Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 2, 2012 20:29:02 GMT
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well, as i posted on FB the other day, time to crack on with this heres what ive amassed to fit- wheels, tyres, halfshafts, welded diff, loads of 2" stainless exhaist components, engine, box, and all new consumables. it amounts to pretty much the entire running gear of the car! first, id cleaned up the rest of the wheels. many hours with scotchbrite and WD40 removing all the accumilated tyre sealant gunk on the rim beds before i fitted up the new tyres, and filing out scrapes and straightening up the lips. i went for 175/65R13 on the back in the end, again for that 'old school stretch' look- spurred on by these looking so awesome, i decided to crack on with the rear axle, which is where it all went to cock. i new the escort shafts fitted the lada casing and diff, and had bought some new rear wheel bearings cos i had to resort to destroying the lada ones to get em off cos they were a much tighter fit than the escort ones. i then proceeded to strip the lada diff out of the casing, and try to fit the escort one. this is where the internetz failed me, as it isnt the same bolt pattern at all- its totally different and wont bolt up. as i want to be able to easily and cheaply swap diff ratios, i want the escort one in there. that and its loads bigger and obviously a lot stronger. so, i decided to just drop the axle and swap the bracketry over to the escort axle, as it was easier than trying to adapt the diff to the lada casing, and it also meant i had bolt-on brackets sat here for the disc conversion rather than having to make some. so, i dragged out the lada casing ans started chopping bits off- and grinding off the ridiculous amounts of weld that had been used to hold the 4-bar brackets on the escort casing i had. this lot took over 2 hours to grind off there was so much of it!- i swapped over, measured up and tacked on the top 4-link brackets first- yeah, ladas are 5-link from the factory, suck on that one escort/chevette/viva/any other small rwd saloon owners!! i then started to hack off the bottom ones, which were very seriously attached and took a LOT of removing- so much for ladas being put together badly eh! so ive got to finish those off on monday, swap the panhard bracket, and then thats all 5 done. the coil spring cups and shock mounts wont be getting done, cos ive kinda jumped two steps and got some mk1 golf coilovers to turret the rear at the same time ive already turned down the OD of the escort hub flanges so mk1 fiesta discs fit over them, i have some caliper brackets and brand new sierra calipers sat on the shelf too, and a brand new handbrake cable. I'm only waiting for some longer,metric wheel studs to fit my wheel nuts, and some new brake pads, and after a splash of paint ile be able to assemble the axle up ready to fit, complete with welded diff.
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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Sept 2, 2012 21:01:46 GMT
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Looks amazing mate, I'd almost forgotten that you still had this as well as the rest of your awesome fleet As always, the work is second to none, Denise is away for a couple of weeks so I'm definitely going to pop over for a brew soon. (and a nosey round )
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Sept 2, 2012 21:13:35 GMT
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I love this car and the fact u do everything the right way.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 4, 2012 20:02:30 GMT
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Looks amazing mate, I'd almost forgotten that you still had this as well as the rest of your awesome fleet As always, the work is second to none, Denise is away for a couple of weeks so I'm definitely going to pop over for a brew soon. (and a nosey round ) cheers pete, yeah i kinda forgot i had it too its now the most pressing thing getting it back together, as i want it done for a certain meet thats going down, and i want to be able to thin the fleet a bit so need it working so i can use it. that and i actually really miss driving it! just what i need, a small, light rwd car with over 150bhp/ton and a welded diff just as the winter starts ;D benny- cheers, your build don't look to shabby either from your thread. you need to get more pics up though, show us all the details! I'm a firm believer that theres no point doing summat if you don't do it to the best of your ability, i cant stand people who have a half assed attempt at things.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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well, time for a big one on this! axle is now dry-built without paint, and heres how I did do it. first I liberated those pesky lower 4-bar brackets from the bits of axle tube. 6x 1/2" spotwelds on each one, what a curse word to get apart!! so much for ladas terrible build quality eh. safe to say the old axle casing is now scrap. I recycled as much as possible before it went in the scrap bin though, I even cut out the drain/fill plugs for a sump ive just made for a customer! next, I aligned and welded all 4 4-bar brackets to the escort casing, which took a bit of thinking as it was 10mm narrower. then I did the panhard bracket as well, which had to be modded a bit as it previously triangulated across to the spring platform, which aint there no more, so I had to pie cut it, bend it in a bit and reshape the end to fit to the axle tube. then, I fitted the casing up, it slipped straight in with all the bolts perfectly aligned, so the brackets must be cock-on- you can see I then started playing round with caliper positioning to get them somewhere they wont hit owt. they ended up having to go at the top and slightly forward cos of the big panhard bracket, and to allow the handrake cables to come in from a workable angle. means ile have to redrill one hole on the caliper brackets as they're intended to go round the back, but thats no biggie. I don't think ive explained the disc conversion yet, but I'm using the tried and tested sierra/fiesta based setup that fits within 13" wheels. they're sierra calipers, which I happened to have a brand new pair of, mk1 fez (i think) discs, and shorttrack racing caliper brackets. you have to machine about 2mm off the outer edge of the hub flange for the discs to go over, but once thats done its all bolt together really. it was done for cheapness as much as anything, if you can machine your own shafts and pick up sierra calipers cheap (which is getting harder) its cheaper than new shoes and wheel cyls for the stock drums. I think I paid £18 the pair delivers for brembo discs, and 15 quid for the caliper brackets. I already had the calipers and carries and handbrake cable so they were free. I still need to buy some pads and flexis, but the whole setup will be well under 50 notes. next, my longer, metric wheel studs turned up- (£9.50 inc. post for 8, another bargain!) so I fitted them to the halfshafts, and pressed the bearings and retainers id previously dismantled back together, and fitted up the shafts, as well as a welded 3.89 diff (the lada one that came off was 3.90). youll notice the new panhard peeking out there too, more on that in a mo. calipers and discs on. could do with adding a disc retaining screw really- and then, the good bit. some sleeve nuts out of the big stash of bolts ive got, and fit up the wheels (13x8.25" et -13 with 175/65R13). pretty nice huh? and, heres the fitment- ive not even rolled those arches yet, the arch lips were folded when I put the ATS on and thats it!
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Last Edit: Sept 6, 2012 9:58:56 GMT by Dez
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 6, 2012 10:18:18 GMT
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next up, the new adjustable panhard rod. the old one was bent and too long, it sat the wheels off to one side by 5mm.( would probly have been more if it weren't bent too). id bought a cheap (like £10) 'universal' panhard kit off someone on rods and sods, as it used 1/2" rose joints, and the standard lada one used 12mm bolts, so just the slightest opening out of the holes and they bolt up. i used some misalignment spacers and a couple of washers to take up the extra width on the brackets, i then tacked the washers to the spacers to aid instillation. with those bits bolted up at both ends, i ran into a slight problem- the bit of tube that came in the kit was about 1.5" too short. no worries, i found a old sherpa van trackrod in the workshop that was the right size tube and cut that up instead. turns out the threaded weld-in inserts for the ends were a better fit in the sherpa trackrod than the tube that came with the kit! i cleaned it all up, sanded it back, welded the ends in, and gave it a coat of red paint before fitting. adds 10 brake, right? looks pretty good in-situ, and does the job nicely. next, i decided to finish off the steering setup, as the bits i needed for that had been sat on the 'inbox' bench for a while. i needed a spherical bearing to support the bottom of the column where it passes through the floor/firewall, so i bought a 3/4" bearing, housing and retaining clip from mcGill motorsport. i made up a mounting plate for the housing which i welded on, then a sandwich plate to go the other side as well, both of the big enough to cover the current hole in the firewall. i drilled and tapped the mounting plate, and the two bolt together with 4x m6 buttonheads- heres the bearing, with the steering link that i had to add a sleeve to run in the bearing to. i had to weld on then machine back to fit in it. i had to go up to 3/4" rather than use a 5/8" that the shaft actually was, as the splined bit at the end is 18mm diameter and it wouldnt fit on! here it is fitted up, finishes off the hole in the floor quite nicely i think- and heres where it emerges on the other side- got to pull it apart and paint it all yet, but thats the steering done as far as the rack. got to get it back on its wheels to cut the TREs down to length, then itll be done. a bit of engine bay tidying, then motor in next i recon
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Sept 6, 2012 10:26:05 GMT
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Don't usually comment much on readers' rides, but this really is ace. Not just the bang-on concept but the work that's gone into it. Very jealous of your skills!
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EmDee
Club Retro Rides Member
Committer of Autrocities.
Posts: 5,920
Club RR Member Number: 108
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Sept 6, 2012 10:34:56 GMT
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I don't think anything I post can do this justice.
<3
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Brigsy
Part of things
Posts: 610
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Sept 6, 2012 11:49:27 GMT
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Proper job dez! On The road soon?
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Sept 6, 2012 11:56:01 GMT
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dez will you need some sort of gater for the steering bearing on each side or is that now a sealed unit ? (ie stops stuff from getting into the bearing and also into the cab)
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2001 Micra 998 - Daily
1986 Mini Mayfair 998 - Former Daily - Garaged
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Sept 6, 2012 21:41:05 GMT
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Great work Dez. Good to see someone putting time in and doing a real proper job on a Lada. Dry building and fabrication and then stripping it down for paint is what I like to see on any car. This is gonna be one cool Lada once its done.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 6, 2012 21:51:29 GMT
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thanks everyone!
brigsy- yes thats the plan. i want it usable for 21st oct. plus the missus passed her test today, and ive been using her lupo for the past few months, so i kind need it done!
mephiston- the plate itself seals the cab, thats why i made it like i did. the bearing itself can theroetically get dirt in it, but with where it sits i don't think itll be an issue. not enough to cause it to fail anyway. they're teflon lined so basically wipe themselves clean. plus they're only about £6 anyway.
'nother BIG update on its way, I'm very close to having the engine in;)
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 6, 2012 22:58:12 GMT
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first, ive started sorting out the coilovers. I picked a really f-king ridiculously hot day to go and sit in the back of a half stripped polo in the scrap yard, battering the wibblepoo out of the rear strut towers with a hammer and chisel. sweating like a paedo in mothercare. but, I got these- and the complete topmount assembles, plus a load of other tat I didnt need but liked the look of (bottles of oil, first aid kit, etc.) for ten whole quids. I dissected them a bit- then assembled them onto the coilovers id got, so they look like this- they're 6n polo ta tachnix jobbies, which are same as mk1 golf. not got any further with that yet though, I need some 4" tube (or to roll some up) to turret the mounts. so I decided to get rid of the big box full of tat to fit the engine, by fitting it all to the engine. I started out with an easy little job, I converted it to thermostat-in-head, instead of the bizarre external fiat/lada thermostat setup that just seems to be a clever way to get twice as many hoses as needed in the engine bay. its a well documented job, you need a quite a cool thermostat, MG midget being the favoured one, with are only about 8 quid. here it is going in- literall drop it in, fit seal, bolt it up, job done. next bit was more involved. I needed to do the cambelt and tensioner. id bought a haynes to assist, and id also put myself through the gauntlet of a phone conversation with guy croft a few weeks back. fiat twin cam world expert/guru he may be, but he hasnt got a reputation for being a cantankerous individual for nothing. his biggest issue seems to be with language, both written and spoken, and given I have a broad yorkshire accent and swear every third word, I figured only swearing twice in a 15 minute conversation was very, very good going. that and my poshest phone-voice of course a conversation with him seems to just keep looping round to him saying, 'what you need to buy off me is this....' but I didnt manage to glean one useful bit of info from him, regarding the auxillary driveshaft (which runs the dizzy, oil pump, and fuel pump.) the fuel pump is driven off an eccentric lobe on the end of the shaft. if the shaft is mistimed, it can hit one of the con-rods, either at idle if its really bad, or only at higher revs if its only slightly mistimed. either way, it can make a real mess. a rod through the block kind of mess. his recommendation was whilst the cambelt was off was to remove the aux. shaft, chop the lobe off, replug the end of the shaft, and run an electric pump instead. apparently, he knows his stuff, so, thats what I intended to do! first, I tried to time up the engine to tdc with 4 on compression as stated in the haynes, before I removed the belt. thing is, I couldnt get it to all line up. after a bit of messing about I decided to time the cams to each other, like so (marks on cams line up with pointers on bracket in middle)- then see where the crank was after that. that was when the penny dropped. someone (the guy I bought it off I guess, cos he said he'd done the belt) didnt understand timing marks very well- he'd used the first BTDC mark as TDC! a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and all that. this sat the belt about 3/4 to one tooth out, as can be seem when the outer pulley is removed to see the second set of timing marks (which arent mentioned in the haynes)- I bet that ran 'interestingly'! may also explain the odd compression readings I was getting too- they were leaking down very quick, which they would be as the valves would be opening as I got to tdc. after laughing at that for a while, I then took the aux driveshaft out. heres the eccentric drive for the fuel pump that needs to go- I chopped it off with the grinder. it looks as though it may already have been conversing with the con-rod! after a quick flapwheel up, that left me with this hole that needed to be blocked again, or there would be no oil pressure to the aux shaft bearings(the old plug was in the bit ive just cut off)- the galley is 6mm, so I open it out a fraction, and tapped it to M-8x1.25, like so- I then threadlocked a m-8 allen key grub screw in there to block it off again. one note of caution when doing this, it to make sure your grub screw isnt too long. if you look at this pic, you can see if its too long it will screw in too far and obscure the rear bearing oilway drilling, meaning no oil to that bearing- mine was a little long, so I cut it down before fitting. I then cleaned everything profusely, 3 times, and blew it all out with the airline a few times too, to get rid of any swarf or grinding dust. I washed down the end of the block id not prevously been able to get to, and cleaned it back with the wire wheel in the drill, washed down the ally aux shaft housing and crank nose housing, and washed all the pulleys and polished all the teeth out clean to get rid of any rust or rubber accumilation on a bench mounted wire wheel. here it is with the aux shaft refitted and the retainer and housing reassembled- then, I knocked the old tensioner bearing off, and cleaned up all the brackets, springs, bolts and other assorted widgets on the wire wheel, and gave them a couple of coats of zinc galv spray- I'm glad I went to the effort to track down a new tensioner, the old one was pretty ropey- guy croft was insistant these were unobtainum from anyone but him, at the price of over 75 quid, as the factory that makes them only sold to him. this isnt true, I got that one for under £35 elsewhere. a while later, its all reassembled, including getting out the snapped off water pump stud, that I ended having to drill out to m-8 from m6 as it brought the threads with it too. the new water pump had one holes opened out accordingly and I made up some new gaskets from gasket paper. pic- whist 4327 sceneboi points are available for not running a cambelt cover, given that this thing is rather low and seems to have a propensity to suck every bit of detritus on the road into the engine bay, I decided it was quite wise to run one, rather than be sat at the side of the road with a fecked engine minus its cambelt cos of a bit of gravel, so it went on- ive ground off the old spotweld remains in the engine bay and red-oxided the bare metal, so ive only got to paint the steering bits, drop the rack off to fully weld the rack mounts, redrill one engine mount cos the holes refuse to line up with those on the block, and mount the rad, and it can go in!!
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Last Edit: Sept 6, 2012 23:03:36 GMT by Dez
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Sept 6, 2012 23:09:37 GMT
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Excellent - this is looking great. That said, I hope running with the cams that far advanced hasn't caused piston-valve interference.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 7, 2012 22:14:45 GMT
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I'm almost certain it hasnt. you can actually see quite a lot down the bores with the plug out, cos of the position of the plug (they're basically a hemi head). no marks are visible on the piston. i checked all the valves for notchiness and even shuttage too, and it all looks good.
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Sept 8, 2012 12:12:01 GMT
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Good to hear.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Sept 11, 2012 22:48:59 GMT
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todays progress is as follows. I didnt have a exhaust manifold flange, so I made one- the original cast fiat manifolds are a 4-2 collector, which then bolts to a 2-1 downpipe with pretty long secondaries. they're reported to flow very, very well- a lot better than the majority of aftermarket tubular headers by all accounts! I reverse-engineered the tube size, as my exhaust will be 2" the readily available merge I will be using is 2x1.75">1x2", so I cut it to accept 1.75" tubing, which is a fraction larger than the secondaries were as stock, they were 1-5/8". I managed to sort out 3 out of 4 dodgy looking stud holes on the manifold, and fitted new studs, but one had already been drilled out to 8mm to accept a nut and bolt, so ive gone up to m10 (from m-8) on that one and will fit a stepped stud, either one ile make or ile just buy one in the next order of exhaust stuff I do. I then fitted the manifold up, I didnt bother painting it as it was still mostly covered in silver hi-temp paint, and from previous experience I find no matter how much time, effort or expensive 'heatproof' paint to throw at em, they always end up looking like this again in a month. you will also notice its gained some much tastier rocker covers. I managed ot pick up a set of the much better looking lancia ones, sprayed up em with a rustoleum textured paint (meant to look like cast iron, it don't, but it still looks cool), then carefully filed back the lettering to make it stand out. I'm pretty happy with em, could do with less rusty bolts and oil cap to finish em off really! then, I removed all the steering, finish welded the rack mounts to the X-member, painted everything, then refitted it all. (scratching a load of the paint in the column bits in the process... ) looks a lot better now though- then I messed about with the rad mounts. top was very straightforward with a little trim to the bmw top mount and a couple of rivnuts, bottom will require a bit more thought and some fabbing to pick up on the bobbin mounts- e30 rad is a great fit in there though, looks perfect. ive left that for now though, so I could do some of this- fit is very tight, its now in though- clutch master looks like its gunna need a heat shield- with the engine sat on its sump on the sump guard, the mounts sat here- ^notice all the space going on around the steering there though!^ interstingly, the mounts seem to be the stiffer niva-spec solid rubber ones rather than the riva ones with the spring inside, so i don't know if theyve been changed. they're a little cracked but still solid enough so will do for now, will replace at a later date when I'm a bit more flush! so, as there was space on the subframe slots and length on the bolts, I added 12mm of spacers under each engine mount, which lifted the sump off the deck, as I really cant drop the sump plate lower, or have the sump sitting any lower down with how low the car is. it puts it right at the top of the tunnel, but I think I can still get the gearbox on with it there. bonnet/carb clearance might be another issue though- still, its looking happy in there, and I can now start connecting stuff up/figuring out where its gunna go, which is progress!
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Last Edit: Sept 11, 2012 23:00:17 GMT by Dez
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MrSpeedy
East Midlands
www.vintagediesels.co.uk
Posts: 4,786
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Sept 12, 2012 9:11:26 GMT
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Looking splendid as always. It's always nice to see some proper engineering and spannering being done
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75nut
Part of things
Posts: 512
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Sept 12, 2012 12:39:48 GMT
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Little bonnet bulge needed! Going to be mint, love it
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90 Alfa 75 3.0 V6 Cloverleaf 79 MGB Roadster 88 Saab 900i Convertible 94 MK1 MX5 1.6 05 Volvo V70
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Sept 14, 2012 19:55:45 GMT
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I remember reading on the Beardmore Brothers site about John's van. He went with the stock Fiat manifold setup like you have. When he sold the van, the new owner had a manifold custom made, and this resulted in a power loss. Are you using t he stock Weber 34ADF? Apparently the 32/36 DGAV bolts straight on and gives better performance and economy. WIN-WIN!
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1953 Minor (Long term project) PT Cruiser
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