andy

Any old bit of flat metal will do the job, just place it in the grooves on the end of both camshafts. Its as good as the tool as both shafts have to be exactly flat in order to get a peice of metal in both grooves at the same time.

Yep, but from memory I would say you need to take the inlet manifold off, cam cover off and chain cover off. Which would therfore mean removing a lot of other ancilliaries like coil pack, ht leads etc.

Its not the tensioner that fails its the curved pad that the tensioner acts on. It looks a bit like a brake shoe and the material wears away over time until it gets to the rivets and bits of tensioner pad go every where etc etc. It can be inspected for wear but thats not a 5 min job.

It is indeed the crap tensioner pad breaking up that causes problems. There's not really much for the chains to touch as they run in guides (plastic) and you'd probably get chain slippage before damaging anything else if they were that loose.

Not had one snap, never heard of one snapping but I bought one as a project where the chain had slipped on startup. 9 out of 12 valves were bent but that was about it apart from the mullered tensioner and guide rail. I would expect valves and pistons to be damaged if the chains snapped in normal driving, as a minimum.

yes please

errm i get 420 miles on £55 in my merc (3litre straight 6) and she is old skooool!!!!!! what are you driving? VR6? errm you're the one getting 100 miles on £35 from a 1.6 four pot, phats mpg is far more believable! and you mean what? the bm is crap? yeah i agree! or im a liar and you want proof? Not saying your a liar at all..chill :-) I found your mpg from the BMW gobsmacking thats all, yet you seemed amazed about Phats mpg which I didn't find that unreasonable. Just struck me as strange. Not trying to start WW3.

Take the rca leads out of the amp, now go for a drive. If the noise is still there than you know that you have a problem with the amp or the power/remote cables feeding it. If the whine has gone then you know your problem lies with the head unit or its wiring. I had this exact problem last year and it turned out to be a duff amp, proven by substitution. Good earths everywhere are also very important, they don't really count unless you can see shiny metal, not painted metal.

errm i get 420 miles on £55 in my merc (3litre straight 6) and she is old skooool!!!!!! what are you driving? VR6? errm you're the one getting 100 miles on £35 from a 1.6 four pot, phats mpg is far more believable!

BMC CDA Filter

Top mounts roughly £10-£15 each for fronts, bumpstops negligible...£5ish.

7k is a lot of money...especially for a K plate...but....its sounds like an unusual car, that mileage is spectacularly low. So its worth whatever you wanted to pay for owning a car with kind of mileage. I couldn't do it but I understand people that do....much more than I understand people who pay 7k just because it says Storm on the back! Enjoy it mate. :lol:

Halfords locking wheel nut removal kit as Ian says, heard good things.

Cool, I've got the black sealant thing going on too.

I only paid £50 ish for local tyre place to do 4 wheel laser allignment, I'd try that and see how you like it, mine drives ok and wears the tyres perfectly evenly well happy with the local job. I'm sure Stealths gear is very good, but like you I couldn't justify the hundreds of miles round trip.

Get some decent oil in it, if its been run low I'd change it anyway. See how it sounds then.

Whats the price in Sterling?

25Nm (18lbft) according to Mr Bentley

I was wondering that. I have never heard of anyone painting the inside of a dipstick tube. Why would anyone. How would you. Is this a wind up?

Yep not much at all, will have a look when I get home.

No I wouldn't have thought the plugs would be damaged for now, I think its about longevity thats all. I certainly brushed mine off until a couple of years ago when I found out you're not supposed to! The gulping sounds familiar to me, it sounds like a standard VR6 characteristic, my VR6s have all done it. (If its the same gulping!)

The hissing is normal, its the ISV sound deadner, air just passing through it. Coil pack removal is as you say, plus removal of the multiplug on the top of it thats currently hidden by the lead guide/cover. I'd go with the leaking ht lead personally, you need to eliminate this first, most running faults are ignition system related. Your test, though extreme is highlighting a problem that may not manifest itself when you look under the bonnet normally but may cause a misfire under load as you described. Something else, not that its that important is the fact that you wire brushed your plugs, afaik thats not recommended these days.

That's exactly what I need to hear, I've been a bit disappointed with my crashy ride since the year dot. Am about to do the rear beam bushes and am praying that the ride quality improves.

Cylinder Head Engineering in Fareham (Near Portsmouth), very knowledgeable chaps, their business IS cylinder heads. I've had two VR6 heads rebuilt there and I'm fairly sure NIGE16V on here had a 16V head done there too. Top quality work, fast as you like and unbelievably cheap. You're talking £150ish if no parts are required, next day kind of service. I paid sub £500 for one that had 12 new valves and tappets (genuine stuff), chemical clean and resurfaced face.

If you like to be honest, tell them. Personally I can't see it making a blind bit of difference to your premium. Mine never went up with a Scorpion Exhaust, RamAir filter, Konis and Eibachs.