Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Uh, that sounds entirely plausible as I changed the alternator belt. Thank you very much.

Good luck! You might have knocked a connector while loosening it or something similar?

Yep

Yeah, could well be.

I drive a Berlingo - everyone looks down on me, elevated driving position or not.

@NurseHolliday hey fellow MX5 cunt, bit strong? Did not know you sold yours! Shame how a couple pieces of damage can cost so much to fix but imagine you wouldn't have sold it lightly. I can't get my head round how people own even one car in London. Pretty sure I'm going to go supercharged too so will definitely ask for more help when the time comes, liking the look of the Salon Motorsport kit so far. Actually while I'm here how much power did yours make with what mods?

@lynx & @Dammit
Please could you just put each other on ignore, out of consideration for the rest of us? Thanks.

So no talk of james? (the cat)

EDIT Don't you still owe me some money on for you libelous remarks about a beer barrel? Am getting legal advice on Tuesday for other things. Have screen shot the pages from the time, don't worry I have details to serve the notices to you.

Nice, really like the looks of the E34. I have an E39, not a very exciting car but does everything related to motorways very well.

Looking to get something quicker atm.

Changed the seat base in my Berlingo. Was sitting on the metal rails, as the old foam was completely deteriorated. Found a mint £20 passenger seat from a Partner van and took it apart. Transplanted the seat heating from the old cushion to the new, put the cover back on and refitted the seat.
The van seat will replace the current passenger seat when I convert the car to a day van thing.

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Also: lol.

EDIT Don't you still owe me some money on for you libelous remarks about a beer barrel? Am getting legal advice on Tuesday for other things. Have screen shot the pages from the time, don't worry I have details to serve the notices to you.

That was a weird thread. This is all really weird actually.

You can understand what he means? I've no clue.

I’ve still got mine! I was talking about a previous MX5 I sold that was supercharged.

My red one saw a dyno not long after I first bought it, it made 170 bhp I think, but it had a very old kit that was originally imported and fitted 7 years before I bought the car, one of the first Jackson Racing kits fitted in the UK to my understanding. The JR kit used an M45 supercharger, Bipes ACU, and rising rate fuel pressure regulator. It also had a reduced pulley fitted a couple of years after that, and PWR (Pace) chargecooler at the same time.

Before I sold it, the cylinder head cracked, but not block side, it was where the supercharger mounted to the head. I’m pretty certain this will happen to all JRSC cars eventually, it’s a design fault. I decided to choose to go with an upgraded cylinder head instead of just buying a normal 2nd hand head, so I got Blink Motorsport to build a beautiful head for me.

Like an idiot instead of paying to transport my car up north, I decided to go and pick the head up in a borrowed car, then take it to this local guy who was also an MX5 “specialist”. I knew of him because my uncle also used to import cheap and shit Roadsters from Japan and get uk parts from breakers to fix them up and sell them for profit. He said he’d replace the head at a good cash price, and I also got him to rebuild the front of the engine at the same time so cambelt, water pump, cam seals and front crank seal.

When I went to pick it up, the supercharger belt squealed, the inside of the car was a mess, and it smoked a bit. As I drove it more, it smoked more and leaked, and made steam, and I was pretty fucked off so I took it back. He kept it for a weekend and supposedly “fixed” all the problems. He said “it probably smokes because the valve guides won’t have been done as part of the head rebuild so when you’re stationary, oil leaks past the valves and then when you pull away it burns that oil causing smoke.” That tallied with my experience so I chalked it up to experience, it no longer leaked or made steam so off I went but that smoke was nagging me.

I spoke to Blink who said that the valve guides had definitely been done, so I decided to go see Skuzzle Motorsport who were keen to help. I didn’t want to pay to remove the head entirely again, but as it turned out the “specialist” had threaded the water pump hence the leak and steam and his “fix” was a bodge involving sealant, and the cam and crank seals hadn’t been replaced.

So I spent even more money having the front of the engine rebuilt again, actually this time, plus the RMS as they identified that as a visible oil leak causing some smoke.

They said they weren’t sure about the valve guides, they didn’t think the smokiness exhibited were symptomatic of valve guides, more of oil control rings, so off I went.

The car was fast. Much faster than it had ever been, but because it wasn’t on a standalone ECU it didn’t need tuning, so I didn’t pay to put it on the dyno but the rebuilt and reworked head had definitely made it feel more urgent and definitely a bit louder.

I matched a Mini GP on a rolling head to head on multiple attempts who was making about 225bhp at the fly so with the weight differential I reckoned I was making 180-185bhp with the new head.

However I never gelled with the car after all that, it drank more oil than it ever had done before and it was definitely smokier and I chopped it because I was worried that it would need a bottom end rebuild too soon after I’d maxed out credit cards getting it fixed the first and then second times.

For the money I’ve spent since then I could be running a forged engine, standalone, and AST 3-ways in that car.

Have screen shot the pages from the time, don't worry I have details to serve the notices to you.

That is hilarious. right up there with arm wrestles in cafes.

seems like they really didn't need my input there. great stuff all around.

I see people doing this all the time, not that I’ve had a seat to do it to, but I’m worried I’d set myself on fire.

Estate - needs to be a family wagon!

Nardo Grey is a standard colour I think - not extra £.
I love a battle ship grey - in fact I have 2 hand built Curtis Mtb frames donning it.

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I’ve got no experience of them at all, my mum’s got an A4 2.0 TFSI Estate which I’ve borrowed many times and I took to N24h, it’s fantastically capable so if it’s even just the same but faster it’ll be an epic car, but I’m assuming it’s probably better in every way!

I was impressed with the B road handling, we did some ludicrous numbers with my mate in his M235 in tow, relatively comfortable throughout, and then hit 160 on the autobahn on the way home. Took a while to get there though, imagine an RS4 reaches that number much more quickly.

Did his cat shit in your flower bed?

In other news, v70 is dying, so much pothole damage, Gonna habe to do all the top mounts again (rears are less than a year old decent ones), front drop links and maybe through some extra sub frame bracing in there, bit wobbly at thr minute, might be partly thr wondering top mounts though. Also it's now fully eaten a valve stem seal (exhaust) and smoking like a taxi

Got the c70 in the workshop, just needs a head gasjknet and a throttle body sensor (volvo magentti marreli ets bullshit) and it's golden. Will swap unto that until can be bothered fixing v70

Also jist taken over this massive 250m2 industrial unit in Glasgow. Will soon be full of bicycle, but until then cars are gonna have a spruce up.

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I was only slightly nervous when I turned it on the first time, but the haze of contact adhesive fumes made the possibility of death seem not that important.

Nice. Spacious. Light. Very jealous.