Classic Monthly Magazine Spider Buying Guide

[moorelli67]

Classic Monthly magazine has a soft-top special issue this month, currently on your newsagents shelves! Tucked nicely away at the back is a 2 page buying guide for a Spider which lists some "upgrades" for the car. I am intersted to know if anyone has completed any of these and what effect it has had on your car please.

The upgrades listed are:

1. Jamex progressive springs to lower the car and stop the back squatting under acceleration
2. Putting synthetic 75W 90 gearbox oil to improve cold gear selection. Also it also suggests fitting a 1600 gearbox with an HF Turbo flywheel to the 2000 engine to improve acceleration
3. EBC street kevlar brake pads and copper nickel brake pipes (obvious this one)
4. Replacing the headlights with those from a Ford Capri of 3-Series BMW. This is of particular interest to me as I'm having fun with this particular aspect of my car!
5. Protect heater and speedo cables from exhaust heat (again obvious)

Also, unleaded or premium unleaded fuel? What's the consensus as to which is best?

I look forward to the replies?

Steve

[hutch6610]

The 75w90 in the box is good - but i don't have and have never had the cold gear change problem with any of my Betas.

The 1600 gearbox in a 2000 is a total utter waste of time, actually kills performance.
Just because it "zips" through the gears does not mean it makes your car faster on acceleration.
My old Trevi had such a conversion and it just screamed, the shorter gears made the car a little slower if anything.
My VX also had an IE gearbox - exactly the same thing, if you want to rev the nuts out of your engine and waste fuel do it by all means, just an old wives tale.

If you route the speedo cable behind the fuse box and wiring you wont burn the cable anyway.
They out to show a mod where you make a heat shield to cover the steering rack to stop the boot from burning.

High octane unleaded - shell V-Tech and other premium fuels win over 95ron (green) cheapo unleaded any day.

Cant comment on the springs and brakes mentioned - i think the Beta is low enough!

I have Tarox discs and brakes on the front of both my VX's and i will go with Eric Weston - no real improvement over standard other than the pads last for ages.
I do 3000 miles a year and they are still going after nine years.

[MattNoVAT]

I'm sure my gearbox was a little sluggish on changes when cold (but admittedly its been a while since I drove it regularly) but once the refit is done then I'll change both engine and gearbox oil and I have plenty of 75w90 on the shelf.

Talking of possible "Old wives tales" I was told that one of the best upgrades for a 2000 was to swap the head for a 1600 head.  Anyone done that and had positive results?

[hutch6610]

I get a minor clunk when changing from first to second when cold but i know the synchro is a little weak on second.
A friends HPE developed a changing problem when he was having difficulty engaging first gear - this happened when i changed his thermostat.
It turned out the thermostat pattern was different and the adjustable idler (the one that pierces the brake vacuum pipe if its not secured properly on the IE) was striking the edge of new stat, great .... £30.00 +p&p getting damaged!

The cylinder head from a 1600 is a good one - never heard that one before - pretty sure the combustion chamber volume is exactly the same.
The ports may be a little smaller on the 1600 i think depending on what year, ports on an early 2000 Beta/Montecarlo head are similar to a 131/132 when measured and are narrower from the the later Betas.

Was doing a check on all the heads i have when i noticed this so i will have to cross check all the casting numbers and label carefully whats what.

[rossocorsa]

I would guess that a vx cylinder head makes more sense bigger valves and all that....as regards gearbox beta boxes have often historically had the wrong oil fitted either a straight gear oil as opposed to the proper fiat stuff or an engine oil that is multigrade but cannot withstand the viscosity modifiers being mashed up by the gear action castrol i believe ,and if I remember right, used to recommend gtx for beta boxes! a change to a proper modern multigrade gear oil will obviously give improvement  on cars where this has occurred although the gearlinkage is probably responsible for more issues due to worn joints

[moorelli67]

Anyone tried the headlight suggestion in the past?

Steve