My advice is: Get the new cylinder head, and while you're at it, it probably won't cost much extra to get enlarged valves and ports.
This seems like... well, like cheating, somehow. I don't want to make the engine more powerful than it is, I just want to be able to use petrol that I can actually buy without major faff. If there was somewhere nearby that sold full-fat^Wleaded petrol I probably wouldn't be changing the car at all.
Well, maybe think of it as creating the romanticised ideal of your car? The way the designers would have wanted it to be, before budget constraints and so forth.. Also, leaded petrol is bad! Nasty stuff..
As for the floppy gearstick: This is usually due to a worn bush on the selector forks. (It's a rubber thingo that has probably completely deteriorated by now.) Get this replaced, and the gearstick should become *much* more certain, and make driving a lot easier. It sounds from other MM drivers/owners as if the gearstick isn't actually any worse than expected, so it may just be that I'm not used to it. Will investigate though. (Is this the sort of thing I could do myself? Bearing in mind that I'm a total novice at this kind of thing...)
Well, all the other MMs are the same age as yours, too - so they'll all have deteriorated about the same amount. Since it's a very gradual decay, people don't really notice the change; until someone gets it back to how it was when it came out of the factory fifty years ago. Again, think of it as returning the car to how it was meant to be. As for DIY.. It's the sort of thing that an amateur mechanic would find easy, but perhaps not something for beginners. It's easy to do.. maybe just ask your garage to do it at the same time as they change the head.. compared to changing the head, it's only a moments work.
While driving her around last night I noticed that the steering wasn't always pulling left; it seemed to depend on the road, as if the car was really hypersensitive to any camber on the road. That does rather suggest (to me, at least) that it's the wheels rather than the steering rack.
That indicates it's definately the ball-joints or steering rack then!
Sorry i can't comment on Halfords or Mackays.. Neither existed where I came from.
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Date: 2003-02-25 08:14 am (UTC)This seems like... well, like cheating, somehow. I don't want to make the engine more powerful than it is, I just want to be able to use petrol that I can actually buy without major faff. If there was somewhere nearby that sold full-fat^Wleaded petrol I probably wouldn't be changing the car at all.
Well, maybe think of it as creating the romanticised ideal of your car? The way the designers would have wanted it to be, before budget constraints and so forth..
Also, leaded petrol is bad! Nasty stuff..
As for the floppy gearstick: This is usually due to a worn bush on the selector forks. (It's a rubber thingo that has probably completely deteriorated by now.) Get this replaced, and the gearstick should become *much* more certain, and make driving a lot easier.
It sounds from other MM drivers/owners as if the gearstick isn't actually any worse than expected, so it may just be that I'm not used to it. Will investigate though. (Is this the sort of thing I could do myself? Bearing in mind that I'm a total novice at this kind of thing...)
Well, all the other MMs are the same age as yours, too - so they'll all have deteriorated about the same amount. Since it's a very gradual decay, people don't really notice the change; until someone gets it back to how it was when it came out of the factory fifty years ago. Again, think of it as returning the car to how it was meant to be.
As for DIY.. It's the sort of thing that an amateur mechanic would find easy, but perhaps not something for beginners. It's easy to do.. maybe just ask your garage to do it at the same time as they change the head.. compared to changing the head, it's only a moments work.
While driving her around last night I noticed that the steering wasn't always pulling left; it seemed to depend on the road, as if the car was really hypersensitive to any camber on the road. That does rather suggest (to me, at least) that it's the wheels rather than the steering rack.
That indicates it's definately the ball-joints or steering rack then!
Sorry i can't comment on Halfords or Mackays.. Neither existed where I came from.
Anyway, there you go.. Hope things go well,
Toby