DIY Car Maintenance with function over finesse!!

[MattBLancs]

Oh right, doesn't come across well from your descriptions there!

Would have thought steady state cruise it should really shine - off boost and hence reasonably close to naturally aspirated consumption. Perhaps geared too short and so isn't off boost then, so still flowing fuel at a rate of knots!

Definitely giving up more than just a great soundtrack by missing out the V6 by the sound of things!

[CitroJim]

Wind up the boost with a modded ECU that took away the boot limit and a TCT could be very 'entertaining'

[Michel]

Wind up the boost with a modded ECU that took away the boot limit and a TCT could be very 'entertaining'

Yes, but coarser than my wife's language when Colombia are playing football...

[moizeau]

Not DIY car maintenance but bike stuff.
Need to strip the paint off my air cooled GPz1100 cylinder head, no vapour blasters around and would like to do myself, so sand, grade 0, like flour. Yes I have a mask and separate air supply, also doing it in open air. I know the dangers of silicosis, my father in law has it.
So the health of the engine is now the important thing. Don't want it sanding itself away so need to protect it.
Tried with thinners, nylon wheels on a drill....losing the will to live.....so...
Spare cam cover fitted.
Injection ports blanked

Exhausts ports blanked

Then noticed oil ways on the centre cylinderhead stud holes, so they're blanked

4 sacrificial spark plugs, all cam cover bolts in, cam end 1/2 moons ragged and taped and the temp sensor in place. Reckon I should be good to play tomorrow

[MattBLancs]

Be interested to see how you get on. Tried with kiln dried sand (very fine, not graded - doubt as fine as what you've described)

Was blasting alloy wheels but to be honest think the compressor wasn't up to it. Slow going for me like this.

Lay an old towel under where you are working, can scoop up majority pretty easily by bringing up the edges of the towel.

[moizeau]

Matt, I have a twin cyl 3hp comp, I do it in a plasterers bath. Get about 65% back, sieved. Had very good results on the the yokes and the tank etc

[MattBLancs]

Ah, that'll be a step up on all counts from the setup I had access to! Your blasting gun looks better too - thinking about it, I guess it really was a "spot blasting" setup with little tank like a spray gun and compressor nowhere near the capacity you have there.

As you say good results shown too

[CitroJim]

Wind up the boost with a modded ECU that took away the boot limit and a TCT could be very 'entertaining'

Yes, but coarser than my wife's language when Colombia are playing football...

That's very true Mike

Not DIY car maintenance but bike stuff.
Need to strip the paint off my air cooled GPz1100 cylinder head

Looking forward to seeing a very sparkly clean head Pete!

[mickthemaverick]

I have just discovered my Subaru has a feature which I've never come across before!! It is fitted with a 'Windshield Wiper Deicer' designed to free off the wipers when frozen to the screen on frosty mornings!! Anybody come across that on a French car?

[bobins]

I've seen it on cars where it's a few strands of demister wire embedded in the glass. Can't remember whether they were French or not though.

[mickthemaverick]

I've seen it on cars where it's a few strands of demister wire embedded in the glass. Can't remember whether they were French or not though.

That is what I have, 5 lines of heater element in the glass, and it works!!

[myglaren]

One of our managers had it on one of his cars, not sure if it was a Ford or a Volvo.

[mickthemaverick]

Many Fords have heated front screens which incorporate a wiper defroster, but I've never come across it as a stand alone feature!

[CitroJim]

It's a great thing to have I'm always very careful to make sure mine are free of the screen in frosty weather as I sometimes knock the wiper stalk with my knee when alighting from the car and once I when I didn't check, I had a wiper motor get very unhappy and a blow a fuse because the wipers were stuck to the screen...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Getting Alloy Wheels Unstuck when they are stuck to the Hub!

Got called up this morning to loosen some wheel nuts on a neighbours car, as he had had a puncture, put the gunge in and limped home and couldn't get them off. Not even one of those little wheels in his car, as is the case now just the gunge. He would have been struggling even if he had a proper spare wheel because a) he couldn't get the wheel nuts off, and 2 even had he done this the alloy wheel was stuck to the hub and wouldn't pull off.

Reluctant to do what I might have done on my own vehicle, I advised him just to make an appointment with one of the local mobile tyre fitters, and get them to do the tyre replacement at his door. I wasn't going to risk damaging his alloys, with some misplaced brute force. As it turned out he phoned the mobile tyre fitters, and they said try hitting it with a rubber hammer...which surprisingly he had, and yes he managed to get the wheel off.

After having left him with my previous sound advice of call the mobile tyre fitter, I did of course resort to youtube to see how the great and the good of the internet tackled such a problem.

I may post up a video at some point, but i would be interested to see if you have had/do have the problem of removing a roadwheel stubbornly stuck to the hub with corrosion, what method do you use.

Neil