What made you UNHAPPY today!

[Kimbers]

We had Wendy's dad's funeral yesterday after a very sudden and short illness. Boxing Day will never be the same and he will be sorely missed. 

[silverfrost]

Very sorry to hear that Kimbers ,  my thoughts are with you and your family 

[Giniw]

My sincere condolences Kimbers ...

[100th_Idiot]

Condolences to you and your family Kimbers.

[TAR]

Sorry to hear of your loss. It's especially hard at this time of year.

 

[march]

Sorry to hear of your loss Kimbers it can't be easy.

 

Meanwhile back at the farm, our heating oil tank has split with over 2400l of heating oil in, the oil and over £1000.00 of fuel is slowly leaking out into the ground, have lost about 200l in the past few days. Patches by heating engineers have failed, have tried a temporary fix myself today whilst waiting for a better patching epoxy material to be shipped. I don't really see an easy way out of this as getting a replacement tank in place is going to take time - It's going to be an expensive Christmas this year 😖 but at least it is only money.

[Barrykearley]

Deepest condolences kimbers

@march - grab an IBC from one of the local dairy guys and use that temporarily 👍

[march]

Brilliant idea - will look into it now. Thanks

[C8RKH]

This might sound stoopid, but it works!  Rub soap ( the hard bar of kind) into the splits and this will act as a temporary fix too. Assuming it is the green plastic heating oil type of tanks. It worked on my 1400ltr tank. The sun dries out the plastic and they crack.

[march]

Already done that 🙂. The people who service our boiler were here within 2 hours of phoning (now that is what I call service) and asked me to give him some soap. Watched in amazement as the soap initially stopped the leak - it was then covered in silicone. I think the problem is that the tank is slowly giving since we filled it to the brim. The 2nd application of soap and lots more silicone seems to be holding at the moment but I am not sure for how long.

[Barrykearley]

31 minutes ago, march said:

Brilliant idea - will look into it now. Thanks

Easy to lift and move - will take the weight - and has a blanking plug which you can drill to fit an oil take off onto.

£25 a pop for those things round this way

[pete]

Thought tanks had to be bunded these days

Edited December 22, 2018 by pete
Spelling

[Barrykearley]

Yup they do now. A certain tank manufacturer were fined many years ago for omitting the correct levels of UV stabiliser in the plastic which the tanks were made from. This meant they cracked around the rib creases over time. I’ve got an affected tank which I keep meaning to replace. 

Strickly speaking - the oil delivery chap should refuse to fill if there’s any damage evident

[Stuart Monument]

I used two part expoxy to fix a fuel filter plastic bulb on my diesel lawn mower. That did the trick. Worth a try and you should be able to buy form a diy shop. 

[march]

The two part epoxy arrived at 0900 this morning - I will be checking the current temporary fix daily and when it starts leaking a gain I will put the epoxy on ( a quick look out the window this morning and it looks like it may be holding at the moment). Unfortunately with 2400l of oil the pressure on the split is quite great.

[pete]

Looking through my Dad's old photos today I found this one of him in 1939 with some old boy with a moustache

 

[chipp]

🙂 But why does the bottom of the picture not look in perspective, is it because the kids are standing on a wall maybe.

 

chipp

[Barrykearley]

Laurel and Hardy were so funny back then

[Jacques]

Very sad day around my Waters, as a freight train loaded up with trucks full of empty beer bottles flew off the freight train, while crossing our big bridge in the middle of Denmark, because of a serious storm today, and hit a passenger train, killing 6 and injuring 16. Divers are now searching for further parts or persons in the sea, during the night. Biggest accident in 30 years.

Life it seems, is very beautiful, but also very fragile.

Jacques

Edited January 2, 2019 by Jacques

[pete]

 Exige failed mot today. Sport catalytic converter not good enough

[Bibs]

Was it warm enough @pete? 

[pete]

Gerald tried everything said it wouldn't hold up for long enough. Going back Monday with a different cat

[Fueltheburn]

Has the cat been on long?

If it has been on a few years, it might be worth running a bottle of cataclean through to clear off any contaminants. 

Even the cleanest modern engines burn oil with the blowby from the crankcase vapours and egr being sent into the engine. 

When cleaning rx8s and diesels I run water and windscreen fluid via a high pressure nozzle after the maf to clean the induction pipework, valves, combustion chambers and cat.  Do it when the engine is relatively cool and it will make it to the cat to clean it out.

You can see the carbon in the chambers on the rotaries has gone from thick oily black to light grey deposits.

While you are at it.  It is worth cleaning all of the sensors ie MAF, IAT, MAP and any other ignition applicable sensor to make sure it is running as clean as possible.

[pete]

Been on a year and done 4000 miles. May have had something to do with it being a very cold day?

[Fueltheburn]

Unlikely to need cleaning at that age then.

The cold does make a big difference.   Original cats tend to be double skinned for more heat retention and quicker warm-up.  Most sports cats i have seen are single skinned for lighter weight plus cheaper and quicker construction. The way to get a sports cat through is a hard drive and literally drive into the MOT as it's time is called before putting it onto the emissions machine.  If it passed everything else you can get it re-tested on just this.

Depending on what materials you have to hand in a drawer or garage? Wrapping the cat in manifold wrap is always an option for heat retention.

Or refer to the sports cat manufacturer and question whether it will pass an MOT?   Likely the reply will come back "Not for road use" as catalytic converters have to be type approved and that is expensive for the certs.

Is it high CO or unburnt hydrocarbons it's failing on?