Turbocharger

But let's be honest Will - has the delay really held your build back? Or are they ready to roll under your completed vehicle, pipe up and go?

2 years on from first installing my VGT, I should give an update. The turbo itself has been quite reliable, even without the water cooling. I've used various different springs in Lara's special diaphragm housing, and when it works it works very well, but I have had problems with leaks from the capsule and from torn rubber diaphragms. (It can be bodged to run with fixed geometry, albeit without a good response, so failure doesn't mean a tow home!) I need the rubber diaphragm from a Td5 turbo wastegate capsule to make it reliable again - any clues where I could get one from cheaply, or on alternative materials for a flexible heatproof membrane? I think I've learned enough to avoid tearing another one.

If you've got one, he doesn't need to

As Sid says, it curls up like a spring - the photo makes it look rather untidy but I'm happy with it. I'll certainly keep an eye on them for the first few outings though. Sid - I had exactly the same, with a braided hose rubbing against the tyre sidewall - happily I had plenty of room to go down the gears and then use the handbrake. Interestingly the dual-circuit bit didn't seem to help, but I didn't want to keep pumping the brakes and run out of fluid so I towed my mate home, and he slowed down whenever I showed my brakelights. Probably not the safest, but it worked...

Gents, thank you for such thoughtful and considered responses. Without the help of this forum I would truely be in the same place but have slightly more time on my hands. I was hoping to strike a balance between 'lob em all in a drawer' and the kind of neat edge-to-edge, neatly lined up "James May" style spanner rack, a combination of organised but usable. And thanks for the tool porn too - as my Dad says "don't force it, use a bigger hammer".

It's always good to paint a car a nice quiet camo kind of colour, and then use a bright colour to identify the most vulnerable bits, and also the bit where you might keep tools to fix any damage to said vulnerable bits...

You can come and look at my 300 one if you like, not sure how much of it is 200Tdi / 2.5NAD / homemade though?

I want to get more spanners in the toolbox drawer - these 'crocodile teeth' spanner racks are the obvious answer and they're under a tenner on Ebay... But looking at them, there must be a similar offcut of something or other that's the same shape, but free - I'm racking my brains but I can't think what. Any ideas? PS I'm a quarter Scottish, before anyone mentions 'skinflint'...

I have a Chinese copy of the Maplin gun (or same factory, different colours?) - the four plastic 'nuts' on the nose of the moulding are quite distinctive. It struggles with wheel nuts if they're not cracked off with a bar first, but as a nut runner and for those specific jobs where a bolt with restricted access needs a clatter rather than skinning your knuckles where you can't get an extension in, it's priceless and I'll replace it with the same when it dies (I've had mine three years, I'd guess it comes out of the box twice a month)

Mill your own? Set up a production line - two yokes, a cross spider, tiny grease nipples - you know you want to... Very tidy piece of fabrication, very impressed.

Every time I want to service my hubs, change wheel bearings or otherwise get at the hub nuts, I end up lifting the caliper out of the way and bending the link pipe as gently as possible, to avoid undoing the hydraulic connections and having to rebleed the system. It works, but Mr Fatigue says it's bad news in the long run. Anyway, Mr Rock determined the end of lifetime for the braided hose on the other side to this one: so I had a chat with David at Llama 4x4 and he provided a banjo-bolt fitting and copper washers to allow me to fit new (sexy new blue coloured) hoses, fit them and take this poor, blurry photo for you all: 1) Top marks to David for a product which does what it says on the tin. 2) 180° of twist in the hose stops it rubbing on the tyre sidewall with potentially fatal consequences, ask me how I know... 3) I have 1x used braided flexi hose, +2" length, free or forum donation, seems a shame to chuck it.

It's worth what someone will pay for it, I guess. I'd find better places to put the thick end of £50k but, as a wise farmer once told me, "he's only got to sell it once".

Prop UJs? Though you'd expect it to change in proportion to the speed. I'd suggest you "allow the fault to develop" as we call it at work - when it falls off it'll be quite obvious what it was...

Hedley - how far away would you travel? My parents have some space near Ashbourne in Derbyshire.

I think the "mainstream" will end up 'renting mobility' rather than owning cars. We don't really buy a mobile phone any more, we just get one rolled up in the contract price and then get a new one every 12 months or so. This means the manufacturers sell more units and your car isn't trapped with an 8-track/cassette/CD/iPod connection for too long. I also think there will be a small core of people who enjoy their older cars, and hopefully we'll be a small enough minority that they'll ignore us (or concede free road tax to >25yr cars etc as a votewinner )

Thanks guys - I'll see who can fit us in for a reasonable price...

I'm planning a weekend of gentle laning and seeing the countryside for a couple of cars in August - any recommendations for campsites near Rhayader? This one http://www.wyesidecamping.co.uk looks good on the website, but nothing beats a first-hand recommendation. Any ideas or pointers for us?

In fact, on collecting my face mask today I also picked up a welder's leather apron. I can't see that it'll do me any harm (if I remember to wear it) for welding/grinding/dropping stuff on myself, proper gloves are already in stock in my shed too.

David - whereabouts was it? It's a big county, I'm guessing top-right-ish if they had Sheff accents?

Guess who just bought a full-face polycarb mask?

If I'm going it'll be in the Volvo. No point driving all that way at 20mpg, to park up where nobody's interested in my car unless they're looking at easily-unbolted goodies!

First step is to draw a graph of the boost vs extension you already have - I connect the compressor to the pipe off the inlet manifold, turn down the regulator and then read extension from a tape measure and boost from the dash gauge at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 bar. Mine starts to move at 0.25 bar and is fully extended by 0.5 bar now; if I change the spring again I'd aim for movement starting at 0.4 bar and fully open at 0.75 bar or slightly higher.

First step is to draw a graph of the boost vs extension you already have - I connect the compressor to the pipe off the inlet manifold, turn down the regulator and then read extension from a tape measure and boost from the dash gauge at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 bar. Mine starts to move at 0.25 bar and is fully extended by 0.5 bar now; if I change the spring again I'd aim for movement starting at 0.4 bar and fully open at 0.75 bar or slightly higher.

Inspired by this thread, I've had another look at the boost diaphragm on my VGT again today. As suspected it was leaking, so I replaced the membrane with a sheet of flat rubber from another capsule - not perfect but a passable effort and it seals now. This is the first time I've had a leak-free membrane and a weak spring in there to open it up almost immediately, to get it away from surging at low revs. It goes like a rocket, particularly when pulling away. I'd say it's quicker to 20mph than my 1.8 K-series MGF now, and the 285 tyres will chirrup if I'm accelerating from a standstill in low box. Thanks LR4x4 - I needed a kick up the arse!

The steady-state response isn't adjustable unless I change the spring. I drew a graph of the diaphragm position at various pressures, it helped me to understand the effect of different spring stiffnesses, lengths and preload - maybe you should do the same? If you're using a wastegate diaphragm you'll probably find no movement until it hits 0.9bar, then full extension by 1.1bar (to open the eastegate!) but I found I needed a much more proportional response for the VGT to smooth out silly peaks and give a sensible response.