SimonB

It's really not that big a deal losing an engine. The A380 can happily fly with 2 engines, and I expect make a controlled descent and landing with 1. Aircraft engines are designed with a very strong cowling that should contain debris from say a turbine blade failing - they test that kind of thing when building new engines by using explosives on the turbine blades at full takeoff power. The mounts that attach them to the wing are also designed to shear if the engine vibrates too much, so the engine falls off rather than causes damage to the wing. So it's pretty unusual to see damage to the wing as a result of an engine failure, I expect they'll be having a good look at why that happened. Still, that level of damage is not a major drama.

Just because the DVLA "aren't aware of any" that meet the requirements doesn't mean they aren't legal. Let's face it, the DVLA aren't aware of their own backside most of the time! It just means nobody has bothered getting them to examine one. As long as they meet the other requirements for colour, reflectivity, font size etc then they will be legal.

On the 19th-20th November I am taking part in a sponsored 24 hour simulated sportscar race for Children in Need. It's at the Racecentre in Chandlers Ford, which is a very cool place with 10 simulator pods, which are basically single seater cockpits with proper pedals and steering wheels and big projectors in front. There's a team of 8 of us from work, last year the other teams included Virgin, McLaren and Porsche racing! We have to sort out our strategy, when to come in for fuel and tyres and swap drivers etc from the simulated pit wall too. So, I'm after sponsorship - we've only got a fiver so far and we're aiming for at least £1000! Any donations very greatfully received! The justgiving link is here: http://www.justgiving.com/NATS24hrRacingTeam We'll find out the car and track at the first practice session on the 8th - last year it was Audi R8 LMP1s and Laguna Seca.

The theory is sound? Please tell me you are joking here! Let's see, a 3L engine at 6000rpm say at atmospheric pressure (i.e. no boost) is going to use something like 150litres of air per second. So how much difference do you think a diddy air tank is going to make? Or a piddly compressor which is going to take minutes to move that much air? It's total bollocks I'm afraid, you'd be better off running a hose into the car and blowing down it...

The rate of duty you pay depends on what it is. There are literally thousands of categories all with different rates. It varies from 0 to 15 or so % but most things are around 5%. You can look up the TARIC code somewhere on one of the government websites and find out. The "allowance" before you pay is very low, it's something like £18. The £135 or whatever it is applies to personal imports I think - i.e. stuff you carry with you when you come back. You pay import duty on the value of the goods plus the postage, then VAT on the total with import duty added.

Here's mine...

Pic from Le Mans this year...

Before going to Le Mans I just had enough time to get it to the bodyshop to have my new front bumper sprayed (the old one was cracked for the 2nd time so pretty dead), TRD spoiler sides sprayed and the scratch where someone had keyed it years ago on the boot sorted. It made it there and back no problem and since then I've switched on the traction control option on the Motec – the car is now spinning its wheels in the dry in 3rd at peak torque so it was kind of needed! I have adjustable slip as per RLTC with a rotary switch. Motec or Racelogic want 100 odd quid for one but it's basically a rotary switch, a few resistors and an LED so I went to Maplin and knocked one up. I also fixed a couple of other Motec issues. Ever since it was installed the fuel pump has run constantly once the ignition is on, despite being set to run for 8 seconds. An output on the Motec is hooked up to trigger the EFI main relay, the fuel pump relays are triggered from that (they have a separate power feed direct from the battery). I couldn't figure out how the EFI relay was being held on after the 8 seconds. Eventually I realised after going through the wiring diagram with a fine tooth comb that it was the idle air control valve which is controlled by the Motec too (although it has never actually worked)! The way the Motec drives this is designed to work for unipolar (like the Supras) or bipolar stepper motors. The normal way it's wired on the Supra there are 2 +12V connections wired to the EFI relay. The standard ECU switches the 4 stepper coils to ground. The Motec uses +5 and -5 volts across the coils (as that works for bipolar too). That meant it was sending +5V back through the +12V feed which was enough to trigger the EFI relay. I cut the two +12V connections to the IACV and no more constant fuel pump! Two of the IACV connections were also hooked up backwards so correcting that made my IACV work. If you have a Motec or other aftermarket ECU that's hooked up to the IACV it's worth checking the wiring... I've also redone my rad fan controller so it runs both fans at slow and high speed rather than one or both fans and so it runs them at low speed with the aircon on which it didn't before. Much better. Finally got round to fitting my Mocal oil cooler for the power steering too. Just need to regass the aircon now I've hopefully fixed the leak it had and have my wheels refurbed...

Anyway, it then passed MOT so I set about running it in. I needed to get it finished by Le Mans (June this year) so I booked it in at SRR with Ryan to re-map it. The first mapping session didn't go fully to plan! Ryan did all the part throttle and cruise stuff and then we found it was misfiring under boost. The usual suspect is coilpacks, Ryan helped me switch a couple for some spares he had to see if we could cure it – it improved a bit but it was still a problem so we got all the cruise, idle etc sorted on the road and called it a day. What we had done on the dyno was very encouraging though! We also had issues with boost hosing blowing off – mainly because I had forgotten that I'd done a temporary job on the intercooler to throttle body pipe when I shortened it for the new intake mani and it didn't have a bead on! So I bought a new set of coilpacks and changed those. I think the real issue though was the ignitor ground – it's normally grounded to the intake manifold so I'd had to move it after fitting the RMR one and the location I chose was not giving a great connection, so I cleaned it up and moved it. That sorted the misfire. I sorted out the intercooler pipework – it really needs to be welded together properly but I used a few rivets around the circumference near the edge to provide a bead. With all that done it was time for the 2nd attempt. I was running very short on time by now since it had to be up and running so I could take it to Le Mans in June! As soon as we got it on the dyno it was apparent there was a huge boost leak somewhere which turned out to be a burst silicon connector - unfortunately the most awkward one coming off the turbo. What had basically happened is the oil feed hose had been pressed against it and the heat had caused a weak spot which split. Here is where I have to thank Ryan for giving me a hand and Charlie from SRR for lending me a silicon pipe off one of his cars. It was a 90 degree rather than 45 but we managed to bodge it together although I did leave most of the skin off my arm in the engine bay in the process! After that it was on with mapping! So I'll get to the point, it made 673BHP at around 1.5BAR boost. Torque was around 525ft/lbs. We didn't take it any higher because the tyres had got hot and were starting to slip on the dyno and Ryan noticed the engine coolant temps rising slightly under full power. Also the air temp sensor packed in (this later turned out to be a short in the wiring where the heat shrink round a solder joint had split under engine bay temps). Otherwise we would have hit 700BHP for sure. The throttle response is awesome too, the combination of the head work and intake manifold/throttle body work beautifully. And the noise is unbelievable with the titanium exhaust, it screams like crazy at full whack and sounds amazing.

Haven't updated this in a long time, so here goes. With the engine in and running I needed to get it MOTed before I could run it in. Unfortunately it failed! That's because there was an exhaust leak somewhere round the turbo/manifold. One of the bolts holding the wastegate pipe to the manifold I had forgotten to tighten up – result a blown gasket which was a pain since it was an odd size triangular one that took me ages to find. I changed that and could still hear a leak! So I faffed about changing the turbo gasket – the manifold flange looked like the one I had may not be sealing. Tried making my own from copper, all to no avail. Eventually I gave up and decided it must be either a crack in the pipework or the wastegate gone bad. I basically couldn't be arsed trying to fix it and suspected I might be near the limit of the manifold anyway so I decided to switch to one of Paul Whiffin's tubular manifold and pipework kits. That meant I had to rejig the intercooler and intake pipework I had trouble with the oil return fouling the compressor cover (I have a larger cover than most I think with a 3inch exit). After fiddling around with it I managed to get it to fit (just) using a 45 degree union. It's all very fiddly! The other thing I needed to do was do something about the throttle response. The return spring on the throttle body is very weak, and that coupled with the massive size of the butterfly made it really horrible to drive, the throttle was WAY too sensitive. So I solved that by switching from the 90mm TB to a 75mm one and adding a pair of extra return springs. Here's the engine bay pics:-

You should have heard Radio Le Mans when the Peugeot's crashed in the pitlane. They're not really Peugeot's greatest fans, I believe the word they used was "incompetent" . The team I was most impressed with was Aston Martin, 4th in a petrol car was a great finish, plus that V12 sounded absolutely brilliant as it went screaming by, just needed to be a bit louder.

If the clutch is slipping it will tend to do so in higher gears. At the end of the day the only thing with any give between the engine and wheels is the clutch, so that's got to be it if the revs are jumping up.

Yeah but again it's only for cars registered after 2006 at the moment - cars before then will still be in band K for 2010. They haven't announced what they are doing for 2011 although it sounds like they may get rid of that exception.

No they aren't. Cars registered between 1st March 2001 and 23rd March 2006 are in band K if they have >225g/km emissions. That's £215. Not sure where £455 comes from, even newer cars are only a max of £405 at the moment. Details are here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_10012524

I find a couple of wobble extension bars are much better than universal joints. They don't break, and are easier to guide into position because they don't flop over completely. Here you go: http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/pro171 EDIT: In fact these are the ones I was meaning: http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/pro-55-5-pce-1-2in-drive-ext-wobble-b

A customer is anyone you are providing a service to. Sometimes people forget that though, especially in support type roles. Calling them customers is probably a way of giving you a hint that you need to treat them as customers who you need to be focussed on and try and help rather than just telling them to reboot it and hope for the best.

It's part of the bumper. There are various other diffusers available, like the top secret and do luck ones. If you do a seach there's a thread somewhere with pics of them all.

Happy Birthday mate!

Close, but no cigar. The E and S relate to the type of compressor cover. The E has a 3inch inlet and 2inch outlet. The S has a 4 inch inlet and 2.5inch outlet. The H has a 4 inch inlet and 3 inch outlet. For some reason that I've never quite understood most people seem to go for the S which I think is a bit daft because you then have to step up from 2.5 to 3 inch to connect up to the intercooler pipework. I have a H type. The different covers do have slightly different A/R ratios too, but that's also because of what the A/R actually means. It's the ratio of the area of the inlet (for exhaust housings) or outlet (for compressor housings) to the radius of the housing. So if you have a 3inch outlet instead of a 2.5inch you will obviously change the A/R.

You realise that cameras are not allowed at the Nurburgring? So you're going to need something that can't be seen by the guy manning the barrier looking into your car or you'll be in trouble.

If you do a search for air con diagnostic you will find the procedure for doing a diagnostic check on the air con which will tell you what it thinks is wrong.