Alfashark

Try and find someone involved with the Mainland Muscle Car series - I remember from my long nights working in a servo, I read a bit in Aussie Muscle Car mag about how the various teams in the 70s in the Aussie Touring Car champs would tweak live axles using the methods Adoom mentioned above.

Yes. The Fabia, in 180,000km and 12 years of ownership has cost about $1500 for the 12 routine oil+ filter services required by the manual in that time. Maybe another $200 for the cam belt and water pump.

Yes.

Define small. http://www.exidebatteries.co.nz/battery-range/passenger/Endurance Have a look at that list and check each one's spec out for CCA vs Dimensions. A DIN55 is a smallish battery in my books - 175H x 175W x 242L.

A mate had one and was convinced that both the VS and his VN were around the 2T mark... He quickly ran out of places to attack with a hole-saw in the pursuit of weight reduction. And achieved fuck all in the process.

Did you mean a VS Ute? Because there's no way they're more than 1600-1700kg unless you're lugging a spare boat anchor or two around on the back, given a VS V8 sedan tipped the scales at a bees dick under 1500kg

As long as it doesn't go straight to the spam folder, there's a good chance someone will know something or someone who does - I got curious about the dealership that sold my Golf in South Africa. The dealership still exists, the saleswoman had retired not long ago but the receptionist forwarded my email on to her and we had email sharns as she remembered the original owners and was pleasantly surprised to hear they were still alive and well here on the other side of the world and in their nineties.

How wide is the useable area of the engine bay in one of these?

Normally have the injector seats machined out to suit modern injectors. @00quattro00 might be able to advise further.

Calling @sr2

Lol. Unless your mate is going to the effort of putting a cold air box around that filter, he's going to lose power. It may sound a bit throatier, but no performance gains to be had in that application.

Mint! Thanks lads. I'll finish cleaning the bastard thing out and then get to applying some snot.

Never used paper gaskets from the factory, just alloy on alloy.

Righto lads, what the preferred breed of sealant/snot for an inlet manifold -> spacer -> carb assembly?

Probably from the same voices in his head that tell him that anything less than max factory height is a mortal sin. Wet-clutch DSG units require a fluid change every 60,000km and have a very clearly documented drain/refill setup. Dry-clutch DSGs were designed as a filled for life unit, but received the wrong oil from the factory - global recall and refill via the drain and refill ports...