Something different as its quiet.

[Paul Sheridan]

May be of interest to some of you, seeing as its very quiet on here.

Just been putting things in the loft for Christmas and came across some of my prized treasure from my wreck diving escapades.   From the Kronprinz Wilhelm, one of the German Battleships that were scuttled in Scapa Flow.

When I first got it off one of the boiler room bulk heads, the gauge was complete with the glass and needles, but some how during the way back out of the hull they were lost....... shame.

  

[Big Vern]

Which is what is really killing most forums regardless of the media form. Plato's republic still operating effectively after more than two millennia :/

[James Doulton]

I think that it is killing more than just the forums, BV, it is stopping us from doing anything real. Apparently, each time that we like some post or add a witty reply to some thread we get a small dopamine reward in our brain. Studies with rats show that when they are able to give themselves dopamine then they will just keep pressing the button to the exclusion of everything else, even eating and sex.

Facebook isn't quite that bad but if you have it on your phone then you can't get away from it. While I was putting up shelves in my new garage, my phone kept alerting me to 'exciting' things going on in facebook. The temptation was to just see what was going on instead of actually doing something.

This site and other forums are not like that - sure, you get the dopamine hit from the interactions but when you walk away from your computer you are oblivious to the goings on until you log in again, so the thing has much less of a hold on you.

Plus, on Ning, you don't get friend requests from pretty blondes, you don't get adverts for "20 wedding pictures that should never have been taken" or "the 10 most powerful aircraft - ever" and you don't get caught up in the other trivia of your friend's lives - their kid's school play, their mum's 80th birthday, their views on Donald Trump. All of them can be interesting enough to distract you and as a result you actually don't get the shelves up in the garage. (although I actually did).

Rant over.

[Steve Kerswell]

I like that James :-)

[Big Vern]

Which I why I have always shunned 'social media', not withstanding the way it is used by Governments and big businesses to control and manipulate, society itself is controlling not only what you should think but as you've pointed out, controlling what you do. I allow myself only an amount of time on forums and open and check email only at certain times. As for dopamine I don't have any of that so it doesn't distract me LOL

[James Doulton]

One of my colleague calls it "anti-social media". He has a point.

[Steve Kerswell]

One for you Mr Sheridan http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=207298

[Paul Sheridan]

Some great engineering going on there. I think is great having all these little gems of workshops and their owners around the country, turning out stuff like this. Most of them stay hidden, which is a shame. 

[James Doulton]

I would like to know more about that conversion. Running 7psi sounds like fun, but I think that a turbo might actually be an easier modification. You would probably know more about that Paul. What do you think? 

[Paul Sheridan]

Easier to retro fit a supercharger to a stock engine than it is to fit a turbo, due to the pressures produced. If going turbo, the internals of the engine will also have to be modified to lower the compression and strengthen the bottom end, also with a supercharger there are less charge cooling issues compared to a turbo

As he's only talking about 7psi, the Zetec should be able to handle that in standard form. 

If we are talking performance, then I will go turbo every time, modern turbos and control systems are now so advanced that there is virtually no turbo lag.

Can have both mind !! a few years ago I retro fitted a pair of superchargers to a pair of turbo charged Volvo Penta engines in a boat, the reason for this was the fact that, on start up and maneuvering out of harbor, the engines are obviously at low revs, the turbo's didnt start working efficiently until the engines heated up and the revs got above 2000. So the exhaust was always very smutty, fitting the superchargers which worked on electric clutches during warm up, solved all the problems. 

[Big Vern]

"If going turbo, the internals of the engine will also have to be modified to lower the compression and strengthen the bottom end" Not necessarily Paul, eg MK1 MX5 engine is very suited to turbocharging without internal mods required with more than twice the power being very achievable on a budget. Turbochargers can be made to work at very low revs, its all about cam timing. Most modern diesel car engines can make full boost below 2000rev.min so I guess you didn't have the right set up for the Penta.

[Paul Sheridan]

The old boat engines were not modern by any stretch of the imagination BV, and maneuvering was generally at or around tick over. The superchargers were a modification from Volvo to combat the problem. 

I have never played with an MX5 engine, they sound well built! Can they be turboed with out reducing the compression ratio?