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Been laid up with 3 slipped discs so progress had pretty much slowed to a stop, but this week I've been doing 1/2 and hour a day just finishing off the small jobs that always get put off, so here's a few pix of progress to date:
Engine bay:
Wiring loom 90% finished:
Closeup of some of the pipework:
Front end off to make a cowl for the radiator(s):
I've already had the DTA running with the loom off the car so (fingers crossed) it should work now it's in!
The charge cooler rad fixes to the main rad with the fans bolted onto a mounting flange on the front of the main rad. The flaps that are on the main rad are also to fit the cowling to guide the flow from the front grill openings
Got some fibreglass arriving later so will make the cowling out of that
Will do, it looks like I've got a couple of oil leaks I need to sort first and there's one follower that hasn't filled with oil yet so I'll get that lot done early next week
Right, no more leaks (I hope) it starts, ticks over when warm and bedded the cams in with little problems. Early indications are pretty quick pickup but the gear selector decided it doesn't like reversing at the moment so can't really take it on the road yet
Nope, i swapped over to an mgf gear change so hopefully it's just an adjustment of one of the cables. Couldn't do any more on the car today (back playing up again) so might be able to do it tomorrow
Considering I set it up by eye it handled really well to!
Got a long list of things to sort now after it's first shakedown and I've downloaded the ecu log to analyze. There's an oil leak somewhere and one of the driveshaft rubbers has perished, but overall a very sucessful test session
Turned up to 1bar now 150 miles of pure unashamed massive grin from ear to ear with a few scary bits thrown in!
I still can't believe it's so quick, the speedo looks like a rev counter it moves so quickly!
Once up to 300 miles i'll put the propper oil in and send it over to get mapped. It's not actually too far off already, just running a little on the rich side and i'm sure there's more ignition adavnce to be had, plus i can't quite get the idle right
just hit 280 miles, so the running in is virtually complete, few little niggles still but it's been running all day without any problems at all! got the thing idling just about now so it's a bit easier to drive.
Done a little setup work, tyre pressures at 20psi front and 36psi rear, 5 clicks on the front and 12 on the rear shocks and it feels a lot more stable coming off power now
Not sure what tyres you are running but I am using 205/50/15 Toyo T1-R's on the back, you need the extra pressure to stop the sidewalls from falling over in the corners and it takes the squirm out when you throttle off, they don't look over inflated.
If you look at most mid engined cars, the tyre pressure is significantly higher on the rear and should be a reinforced multiply sidewall, unfortunately I ordered the reinforced tyre but only got a single ply one so I will just have to wear them out soon Snetterton next month....
17 sounds right for the front but way low for the rear.
Thanks re the wiring everything worked on first power up too! it's the original loom I'm having problems with atm!
195/50/15 Toyo T1-S and Toyo 888. Toyo recommend 17-20psi for a sub 800kg car. My 1500kg daily driver runs 35psi in the fronts, with a (for arguments sake) 60/40 weight split (so 450 kg per front tyre), thus 36 in a relatively light car seems seriously high. If it works, fair enough, but it seems theoretically quite some way from optimal.
I don't have any problem with excessive sidewall deflection with 17psi - it was one of the first things I checked when reviewing cornering shots.
it lives