Vimmy

Thanks Matty yeah Ive seen the car a couple of times at the Coop, the last time I almost tried to get in it - apart from the non pimped windows it was the spitting imae of mine, huge back box on it too

Hi Lewis, I think the car has 380's from stock, but anything along those lines or 440's as an upgrade/future proof path would be good, I can then build up the manifold as a complete unit I just need to get my ar$e in gear and finish of my current temp probe project and be ready to take some temp readings before this lot gets installed Cheers, Col

Great pics there, must have been a great day

I was hunting around on Fleabay, as you do, and stumbled upon a guy who was selling an intake manifold. With the manifold came an Autobahn88 intake hose and also the Idle Air Control Valve attached, all this for 50 quid - so I had it It arrived today, looking a bit grubby but everything looks intact, I thought it came with injectors too but alas not, still a bit of a bargain I'll give it a good old scrub and a few coats of high temp paint, clean up and re use the IACV. I'll have to source some injectors to put in this beastie and look into getting them ultrasonically cleaned, then look at doing the parallel fuel mod and then remove all the fuel extra pipework. With this ready I can then get hold of some manifold spacers and chuck it all in the car, perhaps a wee visit to Bob Rawle to make sure nothing is amiss

Sorry Rich, I was only pulling your leg matey I'm not one to criticise any one's car by any means I know what you men though, every time I'm in Witney the car always pulls towards Hailey, its second home..the car even has its own private parking slot there I wouldn't mind coming along to the next one, work depending Cheers, Col

Happy days, how good is it to hear the flat 4 rumble again

Hi Stu, yeah it was me and the family pootling around the backroads to Bicester for some retail therapy, there's some fine and empty roads around these parts It was funny I was saying to the wife oh its....Stu...and couldn't get my hand/brain to function in time to waive. I spotted it was you with the red rim, no funny laughs please, it makes the car stand out a good bit old chap. I managed a wee wave to the guy having trouble keeping up with you on the roundabout Looks like you guys were having a blast

I was in and around the backroads to Bicester today, I can't say i've seen the green sport round nor the red 'rex, I wonder if these are new guys to the area or just visiting. It wouldn't have been the wifes fozzie as she was with me in my 'lil old blue classic wagon...at least I think it was her

Yeah its a good piece of work, it has me thinking now, I need to do some work on pods I have - I have some inspiration now

Nicely done, what did you use the make the pod holder?

I don't know if this will help any, I had the dreaded MOT on my MY98 last week, which surprisingly passed. I have on a full straight through system and kept back the OEM catted downpipe, which was then refitted for the purpose of the MOT. My car also has a switchable dual map, which was in the higher boost setting and the emissions were fine on it. If I read it right, the fast idle test returned 0.03% CO and natural idle test 0.15% CO. The car had on the old system, a centre section which I believed was more of a baffle rather than any sort of secondary cat so I'm not too sure if that could be used instead of the main cat in the down pipe. The car didn't have any additives added to it before the test and runs on Vpower, but it has done 211k now so I would have expected a higher CO output, but must have been my lucky day. Cheers, Col

As it's the end of summer, does that mean we could have a 1st of the Autumn run

Sorry for the late reply Stu, would have loved to do this, but last weeks work planned at home was postponed to illness, so lucky for me I get to finish it off this weekend

Hi Nick, I might be able to take them off your hands, unless you have had any other requests, or trade them for a crate of something drinkable perhaps I'm not too far from Bicester, just down the road in Carterton, so it's a 20 min ride. Let me know if a swap is good for you Cheers, Col

Dodgy MOT, definetly not old boy, pucka one this one. I had to remove the cough straight thru cough exhaust and replace it with the original catted exhaust (which resides in a cosy garage not too far from me, all nice and dry) and then replace it after. Surprisingly the emissions were fine, no fuel additives to try and fool the emissions machine

Aye the mobile version is very easy to navigate, well done guys

Yeah I was like an expectant father all day, got the good news midafternoon lol, boy was I a happy man I had a real comfy hire car today, easy to drive, soft seats and a quiet cabin. When I picked up the car tonight it was like getting into it for the first time hard seats, stiff clutch, low riding position, small and stiff steering wheel and a helluva noisy cabin - I was home

Had the car in for its annual test today, fearing the worst with a few niggly issues that could have failed it. Surprisingly the car passed with only one warning about the inside tread on the tyres, this gives me some breathing space now to get some repairs done on a wee car thats done a few miles. I did notice one thing on the way home though, as the car had been out all day in the cold pretty much, once the car was nicely warm I took it for a bit of a spirited run and noticed the boost had crept and held up at 1.2-1.3Bar where as normally I get 1.0-1.1Bar...thinking that this was a fluke I did a few more full boost runs and it remained. I thought free boost after an exhaust replacement must have caused it but the next few runs it returned, sadly, back to the norm The only thing I can put this down to is heat soak on the intake manifold, from the block, increasing intake temps and reducing power that way. I have just replaced the aging and rotten wrap on the exhaust manifold and so hopefully reduce the heat escaping from the manifold and keep the exhaust gasses warmer as they hit the turbo. This gives me some food for thought wrt inserting intake manifold phenolic spacers to stop any further heat soak and perhaps getting some of that boost back

I touch goats old chap

I recently had the wifes car tinted and asked the fitter at the time about the MOT legality of sunstrips. He told me that the external ones that were opaque, unless they didnt hit the wipers, were illegal and considering the height of the blades, it makes the(shortened to fit)external sunstrips pretty much useless. The internal sunstrips, where they can be as dark looking(externally)as you want and still unobstructive internally are fully legal, even below the level of the wiper blades. He has been working inconjunction with an MOT stattion who have been having major discussions with VOSA on this subject. This MOT tester will happilly explain the legality and happy to pass any car at MOT time with an internal sunstip fitted. I will be looking to get an internal one soon, with the winter mornings soon upon us, the sun always gets in between the sunvisors currently on the car. I hope this helps? Cheers, Col

I love the look of them myself, I was really lucky the Gent I got them from gave me a great deal, if I ever meet up with him I'd buy him a pint or three

Yeah my main concern was the retained heat affecting the bearings, but I am always open to any comments/suggestions. This bit of work goes a long way on a heat reduction/soak effect project I am doing. Oh aye, those mudflaps/spalshgyards are almost ready to go on, I just need some long plastic clips to secure them to the arches I was going to make some fibreglass mouldings of them too, to make a 'backup' pair - they are like rocking horse poo to get hold of

Thanks matey, I got this one from New Zealand, anything to start a Northern/Southern Hemisphere trade , as the other ones were for T3/T4 size turbos and my little TD04 was slightly smaller so it would not have made as tight a fit as I would have liked. My heatshield has been off for a good while too after fitting the new downpipes so have been going commando as such Little Linkie After having been a good run to work, I can put my hand on the blanket and its warm to touch, thus stopping reradiating onto the FMIC pipe that sits inches away from it. This has already been insulated and where it used to be red hot to the touch, it is warm now, so air going through it to the FMIC is cooler again. There are going to be downsides, the main one being heat being retained when the car is off, but as long as the car has been off boost for the last mile or two then this shouldnt be a problem. I have vents on the bonnet now so any hot air escapes that way....I see it as possible turbo life shortening compared to overheating the engine, which is a lot more expensive to replace. Cheers, Col

Hmm I tried that with dark rum, it didn't work, looks like I'll have to change my tipple

Isn't it the sweetest thing you have seen, I'm thinking about a red woolly bobble had for Christmas, you have to get into the spirit of things