Nick Green

Must admit it sounds more like the arm has come adrift, to me too. Having said that, if you are detaching engine from bellhousing to change/refit the arm, you may as well change the CRB while you are at it. Sod's Law means it will fail within 1k miles if you don't.

You could try an extra shim on each front A-frame mount. It worked for me, but YMMV.

Try moving the jubilee clip holding the filter on, round by 90 degrees say, then gradually tighten it up, feeling how the butterfly closes as you are doing it. It should be able to come down to fully closed smoothly, with no binding. The jubilee clip does not pull evenly, so swivelling it round can alter the shape of the plastic TB when it is retightened. Costs nothing to try, anyway.

This all looks pretty normal to me. I went to a fair bit of effort to clean out the bell housing DS tank, but I still got that sort of stuff the first time I took the blue plate off. The oil is obviously better at flushing this sort of stuff out of the nooks and crannies, then water or compressed air is. I don't get it any more. The bell housing has various bits of maching done to it: mounting face for conning tower/top cap, mounting face for blue plate, mounting faces of bell housing to engine and gearbox, tapping of several holes. This must be where it comes from. Those bits of metal can't come from the engine sump as they'd have had to pass through the gauze filter at the entrance to the scavenge pipe. No chance. Don't worry. Edited by - Nick Green on 29 Jun 2005 10:45:59

The Emerald does mention that having a good idle airflow helps the ign advance idle stab to work better. Besides, what's wrong with clean carpets ?

My engine (on plenum and single TB) doesn't start smartly from cold; it sort of ambles into life, so your comments might apply. However, when hot, if it isn't "locked up" in the way Myles describes, it starts very smartly... Myles, are you running a plenum and single TB ? If so, try resetting the hot idle (switch off the idle correction using advance first) with a little more idle speed on the throttle screw, then switch the ign advance idle corr back on, with an appropriate target idle speed in the relevant table. Don't forget to do the throttle pot recal. Could well be blind leading the blind, but it seems to have improved things on my car, wrt almost stalling on clutch dipping. If you are using separate TBs...you could try it anyway! Edited by - Nick Green on 23 Jun 2005 15:16:22

According to the Emerald manual, when cranking, the ignition map is completely ignored and the startup advance value in the little box below the map, is used. The map is used once the rpm increases above 500. The ignition values on load site 0, below 1k rpm, are therefore only really there to stop the engine stalling. Aren't they ?

Thanks Myles. Yes, I'd figured out the bolt/stud shortening bit, but thanks for mentioning it JIC Hadn't thought about moving the stud to the bottom though..... I've lagged the 3 & 4 primaries already. Though it is dropping off due to my current meddlings. Cheers, Nick.

Quick question to folks who've fitted Brises to Ks, from my fumblings about last night, I believe the metal I have to remove is a lump with a hole in it (untapped) that sticks out just in front of the lower part of the large bellhousing gap the starter motor covers ? Does that make sense ? It fouls the extension piece the solenoid is attached to, I believe. It seems a snug fit against the block, and I'm hoping nothing has to be removed there... Ta Nick.

ISTR the fuel filter I took off my car last year, had some sort of extension nut thingy in the top IIRC... Ended up getting a new J pipe thingy from CC, to replace the original squared off job and extension nut, and a filter for a 214 (not 25) from Halfrauds. Might be able to look up the part number tonight... The full story is a bit more involved than that, with different ends on different Rover-type filters, a non-sealing joint and a bit of swearing but the solution wasn't that tricky in the end.

Hi Mike. The starter I have is a Marelli-type, not a geared job... Will investigate geared alternatives, as others have already done. Been through two Magnetons, so not keen to go there though. Ric, From what I can see, the fuel cut off works *above* the revs you specify. I think it is 2k in my car. I was below that level all through my speed bump negotiation. The stalling isn't really the issue; it is the non-starting engine. BOSS has emailed me off list with the same info as Mr Bees... Looks like a geared starter is required... Thanks all and have a good weekend. Nick.

Myles, Difficult to do the sound effect in an email, but it was not K-click. Got that the first time 5 years ago. Just sounds like a very slowly turning engine, Just a "Wu.." sound. When the engine stalled (not a loose wire, but my foot parting company from the throttle at the wrong moment), I tried to restart the engine 2 or 3 times immediately. No dice. Then got the push as descibed above and the sequence of events occurred as fast as you might imagine if carrying them out yourself. I doubt 5 minutes were involved. (Had the laptop in the car with me.) Once the engine was running and I'd spent some time looking at the Live Adjustments page to give the impression I knew what I was doing, I even tempted fate and stopped and restarted the engine. No problems at all. Not the battery then. Could do with the engine not "seizing" like that though. Lucky I wasn't on a busy roundabout or junction. Do any Brise users experience slow turning over of their engines when they (the engines) are hot ?

Anyone got any ideas why, after a blat down a dual carriageway, and a light jolt over a speed bump where I work, which caused my foot to come momentarily off the throttle and allow the engine to stall, it then refuses to even turn over, until it had been pushed into a nearby parking space, the bonnet removed, and a laptop connected to the Emerald, just to feel like I was doing something ? At this point, the battery is showing 12.8V. I turn the key again, the volts drop to about 8.9 momentarily and the thing, cranking away merrily now, bursts back into life. The Odyssey battery was quite warm to the touch and ISTR something in the battery blurb about not letting it get warm... Perhaps removing the bonnet allowed it to cool a bit ? Would something geared and Brise help with hot cranking ? The engine is a standard 1.8 with 270 cams & verniers, a Trophy TB and an Emerald. I've also noticed (in recent messings about) that a deliberately stalled engine takes more cranking to restart than a properly stopped (turning off the ignition) engine. Any ideas why this should be so ? Ta, Nick.

I did a slightly different approach from John V's extra spring method, and shortened the existing single spring to get the preload, attempting to measure it by pulling with a spring balance and applying a bit of trigonometry. The first INA bearing on my car lasted about 9k miles. This was replaced with an identical INA bearing. Don't know country of manufacture of either bearing. Before learning of the preload requirement, I disconnected the pedal spring altogether for the 2nd CRB, and ran with no preload at all for about 5k miles. I could put my foot under the clutch pedal and lift the CRB clear of the clutch fingers. This is a greater mileage than a number of the failure examples quoted in this thread alone. Then I put the shortened spring back on, tensioned as accurately as I could manage. This same CRB has now done around 12k miles total. Regulars of the se7ens list from around 1998/1999 would have seen plenty of emails on there about CRB failures.

It is also possible to put the lower bush in from the top of the tube. Line up the lugs, rubber lube, get it in and drift it down the steering column tube using a suitable socket and extension bar. (Probably helps that the extension bar in my socket set has a screwdriver-like handle at the top, giving more surface area to whack. The socket wrench fits in the top of the handle...) Removing the lower column is not a big deal. Undo a bolt where it meets the rack and unhitch it. The hole in the wedge is large, so there is enough room to manipulate everything.

Pipercross do their own cleaning fluid, which doesn't smell like petrol, and their own filter oil. As I understand it, a foam filter isn't much use without the oil. The oil is what traps the dust. The usual filter-selling emporia can supply the means to clean them.

QED too

Hazzer, I've got no idea on the xflow water level, I'm afraid; not my engine. For those door strap bolts, M5 seems to ring a bell. If you want the original plastic ones, try Caterham or Oxted Trimming on 01883 712112 (from LF). I haven't paid much attention to mine recently, but I think I replaced them with metal bolts anyway. As for the wing bolts, again don't know, as I have cycle wings, but Caterham Parts can probably help. HTH.

Are these still available ? If so, where are you ?

Neil Cavanagh, I think I need to add a small caveat to your comments. You talk of TDs in Wales. I am presuming you mean Llandow here. In that case I would agree that the wet grip of 32Rs is very good, though I think that is more down to the tarmac at Llandow. I've done wet sprints at Castle Combe and part-worn 32Rs gave me no confidence at all, and that was avoiding the puddles. If you mean elsewhere in Wales, ignore comments above. Am surprised to hear that CR500s might not be much cop in the wet. I thought that was what they were particularly good at. In fact, given my Combe experience above, I'm thinking of getting CR500s as track/sprint tyres, as it seems like 50% of the sprints I do seem to be wet at some time, and I'd like better grip in those conditions. I don't feel I'm good enough such that the extra second or so of dry track performance available from 32R/48Rs will make that much difference to me. Only one way to find out...

I've seen set ups 1 and 2 above in action, as well as 4. All seemed to work ok. There are various views on whether running the engine in a vacuum as per 4 is a good idea, as it can stress external seals and affect oil scavenging. Though others say oil scavenging (from the head, that is) is improved with the engine in vacuum. I don't think there is a "right" answer... There is also option 5, or perhaps it should be called 2a. This is: pipe from tank tower to catch tank, filter (like a mini K&N) on one of the cam cover vents, block off the other cam cover vent. This is because the cam cover vents tend to suck rather than blow. Edited by - Nick Green on 12 Jan 2005 10:05:40

Thanks.

So just to clarify then, the stuff in this article about the thermostat position change (including the statement about Freelander warranty claims dropping to knack all since adoption of different thermostat in original position) and the use of steel dowels, reducing (ok the author says eliminating, or words to that effect) HG failure, never mind the stuff about quality of after market components, is all bollox then ? He claims to have checked it with Rover engineers. I have no way of knowing whether that is true or not. Also claims (on the exige list) to be "good friends" with DVA and Dave Walker. One of those at least could be easy to check, perhaps might provide a character reference ? (If such debate occurs somewhere in that Exige thread, I haven't got to it yet.) Perhaps some indication of where SE's presumptions and statements are incorrect, might provide enlightenment for us mere mortals ? Or will I get that if I persevere with the Exige thread ?

Mick, I'd say the article linked to at the top of this thread is the full article. BTW, the article at the top makes references to the magazine in which it is published. Which magazine is this ? Does anybody know ? There is no mention of publication date either.

For the record, the article in Racecar Engineering is a much editted down version of the article available from V7's link.