Mods & Drives

2004 Diary

 

 

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 Maintenance and modifications are in grey and drive outs are in dark blue.

 

January 2004

See the Build Diary page.

 

February 2004

With the SVA now a dim and distant memory, it's time to start modifying the car :-)

SPA Mirrors are now on and I can't believe how much better they are than the GSX600 jobbies I used for the SVA! Looking in the drivers mirror you can almost see your own left ear! The 'crash pad' for the 52mm dial has been removed - I had to redo the aeroscreen center mount and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I also changed exhaust systems... hmmmmmm, carbon fibre :-) So the Leo Vinci SBK jobbie is back. Next jobs are the front indicators and sort (or re sort) the tyre pressure/ride height out.

Decided to do a temporary oil cooler intake out of GRP and spend some time getting the CF pods perfect... probably going to have to vent the N/S mean while, as the turbo bits get a 'bit' hot :-)))))

Removed the Factory indicator pods (and the single bolt adapters) and mounted the M/Bike jobbies... simple job, just changed the wiring. While I had the nose off I made up some number plate brackets from 25X25mm plastic angle. Installed four rivnuts in the nose underside and bolted them to.

Drilled and riveted the Leo Vinci SBK name plate to the end can.

Decided that the new aeroscreen bracket is a bodge, so made up another one and sprayed it up... just got to wait for the paint to go off and I'll redo this bit.

Removed the centre panel and cut an intercom shaped hole in it and installed the box. Sounds simple doesn't... I had to remove the choke cable and undo all the careful wiring ties to get at the aux/radio power socket - it took ages!

Removed and installed the new aeroscreen centre mount bracket... the new version fits perfectly!

So, jobs to do:

Did the ride height/tyre pressure/shock adjustments (see specification page for details).

Not too happy with the rear camber setting, so 'adjusted it to -1.25deg per side and increased the ride to 120mm. Also made a CF steering wheel centre to hide the bolt head while I send the poor quality crash pad back to the Factory (again). Dad(tm) has started the plug* for the temp oil cooler scoop/mount and should be ready in a few days to lay up the GRP. I think  we'll just do the plug lay up and use filler to smooth the rough outside face and spray it. A bit down and dirty I know, but it means we go through one less process.

* He didn't have any wood for it, so while Mum(tm) was out, he nicked the paneling from behind a cabinet in the conservatory - Stuntman! No risk too small :-))))

11 Hours modification time  -  0 Hours repair/maintenance time  - 1 Hours design time

 

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March 2004

Made up another spark plug lead/bonnet heat shield out of ali with the composite heat resistant material, but this time it has a 90deg bend to protect the bonnet/tub as it joins the top chassis rail. Dad(tm) has all but finished the plug for the oil cooler mount and I have decided on cutting big vents in the turbo side of the bodywork until I can get the CF pods done... There seems to be a lot of heat in there trying to get out!

Just got back from the Brighton VRO... big big grin! Still got a very small oil leak from the oil cooler temporary loop, but should be fixed when we install the radiator thingy, the new top heat shield works well and seems to be doing its job, but it definitely needs BIG holes in the turbo side bodywork to let all that heat out.

Made the GRP temporary oilcooler pod today. Dad(tm) had already made the wooden plug for the main body, so it was a matter of waxing it several times then giving it a coat of poly resin and laying up two sheets of CSM glass fibre. Twenty minutes later and we could trim the edges and popped it off the plug - easypeasy :-)

Next Dad(tm) made up the intake plug, gave it a quick sand down and a coat of resin to smooth it off. Once the resin had gone off, we waxed it up and repeated the process for the main body, but with only one layer of CSM. Next we cut the oil cooler vent hole in the main part, popped the intake part of the plug and using one layer of CSM, bonded it to the main body. Twenty minutes later we cut the intake hole and the job was done - rough and ready to be sure, but this is just to allow me to drive the car while the posh CF pods are made.

We then shaped the front and back edges to the contours of the side bodywork, drilled and checked for fit the cooler mounts and then gave it a coat of silk finish Hammerite gloop. So, just got to cut really big holes in both sides of the car, mount the oil cooler pod and the car is ready for the road!

Attached the cooler housing to the bodywork... Used some ali angle and riveted it to the GRP housing and put so rivnuts in the flange part. We the transferred the hole position and cut out data to the bodywork and cut a very big hole in the side of the car (gulp). Once the mount holes were drilled we offered up the housing (with the cooler - prefilled with oil - and its pipes installed) and attached the oil lines to the oilstat/remote filter head. After dodging the hail stones we bolted up the cooler housing to the body tub - job done. The result could be said to be a bit ugly (understatement!!!!) however, it will allow me to drive the car until I can get the mould tools made for the carbon side pods.

We also cut a 75 x 200mm hole inline with the turbo to help vent some heat. I also managed, through guile and trickery, to stick some ali mesh over the hole with some of the heat shield material.

Just got to increase the ride height to 130mm at the rear and the car will be ready for the Surrey WSCC meeting this month!

First 'legal' drive today. Just finished the oil cooler mod and the turbo vent hole and decided that I needed to take the car for a spin. The weather was promising rain, hail, cats and dogs living together etc etc etc. But, this needed to be done - gosh, what a hero :-) So me and Val(tm) donned our crash helmets and did a quick run out. Too much traffic, slick road surface and it was just starting to rain... so NH and back it was. The car rides a bit too low two up, so will have to adjust the ride height a tad, but feels planted and rides the not so super smooth road well enough. It wasn't until we were nearly home that I found I had a clear road ahead of me :-) ahhh, these little moments of bliss.

However, a number of things I need to remember:

To say the car accelerates quickly takes the art of understatement to new levels :-) Hells bells!

You can feel the turbo 'do its thing' at around 5000rpm, then the engine just goes berserk... all flashing shift lights and noise, exhaust and induction. I think small birds, dogs and children need to be careful how close they get to the bonnet intake :-)

Can't wait for a dry sunny day!

Went for a quick blat this afternoon around my favourite test track... a smooth and twisty country lane followed by a bit of dual carriage way, then a really fast smooth long curvy wide road with a really interesting down hill/up hill curve set. (You know, the money I spent on the shift light system was wasted - sorry to go on about it), The car feels very stable in corner entry and mid corner, you just have to watch corner exits, as the rear wheels try to spin up. The acceleration of the car is fan-flippin-tastic, very viserial and I found out that the bloody rev counter IS lying to me (new one on order as I think I remember when I fried this one - oohps).

The down/up hill curve set is a fantastic set of bends: down hill LH, twiddly bit in the dip then a RH up hill bit - and in the old blade this was a full throttle jobbie in 3rd and 4th... not in this car... full throttle does tend to make the back wheels 'squirm' at near any speed :-) and they were spinning as I came up over the hill, which is another left hander. This is a very fast car :-) ....Not to say a rather frightening one.... it just, well, goes!

I can't help it.... BIG BIG Grin :-)))))))) (right, I'm much calmer now the meds are kicking in. I sure you can loosen the rather fetching buckles on the back of this blazer. You know, I really need to see my tailor about getting the sleeves shortened, what do you think nurse?)  :-D

Another day and another quick drive out... Fantastic - apart from two bloody traffic jams - still, I gave up in one of them and employed 'reverse gear' in the narrow road way so it can't all be bad :-)))) Don't think my rear tyres are going to last.

Getting more confident about the car's handling and more used to the manic acceleration. However, the noise it makes - wow, I don't think I'll get tired of that - the exhaust note is much deeper than the old car, but the best bit is the wastegate chattering when you change gear or on overrun and the funny whooosing noises the turbo makes... It don't arf make you grin.

Found out I had an oil leak coming from the 'front' of the engine down near the oil pressure and turbo feed lines are. On closer inspection it looked like the Pulser cover gasket was weeping, so ordered a new one.

Getting the cover off is a right pain! Who put all these pipes in the way? :-D Once the little devil was off, we saw that in fact the cover had a crack in it... As it is the WSCC Surrey meeting this W/E, I was a bit keen to get this fixed, however, Honda have redone their supplier delivery policy to 'better serve the customer', which means they're after saving money and I'd have to wait three working days for them to deliver the part, instead of next day - progress, yummy. A quick call to B&G Machining and I was on my way. three hours later, the welded casing is back on the engine and hey presto, no leaks - Thank you B&G!

My 'minimum legal size' plates had arrived, so it was a quick job to remove the huge 'old' ones, which interfered with the cooling at the front and obscured the n/s stop lamp at the rear and fit the new ones.

Think I may have found, via the Yahoo BEC list, an uncracked/unwelded Pulser cover... so next time I'm feeling masochistic, I have a job in mind :-) (blinkin turbo pipes).

Also designed a new, lighter and simpler video camera mount which uses one of those bike jobbies and some ali plate to bridge the inertial reel seat belt turrets.

Tried to go to the Surrey WSCC meeting... got as far as Steve R. (cheers for the car cover, coffee and umbrella :-D ) and drove home in sideways rain... so much for the "dry miles only"!

WSCC Membership renewal. Joined SELOC... nice welcome pack - very up market indeed.

Modified the nose cone/radiator by installing a duct that takes the airflow from the small lower hole in the nose and instead of chucking out under the car, shoots it at the radiator and bypasses the intercooler. Used the last of my loverrrrrly carbon faced rubber stuff to do it, so it had better work :-))) Also arrived at a final position for the SPA mirrors - they really are very good, I have full rear view at about 50 feet!

Noticed that at low speed (less than 5mph) I could feel the brake pedal 'pulsing', so a call to Andy at CAT was in order: He says that he had the same thing happen, but a good braking session should sort it out (residual machining imperfections due to the grooving process apparently)... Oh good. To be honest, I have been very light footed on the brakes... so just need to get a day when it's NOT FLIPPIN RAINING, DAMN IT!

I have lost the final invoice for my insurance, so rang Backford Bloor for a replacement... it arrived the next day, odd that the replacement cover note took four days to arrive isn't it?

Spoke to the Factory today WRT my very late carbon cycle wings... good news is, I should have them by the W/E. This means I can crack on with the carbon side pod design once they are fitted and I can see the clearance between the wing and the bodywork.

Also ordered a twin nozzle fire extinguisher system... one for the turbo side of the engine bay and one for my poor footsies :-D

The new tacho and the fire system arrived today... fitted the tacho and had a look where to fit the bottle - probably in with the diff.

Took the car out to test the tacho (well you've got to haven't you) and it works fine.

Reset the shift light rpm points and set them to 10,200 // 9,600 // 9,000 // 8,400rpm.

Installed the SPA 'Clubman' 2.25L fire extinguisher system today... Made up an ali bracket/subframe (well, actually Dad(tm) did it) that bolted (via some rivnuts) to the two round tube uprights that go from the front diff frame and up to the inertial reel seatbelt turrets. The bottle holder then bolted to this frame and is held by a steel band clip and a nylon/velcro strap. We are only using one of the mechanical remote firing handles so far, the other one will live in the O/S oil cooler pod once it's done, so the rear pull handle is mounted at the O/S side of the bootbox between the upright and stay of the roll-bar. The tube for the chemicals is a plastic coated ali job - very easy to bend to shape... we routed this down the N/S of the trans tunnel and ran it into the engine bay. One nozzle to the N/S of the bay - where all the heat is! The other nozzle uses the hole in the footwell bulkhead that used to carry the brake light switch - so now, at the pull of a Tee handle, I can flood the engine bay and the cockpit with nasty, smelly chemicals. The weird thing is - you can't test it to see if will work! :-))

I also gave the car a bit of a clean - boy was it grubby!

Out early morning for a blat and met up with some of the Surrey WSCC chaps. Ended up back at Terry A. house for brekkie and to watch the F1 (dull dull dull), nice drive back in the sun shine. Found that I still had a bloody oil leak from the remote filter/cooler pipework and from some where on the turbo side. That and finding that the clutch was slipping at around 8000rpm did not cheer me up much.

Decided to change the oil back to semi synth from fully synth... have to put two lots of oil in, one to 'flush the system' and one for the replacement. Reseated the offending oil pipe fitting in the mad hope that it will stop leaking oil - it seems to be coming up inside the steel body of the termination - gawd knows how.

Nipped over to Steve R. today to 'show off' the car - the last time he saw it, it was through a curtain of torrential rain! Took him for a quick zip (hmmmm roundabout) and found that the clutch was still slipping very slightly - you had to watch the tacho to see the needle 'jump' as it let go - and still had an oil leak even after reseating the fitting - ho hum. Still, the sequential shift lights now work correctly (apart from scaring me silly when the yellow one came on - thought it was the oil light!) and are very pretty.

Decided not to muck about and get a full Barnett race clutch.

Changing the clutch was as easy as the last car, however this one has much more by way of pipe work etc and my hand and forearms look like I've been mauled by a tiger! Anyway, the job is done. I also gave up on trying to seal the oil cooler out line (to the remote filter head) and got some silicone push on pipe and fittings... a very frustrating and messy job, but after a test drive I can safely say the damn thing does not leak... and this leak was the oil on the turbo side that was driving me nuts (well more nuts any way), so that's done that.

Took it for a quick blat to test the modifications and they all work. The clutch is much smoother than the old one and makes me wonder if one or more of the plain plates were warped - they had some very strange bluing marks on some of them. (future note... Nope, just that the clutch 'mod' wasn't done, so it was just slipping)

Now make sure your sitting down, but my carbon cycle wings arrived! So fitted them today... pretty simple, just had to space the lower wing bracket out and bend the flat sections a bit.

 

28 Hours modification time  -  17 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  4 Hours design time

 

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 April 2004

So, next job is now the side pods as I have the new cycle wings. I must say, the quality of these wings is very very good - no air bubbles or blemishes etc etc - I'm most pleased, so much so I've ordered the carbon rear wing protectors...

Went to the Detling Kit-car show on Sunday... pleasant drive there but disappointed in the 'show', lots of interest in our car though and may even have persuaded a convert/new builder to get a Westy BEC kit! Drive back was strange (I kept it easy on the drive there) as the boost seemed to be happening much later (10Krpm) and not having much effect. Put it down to me getting used to the car but was a bit disappointed and had, thinking about it not been that impressed on the last couple of blatts.

Had a look at boost controllers as I think the 'problem' is wastegate creep, look simple to fit. Went and had a look at the turbo side of the engine to see where I could fit one and found the answer to my blatting disappointment:

The wastegate actuator pushrod was just hanging there! A weld had snapped on the front end of the pushrod. Removed the offending item and found the wastegate flapper was jamming half open, which must have been compounding the problem and reducing the performance of the engine dramatically.

Took the turbo manifold off and found the reason why: The manifold had worked loose just a tiny bit, the wastegate flapper had 'nicked' the manifold plate pushing a small fold of metal out and this was acting like a non-return valve. The flapper would open - and presumably sometimes close all the way, but more often than not was hooking up on this fold of metal. This was probably a contributing factor to the pushrod weld snapping - and of course nothing to do with my skill as a welder :-)))

Took the wastegate actuator assembly off and rewelded the nut back on the end, smoothed the nick in the manifold off and reassembled it all (with lots of high temperature thread locker) and made jolly sure there is no play in the wastegate actuator rod and that the flapper is held shut by a small amount of actuator spring tension. Sounds easy but this took about three hours as you can't get at anything!

Took the car out for a test (with Dad(tm) having his first go)... Hells bells!!! This is even better than the first drive (when the bloody turbo was working properly!) The car now starts boosting at 4500 - 5000rpm (0.2bar) and hits full boost (0.5bar) at around 6500rpm! Dad(tm) now says that we need some extra support on the seat headrests as he thought his one was going to snap off :-D

You can now easily spin the back wheels from 4000rpm up to gawd know what revs and the car puuuuuulllllllllls like a really fast pulling thingy :-) The throttle response is instant with no hesitation or tendency to bog the engine down (and this at very silly low rpm - for a BEC anyway) and all this was at partial and/or following throttle rather than just stamping on the pedal -  I'm a happy bunny again and very very pleased!

Just goes to show... the car was in effect working just like a normal Blade and was still going well enough to nearly fool me into thinking it was 'OK' and I was just used to the accl. Now at least I have a reference: 0.2bar @ 4000 - 5000rpm // 0.5bar @ 5500 - 6500rpm - as long as the car is achieving these figures, all is well.

I think the performance must have been dropping of for quite some time and the whole thing failed soon after about the second blatt out. I really can't believe how much better the car is now.

The train of events must have been along the lines of:

Took the car out for another 'test' this evening - I'm going to France in the morning and it was my last chance. The roads were a bit cold but OK, so I thought I'd just do some straight line blasting to check all was still well. Got the engine up to temperature by the time I arrive at the nice bit of straight, empty, wide, 70mph limit tarmac and gently pushed the go fast pedal (just kind of 'following the revs'  type of thing, not stamping on it you understand) and off we went...

Until we got to around 4000rpm in first, then OFF WE WENT!!! :-))) Massive wheel spin on the slightly damp road and the car snaking along the straight, change into second (was my cunning solution to this 'problem') at 9000rpm, the revs dropped to around 7K and we had grip - for around a whole second, short changed into third and the revs dropped again to around 7K with the wheels still spining. By this time the grin was getting in the way of my view of the road and the speedo said we were doing over 80mph at around 10000rpm, (What with all the wheel spin, it was more like just under 70mph I suspect), so a gentle easing off and a sedate drive home was the next plan - just in time to pack for my hols.

Think it's safe to say the car is now fixed - until the next 'developmental challenge' :-D

On holiday in Normandy.... Nice twisty smooth empty roads, cheese, wine, empty sandy beaches, real bread, no crowds and good weather... 24°C out of the wind! Think I'll write to my MP now I'm back, it just isn't fair!

Woke up early this morning (0530!!!) and the sun was shining, the work of a moment to get the car ready - and off for a solitary blatt - very nice it was too, freeeezing cold though. Later on in the day we went to Littlehampton... too much traffic, but at least it was warm. Henry C. popped round for a look and a test drive.

Found that a bolt on the lower turbo manifold flange had snapped it's head off! Of course it was the bolt that the nutted stub cannot just fall out so making an easy replacement jobbie, oh no, this was a "remove the air intake/output pipes from the turbo, remove the exhaust system, remove one of the actuator strut braces and the remaining three bolts so I could get a pair of mole grips in the stub" jobbie... easy... three hours later all the bits are back. The snapped bolt looks like it was cracked as there is corrosion right into the meat of the bolt.

Decided to take the car to Beachy Head for a test run... Still too much traffic but it is a nice drive. Arrive but just as I'm parking the car the water temp runs up to 100°C - this never happens! On closed inspection I find that the overflow small bore pipe has popped off the coolant tank and sprayed (as I found out later - and it was my fault, as I used the wrong type of clip, damn it!) 1.5L of sticky blue coolant everywhere! Dad(tm) arrives after a truly pathetic phone call from me (along the lines of "Daa aaaad"...) and 20 minutes later the hose is back on, the coolant is topped up and the system is free of airlocks (using our secret method) and pumping like a good 'un.

While we waiting in the car park with the bonnet off for the 'rescue squad', it was amazing the number of people that stopped to chat. Mind you, I felt a bit of a burke having to explain that "No, we're not posing, the bloody car has broken down" :-)))

The car is now all clean and dry, the coolant is topped up and I'm back where I started from this afternoon... shame it's half past seven really :-D

Re run of the Beachy Head trip and very pleasant it was to, not too many cars, sunny weather and the car behaved beautifully.

Surrey WSCC meeting this evening, went along to Steve R for a three car convoy blatt to the Parrot. Very good turn out with two or three new members with some jolly nice Westies. The Drive back was a good un, well right up to the point where the header/turbo link pipe weld broke, boy was it noisy for the last 10 miles :-)

Had a look and the lower weld had broken at the front (where the weld had not gone through the material), then it had peeled the rest back. Phoned Tony at B&G, dropped in mid morning and one hour later the job was all welded back up (with big big beads). So, by 3pm the car was back and fine again. Really unimpressed with this rather nasty developement... this kind of thing just should not happen given the amount of money I paid for the turbo kit.

After getting an email from a chap called Keith from a mag called 'Track & Race Cars' who wanted to do a feature on my car, it was arranged to do a track event at Bruntingthorpe the following week (with Dad™ and Steve R.), Jolly good fun it was! Keith and Gary - the photog were very nice chaps and made us feel welcome. They spent hours taking pictures of the car - Move it here, no no, not there, THERE, now, give me sexy.... now angry, yes yes, that's it - Then yet more with me following their car, with Gary hanging out the back, so they could get 'on the move' piccies. Although it took ages to get all the images, it was very interesting to watch and Gary showed me a few of the digital pictures he took - Wow, does the car look good!

Then it was time for my reward, I.E. a few hours blasting around the track.

The car is very fast! :-)))

The handling is almost there, it just oversteers a bit too much for my tastes but the brakes are very impressive, however the expensive, indestructible Barnett race clutch was poo - It only lasted about 10 ten laps before it gave up the ghost big time!

So my day was cut a bit short but in effect I got a free test day for the car. Things I found out were:

And finally, a big thank you to Keith, Gary and Track & Race Cars for a great day out!

Ordered a twin core bigger rad (from a Golf/Jetta) and after scratching my head for several hours, managed to fit it in the car! Boy is it a tight fit. It only holds about a pint more than the Polo jobbie but the frontal area is much bigger, so this and having an extra core should help with the cooling.

Remounting the intercooler was also a bit of a poser, but got it done in the end and managed to lower it in the car so the top face of the rad is exposed. Just got to add some deflectors/ducting and it's done. I also have neatened up the coolant plumbing somewhat by doing away with the rad overflow (which did nothing at all) and running the thermostat bleed to the tank.

Took the clutch out... oh boy oh boy, there was next to no friction material left and the plains were blue as a blue thing! Fairly obvious that the supplied (if they were) springs were nowhere near up to the job.

The car should be ready for the W/E, so a test blatt with Steve R to the Stoneleigh Kit-Car show is in order I feel.

Had a weird email from Jack today... After our "the clutch is knackered, what's to do?" chat the other day, he asked if I could send him one of his springs back so he could do me some high rate ones - no problem. He got the spring today and thought it was one of the Barnett jobbies! So, the spring he's currently sending me should be blinking strong! :-) Still, a very strange converstation. Since found out that his confussion was that he had in fact not modified the clutch in the first place and didn't know what springs to send.

Sorted out a tonneau cover with Ployfacto, appointment for the 11th May and they need the car for a day of so. Custom fitted so it clips down at the back just behind the seats, seat and steering wheel pockets all for £160 fitted - can't be bad.

So, on the face of it, April was not a good month.... however on the positive side, the car is a one off with a weird and wonderful engine in it, so it's not too surprising things go bang. I'm getting on top of the 'problems' and solving them as they occur, so it's not all doom and gloom, just a tad frustrating at the moment.

On the bright side, did I tell you, the car is very fast? :-))))

Track & Race Cars Bruntingthorpe day video (1.00 to 2.20MB - dsl) and images:

40 Hours modification time  -  32 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  8 Hours design time

 

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May 2004

Got the clutch in the car - the springs have little top hat washer thingies and are very stiff, filled the coolant system and 'finally' got all the air out. Due to time, I may not be going to Stoneleigh this year but on the positive side, after a test blatt, the car keeps nice and cool (still won't know if the 'problem' is fixed until I do a trackday though) and the clutch is nice and smooth and didn't slip at the magical figure of 8000rpm.... so looking good.

The Factory phones to say my CF wing protectors are ready - yum.

Test drive to Brighton and back (heavy traffic to test the pump/rad cut in points) and all looks good...

Got all the car related jobs done, so was going to drive up to Stoneleigh (Bank holiday Monday) as the weather on the coast was blazing sunshine. But a quick check with 'Weather on line' confirms that the weather in the Midlands is a 'bit ify' (technical Weather Persons term there). So decide to visit the Eastbourne classic car show instead (do I know how to have a good time or what!)... Early morning, no cars and good weather (and a car that is going well), very pleasant and made all the better by a RBFY™ breakfast in Eastbourne. The car seems to be going well, the temps sit around the 70/80° mark (70° on the move, 80° when stopped) and the clutch stays locked at the magic 8000rpm mark. But to be honest, I'm not going to be able to test the new clutch/coolant system until I do another trackday - still, much better than it was that's for sure.

Weird weather day though... by 10am everything west of Eastbourne was rain, fog and yuck (as was everything east!), but we were in brilliant sunshine. Very nice drive with some naughty excursions to 9000rpm.

Did the rear camber today (between rain storms), put it back to -1.25° and had a look at the rear wing carbon protectors.... aaaaand they don't fit very well - shock horror! :-) Gosh I'm really surprised at that!

Worked out how my new video editing software works, so after Dad™ doing me a DVM of the Bruntingthorpe day I can now upload some selected clips (I'll include them in this months 'Images'). Dad™ and Steve R also have done me some CDs with the stills, so I'll get them up this month to.... cheers chaps.

Had another look at the rear diffuser... redid the drawings, so just go to make up the wooden plug for the mould and I'm off!

Another quick test of the clutch... the weird thing now is, I don't get anywhere near having the shift lights coming on so the last two clutches must have been slipping like mad! The car could hit highly illegal speeds very quickly just short shifting below 8000rpm, to drive the car fast you really don't have to rev it... hmmmmmmmmm, turbo :-) Oh, anyway, the test drive was great.... went so fast so quickly my Westfield BBcap flew off and near strangled me with its tether (and that's a first).

Started on the diffuser today, made up a plywood former from my modified drawings and started the laborious task of filling and sanding to get it smoooooth. Going to make the first one out of GRP/PE just to make sure the system works and fits, then will make a CF/Epoxy one around June time (so anyone wanting a diffuser, drop me a line :-D ). The GRP one will be a two layer CSM job with gelcoat and probably balsa stringers for re-enforcement, while the CF one will be a 2x2 twill two layer epoxy gel and resin with foam stringers. I'm also thinking of making a 'belly' vent for the diff (with 'indents' to keep Mr. Area Rule happy) to drag air from the engine bay through the trans tunnel, across the diff and out... sounds good.... wonder if it would work... anyone? Worst case it would add extra rigidity to the structure.

Just had a quick look at the rpm/road speed spreadsheet and found that while the tacho was saying the engine was doing 11500 to 11750 and the maximum road speed at Bruntingthorpe was 120mph.... I was in fact down 8 to 10mph due to clutch slip, dang!

Got the diffuser plug covered in filler and just about half sanded down, just got to refill and smooth so probably another four or six hours work before I can paint it, then another four hours to polish before I can do my trial GRP item.

Put another 'skim' on the plug.

After a quick blatt I noticed that the exhaust note had changed, so once back home I checked and found that the header/turbo link pipe had failed again and on inspection I saw that the pipe had cracked at the back. A quick trip over to Dad™ to rewelded the damage and as a quick fix welded a 6mm thick bar between the top and bottom flanges to help take the weight. I think it's pretty obvious that the design of this pipe needs looking at and to that end I have generated some drawings and posted them off to the original suppliers which should solve this problem. The redesign/modification is simple as it just requires four 6mm re enforcement bars welded to join the two flanges top and bottom at the front and back of the pipe. These will take most of the load rather than the very thin pipe material - obvious really.

Just got the pipe back in the car and after a test run all is well again.

Spoke to the UK turbo kit supplier and he says he'll get this fixed - we'll see. (Future note Sept04: They didn't do the job, even though they strung me along for 8 weeks with promises - hmmmm).

Dropped the car off at Polyfacto this morning for it's tonneau fitting, picked it again at 4pm and what a lovely job it is to. I had it made so it clips to the boot lit just behind the seats rather than covering the whole of the boot area.

Club night and a nice drive there with Steve R. I even managed to 'overshoot' the pub car park entrance - why oh why don't I have a reverse gear and Val says she just will not get out and push! :-D Still, only meant that the country lane blatt went on longer than planned! Couple of new members and one with a fab (but completely bonkers) Cossie turbo with 330 bhp (switchable to 270!) that sounds very nice indeed. Great drive home, not too cold with clear dry roads - I'm a bad bad boy.

Had a really great blatt this afternoon... the roads where oddly uncluttered, the sun was out and the car performed faultlessly. Covered about 50 miles at a fair lick with most of it on twisty A roads - very nice indeed, I even got the first stage shift light on and that hasn't happened in a while :-D

Sanded the plug down yet again... I think one more go just filling the holes and it should be ready for a coat of paint.

Worked out why the silencer/link pipe kept coming loose - the S/S Mikalor clamp had cracked, so even through I tightened it up, once it got hot the clamp mech. would loosen off. Temporarily used a couple of jubilee clips while the replacement wings it's way here.

Had another blindingly weird idea: I'm going to design a duct system that channels air from the lower nosecone hole to the front of the engine bellypan (first cutting the front away of course!) This should introduce cold air directly onto the sump and turbo and aid in air volume throughput. This time around I'll do it out of ali, but over the winter when the engine comes out I'll do a CF unit that incorporates both the duct and the bellypan - aaaaaargh more sanding, Noooooooooooo!

Met up with some of the WSCC chaps for a blatt to Littlehampton and a 'Really Bad For You'™ breakfast and a walk on the beach. Filling up with petrol and a huge/old car pulled in, turned out to be a Wolsey racer that could do over 100mph, weighed 1500+Kg, had a 5 litre engine but only a hand operated rear wheel brake! Nearly had heart failure when the owner started it up - boy was it loud and did it shoot really long flames out of the under slung exhaust - Oh yes. Reasonably clear roads and I only got us lost once - now that can't be bad! While we were slumped on the beach post brekkies, we saw one of those car boats (or is it a boat car?) making slllllllllow progress out to the last channel marker and back - well he was happy! Crowded but sunny drive back to Steve and Jane's for elevenses, (Thank you both) and then back home to watch the Moto GP, bliss plus.

Not too happy with the clutch after another, rather more fraught blatt, so as a preemptive measure I phoned Jack and he is sending me some larger springs. You can't help but wonder why he didn't just do the 'big spring' thing in the first place... When the clutch was removed it was waaay under the service limits and could have gone at any time.

Sanded the plug down yet again...

Sanded the plug down yet again...

Got the up-upgraded springs which are the ones used on in the Busa turbo kit, so hopefully will do the job. Ordered up the Honda clutch items, 8 x plain and 9 x friction (deleting the 1/2 plate and anti rattle springs and using a full plate) so should have the 'new' clutch in next Tuesday.

Bought the Track and Race Car mag with my car in it... very nice (well, if I'm honest I bought four of them), and it was fun showing the two lads looking at my car when I came out of the news agents the article (sorry, couldn't help myself - "That's me that is!").

Sanded the plug down yet again... who's idea was this?

Going to have a go at fitting the CF wing protectors and tonneau cover this W/E: All done but really not impressed with the fit as the items look to need to be about 5mm wider to sit on the wing without having to force them. But now they're on they look good and the quality of the lay-up is fantastic. It was jolly cold even with the sun shinning, so the cover can wait 'till next W/E.

Back to, yes you guessed it, sanding diffuser plug down yet again... Got the main surface 'nearly' there, just a couple of holes to fill, the side plates are pretty good now - again just some holes to sort out. Once that's done I'll paint the base with some Hammerite and the spray the whole thing with some high build primer (and then more sanding down...) and finally spray with some gloss paint and polish/wax.

Went for an early morning blatt to Ashdown Forest and its environs... this was a part reccy for another SWSCC blatt, but a durth of greasy spoons and a 40mph limit through all the twistys through the Forest mean this really is not a go'er. While out I find that the car while cruising is fine, but won't tick over - most odd. It was a very nice drive and the weather warmed up as the morning went on. When we got home I found that two of the rubber tubes that join the airbox to cylinders 3 and 4 had split - hence the nasty tick over.... and it turns out this was my fault as I had done the bottle screws that hold the airbox on up too tight! Yet another trip to P&H and it must be bad, as they know me by name now :-D

The blatt was also an opportunity to video the air flow over the bonnet vents and intakes, so after raiding Mum™'s cross stitch box, I had some rather nice 'wool' to tuft up the car with, and jolly interesting the results were to..... and, no I'm not going to tell you what they were :-)))))

The clutch kit and rubber joining tubes are in, so my day is set. I find that the spring material is so thick that it coil binds if I try to do up the retaining bolts.... Hmmm, what to do? The solution was to measure the distance between the back friction surface of the clutch basket and the spring turrets and using a 'standard' spring, bolt and penny washers, compress it to this distance. Once done I measured with a feeler gauge the gap between the spring turns of the compressed spring ( as though it was installed in the clutch). I then compressed the spare Busa spring until I had the same gap and measured the distance. It turned out I needed three S/S washer that fitted within the I/D of the spring to space the bolts from the clutch turrets - easy, well after I'd had a sit down in the shade with a cuppa it was :-)))

Next was the replacement of the carb tubes... straight forward but fiddly.

Once all these jobs were done, engine start time and as I'd been faffin' about with the tickover before I found the air leak, the engine was happy at 2000rpm! Once turned down to 1400rpm a test drive showed that the air leak was fixed and the clutch seems to be doing it's job.

I've been having a think about the diffuser and the air flow through the trans tunnel and think that I can aid this once the diffuser is in place by having arch vents that allow air to escape via the top of the rear wheel arch. Yummy, yep more sanding down.

Had a phone call from the chap that is racing a Turboblade Striker today... by the sound of it he is having nasty problems with the fueling! My engine setup is fine, so he's dropping by at the W/E to see what I've done that he hasn't, or is that the other way around? Should be interesting.

'Test' blatt.... :-))) Blinkin' ell, that was fun.

Nick and Phil (of turbo striker fame) came round for a look this morning, but the only differences we could find was that I used 'Jubbly' clips to hold the airbox to the carbs and they have those metal cable tie things.

Rubbed down the sprayed plug and was rather pleased with how it turned out, very smooth finish and only went through to the white under coat in a couple of places. Just resprayed it with gloss black, so just got to wait for the to harden off so I can do the final rub down and polish.

Up early this morning and a blatt to Littlehampton for brekkies, couldn't manage a full one though :-) Then a walk on the beach and an ogle at all the nice Motorbikes. Weather was a bit cold, but sunny and the drive there and back was very nice - went the pretty way.

Final rub down, polish and wax of the plug - gosh it's shinny. Come Tuesday I should be the proud owner of a GRP prototype diffuser, horaaaaaay!

Another early morning start and a very pleasant blatt to Rye, Camber Sands (for a small brekkie - honest) and Battle, weather was great but jolly windy at Camber. An incident on the way back made me smile: Long straight road with about four cars following a camper van, big gap in the on coming traffic, so we all pull out and overtake - fine so far. The muppet in front of me decides he has something to prove (a crappy old Cavalier for goodness sake!) and tried to thrash away from me... oh dear oh dear... just as he hit terminal velocity, the English flag he has on a placky stick hanging out of his window (why???) makes a frantic bid for freedom. At the next T-junction he has to do a U turn to go and get it back - Ha ha ha ha..... errm sorry, well it made me laugh.

Doing a quick bolt check on the turbo (all was fine) and thought, 'what would happen if I leave the cover off...'

Test blatt with the turbo side cover removed - the car runs a bit cooler, so part of the temps issue IS under bonnet heat getting trapped! Oh, and it was a very nice blatt too.

Modified the cover.

 

Track & Race Cars Bruntingthorpe day video (1.00 to 2.20MB - dsl) and images:

Littlehampton RBFY Breakfast blatt:

53 Hours modification time  -  60 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  (557)670 Hours total work time  -  12 Hours design time  -  (95)107 Hours total Design time

 

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June 2004

Have heard that a diffuser can cook the diff, so I heat taped a thermocouple to the diff and went for a blatt... diff temperature on 'test' route: 63°C. Now just got to finish the damn thing and do a comparison run to see if there's a difference.

Layed up the diffuser... used wax and that tyre sidewall dressing as release agent. Used one layer of 2x2 weave and one layer of CSM which produced a finished item that is 2mm thick - it even popped off the mould with no trouble!

Went for a blatt to Ashdown Forest... Planned on a picnic and a walk but it was soooo cold we ended up huddled under a tree. Gave up and went home, nice run though. Steve and Jane R. are up for a Littlehampton blatt and a RBFYB™ tomorrow - and the weather is looking gooood. Steve says he will show me all the bits I missed on the last run.... what a git :-)))) Just 'cause I got us lost.... a tad.

Finished the diffuser! Hooooorrrrrraaaaaaay! Bonded on some stringers then overlayed with some CSM, faired the top and outsides of the wings and sprayed it black. Used three rivnuts in the back of the tub/chassis, a slot/sandwich for the front fixing and it all fits and looks jolly nice if I say so myself.

Sunday blatt and the route Steve (and of course Jane) took was fantastic - even with the complete numpty that pulled out on him (200M view in both directions and he still lumbered out of the side road and the crawled along at about half the posted speed limit - what can you do...... that doesn't involve a baseball bat?) Yet another RBFYB™ and home in time for a rather fraught MotoGP. Also tested the diff temperature with the diffuser and found that it ran about 4°C hotter (same distance, speed, type of road etc etc).

Checked the clutch springs/plates and found they were OK'ish, the springs had lost some length but the frictions/plains looked alright - keep my eye on this. Also noticed that the back of the tub (where the spare wheel normally goes on other Westies) is free of road grime... so the diffuser is in fact cleaning up the air flow/reducing drag from the back of the car, whether it is providing any meaningful downforce??? Probably not, but still worth it if only because of the reduction in turbulence/drag caused by the huge void in the boot area.

Club night and a good turn out (even with Le Mans)... would have been even better if I hadn't nearly chopped my finger off on the car bodywork :-((

Just spent two hours trying to do a bolt up........ the wrong way - what was I thinking!!!

Very nice drive out on Sunday to the joint WSCC meeting, but a few too many cars on the way to have a blatt. Very nice pub and really great to put some faces to names etc and even better to go to a club meet that has BECs in attendance! Drive back was a touch better WRT the traffic but still didn't even get the first shift light up. The clutch seems to be behaving its self, so just got to sort out the oil cooler intake/side pods once I've had a practice with the diffuser.

Cocked up taping the MotoGP and fell asleep during the F1 (it is reeeeally boring) - odd end to the day.

Watched the MotoGP on Monday.... hoooo boy! I really need a Honda V5, I know I'm fickle (was a Ducati) but that's just me.

Diffuser news: Ordered the CF materials to make my 'final version' one. Medium' weight twill, clear epoxy resin (UV resistant no less) and all the various consumables. Total cost was just over £100 but it included a special deal on the cloth (that won't last), so given it should take me about five hours to get the mould ready for another go, another hour for the layup and probably an additional three hours to finish the item off... I should have a finished CF diffuser by mid next week and have a good handle on the costs for the carbon and GRP versions.

Having a rethink with the oil cooler pod/duct... at the moment there is an external air intake that forces the air across the cooler and into the engine bay. I'm now thinking that it would be more efficient if the air came from the front of the car (via ducting and an airbox) and was blown across the cooler and out of the car. Made up a trial airbox and had a look where I could run the duct tubing and it looks like I'll have to modify the nose (looking forward to that) to incorporate two intakes either side and low down (just under the indicators). This has the benefit of 'ram' air straight from the from of the car and not dumping hot air back into the bay.

Carbon bits arrived (two days after I posted the order)! Blimey, didn't expect that so soon as I'd paid with a Building Society cheque. Very good service from ABL and they are prepared to take time answering my really dumb questions - what more can you ask.

Just started cleaning/repairing the mould for the diffuser - not too bad, with just couple of small repairs to the filler, respray and polish and we should be ready - sounds easy don't it... several very dull and tiring hours later (4 or 5) I'm sure I'll be thinking the same:-D

Go the mould repaired and resurfaced, just go to wax it up.

End of term... busy busy busy, no time for the car, damn it!

 

Joint WSCC Meeting

72Hours modification time  -  61 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  (557)690 Hours total work time  -  23 Hours design time  -  (95)118 Hours total Design time

 

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July 2004

After faffing about trying to duct air to the inside of the cooler/pod (oil cooler), I've given up as it's just way to fiddly. The chassis X member only gives 20mm clearance between the tub and the brake M/Cylinder is in the way (don't even think about the steering column or all the water pipes/pump at the front of the engine bay! So, plan 'B' is to remove the intercooler from the front of the car and remount the oil cooler tight in against the front face of the rad.

After sweating gallons getting the diffuser plug ready we are now at the point where we have to lay the carbon version up... So, Dad™ and myself got all brave and mixed up the epoxy and painted on the 'gelcoat'... after 40 minutes this was not quite tacky but not wet, so we mixed some more up and did the carbon lay up. The cloth is very easy to lay and drapes around sharp corners very well, also the ali rollers we used are much better than using brushes, with no disturbance to the weave at all.

Just been for a spirited blat around my private test track and found that even with the oil cooler left in its original place the coolant temps are now behaving themselves. I'd removed and replumbed the air system from the turbo after removing the intercooler. The coolant never got to the fan cut-in temp (90°C) and the hottest it got was 85°C - problem on the way to being solved, just got to test mount the spare oil cooler in front of the rad to check its OK and re locate the intercooler.

Popped the carbon diffuser off the mould (after a bit of a fight) and the result is, even though I say so myself, very very good - relief or what! :-))) However, I think we need to add another layer just to bulk the item up a bit. The carbon diffuser currently is about 1mm thick against 3mm for the GRP version and is about as stiff, so adding another layer should increase the stiffness some what. The whole thing should weigh just under 1KG when finished.

Had a look at an Escort RS Turbo (12psi boost) intercooler... much smaller than the beast I've got, so ordered one from a Hartlepool breakers. This item should fit in the area directly inline with the bonnet scoop and will simplify (from the original) the pressurised air system from the turbo.

Made up an ali bracket to mount the oil cooler using the brace strut bracket for the original intercooler/ducting. Just got to run a test to make sure this cooler doesn't affect the rad too much.

Sill waiting for the new header/turbo link pipe to arrive! I mean, how long does it take for goodness sake?

Had another blinder of an idea: Way back near the start of the build I very cleverly damaged an electric coolant pump, thinking I'd broken it I ordered a new one but later found that the 'damaged' one was fine. So, if I make up two manifolds that link these pumps in parallel, run one continuously and have the other one cut in just before the rad fan, Bob is my uncle (as I've stated before, lovely chap, lives in Wales).

After a very hectic run out to a very nice pub and back it's plain that the new arrangement works well. I trial mounted the spare cooler and temporary bracket in place to test that the rad still does its thing. The temps are still in the 'normal' range for a Blade no matter what the engine is doing, so that works.

Fantastic service from ABL Stevens with the carbon cloth (again), so cut the stringers to size/shape and bonded them to the carbon diffuser, then added the third layer... looks good. I'm also getting the hang of the CAD software now - my head still hurts but I think I'm getting there.

Had a draw of the manifolds for the pumps and think I can produce a very compact unit that incorporates the pumps and attendant pipework, but will probably wait for the winter as it will be easier to do with the engine out of the car. Also nearly settled on the final design of the side pods (now I don't have to worry about the oil cooler) and a rather sneaky way of avoiding the necessity of making two moulds. Very good news as we have to make a plug them a mould and doing this twice would have been a pain. Also after our blinding success with the carbon layup with the diffuser, we feel confident about getting a good finish on them now!

Dad™ has cut the final oil cooler bracket, so just got to drill, bend and mount it (done), then sort out where the filter/stat remote head is going to be relocated. Think this is going to be a very messy and painful job to do, but it really needs doing - ho hum.

Blat out to Eastbourne, a walk on the beach and a very nice blat home via some clear country lanes. This was followed by a test blat later in the day - well you have to, don't you - after softening up the shocks by -1 click all round. Car is going well with the coolant temps hovering around 75°C.

Cleaned up and cut to size the CF diffuser (gosh it does look jolly good), so should have it fitted for the monthly SWSCC meeting.

Had a go with my new CAD software and drew the twin pump assembly, the software is great but takes a bit of getting used to.

Should start on the side pod mould this W/E and as my cunning plan seems to have worked, we need to produce only one, which will cover for both sides! Will make a wooden plug then produce a heavy GRP mould from this and do a glass trial to make sure it all fits. The cost of the epoxy/carbon is going to be a bit scary as I'm going to use three layers (which, given the weight of the cloth will give a finished item that's about 2mm thick) - note to self: remember to lay the cloth with the weave going in different direction for each layer!

SWSCC meet this evening and the roads/traffic were surprisingly cooperative (even if the weather went a bit wonky). Went the pretty way via some very saucy roads and let the car 'stretch its legs' as it were :-) Plenty of new faces with a very good turn out of cars. The drive home was a repeat of the drive there... no traffic! As an added bonus it was dark as well :-))) Even went for a pose through Brighton (OK, OK, sad I know but hey, I enjoyed it).

Blatt in the car - gosh it's good...

And again :-)

And again :-)

Blatt to Ashdown Forest and a 99! Very warm and we had a nice stroll. Chatted to a chap who had a rather pretty Vellocette Venom (from new, no less).

Started to generate drawings of redesigned brackets and fittings in carbon fibre to replace all the aluminum ones - the exhaust hanger bracket should be a bit of a challenge!

Early morning blatt with Steve and Jane R. to LH for a RBFYB™. A bit cloudy inland, but nice and sunny on the coast and the roads where clear. Even had a play with a bike on a twisty up hill dual carriage way - until I worked out that he seemed to be taking some very big risks trying (and not succeeding) to get away from me. I backed off and let him go - man it was very scary watching what he was doing - note to self "leave the bikes alone, it's not clever and could be bloody dangerous".

Quiet month, pleased with the CF diffuser, not so pleased with Willans and their approach to customer service (six point harness that you couldn't do the lap straps up), design for the side pods worked out, just got to make the wooden plug and get it all silky smooth. On the very plus side, had lots of blatts in the sunshine (when it did) and the car is performing beautifully - bliss. Next month should be very busy with some fun jobs that need addressing. Just about getting there now.

 

84Hours modification time  -  61 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  (557)705 Hours total work time  -  40 Hours design time  -  (95)135 Hours total Design time

 

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August 2004

Fitted the tonneau cover (piccies in last month update), pretty easy apart from two minor issues - 1) didn't want to put any poppers in the CF aeroscreen and 2) two of the rear poppers were aligned right on the joint of the boot lid.

Hols in Wales... No, really, it was fun. :-))

We borrowed the trailer from SteveR. (again - what a chap!) and towed it to a very peaceful cottage in South Wales (and ruined the tranquility), some great and in general empty roads and it only rained twice! Hello to the nice chap in the blue Lexus and the even nicer chap with the Clio V6 :-) While we were there we nipped along to the Pembury circuit (well you have to, don't you) and watched a couple of F3s testing - want one!

Back home, so:

Finally got around to moving the remote filter head/oil cooler to the front of the car - easy'ish job, but very very messy. I also manages to stab myself with the S/S braided hose ends - quite a lot actually, so by the end of the afternoon it looked like a Sam Peckinpah set in my garage! The filter head now resides on the left side front of the engine bay which has allowed much shorter runs from the take off plate and neatened the bay pipework up considerably. The rubber pipework runs either side of the cooler from below so not getting in the way of the rad. It also means that the very ugly temporary side scoop for the oil cooler is now in the bin! Horay!

Generated the final drawings for the twin coolant pump ali manifolds and gave them to B&G... Two days later they are done!

Bodium Castle blatt: Very very very HOT and lovely. A great ride there and back with a walk in the grounds and the castle. They were having a "Day in the life of 1494 A.D" event - plate armor 'aint arf heavy!

Very pleased with how the car is performing since I moved the oil cooler etc. The car runs cooler than before, just got to sort out the intercooler mount/ducting/pipe work.

Tuesday meeting - not a big turn out but with a new face or two. Had a long chat with a chap (he'd just dropped in for a quick pint and stayed for ages) who's got an Ultima Spider with a Cossy installed: 570bhp@750kg... he says he'll bring it by our next meeting - goody goody.

Great blatt home, but very very cold... crash helmet time I think for the next meet - so much for the summer :-(

Phoned the UK turbo people about my link pipe (again) and was given the run around (again)... getting really sick of the laughable excuses. Ended up taking a batch of big clutch springs off them that will "do the job - guaranteed" 'll get the bloody link pipe done myself... [understatement] Not entirely pleased with the level of customer service/support I'm receiving [/understatement] Hopefully this will change in the near future as spending all that money and getting all that reassurance from them at the start needs to be 'made good'. Future note Oct04: Nope, still the same. Think I'll use another supplier if at all posible,

Buel Water: Picnic time - Are we there yet? - Very pleasant day, even fed the ducks. Reasonable blatt there and a much nicer one back.

Water injection... decided to admit defeat and give up on an intercooler. There is no way I can fit one, have adequate air flow over it and actually attach it to the airbox or turbo. So, had a bit of a session on the Internet, looked at the DT catalogue, another look on the WWW and found (to my great surprise) that the company that makes the Aquamist water injection system was a mile from my house! One quick phone call and a visit later and I am the proud owner of an Aquamist S1 system. After another quick visit I also have a precisely set trigger switch. Very helpful company.

So, I had the injection system but needed a water tank and a boss in the cold side  turbo pipework to screw in the injector... B&G to the rescue. They made the tank to my design and did the boss all within 36hours!

Phoned LUKE Harnesses (another 'local' supplier - Horaaaay) and found them very helpful and accommodating. Will probably drive the car to their factory when I order the bits, to ensure a good fit, but after they come back from their factory shutdown hols.

Hey, look at that... three companies that provide a fantastic service at very good prices with a good attitude towards the customer and, all three are less than 45mins drive time! Moral of the story? When dealing with companies involved in the kit/performance car/bike industry, make sure you are within easy traveling distance of them :-)

Test of the new water injection system: Wow!

The car accelerates very smoothly (but more manically and with no apparent effort - got two shift lights up in second and third before running out of road/nerve). The boost gauge is reading accurately with the injection pump indicator LED coming on at 0.2 BAR (3psi), but now will sweep all they way up to 0.7 BAR (10psi) from around 6500 - 7000 rpm rather than 0.5 BAR (7.5psi), so the turbo is delivering full boost (with the wastegate just starting to open) way before the N/A maximum torque rpm - pretty good. The engine runs around 70 - 75°C even when you're being naughty. So removing the intercooler, moving the oil cooler and adding the water injection has shown benefits here by dropping the operating temps by around 15°C. Probably will have to readjust the coolant pump trigger point to a higher temp. To think I've just paid out for the rather nice ali dual pump manifolds ready for the winter refit!

Once I was back home I checked the temperature of the airbox and the ali air pipe the injection jet feeds to: Before fitting this system the airbox was always 'rather' warm to the touch after a blatt, but now is cold (rather than cool) while the ali air pipe is still hot, aaah thank goodness for the miracle that is "The specific latent heat of vaporization" :-)

So, all in all a success - solved all the little niggles I had with the car in one fell swoop!

Trip, via the pretty way, to Goodwood... The prep for the revival was on going and there was a trackday with some odd cars involved. One looked like it had got seriously lost on the last London to Brighton Vintage car run! Couple of E-Types, a Datsun 240Z and a rather nice Jaguar ex racer (all rear fin and bulges) to name but a few. Anyway, this was also test 2 of the water injection system (W/I)... decided to up the trigger point and low and behold, it works even better now :-) I actually hit the rev limiter in second before I could react and change up! The boost level is still up at 0.7 BAR and the airbox after the blatt was again cold to the touch. The reason for the change was that the system was active at Motorway cruising speeds and the engine cooled down to 60°C!

Water Injection Video

Having had a read up on the subject, it seems that at my water flow rate/trigger point  the injection system works better than an intercooler twice the size of the frontal area of the car :-O and looking at the typical air exit temps (from the compressor) is rather unnerving - on big boost engines it will go up to 300°C+... Hells bells.

A good run with the car and it's new charge cooling system all working very well indeed.

'99 Ice cream cone' run to LH today - weather was rather nice and the run along the coast was jolly pleasant. The W/I was performing well with the activation LED flicking on at the correct boost pressure... May reduce the trigger point a tad and have an experiment with the next jet size up - just to see what difference it makes. The run back (via Steve and Jane's) was OK but the traffic getting busy.

Gave the car a jolly good wash... even to the point of taking the wheels off and cleaning the inside rims, do I know how to have a good time or what! Also did the design to change the two part engine sub-chassis plates the air filter and the W/I system mount on to a one piece carbon fibre item.

Run to find the LUKE harness factory today... Had a bit of a superior giggle to myself: A new shape Mini was trying to keep up around the twistys - what was he thinking!? Lovely weather/roads and a BLT in Bexhill - aaah! However, got caught in a down pour in Seaford on the way back though! Ho hum, out with the wash cloth again :-))

Just sorted out the "Drawings" folder and found I have over 100 designs in it (with several dozen more to come)!

Did the final measurements/fit for the side pods, so no excuse (bar the weather) not to start the wooden plug tomorrow.

Found a company in Sweden that sells a turbo kit suspiciously similar the mine... they have all the manifold blanks/gaskets/turbo etc etc - jolly good stuff and may well address the issues I have with the UK supplier.

Eventually got around to adding up all the bits I should have got with the car kit but didn't (and ended up paying for): The not inconsiderable sum of £400 and this doesn't include the bits I got FOC because I nagged the Factory which would probably add another £50 or so.

Started the side pod plug today, printed out the Xsection shape and spray mounted it to a sheet of ply, cut this out and sanded (carefully) to shape. We then used this template and a router to make the first 'bulkhead' out of 20mm Contiboard. We then make three more using the first as the new template. Next we marked up the base plate and screwed the bulkheads to it. We now have the basic frame in place and just need to skin it in 3mm ply, fair it off with filler and 20 hours+ later it's done.

To get the ply around the curves of the bulkhead sections we are trying two ways of bending it to shape before we give in and do it the hard way :-D The First method is to cut the area to be bent in several places - met with ominous cracking noises. The second is to soak the board in water for a long long time in our specially constructed, CAD designed and FEA tested water bath (see images) and then tease it around the curves - board still soaking.

Decided that the Leo Vinci can really needs to be repacked, so I've ordered some bits and pieces from Merlin and DT, just got to get some S/S blind rivets from Namrick to complete the parts list.

Swopped cans today for the Powerspeed S/S jobbie. The LV can, when you tip it up, makes lots of 'broken glass' type noises - so much for their patented ceramic packing material :-))) The S/S can sounds 'much' quieter than the carbon LV one - makes the car sound very different. Will be interesting to see what difference repacking the LV can makes.

Dad™ has bent the soaked ply sheet around the formers and roughly screwed it in place with only a very few cracks, hero!  Hopefully, when it dries it will remain in the required shape.

Drilled all the rivets out of the LV end can and bashed the end plates off, they are a very good fit! I found that the ali sheet that was glued to the inside of the carbon body had burnt through (luckily on the underside - so you can't see the very slight discolouration) as I had suspected. Once this was stripped out and the inside surface cleaned, I used some sticky back heat shield to make a slightly better heat barrier. Just got to wait for the packing material from Merlin and get the rivets and this job is done.

Very nice blatt to LH and back via a RBFYB™, hmmmmm, fried bread. The car is perfect and manically fast - I got all four of the shift lights up - bloody hells bells, I think I squashed my eye balls! The thing just launches itself around the rev counter and, I think because I've got the 'quiet' exhaust system on, you're not warned about the looming acceleration :-))

Dad™ has bent the last bit of ply to shape (the way this was done was fantastic BTW) and is gluing and tacking the skin in place ready for the first (of many) skims of filler to ensure a strong, evenly smooth shape to pull the mould tool from.

Remounted the W/I pump on to some rubber bobbins, just got to do the same with the boost/activation switch. Ended up piggy backing the switch mount to the pump bobbins, very neat.

All in all a VERY good month. The car is 'finished' (barring the side pods*/harnesses) and is performing better than I hoped/expected (way better in fact). All the niggly heat issues have been resolved, as have the ducting problems I was facing.

The performance is quite staggering, once the engine is at 4000rpm the turbo is just starting to spool up and delivers a strong, steady push that offers remarkable acceleration while in no way being 'laggy'. You can slip the clutch+ and unglue the rears easily in first then keep them spinning in the next two gears with relative ease. 

The rate at which the rev counter moves as you progress through the gears kind of makes it redundant, as you have trouble focusing on the needle! But the shift lights are very pretty. '

It has taken a lot of hours and effort to get here, I feel confident about the car and its reliability/performance and that the end result is worth every minute of the time invested. I have built (with help from Dad™) a very remarkable Westfield.

*The side pods while helping the air exhaust from the engine bay are now not strictly necessary and are more 'finishing' items to complete the look of the car.

+The Busa springs are not ideal and I am looking at other solutions to this issue.

 

112Hours modification time  -  63 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  (557)732 Hours total work time  -  47 Hours design time  -  (95)142 Hours total Design time  -  Total hours: 874

 

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September 2004

Decided to check the clutch as it's been in there a while and you never know - total time of 1h45m to remove, inspect and replace the whole assembly and this includes removing/replacing the induction pipework. The news is the thing was in good condition with no wear on the friction plates, only very slight bluing of the last plain plate but the springs had shrunk slightly - so replaced them.

Went for a blatt just to check I'd put it all back correctly - shorts/tee shirt weather,  a warm wind and clear country lanes... a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

MK 2 of the side pod mould as MK 1 ran into some problems with the ply cracking. As we have rather a lot of Contiboard we thought we'd make the whole thing as a series of bulkheads, rather than skinning several of them - we'll see how this works. The down side being we have to make 45 of them and need a fork lift to move it! Once the item is done, we'll lay up some surface tissue to seal the mould and then skim it.

Ordered the LUKE harnesses this morning, again very helpful, with a lead time of about a week. Even better, as long as the weather holds out the drive there covers some fantastic roads.

Went for a blatt to Bodium... blindingly sunny and hot. The drive there was a bit crowded but still managed to find some empty lanes to have fun with. The drive back was great, found a twisty road on the Pevency Levels that was curve after curve (for miles and miles), with the added bonus that you could see oncomming traffic from a fair way off... one to be repeated I feel :-)) Car was performing faultlessly and even with the high ambient and some spirited application of the throttle, the water temp never went over 80°C while on the move.

Adjusted the W/I trigger point to 5.5psi (a drop of 0.5psi). Doesn't sound a lot I know, but as a percentage it's significant and makes a difference to the trigger point. This keeps the system off at high speed/low boost but activates just when the weight goes on.

LUKE harnesses phoned to say my six pointers were ready... Had a fantastic blatt over to St Leonards to collect them, the roads were pretty empty and the car was spot on. Managed to get the rears spinning in first - all the way up to the rev limiter (oohps) - up hill. The speedo said I was doing over 50mph when I remembered to change gear :-) The drive back was just as good, with some interesting twisty lanes.

Decided to fit the drivers side harness:

* I made the hole big enough so that you can easily adjust the crotch staps, but so that your thighs don't touch it when sitting in the car.

Hard work, but the result is good - the new harnesses feel much 'safer' than the four pointers and really hold you down into the seat.

The passenger side was a repeat of the above, but for some reason much more fiddly, mind you I'd just spent the day laying wood floor in our hallway, so I'm amazed I put the harnesses in the right way up :-))) After fitting the seat as above I adjusted the harnesses to fit Val - except for the last bit, she does have a black belt in Judo you know.

Last W/E before I start back to work... My how time flies.

Fitted the second extinguisher T handle into the TX tunnel top cover. Riveted a bracket on the passenger side, cut top panel drilled and refinished it (stuck fingers together again), routed/fixed the pull cable and connected it to the bottle handle - two hours.

Reset the coolant pump trigger point to 70°C (and fully pumping by around 75°C, this is 10°C hotter) to avoid the engine cooling to silly temps on the motorway, went out for a blatt Sunday morning and the temps dropped from 70 - 75°C to 65°C. Admittedly the ambient was pretty low, but even so - and I suppose as the engine is not under much weight at cruising speeds, a 70mph head wind and a big rad really does the job.

Club night and the blatt there and back was very nice but the engine is still overcooling, so I've still got the pump trigger point wrong. Rob's newly built XTR2 was there - very nice (and another BEC at the Surrey club - finally!).

Andrew L. came round to collect the Willans four pointers, so took him for a blatt - too close to rush hour to get going but my trusty 'short' test route was clear, so not too bad. While I was waiting for him I re readjusted the coolant pump trigger - and I think I've done the job right this time! Car sits at 75°C, will cool to 70°C on over run down hill - just got to test it at Motorway/blatt speeds.

My next door neighbour is having a second floor added to his house and while chatting he said that he has had to order vast quantities of foam insulation for the floor/roof to meet building regs... and, if I fit a new clutch to his bike I can have all the spare foam - mould production problem solved! Especially good, as I contacted a company in Cornwall that makes this stuff and an 800mm x 300 x 200 slab for the side pod was more than £150 :-X

Val in France, so after a yuky morning finishing of the wood flooring in the hall I decided to go over to Steve R. for a blatt/visit. Petrol in car, up to the Downs and it starts to spit with rain... A shower I think (ever the optimist), however by the time I get to the A27 (so I can test the coolant temps) it is raining. Ho hum, 180 at the first roundabout and home I go. Still quite fun... following a slllllllllow car in the outside lane up hill (clear inside lane, but hey, who's counting), jerk of his steering wheel as he notices me and finally pulls over... I lightly (and I do mean lightly) accelerate and the back end lets go - wiggle wiggle wiggle past him as he goggles out of the side window... It must have been a importune patch of diesel on the road and not my forgetting that wet, greasy tarmac, shed loads of power, a light car and A32s make for a fun ride. The rest of the drive home was uneventful and I didn't get that wet either. Good news is the car seems stable at around 75°C at Motorway speeds.

A quiet month... car is going very well, a fair few blatts but not much progress on the side pods - stupid term time, stupid paperwork, stupid wood flooring, stupid hall, mutter mutter mutter :-D

 

122Hours modification time  -  64 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  (557)743 Hours total work time  -  47 Hours design time  -  (95)142 Hours total Design time

 

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October 2004

Terry M. has finished the 'prototype' gear indicator, just got to work out a way to arrange the pulse thingies on the gear shift horns and I'm off. It was a bit of an effort to get him to just do an indicator, but in the end threats of violence seems to have worked :-)

Early morning blatt on my own, weather was dry and fairly warm but the roads north of the downs were very greasy. Great fun though and empty roads, got back home 10 minutes before it started to rain (for the day).

Back from College and the afternoon is sunny - very nice blatt with remarkably clear roads.

And again! Gosh, the weather is being good to me. I have used a whole tank of fuel on three blatts this week - and I didn't go that far.

Removed the W/I activation switch and ran it over to Aquamist so they could reset it to 4.75psi. My decidedly Heath Kit method of setting the switch proved surprisingly accurate with a set 5.5psi coming in at 5.25psi indicated on their slightly more sophisticated arrangement.

Quick blatt to Dad™s to test the activation point - perfect. Then, as Val™ was going to be late back from work I went for a night time blatt (on the correct assumption that it should be even more of a giggle, as I could see what was coming around the twisties)... also, the red flashy LED thingy for when the W/I is activated is very pretty in the dark. The down side was, I ended up feeling a bit ill from all the burnt rubber fumes :-)

The W/I now comes on at the exact place I wanted it to... Job done there then.

Great club meet... arrived 'in company' with Steve R (the new age Patrick Moore) in very fine weather. Finally met the chap with the yellow Westy of Cuckmere fame - hello again :-) and the chap with the Ultima Spyder Cossy turned up - dribble dribble. Uneventful drive home (apart from a three shift light event on the dual carageway at the coast - didn't half make the ten cars in front jump as they became the ten cars behind).

Took my neighbour for a blatt around the test track... When we got back he complained bitterly about how it was my fault his face muscles hurt so much from the contant grinning... Can't please some people! :-D

Last blatt of the year: Drive out to B/Head and took some piccies of the car in its 2004 guise. Very pleasant but a bit to much traffic about.

Engine out day!

Some jobs to do on the engine bay and I thought "this will go easier if the engine wasn't in the way", so out it came in around 21/2 hours. Popped the turbo off and then detached the really crappy rewelded header/manifold mess, so it's all set for a trip to Powerspeed to have a proper one made. Replaced the cracked/welded pulser cover and re-re did the lower turbo oil outlet.

Main jobs to do are:

Another quiet month with no dramas WRT the car and some rather good blatts. Back to fiddling with the car for the next month or so... ho hum :-)))

 

122Hours modification time  -  70 Hours repair/maintenance time  -  (557)749 Hours total work time  -  52 Hours design time  -  (95)147 Hours total Design time

 

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November 2004

Popped the clutch out and decided to do a proper job on it... The 'solutions' that were originally provided where not geared (Ha ha ha ha ha ha ... erm, sorry) to a BEC installation and the 'advice' and 'help' I got from the UK supplier turbo was nothing that I/we didn't think of first, what am I saying? I didn't get any help or advice from the supplier! (Please note the quote marks :-D). Also I really need to swop the springs on a regular basis to avoid killing the clutch and this will end up costing a fortune.

So, we measured up the maximum free length of spring we could get away with (this includes some rather clever lateral thinking on our part), the maximum installed length (also including some bendy thinking), the maximum O/S and I/S dims. We then did lots of sums to work out how not to break the 80% rule and so find the rough dims of the required spring.

Phoned up a spring manufacturer and ended up talking to a very interested and enthusiastic chap about getting some bespoke springs made. Posted off one of the unused Big Busa springs and our calulations/drawings of the maximums/minimums of the new spring.

Worked out how the dual pump coolant system will go. Then had a blindingly better idea (around 3am the next morning) and redid it slightly. Phoned Highbury Hose and ordered all the blue silicone pipes needed (which cost a lot less than DT). I must say that Kevin at Highbury Hose was very helpful and I would recommend this company to anyone. The new system, while adding two manidolds and another pump, is still going to lighter than the original system due to the shedding several brackets and neatening the coolant pipe runs.

Phoned Dave at Powerspeed Exausts and ended up driving the header/link pipe over. It's quite amusing watching someone trying not to be rude about someone elses work but seemingly all the while thinking "what a load of crap" :-)) The upshot being he will make a new link pipe section and weld that to the header pipes (and re-enforce it so it doesn't break again) then die grind all the internal welds flat, this should stop hotspots within the system causing problems. He also thinks that part of my problem with the flange bolts not staying tight was to do with wildly differing heat expansion of the flanges due to said welds not being ground out... Ho hum.

Spoke to the spring company again (Brian) and sorted out some very saucy springs. He says that the current springs are too stressed and are prone to fatigue (quickly) and will design the new springs so that they are unstressed (and will make and send them for the end of the week no less). His knowledge and enthusiasm was fantastic... made my day!

Couple of info nuggets:

Decided to pop the rocker cover was off, so I may as well have a look at the head while I'm there. Phoned the UK supplier who said that the current head gasket was less than 1mm... while a quick look at it says something quite different (gives you great confidence in them don't it?). As I'd previously found the company in Sweden that supplies the UK with kits I contacted them... and two emails/one phone call later I have a Cometic 1.7mm head gasket on the way, easy....

Got the 32mm ali link pipe from DT and the proforma invoice from the spring manufacturer, who say the new springs should be on their way to me on Friday!

Aluminised the engine block input pipe. Probably does not matter as I suspect that the heatshield does a pretty good job, but it can't hurt. Going to change the turbo oil outlet pipe to the same stuff the oil cooler uses and aluminise that... got to be better than the stainless sheathed pipe that was on there to start with, not least because not I won't stab myself on the braiding when I do the clips up.

Got the head gasket from Sweden... Fantastic service here!

Made the engine chassis to plate to mount the W/I pump and switch.

Tested the dual pump coolant system... I wasn't too sure how it would behave when only one pump was running as the other might act as a by-pass or have some other weird effect. Turns out they were honest... one pump running gave me 30L/Min and both pumps gave me 60L/Min all at 1 Bar pressure (this will drop off in reality as the coolant system pressure increases). Better than being back in Nursery School :-D water everywhere

Made up the pump mounting plate and rivnutted the chassis. Cut all the Highbury Silicone hose to length and fitted the dual pump system. Looks like an oil refinery in the bay now... very technical! Wired up two LEDs so I can tell what pump is doing which. Tidied up the wiring loom... not that it needed it, just made it even more unobtrusive and wired up the twin pumps, swopped the manual switch for P2 so P1 runs off the controller.

Powerspeed say my new and improved headers will be ready for the end of next week, so looking like I'll have the engine back in and the car up and running again by the end of the month, pretty cool. Got to chase the clutch spring people... they should also be with me next week. That will be interesting to see the difference between the B/Busa ones, the bespoke items and the rather puney standard Honda ones.

About 25% through the list so far...

Springs arrived and fitted,  hopefully this was the last time I ever have to look a Blade clutch basket in the face again!

In an idle momment I had a bash at drawing the clutch assembly in my CAD software, the results are flattering of my abilities to say the least  :-)))

Anyway, once the rocker cover was off, I got adventuerous as I had a new gasket... off with the head! Apart from having to drop the engine out of the forward subframe mounts to get the cam tensioner off it was pretty straight forward. Took shed loads of photos "just in case" :-D The valves, pistons and bores are remarkably clean and in good nick. Putting it back was also OK as the Honda workshop manual I've got was written with me in mind, (instructions done in BIG writing with red crayon). Couple of hours and the engine was back together, clean and waiting for the exaust manifold so it can be slipped back into the car. The worst bit was bolting up the cam holders, as it takes ages and the warnings in the manual about if you 'do it wrong' are very scary :-)))

Bit of a delay with the exaust manifold... the chap has a sick note. As I've been covering for people off sick this week, this does not come as much of as surprise.

Rivnutted the chassis for the engine earth.

Next job is the crotch straps mount redo... need some 3mm mild steel and hello again to Dad™'s band saw :-) Should be pretty simple to do. Got some mild steel plate from B&G Machining (thanks chaps), designed the shape, so just got to cut and drill it.

Stuck the carbon film to the floor where the seats go... purely cosmetic I know, but since I cut the hole in the seats for the crotch straps, the manky aluminum floor was 'bothering me' no end, oxidized ali just isn't the new black :-D I also stuck a cover over the seat front mounts to make that neat and tidy - now, where did I put that copy of Max Power? In all seriousness the bare floor and front seat mount did look horrible and needed something doing.

Put the battery on charge (after telling everyone how cheap and fab it was) and the charger gizmo said the thing was dead... Eeek! However, after a quick check with a multimeter I found that the fuse fittings had got rather dirty. Quick clean with some wet&dry and all was as it should be.

Should get the manifold back tomorrow, Dave says that he'll also weld in the captive nuts on the Leo Vinci can for me... star!

Got the manifold and very good it is too. You can actually get full length bolts in now, not 'chopped off to the minium' jobbies. The rest of the bits went back pretty easilly, so the engine is ready to be dropped back in the car at the W/E.

Dad™ has cut the crotch strap sub-frames, so we just have to drill 'em and the seats can go back in... Just the hole in the tub on the exhaust side to match the the drivers side, the side pods and gear indicator to do.

Trail fitted the sub-frames, drilled and sprayed them... not bad, not bad at all in fact. Just got to let the paint harden off and the seats can go back and bolted up, a much more elegant method of arranging the harness straps I must say.

All fitted... went pretty easily and does the job I wanted them to do.

Looks like a very busy W/E coming up with all the bits and bobs ready to be refitted to the car. May well make the next SWSCC meet. Turbo bolts/nuts wired up and engine put back in the car (took 35 minutes all told). 'Just' got to reconnect everything.

Engine was put back Saturday afternoon so Sunday and Monday afternoon I reconnected everything (with a few modifications here and there), checked the coolant system operation - very impressive (and I worked out a better way of filling the system to ensure no air locks!) and redid the air filter mount. Turned the engine over with the plug leads off to get oil pressure (which came up very quickly) and then it was the 'Moment of Truth'... will it start or will it shed its pistons and cams through the garage roof?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dang thing started first turn of the key and purred away happily to itself.... Well, of course it would :-)))

I'm still a bit rubber kneed with relief! Scared myself silly at one point as a really loud rattle started... took me a few frantic minutes to find that it was the second of two clips I use to hold the exhaust pipe to the turbo and I just hadn't done it up.

Last jobs are to torque up the prop bolts, set the 'on' temp for pump1 to around 80°C, recheck the oil level, recentre the paddle shift, bolt the dash and scuttle back on and redo the clutch pedal end stop.

First drive (to Halfords for some screen wash for the W/I) and all was fine.

 

223Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (557)780 Hours total work time  -  60 Hours design time  -  (95)155 Hours total Design time

 

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December 2004

Found that I had a very small oil leak where the feed for the turbo bearing goes, the oil was squirting up between the pipe and the locating nut (rather than the threads) and causing some smoke as it burnt off on the hot turbo case. Unfortunately I could only get the spanner on one way and this gave me no scope to tighten the thing up (turned out I needed a mere 1/4 turn). So after scratching my head and lacerating my hands for two evenings we made up a custom spanner with the head of a 'spare' 12mm jobbie and an 8mm Allen key. A welded custom spanner and a nip later and the leak was cured.

Collected the Leo Vinci can innards from Dave at Powerspeed... great job as usual and he'd even included the packing for the can as well! Can't recommend him enough.

Installed the can/link pipe and took the car for its first 'extended' blatt around the test track... Clutch seems fine and the smaller water injection jet does the trick, dry roads too but it seems much easier to unglue the rear end with the throttle - may be due to a combination of timing, bigger air filter and jetting.

The twin coolant pump works well, on the 'move' with only one pump on the car sits at 75°C, in traffic (stop/go) it climbs to 85°C but switching the second pump on while the car is at around 30mph takes the temperature down to way under 60°C. Looks good so far so the next test is to run both pumps while the car is on the 'move'. No oil/coolant leaks either and it was even sunny!

SWSCC Meeting and we braved (stupidly - what was I thinking?) the extremely cold weather to give the car a long run. Very pleased with the performance differences and very pleased with the dual pump system: At Motorway speeds the temps creep up to 85/90°C (from around 70/75°C at A road speeds) on one pump but switch the other one on and they drop to way under 70°C, so trackdays should not be a problem.

I'd always wondered if the booster pump was pushing the coolant around at the same rate as the mech. one at high revs - and the answer is .....no, but two pumps will... and then some!

The car went very well with no sign of clutch slip and the only mishap was hitting a (dead) Pheasant and snapping one of the placcy numberplate brackets (now fixed and with an added 'safety' tether attached to the plate - stupid Pheasant). The turbo stayed firmly attached to the new headers system, the engine is oil tight with no leaks from the turbo feed and it will hit the red shift light with no hesitation or lag, pulling from very low down in the rev range and spinning up the rears at the least provocation (the car is actually quite scary now - oh goody), weirdly it also seems much quieter than before as you can really hear the very odd 'zhooooong' noise the turbo makes when you change gear at high boost ('Home Page' audio says it all).

Grin? Oh yes!

So all in all the winter 'upgrades and technical fixes' were worth while and seem to work well.

Changing my insurance for the car... the new insurers need the car to have a Cat 2 Thatcham immobiliser, so contacted Jeff at Sussex Soundz and five days later job done. A rather nice install with an aerial thingy so you don't have to fiddle around with a key fob and great service.

 

232Hours modification/maintenance time  -  (557)789 Hours total work time  -  62 Hours design time  -  (95)157 Hours total Design time

 

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(c) Copyright 2000 - 2005 - J.B.Cobb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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