187inc

Go see Chris/Jason at Woolf Mufflers, cool guys who don't stuff around, Chris has done heaps of pintos too. And they have a sweet Mk1 Esky racecar in their reception.

Out of onterest where did you get em blasted? Approx cost?

Definitely fit under 13" hotwires, and I'm 90% sure they fit under original rostyles too.

So its a circle 57mm in diameter?

^good point. Would you need adjustabe camber with only slightly lowered standard suspension anyway?

Are you going to need a cert for the car anyway? If so I would definitely recommend going for some custom coilovers. Easy way to get the exact height you want and can be (alot) cheaper than you have stated if you; have a pair of struts you can chop the lower spring perch off, find a cheap set of threaded sleeves/platforms, choose whatever rate springs/keeper springs you want, and either keep your original shocks to get shortened or get new, and get them made up. OR if that is too much hassle/$$/you cbf, get your shocks shortened and some premade lowering springs and call it a day. If the top option interests you give Chris @ SuspensionTech a call, he's a GC whos always keen for a chat and more importantly knows his shit (builds rally spec escorts). Hope this helps Edited for drunken typos. #itsfriday #drinkthroughit

Looks good man! You've been making a lot swifter progress than I have been on mine haha. Billy still got his estate? We'll had to get a photo when were all done, white estate gang.

I agree that you may be jumping the gun a bit with such an involved first engine swap, but I also think you should just do what you realy want to- just be realistic about it (price/time/cbf etc). Have you considered dropping a 1600 kent into it and working on that? Can get decent power from them to have fun and not have to throw cash at certs, custom mounts etc. Otherwise as others have said a pinto. I've got a pinto in my escort (was suppose to be a 3 month swap n hoon but I have owned it for nearly two years and it is still not finished/legal) I chose the pinto because its slightly more powerful than the stock kent motors and has a lot of potential but most of all because I like the sound of the lumpy SOHC with sidedraughts. All in all, decide what you want the car to do for you, get your mates involved to keep it progressing and most of all have fun doing it. I so often get frustrated that something isn't going right before I realise that I started the project to learn, to enjoy and to be proud of once it is (eventually) finished. Put a rota innit.

'87 Audi Coupe, so that ideas off the list.. Might give MRP a call and see if I can track one f those drain plugs down.

Can you get these in NZ?

I did initially think of a helicoil but would this still leak? Car is a bit of a shitter, but of course I have a soft spot for shitters, especially ones I drive daily. Thinking ill gum it up with something and do a very careful tap further down when time allows/I can be bothered. Whats good to use in such an oily environment?

So a car that I recently acquired (afew months ago anyway) has been dripping from the sump plug. I noticed that when I did my first oil change when I first got it that the copper washer was munted, and the sump plug seemed to be a home brew job but the thread looked good so assumed it was the washer causing the issue. Bought a new sump plug with a fancy magnet and new washer, checked the thread against the old plug, all good both OE spec, but upon cleaning around the plug hole noticed that the sump thread itself is cross-threaded. Decided out of the two plugs the new one with new washer had a better chance of sealing, but now its leaking new than it was before. So the sump thread is probably completely stuffed now im guessing. Whats the easiest way to remedy this? I'm guessing a careful tap and a larger sized sump plug? Don't want to risk getting metal shavings in the sump though.. :S

Any chance I can borrow your roller dude? Box of piss/whatever you fancy. Im in Akl too.

Took the car to Woolf, middle muffler was completely f**ked, in fact they said it was surprising it hadn't shat its guts everywhere. So got a new coby put in, is deeper sounding but not heaps louder overall so thats good. And finally got around to doing some tinkering, took all the vacuum/breather hoses/air box/fuel distributor apart and HOLY shit! The breather pipes, both from the rocker cover and crankcase were all but completely blocked with oiley gunk, which had spread all the way into the air filter box, I have never seen such a wasted air filter. So I replaced the filter and gave the fuel dist a clean, replaced the more generic hoses and cleaned the rest, discovered that the vacuum hose from the dizzy had split almost in two, so I replaced it and the rest of the vacuum hoses. Soaked and cleaned the ISV and the other valve closer to the air box. Cleaned the internals of the throttle body and intake tubing etc. and put it all back together adding afew hose clamps, not very tight just for a bit more grip. Went to fire it up and it went straight away, idling far better than it was. Revs more freely and is alot more responsive. Is still running rich though so Hopefully this weekend Ill get a chance to check the fuel filter and check the timing. Have ordered a new dizzy cap and HT leads because they are pretty worn out and it can't hurt to replace them. Just bought a haynes manual, but one thing It hasn't helped me with, which is completely unrelated to the above, is locating the clutch master cylinder. Where is it located? Need to bleed the clutch unless there's a sneaky way to do it?

So I've done what alfashark recommended, and had moderate success. Engine runs a hell of alot smoother, and is a lot quieter. Still have one (i think) noisy lifter that stands out until the car warms up for at least afew minutes. Thinking maybe the spring in the lifter has collapsed or something, but overall its far more liveable. As a side effect I noticed to a much greater degree how much the engine sounds like a tractor and have found 2 holes either side of the middle muffler which could be partially responsible, so gonna go to woolf's and get that sorted. Engine is running rich (looking at the few-weeks old plugs) but not sure wether its the mixture that needs adjusted or just because it has a caked air filter (it does) or a vacuum/air leak (it might) so some further investigation will be needed in that regard. K-Jet indirect fuel-injection enthusiasts I welcome your opinions here. Will do some further (most likely half-cut) diagnosis on it this weekend. Thinking it could almost (almost) be worth taking to a mechanic/auto sparky to get them to have a geez and see what they think. Anyone know of someone in AKL that has experience in old euros that doesn't charge in euros?

Yeah they come apart, also have springs in them i think, which if broken will make the lifter noisy no matter how clean..

Yeah I understand that all of these types of flushes etc are not designed to fix such a problem, just looking into ways to quieter the lifters down until i have the time to take the camshaft out and replace them.

That sounds like it could be a good first step, witout too much risk. Where's the best place to get MBL8? BNT/Partsmaster stock it?

What are your thoughts on the best way to flush an engines oil system? I am asking specifically for my old Audi ('87 Coupe GT, 2.2 5cyl) which has slightly noisy lifters especially when cold. I have read that it quite common on these (and similar VW engines) especially with higher mileage, and can be caused by sludge building up in oil lines, and the lifters themselves. I have also read people's accounts of flushing their engines to clean them out, freshen them up, etc, but am wary of their effects.. Techniques such as: Draining some of the old oil, filling with kero/diesel/ATF, idling for a period of time, then replacing oil+fil (once, twice, three times..). OR EVEN, draining all of the old oil, filling with diesel and leaving to sit, soak overnight, draining all day, then doing the method above. The first one doesn't seem that dodgy, but the diesel soak sounds real sketchy.. Anyone tried anything like this with good (or more importantly, bad) results? Jeremy.

Sorry about the confusion. Yeah the car sits an an even (or close enough) height on each side, its just the lining up side to side. And I have not measured the offset against the chassis rails but i can see the difference in where the bump-stops would hit. As I say I don't need it perfect but would like to get it closer. Think I will try swap the springs over and see if that makes a difference.

Yeah I don't need it to be exact, but its sitting about 20mm closer to the passengers side, so much so that the wheel on that side is almost rubbing the arch. The rubbing isnt the problem as I will be running different tyres and maybe rolling them (unless I can avoid it). Oh and the shackles look fine. I'll sign up and load some pics.

Yep I know about the locating bolts, they are present. Also the rubber pads, also present and in reasonable nick (considering they are originals). The bolts with pads in place are sitting in the saddles. So that isn't the problem. The only thing I could assume it is is the new springs, as with the old pair the diff lined up fine.. however nothing appeared to be wrong with the springs before they went in, and the guy that I bought them off said they were fine in his and he seems to know his shit. So I am quite confused/frustrated. I've taken some photos but not too sure how to put them up here..

Hey guys, just been putting the diff and rear springs (reset) back into my mk2 escort. Everything bolted up fine but when I put the wheels back on I quickly realised that the diff is sitting off-centre towards one side (by about 1-2cm). I rechecked everything and it all looks to be correctly in place, and I can't figure out where that amount of adjustment could be applied.. I can post some pics tomorrow when it's light to illustrate what I mean. It's probably something simple/dumb as I've never done this sort of work before. Any help would be appreciated.

Yeah the hinges can be unbolted from the inside, but i would prefer to only do that as a last resort. I was thinking of using a bolt and whacking them out, but the bottom one comes out upwards and theres like 2cm of space underneath so the bolt wont fit let alone something to wack it with