Dialynx EM Q&A

[quk@isham-research.demon.co.uk (Phil Payne)]

In message <9804201553.AA03503@aztek-eng.com> DeWitt Harrison writes:

> Experience with the Dialynx EM has been mixed. I believe
> Phil, for one, has had good results. I haven't been so fortunate. I
> installed one a couple of years ago or more. This was possibly
> before the OEM 2-piece was available and definitely before I knew
> about it. Ivor (TAP) claimed it was indestructible and I think that
> is it's one undeniable quality. I don't think you could break it
> with a sledgehammer.

Don't drop it on your foot.

> My particular unit has 3 undesirable characteristics. Firstly, it
> warped big time. The first time it was 1/8" off flat end to end.
> Had it planed. The second time it was off half that. At the
> moment ... well it's still on the car so I don't know. It never
> actually broke studs, though. It just seemed to shake them
> out.  According to Phil, the casting has since been strengthened
> to cure this problem. That's good to know now.

John Robinson had one of the early ones.  It warped so badly that I
could _see_ the warp from across the room when I walked into the pub
where he had it on the table.

> Finally, the casting is so thick that proper access to the EM
> nuts for applying correct torque is not possible for at least
> a third of the fasteners. You will find that grinding down
> your wrenches and sockets will help but still will not
> permit sufficient access everywhere. Therefore  you are
> forced to guess at torque in many cases. In some really
> awkward cases, it is almost impossible to get enough torque
> before the nut starts to get damaged. I'm talking "head off"
> here. With the head on, it's hopeless without pulling the
> down pipe and turbo (yuck).

Some success with open-ended Crowfoot sockets.

> In any case, the next time the head comes off, the Dialynx
> goes into the dust bin or the neighbor's keel ballast. YMMV.

Over here, Aelred will happily exchange an old (design) manifold for
a newer one.  In John's case, he replaced the manifold twice and
charged zero labour.  It still wasn't very convenient, though, because
Dialynx is around 200 miles from Nottingham.  John's happy now, with
his new design, but all of the claims for improved performance have to
be discounted.  Now that Audi (UK) have dropped the price of the
original spare by 45% (thanks, Aelred) it's a no-brainer.

--
 Phil Payne
 Phone: 0385 302803   Fax: 01536 723021
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