Kick Up The Rs

The main reason I sold my Cerb was down to the responsibility I had to my young family. A 340 BHP 2+2 Coupe made of a steel space fram chassis with fibreglass over the top (although it did have a integral roll bar and door beams - which the Chim didn't) used to give me sleepless nights should anything horrible happen to my 2 precious little ones. Yes the car was great - just service, tyres, tappet adjustment and a few bits of bobs in 15 months of ownership was good value. I also paid £15K and got £15K back. The running costs on my G60 in the last 3 months are almost catching up with the costs of 15 months Cerbera ownership!!! As for reliabilty, TVRs fall into a certain group of owners who just tend to throw & leave them in the garage over winter and expect them to be brilliant when they get them out in the spring. Any car that is neglected for 6 months is gonna have problems when you wheel it out in the spring.

The Rover based cars (Griff, Chim) had the RS Cosworth Brakes which in a 1050 kg were excellent. The AJP V8 / Speed 6 TVR engines had / have AP racing brakes. Yes bits of trim will fall off occasionally but all can be fixed with a bit of contact adhesive.

Well I've had a Cerbera, 2 Chimaeras and an S2 and the build quailty varies considerably. Generally the later they are the better the build. The only things that caused me problems were BRITISH parts usually made by LUCAS! Radiators are also a weak point, they have to flex a lot. Go for a post 94 Chim - they have the later Serpentine engine (PAS, better cooling etc.) and Borg Warner box and BTR diff - much stronger. Quite frankly the paint on all of mine was top notch.

Kev, Just for the record and as future reference for anybody else experiencing a similar problem to me, I borrowed my missus's vanity mirror and had a look up my column last night... The pre-load spring wasn't even in contact with the lower bearing. So I slackened the lower UJ and the upper column clamps an carefully rotated the spring until it 'sprang' into place. What a difference! Just goes to show you what cowboys are about there these days. Thanks

Following on from kongo... Worth mentioning that the boost return outlet on the throttle body is left open to the elements (it only blows never sucks :turn-l: ) And you have to have some form of collector to catch all the fumes from the engine breather on the cam cover as this will no longer be connected to the boost return pipe as you've just ditched the boost return. And I think the little filter fits on the back of the ISV (runs parallel to the engine in front of the throttle body) as the pipe originally connected here has also been ditched with the boost return pipe. Clear as mud and I may be (usually I am) wrong. By the way do all G's whistle on part throttle when this mod is done or is it just luck of the draw (lucky if it don't whistle)???

Thanks. The spring is very sloppy almost as though it's not under any load whatsoever... Perhaps the bearing is missing!

Have been reading this post with much interest as I've been having a bit of a clonking issue too with my G60 steering. Does anyone know if the lower clamp on the column assembly actually clamps the lower roller bearing to the column tube? The reason I ask is that my nut / bolt on the clamp has stripped and I've got loads of play in lower end of the column - almost as though the lower bearing is missing! I don't want to go over tightening things once I've put a new nut & bolt in. Obviously a bit of a bodge job by the previous owner as it looks like a recon column has recently been fitted albeit in a hurried manner. Very similar to the new front subframe and engine mount - minus the mount fixing bolts... Column says "Made in England A 137 091" !! Ta

Definitely. I watched Darren do mine. Fitting took half an hour, setting up took about an hour of fitting the wideband and adjusting the timing and then taking it out for a spin. (That was an SNS chip fit too) When I changed my chip it took me about an hour just get the ECU back in the scuttle panel!!!

Oh dear, There was me thinking that with 5 replies I may have had one constructive answer. Perhaps you would like to consolidate my two posts? Oh yes, as mentioned earlier, my initial search failed to give me the definitive answer hence this alternative post. Really sorry for cluttering up your Forum.

Done a search, but struggling to find a definitive answer. Gonna fit my mocal oil cooler on fri to my G60. Have all the pipes to bypass and hence remove the crappy heat exchanger. How easy is it to get the old heat exchanger off? Is it a case of brute force and ignorance? Also are there any parts of the old exchanger that I need to fit to the new Mocal sandwich plate? Thanks in advance

I ran my G60 for about an hour with the snorkel removed 1. I hated the exageratated drone of the G 2. The car felt like it pulled better with the snorkel in However, i do like the addition drone that accompanies the smaller pulley :D

Yep it's standard in that respect. I've just done a search and spotted a post from Pitstop where they also hang it from the slam panel. Will go that route as soon as I can build up sufficient inclination & courage to get on & do the job!

sorry yes the G60 Y

Have just received my Mocal oil cooler kit (& pulley and chip!) from G-Werks - excellent service I hasten to add. Before I jump in feet first with the oil cooler install, does anybody have any pointers or links to help? In particular cooler location, coolant draining, bleeding etc. Also, will I need to make up any additional brackets or can I use the coolers mountings. Many thanks

Yep found the hidden bolt that was stopping progress. All sorted Ta

Trying to get my PAS belt off so I can get my serpentine belt off. Slackened the adjuster and the two bolts that SHOULD allow the pump to slide plus the allen bolt a bit further up that secures the alloy plate but no joy. Any ideas? Or am I doing something daft? Please help

A carbon fibre type air box can also be fabricated to house the trumpets as similar to my old V8 Cerbera with a 'remote filter' to keep the noise down. A guy on the Audifans forum did a similar mod on his 2.0 16V Coupe with quite impressive results - he also went the DIY ECU route (can't remember the name)

Just wired in an alarm & IIRC the centrol locking close wire is red/yellow located just to the RHS of fusebox going into door loom.

Brilliant. I didn't look hard enough. Cheers

Another question from the bloke who is always curious... I understand the principles of going for the boost return deletion mod, but I'm struggling to get to grips with 'ISV re-route' mod that I keep hearing about. Are these two mods totally independent? Can one be done without the other or am I talking complete Cr#p Done a search, but I can't find a definitive answer. Is there a diagram that shows how the system should work? Sorry if I'm a bit slow on the uptake here everyone.

Yep, Idea is to keep use my present cat (which is very new) for 1 or 2 days of the year, and the fake version for the rest. 20 quid or so once a year for my local garage to do the swap is the plan...

Just replied in the wanted section!

Thanks all, Don't get me wrong, the car runs like yours - bang on. Nice idle (900 RPM), very little pinking - unless really high ambient, good boost 1780 measured at 5500 RPM (scared to go any higher). Will borrow a timing light tonight to check advance. Is it 6 deg btdc @ 2K RPM with the temp sender disconnected? Stupid Q's: Which plug is no.1? Can I see the timing marks from the top?

Don't reckon it's the bottom end as it's more of pinking type noise as opposed to a knock. Ran it again this morning, and it almost sounded like valve gear. I had a similar noise on my old Audi Coupe after I put some re-profiled cams in & new followers.

Well it's been despatched today so fingers crossed. Hopefully, I should be able to pick up most of the wires from the existing alarm behind the glovebox... Watch this space!