I tried hooking up my fuel pressure gauge to the schraeder test port at the back of the engine the other day, but I couldn't get the pipe to hook up. It seems like the centre of the valve sticks out too far for the pipe on my gauge to get a grip on the threads.
Could you recommend me a gauge that will hook up to a P38 Thor?
Cheers
Morat

The brakes are now on. It stops straight, no wibbling. Hurrah!
I'll do the break-in in 200 miles time (EBC specify a very pedantic routine).

I probably missed the click on the torque wrench when I snapped the bolts, but this time I just tightened them down and gave them a tweak.

F1 is more of an arms race than a sporting event. I love it, but I do admit that the drivers are only going to make x% difference to the overall results.
Rugby is my sport, I've never "got" football/soccer at all.

mad-as wrote:

a twenty minute job is only one broken bolt away from becoming a 3 day job:😂

So true!

Gotta say, that is a really good looking set of wheels :)

I don't like the way that gov policy has swung all round the compass from crowning Diesel as the next Messiah - until they realised that it spread PM10 and NOx all over the shop and kills people by the thousand every year in the UK. Then pushing LPG half-heartedly until they realised that the motor industry had no interest in refitting existing cars (the greenest option, surely) and only wants to sell whole new cars with a percentage improvement in fuel economy per generation. This shouldn't have been a shock, because car companies couldn't give a flying one about the planet, they literally exist to sell people new cars every few years with a marginal improvement (And shiny new paint).

Then it was Hybrids, starting with the Prius. I loved the ep of Top Gear when they drove the nuts off a Prius round their track until the tank ran dry and followed it in an M3. They recorded better Mpg over the test in the M3 because it wasn't stressed (but moving at exactly the same speed). The true value in a hybrid is understanding that it makes driving economically the goal of owning the car. Driving like a 90 year old on mogadon is the way you feed that comforting confirmation bias that tells you that you made the right choice and YES you are getting something for nothing, unlike those other schmuks.

After that it was the turn of plug in hybrids - most of which ran around as pure petrol cars with dead batteries because there was no incentive to charge at home.

And now.. powered by unicorn farts and rainbows it's the turn of the EV. They sound terrible. Well they sound exactly like the old milk floats, minus the chinking of glass bottles. I don't think there's any way round that but they do have the advantage (in some cases) of being truly and ridiculously fast. A sub 2.0 second 0-60 time and sub 9s quarter mile is bonkers* There are more of them arriving by the week as ALL the traditional car companies scramble for EV ranges before the various cut-off dates for Fossil Fueled vehicles. This means it's an exciting time to watch the market, but it's a particularly rubbish time to buy because this year's Best Buy could be totally out-Top Trumped in 6 month's time and depreciate like a Kipper on a Sunbed.

Let's be honest here, the biggest cost in motoring is depreciation so I'll be stretching out my fleet of dino fuelled vehicles as long as I can (brake bolts notwithstanding!) but it's still an interesting time to play fantasy garage, especially if you're the kind of car nerd who really likes computers. Teslas are rammed packed with computers with premium gaming and streaming services that would actually make me want to flick the autopilot switch and kick back for a couple of hours :)

I'm sure they won't be alone for long, and I'm sure that the other manufacturers will contribute their own flavour (err communicate their Core Brand Values) to the whole EV theme over the next few years. Sadly for Aston Martin, their beautiful exhaust notes are heading to the great Dodo perch in the sky, which is a crying shame.

*Some fast quarter mile times: https://blog.dupontregistry.com/features/top-10-fastest-quarter-mile-times-production-cars/
**Some really fast quarter mile times. Possibly. https://www.carscoops.com/2020/09/tesla-model-s-plaid-60-in-under-2-seconds-quarter-mile-under-9-seconds-200-mph-top-speed-520-mile-range/

StrangeRover wrote:

Taxing the fuel will be mandatory though, once you remove the free fuel and tax what benefits do you have to driving electric?

Lord High Elon is predicting that he'll have self-driving tech so well sorted "soon" that you'll be able to send your Tesla off to be part of a driverless fleet of Ubers (except, not Ubers but Teslas) when you're not using it. This will mean you earn money from your car while you're at work or asleep. He's so confident that he has put the price of Autopilot up to about £6k even though is isn't ready yet.
Will he be right? Who knows. I can't imagine they'll plug themselves in to recharge though.

Hard to say.. it's new if that matters.
I got a pair of them to cover the range required when I replaced the UJs on the front axle of my jeep. That was IIRC 220lb/ft for the axle nuts, down to 12 lb/ft for the caliper bolts.
I'll just give them the old "tight and a bit" with a 3/8" ratchet and call it good next time.

Yep, I'm not sure they're ready yet - but they're coming so I'm conditioning myself to enjoy the changeover.
What I'm also interested in is whether EVs themselves will be a stepping stone towards Hydrogen which seems to be the runner up every time we look at clean fuel.

Damnit - snapped another caliper slide bolt, this time it was brand new :/

I set the torque wrench to 30NM and PING. To make it even more annoying, the recycling went on Monday so I didn't have one of the old ones to use as a spare so I'm waiting for another new one to arrive from Island.

I'm sure this must be my fault in some way, probably because I put (a tiny) bit of copper anti seize on the thread. Or I shat on God's lap in a previous life.

I'm not massively sold on hybrids. You gain regenerative braking but you haul around a load of batteries and motors. If you're constantly in stop - start traffic I guess you gain more than you do on a steady A road trundle but it's all a bit marginal for me. Although 120mpg equivalent cost sounds pretty good!

Plug in hybrids were a little better in that you could get the first 30 miles emmissions free (locally) which is great for cities. But as was well documented, company car drivers bought them to get the lower benefit in kind and handed them back at the end of the lease with the charging cables still in their packets.
"Why should I charge on my own electricity bill when the company pays for petrol?"

I will admit I'm interested in a Tesla. Not because they're so cheap to run. They're sodding expensive compared to an LPG converted P38 because they're £400 a month before you even take them out of the garage.
No, I'm interested because they're stupid fast. Even a mid-range Tesla 3 will do o-60 in 4.2 seconds and the performance version is 3.3 seconds. Also, they have the super chargers which will give you 350 miles range in about 20 minutes (Tesla 3) which is fine by me.
If I got one, I'd install the home charger and then the range starts from your front door, which is a hell of a lot more than I get from LPG right now as it's 15 miles to the nearest LPG pump and I get 170miles from the P38 before it's back to petrol. Plus... you don't have to charge it once a week - you just charge it overnight, every night so it's always full. It's a different way to look at things.

I haven't driven one yet, so I might hate it.
who knows.

romanrob wrote:

WIfe just got a Tesla (I haven't even been in it yet... too busy fixing the P38) but she tells me that you subscribe to a provider, and pay that way

Report back when you get a go! I suspect you'll be surprised.

Fronts...
Good point about the potential issue with old holes and new sliders.
I've got full Shitpart. I feel dirty!
But at least she'll be back on the road in a couple of days.
Cheers Richard!

Today I have mostly been....

...... Snapping caliper bolts.

Arse :(

SO. It would seem to be time to replace the caliper slides/bolts. OEM for £27 a side or Shitpart for £7.49?
I mean, a bolt is a bolt, right? but they are quite important bolts :/

I'm used to driving BMWs which have pad wear indicators. I'd better start checking more often!

Jacked her up and took a front wheel off to confirm my suspicions about the front brakes. Yep, the pads have gone all the way down and trashed the disks. Stupid me.
New ones ordered for Friday, a little brake job this weekend methinks.

Pierre3 wrote:

Have you noticed if there is a difference between the original material and that supplied by Martrim ?

Pierre3.

It's hard to say, as the original was F$$$$D but I showed mine to someone in the motor trade and he was impressed. Or he said he was - he was in the motor trade after all ;)

That is top work!

Those RR classic converters must have got some sort of grant. There's no way in hell I'd even consider an electric Range Rover for £245k.
A Tesla Roadster is £140k for the model that runs a sub 9s quarter mile. £85k for the merely stupidly quick version (155mph/3.1s 0-60) and there's one in between if you're not sure.
Will an electric Range Rover classic ever go off road for anything more challenging than a round of golf or a slightly rough track to the grouse butt? I doubt it.

Jeeps need the whole hub as well. Well, my 1997 one does.