The SIII has arrived! Fuel question...

If it's the older type of engine, you could run it on soup. They are made to run on cheesecake after the war mate.

Matthew Maddock wrote:

This engine came in either 7:1 or 8:1. You can usually tell which - look on top of the head between the carburetter and the rocker cover, at that date there should be a square raised lump about 15-20mm across. If it has an 8 stamped on it it is a 8:1, if unmarked, 7 or the boss is absent, it is a

7:1. The stamped number may be very faint, and may be absent if the head has been skimmed after manufacture. (early heads did not have the boss and cannot safely be skimmed to give 8:1 - not guaranteed to be enough metal) Either compression will run on unleaded quite happily, although the 8:1 may prefer higher than the lowest octane available - not sure what is available in France! This engine has cast iron valve seats, and the conventional wisdom is that these will suffer from valve seat recession if run on unleaded, but it is noteworthy that the engine was sold in Canada for several years after leaded petrol was no longer available, without any reports of problems that I have heard of. General experience seems to be that unless doing sustained high rpm and high power operation (e.g. freeway or heavy towing) regularly, there will be no problems. In my case my 1970 2a has been running on unleaded for about six years - last year I had the head off and found no signs of valve seat recession. Even if it starts, you can detect it by regularly checking the tappet clearance - if the exhaust valves tappet clearance starts to regularly close up, then you can assume that recession is occurring. Even if well advanced the head can still be converted. The "conversion" for unleaded is to machine out the valve seat area and press in steel valve seats. Normally new valve guides, seals and valves would be fitted at the same time, and often the head converted to 8:1 by skimming as well.

JD

Don't forget you have to get the ownership changed (at the Prefecture) within 15 days, or risk a ?1000 fine. You'll get a shiny new registration number. Cost depends on the Puiss. number - probably 9 (for 9CV or horsepower).

If you don't intend taking it out of the department, you can get a Carte Grise de Collection for it, meaning that you won't need a Controle Technique (MOT) since it is over 25 years old. If you want to travel outside of the department, you need to apply to the police chief in each department visited for permission.

Stuart

Thanks Stuart. I have all the paperwork from the previous owners filled in (C/Gris, and a Certificat De Cession D'un Véhicule) to go and visit the prefecture. It has 2 months CT left, but it has to have been CT'd within the last 6 months as I understand it. The French friend I took with me said not to bother getting the new reg until it goes back on the road, but I think I'll try and get it CT'd straight away - see what happens and what work needs doing as I'd like it on the road ASAP!

BTW it is 13CV - I was pretty shocked at that - I think the Disco is only 11CV! Perhaps they have the wrong engine down for it when it was registered?? I'm not going to question it, or risk going through goodness knows how many hoops if they decide something isn't quite right!

Matt

On or around Sun, 13 May 2007 08:28:15 +0200, Matthew Maddock enlightened us thusly:

The French CV rating is about as arcane as the RAC formula, and bears no resemblance to the actual power output.

has the formula amongst much else ofinterest.

I still reckon that PS should stand for Pferde-Scheiße, mind.

Yes, thinking on it, the diesel 2.25 is 9cv so the petrol has a bit more. I'm surprised about the Disco though - the V8 is 20CV and I would have thought the Tdi was closer to that. Of course, that's fiscal CV, so maybe they bump up the petrol as it pollutes more. The cost of the Carte grise is based on fiscal CV, which compensates for not having road tax.

Stuart