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1

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 08 January 2026, 14:28:32 »

I have a single suit now, that's used for weddings, christenings, funerals and interviews.  Obviously, it gets lnext to no use for weddings and christenings now...

Oh I don't know about that - next generation coming through soon 

2

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 08 January 2026, 13:19:04 »

Maybe a sniff test to check for exhaust gas in coolant ?

This. There are a few options that could cause it, best to eliminate the most expensive first 

Could be dodgy waterpump, but can a mechanical waterpump work intermittently ? 

If its got a plastic impeller that's started to break down you could have a bit of plastic fin inside the impeller chamber that gets in the way occasionally and stops the pump spinning. I had a similar issue with a clutch once where a piece of friction material had broken off and occasionally prevented the clutch from disengaging  .

If you can whip the water pump off easily, I'd do this second, if exhaust gasses have been ruled out.

Third guess (and it would be a guess) would be a coolant cap as it could give you similar symptoms as a partially blocked rad but is easier and cheaper to change 

3

General Car Chat / Re: So what have you done to your car today?

« on: 05 January 2026, 13:29:42 »

Sorry for your loss Ste, 96 is a damn good innings but that isn't much comfort at a time like this. All the best x

4

General Car Chat / Re: This holds a certain appeal.

« on: 19 December 2025, 23:11:36 »

If you want crazy, then this has to be up there (with Opti's favourite Signum engine featuring  )

https://youtu.be/xWCRuovk210?si=x_tmnAitIcNtQ4tT

Was thinking about this on the way home tonight. I reckon it'd be better doing this swap into a meriva, proper OAP spec. You could certainly bait a few folk with that!

5

General Discussion Area / Re: Boiler boffins.

« on: 19 December 2025, 00:14:35 »

Sadly, as with cars these days, your £100 p/h more often than not buys you a component changer with a similar level of access to Google as you have at home 

6

General Discussion Area / Re: 3D Printer Chat

« on: 19 December 2025, 00:12:46 »

Likewise, I bought an old 2 drawer finish cabinet, desiccant in the drawers and then the rolls in the bags they came in, little desiccant bags in there too. Never had an issue, but then again pla is pretty forgiving.

Looks like a remote extruder, via a bowden tube?  If so, not really going to be that good with TPU, as that really needs a direct drive (extruder on the hot end).  Remote extruders were common for a while, as it reduced the weight of the moving parts.

Yes, remote extruder and bowden tube - several upgrades in my case but I doubt they'd help. I can imagine something squashy like TPU compressing and going s shaped inside the bowden, with corespondingly negative effects on actual extrusion rate. TBH I can see me having more use for ABS once I get going on the kit car, but there in lies a different brand of ar$e ache I fear

7

General Car Chat / Re: This holds a certain appeal.

« on: 18 December 2025, 16:54:40 »

Was this the same 5 pot lump used  by Volvo, Jimmy?

900-950KG......I wonder how many, if any, cars weigh this little in 2025/6. Most cars are fat bastards these days.

Yup, it pops up in all sorts of places, including the c30, mondeo and s-max. I mean, they probably sold about four in the UK, but a 300bhp people carrier holds a certain appeal. I reckon if I spent a bit of time parting out the donor car, the engine and box would be more or less free. Three door escort estates are a bit of a rarity though (can't imagine why) so finding the actual car wouldn't be easy to begin with. 

950kg might even be a bit of an over estimate, I think the original 1.3 tipped the scales at around 800kgs!

If you want crazy, then this has to be up there (with Opti's favourite Signum engine featuring  )

https://youtu.be/xWCRuovk210?si=x_tmnAitIcNtQ4tT

What a beautifully insane little car.  I wonder if the underbody temps will actually lift the paint at full chat 

8

General Discussion Area / Re: Boiler boffins.

« on: 18 December 2025, 13:37:56 »

Solid result!

With barely over £100 spent, you should have plenty of spare dosh to shower Mrs Opti with gifts this time next week! 

9

General Car Chat / Re: This holds a certain appeal.

« on: 18 December 2025, 13:06:37 »

I have a strong desire to do something not dissimilar with a mk4 escort 3 door estate. It was my first 'normal' car and I've always had a hankering for another one. But 41yr old me knows that the 60bhp the 1.3 had from the factory won't feel all that quick to me now, and certainly not like the rocket ship it seemed when I was 17.

I have an idea to put the 2.5T lump from the focus ST in one. Should develop around 330bhp with a map. Combine that with a 900-950kg kerb weight and current performance should align nicely with my rose tinted nostalgia! 

10

General Car Chat / Re: This holds a certain appeal.

« on: 18 December 2025, 12:50:32 »

A 5 litre lump with 330bhp of Detroit V8 is what the baby Austin should have had to begin with....

Ford 302 Windsor, so either Canadian, or made in Cleveland 

Pointless pedantry aside, a great film and I absolutely love these sort of projects, thanks for sharing! I have to say, depending on when it was done, I think the builder applied the DVLA's rules rather liberally to retain the original numberplate and Austin designation on the V5. 

11

General Discussion Area / Re: 3D Printer Chat

« on: 17 December 2025, 18:40:30 »

Ender 3 v2 neo is mine. TBH I don't even know what difference it makes. I had it because they seemed common (so lots of online support) and the boxing day sale offer made it a cheap way into the hobby.

Do you have to keep tpuin a heated filament box or any of that nonsense?

12

General Discussion Area / Re: 3D Printer Chat

« on: 17 December 2025, 07:49:40 »

Its the printer rather than the slicer, and seems Creality have done some serious messing with slicer profiles to help, but none quite work.  Seems I'm not alone either!

Fortunately, taken inspiration from some extruder mods (which then preclude other materials without adjustment), I've printed some easily removed shims, and initial testing is looking promising, along with some profile tweaks.

Fair enough, I'm yet to find a use case for TPU (good job really, considering I also have a Creality machine)- do you use it for RC stuff?

13

General Discussion Area / Re: 3D Printer Chat

« on: 15 December 2025, 10:16:39 »

It is fair to say Creality's latest and greatest is utter shite with TPU.

Is it the printer, or the slicing SW? If it would print ok on you old machine, maybe use that?

I'm shooting in the dark really as I've never used anything other than pla.

14

General Car Chat / Re: Mercedes S500 Ongoing "Project Upgrade"

« on: 12 December 2025, 15:23:54 »

I'm reasonably sure you could change the speed that it switches off at, but also probably not the wisest thing to have the TV playing while you drive along... 

For example the Carly app supports this feature on some cars

15

General Discussion Area / Re: Biomass boilers

« on: 07 December 2025, 23:20:40 »

There was a programme on a few nights ago and two families who had these air source heat pumps were complaining about how inefficient they were compared to the gas boilers they had previously, the air source pumps were struggling to provide enough warmth and were costing an absolute fortune to run.

An all-too-common story in this country. People slinging in the wrong sized units, usually without determining the requirements of the other elements of the system properly. The problem is that gas boilers are easy when it comes this, you just sling in one that's a bit bigger than it needs to be, and bobs-your-uncle. Sure it runs slightly inefficiently, but no one ever really notices.

With heat pumps it makes a big difference. The technology is proven to be effective, if deployed correctly, we just don't really have the knack here yet. Or the housing stock in many cases.