The Spanish Inquisition

 Well, this one was expected - Zedster's first rolling road session.

I wasn't looking to squeeze more power out, more to fix the cold idle and tidy up high rev hesitancy. I was very worried about doing this; I've read too many horror stories of cars having problems during/after the session and I wasn't helped when I first turned up, John took one look at my car and said, "yeah, had a couple of propshafts go on these before"!!

I almost turned round right then. 

Turned out, he meant 4 out of the hundreds he's done, so not too bad.

I'll put you out of your misery - Zedster survived fine, although listening to the engine being revved to the limiter was a bit scary. 

After setting up and a few tweaks, first was setting a baseline; recorded 155bhp and 140lb/ft torque, pretty good for a NA Zetec on a basic plenum. At this point, John found my fan isn't working - not a problem for this session but annoying for me as I was planning to go to Stoneleigh tomorrow.

Next was the main session, with me crossing all my fingers:

Finally, 3 hours after we started, the final result; 165bhp and 152lb/ft torque:

Not too shabby and John said it was one of the better Zetec results he has had. Most importantly, I could drive home rather than waiting for a recovery truck. 

On the way home, I couldn't feel the extra horses particularly but a much smoother engine from stationary and while going up through the gears and very smooth at small throttle inputs, like when trickling along in traffic. 

Weirdly, something he has done has kicked my temp gauge into life, although it shows 80 when it should be 100 but at least it shows something and I'll be able to tell if it's going too high. 

I think I will risk the trip up to Stoneleigh tomorrow and hope to buy and fit a new fan while there.

What's that smell?

 Cheese, that's what...stilton, to be exact, on the annual Stilton Cheese Run from Uppingham in Leicestershire to Stilton in Cambridgeshire.

I last did this run 4 years ago and this was the first one post-Covid, so felt like a good time. The weather was lovely (again - how do they fluke it?) and this time, I dragged my son along for the ride (I say 'dragged' - he would drive to buy a pint of milk):

We had a great thrash for 130 miles or so up to Uppingham; a little boring motorway to get us past London and then some wonderful, clear A and B roads north. I had my camera on so I may add some video to this post in future.

A little awkward when we arrived at Uppingham - they weren't too keen to let my son's 2018 Hyundai into the town centre where the proper classics were parked but they relented in the end - we were only there for 15 minutes or so as we got there late and most cars had already set off on the actual run.

 That is a stylish Alfa Romeo Montreal, totally ruined by the modern, black wheels - what was the guy thinking?!

We had arrived too late to meet up with the RHOCAR group, so we set off along the route, tagging on behind some beautiful Sunbeam Alpine's (fun fact: the first ever James Bond car):

As we basically skipped the first part of the run, we got to the halfway stop before the other RHOCAR people. Some great cars parked up:

Zedster looked a little out of place:

...but not as bad as my son's car:

He'd blagged his way in - the woman on the gate said, "is this a classic car?" and she believed him when he said yes! I had paid for his entry, so I didn't feel too bad...

We left here (passing a DB5 at the gate, waiting for recovery after his brakes had failed and had rolled into another car!) for a 40 minute meander to Stilton. The slow pace was actually really enjoyable and relaxing with the sun shining and a long line of kits and Mini's stretching ahead...

Lunch at The Bell in Stilton was scrumptious (although they still haven't improved the service speed) and we set off home, cross-country in beautiful afternoon sunshine. We had planned to join the M1 as were getting tired but as soon as I saw a queue on the slip-road, I abandoned that idea and we carried on cross-country down to the M25 - a brilliant decision as the roads were lovely.

We finally got home after 290 miles and 7.5 hours of driving time (my son's car tells him all this) and I slept VERY well that night.

Rolling road session next week (not really looking forward to that - he better not break Zedster!) and then Stoneleigh on Sunday - busy times.

As promised, the video:

The power of tough love

 It's like Zedster read my last entry and decided to buck up his ideas - a brief run out today in glorious sunshine and my voltmeter was back up to 13.8v, no idea why.

Also, on my return, I found the source of the coolant leak; a knackered jubilee clip that holds the pipe on one side of the adaptor that my non-functioning temp sensor sits in. Is the leak the cause of the sensor not working properly? Ordered a new clip and we'll see how that goes... 

I've finally booked a rolling road session with John Lamsley, the guy who used to work for Emerald. I don't really want to do a RR session because I've read of too many people who's cars didn't survive the experience unscathed but I need the cold idle fixed and the hesitancy at high revs. I'll let you know how it goes... 

Finally today, I mentioned that Zedster feels faster since the new throttle pedal? Well, I found a straight bit of road and made use of my speedos built-in 0-60 timer. Last time I did this, I managed 7.2s on a slightly damp road. Today, a much more respectable 6.2s which makes me feel better (sad, I know but speed is GOOD). For reference, my sons I30N does it in 4.9s!

So, Zedster life is a bit rosier... 

Is the honeymoon over?

 A lovely sunny and chilly day meant a run out with my son in his latest fire-breathing monster; a 300bhp Hyundai i30N. The damn thing is stupidly fast and my son stays 3 inches from my rear panel at all times...i may have to start charging him rent to stop him buying these cars.

We started off driving to the Riverside Forest Row meet, just it's second start since Covid. Sadly, it's not back to its best yet so we strung it out for an hour; a couple of nice V8 mustangs and a very original looking 50s Jaguar thing (sorry, couldn't find the owner to ask what it was).

We then went cross-country to Hawkhurst Fisheries for a nice lunch; took some bumpy B-roads to get there, which weren't great but some nicer A-roads back made up for it. 

Unfortunatley, my temp gauge still doesn't work; it does move very slightly now but that's it. I'm suspecting an electrical reason but no idea what. My voltmeter is also showing only 13.3 volts on the move, a good 0.6 volts too low which doesn't sound like a lot but is a little worrying.

My coolant leak is still there, small but there and not obvious where it is coming from. 

More of a worry to me is that I'm not enjoying my drives in Zedster as much recently. The ride seems worse than usual (I have just bought new tyres by the way - Avons and maybe they're stiffer? I chose them mainly because they're supposed to be good in the wet, where my previous Toyos were not) and Zedster just feels less stable, with road holes causing crashing through the body and pushing the car offline - it's just not as comfortable as he used to be. 

I think I need to bite the bullet and get a rolling road session to sort out the cold running (Zedster won't idle for the first few minutes of any drive) and at higher speed, coming off the throttle causes a strange hesitation in fuelling, possibly caused by the new short throttle pedal? 

But today was the first day where I considered selling Zedster - I feel like a traitor even typing that. Hopefully, a tune and some sun will bring me back to my senses. 

Hotting up

 Missed me, fans? Sorry, been out on a few runs but nothing exciting enough to tell you about...

What I have done is hopefully fixed my temp gauge - it's not been working for a while and it seemed to be the sensor because when I took the old one out and tested it with a multimeter, the readings were all over the place. So I ordered a generic one which looked physically similar but that didn't work either. It showed 1900 ohms at room temperature and 300 ohms at 90 degC, which i assumed was OK - obviously not. 

I finally got round to buying a proper Smiths sensor and it ranges from 520 ohms down to 90, which, after searching online, is the correct range for the Smiths temp gauge.

Not tested yet but I'm sure it will work... 

More to worry about - I seem to be losing coolant a bit more than normal. I've always lost a little from the top of the thermostat because I drilled a hole in it for the main temp sensor but I seem to be losing more now and, worryingly, there is a little pool of coolant along the bottom of the radiator. I may have a leak there... I'll keep an eye on it.

Six weeks until a week-long trip to Derbyshire with the SKCC Rogues - really looking forward to it.