The self destructing entity that is Royal Mail finally delivered the piece of T304 pipe that I wanted to use for a tailpipe - who knows what they did with it for almost a fortnight on a 48 hour service.
Just a simple, standard sized, unpolished piece of stainless clamped on with a t-bolt clamp. I think that it looks quite tidy:
If I can remove the towbar and find an unmolested rear valance I think that will do just fine
I also performed the first drain and fill of the transmission on Tuesday eve. It was pretty brown, but just smelled of atf, not burnt, and still had a slight red tinge on some paper. (it was better than what was coming out of the XC, thats for sure!)
I had left it parked for three days to allow as much as possible to make its way out of the TC and into the pan, jacked it up (placed axle stands), removed the plug, then dropped it back down again to get the most out possible.
I measured exactly what came out - 3.15 litres, and measured (in the same, but cleaned out, jug) exactly 3.15 litres back in. Took it for a 12 mile drive and checked the level - overfilled.
Either it was overfilled to start with, or the co-efficient of expansion of the new fluid is higher, but it was right up to the end of the plastic part of the stick
Once it had cooled down the next day I used a 60ml syringe and some clean tubing to suck 250ml back out again.
That turned out to be a good estimate, as once I had done the school run (just under 10 miles, some stop-start, some free-running) I checked the level again - bang on the top of the hot mark.
I'll check it again in a week and then do a second drain and fill next month.
In theory I'll only get 2.9 litres out at a time now. so it will take marginally longer to complete a full change.
My word that pan feels ridiculously thin. I so gingerly snugged the plug up with my hand barely up the ratchet handle from the socket.
It had a funny 10 seconds earlier - I started it after it had been sat for about 1 and a 1/4 hours and for a few seconds it only ran on three cylinders. Once i revved it to about 1200 rpm it cleared and was fine afterwards. I'll monitor, but for the moment, I shall put it down to just very old redblock kjet things I guess.
My next tinker will probably be to investigate if the auxillary air valve is actually doing anything. The ~500 rpm idle on a cold start is OK now but might not be so great in the winter. Wouldn't, I don't think, explain the funny 10 secs above though.
Still loving it so far - my daughter says she can tell which car I am picking her up in as she can hear the viscous fan roar as I pull away from the traffic lights outside the school. Prompted a discussion about 1) how we agree we both think it sounds awsome, and 2) how the viscous fan works which I think she may have been mildly interested in - or she could have been pretending, it is hard to tell with teenagers.
I'm just debating whether to take it when I have a couple of business meetings next week. They are both approx 50 miles each way. 99% sure it'll be fine, but the trip home from buying it has given me the fear
so the 1% of me thinks I should probably first do some longer journeys and try the motoway on some days out, where a breakdown would just be an inconvenience rather than a very embarassing let down of other people. I haven't done any more than 15 miles in one hit with it yet.