ChrisB

Wahhh!!! I have pushed the bush - twice infact! Playing in the background to get the Metal Warrior courage going* was the FREAKING AWESOME Two steps From Hell : Invincible I'm going to set up for 'performance' setting, naturally By all accounts, this is better * I had to modify my press to fit everything - it's OK, everything is in tension down the legs, and push rod remains in vertical compression And.. Gidday mates! Bonzer SuperPro banana bushes are fair dinkum

Phew.. glad I didn't jump in and do that ^^ It appears I was being dim after all.. The quick-AN billet adapter is actually two piece - I had no idea that it unscrewed as the machining was invisible I had a email chat at 1am with Charles form CJ Motorsport, and he answered all my niggles and clarified a few routing quandaries Back to the quick connector; it does this: Petrol floods have once again stripped and turned to goo, the dynax on the petrol tank And.. Tada. Machining is obvious now Makes for a very nice strong connection I connected the TB and MAF back up then the battery for a test. I have an augmented fuel pump circuit which lets me power the pump whilst logging and displaying pressure for test and calibration. This let me check for leaks and set the 50psi - without the engine running, the vacuum reference is neutral atmospheric pressure. There were a couple of leaks when pressurised in the big couplings underneath, but they are easily fixed as they are AN - provided they are clean and seated correctly, just a tighten and we're good to go. There were no leaking seals in the engine bay Pulled No 2 plug out, spark electrodes look OK, fair bit of oil on the threads.. 8 months boosted so far Looking down the bore to the plug seat - you can see the plug oil seal leak just starting Nice clean piston crown though Bunged it all back together, and modified the EVAP pipe with a bit of spare fuel hard line - perfect fit Underneath there were dramas wrangling the new braided pipes. Man those things are wild. I had to chop out part of each clip to make a U channel for both pipes. The big coupling is supposed to sit so the 90 degree bend points toward the outside (not on the downward facing corner). Also popped the new rear Powergrid drop links on and started putting underneath furniture like the brace (in fetching red) and plastic covers back on. Temporary cable ties are training and retaining the pipes while the car is off the road. Keeps the pipeage junk out of the way until I can fix the clips properly. What it's like up that bit.. The new routing 'down the bell housing' leaves the fuel feed crossing under the cat (heat rises - so it's colder in front and below the cat). It looks exposed now, but when the front brace is back on, it will be secured to that for extra support. I thought I'd done a fairly good job with the Hammeriteing - clearly I missed loads and splashed loads (I hate painting ). My brush was a disaster afterwards - totally fubarred Bushes revisited tomorrow - uh oh..

Chopped my hard fuel pipe off too..

I'm only doing my comp arm bushes now! The others can stay as they are on my car - definitely in the too much of a pita pile The 42mm Sealy S34/42 Walldrive socket turned up and it fits beautifully for comp arm bushes. Shame my press is a bit small between the bed and the drive pole (or what ever you call them) though Good work you though

Phew.. subject to confirmation, I think I've worked out how the replacement quick connector AN coupling works - I need to carefully modify the fuel bucket nozzle by grinding away at the plastic nozzle shoulder. Emphasis carefully - don't want to muck that up as it would require a whole new bucket

I've melted. This morning was spent with a tub of hammerite silver and a totally destroyed brush.. Very stinky, and I have a gob of Hammerite in my hair now Anyway, back to the stage 2 FRS install..... :scare: It is done. The pipe is gone - except for a scrag end I haven't managed to pull out yet. Nevermind, pipes are provisionally threaded now. Anyone who's done this before knows what a t1t it can be - but it's much much easier with W brace off I will have to address clamps etc later. Pipes are roughly measures out while the paint dries ...oooo shiny... But then fecking disaster - seem's my kit's quick connector for the tank is incorrect. Unless I'm being dim, there is no way that this is directly compatible!! Until that is fixed, I have a dead Zed So close and no banana.... On the plus side, the 42mm socket has turned up and looks to be a perfect fit On the other hand, my press is a bit on the small side. I will have to remove the floating bars before I can get the whole arrangement in my press...

There was me thinking your 2020 GTR fund had officially started

After a lot of bump 'n grind with a wire brush, file, gasket scraper and damp microfibre on the sills and underbody, I applied the magic de-rust ingredient of Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80. The idea behind this stuff is to stabilise existing metal or un-flaky painted surface with a tough barrier and reduce any oxidation back to something metallic. Sounds good on the plastic tin anyway.. The camera flash still shows unconverted badness (BH has just been applied), but the surface took a lot of punishment, so must be stable enough for overpainting After a second coat and when that has done it's thing and set (a good 24h), I will overpaint with ...silver hammerite since I have bucket loads of the stuff.. The underbody paint is really thin in places, but the metal looks like it's good quality as rust is pretty only surface - but you can't be complacent with ageing metal Hopefully a barrier and more paint should keep the underbody half decent for the next 12 years then In the mean time, devastation has ensued at the head end.. When preparing the injectors with the funky new retainer clips, do them fully un-installed. It is not possible to click them in in-situ on the rails or with plugs on. Use lots of nice oil to moisturise the o rings too On the way to swap over - I kept the same injectors in the same spots Bit sad really. The OEM fuel rail is a thing of beauty - its just that it's bores are tiny tiny weeny, and the configuration of twin spur isn't really the best compared to parallel. Not only are the bores much bigger, the top of the range V.fe rails each have a damper installed right in the middle of the rail This little so and so caused me a bit of gyp. No way can it be tightened in situ without a lot of swearing, so it needs setting up before install. No instructions for this kit, and there are a number of incorrect possibilities (e.g. which way round the AN couplings go, where the bends are supposed to fit), so a fair bit of test fitting-dismantling-fitting is required ...and there you have it. I had to stop as at this time of day, the sun makes shadows black when in the engine (so I can't see) and shines straight in my eyes when underneath (so I can't see then either) Still no sign of the press drift 42mm socket, so hammeriteing and fuel feed pipe wrangling will happen tomorrow

We enjoyed it. Hamster strapped to a biplane was hilarious

Yesterday was taken up with marriage friendly social events, but today is different.. so now it's stopped raining Stinky day.. petrol not paint this time. Into the fuel bucket for the THIRD time. Firstly, change the AAM regulator plug to a CJ one. The CJ plug has it's supplied O ring in a more sensible spot and a much more flexible internal pipe. Glad I bought a spare bucket O ring in advance as the old one got splashed again - it seems to be a good idea to buy an £12 O ring every time you pull the bucket out, as it always gets fuel on it however careful you are it seems Nice and tidy Anyone else monkeying with their fuel system, especially if you are going large with a stage 2 return system, a big tip is to take both your front and rear braces off first. It was a pita fiddling with pipes last time - it's been much more of a breeze this time with braces-off. Which leads on to the final bit of vandalism (and discovery of a bit more rust) that leads ultimately to a POINT OF NO RETURN... cutting out and destroying the OEM fuel pipe :scare: A new fatter 6AN not 4AN return pipe and an 8AN (1/2" not 5/16") will be laid in their place. Somehow But not today.. Peace, and may the fumes be with you

Me likey

+1 It's 10 bolts and a couple of plastic covers to get it off. Bash the cr@p out of the rust and scrape off the rest, then be generous with the Hammerite - loads of us have done this now. Before painting they look a lot worse than they actually are structurally, but usually turn out well (Shameless pic wh@re moment)

I think Hammerite red and silver are cool The S2 kit contains the new 'V.fe' final edition fuel rails - with dampers and large bore pipes and twin parallel feed. The rest of the kit is FPR, return pipe and tank correction kit - which will replace the AAM (might as well - in for a penny), but the other addition with S2 is it swaps out the OEM fuel hard pipe. Charles has done an 'international version' which is a flexi pipe (1/2" bore instead of the 5/16" OEM hard pipe). Downside is it is quite fat - as are the couplings.. In theory, whole loop less restriction, better flow, best placed damping to remove local rail pressure spikes and drops, long term more healthy Oh - forgot to add - EPIC WIN Amazon - I ordered the Draper impact 42mm socket yesterday at 4pm and it arrived here by 11pm. Unfortunately.. EPIC FAIL Amazon: their micrometer is clearly rubbish - 59mm diameter it is not. 61mm it is, so won't do I've ordered a cheaper Sealy 42mm socket from Amazon now - allegedly 57mm diameter - Epic win Amazon - it's in stock from a UK supplier, and it's already displatched. ..but Epic fail Amazon it's estimated ETA is Mon 6th July (after my holiday ends) - WTF? One of those we're in the UK but in China really outfits

Rolling quietly along.. I'm starting to puzzle the CJ Motorsport S2 kit. No instructions available, but I did install the AAM basic kit previously. First of all, puzzle the mounting clips. I decided to whip the W brace off to get a better look. Here the pipe bend cover is removed. I have a nasty feeling that the factory fuel pipe has to be cut in two to get it out - unless I take the fuel tank out (which would mean exhaust, prop, rear suspension, plates, filler pipes etc etc all being pulled off - feck that ) A quick inspection of the other (easier) end - I need to work out exhaust heat free routing 'up the transmission bell housing' apparently Too hard for now. Thought I'd paint some rusty iron railings instead in my highly accessible man cave (NOT) Also of note is the age of these cars is starting to show. I spent ages scraping away and degreasing sills and underbody that is showing slight signs of the metal mite. As it will never be perfect, I'm going to use a layer of Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 then silver Hammerite. Lovely stuff Hammerite

Beat me to it - I'm getting side tracked dismantling, bushing and painting before I install a complete S2 kit which has those very fuel rails. They certainly are the best - and I'm glad they fixed your flow problems

Almost zero progress today due to the 1 11/16 (or 42mm) rocking horse socket as a press drift debacle and bad planning on my part, but in case anyone ever wondered, you can balance compression arms like this: I thought I might as well primer and silver Hammerite the compression arms (and paint the under frame Hammerite red). Good old wire wheels, black and decker drills and dremels again.

My wife drove through our front porch once.. Easily done

Thanks to Ewan and Rich - hope the offsite to Goodwood is going well Got my SuperPros, Powergrids and bits and bobs in a nice heap now while I wait for a solution to my bush pressing problem

Right, buggrit. I've ordered a Draper Expert 42mm 05023 3/4" square drive Hi Torq 6-point Impact socket from Amazon. With a title like that mouthful, it had better work Stated dimensions were 59mm diameter x 5.5cm, so *should* fit nicely in the arm's bore, and just contact the metal ring (which is 2mm thick). Won't know till Monday though

Yay - the wood trick I was inspired by your bush effort - I hate bushes now and I've only just started

Hmm. Appears the drift o/d needs to be about 59.5+ to push the 60mm interference diameter of the old bush, with 2cm of depth clearance. Bum. I thought this was going to be easy I have one of these in my spare bedroom BTW

Really? does the metal collar collapse then or can be picked out then? Burning with fire sounds a bit last ditch, but thanks for the suggestion.. 35mm is a lot smaller - I can imagine the worry when the washer started bending I looked for dies - £20 - blimey all the sets I saw were about £120

Sorry to hijack evilscorp - but in the same vein.. I'm having a mare today attempting to find an off the shelf socket for pressing my compression arm bushes out.. I've been physically showing my comp arm to many sockets.. 1 13/16 Halfords impact for example is just too big. Many places sell 40 and 44mm sockets, but Internet says 1 11/16 craftsman brand socket as the pusher, which is about 42mm (42.8) - but the unknown exterior diameter is important. Craftsman appears to be Chrome-vanadium not impact too. Surprisingly - and I almost copped out because this is getting a bit too strange - the garages around Bucks struggle with bush pressing. Lengths are often gone too by some places like turning sockets on lathes etc Every garage I spoke to sucked air through teeth and were scared Hate to think I'm going become unglued on this.. anyone got a recommendation for a known working socket size and brand (e.g. Sealy Cr-V 42mm) that does the job - and is available in the UK rapidly? Otherwise it could get expensive buying large sockets off eBay at random..