Vard66

That's because it's made of awesome, and covered in British Racing Green paint. Latest little interesting thing is that my boost gauge has stopped working, which is probably going to be a vacuum leak somewhere in my somewhat botched T piece and gauge feed, but is kinda looking like my boost gauge, brand new in '09 and unused until now is broken. Wonderful.

Diagnosed my befuddling overboosting issue this afternoon, when I opened the bonnet and immediately spotted the actuator hose - which was split at the actuator end, and in fact almost ripped right off. THAAAAT'S why the actuator hasn't been opening, methinks.

Induction setup on, A'PEXi routed down into the bumper cavity, after much swearing and hurling of tools - not because it was difficult, just because I kept being a tw@t, and tightening the clamp up without thinking about where it was in relation to the bolt I needed to put through the chassis leg. MBC also plumbed in, and I'm about to head off to the pub, so I'll go early and get the boost set to 12PSi on the way, got the tools in the glove compartment. Also, big thanks to Rich_1988, for spending a good few hours here helping me wire in my sub and amp - and then subsequently for lending me his spare ones when we discovered that the speaker in my sub doesn't work. :annoy: So I currently have the wiring all routed beautifully, along the sills and tidily under and behind trim everywhere along the route, until it gets to the boot, and then I have what looks like a cable based abortion, wired to a bright grey sub in my dark boot, with a funny lavender coloured amp on it, and a light switch wedged between the amp and the sub box. Epic ghetto setup. So now I'm going to have to buy a new 10" speaker for the sub. Anyone recommend any particular brands? I'm not terribly up on what's good and what's not worth buying.

Mine is! And will continue to be. I'm in the middle of a radiator change, not because this one is broken or leaking, just because I have an absolutely pristine one that I've just finished touching up cosmetically with spare radiator paint after spraying my intercooler. The fact that while I'm doing that I happen to be putting on a manual boost controller, a big proper induction setup, a modified engine mount to clear a bigger turbo's inlet housing and a socking great big front mounted intercooler is accidental. Y'know, it happens.

Just not terribly great at, y'know, actually upholding the law

Welcome to here, Gary.

Suspicious character, this Noonan. Keep your eyes on him.

Failed to get pictures of the exhaust this morning and afternoon, because I've spent the morning picking up my freshly shotblasted and powder coated 285mm caliper carriers, and buying some brake pipe spanners, and the afternoon fitting the above and new 285mm discs. I did however fail entirely with the first union I encountered (which was basically circular instead of hexagonal, just a blob of rust somewhere between 14mm and 15mm in diameter). So instead of fitting my nice Goodridge braided brake hoses, I gave the system a proper bleeding, engine running, then went for a blat and got the ABS to kick in, then bled them again. The clutch shares the hydraulc system with the brakes on the 800s, and clutch pedal (which was pretty stiff and hard, hur hur) brake pedal and overall braking performance are all at least 1000% better than they were when I first drove her. The bite point is still quite high, but the clutch is nice and smooth and light now.

Today's update; Exhaust on! With help from Rich, I fitted the 2.5" decatted stainless Powerflow this afternoon, old system looks pretty good, including the back box which looks new. It was however, not loud enough. :twisted: I *think* I've butchered the turbo oil drain pipe however - it's a tight fit between the downpipe and the drain pipe, and my UJ has made a bit of a mess of it. Not a major problem, I have two or three spares, so I'll bang one of those on tomorrow morning. Will put pictures up tomorrow.

Aye, with the notable exception of me knocking the ECU multiplug enough to stop her fuelling earlier, which scared me BADLY after two days of ownership. Wedge suggested I check it because I was working around the MAP line earlier while sorting out vac lines for the dump valve and boost gauge, and BINGO, she starts and runs again, panic relieved.

Update; Saggy, wobbly corner'd rear bumper sorted. I noticed the O/S corner of the rear bumper stuck out a little yesterday - "I know what that is", I thought. Sure enough, when I pulled it back to have a peek, I found the bumper bracket was... a little out of shape. Pulled two workable examples off my donor Vit, and used one of them on the new BRG Vitesse (note to self: must name this car, I can't keep calling it 'The BRG Vitesse'). Shiny, non wobbly bumper. I've also replaced several trim clips in the boot, and affixed the RT stickers in my usual place. As soon as I can order one, I'll also get an 800.info sticker in the windscreen, above the tax disc holder. However, a working dump valve still elludes me; I'm beginning to wonder if the diaphragm I looked at and found to be fine, doesn't have a little split in it that I missed, despite my thorough examination. I have also put the first thin coat of rad paint on my FMIC, in preparation for fitting it, hopefully some time this week.

Aye, she's more'n 18 years old and still looking good! She's not perfect but overall she's damn tidy. Today's update; Interior anal retentiveness. The original doorcards had no leather, solid plasticky handles/arm rests, charcoal switchpacks, early (red) puddle light lenses and dark wood trim without the gold script, so I've taken the whole lot off my donor Vitesse and painstakingly swapped it over - including having to drill the rear doorcards to get the leather on. New light grey floormats courtesy of MG Mal, whom we visited yesterday after picking up Wedge's new 216 GTi. With some help from the Wedge, who drove her up from Devon this weekend, I've also got swapped all the wood in the centre of the dash, fitted, plumbed in and wired in my nice Prosport boost gauge, fitted my dump valve (*which isn't dumping, curious issue there, assembled correctly, diaphragm is fine, the car is boosting, but it won't dump... :? ). BIG thank you to Master Wedge, gentleman and a scholar for firstly, a lovely car, and secondly, help and expertise getting the ruddy rear doorcards off and back on the car, when he should in fact have left for Devon an hour and a half earlier! Tomorrow; elbow back exhaust, rear bumper off and replace the mounting bracket, which is splayed wider than Jon's mum's legs on a Friday night, and probably the induction if I have time. Because this is an early, 180PS Vitesse, the MEMS unit is on the bulkhead and the charcoal canister is on the N/S suspension turret. This means the battery is a good 2-3" further back in the bay, and there's no charcoal canister in the N/S bumper cavity - the perfect location to route my A'PEXi down and bolt it in place in a neutral, heat shielded environment, and lots of space in front of the battery to route it!

1993 British Racing Green Fastback 820 Vitesse. Bought this 15th October 2011 from a good friend, who I know I can trust, who's fully as OCD about a car's condition as I am, with the added point that he can bring himself to polish a whole 800 by hand! 180PS Vitesse. Bought at 91k, Good service history and in very good condition overall, as well as being polished half to death! Parts I've replaced since owning her - 16/10/20011 - Tired interior wood/doorcard trims. 17/10/2011 - Rear bumper mounting brackets 21/10/2011 - Elbow back stainless Powerflow exhaust fitted, 22/10/2011 - Front brake caliper carriers, 22/10/2011 - Front brake discs - Genuine Unipart GBD 90800, 21/11/2011 - Distributor cap, 21/11/2011 - Rotor arm General maintenance - 22/10/2011 - Brake & Clutch hydraulics flushed and bled Planned maintenace - Replace cracked/faded reg plates, Rebuild gearbox, with a full compliment of steel caged bearings, Fit later MY Recaro front seats, Fit later MY Recaro 2 seat rear upright, Diagnose and sort map light unit's issues, Diagnose and sort temperamental Valeo fob, Replace Radiator, Replace oil filter, Replace fuel filter, Oil change, Gearbox oil change, Fit Vitesse Sport steering rack, new rack ends, gaiters and TREs, Replace bottom balljoints, Current modifications since my ownership - ??/??/???? - Goodridge Braided Brake hoses, 15/10/2011 - Stem type Atmospheric dump valve (of unknown manufacturer), 15/10/2011 - Prosport Smoked Amber Boost Gauge, 15/10/2011 - Late R17 Smoked Puddle Light Lenses, 21/10/2011 - Elbow back Stainless Steel Powerflow exhaust - 2.5" bore, single silencer box, 3" Flexi, decat pipe, all joints sleeved rather than flanged, twin 2.5" inward rolled tips, with inserts to reduce noise. 22/10/2011 - XX 827 285mm front caliper carriers, new Unipart genuine vented discs. Rubber of choice - Planned modifications - Remove OEM front number plate mount, Vitesse Sport 17" Alloys, Late R17 High Level Brake Light Unit, Magnecor ignition leads, Retrofit rear cigarette lighter, Retrofit front footwell lighting, Of which; - are in my possession and waiting to be fitted - Custom 20" x 15" Double Pass Front-Mount Intercooler - retaining OE boost pipe arrangement, PowerTek Ball & Spring type Manual Boost Controller, A'Pexi Power Intake type air filter, replacing OE airbox, 76mm Single Ply Neoprene Cold Air Ducting, Full set of front bushes in Polyurethane, Modified crash bar to accomodate the FMIC, - have been ordered - - are yet to be acquired - Nissan Pulsar GTiR type Garrett T28 turbo, Emissions results - - Fast Idle Test - CO2 (%vol): Lambda:

That's the theory Joe, yar. Might get a few down from the Midlands or even the North with the promise of booze and actual kip instead of a three hour drive back after the meet.

Perhaps I misjudged? Perhaps I imagined seeing a few members in the local and surrounding counties. Am I in fact invisible? Sweet. I'm invisible. I gotta try something.

Would any of you folks be interested in joining with a meet I sort out every three months or so for Rovertech? Usually we will meet at the White Horse in Uffington, and go for a 'spirited drive' to Abingdon, finishing with a pub lunch in the Nag's Head. However, the Nags' is now closed; or it was the last time we all landed there, so I shall be shaking up the format of the Uffington meets anyway, and figured it couldn't be a bad idea to extend the invite. I'll be having a natter with the RT guys shortly, but input from the OX/SN/BA/RG guys from here would be appreciated also; suggestions of good pubs with big, long car parks, good roads, that sort of thing. I'm thinking that in the summer time it might be a reasonable idea to make the trip from Uffington/somewhere in the surrounding area to The Black Horse, and then for BBQ at the local campsite, I intend to have a word with the owner - apparently he's usually happy to do very cheap deals when winter is approaching or receding, so it may definitely be an option.

Well, alright. If everyone else is doing it. My first Rover, my second car - the first one I loved enough not to mistreat; 1991 214 SLi. My current long term project; 1994 Rover 420 GSi Turbo As you may notice, she's missing an arch. And a chunk of sill. The rot has been cut out, and currently she's waiting for me to man up and get some welding practice before having a crack at banging some new sills and arch sections onto her myself, as a bit of a learn by doing crash-course. My 1992 Rover 216 GTi TwinCam; Hm. My 1998 Rover 820 Vitesse; Now missed, horribly, every time I think about it. Maybe it's sad, but it actually broke my heart when I finally made myself get her picked up, and watched her fork-lifted onto a flatbed transit.

I finished having a hissy fit now. Beer helped. A lot. Of Beer. Helped.

Sure. If it gets you through the day, you could say that.

I sold it because I had no money, and it had HG/possibly even cracked block issues. And that picture was taken in.... I dunno, May '07? The garage... I'm not sure where you're going with that jibe. Care to elaborate so I can tell you to piss off?

... Wat? I struggle with standover clearance on a ZXR400 and a 675, but I have yet to find a Duc I'm not comfortable on. Also, ducatiboy, I can only say one thing about that 996. *Edit* Now that I've posted in here, it seems rude not to be a bit of a photo-balloon. My (now sold ) Kwak. 1994 Kawasaki ZXR 400 L4. On Bridgestone Battlax BT 020s front and rear Micron can, EBC Pro-Lite discs and pads I believe are also EBC, though I know not what. Aftermarket fairings, [Tail tidy, rear indicators, plate mounted reflector] (those three were done after I took these pics, so you won't see the indicators, but they were Motrax LED tips.) (Not very many) tonnes of chuckable green fun. (That is me a couple of years ago, and no, I'm not trying to look mean, I'm squinting against the sunlight)

... the hell? That wasn't quite what I meant, Moki. I wondered why I couldn't log in... Can't you change the bit of text where it says 'Alfisti' on this forum?

Just don't go in there too hard and fast with the 'BUT IT'S A 3 SERIES' line. It won't end well. All those fucknuts I mentioned earlier will have a field day. Y'know, being that most of them aren't there for any practical reason anyway, they'll latch onto it like limpets on a rock.

*frowns* I KNEW there would be something anachronological in that post that I missed.

As of Wednesday, Ma was supposed to be chopping in her 121hp of AWD sluggish, ratty, misfiring, fuel drinking, PAS belt screaming, exhaust blowing, '01 Subaru Legacy GL AWD, for favour of something she's wanted for a while; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2000-Subaru-F ... 1e63e91d7d However. The dealer rang us on Weds to say that they were going to keep it to try to sort the rough running when cold issue; which they traced to the MAF sensor, so they fitted a new one, and it was delivered this morning. Looks alright, if a bit scratched, and with some particularly odd zebra patterned floormats inside. However, I have so far found four or five things I'd have knocked some off the asking price for; Minor scratching all over the bodywork - most of which I suspect will come out with a thorough machine polishing. Blowing exhaust mid section - possibly the cat section? Bent Fuel Filler Flap. Spare Wheel Well under 2" of water, hinted at by all the tiedowns in the boot being rusted to death. Rot on the bottom seam of the boot panel. Other than that, it seems nice. I have paperwork in front of me for; A Laserline ( ) Thatcham Cat. 2 ( ) Immobiliser system with two touch-disarm fobs. An engine rebuild dated 15th Jan 2011, including; Crank, Shells, Mains, Cam Seals, Cam Bolt Seal (?) 2x ConRods, 2x Pistons, Flywheel, Oil Pump, Clutch kit, Plus all gaskets, filters and fluids. The receipt's invoice totals £3246.63. I'm going to phone the specialist who undertook the build in a minute to see if I can find out at what indicated mileage the new build was done, because this paperwork is lacking it. Pictures! Odd choice in floormats; Some of the deeper scratches, under the O/S door mirror. Bent Filler Flap Slightly shonky window tints in the back windows Long term they'll probably come out, but at the moment they actually help with low evening sun coming in the rear windows. Rust on the N/S bottom inside of the boot panel The leak could be from the light clusters, or possibly from the silly aerial that's on the top of the tailgate for... no reason I can identify. Fukkit. Photobucket is such a pile of wank, rotating this photo just seems to rotate the canvas and leave the image, so it squashes and distorts it, so I'm just going to upload it as it is. Right, here we go. This evening after work I took it for a oh, about 40 mile shakedown, to see how it went, how it handled, what was wrong if anything. I noticed there are a few flat spots through the rev range, but I initially put that down to the fact that Ma put 95 in it instead of higher RON. Went well enough if possibly not worthily of 250 ponies until I was in Marlb on the way back, when it started hesitating - worse than it had been. I mean you'd put your foot down and it'd lurch, then nothing, and you could put the pedal to the floor without it doing anything. Sometimes it would lurch again, or backfire, and sometimes it'd be fine. Then on the way back from Marlb to my house (11m), it started cutting power entirely whilst cruising at about 80. I slowed to about 50, and when I put the clutch in at one point to see if the revs would return to idle, it stalled and the CHECK ENGINE light came on for about five seconds. I sighed and restarted it with the clutch in, still rolling at about 40. It went well enough for another mile or so before repeating this. In all, the CHECK ENGINE light came on six times this evening, and it stalled twice. Got back to the house and switched the A/C off as a matter of course, and then thought, and went back out for another 5m to see if it made any difference with the A/C off, this time with Ma in the car so she could see if it did the hesitating and lurching again. It didn't for a while, and having the A/C off didn't seem to make any odds, as it did start doing it again. Anyway. Got home eventually after another having to pull over on the A4 and put the hazards on while I tried to get some power back to pull off again, and when I got out of the car, I noticed I could hear a hissing, so I got my phone out, popped the bonnet, and went to the front of the car, to find steam pouring out of the grille/gap under the bonnet. Turns out the O/S bottom corner of the rad seems to be leaking, spraying the front of the engine with coolant - Subaru boys, any idea if there's anything in that general area that could be causing the throttle issues?