Lost bung

 As you know (if you have read everything) I have a bung in one of my exhaust outlets to increase the back pressure a bit.  This enables me to pass the emissions and I feel the car is more responsive with it in.

On the way back from Malvern I felt that, although she was running perfectly well, she was a bit sluggish, so I wasn't surprised when I saw the bung had been blown out.  This was the 3rd time this happened so I though it was time I did a better job.

So this time I pushed the bung in as far as I could but then added a self-tapping screw through it.  Hopefully this one is going nowhere.

National Kit Car Show

Since HS2 construction made a mess of Stoneleigh, the National Kit Car Show moved to the Malvern Showground.   The only proble with that is that it makes it a very long drive for me.   Almost 3 hours.

Nevertheless, as Membership Secretary of the UK Kit Car Club I felt obliged to go.   But I decided to do at least some of it the night before and stay over at my daughters (even though they were away on holiday).   I also decided to meet up with a friend from Bedford so we could drive down together.   All that worked very well, although it meant I covered over 4 hours driving in total.

Had a nice day at the Show, although it is much smaller these days, kit car ownership seems to be shrinking.   When it came to coming back a quick check on the Satnav showed that if I went on the motorway (normally something I avoid) I could do it in 2:45.   In the event it actually took 2:55, but turned out to be quite a nice drive.   Apart from a near miss on the M5 when someone tried to force me off the road See dashcam video. In his defence, there was an emergency vehicle rushing up behind him and he was sitting so high up he probably didn't know I was there.

I was really pleased that the cooling system worked perfectly, and when I checked I had covered 250 miles and the coolant level was still good.  I really think I have fixed it.

Indicators fail

 We get used to niggling faults with these cars.  After all they are hand-built.   Occasionally I run a full check of the lights as there are some you cannot see while driving (brake lights, indicators, flashers).   Normally a bulb failure in the indicator system is obvious as it starts flashing at twice the speed.   But I have so much on the system (6 flashing bulbs, 3 different lights in the cockpit and an industrial strength buzzer) that the loss of just one bulb has no effect.

On this occasion I saw the nearside front indicator was not operating.   To narrow down the cause I swapped the bulbs over and it was still the nearside one that wasn't working so it was obviously not getting power.

I also tested the emergency flashers to make sure it was just the bulb (remember I have an independent emergency system with it's on flasher relay.   Unfortunately they didn't work at all.  Luckily the design of my dashboard means I can reach behind the switch, so I wiggled all the wires and they suddenly started working so it was a dodgy connection.

Back to the normal indicators.  For various reasons I have 3 bullet connectors between the bulb and the wiring loom so that was my first port of call.  They all looked solid, but just tbe sure I took each one apart, cleaned the connectors and put them back.  After this I tried again and everything worked perfectly.  Just normal corrosion over time I guess.

Cooling System solved (again)

 I hesitate to say that my cooling system problem has been solved, but I am cautiously optimistic this time.   I felt I had proved that all the problems were caused by a leak somewhere in the system, and I had eventually traced it to the seal between the expansion bottle and the pressure cap.   Although I had tried 3 different caps I decided to try once more.  I also upped the pressure from 20psi to 22psi.

I did about 110 miles yesterday and the temperature gauge hardly moved from about 90℃.  And this morning I checked the water level and it hadn't changed, so maybe it was 4th time lucky ?

We'll see.

Stilton Cheese 2024

Just got back from the Annual Stilton Cheese Run. 

 

For those who didn’t know, Stilton Cheese was never made at Stilton, it was made in a village called Hungerton in Leicestershire, some 40 miles West. In the early days the cheese was delivered to Stilton by horse and cart via various small villages to eventually sell it to all the people travelling up from London on the Great North Road (now the A1). As such it became known as Stilton Cheese.

 

Every year, this is celebrated by inviting classic cars to retrace the route along the country roads. We actually start about a third of the way along the route at Uppingham, which is large enough to host the start. Also, rather than just do the straight line we do a semi-random meander around the Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire and Rutland back roads. And we have a break point about half way at New Lodge Farm on the A43 for coffee, loo stop and a hog roast if you are hungry, before finishing at Stilton. As such the run covers maybe 40-50 miles (In my case getting to the start point and getting back from the end point, via a pub lunch, adds another 60 miles so I have covered almost 110 miles today).

 

Like most events at the moment it has shrunk from it’s heyday pre-pandemic. In previous years they had to limit the turnout to 300 cars. This year they managed to get only150. Having said that there where lots of very interesting cars and I have added a few photos. Similarly I remember the Club submitting 12-15 entries, this year it was just the 3 of us (with 2 wives). A pity, but nevertheless, very enjoyable for all concerned. The weather was perfect, the cars were running beautifully and the roads were narrow and windy.

Cooling problems again

 On my last trip I almost overheated again.   When I checked, the overflow bottle I have fitted was almost full.  And putting that back into the expansion bottle brought the level back up.   So I don't have a leak anymore, it's being dumped via the pressure cap on the expansion bottle.

So either the pressure cap is faulty, the seal between the cap and the bottle is dodgy, or the cooling system is over pressurising.  The cap is 20psi, so I don't think it is the third option.  As a first step I will buy a new cap at 22psi and see if that helps.  If it doesn't help then I will have to replace the expansion bottle.   I do have a spare, but swapping them is not a trivial task.

Watch this space.