rxsumo

If you are after Wilwoods for an English Ford, I would talk to Les Hunter Automotive in Christchurch. Les supplies Wilwood and will custom make hats...rotors...mounts, and he races a OSCA Escort, and knows of the braking issues with the cars. Les setup the front brakes on my old RX7, and after previously having issues with incorrect sized Master Cylinders that I inherited with the car, we resized the master cylinders to match the leverage angles of the pedals....and bingo the brakes actually started to perform. The Wilwoods are unlikely to leak.....its more than likely the caliper that was leaking was a JFZ caliper, they were prone to it because of the profile of the o-ring seals, the Wilwoods shouldnt do it unless they need rebuilding. Remember these brake components are generally race componentry, and as a result are designed to be rebuilt regularly, and as they dont have the things like dust covers, you might experience higher wear rates than for equipment that was designed for road use.

Basically, the timing would depend on the mods made to the engine, and the fuel the engine was designed with. With the MX5 for example, I know a horsepower increase is to take the timing to 14 degrees advance (stock is 10 degrees), and I think this nets maximum horsepower on a stock motor. (on 91 octane fuel) You can push the timing to 16 or 18 degrees, the horsepower drops off, BUT the torque increases...however you need to run a minimum of 94 octane fuel. So depending on whether you want Torque or Horsepower depends on where you would set the timing. On the Torque curve is pretty flat, so I normally go for HP at the top end.

The RX3 had 2 types of this tail-light, the all Black/Dark Grey that the 12A cars and and the 10A ones. All the 10A RX3s had it, the red paint from the 70's only lasted a few years before it peeled off. If you see a "chrome" RX3 tail-light surround, this is what they should have looked like.

How did it go in the show? In Christchurch with our car.......... 2003 Best Original RX (missed out on best original interior because the Judges thought the alarm was set!) 2004 Best Original RX, Best Original Interior, Best Undercarriage

More pikkies added...real old ones though

Okay...heres some more pikkies These are really old ones from just before coming home from the restoration shop The tail-lights The front before the bumper went on (and the grille got repainted into its correct colours) Heres some early bragging pikkies (although the underside hadnt been cleaned before the photos) And proof that it does come out of the shed occassionally, at the annual Lake Ferry day Dec 2004

The ignition lock is always out in the open....it makes a farce of security. You dont usually notice it as the barrel is usually painted satin black with the facia being chromed I've polished the barrel, in truth the paint on it had chipped quite badly and it was a bit of an eyesore in the tidy cabin, and I couldnt be assed ripping it off, masking it and painting it, so out with the Mothers Metal Polish.....

Here our '3 Coupe. We have done a ground up on the car, and we were lucky that the base car had its original numbers matching 10A and 4 speed. Its done ok for itself on the show scene, highlight being Best RX3 at the '04 Nationals. Not bad for a stocker...eh Future work..... Have the exhaust painted, replace the oil cooler hoses with the NOS ones I have in the store Get around to fitting the 8 Track Player (then I might get a FM Radio ) Tidyup the front crossmember and paint the sump Get the rear tail panel sorted, replace the missing number plate bracket.

As I've already posted in the general discussion, 220 hp wont happen, without forced induction, and with forced induction you will end up spending a bucketload of cash trying to seal the engine. If you want to get the most from your Hunter engine go talk to Malcolm Clarke at Bygone Autos, he has built a number of the 2 litre engines. I'd imagine you will be able to buy a fairly nice car, for what it will cost you to get 150-160hp out of one of these engines. As the last posting , probably one of the best of the "English common" engines is the Ford 2000 OHC engine, and in Aussie Fast Fours and Rotaries did the mythbusters thing on the engine(on a engine dyno, not a rolling road). They tried in one article to break 200bhp with twin side draughts, and 300bhp with a carbie turbo setup in another. Surprise...surprise, it didnt happen, in the N/A they got to 196bhp before the HP wouldnt increase any more (3 or 4 different cams!), the head had "monster" valves, that had to have the seats modified to physically fit, and in the end, they reckoned that it was the physical design of the head and the inlet tracts that prevented any more gains. The moral of all of this is that I doubt that the Hunter head will flow any more than a Ford OHC head, and the Hunter engine definitely wont rev like the Ford engine, so the chances of 220BHP on a N/A 1725 Rootes engine happening....not in my lifetime!

Go old school Toyota....2TG with side draughts

I wouldnt bother, unless you know the history of the unit. The only bit that you would want to use (without history) is the clutch plate, as you have no real way of knowing what the pressure plate is like without having it tested. The sprung pucks in my experience, are noisy (springs eventually start to rattle) and you might as well run a solid puck clutch. The clutches have no slip, so they are either in or out, so they are crap around town, although the sprung centre has a wee bit more give on takeup.

The Hella setup isnt a replacement for your existing switch, it would appear to work in conjunction with your existing, or standalone. Heres the stuff from the catelogue (not much help) ...... Description Can only be installed on vehicles with self parking wipers, except where the wiper motor reverses direction for the self-parking cycle. Automotive control of wiping action from 2 to 20 wipes per minute. Contents 1 Intermittent control switch. 1 Mounting panel with fixing screws. 1 Universal cable kit. 1 Instruction sheet. Maximum Load 10Amps at 12V To retro fit into a car where a later model (with the same switchgear) has intermittent wipers, you will need the switch, the relay and possibily things like the wiper motor, and parts of the loom might also help, as well as the wiring diagrams. Shouldnt really be a big job, but you will need to work out what components do what, and an article on how to in a magazine, may not cover off everything about your model of car. The Hella unit gives you variable intermittent wipers that potentially a OEM unit might not, and will be a generic fit (probably will activate the low speed wiper function), so potentially might be an easier, but no doubt more expensive solution.

Some tuning tips.... You would probably know if you have a 2 litre as somebody would have been using that as a selling topic. The 2 litre conversion isnt that differcult, but finding a head gasket to work is, so the 2 litre conversions are few and far between. I seem to recall the guys racing the engines were using 350 or 327 Chev pistons for the recent conversions and CF Bedford pistons in the older ones. Before going down the path let Malcolm at Bygone Autos give you quotes for some of the work, as he has done a few of these. (for rich punters!) He has a Head Gasket that works, but I'm guessing it wont be cheap. The difference between the GT engines and the "normal" engines is SFA, apart for the carbys. If you are talking stock camshafts you want to find a early Fastback Rapier/Sceptre engine, the late model GT/Rapier/Sceptre engines all run the same "high torque" cam, rather than the early Rapier (up to '71 I seem to recall) high lift cam. The Holbay (Rapier Holbay/Hunter GLS) engines had slightly bigger valves and Webers, but I wouldnt buy one of these engines just because it has webers!, the Webers are unique to the Holbay, and parts are very hard to come by. If you want to be a little unique, look around for the Sceptre/ Rapier gearbox, with the Overdrive, it effectively gives you a 6 speed box, with the overdrive giving you intermediate gears on 3rd and 4th (and 1st and 2nd if you change the activation switch). This is a conversion I would recommend.

original tyre size 5.20 x 13