Lara

so you saying that the thought of me and heat treated Margarine is not one you would consider Bitch! Lara

Due to the nature of turbo diesels they do tend to breath fairly heavily compared to petrol engines, so oil in the turbo pipes is common, however this should not be heavy but an accumulation over a period. Dripping from the top pipe would have me investigating, although not panicking!! Lara

I have to agree with that, I ordered mine in super fit super hunk size and they don't fit at all!!!! Fuggin fools!! Lara

On a diesel it is quite common to have a black and oily intercooler etc, especially as mentioned above that the breather is in the inlet. As long as your engine is not using oil, Just clean it all out thoroughly and carry on.

I told him your comments and he asked his wife, She said that statistics show that 1 in 12 children in the UK are born of mixed race so by reason of logic there must be one month a year when all those babies are born! Sounds reasonable? Mind you! on that thinking and as Daan is Dutch, maybe the storks got confused and thought being half Dutch was pretty "mixed" anyway Lara

congrats Daan, Lucky he wasn't black! a mate of mine just had one and it came out black! was a shock as neither him or his wife have any black in the family! apparently she said it was because it was April and all boys born in April are black! not sure if it's true or not though as there seemed to be a few white babies in the maternity ward, she said that they were obviously premature and should have been born in May! She seemed to know a lot about it so she must be right! It's obviously your dutch blood then? Lara

Run them as they are for a base setting, SU's are vacuum/flow sensitive as you can obviously work out so they will know that you are demanding less from them. All they will sense is that the engine is demanding less air, so will open less compared to the other engine, the fueling will also be less as you can imagine, they will be close enough to get you going. then rolling road it when you have time. Lara

Hi, a standard TD5 runs very "clean" just like all production diesels, this means that you have about 30 to 40% more air running through your engine than is actually needed to burn the amount of fuel that is being injected. this is good as it means your emissions are good, you get less soot everywhere and the EGTs are lower and stable. So adding boost on a standard tune will do nothing. Adding fuel as we all know will do quite a lot. So yes, a re-chip / program will help a lot. and giving up to 1.5 bar on a standard turbo plus fuel etc will give a nice fat power increase! More boost and your turbo will have a short life. A larger hybrid unit is better for higher boost up to 1.8 / 2 bar Your engine will be OK providing fueling etc is set so EGTs are reasonable and you are conscious of this when using full throttle for extended periods. It gets expensive and complicated after this as you will need a larger turbo with much bigger bearings etc to cope with extended boost periods etc, larger compressor etc etc etc. Regards, Lara

What pressure are you boosting to? what size turbo etc? There are two ways of doing this, in Sequence where one feeds into the other, this way you will get the least pressure drop but slightly less cooling effect, or in parallel, where the turbo feeds into both at once, this way you get more of a pressure drop but better cooling effect if your turbo can keep up. there are variables and more complex theories to this but in essence you get my drift! I personally if using a standardish turbo at about 1.5 bar would not bother, but at 2 bar I would run two in series if I had the room! If in front of each other then run the second intercooler as the front one for the following reason. Radiators/intercoolers work from temperature differentials between the ambient air and the internal air. Say your internal air temp is 250F after the turbo which it can easily be, and outside cooling air is 50F then you have a useful differential. BUT the air passing through will be hotter, say 130F after picking up heat to cool your inlet charge, so now you have cooling air at 130F and a now cooler inlet charge at say 150F after your first intercooler, so 130 cooling 150 does not give a very useful temp differential. But 50F ambient cooling air of say 180F and 130F "used cooling air" cooling 250F does! Or have I lost you? Again many complex theories to get this exactly right but in practice it generally works best like this unless you have a VERY big turbo and loads of boost etc, Then you need a serious intercooler or two connected in parallel. Lara

But then nor is the 20,000lb winch that thing must be made for Lara

I think 120 for a new exhaust and fitted is quite reasonable! You say you like things to be perfect! Fair enough he should have asked, but you haven't done badly out of it and he certainly hasn't ripped you off! I say he was trying to do his job to a good standard that he knows you need. Lara

Nige, I understand what you mean but think Aragorn's answer is well put and probably correct. Lara,

You have that a little muddled Nige, while you are absolutely correct in stating that the losses will be very different, you forget that the engine does not care about losses, it gives power as required full stop! the rolling road can load the engine until it stalls if need be so the engine load can be anything you need it to be with either two or four wheel drive rr setups. The only difference will be that the rollers will have to do more work, nothing else. The axle and centre diff should be fine as long as you are not daft with it! Lara

Devon 4x4 has just brought out a kit to fit hydro bump stops and King shocks with 12" travel, they also do shocks up to 18" travel for the same fitment in stock! You can have the bumps or the shocks separately if you wish and all as a bolt on package! www.devon4x4.com Or phone and ask 01769 550900 Lara

Not if "as they claim" 20 Million people each year walk on it it don't!!! Lara

Have seen the following engines all in the same 90. Ford 3litre V6, Jag 4.2 straight six, Went well but had dreadful oil surge on the hills, and heavy!! Ford Windsor 302, nice transplant, Chevy 350 small block, Best but was a bit heavy, Mopar 440, Too heavy and a tight fit! Then 440 with blower fitted! Went well but was much too heavy! Rover V8 4.2, Probably the best compromise. Lara

I will try to find the report and relevant info at home if I can find the time, Following a light aircraft engine failure accident (in the US) oil additives containing Graphite, PTFE, (Teflon) etc were banned, the report is quite detailed as you can imagine but the recommendations and subsequent legislation was also quite clear with its bans too. If I remember correctly it was an FAA report and the CAA followed up, will try to find it as it is interesting reading. Lara

This vid reminds me of an old 1300 mk2 escort estate that a mate of mine had about 20 years back as a runaround, when we had his new car finished and running (V8 engined Chrysler Avenger) we decided the Mk2 should die! so off we went to blow it up, 1st gear only was allowed and full throttle only! NO OIL what so ever. Well at the end of the day we got fed up and parked it in his drive, foot to the boards and did the same as the MR2 guy, at least 10-15 minutes later it started knocking and then it stopped knocking about 2 minutes after that, running on 3 and quiet We turned it off for a look, could see nothing, but found out when we tried to re-start it, the rod was buried through the block and half into the starter motor, It had no additives ever apart from some dirt and no oil or filter changes in my mates 2 year ownership! Lara

Many years ago when we used to do modern race car engines and prep etc, we had a rep who swore blind that his Nulon oil additive worked miracles etc, so one day we did a test in front of him, with Nulon, Slick 50 and STP. We ran up a 2 litre Proton race car that was giving a constant and reliable 200bhp almost to the dot. We did 3 base tests all within one HP from one another using the standard oil (Mobil 1 I think) We then added the Nulon and tested 3 times, no difference other than a couple of hp drop that we put down to "test flexibility" We then did the test with the others, cleaning and flushing the engine before each product test. No engine test gave more than 200bhp until!! We flushed and drained again, and with clean standard oil (again Mobil one IIRC) 203bhp (probably again test flexibility but the highest we ever saw on this engine!! The Nulon man jumped on this and said "oh yes but the Nulon would still have been in there and now it has had a chance to coat everything" Point of interest. Additives are absolutely banned in aviation!! What does that tell us? Lara

Very well timed topic, I have just had my main workshops epoxy coated, 18,000sqft, and so far am extremely happy, Previously we had the whole workshop etc painted with a very good quality 2 pack paint and a special concrete locking-sealer undercoat, 27,000sqft and after the 4th time in 16 years. I decided for something that lasted better, as said earlier by someone, the paint does seem to come up if you park heavy cars on it for any length of time, Specially with sticky tyre compounds, The paint was always good for a year or two but does stain also if you spill nasties on it. Trouble with repairing also was that new, on old, paint always looks kak! Epoxy, Professionally done. Floor completely ground first, Concrete locking sealer applied, Epoxy coat with grit applied (Epoxy without grit is amazingly good for ice skating if wet and greasy) Cracks filled etc at same time. So far we have chipped bits when heavy or sharp equipment has been dropped on it, (Easily fixed with spare epoxy) company are contracted to come once a year for general maintenance as they guarantee against damage (reasonable limit) So far they have been great and even agreed to repair a small area that we dropped the corner of the Bridgeport on! It is expansive! but emptying a workshop that size is just as bad and screws up the workload enormously! it is worth every penny in my opinion to do it once (Hopefully) and once properly! VERY easy to clean as well! Lara

I have a little button on the dash that locks the TC in an instant!! Has a pre-set minimum speed threshold to unlock before engine stall, which is about 1kmh in low range and 10 in high! works great although the need is minimal as it locks itself as soon as you lift completely from the throttle anyway! Lara. I like the reliability of a good Auto! And if you are not scared of it, you "Could" field repair one in emergency to get you halfway round the world! "if you needed to"

From my understanding, the seals need to be fixed by the FIA scrutineer/inspector, not you! I may be wrong though! Lara

Hi there, Yes, I had a front wheel drive 112 manual originally, was the most expensive thing I ever bought (except the Landy ;o) Repairs after repairs!! about 3 gearboxes, clutches all sorts, And for towing it was all over the place unless we loaded the back with about 200kg and right up front of the load area!! otherwise the wheels had no grip / steering etc The new ones are Sooooooooooooooooooooooo much better, and the 4wd auto is a marvel!! Lara

Look on this link, page 2 about half way down Goodyear Wrangler MT/R 40/14.5/17 http://www.nextag.com/Tires--zzgoodyear+wrangler+mt%5E%5E1rz2700004z1zBmz5---html?nxtg=868e0a28050a-BEF0A58B7C407DAB Lara

The old FWD Vito is not good at towing! The New RWD Vito is very nice and I have towed 2500kg behind me with no problems, The Ultimate is the Vito I have now, 4WD 115D 150hp and 330nm torque from nothing up! Actually tows as well as my 318 Sprinter up to my personal 70mph limit, easily safe at that speed! Drove it last year to Italy with a 1800kg car inside my covered trailer, over the mountains and up the hairpins, and it drove perfectly!! highly recommended!! Lara PS. Mine is an Auto with tiptronic! Wonderful box!!! and no clutch!