Bull Bar Cowboy

I would have said that 10L is very much on the small side. I used to run a 35L tank with ISO32 oil and no cooler , however, after pronlonged heavy winching the tank would be too warm to touch for any length of time. The tank was mounted in the load bed to allow free air flow. When I built the system I took the advice of a local independant hydraulic company who were recommended to me. The advice from their resident engineer was excellent with increased bore piping and a much larger filter fitted in the tank to ensure better filtration (pump killer) and flow. The oil was changed every 12 months.

No ............ make one continuous pass ............. keep the torch moving all the time as if you are stiching .............. take the advice of turning down both current & wire speed (but only by about 10%) ............... wear gloves and lay out of the way of falling molten metal ................ if you really want a challenge then try unside down stick welding !

I don’t understand this, please explain how lifting the pedestal rocker shaft centre line affects the valve geometry …………. how incorrect valve geometry affects the engine performance ? ………………… remember we are not talking inclined valves here ……….. we are talking 1.6:1 ratio rockers that are of an elderly and simple design. Generally preload is only an issue when the heads have been 'worked' and / or the block faced (sometimes done to get the piston height correct) ............ but with an unknown history engine its always best to check the preload after any top end work as previous owners might have had the head skimmed a couple of times ! Preload is important ......... too much load preload will cause premature valve train wear ......... in extreme cases it will hold a valve slight open. With rover V8 race engines adjustable rods are used so that the preload can be set exactly on each valve, whereas shimming the pedestals is a compromise on some of the valves between the min and max preload requirement, however, it is entirely satisfactory for most applications. Also 15k is not sufficient mileage to comment upon a cam and follows without removing the cam and measuring the lobes.

At least 20 minutes of continuous running at a max of 2500 rpm and never letting it drop below 1500 rpm ........... then change the oil. The cam lobe build lube is important as it is a moly with high zinc content ............ this avoids metal to metal on the initial start up.

If you use a 'stump puller' the extra valve lift will require the tops of the guides to be machined (IIRC 100thou) and different springs ......... the OEM srings will bind at full compression. With this cam, Rhoads bleed down lifters are a 'must have'. IIRC the Piper will go straight in with no real issues. Cam build lube and the correct running in of the new cam / lifters is very important. If the 4.6 is for normal everyday use, then you have to decide where to draw the line between 'drivability' and 'performance torque' ............. if in doubt then always go for the milder cam.

The reserve price is for all of the 100 vehicles, as they are being sold as 1 lot. However even at £5k a pop (assuming the current exchage rate) it going to be difficult to make any money once the transportation and COS (total cost of sales) are taken into the bottom line.

Sounds like the oil pressure relief valve in the housing has jammed open. It’s a very common fault in the earlier V8’s and is due to a little scoring in the bore which causes the ball to stick. Undo the cap and make sure the ball is pushed home onto its seat. If is really stuck fast then it will need a good sharp blow with a pencil drift to shift it. If it is the problem, you can clean up the bore with a dremel and polishing mop …….. fitting a tadpole valve helps but is not a fool proof answer). No need to pack the pump with vaso ………….. just give it a good stir with the drill and it will soon prime

You have just taken a step backwards ! All the idle screw does is let in more air ................ it has already been shown that you need more fuel to richen up the idle fuelling. Go into the VE table and increase the fuel in the idle cell and surrounding cells as per my previous post. Once you have a good stable idle it will probably be too fast, so screw in the air bleed screw about halfway in (or so) ..... if it is still troo fast then reduce the timing at idle from 10BTDC to 8BTDC (or lower). To get rid of the flat spot you first need to fine tune the engine with a few data logging runs and then set up the accelation enrichments which will take a while to get right. The map that Nige supplies is ONLY A STARTING point to get the engine running, however, most engines will be slightly different and have different parameter requirements to get them running properly.

Yep you can still get them .................... I fitted one on a kit car about 6 moths ago. They are available from D&D Frabrications in the states .............. D&D can be found here http://www.aluminumv8.com/ and you need to navigate to the MGB V8 or engine component pages ............ there is some cool stuff on there but it has to be one of the worolds worst web sites for colour and layout ! These adaptors are ofetn used on MGB V8's ............. take a look at the engine spec on this ... http://www.britishv8.org/MG/MikeAlexander2.htm

Looks like you are slowly getting there now Mike. Tuning MS for your engine and to your liking is never going to be a quick process ……………. for instance, when you get going on the cold start settings you only realistically get one shot at it a day. The fact that the idle came up considerably when you increased the idle fuelling points to the fact that it was indeed running lean. If the idle is too high when you are happy that it is fairly stable and sounds rhythmical then either close the plenum air bleed screw a little, or reduce the idle timing to bring the idle down to your liking, but remember with your cam I wouldn’t let it idle much below 800 rpm With regard to the flat spot ………………… this is most likely to be tied up with the acceleration enrichments. In MS you can set how much extra fuel you want depending on how fast you punch the go pedal. It takes a little time to get it right. I guess next on your list will be getting the cold start enrichment settings correct so that it starts on the button regardless of ambient temperature. Yes …….. change the stat for something hotter ………… either an 82 or 88. Running an engine cool and not letting the oil get up to working temp (80C) will cause engine wear in the long term.

The ‘base idle’ mechanical setting determines the setting of the butterfly when the throttle is closed. You should be able to slide a 3 – 5 thou feeler under the butterfly in closed position. Once that setting is made you then have to make sure that it is fully open on full throttle. With the cooling, you really need the engine normal operating temp to be over 80C. I seem to remember that the std 4.6 stat was 82C which means the engine temp will be 82 – 85C

Use a manometer to check for TDC on No1 …………… as it will also ensure that the valves are closed and thus fool proof. Old drilled out plug ………….. ¼ adaptor for plastic pipe screwed in to plug ……………… a couple of feet of ¼ (6mm) tube ………………..a bit of wood and some cleats to make a U bend ……………. add a little water …………….. job done

Seems like you really need to go back to basics to sort out this one……………….. Reset the mechanical base idle setting (I always used a 3 - 5 thou butterfly gap) Temporarily blank off the IAC (if you have one fitted)When running MS and a bucket full of idle advance on an RV8, the engine likes to idle rich in order to get a nice rhythmical stable idle…………… if it is at all lean it will hunt.In the VE table increase the idle cell value until the engine stabilises (you can adjust the air bleed on the plenum to keep the idle rpm correct). The trick is to also increase the values of the cells that surround the idle cell by about 50 – 70 % of the amount that you used to increase the idle cell. Do this all at the same time. A happy idle speed will be 750 – 850 rpm or maybe more with that cam ……. as overlap increases so does a happy (but lumpy) idle speed ! Most folk when setting up an engine will invariably tune it lean, I guess that is because ‘lean’ feels right (but sounds wrong) whereas ‘rich’ feel s wrong (but sounds right). Also, if you have the coolant temp sender calibration correct, your engine is running a tad cool ……….. it should be running at 80 – 85C ………… earlier 3.5/3.9’s will be 88 – 90C

Whether they work or not is function of both laptop software / firmware and device software. The simple fact is that some do not completely empty the buffer and MS operates in the correct way in expecting the buffer to be emptied by the interface software / OS to complete the data transfer…………. It does not empty the buffer for you……………. We found that Prolific chip sets tend to empty the buffer OK……………. The older Maplin units used to work fine (Prolific chip set), but I guess they may have changed suppliers………….

Dont forget to extend the engine breather mushroom (rear of the N/S rocker cover) ....................... I used to reguarly submerge mine and did suffer from tracking on the coils at first ................. clean the coils with a good solvent (brake cleaner) and then spray with a good dose of WD 40. Make sure all the leads are a really ggod fit. I think my final cure to the tracking was to fit really good quality 8mm leads.

Use 309(L) wire or rods ................

Generally speaking with the RV8 , any more than 3 thou ovality is rebore time. Up to 2 thou or so is just a light glazebreak and new rings. The ovality will be on the thrust side of the bore. Other than a bore gauge, an internal micrometer is the best tool. However, another way to measure which is very accurate, is to use an old fashioned engineers method. Cut a piece of 1/8th brazing rod to the same size as the bore diameter and then carefully dome the ends with a file so the length of the rod is the bore size. Then insert it into the bore at different points and use feeler gauges to measure the wear.

I could say .................... I told you so .....................

Vous rejoignez la tresse en métal pour épingler 7.

I have never got the circuits that Jon (FF) post to work with any reliability on ‘pick up’ pulse tacho’s. However, I guess you could get it to work by just switching a relay coil (just strip off the mechanical bits) and using the back EMF to drive the tacho ……….. I bet that’s all a tacho box is !

If your tacho was coil connected then it needs high voltage pulses. ECU direct tachos have a digital input. If you look in the MS manual this is what you need to do …………… I did the same with my tacho and it works fine. It just ‘gates’ the coil pulses for the tacho

Refer back to post #19 !

Been following this thread with interest ...............you have done a good job of the wiring which will serve you well in the future.............. a very high percentage of MS faults are usually down to iffy wiring ! If want a nice idle on an RV8 then it needs to run just a little rich at idle. You do this by looking at the idle bin and then making it and the bins around it (6 IIRC) just a tad richer. Make sure that the WB closed loop is turned off at below about 1100 rpm, otherwise it will try to make significant and strange adjustments to the table at very low rpm. Once you have it about right, then reset the mechanical base idle and connect up the IAC (or IAV – depends what camp you sit in !) ……………….. set the IAC to closed loop and then the fun really starts. Get ting a good map only takes a day of two and then allow for refined adjustments over a couple of longish journeys. However, getting the cold start set up correctly will take a week or three as you only really get one crack at it per day. Keep your eye on the IAT as latent heat will affect it (depends where you have fitted it) and cause MS to compensate as it think the inlet air is warm. You can compensate for this within MS.

Use Monel rivits. They dont come cheap but are comparable in price to S/S.

Dave W is on the money but also check the alternator voltage with the engine running (once you get it going again) . The MsECU & the EDIS module are quite tolerant to higher voltages, but the Ford coil packs will get quite upset ................. anything above 14.4 is trouble.