rxsumo

Got the car running a couple of months ago. Its now sitting at a mates place waiting for an exhaust to be fitted. We have wrecked two E12s to get some decent doors for the car. Hopefully this weekend we are collecting another E12 that will give us the "correct" front and rear spoiler for an E12 M535i. I'm tempted to have the car painted white and fire the motorsport stripes on.

Minilite's are the original English made type of this wheel, these were originally probably made for Mini's back in the 60's ...hence Minilite. They eventually were "adopted" for most of the British Works cars of the 60's and 70's. I think the company went broke in the mid 70s, hence the wheels disappeared for a while....but they are now back because of the demand for period wheels on restorations. I'm sure that Minilites have a high Magnesium content...hence they are very lightweight. Superlites are a copy Minilite, made by Performance Wheels (in South Africa?). These are normal Aluminium Alloy wheels. There have been a number of "copy" Minilite wheels. In NZ, Ward Wheels in Palmerston North had some that they sold in the 70s and 80's and their moulds were eventually sold to other parties. I think Fraser cars got the 14 inch moulds. ROH have built a similar wheel as well. Watanabe wheels are slightly different in design to the Minilites, probably due to the fact that they were sold at the same time as the Minilites, and they wanted to avoid Copyright infrigments.

On the Mk1 Escorts I suspect that it was model specific, the base model didnt get them, whereas the XL and the Sport etc did, but they probably were an option on the cars that didnt get them. I suspect the WOF test is probably Inspector dependant, and similar to the foglight rules. If fitted and functional, then they should function correctly, so if there are two reversing lights fitted, then both should work, and they should triggered "automatically" via a gearbox control switch, or if they are manually activately, there should be a warning light, to indicate that they are on. Callum would be the expert here on WOF regulations

I'd be having a good look on the firewall for the original chassis stamping. The Celica's were all (to my knowledge) assembled in Japan, so somewhere on the firewall should be a stamping. Perhaps its been either cut out or bogged over, if its still there and the original car has been registered in NZ before, its a good "backup" to the rivited plate.

If both of the cars have been registered in NZ in the past (the TA22 and the TA23), and if the rego has lapsed on both (which is why you are going to the VTNZ for compliance) then...... I would remove all of the TA23 stuff, and present the car with only the original chassis stamping, I would also remove the old number plates etc. While one of the old owners has done a dodgy so long as both cars were legit, then there is no harm in returning the car back to its origins. The alternate thing to do is fill the original chassis stamping and leave the car as a TA23 using the original number plates, and the compliance plates as the car's identity. If the rego is dead, VTNZ are going to put new VIN plates on the car which will be the car's "official" identifier anyway.

Why would you route flexible fuel lines through the car? Common sense and safety would say keep flexible fuel lines to a minimum, and run solid metal lines through the car (if you need them in the car (rally use?) Its only braided brake lines that need the tags. I'd talk to a hose doctor about fuel lines, before spending a bucketload on braided lines. (unless its all for show!) I'm real terms there isnt a lot of difference between quality hose and braided hose (except for the price), according to the guy who did the fuel lines on my RX7, we only used Braided in the engine bay, for slightly better impact protection (exploding clutches and the like), for in service strength and fire resistance...there is nothing much between the two.

As for octane boosters...check exactly what they are doing. Generally a car that is pinking, is crying out for an increase in the MON count not the RON count. The MON count is similar to the RON, count but the fiqure is generally around 10 less than the RON numbers, a lot of octane boosters claim to increase the RON count, but some of them dont do too much for the MON count, and your pinking will persist regardless of how much octane booster you add. There's been at least one article on how effective Octane Boosters were, done by FF&R's....and some of them were basically snake oil. If you are involved with a Car Club, try and get one of the fuel company's engineers out for a clubnight, its usually really interesting and you will learn a heap about fuels and oils. We have had guys out from both Shell and BP for the MREC clubnights, and while they will obviously promote their companies product, they will generally give honest opinions about known products across the market.

Basically all of our fuel comes from Marsden Point or BP's Perth Plant, with relatively small fuel coming in off the "spot" market. As a general rule, if you have a deep water port with fuel handling facilities, you will generally get BP's fuel, if the port is serviced by the Coastal Tankers, then it comes from Marsden Point. Marsden Point services Auckland, which probably uses the most fuel in the country...so I cant see how Marsden Point doesnt supply much Not only that, but I think they have finally upgraded Marsden Point so it can supply, the newer fuel requirements for the up and coming low emissions requirements, so there is really no reason that most of the fuel refining requirements for the country probably couldnt come out of Marsden Point. Its my understanding that it was the non-upgraded plant that was the reason we were bringing gas in from Perth, and it was BP that didnt want to spend the money on Marsden Point for the upgrade....sorta a vicious circle really.

While lead was used for boosting octane, it was also used as a lubricant for "soft" valve seats. The use of valvemaster in my opinion is a waste of time (and money), as generally the older cars dont do enough mileage to see valve seat recession before actually needing other head work...gaskets...worn valve guides etc. Basically we get 3 types of gas from the "big" gas chains....91, 95 and BP Ultimate 98. The Mobil high octane gas is a boosted 95. Avgas or Racing 100, is an aircraft fuel that cant be measured using the RON scale. It would be somewhere between 115 and 130 if it there was a measurement that high. Avgas has a shelf life as an Aircraft Fuel, and once its past its use by date, its canned up into Race Fuel. I would be careful using Avgas in a car that sits for a while. Avgas is fairly Hydroscopic (absorbs water), and will cause corrosion it lets for extended lengths of time in the tank/fuel system. Its also illegal to run Avgas on the road, and unless you can prove that the Avgas is "residual" from when you have been racing/rallying, you might find yourselves in the poo. The Police may book you for it. The fuel that is sold in NZ has a couple of different "weights" which is why in a old school car with carbies you might find that an octane boosted 91 may make your car run better that running 95/98. The fuel companies sset the fuel up for the "average" car being run in the fleet. The cars that generally run 91 are "budget" cars or commercials that in a lot of cases run carbies, late model higher performance cars the require the higher octane fuels are fuel injected, so the higher octane fuels are weighted lighter to work better in the fuel injectors. The NZ fuel isnt generally "crap"....at least you can buy Premium Gas at nearly every Service Station in the Country....try buy Premium Gas once you get out of the main cities in Oz....we did a circuit of Victoria a few years back, and trying to find gas to put in the Volvo Turbo we were driving was "interesting". I tend towards BP gas because the gas in my opinion is more stable in its Supply. If you buy BP, Shell, Mobil or Caltex gas, generally it comes from 1 of 2 sources Marsden Point or BP's Plant in Western Australia...and who gets what is determined by what sort of port you have (except for Auckland that gets its fuel pipe directly from Marsden Point). If anybody is interested ....I can give you the rundown on why this "crap" gas affects rubber hoses as well........

I assume you have checked the battery doesnt have a dead cell, and that you arent seeing the voltage incresae at the battery when the alternator kicks in? The dash has a second "layer" of digital gauges, one of these is a volt meter, and this should be flashing if the alternator is not working as well.

The current state of play...... The gearbox is finished, I've just got to pick it up from Palmie. The guys at Geartech were pretty onto it and had it finished in 4 days. The interior is pretty much out of the car. Once I opened up the doors , I found somebody had ripped all the BMW central locking activators out and replaced them with after market, not only that but the South Afican wiring is different to the standard E28 wiring so.......... Having to rip all the central locking/electric window wiring out of the doors and replace the main loom for the function, fortunately there is a seperate loom that controls this, that plugs into the main power distribution point...so all the interior is out. Once I pulled the loom, I worked out why they replaced the C/L activators, with these SA cars there is a gyro style accident switch attached to the firewall (under the dashboard), looks like a big flouo light starter!. The plonkers who had installed the alarm/new central locking had obviously not checked why the C/L wasnt working because the switch was tripped....oh well the E28 either doesnt have one, or its built into the C/L relay pack, so the old switch is now history. So the next few weeks will be spent getting the gearbox back in and the car running as well as finishing off modifying and installing the door electrics

Check your alternator/voltage regulator. Last time I had something fry that much, one of the diodes had fallen off the back of the alternator and was shorting directly to earth once the voltage regulator kicked in. Have a look at the wiring diagram for the Escort and check which circuits have a non fused direct battery to earth connection......some of that old British stuff had stuff all fuses, and if its fried the earth there could be other damage. My old Imps had about 3 fuses for the entire car, which meant when somebody installed a cigarette lighter on the light gauge ignition circuit ....they fried the wiring back to front and did all sorts of damage as the wire melted!

If you are going to back the whole rear end detachable, why would you use any thing from the original car except to take some body mouldings. The concept is great but you might as well go the "whole hog", do a tube chassis based on a single seater style setup, with outriggers to support the body. Reasoning..... While the Imp body may look heavy, its contruction isnt really, but it does have multi layer steel where it needs strength. If you are going to remove most to the steel contruction for the rear end then you are going to have to create what is effective a tube half chassis for the rear to hold the car together. In my opinion one of the worst bits of a Imp is its front end design, so you would want look to fabricate a new front end assembly. I'm guessing you can see where this is going....custom rear end cartridge assembly , custom front end assembly.....you end up with about 2 feet of the cars original structure holding it altogether......might as well just build the entire lot from scratch. What this means is a bucket load of fabrication, which will equal $$$$$, and unless you have been doing a heap of engineering studies around strength and weight loadings of the design, it probably wont be an optimal design, and could end up worse than that. If you were still keen on doing something with the Imp shell, why dont you see if you can locate the plans for a Maquire Imp, which is a proven lightweight chassis design, and build your bike engined special from that. Alternatively as this is likely to be your first race car (I assume), why dont you take a slightly smaller bite, rebuild the engine, with something like a R20 cam, leaving it as a 875, polish and port the head, get some small Webers (although a good set of SUs will probably work). Get a set of Spax shocks for the car, strip the body right out, cage the car and go racing. The R20 will give you a relatively good alround cam, it will work on gravel as well as seal, and you dont need extreme engine internals to run it.

This might look familar... Sparkle's gearbox donor car, has now become part of the SUMO fleet. Its now wearing the "correct" 7 inch BBS Maule rims What is it? It's a South African E12 M535i. Considered by the purist's not to be a "true" M car, as it wasnt built in Germany, and didnt have all of the same bits that the European ones got. The main differences is that these cars didnt get the front and rear spoilers, they dont have the "sport" dogleg C/R gearbox, and they have the later 535 engine block. The Project....... The car needs quite a bit of tidy-up work, and we arent going to restore it (yet) Most of the doors need the lower skins repaired, along with a couple of spots around the wheel arches and the LF guard is throw-away. The Drivers Recaro needs to be recovered. the priority at this stage is....... My 5 speed is currently at GearTech in Palmerson North getting a speedo drive installed (my box was a late E28 Getrag, which has castings for the speedo drive but there is no drive gear on the main shaft), once this is done, the gearbox can go into the car. Get the fronts seats out so that I can lift the carpets (and clean everything), so that I can replace the Central Locking and Electric Window wiring. Once of the previous owners had installed an alarm and ripped out/damaged the orginal wiring and activators. Fortunately I kept the wiring off Sparkle's old 528 (that I wrecked). Once the driveline is working, get an exhaust built for the car (it currently has no exhaust) Once the car is mobile on its own, the new list will start ....bodywork ...check the suspension out, Sparkle reckons it was fairly soft ....it has Koni's on the rear....

Check for a spark while cranking...if you get a decent spark that rules out ignition. Whats the compression like?

May be able to help, I've go a few brochures for wheels from my Tokyo Auto Salon visits. What make and model of car are you trying to fit the wheels to?

Now I'm back on this side of the Tasman.... What engine do you intend running in the car, original Imp block ....or something else? If you are intending racing it with the original Imp motor, you are gonna need deep pockets to generate any "real" HP. The standard Imp block is pretty much all over at 998cc, and you really probably dont want anything hotter than a R20 cam. This was part of the reason I got out of Imps. The stock motor is extremely strong but once you go looking at 998 block etc, the dosh doesnt stack up. You will pay a lot less to get better HP out of a Kent or A series engine, and there are more parts around. I'm not saying dont do it, but do your research before committing too much. Some things to look out for..... Check all the front suspension mounts on the body pan for cracks. If the car has had an accident, the front suspension mounting points can crack along the reinforcing plates Never engage reverse while moving forward, the reverse idler gear is as weak as fcuk, and will destroy teeth very quickly.

The cars is pretty much together now. Splashed out (not too much) on a Momo wheel for the old gal

Gotta ask..... Why did they only replace one brake shoe, typically they come as either a side set or an axle set, and to maintain even wear you replace them as a set.

I'm assuming this is a N/A 12A rather than a 12AT. Just use an "ok" mineral oil....we used to used Valvoline XLD 20/50 in our RX7 race motor. I use Total 20/40 in the RX3 (its relatively cheap from our local Mazda Dealer). Personally I wouldnt bother with pre-mixing for a street motor. Our RX3 gets used less than once a month and has had no problems with a blocked metering pump, and I would suspect for a engine that has been sitting, pre-mix would actually be more problematic as the oil seperates with sitting. If the metering pump is blocking, I'd be asking how much excess RTV is actually floating around the engine (and what other damage is it doing), or what sort of state the engine is really in if it is causing the oil be carrying that much crap. If the oil is that thick that its caused the metering pump to block....consider what its doing to the bearings and other oil galleries. Most modern 12As should run at least 100K km without major work, I've seen a stock 12AT in a HB Cosmo still running (untouched) at 200K, I would suspect the least of your issues would be whether you run pre-mix or not.

My Father in Law, tried out copper fuel lines on his multi carb Zephyr (back in his days of being a "boy racer"), only did it once. Within days of installation the copper work hardened and broke, resulting in an engine bay fire. Only place I'd use copper on a car, is for water, and that would be a last resort! You are already getting the bi-metallic thing going on in the engine with Aluminium, Steel/Iron and Brass, I cant see any good reason to add another soft metal to the mix.

http://www.turboneticsinc.com/turbo_rajay.htm Steve Hardie from Rotary Engine Services is Wellington has played with these for Rotary applications The impression I had on these was the Turbo design is fairly old and as a result these didnt really offer some of the good stuff that the Garrett's offered. I'm guessing that if Turbonetics now own them perhaps they might "come up to date" with the design.

There are a couple of things to know about petrol, and octane "boosting". There are 2 measurements of octane in petrol, the RON number and the MON number. The RON number is quoted at the pump, and according to a Shell Tech, I spoke to, the MON count is generally a figure 10 below the RON for NZ Specification petrol. In a high compression motor, the RON count isnt necessarily that important, its the MON value, and in Marsden Point Petrol this on the odd occassion is at its lowest limit. So if you are looking for a Octane Booster make sure that it will pull the MON count up as well, else you arent actually doing anything for the pinking. Why did I found out about this...... A couple of years back we were doing a week long car club run in the South Island My old BMW 3.0Si was running fine in Wellington, and through my first tank of gas out of Christchurch, I gassed up at Shell in Twizel, and from then on until I gassed up at the Challenge in the Marlbrough Sounds (4 days) the car was pinking like crazy, this included putting 2 bottle of octane booster in at Invercargill, and backing the timing off until the car was "hunting". I got in contact with Shell to complain about their dodgy gas, and when I explained the situation and the type of car, he said it was down to the MON count being at the low end of the specification. The Tech was actually a guy who I knw fromspeaking to us at a couple of Car Club meetings, and knows his stuff, rather than somebody who was giving a customer the "short shift".

There are a couple of reasons for oil leaks, one is a genuine gasket failure, and the other is the engine pressurising causing the oil to blown past the gaskets. Most of the magic "gasket leak stoppers", are designed to cause rubber gaskets to swell sealing the leak. If it isnt a rubber gasket, like 90% of the gaskets on an average engine, it isnt going to work. If the engine is pressurising then I would be checking compressions, or alternatively check that the engine breathing one-way valves and filters are clear. If the problem is caused by the engine being past its use-by date you might want to relocate the engine breathers into a oil catch can, and let the pressurised air out into atmosphere, so the pressure doesnt build up inside the engine

http://www.lvvta.org.nz/DoorRetentionSy ... ch2002.pdf Section 2.6 Basically there is no legal requirement for doors to be able to be opened from the outside on a modified vechicle (so long as it certified)