Small upgrade jobs... Advice needed!

[Griff Boy]

Hi guys,

I have decided to give my Griffith 500 (96) a litlle overhaul in the ignition department, and am about to be tempted by ACT's website for the following items:

New Dist cap
New rotor arm
New spark plugs
New KV8.5a red magnecor leads
New extensions for spark plugs
K & N filter (worthwhile?)
Also exhaust manifold gaskets and new ARP K Head bolts (thanks Green V8S for the advice here)although not sure which type of gasket to go for?

Also thinking of the complete silicon hose kit. (are they worthwhile?)

Question is, as a fairly novice, but enthusistic spanner user is there anything here beyond basic - medium level of skill? I undertsand from searchs that the manifold gaskets are a PITA?

Also, have I missed anything obvious from this list? Not sure if it worth replacing coil at the same time?

I am not using the car for track days, just want to get it running as well as possible, also not wanting to spend £1000's just yet.

Any advice gratefully appreciated.

Ian

[Wildfire]

No it all seems fine, but with the manifolds: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. i would wait until the start blowng or you are going to make a change to it.

Also the Silicone hses are well worth it. I have them on my car and had them on my S. Much more reliable than the old rubbber ones and they are blue as well! Well Red and blue in my case.

[antonyj]

New Dist cap (Only use a genuine Lucas one)
New rotor arm (Ditto)

K & N filter (worthwhile?) (Worth buying the completer induction kit)

Also thinking of the complete silicon hose kit. (are they worthwhile?) (Yes, with stainless pipes aswell)

Question is, as a fairly novice, but enthusistic spanner user is there anything here beyond basic - medium level of skill? I undertsand from searchs that the manifold gaskets are a PITA?

As wildfire says , dont touch if no broko.... check them with a small bore flexi pipe held to your ear, place the other end near each outlet to listen for Popping

Also, have I missed anything obvious from this list? Not sure if it worth replacing coil at the same time?
If its running fine then why?

[griffit]

antonyj said:

New Dist cap (Only use a genuine Lucas one)
New rotor arm (Ditto)

Just had to replace some of the ignition parts on my car too (95 Griff) and bought my plug extender / heat shrouds from ACT too. They made a fantastic difference as the old ones were breaking down internally and the new ones mean the car is smoother around town and pulls harder and cleaner on the open road too. Definitely worth the money if yours haven't been changed, great service from ACT too.

On the dizzy cap / rotor arm debate, it appears to have been done to death on here as I discovered when using the search function. My car had original Lucas parts on it when I bought it, probably 12year vintage original looking at the state of them! I went to Lucas (LSUK)to buy a new cap and rotor and was handed some Intermotor parts. Because of the advice on here I insisted they order me some genuine Lucas ones instead. Turned out there was one cap (in Scotland) in the whole country and only two rotor arms (one in Brighton the other in Cornwall). When they arrived I opened the boxes to find parts exactly the same in appearance as the Intermotor parts, only they were bizarrely cheaper?!

My old rotor and cap had part numbers and Lucas etc stamped into the mouldings and a slightly different design on the contacts inside the cap, they also appeared to be a slighly different type of plastic. Neither of the new parts had these marks or design features...

I then visited a nearby Landrover specialist who stocked the same parts at vastly cheaper prices and he explained to me that Intermotor bought Lucas a couple of years ago and therefore there will be NO difference between the parts at all as they are made in the same factory!

In summary I did the sensible thing and bought a cap from Halfords (manufactured by Intermotor...) as they were the best price I could find (£6.79ish?) and a rotor arm from the Landrover specialist (£2.50ish?). The car runs great on them and I can't see why it shouldn't? The new cap is blue and not black (blue for electronic ignition, black for not - no difference to cap though, just a denoting colour and matches my car). I find asking for Classic Range Rover easiest BTW.

Landrover specialist as follows, they do mail order I believe: [url]www.mm-4x4.com/index.asp[/url]

If you really want to pay over the odds for the Lucas parts the only ones in their official network are currently residing in their Gloucester branch. I believe it was about £15+vat for a cap and £12+ vat for the rotor arm!!!

Hope this helps clear up the whole genuine / pattern debate on these parts?

[GreenV8S]

griffit said:

Definitely worth the money if yours haven't been changed,

Worth changing if the current ones are failing (or you have a problem which you are trying to track down the expensive way i.e. trial and error) but really there's no point replacing perfectly good components just for the sake of it. There'll be more than enough time and money spent servicing and repairing without adding to it.

[aerospoke]

I think i read on here, that Rob from V8D bought the remaining original Stock last year. So he should still have some.

Cheers Jens

[spend]

Sound as though it wont be long until coil packs cost far less than dizzy cap & rotor arm then

Dave