Paul Deslandes

Flat floor for suspension setup. Then you could hire it out to those whose floor is less than flat! Easy to do when building. Less so later on. And a pit.............. Oh for a pit!

Paul, yes they are in good nick although they would benefit from a coat or two of Hammerite. Bottom swivle bearings and rubber bushes are ok. Say £50 the lot? Paul

Its easy to do but you need to buy (or borrow) a special spanner for turning the water pump. If you are near Guildford you are welcome to borrow mine, otherwise Halfords (I think) or Camberly Auto Factors have them.

Gone widetrack so have standard top and bottom wishbones plus 18mm arb for a good home. All straight. Ex 1995 de Dion Vauxhall. Prefer buyer collects (near Guildford, Surrey). Offers?

Gone widetrack so have standard top and bottom wishbones plus 18mm arb for a good home. All straight. Ex 1995 de Dion. Prefer buyer collects (near Guildford, Surrey). Offers?

Gone widetrack so have standard top and bottom wishbones plus 18mm arb for a good home. All straight. Prefer buyer collects (near Guildford, Surrey). Offers?

I bought the Terrtrip about 4 years ago for a drive down to Le Mans and have used it many times since. Frankly. with a straight cut Quaiffe box (very noisy) it makes the difference between a comfortable ride and severe noise fatigue after a few hours. And, as has been said, you can communicate with your passenger at normal voice levels. I tried to hook it up to my mobile phone but, in spite of shielding, ferrite clamps on the cables etc., you get the most awful breakthrough from the phone. I guess the Peltor unit is designed properly with this in mind so doesn't have the problem. Wouldn't leave home without one, except on my own or on short drives.

Having located a set of new syncro rings for the Type 9, I am about to rebuild the box, primarily required to fix the lost syncro on 4th gear but will be replacing all syncro rings. As far as I can tell this job requires virtually a complete strip-down so are there any end-float settings etc that should be checked as it goes back together? I believe that at least one circlip thickness can affect the end-float between the input shaft and the mainshaft. When I drained the oil it came out with a rather disturbing bronze tinge to it, presumably particles from the offending ring !! The box has Quaife close ratio straight cut pro box inerds. Any advice gratefully received.

The frothy oil theory might also explain why some oils seem better than others. ie they are more or less inclined to froth. As a matter of interest John. how did you install the Apollo tank? Is it line with an external filter bowl, similar to a cooler fit but with the tank instead of the cooler? I find this subject quite interesting because I had some really scary moments with my car on the track and I know others have had the same problem. If we know the correct explanation we can advise accordingly!!

That's very interesting John 'cos I think that may bear out my theory that lack of oil, or rather, lots of it in the wrong place, may be the cause rather than temperature. The interesting thing was that the pressure would drop after a moderate period of high sustained revs, e.g. Lavant straight at Goodwood, and return to normal very quickly after slowing down. Having since fitted an oil temp gauge it is obvious that the oil temperature takes far longer to cool down than would account for the rapid recovery in pressure. Paul, I would try John's tank method first, or fit an oil temp gauge to be sure that temp is the real problem, before lashing out on a cooler. I know there are lots of people out there who have never had this problem, even though they drive extremely hard. I wonder what the variability of the engines is to cause this.

Paul Think Automotive in Isleworth have everything including the cooler, external cartridge oil filter, sandwich plates, temperature takeoff if needed, hoses etc. I can't remember the prices but as I did the job three years ago they have probably changed anyway. Best is to look at their website www.thinkauto.com. I mounted my cooler in front of the rad using ally brackets that I made up and bolt onto the radiator av mounts. Had to use a slightly shorter av mount to avoid fouling the grill. Other wise pretty easy to fit apart from the filter which was a b....r! If you decide to go ahead email me at pauldeslan@aol.com and I will email you some digi pics of my installation.

4th gear syncro has failed (I assume) and I am getting tired of the graunching noises on my '95 16v VX. Should I replace the syncro rings for all gears or just the one that's gone. Are these available from normal Ford dealers and if so does anyone know the origin or the part number. All advice gratefully received. Its got Quaife inerds but I don't want to go to steel rings 'cos of the requirement to lap regularly.

I had serious low oil pressure problems on my 16v VX on the track until I fitted a cooler. All the experts (!!!) said it wasn't necessary but it made the difference between 60psi and 20psi-and-falling. If the problem wasn't temperature it could be that the extra capacity of the cooler and external oil filter improved the availability of oil to the engine which runs on wet sump with foam insert. Either way, the cooler did the trick and no more anxious moments!!

If you live anywhere near Guildford or Chalfont St Peter where I work you can borrow my 300 ft lb wrench and socket to do the rear hub nuts. It needs two of you though, one to work the wrench and the other to stand on the brakes! I would think that 3 ft lbs is only a bit more than finger tight. Think of hanging a 3 lb weight on the end of a 1 ft spanner.

Anyone know where I can get large bag of basalt wadding for repackable silencer at a sensible price? Merlin at Castle Combe want daft money. Also, any views and experience (go on, you must have some!!) on the best material for effective silencing and the best method for packing, e.g. how hard should you tamp it down. I can get my 2.0l VX down to 98dB but it doesn't last a whole track day so I have either to repack or resort to a secondary mufler stuck on the end.

...or rather odometer calibration. Having changed from 3.92 to 4.1 diff the odo reading is even further out of whack than before. Wouldn't be a problem except it knocks my limited mileage insurance out by about 10% unfavourably. Other than doing the obvious, can I get it recalibrated at a reasonable price in the south.

All you need to do is have a means of turning the piston whilst pushing it in. Hence the suggestions of using snipes or circlip pliers. If you try to just push the piston in without turning it you'll never do it. The tool probably makes it a bit easier but how often will you use it?

Well I had a real problem. I tried all of Steve Broughton's (SBDev)mods, modified cam chest cover gallery plate, slotted the oil pick up pipe to stop it sucking down onto the sump, new oil pump impeller, new oil pressure relief valve with extra spacers etc. AND tried different oil grades and filters. Arnie you may be right and there is something else wrong but it was the oil cooler that fixed the problem for me. Incidently it was the running oil pressure that was going down to 25 and fading. Interestingly it would take less than about 20 to 30 seconds of idling for the pressure to come back up which would seem hardly long enough for the oil to cool down. The only other explanation I thought of and didn't explore was that the oil was all going 'somewhere' at high revs, e.g. the cam chest, and then draining down after a short time once the revs had dropped. Could be a faulty drain valve back down to the sump. If this was the case though I would have expected a lot more oil going into the catch tank, which it didn't. Incidentally, the 16v Astra apparently did have a cooler on some versions! So don't panic, but if you do have a problem the oil cooler worked for me and is a lot cheaper than going dry sump. Paul

If you're going to fit a 2.0l Vauxhall and go sprinting or on track days for goodness sake fit an oil cooler otherwise you'll have potentially terminal oil pressure problems. Two laps of Goodwood and its down below 25psi from 60 normal! Fit the cooler to the front of the radiator. You can get all the Mocal bits from Think Automotive in Isleworth. Enjoy!

Hi Rob They're British Racing Green (hence BRG). £50 or make me an offer. You'll need to collect them as they're a bit big to post! I'm near Guildford Surrey.

Pair brg clamshells c/w brackets for sale. Reasonably good condition. pauldeslan@aol.com or 07768 917487. near Guildford, Surrey