My turn for a day out................

[hoolio]

Yesterday morning i levered myself out of bed at 5.30 to make the 80 mile trip to Mark Fish to get;

Goodridge Braided brake hoses,
Pagid RS4-2 pads
Brembo Max discs
Combrake solid top mounts fitted
Sachs dampers unpinned
And camber (2 degrees) and alignment (10 minutes) dialed in.

First i have to say what a nice bloke Mark is, he was more than happy to have me poking around, asking stupid questions and talking me through various options and what he was doing.

Unpinning the dampers.
This was a lot lot simpler than i expected but maybe the fact that the damper was offthe car made all the difference, small alun key to undo the grub screw then gently lever all around the dial, take off making sure the two ball bearings were still sitting on the top of the damper knock out the pin and pop the dial back on. They were both set to 22 "clicks" about middle of the 43 available. Niether dial was glued and he was quite sceptical that any would be...They were both left at 22 and have a play at a later date.
Solid top mounts.
Fitted easily though mark was concerned about the quality of the bearing which he thought might not last very long and the fact that the whole unit was able to move around
in the hole.
The turn in is now very direct and i feel that i'm getting even more "feel" through the steering wheel, excellent though the downside is that it is now a lot more crashy and noisey.
Pads, discs and hoses.
Mark said he had not fitted this combination and i suspect he thought the pads wouuld be too harsh for the road but the combination works brilliantly, far superior than the reno set-up stopping me fast in a dead straight line and without me having to fight the steering, also no squealing yet but he said there was still plenty if time so i won't count my chickens.
Camber and alignment
Rears were both 1.5 and were left as is the fronts were 0.5 and 0.75 and with 12mm bolts (supplied by someone on here, thanks for all your help over the last year)allowed 2 degrees to be acheived without any adjustment.
Alignment was sorted after lots of fiddling and the steering wheel is now perfectly straight.

All in all the car is much sharper all around although i have not had a chance to really push as it was raining when i left and i was dog tired but so far i'm really impressed.

Sorry about the crap quality phone pics;

 

[Cue]

those are max not HC disks, same as my set-up now suspension wise and brake wise, add in the maxogen, 'zorst and we've got almost identical mods, am pleased with the results of my endevourance. Did you go for the AWT manifold

to disprove him of the 'myth' that some are or aren't glued i'll get him to have a crack at my drivers side one - it's the grub screw that's glued in. 3 engineers have had a crack at it to no avial so far......

 

[hoolio]

Sorry Cue i stand corrected and i'll do an edit
I said to Mark that i had a Maxogen ready to fit and he was very enthusiastic about it saying that it was the only one worth fitting and in terms of power gain one of the best mods you can do with gains of up to 5hp just on its own, which i was pretty suprised at.
Yeah i had the AWT inlet mod and their remap back last June when i had the Orb fitted.
I have to admit i'm totally blown away by the set up at the front now giving me even more confidence.

 

[George K]

Hoolio, most interesting post, particularly as Mark has a very good reputation.You say that the front toe was a set at 10' - presumably this is toe-out. I know there has been lots of discussion about this setting - did Mark endorse it?

Did he have any advice re tyre pressures?

From where did you get the solid top mounts?

On the pinned dampers, the problem is when they are glued, as were mine, which how i managed to damage one of them. Fortunately now all back to as new and set at 22 clicks.

Also interesting that he is keen on the Maxogen - did he have any other recommendations on the engine front - re-mapping etc?

Hope you are enjoying the fettled car, despite the foul weather.

 

[hoolio]

George, another thing i didn't post up, yes it was set at 10 Degs toe out, i had spoken to him on the phone about maybe getting setting them parallel but whilst he about his work it was obvious that he wanted to do the 10 so i referred to his and your greater experience, so yes that is an endorsement of the 10 degs Toe out.
We did talk about tyre pressures but i have to admit that I've totally forgotten the exact pressures he recommended
The jury is still out on the top mounts, as i said quite noisy and crashy although the car is a lot more "pointy" and from that point of view well worth doing though maybe i think it would be a compromise too far for most ppl.
They were the ones make by Combrake which are normally about £170 (bought for £120 on a CS g.b.), i think Marks are probably a better unit but they are twice the price.
I asked him about tuneing but apart from agreeing with me that it's a really difficult engine to squeeze anything more out of he kind of kept his cards close to his chest, i think his secrets have been hard earned
All in all am well chuffed with the way all the mods have come together.

 

[7MAT]

The jury is still out on the top mounts, as i said quite noisy and crashy although the car is a lot more "pointy" and from that point of view well worth doing though maybe i think it would be a compromise too far for most ppl.

How are you finding the top mounts?

I've found that they have stiffened the front of the car quite a bit, as you say a maybe a compromise too far for general road use?

Spoke to Mark about this and he suggested that I would need to wind my front dampers down a bit. Have been playing around with them, Mark suggested starting at 10 clicks. I've currently got them at 12 clicks and the ride is great, although I've gained a small bit of roll. Will wind them up another 2 clicks tomorrow.

What settings are you running with?

 

[hoolio]

Matt, TBH the car has been sitting snug in the garage for the last week or so, have really wanted to get out and push it but with the whole of the front end totally different have not wanted to get too close to the to the bottom of my bag of talent on wet salt greased roads, ie i think the car is now far far better than my limited abilities.
I think "stiffened the front of the car" is a very good description, at the moment am still running 22 as i haven't wanted to change too much before i get used to it.
As to a compromise to far, personally i think they make a massive difference but i don't have to use mine everyday, for most probably yes.

 

[Cue]

Matt, i'm of the same opinion. harsh on road, you actually try to avoid certain road surfaces lol.

Having had them done at the same time as having the harnesses etc installed it went from a road car to a race car feel over night.

Haven't played with the dampers yet, I've ordered two more dampers to start testing some ideas for spring combo's etc....

Was going to wait until after the summer to really get into this but can't wait that long.

 

[hoolio]

Slightly better pic, you can now see the 12mm camber bolt that imparted 2 Degs of camber without any adjustment or drilling out.