Time for another quick update!
The green Activa is now a distant memory and in good hands, hopefully giving its new owner a bit of fun too!
Work now seems to be getting into a more regular pattern which for me means back and forth from Kent to Surrey and Surrey to Kent towards the end of a week. It messes things up a bit though, and the workload is so intensive in a few days i spend what seems like a few more days getting back to normal! The pattern of work, invoicing and stock check/ordering suits me just fine, as the beginning part of a week i can spend some time with Jack and Vicky, sort the garden out, sometimes have a tinker with the cars etc.
The works van got a mega valet last week in the fine weather. I took the opportunity to take some decent pictures which i put on Flickr, because they dont reduce the size or quality of the original. Here's an example -
I drove the Activa not long ago to stretch its legs as normal and no more issues apart from its CL playing up, which will be sorted soon, i just need to use the key to lock it or it throws a fit!
The Maestro has been a little more fun. I purchased an electronic boost controller
http://www.gizzmoelectronics.co.uk/eSto ... ucts_id=68
This works similar to an OE set up with a solonoid controlled by a computer, you can adjust the duty cycle to turn the boost up and the gain to adjust how quickly the turbo comes in. It still needs some proper setting up as you need 4th gear full throttle to obtain a decent boost 'map' on which the controller bases its settings from, do it in a lower gear and the boost is very inconsistant.
Even so its transformed the car and feels extremely rapid on a sane 15psi boost setting.
I had to adjust the actuator set up because the angle on it was wrong and wouldnt allow the wastegate to open correctly, enough to control boost but it caused higher than needed EGT's. All sorted now with a decent angle on it, similar to a Cosworth original (the turbo is from a 4x4 Sapp Cossie).
It *almost* let me down the other day on the way back from Asda. I had given it a little run, we parked up to shop and then drove home again, within a few minutes it was kangarooing and backfiring, wouldnt take any load at all. I played with the ignition side of things and it then got home fine and didnt play up at all.
I had driven it many miles, quite hard too so it remains a bit of a mystery. I suspect the car sitting in the sun after a run caused excess engine bay temps, and showed up a problem on the ignition side. I replaced the original crimped connectors on the coil, and also replaced the dizzy cap and rotor arm. There were some signs of oil contamination and the tips inside the dizzy cap were a bit dark and cruded up for my liking. There was also an oily residue where the carbon brush had been sat on the rotor arm so hopefully, this fault wont come back!