The daftest little things....
Discussion
So there I was, last week you may recall, stuck in the deep dark dank dingy depths of the 'Boro, minding my own business with no oil pressure.
Finally got pressure up and made it home, checked the oil and found it a tad low on the dipstick. So I started thinking about an oil change and then it all went pearshaped
Y'see, I whipped out the Rimmer V8 catalogue, and before I knew where I was, there I was: running up a huge credit card bill on big trumpets, large plenum, fat throttle body and some wikkid alloy fings an dat.
Oops, sorry: must be the copy of Max Dickhead I wiped my botty on earlier... anyway, I think that after 4000 trouble-free miles :ahem: since my DIY engine refurb, it's time to go back inside and reconsider. Oh, plus I want to check that the cam still has some lobes
The car has been running a bit rough of late, and to my ears the idle shows a misfire and the pickup is a little erratic - though on the road she goes like a schoolie on alcopops.
So to return to the oil change: I decided to leave the filter on (it has only done 4000 miles on an as-new engine, after all) and obtained a quantity of Castrol's finest GTX (why is it that Halfreds only keep the 5L cans: I needed 6... doh). Once replenished, I pulled the distributor out and wound the oil pump up with my trusty elecric drill and 'special tool' - a 10" bolt with a slot cut in the end. I was thinking of patenting it but I think Danny Hoffman beat me to it with his chunk-cut-off-a-coffee-table-leg-don't-tell-the-wife device...
Then I took the distributor cap off to set the rotor - and the carbon brush fell out into my hand. It must have been rattling around in there for a while (well, probably as long as the car has had this strange symptom almost like the rev limiter coming in, where the engine was starting to die at about 5200 rpm). The spring that holds the carbon brush has been doing a merry dance around the rotor arm: it has odd scrapes and burn marks, and the copper electrode has been spark-eroded away!
Back to Hotrods for a cap and rotor arm (I did manage to re-attach the brush to the old cap and got the car running, but you just know it'd fail the first time I tried to outdrag some Max Tosser and he'd be off telling his mates what a hero he was. Couldn't allow that, now could I
)
And lo: verily a miracle hath been wrought, and the Lord didst say unto me "F*** me Ian, that's one sorted motor...WIKKIDDD!" (God obviously being a man to move with the times, keep up with the vernacular etc... wonder if he knows that 'Shagtastic' has just been added to the Oxford English Dictionary... oh, of course he does: he's all-seeing etc. etc. - but I digress)
Off I went this eventide, yea, even unto the A174, and danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, cacking myself every time the car started to aquaplane at :cough: mph - I thought I'd play with the rev limiter a bit, what with 5300 rpm being a little on the restrictive side, you know how it is
After some fiddling I have it coming in at about 5700-5800 (not sure exactly, at those revs I daren't take my eyes off the road!) which, once I'd adjourned to a private road
ssifer: equated to an indicated 135 in 4th. Which of course is total nonsense: TVR speedos should be calibrated in Lies Per Cubic Inch or some such. Note that the engine is still pulling at those revs... 
I've also given the distributor a couple more degrees of advance (now 10 deg. BTDC) and the pickup seems... exactly the same. The one problem I do have (again, on my private test track) is that there seems to be a fuel starvation effect going on when you try to top out in 5th - i.e. well before the rev limiter would do it. The fuel economy also seems to be worsening recently, for some odd reason (not being facetious here, it really is getting worse! 52 miles on 15 quid!!?).
Time for that rolling road session....
Ian
Finally got pressure up and made it home, checked the oil and found it a tad low on the dipstick. So I started thinking about an oil change and then it all went pearshaped
Y'see, I whipped out the Rimmer V8 catalogue, and before I knew where I was, there I was: running up a huge credit card bill on big trumpets, large plenum, fat throttle body and some wikkid alloy fings an dat.
Oops, sorry: must be the copy of Max Dickhead I wiped my botty on earlier... anyway, I think that after 4000 trouble-free miles :ahem: since my DIY engine refurb, it's time to go back inside and reconsider. Oh, plus I want to check that the cam still has some lobes
The car has been running a bit rough of late, and to my ears the idle shows a misfire and the pickup is a little erratic - though on the road she goes like a schoolie on alcopops.
So to return to the oil change: I decided to leave the filter on (it has only done 4000 miles on an as-new engine, after all) and obtained a quantity of Castrol's finest GTX (why is it that Halfreds only keep the 5L cans: I needed 6... doh). Once replenished, I pulled the distributor out and wound the oil pump up with my trusty elecric drill and 'special tool' - a 10" bolt with a slot cut in the end. I was thinking of patenting it but I think Danny Hoffman beat me to it with his chunk-cut-off-a-coffee-table-leg-don't-tell-the-wife device...
Then I took the distributor cap off to set the rotor - and the carbon brush fell out into my hand. It must have been rattling around in there for a while (well, probably as long as the car has had this strange symptom almost like the rev limiter coming in, where the engine was starting to die at about 5200 rpm). The spring that holds the carbon brush has been doing a merry dance around the rotor arm: it has odd scrapes and burn marks, and the copper electrode has been spark-eroded away!
Back to Hotrods for a cap and rotor arm (I did manage to re-attach the brush to the old cap and got the car running, but you just know it'd fail the first time I tried to outdrag some Max Tosser and he'd be off telling his mates what a hero he was. Couldn't allow that, now could I
) And lo: verily a miracle hath been wrought, and the Lord didst say unto me "F*** me Ian, that's one sorted motor...WIKKIDDD!" (God obviously being a man to move with the times, keep up with the vernacular etc... wonder if he knows that 'Shagtastic' has just been added to the Oxford English Dictionary... oh, of course he does: he's all-seeing etc. etc. - but I digress)
Off I went this eventide, yea, even unto the A174, and danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, cacking myself every time the car started to aquaplane at :cough: mph - I thought I'd play with the rev limiter a bit, what with 5300 rpm being a little on the restrictive side, you know how it is
After some fiddling I have it coming in at about 5700-5800 (not sure exactly, at those revs I daren't take my eyes off the road!) which, once I'd adjourned to a private road
ssifer: equated to an indicated 135 in 4th. Which of course is total nonsense: TVR speedos should be calibrated in Lies Per Cubic Inch or some such. Note that the engine is still pulling at those revs... I've also given the distributor a couple more degrees of advance (now 10 deg. BTDC) and the pickup seems... exactly the same. The one problem I do have (again, on my private test track) is that there seems to be a fuel starvation effect going on when you try to top out in 5th - i.e. well before the rev limiter would do it. The fuel economy also seems to be worsening recently, for some odd reason (not being facetious here, it really is getting worse! 52 miles on 15 quid!!?).
Time for that rolling road session....
Ian
NO, Gaz, I'm not! 
Tonight's little fettling session involved more of the same, but on a dry 'track'. 5800 in 4th is 130 indicated: managed to squeeze 5000 in 5th before some numpty pulled out - er, I mean the other test driver erm...ahem... anyway, the 'back straight' wasn't long enough at that point to push any further - and I think that was about 145 indicated. Which is odd, cos last time I tried this, 5000 was 150.
I must borrow a GPS and see what the hell is going on ... on the other hand, it's hard enough reading the existing instruments.... 
Tonights Max Twat was... :drumroll: a young dork and chums, tearing up the strip in his cool white 1.4 Escort. He's following me (very closely, of course) in a 40 limit, I nail it past granny in front (plenty of room, but didn't stop the berk coming the other way from flashing like f***...WHY do they do that?) and lo and behold, Escort-man decides to wait till 100 feet from the next roundabout before overtaking me in a flurry of revs and bass-line, undertaking a taxi on the roundabout (they wanted the same exit) and then, when I got past the taxi (he pulled over to pick up), jumping on and off the brakes for a laugh. So after some lights, where he screwed the nuts off the Sexcort (well, it must have been the car he used to pull those teen slappers, unless he has something wondrous in the underpant department - and I doubt THAT) I took him, hurtled up to the next roundabout, spun round it and was coming the other way before he'd even reached the braking point. I gave him a slow, considered finger as I passed, and never saw the knobstick again. Just making a point abut him driving like a twat, you understand: it wasn't like he got anywhere further or faster than if he'd waited till I turned off at the roundabout - I was actually going a different way
Oh, and later on, some young girlies in a Clio were gagging for it I showed them my big pipe and they responded well with some flashing headlamps and impressive hand signals
Now I've just pulled the injector resistor pack off the car, to rule that out as a cause of any misfire, and those who may be interested to know, may be interested to know that the resistors are formed from printed copper tracks on what looks to be a ceramic substrate... apart from the wires to the connector, there's no soldering to 'go off' (and not a bad earth in sight, Danny! ). The resistors measure 6 to 6.3 Ohms each. I'm debating whether to relocate the resistor pack when I rewire the injection system: it doesn't seem to get warm, so cooling airflow may not be required, and I can make the loom tidier that way. I'm also doing away with the thermotime switch (there's no cold start injector) and will remove the throttle body heating pipes per discussions elsewhere.
Banged in an order to Rimmers today for a composite inlet manifold gasket, new oil pump bolts and gasket (just checking), rubber rocker cover gaskets etc. I resisted the temptation to have a 5.8L conversion
This weekend, I will be mostly fiddling with cars...
Tonight's little fettling session involved more of the same, but on a dry 'track'. 5800 in 4th is 130 indicated: managed to squeeze 5000 in 5th before some numpty pulled out - er, I mean the other test driver erm...ahem... anyway, the 'back straight' wasn't long enough at that point to push any further - and I think that was about 145 indicated. Which is odd, cos last time I tried this, 5000 was 150.
I must borrow a GPS and see what the hell is going on
... on the other hand, it's hard enough reading the existing instruments.... Tonights Max Twat was... :drumroll: a young dork and chums, tearing up the strip in his cool white 1.4 Escort. He's following me (very closely, of course) in a 40 limit, I nail it past granny in front (plenty of room, but didn't stop the berk coming the other way from flashing like f***...WHY do they do that?) and lo and behold, Escort-man decides to wait till 100 feet from the next roundabout before overtaking me in a flurry of revs and bass-line, undertaking a taxi on the roundabout (they wanted the same exit) and then, when I got past the taxi (he pulled over to pick up), jumping on and off the brakes for a laugh. So after some lights, where he screwed the nuts off the Sexcort (well, it must have been the car he used to pull those teen slappers, unless he has something wondrous in the underpant department - and I doubt THAT) I took him, hurtled up to the next roundabout, spun round it and was coming the other way before he'd even reached the braking point. I gave him a slow, considered finger as I passed, and never saw the knobstick again. Just making a point abut him driving like a twat, you understand: it wasn't like he got anywhere further or faster than if he'd waited till I turned off at the roundabout - I was actually going a different way
Oh, and later on, some young girlies in a Clio were gagging for it
I showed them my big pipe and they responded well with some flashing headlamps and impressive hand signals Now I've just pulled the injector resistor pack off the car, to rule that out as a cause of any misfire, and those who may be interested to know, may be interested to know that the resistors are formed from printed copper tracks on what looks to be a ceramic substrate... apart from the wires to the connector, there's no soldering to 'go off' (and not a bad earth in sight, Danny!
). The resistors measure 6 to 6.3 Ohms each. I'm debating whether to relocate the resistor pack when I rewire the injection system: it doesn't seem to get warm, so cooling airflow may not be required, and I can make the loom tidier that way. I'm also doing away with the thermotime switch (there's no cold start injector) and will remove the throttle body heating pipes per discussions elsewhere. Banged in an order to Rimmers today for a composite inlet manifold gasket, new oil pump bolts and gasket (just checking), rubber rocker cover gaskets etc. I resisted the temptation to have a 5.8L conversion
This weekend, I will be mostly fiddling with cars...
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