Hi,

What a lovely day it was today for a 130 mile round trip from Kilmarnock to Kirknewton and back. It's the 2nd farthest I've done in the car in a single day having previously done the Kilmarnock to Twynholm trip to visit the David Coulthard Museum. The only difference is that on that previous occasion I did 70 miles then watch the Monaco GP and the 70 miles back. This time I drove 65miles, picked up my daughter and then drove immediately back. I think I need to work on some of the ergonomics of the car as it wasn't as comfortable as it should have been. Maybe even some carpets might help to stop my heels slipping around under the pedals.

I'm thinking I need to improve my aeroscreen - the one I have came from ebay and was a pretty basic affair. I need something which gets rid of the majority of the buffeting to make it comfortable for 100mile+ journeys. I also need to invest in some decent ear plugs as the V8, although glorious, is a bit boomy at certain speeds and even the crash helmet doesn't drop the volume quite enough. I might try to get ear plugs with headphones built in and a throat mike so that I can communicate while on the move.

It was a good drive though with only a couple of little niggles:

1. The upper diff bolts came loose (sierra 7.5" )and needed nipped up. These were definitely tightened before and marked with red paint across the join so they definitely must have rattled loose. I could feel a clunk on over run and another clunk when coming back on the power. At first I was worried that my diff was starting to fail on me but a quick check on the diff bolts found the problem.

2. I got a bit of an intermittent misfire in the last 4 miles of the journey while throwing the car through a few local roundabouts. I had been driving fairly gently most of the trip with a few explosive overtakes and some quick corners but the last few miles I gave it a bit extra. I've had this happen before recently too. The misfire leaves the engine sounding a bit "hollow" in terms of tone especially when you squeeze on some light throttle. A definite lack of combustion on some cylinders I think. The question is whether it is caused by fuel or ignition. My first thoughts are ignition, maybe a failing coil or condenser or even the electronics inside the distributor (opus type) which are known to be problematic. My car doesn't have vacuum advance any more though so the normal opus problem where the flexible wires break inside, should be less likely to happen. Anyway, I shall investigate another day. First thing is to pull out the spark plugs and see what colour they are. This might give me some clues if it is too much fuel (black) or too little (shiny grey) or if it is something else.

Anyone else out today? I'm sure plenty of you must have been, given the weather.

Cheers,
Craig.

ps. It's amazing how sleepy it makes you when fresh air is forced into your face and body for 3 hours!

[Edited on 3/7/2011 by craig1410]

[Edited on 3/7/2011 by craig1410]

Great drive Craig - further than I've ever been (prob 100 round trip).

Could miss have been fuel starvation?

Did you work out your consumption

ATB

Simon

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Originally posted by Simon
Great drive Craig - further than I've ever been (prob 100 round trip).

Could miss have been fuel starvation?

Did you work out your consumption

ATB

Simon

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Originally posted by craig1410
1. The upper diff bolts came loose (sierra 7.5" )and needed nipped up. These were definitely tightened before and marked with red paint across the join so they definitely must have rattled loose. I could feel a clunk on over run and another clunk when coming back on the power. At first I was worried that my diff was starting to fail on me but a quick check on the diff bolts found the problem.

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Originally posted by mcerd1

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Originally posted by craig1410
1. The upper diff bolts came loose (sierra 7.5" )and needed nipped up. These were definitely tightened before and marked with red paint across the join so they definitely must have rattled loose. I could feel a clunk on over run and another clunk when coming back on the power. At first I was worried that my diff was starting to fail on me but a quick check on the diff bolts found the problem.

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got any threadlock on the bolts ?

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Originally posted by craig1410
No I was just using large heavy duty spring washers but I've got some good quality loctite and will certainly use it next time! I've got nylocs on the bottom through bolt.

By the way, I found an excellent website which talks about vibration loosening of bolts here:

http://www.boltscience.com/pages/vibloose.htm

It basically says that spring washers are rubbish - and I would agree now that I've seen them with my own eyes fail to keep a couple of bolts tight.

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Craig,

No, the turbo route got abandoned a couple of years back. I had it on Emeralds rollers and it was mapped to a degree but the o/s turbo was too low for decent oil drain and was blowing back plus there were sealing issues. Had had enough in the end so I chucked an injected 3.9 in instead which is quite nice. Still had to remake bonnet again and redo numerous other things. Car has been back on road since last August after 4 years off!

Next job is to replace the 3.92 Sierra diff with a 2.28:1 (yes, 2.28) from a diesel BMW

Should be good for 50 mpg

ATB

Simon