Phil B

Boing

Steve, Try this link to Jenvey's website which gives a guide for TB sizing. 38mm TBs will set your max power at 184bhp according to their guidelines, 40mm will give you scope to 200ish and 42mm to over 220bhp. I guess it depends on how much other work you plan to put into cams, head porting/valves etc. These figures are based on 9000rpm max and they do say that lower revving engines may need slightly larger TBs. http://www.jenvey.co.uk/jenvey/throttle-body-selection-with-jenvey-dynamics Good luck with the cunning plan. Phil B

Dave, I am in a similar situation to your mate, old spax on the front, LEDA on the rear of a zetec powered LA and looking for new dampers/springs all round as part of the winter rebuild when I plan to go wide track. Budget dictates AVO or Protech single adjustables, but interested to hear recommendations either way. Phil B

Steve, Just spotted this excellent pictorial guide, which includes advice on removing the secondary throttle plates. http://www.sportingfords.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1960 have fun. phi B

Hi Steve, I used an OMEX 600 kit including pre-made loom. I figured that the additinal cost was outweighed by the comfort of knowing that I would not need to worry about chasing around rogue connection/set-up errors, as it all just plugs straight onto the std Ford sensors. It comes with a base map that meant the engine started first turn and was driveable safely until I was able to get to a decent rolling road to get it properly mapped. Check out the Megasquirt and Locostbuilder websites for more bike TB info, but be aware that Japanese bike makers make detail changes quite often so you may need to be quite specific about year/model. I have also heard that some of the higher power GSXR models have an ECU operated secondary throttle plate, this sounds like something to be avoided unless you have plenty of hair to tear out! Phil B

Steve, I went down the Jenvey route myself, but did think about bike TBs. You need to know what sort of power target to ensure you don't under/over size the TBs. With a 1.8 engine I guess your target power will be around 180bhp, so I would be looking for 40-42mm TB, I think the GSXR 600 units are smaller than this. The other challenge is the manifold, I have no idea what their workmanship is like, but the manifolds produced by ALTiSS engineering certainly look good on their website and they do one specifically for the Zetec to use GSXR 1000 TBs. Maybe this is a hint as to the donor you should be focussing on? Good luck, Phil B

Boing

Hello Peter, Thanks, I've got Jizer and carb cleaner too, so sounds like I have what is needed. Anybody else had any experience of VW,Audi,SEAT, Skoda O2 sensor issues? I've heard that I should avoid pattern parts and go for the OEM (Bosch/NGK/NTK) item. Phil

Hi Lee, Plugs and leads already checked/replaced, but thanks for the suggestion. Phil

Hi Mark, Thanks, I've been thinking about cleaning the EGR, is it much of a job? The Haynes manual tells you how to remove and refit, but says nothing about cleaning. Phil

Lee, Thanks, what I need to figure out is what has caused the misfire and why is the O2 sensor intermittently dropping off-line. Phil

Hi PoB, My daughter's 52 plate SEAT Ibiza 1.4 16v keeps setting the engine fault light. She complains that intermittently it will not accelerate from idle and misfires (goes jerky!) when moving slowly in traffic. Always seems to start okay and runs cleanly from cold. Yesterday I plugged in an ELM327 code reader and identified these codes: P0106, MAP circuit range/performance P0135, O2 wiring, heater fault P0170, Fuel trim malfunction P1778, Linear O2 sensor open circuit I did note on the live data mode that the O2 sensor was tripping between on and off-line at idle and up to 2000rpm no load. Today got a panic call as daughter said car would not accelerate from walking pace. Went over to help her (15 minutes away so she had switched off), car started okay. Let her borrow my tintop and drove her's back giving it a thorough Italian tune-up round the local bypass and it ran sweet as a nut revving happily up to red line. Got home switched off, restarted and the MIL light cleared itself. I've looked at various SEAT/VW threads and advice seems to shift between front O2 sensor contamination/heater wiring, through MAP/MAF snesor, to EGR gummed up. Any diagnostic advice, the car has 106,000 on the clock and is in otherwise fine fettle. Phil B

Hi, 2.0 blacktop, 185hp and a re-cored CovRad unit with an 8" fan. I have the Raceline water rail, drilled T'stat, fan switch in rad, "wet-bulb" temp gauge in back of head and submarine pipe connected to header tank (J Whiting recommendation). After a mapping session at 2 Steves to set up TBs, I noticed that temp in traffic shot up as described and fan was not kicking in until gauge read 100+. This had not happened during 2 years of running on webers. Spoke to Steve G about possible causes and he suggested that idle strategy may be generating high exhaust temps which create local temp spike affecting temp sensed at back of head, but not actually raising coolant temp, hence no fan switch trip. He re-set idle and temps in traffic behave as before, ie at 95 on the gauge fan kicks in and temp comes down. Phil

Hear, hear, Thanks for arranging a great evening on the track. I wish I had booked a tuition session though, as I saw many different lines through the corners I had no idea which was the best!! One observation for possible discussion with MSV, the time gap between day and evening sessions was too short (30mins) to allow day users to clear out of paddock area. This caused some congestion and the odd bit of consternation from day session drivers when we turned up and started trying to find places to park cars, trailers and generally drop off gear to be ready to take over garages before the briefing, sighting laps and start. Similar congestion apparent when we finished and the biker community poured into the paddock. Phil

Boing

Hi I'm looking to go wide track, but have trunnion type uprights, so am in need of a pair of the later vertical links. If anyone can help me out please let me know. Not in a rush as this is part of a chassis refresh project for later in the year. Phil B Horsham, Sussex

Zetec, Don't know how to do linky thing, but here are the rim size recommendations for CR500 from the Avon motorsport website. http://www.avonmotorsport.com/road-legal/performance/cr500 175 on 6.0 is bang in the middle of their range, but 205 on 6.0 is on the narrow side, 8.0 would be the optimum. Phil B

Hello Craig, Have you tried disconnecting the temp sensor to the ECU once the engine is hot? If doing this causes the engine speed to drop back to 800rpm (ish) this could indicate a temp sensor fault. On my blacktop Zetec and Omex 600 ECU I use the original Ford cylinder head sensor probe, but others use a regular water temp gauge probe. The ECU carries a calibration which it uses to adjust fueling and ignition to enable cold start. If this doesn't drop out when the engine is fully warmed up it would push the idle speed up. Depending on the ECU this may cause an idle speed which is outside the control limits set for the idle spark strategy. In other words the engine isn't running slowly enough for the closed loop control of idle, which is generally on a Zetec 950rpm +/- 200rpm, to be effective. So, first step identify where your engine/coolant temp sensor is located and where you can unplug it from the loom. Start the engine, let it warm up, stop the engine, unplug sensor, restart engine and see how it idles. If has returned to "normal" then probably a sensor failure. Good luck, Phil B

Geoff, Just booked in for this event. At least this year my daughter isn't due to be at any pop concerts. Last year she was in Belgium at the one that was hammered by a tornado!! Had to cut short and go home after an emergency call "Dad do you know where we can stay, an oak tree has fallen on our tent and its pouring down?" Phil B

I'd go for a good bleeding first as if the garage has replaced all caliper and slave cylinder seals then there could be a small amount of air trapped. Use a pressure or vacuum brake bleeding system out of preference rather than the old fashioned push and hold the pedal while opening and closing a nipple. However, past experience of replacing seals in calipers and cylinders has shown it to be a short-lived success. Reason being that there is almost always a small area of corrosion pitting which can cut up a nice new seal and cause it to leak after a while. This same type of damage can equally affect the seals in the master cylinder. Even if this has been left undisturbed, the act of pushing the pedal to the floor to bleed the system will allow the m/cyl pistons to travel across parts of the cylinder bore which didn't previously. good luck with tracking down/fixing the cause. phil

Keybaud, As has been previously stated the RR operator will use a wideband lambda sensor to read AFR when defining the injection and ignition maps. The Omex 600 unit cannot read a wideband output to adjust fuelling, you need the 700 to have that level of sophistication. However, the 600 can read a narrow band signal and can trim fuel up/down in response. This function can be set to operate up to a max rpm and throttle position (engine loads). Outside these limits it is ignored and the power map runs unchanged. I had my Zetec on 45 Tbs and Omex set up by the 2 Steves ( ) and they activated this narrowband lambda trim function. I have to say that I very pleased with the results and it seems to me that the fuel consumption is improved when cruising or just bumbling along on light throttle, which is so easy to do with the Zetec engine. Phil

Ian, Contact Andy Cornock at Omex, really helpful guy, will happily talk you through set-up and checks. To the extent that with my Zetec he was on the phone listing to a misfire I had and correctly diagnosed I had not got the throttle stop set correctly! Phil

John, I use the anti-freeze spec as recommended by Ford/Haynes manual, local motor factor. As regards flushing, I fitted a new crated engine 4 years ago and the original antifreeze is still in there and looking the same colour it did orginally. If your coolant is heavily disoloured I'd flush through with water, but I'd give the radiator a separate reverse flush with a hosepipe, if you are allowed to use one where you live! Phil

FWIW, I bought a 32 x 36mm spanner off flea-bay, it was advertised for use on water pumps and radiator fans/viscous couplings. Cost about a tenner including postage. Phil

Pete, Can I have the mirror mounts please, assuming these work with the standard Raydyot sidescreen mounted mirrors. Thanks, Phil