Barry

Note - I do not condone law breaking (just for legality sake) You need to head the other direction. I.e. Not Dubai-abu Dhabi. I went to hatta a while back for exit. Proper late like, Im Talking 3-4 in the morning, no cars on the road. Once you see the donut marks in the middle of the road you know anything goes. Cross over into Oman and it's even more free. No need to show license, show British passport and ok maafi mushkil. Do you mind if I ask, which software are you using for tuning? And which method are you using to connect to your ECU? Bluetooth or wired?

Go to a shop, buy a valve tool and a tyre pressure gauge. 20-30 dhs. Watch some videos on YouTube to show you how to remove the valve and deflate and stick it back in again before the wheel goes flat. If your budget will stretch to it, buy a tyre inflator/compressor thing. If you can't afford a tyre inflator, buy a double barrel foot pump but be prepared to sweat. Driving on the road with deflated tyres will wreck the sidewall. Big bulges will come on the side of your tyre and it could blow out and throw you off the road. Off road, you want around 15 psi in your tyres, maybe more maybe less but try 15 first time and see how it goes. Too high pressure and your wheels will spin, too low and your tires might pop off the rim. Pop off is a pain in the ass, especially if you have no spare, no tools, no experience and are alone. I use the petrol method to seat beads but it you don't know what you're doing, you'll end up with a burnt out car in the desert and a long walk home. I still recommend going on one of the Carnity desert drives on a Friday for your first time. Go in with an open mind, be willing to learn and don't be cocky and you will pick the basics up quickly. I am into drifting and rally driving and I learned in no time at all because I accepted the fact I was a novice in the desert and didn't know anything but was willing to listen. @Gaurav and at @Rahimdad are pros at desert driving. They have many years below their belt doing this and didn't get to being marshals without reason so these are the guys to stick to. If you like chicken, @shadow79 will be your friend. Please bear in mind, I am not an off road expert. I am just trying to steer you in the right direction. If you head out into the desert alone with no experience, you'll end up walking to find a signal on your phone or hoping some hospitable local will come along and rescue you.

Chipcentric in Al Quoz are the ones to go to. Speak to Murat. He's a pro and he knows what he is doing and can advise what will work for your car. He's a real car guy too, has a Delta Integrale. I have been to their garage a few times and it is well set up. They are one of the few that have a dyno so they can actually set your car up properly rather than just guessing parameters and hoping for the best. When it comes to something like this, quality is more important than cost. It's better to pay for a proper job than to end up with smooth engine bores and a sump full of petrol which will eventually necessitate a full rebuild.

Carrera GT with tracks? Where do I pay?

Yes

The good resellers will have certificates on the wall from habtoor. If you can see certificates, you can probably trust them. For all the difference that's in it, it's just as well to go to habtoor and buy the parts direct. At least you know what you have. I've worked on one particular Pajero where I did a timing belt. All the parts came from a small shop in Mitsubishi boxes. The tensioner failed after a couple of thousand kms. Very lucky it didn't wreck the engine. Replaced with one from habtoor and it's been fine ever since doing desert work. Caveat emptor

I stumbled across a company in the U.K. called cgon who sell a device that adds hydrogen to the fuel-air mix which claims to increase fuel efficiency by up to 25%. They also claim that it reduces emissions by up to 80%. One customer testimony on the website claims their gas mileage was increased by 33%. So, Real or snake oil? I call snake oil because it's been around for 2 years and the manufacturers haven't adopted the technology then it can't be up to much https://www.cgon.co.uk/

Repurposing the engine crane as a device to test the tensile strength of earth wires

I won't get too much into my thoughts on the Rothschilds because most of it is rather unpleasant but I came across this on YouTube and thought it was worth sharing. Something big is going to happen which will affect all of us and we will have no control over it. Anyone care to guess what it is? They sold a lot of USD stock a few days ago so something is definitely afoot that we dont know about.

That reminds me, pouring oil into my own runaround after a spirited drive, missing the filler hole, then having to push it outside when it catches fire so your mates garage doesn't burn down.

I'm actually having a pretty good day today. Have a Bentley in and the KESSY controller isn't communicating with the remote antennas. A couple of MOSFETs and a handful fusible resistors ordered from RS Components. Solder them in and it'll be as good as new. Fixed for 10 bucks in parts. I dread to think what a new controller would cost. Anyway, back to topic, Refitting an engine back into a Range Rover. Starting it and oil starts pouring out from the back of the engine. Having to remove the engine again to fit two o-rings worth a dirham because your helper forgot them. Changing the oil in an engine. Pour the best part of a gallon into the filler cap. Realizing the oil is running around your feet and notice the sump bung sitting on top of your toolbox.

Being covered in transmission oil up to your elbows and your phone rings in your pocket. Having to wash your hands before you use the bathroom rather than after. Having permanent black spots on the back of your hands and wrists where the oil has got stuck in your pores. Paying $300 for 4 screwdrivers from snap on and 2 of them go missing. Realizing a drug addiction would have been cheaper than all the tools you've bought the past year. Spending half a day trying to trace a no start fault and realizing you forgot to plug something back in. Dropping a socket between the heads on a V engine and having to take the manifold off because you can't get the magnet into the space. Please share some more!

Camless engines with solenoid operated valves are already here. Check out koenigsegg freevalve engine.

@Gaurav It's a joke. If you fitted these to an engine it wouldnt even start due to lack of compression.

Adding lightness is better than adding more power. If they were also machined from aluminum billet it would be even better 😂

I love burnouts. The smell of tyre smoke and a rich fuel mix is like petrolhead viagra.

Aston Martin did this a long time ago but slightly different.

You would think it's simple. My last job was foreman in a garage. I tried to train them in simple things like using a torque wrench to put on a head. Ok ok boss, then it was put on covered in shellac using an airgun. Putting in a diff was another ball game. No need to measure boss, it's in, all the bolts are tight. The wheels turn. It's ok. I didn't go to school to learn what I know. I taught myself everything. So there's no excuse for not knowing what you're doing. Anyone can learn it. You just have to put a bit of effort in. Most of these guys aren't prepared to put the effort in though. They think they know everything and this is the problem.

If there's a problem with the diff, it won't be possible to lock the back wheels. If the wheels spin with the diff locked but don't spin without, then you don't have LSD. Jack the back of the car up. Spin one wheel. If the other wheel spins the same direction then you have LSD. If it spins the opposite direction the you don't have LSD. LSD and lockable diffs are 2 completely different things.

TCS works on the same system system as ABS. It uses the same wheel speed sensors and cuts the power and transfers to another wheel when appropriate.

If you want to do proper burnouts, man up, buy a manual and consider fitting a linelock/brake bias valve. If you want to disable the TCS, try pulling the ABS fuse.

If it has LSD and only one wheel is spinning, then there is a problem with the differential. You may get away with adjusting it. You won't know until you open it and check. Maybe it was never adjusted to start with. Too many mechanics here just stick parts in and have no understanding of what they're doing. Ask them if the backlash and pinion height are correct and they'll ask what's backlash?

Sorry, I should have worded my statement better. I do not condone anyone driving on the road without a license or breaking any other laws. What I wanted to say is that it's better for people to learn off road first before they hit the traffic with minimal knowledge, potentially causing accidents. By off road, I mean on private land, unrestricted car park, flat desert tracks etc. Get caught driving without a license in U.K. you're liable for a similar ass kicking as you are here. I was lucky, I grew up on a farm and there was endless forest tracks and fields to drive around. Where im from, Northern Ireland, still technically part of the U.K., driving on the road is not so much of an issue. The rural areas are controlled by paramilitaries and the police are scared to come into the areas so it's pretty much anything goes as long as you don't annoy your neighbor.

@Ren13 have you seen the Subaru Sambar? It's a Japanese kei car. People buy them and kit them to look like mini vw buses.

@desertdude Not necessarily, you just need a driver to get there and back. Im all for people learning to drive before they get their license. I did it and I'm all the better for it. The whole education system of teaching people to drive on the road from scratch isn't good. Far better to learn off road than start mingling with traffic when you're still capable of mixing up the clutch, brake and accelerator pedals.