Engine Tuning - North East

[Telegram Sam]

If you take the availability of a rolling road as an indication of how dedicated a car tuning outfit is (this is not foolproof of course) then there are from what I can tell not many to choose from in the North East, and even fewer who understand what makes 20SEH's and the like tick. Paul Woods in Newcastle is I think one of the few survivors and always used to have a good reputation, though it's many years since I was there last. Just today I took my Cav to Automark in Stokesley (for aliens: South of Middlesbrough, N York Moors area) 01642 714 200 as a result of the usual network chain of tips, stepping stones and recommendations. He certainly came over as very clued up but I will need to wait till next week to tell. He is also going to try to get to the bottom of my high oil consumption.

[Kevwaggy]

Sort of North East but Wilkinson Vehicle Solutions on Carnaby industrial estate outside bridlington is good with old vauxhalls, has several himself and a proper rolling road!

[Telegram Sam]

As you say Bridlington is a bit borderline geographically for some of us but I think we could do ourselves (as a group) a few favours by putting together a "database" (may be too grand a word) of such places which may be few & far between but nonetheless worth a visit on account of members' experience and recommendations. There are a couple of rolling road places in Durham who - in my view - would not qualify.

[humbucker]

Motorsport Developments, Blackpool. Doesn't get much better, and they have full four-wheel drive rolling road capabilities.

http://www.motorsport-developments.co.uk/

[Telegram Sam]

Worth noting. Seen from the M 25 Blackpool no doubt qualifies as the North East but we can put it to a democratic vote [ ]. The advantage of personal recs is obviously that we can learn if there's brains behind all the electronics (or not) which is enough to justify the detour.

[Envoy CDX]

If you take the availability of a rolling road as an indication of how dedicated a car tuning outfit is (this is not foolproof of course) then there are from what I can tell not many to choose from in the North East, and even fewer who understand what makes 20SEH's and the like tick. Paul Woods in Newcastle is I think one of the few survivors and always used to have a good reputation, though it's many years since I was there last. Just today I took my Cav to Automark in Stokesley (for aliens: South of Middlesbrough, N York Moors area) 01642 714 200 as a result of the usual network chain of tips, stepping stones and recommendations. He certainly came over as very clued up but I will need to wait till next week to tell. He is also going to try to get to the bottom of my high oil consumption.

Whats the plans next weekend? Did he break down what was going to be done / looked at?

[Telegram Sam]

1. "Vernier tune" (?)/ set valve timing using his rolling road plus no doubt anything else that he considers relevant to setting things up optimally.
2. See if he can identify the cause of the high oil consumption where the usual tell-tale signs seem to be missing.

[Envoy CDX]

Ah, that'll be nice to see things working right.
Hopefully, the engine is sortable without any major expense.

[Telegram Sam]

We are trying to see if there's a way of publishing a very faint rolling road test result graph (barely legible) showing that the 8-v motor is achieving 142 bhp despite being 15 - 20% down on compressions. [The bhp figure is probably no great shakes to you turbo V6 people but I'll bet your compressions and oil consumption are way better than mine!] Hoping to get Automark at Stokesley to sort things out.

[humbucker]

Scan it, upload it, link to it! Voila!

Sounds like you're making good progress Iain. Will the car be heading to Billing?

[Telegram Sam]

Good progress = two steps forward one step back (or the other way round): Tussle at present trying to get Searles to make a sensible contribution towards the cost of Automark stripping the engine down and sorting out the basic oil consumption problem which they Searles should have done at the outset. Hard work and I haven't ruled out the possibility of taking the matter to the Federation of Engine Re-Manufacturers, the trade association involved