Some gentle Sunday viewing for you all.

[Nuvo]

[Tractor Dave]

I could get that going in under an hour

[Rikki Kitto]

Show off

[K Simmonds]

Show off

Ha, Ha.... Dave is right though, however I recon I could get to fire in 48 minuets as long as I had VAGCOM and my six foot high secret filing cabinet full of ABY and ADU spares.

Joking aside cheers for the video Nuvo, it wasn't badly done and the presenter got most facts correct..

As it happens mine has been safely tucked up in super dry workshop since 2022. it suddenly dawned on me in back in March that I hadn't started the poor thing for over two years as it either needs a clutch or fingers crossed the slave cylinder. There's also a hose that can fail and collapse inside and I have one of them stashed in my special filing cabinet. I'm certainly going to try change these before I pull it bits and move the box back, the six speeds are so bloody heavy I can't lift one safely now with my gamy left arm so I'll probably slide it back on top of pit boards until there's space to work on everything. Mandatory new rear crank seal, clean the surface of the flywheel with 80 grit sand paper in a circular fashion etc.

Anyway, that's a problem for another day.... I added five gallons of V-Power or whatever it's called now to the tank, made sure the engine was free by pushing the car a little in third gear, that worked. So I got in and with my fingers crossed flicked the starter and she fired and ran perfectly for 30 seconds the died suddenly and refused to go again with my brand new high output battery. So I sat in the car pondering what I should check first, spark or fuel.

Then I had a kinda brain wave and recalled it had been stood with a couple of gallons of generic E5 97 Ron fuel in the tank which could have picked up water via hydroscopic action due to the bloody ethanol content which the fuel pump wouldn't be happy about. So I decided the first thing to check was the fuel pump fuse. Low and behold the 15 Amp fuse had popped so I fitted a new one and got back in, with all my fingers crossed.

Turned the key and the old girl fired up again but now sounded slightly grumpy, nothing mechanical just a slightly odd sounding misfire on a couple of cylinders. I gave her 15 seconds before I decided I should hop out and start unplugging injectors to see if I could at least pin down which cylinders weren't happy. But thought to try giving the throttle a quick blip first, huzzah!

As soon as I let the engine idle it sounded perfect again, no bad noises from the fuel pump so I let her run right up to until the fan kicked in and the oil was nice and warm, gave it a couple of close to full rev range blips and held it at 3K for about a 30 seconds. I them made sure the coolant was circulating first by testing the heater which blew lovely very warm air, then got out and checked that every hose was hot. I have a smaller brand new genuine Audi 7A Aux radiator fitted as I got it for a steal and it fits just fine, I'd also rebuilt my main Behr radiator nine years ago so figured that should all okay which it was, everything felt much same so all good there. Got back in and both the oil and water gauges were at normal operating temperature, gave her a final couple of quick blips to 6K, let it idle for 30 seconds then shut it down.

Hopefully that info might help someone else who's cars been stood for ages and won't start, always start with the most simple possible faults and check one thing at a time.

I changed the oil to Fuchs Titan 10W50 fully synthetic racing oil when I took the car off the road as I figure that should last better than the regular stuff. The coolant is neat and still tests fine with a hydrometer, and all the tyre's have at least 60 PSI in them to prevent flat spots. I occasionally roll the car at least half a rotation as well as there's a grands worth of Toyo R1R's on there which are fantastic tyre's, they're based on medium compound 888's, unfortunately now NLA.

That video has also reminded me that I'm custodian of a piece of motoring history, especially as my car has a lovely K26/7 MTM conversion done from new under warrenty and is obviously very quick. The exact spec is written in tiny German hand writing which all MTM chips of this period seem to share, and I got a German member to kindly translate the info.

My car has 380bhp, a flowed head and I'm assuming port matched manifolds, the K26/7 hybrid and free flowing exhaust which I assume means decat pipes. For some reason they also used a 3B MAF-turbo boot which I've seen on their 360 BHP conversions as well.

Someone has fitted cats again back in the distant past as I've had the car for ten years now, but I've sourced a really nicely made pair of SS decat pipes thanks to Andy in Plymouth who was super helpful with getting them to me. They're waiting to go on, if I have to tackle the clutch I'll fit them then with some A4 grade SS fasteners just in case I have to put the cats back on for an MOT.

Now I have the use of my T5 van I'm going to take a trip to my nearest Shell garage and get enough V-Power to fill my RS2 and V6 C4 Avant quattro to the brim, as well as get some ready for my B5 which is currently bone dry. I'm going to pump the 1/4 tank or so of 97 Ron out of my C4 and put it in the B3 turd which is already about half full.

After a lot of research I also have some of this stuff to add to the fuel, there's some in my RS2 already... I don't normally approve of any additives but this stuff is supposed to be excellent even with marine engines. Until my elbow is fixed I'm not very happy about driving due to the pain mediation I'm stuck on which is a PITA. But from a legal point of view I'm okay which is pretty crazy.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375466045...9A&hash=item57

[Sonic]

Shame nobody reached out we could have had it running quickly ?

[K Simmonds]

Shame nobody reached out we could have had it running quickly ?

Hey, haven't seen you on here for years. Hope all's with you, what are you driving these days?

[Tractor Dave]

Ricky from RE Performance now has the car at his place and we had a long chat last night. I'm getting a few bits for him and he should have it running in no time.

[Rikki Kitto]

Kit if you have a big Tesco near get Tesco Momentum cheaper than V Power and 99 ron I used it for years in mine no issues also used the fuchs titan nice oil, swapped over to Millers for the RS3

[Tractor Dave]

A guy on YouTube did a group test on all the available super unleaded brands. Only the Tesco momentum had 5% ethanol. This isn't an issue if you use your car as a daily but very much is if the car sits for a while.

[ottawa coupe]

Internet mechanic here: seems to me a new fuel pump, cleaned out fuel system and some new coils should have it sorted??

The fact that injectors and at least one coil fired suggests that everything from an ecu standpoint is fine?

[Rikki Kitto]

Dave does that mean the other super unleaded fuels have no ethanol?

[John.]

Dave does that mean the other super unleaded fuels have no ethanol?

Yes, Esso Supreme has none although E5 is displayed on the pump because in a few outlying areas it may contain up to 5% ethanol...apparently !

[Tractor Dave]

Dave does that mean the other super unleaded fuels have no ethanol?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q1y1H...5vbCB1aw%3D%3D

As John says. Sometimes depends where you are in UK.

[John.]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q1y1H...5vbCB1aw%3D%3D

As John says. Sometimes depends where you are in UK.

Interesting video that Dave

I only knew about Esso 'cause there's one near to me.......wish it was a Texico

[Rikki Kitto]

Isn't Tesco Momentum an Esso fuel?