Heads Up

[K4KEV]

Just a little heads up for you peeps who have cars on the road. two incidents that have happened to me of late.
1 after having some great fun in the car getting it set etc one day I find a popping and banging when I am out and suspecting a boost or vac leak, I limp home and start to investigate but can find no leaks, yet it was still detting etc I decided to start checking the cops and in doing so, after changing one and starting up I felt a little "chuff" on my fingers eminating from the intake manifold a closer look found me missing some intake mani bolts and the rest bar two slack. I of course tightened them up and replaced the missing ones thinking that was the issue....wrong.... issue was still there and still convincing me it was a vac/boost leak.....it was only when I got my torch out and scoured the intake mani that I discovered the culprit .....the loosening of the bolts had allowed boost pressure to force out parts of the gasket so it was what I though it was in the first place a massive air leak.
So off it came and after sourcing some gasket paper a new set of gaskets were cut out and promptly replaced and all the intake side rebuilt, it was taken out for a spin and everything back to normal.

2. this issue was born from the same cause as above....on going out for a spin and coming up to a bit of road I like to hoon down I decided to pull over and let a few cars get ahead of me, as I stopped I noticed a little puff of steam and a smell of coolant so carefully and coasting most of the way the 1/2 mile from my house I got back and switched off on inspection it was obvious I had a leak and had lost coolant ....not just a little bit... ALL OF IT after taking the nose cone off it became obvious ......bottom hose had come off and dumped the lot.

Reason for these two problems was simple
1. loosening of bolts due to use
2. loosening of jubilee clip on bottom hose due to use.

I cannot stress this enough to all those who have just got their cars on the road.....CHECK ALL YOUR FASTENERS AND HOSE FIXINGS I found a few bolt that had slackened a little ...even nylocs ...heat and vibration will have caused them to "settle" so check stuff out
I found an alarming number of my jubilee fixings were slack and I can only put it down to heat causing the rubber to relax a little.
the first issue gave me plenty of warning but the second did not and it was nothing but pure luck that saved me from a possible engine wipe out.