I am still seriously miffed at Evri for mis delivering my door mirrors, I now have another ebay seller sent my exhaust end trims with Evri so no doubt that will go shit shaped too. things didn't get any better when I went to measure the db level of the exhaust.
The IVA rules say it has to measure less than 99DBA when measured at a 45 degree angle and 500mm from the exhaust with the mic at a height of 200mm. For twin exhaust cars like mine they measure both sides and take whatever figure is the highest. 99 is actually pretty high, production cars are only allowed 72, as a comparison normal speech is about 60. To measure it I had to back the car out of the workshop for the very first time, I had previously driven it forward and backwards a few feet just to make sure the clutch worked etc. Well the clutch still worked but that's where the good news ended, clouds of thick blue smoke suddenly blotted the sun out and I could barely breathe. It was quite a shock and I had no idea how or why that should happen.
I spent the next two days struggling to get my head around it, the engine was still running fine and it did not smoke when cold, only when warm. None of the plugs looked particularly fouled although it was clear that both sides were running rich, I can deal with that. My ignition timing was slightly out, I need to get rid of the points and go electronic. It was only out by about a degree but it was spot on and it hasn't been run much so I'm not happy with that, it doesn't make for a reliable car.
I connected up a mechanical oil pressure gauge as my electronic one appeared to be telling lies, it was, the oil pressure was way above what it should have been. You would expect on a warm Rover v8 to see 20psi at idle and no more than about 45 psi at 4000 RPM with a healthy and fully warm engine. I was seeing 40 at idle and 90 at 4000 - way too high. I concluded that my oil pressure relief valve was stuck. I then remembered that I had fitted a pump from a mid 1970's Buick Grand National as that was the only variant of the pump that gave me clearance, all the other variants hit the steering rack. The pump had been supplied with two springs - I had used the heavier one as I thought more oil pressure could only be a good thing. I shall be fitting the weaker spring and see where things go from there. I don't think there has been a catastrophic failure of anything, it still runs clear when the engine is cold.
I had a nasty shock while I was messing about with all this, one of the radiator pipes gave out and showered me, the car and just about everything else with boiling hot engine coolant. You don't want that, it spoils the day. My once pretty engine is now looking horrible, it was all covered with filler dust before this, it needs some serious cleaning now, I may have to repaint the rocker covers, they look proper nasty now.
On the plus side I am well within the noise limit, I measured it at 78 dba with a free app on my phone. Now I would not say that app is in any way accurate but it certainly doesn't sound loud enough to fail and I don't think the app will be that far out. I think it will pass quite easily in that respect, I just need the rounded over tips for the ends of the pipes now. What a shame Evri will almost certainly ruin my day again today.
UPDATE- yup, Evri did manage to ruin my day again, another parcel delivered to the wrong address, another photo of somewhere I don't recognise, at least it has a photo of a door this time so I can ask on facebook. their "customer service" is useless, still no contact regarding the last parcel, despite a promise of a response within 24 hours. It's not just the money, it's the inconvenience of just not being able to get on with the job that really pisses me off. You can't speak to an actual human, just an automated chat bot, it's ridiculous.
Anyway, I went round to my mate's and recovered the carb balancer I left there some time back, I have now rebalanced the carbs and it seems to be running pretty well now, I also advanced the ignition a bit, I am hoping it will improve cold starting.
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