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things that go bump in the mailfile

To: british-cars@alliant
Subject: things that go bump in the mailfile
From: muller@Alliant.COM (Jim Muller)
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 90 11:05:31 EDT
I don't know how much of this made it out, so I'll re-send it:
--------------------------------------------------

It felt greate to take the Midget to work today.FYi New England is enjoying its 
brief comfortable spring driving season that was created with LBC's in mind.

But I noticed a week ago that I have a reasonably serious air leak problem 
around my throttle bushings on both my HS2 carbs on my Midget. Since people 
have reccomended that I not buy the oversized throttle shaft and bushing kit 
from MOSS does anybody have any reccomendations of where to get the kit at? 
(supposed quality control problems at MOSS)

The car will run w/ the present air leak but it will never idle correctly until 
I fix this problem. I'm presently putting white silicon grease around the 
throttle shafts to help remedy the problem. I would like to solve the problem 
correctly.

thnaks for the help.....

John Metzger
Digital Equipment Corp....
--------------------------------------------------

Subject:     New MG??

The new edition of AutoWeek (April 23, 1990) has a short note on
the possibility of the Rover Group "...giving serious thought to
resuming production of an MG-badged sports car."

They show a photo of the "...full-size styling buck of an MG coupe
being transfered from a Rover truck to the workshop of a British
styling studio."

The car sort of looks like a Honda CRX, but with a shorter rear-end.
If you took the CRX, made it a bit rounder and moved the rear wheels
back to the very back, you would have it.

The article (if you can call it a full article, it only takes 1/4
of a page, with photo) is on page 9.

           Later...
              Larry Schwarcz
              HP Cupertino, CA
              lrs@hpda.hp.com
--------------------------------------------------

Subject: BBC (Big British Coupe) Pings
Hello. My 85 XJ-S (BBC) from the fine Lucas pedigree has decided that at 52k 
miles it wants to ping even with the most dear petrols available (Chevron 92). 
My mechanic says that at 50k plus Jag's (the 12's anyway) develop carbon 
on the pistons and only (what I would interpret would be a costly) head removal
will truely cure this ill. In the now though he says it will not harm the
car and the pinging will only come on under heavy load. He did check the timing
but it was only off by 2 degrees (not enough to cause this). Does this seem
reasonable? I am most concerned about the damage to the car, it is a truely
beautiful automobile, so good in fact I will get another one day.

Thanks Hedley

PS: Am I the only one with an newer Jag on this list? I have only seen
references to older LBC's and SOL's. BBC -> Big British {Coupe|Conv}

{decwrl|sun}!imagen!iitinc!hedley  | Integrated Information Tech.
hedley@imagen.com                  | Santa Clara, CA. (408)-727-1885 x49
--------------------------------------------------

Ed Devinney writes:
>Someone (I can't decipher the header) writes:
>
>Speaking of octane, has anyone had experience with mixing leaded
>regular and unleaded premium? The theory is that the result should have
>higher octane than the unleaded rating.
>--- end citation
>
>Additionally, I remember reading a year or so ago that the reduced lead
>available in current leaded gas was insufficient to allow the octane 'pushing'
>effect that mixing might have.
>
Ed is correct.  With 'leaded' regular now containing less than 1/10 gram of 
lead per gallon, the mixing of leaded regular (nominally around 89 octane)
and unleaded premium (92 to 94 octane) will no longer result in a higher
octane rating than that of the unleaded premium.

Bill Sohl
--------------------------------------------------

This will be of more interest to No. Cal. people.  I got this in the local
Lotus club rag:

1st British Swap Meet and Car Show
May 12 & 13
Amador County Fairgrounds
Plymouth, Ca.
Admission is free to the public
Indoor exhibition space for vendors - $15 per space
Car Show is $8 (cheaper than the Palo Alto event!) on Sunday, Peoples Choice
        awarded in 10 classes
New Rover and Jaguar display
Authentic British Food

The Amador county fairgrounds are locate 15 mile south of Placerville on 
Hwy49.   Call for more info:

British Parts Direct (916) 626-0803
Mini Mania (408) 436-7766
Dave Bean Engineering (805) 962-8125

Talking to some friends in Chico, it sounds like it might have a pretty big
turnout.  Incidently,  I hear that Dave Bean is moving to the Placerville
area.

--
steve valin             steve@europa.esd.sgi.com        415-335-1379
--------------------------------------------------

>>Speaking of octane, has anyone had experience with mixing leaded
>>regular and unleaded premium? The theory is that the result should have
>>higher octane than the unleaded rating.

>I heard this rumor many years ago and I asked a couple of friends
>fathers (both of them have phd's in chemistry) and they both gave me
>the same answer.  The final octane level would be the average of
>the two.  So, if you put in 5 gal of 92 octane and 5 gal of 88
>octane, you would have 10 gal of 90 octane.

>However, these chemists, were not in the petrol-chemical industry.
>It could be possible (very remotely) that the lead in the regular
>and what ever they add to the unleaded for higher octane react to
>create a higher octane level.

>Has anyone heard of any tests to prove or or disprove the idea?

>                 Larry Schwarcz

I recall an article in Motor Trend in 1985 that discussed this exact
idea.  Such a mixing of unleaded high-octane gasoline and leaded
gasoline resulted in a higher octane than either due to the fact that
lead acts as an octane booster; back in the late 70s and early 80s when
leaded gasoline contained a significant amount of lead, this served to
add lead to the unleaded gasoline, boosting the octane yet further.

However, with the dereasing amoungs of lead in leaded gasoline, this
effect had just reached "break-even" point in 1985.  (Meaning that
adding leaded gasoline to high-octane unleaded left you with the
high-octane figure -- assuming a 1 to 1 mix ratio.)  This was a little
cheaper at the time.  However, with still less lead in unleaded
gasoline (as Bill Sohl pointed out) this no longer works, and the
effect is that more towards averaging the octanes of the leaded and unleaded 
fuels.

Ken Streeter
oneway@athena.mti.edu



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