Tuscan MOT Abuse

[AlrightTed]

My Tuscan 2 was MOT'd today & had a little trouble getting through the emissions test .

It did pass evenutally but it involved the test centre holding the car at increasing rpms (from 3k, 4k then 5k) for a good 5 or 6 minutes! I didn't think anything of it until one of my exhausts started smoking, probably burning waxoyl off the chassis but I'll be checking in the morning...

In hindsight maybe I should have stopped them & let it fail as on returning home with my nice green certificate, I noticed the pipe for the washer jets had come detached - on closer inspection, it had melted & was still too hot to touch some 15 minutes after leaving the test centre! Looking further with the bonnet removed, I also found that 2 nylon cable ties had succumbed to the immense underbonnet heat & become brittle & snapped.

I'm now feeling a little worried that this episode has done more concerning damage - where the car was stationary, the lack of ventilation meant the trapped heat did the forementioned things. But is the cooling system on the Speed Six up to the job of handling this type revving when stationary?

Feeling kinda worried now

[so called]

May have your cat ?

[mikeb]

You should have ragged it up and down the street before the mot.

[tvrdavid]

My tuscan used to sit in Tunnel queues regularly and the cooling system was well up to the job - however the paint on the concave section of the bonnet above the manifold blistered very slightly - only noticable from certain angles due to the lack of heat shielding - just check it hasnt happened with yours.

[blueg33]

tvrdavid said:

My tuscan used to sit in Tunnel queues regularly and the cooling system was well up to the job - however the paint on the concave section of the bonnet above the manifold blistered very slightly - only noticable from certain angles due to the lack of heat shielding - just check it hasnt happened with yours.

Mine is exactly like that. I have added a heat shield to the manifold and at some point will wrap the manifold

[nawarne]

blueg33 said:

tvrdavid said:

My tuscan used to sit in Tunnel queues regularly and the cooling system was well up to the job - however the paint on the concave section of the bonnet above the manifold blistered very slightly - only noticable from certain angles due to the lack of heat shielding - just check it hasnt happened with yours.

Mine is exactly like that. I have added a heat shield to the manifold and at some point will wrap the manifold

Yep,
Mines the same....I just assumed it was heat from the exhaust in normal running, but on reflection (no pun intended) it is from lack of airflow at some point with a hot engine. Haven't had the melting washer tubes though! At some point I will have a front end re-sprsy and get some reflctive/heat shield mat under the bonnet.


Nick

[Basil Brush]

nawarne said:

blueg33 said:

tvrdavid said:

My tuscan used to sit in Tunnel queues regularly and the cooling system was well up to the job - however the paint on the concave section of the bonnet above the manifold blistered very slightly - only noticable from certain angles due to the lack of heat shielding - just check it hasnt happened with yours.

Mine is exactly like that. I have added a heat shield to the manifold and at some point will wrap the manifold

Yep,
Mines the same....I just assumed it was heat from the exhaust in normal running, but on reflection (no pun intended) it is from lack of airflow at some point with a hot engine. Haven't had the melting washer tubes though! At some point I will have a front end re-sprsy and get some reflctive/heat shield mat under the bonnet.


Nick

It's a common problem and another reason to decat. I remember in the early days, that patch of fibreglass fell out of someone's bonnet, having cracked very badly.

I've got a patch of thermotec sheet on the underside of mine, which has slowed it down on mine.

[Flintstone]

so called said:

May have your cat ?

[S6PNJ]

AlrightTed said:

My Tuscan 2 was MOT'd today & had a little trouble getting through the emissions test .

It did pass evenutally but it involved the test centre holding the car at increasing rpms (from 3k, 4k then 5k) for a good 5 or 6 minutes! I didn't think anything of it until one of my exhausts started smoking, probably burning waxoyl off the chassis but I'll be checking in the morning...

I had a similar isue when I had a previous MOT - almost failed to pass the emissions test. I commented when I next spoke to Jason at Str8Six and fed the info onto the forums here in this and other threads.

Precis is:

S6PNJ said:

When I spoke with Jason at Str8Six, he advised me that as the Tuscan exhaust exit is quite large, you need to 'block' it up with a rag after the emissions probe is inserted as this then prevents any drawback of air in between exhaust strokes. (block it up in the losest sense of the phrase, whilst still stopping the draw back of air IYSWIM) The draw back of air upsets the MOT lambda probe thingy and it will giver erroneous readings. My CO at fast idle took a lot of attempts to pass last year, whist at idle they were fine. This year, no issues whatsoever and I believe it was down to how they did the emissions test.

[1979Smooth6]

tvrdavid said:

My tuscan used to sit in Tunnel queues regularly and the cooling system was well up to the job - however the paint on the concave section of the bonnet above the manifold blistered very slightly - only noticable from certain angles due to the lack of heat shielding - just check it hasnt happened with yours.

Ahh, posing on the bonnet like a 70's TVR Earls court model can blister your body work too.

[tvrdavid]

The mind boggles at what you've been up to. Take it your car is still performing it's ornamental function in your garage??

[so called]

Flintstone said:

so called said:

May have your cat ?

Me too and I posted it (dont know what I was on that day).

Sorry, what I think I meant was maybe your cats are burnt and blocking air flow which, I understand, can cause higher temps.

[Flintstone]

so called said:

Flintstone said:

so called said:

May have your cat ?

Me too and I posted it (dont know what I was on that day).

Sorry, what I think I meant was maybe your cats are burnt and blocking air flow which, I understand, can cause higher temps.

Phew! I thought you were suggesting some kind of moggy/TVR interface