steam cleaning engines,

Chance1234 ( snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Don't bother.

If you don't f*ck the electronics up, you'll just remove the nice anti-rust coating of muck off everything, and it'll look like rusty shit in no time.

as Adrian says dont bother ! you will have no end of problems later on, gone are the days when you could do it with the old engines that had little electronic components to worry about, it used to be a case of whip the dizzy cap off quick squirt of wd40 & away you go, not anymore.

Speak for yourself, some of us can still do that.

OTOH, I had to laugh the other day. Went to pick up some bits for the Capri from a bloke stripping a 2.8i Janspeed Turbo (WTF?IS HE MAD??)

Anyway, upshot is that the stupid arse wants to "get rid of all the moving parts and replace them with magajolt/squirt". Doesn't even want a dizzy even if it's electronic. Apparently it "makes it easier".

Pointing out the fact I can diagnose every fault on my engine with nothing more than a bulb and a screwdriver instead of the laptop and briefcase full of diagnostic kit he was going to need seemed to go OTTOHH.

Kids today eh?

Conor ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'm rather disturbed to find that I now own *two* cars with distributors. This is not on.

I've been seriously toying with the idea of chucking Megasquirt onto the GS-engined Mehari. Got all the bits together, just need to get the car into some kind of vaguely roadworthy condition. Last MOT was 1990.

I once went to a place that specialised in steam cleaning. Stinking filthy rat infested cess pool of putrid garbage somewhere in Bordesley Green or something.

Explicitly said I wanted steam cleaning. It had big "Steam Cleaning" signs all around.

Then the bastards went and jet washed my engine.... Unable to see quite clearly I was just thinking "OK, maybe it's a LOT of steam"

Then the monkeys came out and started trying to undo my dizzy cap with the wrong size sockets etc because the car wouldn't f***ing run.

Can't remember what happened, got so far, and found water bubbling up from one of the spark plug holes.

Should have sued the mofos.

Cya Simon

Megajolt rocks compared with a dizzy.

Modern high power Ford coilpacks mean larger plug gaps and stronger sparks, and each and every spark is big, fat, blue and on time :)

Mine has been sat under the bonnet for thousands of miles without a single misfire, unlike my old dizzy (which was an upgrade in itself, a later electronic one from a Valencia engine) which left me high and dry in my only breakdown in 20 years driving.

You can play "F1" too by plugging in your laptop/pda and playing :)

For ninety bleeding quid it's a no-brainer :)

I'm also a cabbie from Blackpool and know of the fella mentioned, he really does look after his car! The one problem is that the council insist that the engine bay and underside is steam cleaned prior to each council inspection (twice a year). If the vehicle turns up un-cleaned it's an immediate fail. Despite being told many, many times that *steam cleaning knackers the electronics they still insist its done. Mind you they do have a habit of failing vehicles because of a cigarette end in the ashtray or a missing wheeltrim - nothing to do with charging a full re-test fee of around £110 though.

*I know that STEAM cleaning should be ok, but you find somewhere in Blackpool that does this, the ones that say they do all use pressure washers.

What make needs sockets to undo a distributor cap?

'Modern' individual coil packs fail too. And since it's often recommended they are replaced in sets can be a pretty expensive failure.

Not too expensive if you're lucky enough to be able to find a Mondeo in the scrapyard ;)

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

I've had cars where the screws had a hex-head and the original pozi hole had been graunched - so I s'pose they'd count.

Volvo leaps to mind, there are quite a few with little socket heads, often pattern parts just have a screwdriver hole.

Must have lead a sheltered life - all mine have been clip on. Can't say one has ever flown off so it must be an ok way of doing things.

Worst one I had was a Fiat 128. The distributor was very low at the front of the engine with no room for a screwdriver. So of course they used screws to hold the cap on. ISTR the Vauxhall Carlton was a bugger too. Overhead cam engine with the dizzy cap stuffed up against the bulkhead and held on by star headed bolts. Bastards!

A quick whack of each wheel with a hammer to free off the brakes and you should be on your way.

You have to, however, do the compulsory "Redex Baptism" complete with Youtube video of day turning to night.

FWD Ashtrays and Cavaliers had bolt ons.

I just threw an Aldon kit into mine. Seems to work OK.

Conor ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Pffft. If only that was all it needed.

Apart from converting back to LHD, the entire rear spaceframe is utterly rotten - the tupperware panels have more strength, and they're buggered. Hell, the frame tent that Citroen laughably called the "roof" is stronger - and I don't even HAVE all of that...

But it does drive OK - or did until I broke the fuel pump outlet pipe off...

Heh. Bin there, dun that...

Anyways, I leave for a 3,000 mile three week Scandinavian camping trip - including

- in less than 24hrs, so I s'pose I'd better start to figure out what to pack,

Play nicely while I'm away.

In message , Conor writes

Funny you should mention the Cav. I was just wondering whether it was worth taking the dizzy cap off to see if anything needed cleaning in there. Does anyone know if this is so, and if it is what size socket I need to get the star/Torx bolts off?