Gordon C

Following on from Caterbram Jnr thread " Live axle brake shoes" i'm after a little advice myself. Removed my live axle for a new years visit to Road & Race Transmissions and whilst things are striped down i'll be replacing the rear brake shoes as a matter of course. Now then what should i put back in ?? 1/ Std shoe @ £15.........(look standard anyway) or 2/ EBC shoe @ £25 Anybody tried both and have any thoughts ?? I might be wrong here but when it comes to the old school shoe i really can't see there are going to be any performance gains with the dearer set. Right or wrong ?? Ital axle by the way with AP's on the front. _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62 Edited by - whoosh on 20 Dec 2009 09:47:40

There are some brake shoes available for Morris Ital drum brakes on ebay, prices seem to start around the £15 mark and rise to £25 for an EBC shoe. Worth a look. _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62

Yes, May 2002..... " Life in the old Cat yet" Unclefester, if you would like the LF mag let me know and i'll send it out to you. To add to the list above the K Series sits futher back than the xflow @ 8cm so the prop shaft will need shortening. _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62

Recently put in one of these gauges myself. Whilst i think there shorter 5ft line would fit i went for the slightly longer line @ 6 feet. There was more than enough not to struggle looking for that extra inch or two at final connection. All tie wrapped nicely in with out any sharp bends. Just a perfect fit _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62

Simon, it's yours Mail you some numbers now _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62

Free to a good home is a K series 1.6 high port head P/N LDF10233 This is one of the heads mentioned on the Dave Andrews website for K series engine tuning. http://kengine.dvapower.com/ Brief history of head Pal of mine gave me 1.6 Rover K series engine where the timing belt had snapped. Thoughts where to replace my xflow with this K engine. Anyway after some feelers where put out for costings on repairing a couple of nicks in the head, helicoil the striped spark plug hole and modify the head along with rebuilding the bottom end things where all getting rather expensive. To add to that Swap an xflow with a K series engine isn’t straight forward, more mods, more shopping, more expensive. Long and short of it. To expensive, to much hassle. After all the natural progression for an xflow is a Zetec. Way to go. So the heads free to anyone who wants it to modify. By the way Vulcan Engineering have had a look at this head and tell me it’s in pretty good shape. Never been skimmed before. Ideal second head for somebody ??? Prepared to keep this for a few weeks after that it will be taken to the dump. Let me know if your interested. Pick up only. M3 Jct 3 as a approx location. Photo 1 Photo 2 _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62

James, welcome to the madhouse. Yes Andrew pointed me in your direction. I'll send over a blatmail _________________________ Gordon. Morgan LeMans62

Lefty loosey. Righty tighty 😬 _________________________ Gordon.

Tried the cheaper foil style gasket, copper gaskets all to no avail. Turned to the Vulcan gasket with a light smear of sealer for good measure........Job done _________________________ Gordon.

Just plucking a few thoughts out of thin air as i haven't used RainX myself. Hows about trying........ Nilglass Meths LO30 LO30 by the way i use on a regular basis and can vouch for it's degreasing properties. Whether it works on the likes of RainX i don't know. Want a can ? Let me know. _________________________ Gordon. Edited by - Whoosh on 21 Oct 2009 21:09:03

Sure Simon and Guy wouldn't mind me copy some advice that was given on one of the other forums........ If you are modding your car and adding BHP or using it off road then consider your oil choice carefully as the stock manufacturers recommended oil will not give you the protection that your engine requires. A standard oil will not be thermally stable enough to cope with higher temperatures without "shearing" meaning that the oil will not give the same protection after a couple of thousand miles as it it when it was new. Let’s start with the fundamentals. An engine is a device for converting fuel into motive power. Car enthusiasts get so deep into the details they lose sight of this! To get more power, an engine must be modified such that it converts more fuel per minute into power than it did in standard form. To produce 6.6 million foot-pounds per minute of power (ie 200 BHP) a modern engine will burn about 0.5 litres of fuel per minute.(Equivalent to 18mpg at 120mph). So, to increase this output to 300BHP or 9.9 million foot-pounds per minute it must be modified to burn (in theory) 0.75 litres. However, fuel efficiency often goes out of the window when power is the only consideration, so the true fuel burn will be rather more than 0.75 litres/min. That’s the fundamental point, here’s the fundamental problem: Less than 30% of the fuel (assuming it’s petrol) is converted to all those foot-pounds. The rest is thrown away as waste heat. True, most of it goes down the exhaust, but over 10% has to be eliminated from the engine internals, and the first line of defence is the oil. More power means a bigger heat elimination problem. Every component runs hotter; For instance, piston crowns and rings will be running at 280-300C instead of a more normal 240-260C, so it is essential that the oil films on cylinder walls provide an efficient heat path to the block casting, and finally to the coolant. Any breakdown or carbonisation of the oil will restrict the heat transfer area, leading to serious overheating. A modern synthetic lubricant based on true temperature-resistant synthetics is essential for long-term reliability. At 250C+, a mineral or hydrocracked mineral oil, particularly a 5W/X or 10W/X grade, is surprisingly volatile, and an oil film around this temperature will be severely depleted by evaporation loss. Back in the 1970s the solution was to use a thick oil, typically 20W/50; in the late 1980s even 10W/60 grades were used. But in modern very high RPM engines with efficient high-delivery oil pumps thick oils waste power, and impede heat transfer in some situations. A light viscosity good synthetic formulated for severe competition use is the logical and intelligent choice for the 21st century. You must seriously consider a "true" synthetic for "shear stability" and the right level of protection. Petroleum oils tend to have low resistance to “shearing” because petroleum oils are made with light weight basestocks to begin with, they tend to burn off easily in high temperature conditions which causes deposit formation and oil consumption. As a result of excessive oil burning and susceptibility to shearing (as well as other factors) petroleum oils must be changed more frequently than synthetics. True synthetic oils (PAO’s and Esters) contain basically no waxy contamination to cause crystallization and oil thickening at cold temperatures. In addition, synthetic basestocks do not thin out very much as temperatures increase. So, pour point depressants are unnecessary and higher viscosity basestock fluids can be used which will still meet the "W" requirements for pumpability. Hence, little or no VI improver additive would need to be used to meet the sae 30, 40 or 50 classification while still meeting 0W or 5W requirements. The end result is that very little shearing occurs within true synthetic oils because they are not "propped up" with viscosity index improvers. There simply is no place to shear back to. In fact, this is easy to prove by just comparing synthetic and petroleum oils of the same grade. Of course, the obvious result is that your oil remains "in grade" for a much longer period of time for better engine protection and longer oil life. If you would like advice then please feel free to ask. Cheers Guy Basic Oil advice from Opie Oils When it comes to choosing oil for your car, this post may seem like going back to basics but we at OPIE OILS are constantly surprised by the amount of people who do not understand what is written on a bottle of oil and therefore have no idea of what they are buying or using. This article should help most car owners as a basic guide, for more detailed information you can always contact us at www.opieoils.co.uk and we will be more than happy to help you. So, to be blunt about the subject, if a bottle of oil does not contain the following basic information then DO NOT buy it look for something that does! 1) The purpose for which it is intended (i.e. Motor oil, Gear oil, ATF etc) 2) The viscosity (i.e. 10w-40, 5w-30 etc for Motor oils and 80w-90, 75w-90 etc for Gear oils) 3) The specifications that it meets (should contain API and/or ACEA ratings) 4) The OEM Approvals that it carries and the codes (i.e. MB229.5, VW504.00, FORD 913A, BMW LL04 etc) Ignore the marketing blurb on the label it is in many cases meaningless and we will explain later what statements you should treat with some skepticism. So, what does the above information mean and why is it important? THE BASICS All oils are intended for an application and in general are not interchangeable. You would not for example put an Automatic Transmission Oil or a Gear Oil in your engine! It is important to know what the oils intended purpose is. VISCOSITY Most oils on the shelves today are “Multigrades”, which simply means that the oil falls into 2 viscosity grades (i.e. 10w-40 etc) Multigrades were first developed some 50 years ago to avoid the old routine of using a thin oil in winter and a thicker oil in the summer. In a 10w-40 for example the 10w bit (W = winter, not weight or watt or anything else for that matter) simply means that the oil must have a certain maximum viscosity/flow at low temperature. The lower the “W” number the better the oils cold temperature/cold start performance. I.E. 5w is better than 10w etc The 40 in a 10w-40 simply means that the oil must fall within certain viscosity limits at 100 degC. This is a fixed limit and all oils that end in 40 must achieve these limits. Once again the lower the number the thinner the oil, a 30 oil is thinner than a 40 oil at 100 degC etc. Your handbook will specify whether a 30, 40 or 50 etc is required. SPECIFICATIONS Specifications are important as these indicate the performance of an oil and whether it has met or passed the latest tests or whether the formulation is effectively obsolete or out of date. There are two specifications that you should look for on any oil bottle and these are API (American Petroleum Institute) and ACEA (Association des Constructeurs Europeens d’Automobiles) all good oils should contain both of these and an understanding of what they mean is important. API This is the more basic of the two specs as it is split (for passenger cars) into two catagories. S = Petrol and C = Diesel, most oils carry both petrol (S) and diesel © specifications. The following table shows how up to date the specifications the oil are: PETROL SG - Introduced 1989 has much more active dispersant to combat black sludge. SH - Introduced 1993 has same engine tests as SG, but includes phosphorus limit 0.12%, together with control of foam, volatility and shear stability. SJ - Introduced 1996 has the same engine tests as SG/SH, but phosphorus limit 0.10% together with variation on volatility limits SL - Introduced 2001, all new engine tests reflective of modern engine designs meeting current emissions standards SM - Introduced November 2004, improved oxidation resistance, deposit protection and wear protection, also better low temperature performance over the life of the oil compared to previous categories. Note: All specifications prior to SL are now obsolete and although suitable for some older vehicles are more than 10 years old and do not provide the same level of performance or protection as the more up to date SL and SM specifications, so if you’ve a recent model, don’t bother. DIESEL CD - Introduced 1955, international standard for turbo diesel engine oils for many years, uses single cylinder test engine only CE - Introduced 1984, improved control of oil consumption, oil thickening, piston deposits and wear, uses additional multi cylinder test engines CF4 - Introduced 1990, further improvements in control of oil consumption and piston deposits, uses low emission test engine CF - Introduced 1994, modernised version of CD, reverts to single cylinder low emission test engine. Intended for certain indirect injection engines CF2 - Introduced 1994, defines effective control of cylinder deposits and ring face scuffing, intended for 2 stroke diesel engines CG4 - Introduced 1994, development of CF4 giving improved control of piston deposits, wear, oxidation stability and soot entrainment. Uses low sulphur diesel fuel in engine tests CH4 - Introduced 1998, development of CG4, giving further improvements in control of soot related wear and piston deposits, uses more comprehensive engine test program to include low and high sulphur fuels CI4 Introduced 2002, developed to meet 2004 emission standards, may be used where EGR ( exhaust gas recirculation ) systems are fitted and with fuel containing up to 0.5 % sulphur. May be used where API CD, CE, CF4, CG4 and CH4 oils are specified. Note: All specifications prior to CH4 are now obsolete and although suitable for some older vehicles are more than 10 years old and do not provide the same level of performance or protection as the more up to date CH4 & CI4 specifications. If you want a better more up to date oil specification then look for SL, SM, CH4, CI4 ACEA This is the European equivalent of API (US) and is more specific in what the performance of the oil actually is. A = Petrol, B = Diesel and C = Catalyst compatible or low SAPS (Sulphated Ash, Phosphorus and Sulphur). These specs are more commonly found on European oils and in many respects are more important than API for European Manufactured cars. Unlike API the ACEA specs are split into performance/application catagories as follows: A1 Fuel economy petrol A2 Standard performance level (now obsolete) A3 High performance and/or extended drain A4 Reserved for future use in certain direct injection engines A5 Combines A1 fuel economy with A3 performance B1 Fuel economy diesel B2 Standard performance level (now obsolete) B3 High performance and/or extended drain B4 For direct injection car diesel engines B5 Combines B1 fuel economy with B3/B4 performance C1-04 Petrol and Light duty Diesel engines, based on A5/B5-04 low SAPS, two way catalyst compatible. C2-04 Petrol and light duty Diesel engines, based on A5/B5-04 mid SAPS, two way catalyst compatible. C3-04 Petrol and light duty Diesel engines, based on A5/B5-04 mid SAPS, two way catalyst compatible, higher performance levels due to higher HTHS. Note: SAPS = Sulphated Ash, Phosphorous and Sulphur. Put simply, A3/B3, A5/B5 and C3 oils are the better quality, stay in grade performance oils. APPROVALS Many oils mention various Car Manufacturers on the bottle, the most common in the UK being VW, MB, BMW, Ford or Vauxhall but do not be misled into thinking that you are buying top quality oil because of this. Oil Companies send their oils to OEM’s for approval however some older specs are easily achieved and can be done so with the cheapest of mineral oils. Newer specifications are always more up to date and better quality/performance than the older ones. Some of the older OEM specifications are listed here and depending on the performance level of your car are best ignored if you are looking for a quality high performance oil: VW – 500.00, 501.00 and 505.00 Later specs like 503.00, 503.01, 506.00 are better performing more up to date oils but as far as VW is concerned even these have now been superseded by the latest VW504.00 and VW507.00 specifications. MB – 229.1, 229.30 Later specs like 229.31, 229.5, and 229.51 are better performing more up to date oils. BMW – LL98 Later specs like LL01 and the latest LL04 oils are better performing more up to date. FINALLY Above is the most accurate guidance we can give without going into too much depth however there is one final piece of advice regarding labelling. Certain statements are made on labels that are meaningless and just marketing hype; here are a few to avoid! Recommended for use where…………… May be used where the following specifications apply…………… Approved by………………………..(but with no qualification or specification) Recommended/Approved by (some famous person, these endorsements are paid for) Racing/Track formula (but with no supporting evidence) Also be wary of statements like “synthetic blend” if you are looking for a fully synthetic oil as this will merely be a semi-synthetic. Like everything in life, you get what you pay for. The cheaper the oil the cheaper the ingredients, lower the performance levels and older the specs it meets so beware! Cheers Guy and the www.opieoils.co.uk Team A lot to take in. I have asked for advice from both Simon and Guy in the past and they couldn't have been more helpful. Greg re your oil break down failure comment if you can't find the answer in that little lot do give chaps a shout. Like i said, most helpful. _________________________ Gordon. Edited by - Whoosh on 20 Oct 2009 22:12:50

Simon & Guy from Opie oil recommend to me 10w-40 or the 5w-40 for hard track use. Silkolene Pro S or the Motul 300v If you are not running excessive temps (130degC plus) use a good fully synthetic race 5w-40 or 10w-40 tops. You will get better bhp, mpg and overall protection. Ester based ones are the best types. Well since there suggestion i have been using the 10w-40 oil. Great oil pressure right through the operating range. No reason to change spec here. _________________________ Gordon.

Just spotted you as i looked back in mirrors a Red, full roll cage on a trailer, being towed by a white van. Ottershaw this morning. Me i was in the yellow. _________________________ Gordon.

Having had fluctuating pressure readings from the original sender i have just gone mechanical today. Popped over to Think automotivethis morning to pick up a gauge, pressure line and adaptor. Tad over £35 the lot. Plumbed in, leak check satis, job's a good'en _________________________ Gordon.

Hi Rob, First dibs if i may _________________________ Gordon.

Not a gimick. It works. Since i put one in the garage and one in the house i haven't seen sight or sound of a mouse. Pest Shield Try one out and see how you get on. Will say they sudjest it's instant. Em not so sure about that. Seemed to take a few weeks to really click in and when i installed the second one transformed the place. Nothing. Gone. _________________________ Gordon.

😬 _________________________ Gordon.

Have you checked the fluid level in the battery ? _________________________ Gordon.

Green/yellow stripe this morning about 0930 i'd guess. You gave me a big wave and a grin from ear to ear as i passed in the yellow 😬 Fine morning for it _________________________ Gordon.

If it wasn't so late i would have joined you. Looked like a bit of fun. Tim, hope to see you on the Pirbright bends sometime soon _________________________ Gordon.

Fleeting glimps of a Grey. Aeroscreen. Think you where wearing a helmet Just leaving the Gordons School roundabout. 20:00 hrs ish & did i also see you a week or so ago, some roundabout about the same time. Greasy roads with a little tail end action heading down the Red Road towards Frimley. _________________________ Gordon.

Hi and welcome There is a good article in the July edition of LF 2005 page 4~5 by Andy Belcher and Adrian Elkin....."Get to know your Se7en" All you need to know how to get your car off the ground. Jacks used, photographs and lined drawings. Pretty handy stuff. If you would like a copy i'll photocopy it out for you and send it on. Not working until Friday so please bare with me on that one. let me know if you'd like a copy. _________________________ Gordon.

Ultrafit Conforms to EN 352-2 H=33db M=28db L=25db SNR=32db Pretty good _________________________ Gordon.

These are what i use. here Very similar to the ER20 plug. John, i am supprised you don't find the ER20's much good. Rotate them a little as you put them in the ear you might find that there fit a little better. _________________________ Gordon.

At Uxbridge Autoshow yesterday a Red all looking lonesome parked next to a Noble. _________________________ Gordon.