_Chris_

For the old folks among us - post 2 plus

Noise is a problem to me when cars/bikes go screaming past my window at full revs at 3 in the morning - it's a 30 limit residential area with people asleep FFS. Sadly the irresponsibility of a few ruins it for the many like me who keep it quiet round houses at night.

The simple answer will be drop the clutch, switch off the engine and coast past - with no brakes or steering!!

For anyone that has visited Zermatt where only electric vehicles are allowed - this is the future of motoring:

p.s. This is the place mine came from http://www.mobileweldingsupplies.co.uk/used-equipment https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/plonknplonker999

The best advice is to buy good quality secondhand for the same price as cheap crap new. My current welder is an old, battered murex 3 phase welder which cost me £250 on ebay and it's far far better than the £650 one I was talked into buying a few years back. Same advice goes for pretty much any power tool except batteries.

The regulations: Rear must be equal or wider. Rear must be equal or lower profile. It's all about stopping the back being less grippy or more squidgy than the front. Not sure how much is checked in the MOT, I suspect both of the above.

Be careful with solder joints that they are not subjected to any vibration as soldering makes wire brittle. You can get adhesive lined shrink sleeving specifically designed for solder splices which goes pretty rigid once shrunk to keep the stress away from the joint. This will, of course, increase the stress in the connector itself. As a general rule, connections from a wire to a fixed item should br crimped. Wire splices or items which are in the loom are better soldered. This assumes good quality crimps.

As above, you need to measure drop in the Earth return as well as the positive feed. Ideally measure the voltage across the bulb at the bulb, and the voltage across the battery - or better still on the alternator as this is the source of all electrical power when the engine is running. Measure from the large output terminal on the back to alternator body. The voltage drops come from cable resistance (which doesn't usually deteriorate with age), resistance from connections (which is usually the worst deterioration with corrosion - particularly the Earths as these go through the steel body) and resistance from the fuse(s) and switch or relay contacts. If you do run new cabling, use well over-rated cable and components (apart from fuse) as these will have a lower resistance. Minimise the number of connectors used and use good quality gold plated ones. Make sure the fuse is at the battery end of the cabling, and ensure the wire doesn't run over any sharp edges, hot items, or near moving parts. For a given resistance, power is proportional to voltage squared, This is why a small drop makes a big difference.

There's nothing fundamental about Ethanol that will require complete new engines, especially at 10%. It can be more corrosive, although fuel suppliers should add corrosion inhibitors to counter this. Worst case, it may require new fuel lines and maybe some other fuel system components. Not a complete engine. It has a higher RON so no need for fundamental engine changes to avoid detonation. While blended with petrol it is likely this will replace other RON boosters and overall RON will remain the same. The most likely problem is that it needs a slightly richer mixture. If the fuel system can't accommodate this automatically it may require some aftermarket changes, the simplest being an adjustable fuel pressure regulator to increase pressure slightly. On the other hand, Photosynthesis which is fundamental to all vegetation growing converts CO2 to Oxygen. Like most things in nature, there is an equilibrium with plants converting light, water and CO2 to Oxygen and food, then Animals consuming the food and oxygen and converting back to CO2. Reduction in vegitation is just as harmful as production of CO2. They should tax chainsaws as heavily as cars.

Ethanol has a higher RON so detonation shouldn't be an issue. It also requires more fuel/air ratio for correct mixture (stoich AFR 9% pure ethanol, 14.7% petrol 14.1%E10). When running open loop,this will result in running slightly weaker. Closed loop, it should be within the range allowed for automatic adjustment by the ECU. The biggest danger is on turbo cars which are mapped with very little safety margin. Standard mapping on the GT4 is pretty rich when open loop anyway so it's only likely to be modified ones with tweaks to weaken the on-boost mixture. (ECU's / adjustable FPR etc.). I accidentally filled up with some in France a few years back on a GT4 with aftermarket ECU. I was running open loop and on the weak side for the cruising cells for ecconomy. It basically felt very flat and misfired a bit on some throttle settngs. This went away when I increased the master fuel setting a little. When I filled up again I was able to drop it back..

AS far as I'm aware, the only self learning on the later ECU's is idle RPM and knock retard. You are referring to open / close loop mixture control. On the GT4's it only goes to close loop for idle and cruise, I suspect the same may be true on the N/A versions as there are power gains from running richer on full throttle and the regulations of the time only required accurate mixture at idle and light throttle. I presume you are thinking of trying to run weaker on cruise to gain a wee bit of ecconomy ?

Good to see a car with some history being looked after, Have a good holiday.

Were those in a marine engine from a shipwreck ? I suspect they were fitted in 2005 in the Ford factory.

Don't use WD40 as it will make rubber seals swell up and eventually disintegrate. You can get proper lock spray, or find a penetrating oil that is rubber safe.