Panko

who am I kidding? I have no money to justify recovering the seats lol. Especially with my work start date getting pushing back another month.

Its Saddle, and its already available. in the correct pattern and all. the clock im not worried about. the seat, really really upsets me. the passenger seat was perfect until then that photo was when it first happened, within a few minutes of sitting on it, it tore even further. now its let go, its just going to continue to rip. Im probably going to look around and see if i can get it done a little cheaper. ill probably get a price to recover the passenger seat, rather than doing the Recaro.

in the process of mucking around with the dash panel today, i leant on the passenger seat the wrong way and split it No i dont have a single good front seat for the car or not any that match the interior. The driver's original seat is split in the same spot, the recaro in the driver's side is ok but doesnt match, and the passenger side recaro (in storage) needs completely recovering before its useable. So what do i do? Recover the original passenger seat, knowing i cant get the correct trim now, and will be cheaper than the recaros to cover how i want (Recaros @ $1500 per seat) or spend the money and get one of the Recaros done, and run with mismatched recaros until i can afford to have the second one done?

While the weather has been horrendous in melbourne, I started working on the gauges today. I bought a set of 3 (pictured below) but decided that now that the in dash temp gauge works properly, that is enough. So I bought a clock to go with them instead of the temp gauge. Unfortunately, even though the clock is the same model range of gauges, the bezel is different So, set of 3 that match with 2 temp gauges in the car or; matched oil pressure and volts, and a slightly different clock... I decided to keep the clock. Test fitting... I originally had the clock on the left, but decided to put it centre to make it symmetrical. from Driver's POV. so the far right hand gauge is blocked by steering wheel, in this case, Volts gauge. wiring at gauge end done... it all runs through 3 plugs, and directly from the battery, via a relay switched by the ignition switch. it means they wont draw from the ignition circuit. lights all work. all thats left to do is a bit of wiring in the car end, need to buy 1 more 2 way plug, then install it all back in the car. then i just have to install the oil pressure sender and its good to go. should be all in and operating tomorrow

I tried tipping some of the fuel i syphoned out the other day, into a jar yesterday and let it sit for the day. Couldnt see water or separation, but too many factors could have prevented that... I might not have syphoned from the bottom of the tank in the first place, or i might not have tipped fuel from the jerry can into the car, that contained water, so couldnt see separation. So its still a little guess work, but given the results of today, im thinking it is moisture, or at least contaminated fuel. IF it still doesnt clear in the next tank of fuel, ill go back to square one, and drain my tank, replace fuel lines, perhaps pull the fuel pump down and make sure its all good too.

Well the metho appears to be working, or helping at least. I put about a litre into the tank last night, and let it settle over night. i know ideally i should have drained the tank, but I didnt. Anyway, this morning the car was running like crap initially. running on 3 cylinders, pinging, and very down on power. after about a 5 minute drive along a 60km/h road, it cleared up and came good, and has been good all day. It still has a slight miss at low cruising rpm when the throttle is only slightly open to maintain speed, mostly noticeable at 60km/h in top gear, which is at around 2000rpm. Ill keep driving it until this tank of fuel is all but gone, and see what happens next time, see if i can flush it out with this tank.

I read the entire article that you referenced above Dean from google. now ive read the entire explanation, and I understand how the methylated spirits method works, im confident in giving that a shot. in basic terms its the alcohol in metho that mixes with water, then the alcohol dissolves in petrol. the author of that write up recommended filling up with E10 once in a while, which is essentially what adding metho to the petrol is turning your fuel into. however i will NOT be filling up with E10, but i will give the metho a crack tomorrow to try and solve this issue, as a once off.

hmm ill tip some of the fuel i syphoned out today into something clear and let it sit tomorrow. i syphoned it from the bottom the tank with the hose, so hopefully it will have picked up any water. Then ill go from there, if in fact there is water in the fuel

Well im trying to avoid draining the tank from the bottom, i did syphon a bit out today, but wanted to be able to still drive it to the servo. The fitting at the bottom of the tank, is the original fitting, which is a pipe that goes up the middle of a barb, then a nut to clamp it tight. that fitting has probably never been undone, and the hose off the tank is original. attempting that at the moment may open another can of worms. SO, metho method might work, but a whole bottle i was not expecting. I have a 41L tank

not sure if it does, but the idea is it cleans out the fuel system. How much metho you talking ? thats a good question, however its never been an issue before, and i havent washed in yonks, because its been under its cover

Well today was....interesting haha I syphoned out a few litres of fuel, being cautious to leave enough to get down the servo and not run out. Because my fuel gauge doesnt work very well, turns out i still had half a tank left when i went down the servo. anyway, i topped the tank right up, and i mean right to the top of the filler, with fresh 98 octane, and added a bottle of fuel system flush (whether it works or not who knows). it still isnt 100% but i think its getting better. I mucked around with the timing again, and I reassured myself that it does need to run quite a bit of advance to be happy. I did have it set too far initially, though. Its still idling rough as guts at times, at one point it sounded like a rotary i think im just going to keep driving it to try flush out the old fuel, and hope for the best. if i still dont see an improvement by the time i use an entire tank of fuel, then i know something else is very wrong with the engine or fuel system.

ha!. i wonder if there is something in the bottom of my tank causing issue lol. Im thinking water yeah. contaminated. so hopefully i can flush it out by running fresh fuel through the tank

What a bloody week I am having a bad run with cars at the moment. While the daily driver LR Discovery is off the road awaiting for repairs, I decided to drive the Escort as the daily. that last less than a day. I drove it from my place to my partner's place, about 40 minutes away, and it had been miss firing, back firing and wouldnt idle properly at all. was running on 3 cylinders. It felt like an ignition issue. Everyone that i took for a spin in the car, agreed. I changed the spark plugs, which didnt help. The next day I drove the car from my partners to my brother's, then home. on the road i did about 60km that day, running like complete shit, again only running on 3 cylinders for the first 10-15 minutes of it being running, then it would come good under load, but still didnt idle. The next morning (Friday) I fired it up, and let it warm up before going around the block to see how it was going. It had gotten so bad that it didnt even have the power to accelerate enough to get out of 2nd gear, and i live on top of a hill so i limped it up the hill to my place at about 30km/h on a 60km/h main road. I spent all of friday swapping out different components of the ignition system. eventually swapping the entire ignition system back to a points ignition, but it didnt help. I checked the compression, all good. checked valve clearances, all good. WTF After leaving it sit all weekend, i had another go at it today, again to no avail. So I pulled the carby apart, which is only a few months old Weber 32/36DGV. i pulled all the jets out and blew air through them, checked and cleaned the inline and internal (carby) fuel filters, and put it all back together. I was amazed to have the issue nearly fixed, it feels good under load, i could finally get full throttle without it backfiring and spitting, and it seemed to have plenty of power. So I put the electronic ignition back in, set the base timing and test drove it again, it seems to have come good, but still a bit rough idle. So my next bit of a test was to look when and where i bought the last tank of fuel in it. It was the 19th of May in Emerald. The only thing i can think now is its a bad batch of fuel. and before driving it last wednesday, it had been parked since the 19th, so if the fuel had shit in it, that would have given it time to settle at the bottom of the tank, which is where my fuel outlet to engine is, and slowly sucked it through the system, over the course of a couple of days, to get it to the point in which it couldnt even accelerate beyond 2nd gear. Tomorrow, will be the proper test for it. ill start it after sitting over night in the cold weather, then go and top the fuel tank up with fresh fuel, and probably some fuel system flush, and see if it gets better. At least it still looks pretty even when its broken with the bonnet up

find a diff from a factory manual XE or XF. Preferably an S pack or Ghia to get the LSD centre. done. you will get the 2.92. if it drives ok with the auto diff, 2.77 ratio, it means the T5 must be an early one. if it were a late one would be bad i think. So yeah, find a manual XE or XF S pack or Ghia to get LSD

Hi mate , what 5 speed box is it? T5 or single rail 5 speed? (T5 has reverse right and down, single rail is left and up next to 1st) Is it a factory manual car? Is the engine stock? Ive been through all this with my (now) manual XF Ghia wagon. I converted it to T5 5 speed, using an early T5, and left the the auto 2.77 diff for years. still had plenty of torque to get it moving, and was amazing on the open highway in 5th. I am now running a 2.92 (factory manual ratio) and it perfect. There are different T5 ratio sets. If you have an early T5, then you best run a lower ratio diff like a 2.92 or 3.23. if you run a 3.45 with an early T5, 1st will be nearly useless, and it will rev harder at 100km/h in 5th. Vice versa with a late T5 and low diff. If the engine is stock, id suggest getting that going a bit better first, and retain a 2.92 diff. Fit some extractors, upgrade the carby, just get it breathing better, and you will find (some) of the extra torque you're looking for down low

sure is. I shared the link to RSOCV Facebook group. Yeah lot of people agreeing how bull shit it is

Yeah i know its not impossible, but i just find this sort of thing so so shit. im not the only, a lot of guys from the car club, including ex pat UK folk, dont agree with this sort of shit

maybe. 4 doors are starting to come out of the woodwork. And its an auto shell so thats a big bonus. however its also a good point. That he has such a high price on it, because they are worth so much in UK he probably paid Fk all for in 2013, compared to if it had been in the UK, so now he is just making a big profit

Not much new happening with the Esky. I took it out for a spin for the first time since we went into lockdown. Since its last drive, I changed the accelerator pump jet back to a single squirt jet, so it wasnt pumping fuel down the second barrel when the butterfly was closed. It took a bit to get started, then it was a real pig for a while lol. coughing, backfiring through the carby. Driving it, it had the hesitation back, mid revs again. i was thinking it was the pump jet again. in anger, i did a U turn to head home, and gave it a squirt, WOT through every gear, right to red line, up to 100km/h....and presto, the hesitation went away. so kept going for my drive for about an hour. God it is nice to drive, compared to the XF and Discovery, with with steering boxes and recirculating ball steering. the Escort feels so so tight by comparison. **NOW FOR A BIT OF A RANT** The link below is to an eBay ad for a Mk1 Escort the same as mine, 1975 1300XL, thats for sale in the UK. the moment i look at it, i knew it was an Australian car. the thing is immaculate. better than mine Sure enough, the guy bought it and took it from Australia in 2013, now he is selling it, and he clearly makes a point of saying he wont sell to anyone abroad (no international sales). This really, REALLY pisses me off. They buy them out of Australia due to the lack of rust in our cars, and the fact our shells are better (double plated strut towers for example), then they pull this crap. Fair game when it was for sale in Australia, for him to grab it, but to then refuse to sell it back to anyone who might want to bring it back to Australia, what a shit act IMO. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283882802254?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2648

Hi guys, a bit of setback in my crossflow engine build, I will need to replace the retainers and locks. What is the best valve spring tool, so that can do the job with the head still on the engine? TIA Panko

Yeah i had a look at them Bear. I dont mind them. I found a video of guy in the US using this kit below, on an old i6 US Ford Fairmont. Blew me away. No idea how it works, but pretty bit of kit. So if i cant get my thing to work, ill look at buying a tool of some sort https://www.kincrome.com.au/valve-keeper-remover-and-install

this is what i cam up with... very basic, but i believe it will work. the only thing i still need to do is cut the top side open more so i can actually stick a magnet or screw driver down there to get the locks out, otherwise it seems to work ok.

yeah that correct. it was on gas a long time ago. i converted it back about 5-6 years back. im not sure how it stops the crankcase vacuum, but it worked lol

yes yes it does haha. However, when mine was on LPG, they plumbed that breather into the airbox. the engine had no vacuum so if i pulled the dipstick etc, it wouldnt stall...perhaps a trick if it does fail, plumb it differently to cancel out the crankcase vacuum?

Im not sure if they are available, but i also havent had any troubles with mine. I think you should be able to use a piece of heater hose if you get really stuck. or some fuel hose? something soft and flexible is what im getting at. good luck finding one.