my S3 1700 supersprint. The build manual said capacity was 3.3litres. Duly drained sump and changed the filter. On filling up I put in 3.3 lts from my 4 lts oil can. No problem then? That is until I tried the dip stick and found the sump was way over full. To cut a long story short, I turned the engine over until 1 bar showed ( no plugs), allowed the oil two hours to settle but it was still over full. In the end I had to drain over half a litre to get the level on the dip stick down to full. Where did I go wrong? Importantly, I am taking it to Le mans (1200miles) should I fit an oil cooler? I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

I think you are right. On checking the plugs I found No.1 to be sooty black , whilst the others were OK. Also when reving it, No.1 exhaust remained black whilst others glowed. Any recommendations on best fuel filter to fit? I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Had my 1700 Super Sprint (twin 40s) set up on a rolling road recently and it has been running sweet as a nut with 138bhp at the wheels. Yesterday went for a blat and all was well until I got stuck in town where I spent most of time below 2500rpm in 2nd. Regaining the open road I found the beast would not pull cleanly on anything more than half throttle and not get past 5000rpm, misfiring all the way with some back firing It was almost as if it was on three cylinders but all four are live. Is this dirt in a jet or something? Suggestions please. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Guys, Thanks for your replies. I should give you a little more info. It is a 1996 Xflow Super Sprint with a mechanical pump. There is not and there is no sign of there ever being a breather pipe attached to the alloy tank. Secondly it has the old style lockable flyoff fuel cap. There is no SVA restrictor. I have already cut a notch out of the neck of the cap assembly in the hope of getting the delivery pipe further in, and it is successful, the entire "spout" of the filler entering the neck of the tank, but to no avail. That is why I think I have some sort of pressure problem. It looks like a pig of a job to weld a breather on to the tank. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

My local filling stations- BP, Esso, Asda, have all been recently upgraded with new style petrol dispensers, since when I am having one hellva job getting fuel into the beast. Either the pumps cut off due to back pressure or most of the fuel spills out of the filler. Any suggestions for overcoming this? Is there a way of fitting a breather pipe inside the rubber filler hose? As there does not appear to be a breather on the tank, what prevents it from collapsing under vacuum as the pump drains the fuel? Air leak around the filler cap? I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks all. CC rack it shall be.......together with string, bin bags and bungees. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Thanks all, I feel reassured. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Now I'm confused.... Having fitted an oil pressure warning light because my guage wasn't registering on plug free turnover (see last post: Start up oil pressure) everything seemed fine, until I took the beast for a shake down run. When the revs drop to about 700rpm the light (set at 20psi) comes on, it also did at about 2500 rpm when turning through a tight 90 left hand bend. In all cases the oil pressure gauge was showing at least 4 bar. The only thing I have noted about the guage is that it is very slow in moving from 2 to 4 bar on start up. Oil in the wet sump is at correct level, and this seems to be consistent behaviour rather than start up gremlins. Which shold I believe the guage or the light? I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

Having gone through this I know your concern. There is a reasonable amount on this subject in the archives. Provided that the dent is not interferring with the oil pump pick up, or flow there to, the cheapest approach would be to get a thickish plate plate welded over the bottom of your sump and then try where possible to avoid humps in the road. An oil pressure warning light might also be a useful accessory. I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.

I am planning to take the beast (1996 S3) over to the EU for two weeks, the CC luggage rack looks a little limited in capacity and utility. Does anyone know of an alternative suplier of such apparatus or has come up with a superior design I could copy/purchase? Thanks V I went to Santa Pod and my world changed forever.