I took the Stylus out last week for a test run, I trundled round the houses for a bit, then out onto the main road & back, then along to Blackbushe. All was well, so I got brave & decided to drive to Winchester. It was perfect & I was a happy bunny.
Two days ago I decided to drive to Portsmouth to visit a friend, I went out to the garage, started the car - "squeak, squeak, squeak squeak" it said in time with the engine, just like before.
Looked like I'd be staying at home then. It sounded mechanical, like a dry bearing, but on a hunch I tightened the Jubilee clips holding the silicone hoses onto the inlet manifold stubs & when I got to No.3, the tone of the squeak changed & then turned to a small hiss.
Gotcha!
I really dislike the inlet arrangement, it consists of the throttle bodies from a motorcycle - which is fine, but they are attached by silicone hose cones on a not-wide-enough flange & on the engine side they pass over a pipe welded to the inlet plate. the pipe is round at the free end, but oval at the engine end, so where the jubilee clips fit, they are trying to clamp a round thing to an oval thing, there is obviously little pressure at the centre of the flat at the top & bottom, so it leaks / whistles. As a temporary fix I tightened the jubilee clips resulting in one of them stripping. Arse!
So what to do? The obvious answer would be to spend £££ on a set of Jenveys, a new airbox & a rolling road session.
I did some careful measuring & drew up a sleeve to fit over the inlet manifold stubs, it's very thin - only 1mm thick mostly At the engine end I made it the oval shape inside, but round outside, at the other end it's just round. I printed a test article in 95shore hardness polyurethane & tried it on the engine, it was a little loose. The next one was a nice tight fit, so another three were printed & fitted between the silicone hose & the stub pipe. Even with the stripped Jubilee clip this seemed to work, but would the polyurethane take the heat? I ran the car until the fan cut in, then a little longer, I tested the temperature where the stub pipe is welded on (the theoretically hottest point) & it reached the low 60 degrees mark, turning the engine off raised this to 65ish degrees (it's air-cooled when it's running), so with the bonnet closed it shouldn't get above the mid 70s, so should be OK.
The following day I took the car to Guildford & it was good, but on my return I fitted shiny new Jubilee clips to all four stubs & yes, the sleeves were just fine.
REALLY hoping this is the end of the saga
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