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jgra1
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Unread post by jgra1 »

Well, john did have that issue with his fuel filter suddenly gumming up and stopping the car running didn't he?
The most i've had after neglecting the filter change for a few thousand more miles than it should have had was the K light come on when using the full weight of my foot and slow acceleration.
_________________
With mine, every time the fuel filter starts to clog, K comes on and will do so more and more until the car stops :twisted: The first time this happened I had no idea.. and no spare filter.. now I just see how far it goes from the first lighting :twisted: (always 1-200 miles)

Will, I think 1micron but I buy mine already prepared..

to be honest, I would happily do any WVO related maintenance on the Xant..(above frequent oil changes, fuel filters, tank gauzes) , just to keep running on WVO.. it just doesn't seem to stop running.. it just slowed a bit back there... :lol:
KP
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Unread post by KP »

The settling would be quite important then as suspended water isn't good :(

1micron is good though but it would need to be cold filtered as i have heard people warm filter to save time but its counter productive as suspended fats then get through and get thick again when the temp drops :(

Try having some outside for a few weeks in a 20litre drum and see what happens john :)
jgra1
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Unread post by jgra1 »

I am not worried Will. :D car is running well after about 35K on various oils .. just need to rebuild the spare pump and keep an eye out ;)

the 25L barrels sit for months outside :D
MikeT
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Unread post by MikeT »

I must apologise if anyone attended the Bournemouth Air Festival on the strength of my recommendations - the flying displays were largely a wash-out with low cloud affecting who could fly. Thursday was ok, Friday too I believe, but Saturday and Sunday was horrible. If I can, I'll get a couple of short video clips up to show what they were up against - apparently, the rest of the country had great weather and even the Vulcan bomber pilot, flying down from up North, reported clear skies all the way. :roll: It was one of the jets I mostly looked forward to seeing again especially as it's suffering too much fatique and flying time has to be reduced in the future. The Hawker Hurricane must also be suffering some serious problem as it's been noticeably absent from the Battle of Britiain Memorial flights this year.

As usual, car work has taken a back seat except for a replacement fuel filter as I was getting flow restrictions bringing up the K-light and resultant lack of power at higher RPM. I've also begun diluting SVO with diesel as it's too smokey at idle. I suspect it's actually down to me inadvertantly lowering the compression ratio when I used a repair gasket instead of measuring piston protrusion and calculating the correct thickness gasket. It hasn't affected cold-starting, thankfully, but the idle smoke is offensive and a complaint from a tailgater in a traffic queue was the last straw. I'm trialling £20 of Shell's fuelsave diesel per tankful of SVO. That may need revising as we move into winter.

The weather did improve afterwards on the 23rd, the day of my BIL's funeral. I felt greatest sympathy toward his mother who had already lost two daughters and was now attending her eldest son's cremation! He'd been fighting a brain tumour for over two years (the average survival time given as 12-14months) so it wasn't an unexpected death but still an upsetting event, despite his wishes we celebrate his life rather than mourn his death.

So onto this weekend which has also been spent having fun in good weather instead of working on cars. A great day out was enjoyed at Beaulieu, a motor museum set inside the grounds of Lord Montague's Estate where Jim took me to their annual Autojumble a couple of years back. Again, if I can get them edited and posted, I'll show a few clips you may be interested to view.
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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

I really must get back to Beaulieu Mike, it's been a long time now and this year I've not even been anywhere near the New Forest..

I love Beaulieu as it combines my love of cars, Victorian walled gardens and Stately Homes.. It has everything I love all in one place :D
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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myglaren
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Unread post by myglaren »

CitroJim wrote:I really must get back to Beaulieu Mike, it's been a long time now and this year I've not even been anywhere near the New Forest..

I love Beaulieu as it combines my love of cars, Victorian walled gardens and Stately Homes.. It has everything I love all in one place :D
If only they served LHM in the bar :)
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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

myglaren wrote: If only they served LHM in the bar :)
:lol: :lol:

Funny you should say that Steve, in my kitchen I have olive oil and grapeseed oil. the latter looks like LHM and costs about the same. I only use it in breadmaking...

The other week Robyn was around and was planning on cooking dinner, a chicken curry...

She said, "Shall I cook the chicken using the LHM Dad?"

What have I done? My 17 year old daughter knows the colour of LHM :lol: :lol:
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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myglaren
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Unread post by myglaren »

Brilliant, you have them well trained :)
MikeT
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Unread post by MikeT »

I've been trying to download and edit/convert my video clips from the Air Festival but haven't made a good job of it. My camera skills need hooning as well - I simply couldn't keep a steady shot when using up to 40x zoom and the "anti-shake" feature doesn't work well for fast moving objects either.

Add to that, photobucket seems to drop a lot frames uploading and converting to their mp4 format so they turn out not much better than the my digicam stills movies.

So if you're not put off, here's a few clips (click to view) of the Lancaster and Spitfire - the Hurricane has been absent this year. Note the clear visibility.

Image

This is a longer clip including one of the older Red Arrows jets (Hawk), the Wingwalker Biplanes (brave girls! They must've been freezing up there) and a Dutch F-16. Again, note the clear visibility and high cloud base.

Image

Compare that to Sunday which brought high winds and constant rain - even the camera had trouble focusing through the drizzle.

Image

And finally, from our day out to Beaulieu, I thought some of you would be interested to see this. Can you tell what it is and how it got to this state?

Image
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CitroJim
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Unread post by CitroJim »

Ahhhh :D :D :D I know, I know!


It's Clarkson's CX......
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
MikeT
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Unread post by MikeT »

CitroJim wrote:Ahhhh :D :D :D I know, I know!


It's Clarkson's CX......
Yes, you got it, Jim. I sometimes wish someone would chuck him off a cliff, then his twisted, broken remains could be put on show for all to laugh at. :roll:
MikeT
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Unread post by MikeT »

I've just removed the fuel tank pickup strainer to find it all remarkably clean considering the mileage and what I've been chucking in the tank these last few thousand miles. So that's put my mind at rest and tells me my fuel pump governor is purely responsible for cutting the fuel at higher rpm.

I really should get on and finish refurbing the spare pump I have so I can whip off my current one which has started leaking from the top cover o-ring. My intention is to increase the fuelling but from the smoke haze I'm producing at full power, I think I'm on the limit already and will have to look for other ways to increase breathing first. I'm still running with a cat and stock turbo, albeit tweaked to 2bar. I would say peak power is made around 3Krpm with it tailing off after 4Krpm where reduced fuelling drops off boost as well.

Considering I wasn't confident my head gasket repair would last, I'm quite pleased it's exceeded my expectations by a long chalk so far, touch wood.

Next up will be two new front tyres and, should it need them new brake pads all round.
MikeT
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Unread post by MikeT »

Well she certainly needed new pads on the rear. It appears that a previous set had not only worn unevenly but one pad's shoulder was allowed to dig a groove into the face of the disc - presumably it was down to bare metal. Whoever replaced those pads not only failed to fix the fault - corroded caliper faces - but also fitted the wrong size pads without either shims or springs. From the paperwork I've got, it was a Golden Service, presumably designed to afford the garage gold trinkets by ripping off customers - they even ticked the box "Spark Plugs replaced". If anyone can recall from the start of my blog, I bought this car as a non-starter and it transpired all four glow plugs had failed so it couldn't have had replacement glow plugs.

The front pads look about 50% worn so I'm leaving those for now. Once everything was back together, I topped up the LHM, exercised the suspension and took a steady drive to the stealers, immediately noticing a much, much firmer brake pedal, which I can't really explain as I'd already bled the brakes all round about 1000 miles back.

Oh, I also noticed one of the rear torsion bars bolts was missing it's head :roll: I suspect there's been a new height corrector fitted as it was looking brand new before I covered it in grease, indicating work was done to the rear suspension but can't quite figure out why they'd removed the torsion bar.

Next up will have to be tyres. I wanted to buy new ones for the fronts but the rears are obviously very old and are starting to crack, not helped by my exhuberant driving of late I guess so it looks like I'll have stump up for a full set. Time for another ebay clearout methinks, to raise the cash.
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myglaren
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Unread post by myglaren »

Should go like a dream when you get that lot finished.

I think they apply a bit of 'creative license'* when writing the invoices.




*Otherwise known as living in fantasy land :?
MikeT
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Unread post by MikeT »

You can quote me happy today 8-)

Finally, I got the use of a ramp lift and set about tackling the ride height at the rear. With an assistant, we made a small adjustment, but realised it was the wrong way as the car began to rise once started. Another quick alteration in the right direction had it lowered maybe half inch lower than it was when a customer appeared needing the use of the lift to do the tracking. I took the opportunity to drive it around the block and the difference was immediately noticeable!

With the customer served, I got back on the lift and a different assistant, who thought "slightly lever it when I loosen the clamp" meant wack it as far as you can :roll: which, despite expecting the rear to drop to the floor actually made the car go to full height instead. But then it got worse. I couldn't get it to move at all after that, no matter where I set the clamp. Using the lever in the cabin made no difference either - the front obeyed willingly but the rear stayed high. I was panicking now as I knew it couldn't be driven home like that and they were wanting to shut up shop soon.

Thankfully, and I don't know how exactly, I got the rear to sink again and this time I took full control and using just slight adjustment, eventually got it to a "reasonable" height and locked it off. The drive home was as if someone had completely changed the rear end suspension, there was no wallowing, no jarring over big bumps, just a a well-planted rear end.

I hope to go back next week and perfect both the rear and the front settings (it now has the pitch of a speedboat instead of a dragster :P ).

EDIT: Funny how adjusting the height has made the headlights brighter. They light up all the road signs so much more effectively. :oops:

Incidentally, with good visibility of the underside of the car, I noticed some weepage at either end of the trailing arm, roughly where the spheres are mounted, near some coiled pipe. Anyknow know what could be leaking (it might be just veg oil that I spilt when refitting the tank sender but I doubt it)?