This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.
I though I would post my experiences now that I have done a grand total of 50 miles!
Great fun with lots of smiles on the faces of passers by - but a few issues that need sorting!
The front wings stays are, err, not great. The wings bounce up and down scarily and one of mine managed to come undone on the way home from the SVA test despite the nylock nuts. I think I will be making some changes to these before I attempt any longer journeys. I think that they could do with a 3rd central stay and a better clamping mechanism.
My diff is whining - LOTS. Of course at the moment I have no panelling in the back so this doesn't help. Must check that it has oil in though :-)
Engine has a small oil leak - b*gger. I changed all the oil seals as well. Also, I must adjust the tappets - it sounds like a sewing machine on heat at the moment. Oil pressure also seems a little low when hot - about 40 PSI at 50mph in 5th - is that about right or is it a bit low?
Rear suspension has settled a huge amount - particularly on the drivers side. I can tweek up the spring mounts to compensate but I suspect I need some stronger springs. I will have to check the calculations I made now that I know the actual axel weights.
Still not convinced about the servo. The SVA man was looking at it suspiciously but as it passed all the tests he couldn't do anything about it.
Hi Robin
Yeah, my wing stays were very scary too, they bounced around so much I thought 1 might suddenly fly off! I was thinking of adding 2 short bars which also attaches them to the top bolt. Has anyone else got a solution?
Tim
hhmmm.... this is now getting interesting to compare a 'clutch' of BMW Sportsters
Mine has the scary bouncing mud guard/wings and frequently came loose on my first long trip and one broke recently due to overtightening. Marlin weld their 'u' bolts to the upright but that is a pain if one fails as you'll have to grind it off and re-weld a new one.
Mine are currently serated and epoxy glued and the run up to Stoneliegh will be a good test of their suvivability.
We'll have to have a group design think tank at Stoneliegh this year and see what we can come up with!
Tappets, I bet mine were the loudest!! so make sure you've got the right feeler blade
Oil pressure... mine was low'ish and then dropped to zero. I put a new oil pump in and think I get about 50psi at 50mph. I supect it was the pressure release valve that goes or gets jammed rather than the pump itself, but just a theory.
Oil leaks... not a single drip since I first started it...(..note to self, better check if there's any oil...)
Diff whine... not noticed any at all, but i do have carpet and sound proofing in the boot space and my rear panels fitted so probably couldn't hear it above the noise of my tappets
Rear suspension...no issues....... I used Apex aftermarket lowered springs for a BMW e30. Ride height seems just about right.They come up on eBay regularly.
My brake light keeps comming on whilst driving along so probably another session upside down in the drivers footwell.
Brake lights, had the same issue - I put rubber padding on the pedal to fix it. During the pedel box rebuild Richard welded a little bit on the pedal to fix the rubber too. That's now completely sorted the brake light problem
Good your engine doesn't leak, that's a rare case with the M20 as far as I've been able to read!
Hi Robin
Yeah, my wing stays were very scary too, they bounced around so much I thought 1 might suddenly fly off! I was thinking of adding 2 short bars which also attaches them to the top bolt. Has anyone else got a solution?
Tim
I think yours will be different to mine as mine is an E30 base. There isn't anywhere else to attach things to other than the U clamp! As Peter says - a good discussion for Stoneleigh....
The front wings stays are, err, not great. The wings bounce up and down scarily and one of mine managed to come undone on the way home from the SVA test despite the nylock nuts. I think I will be making some changes to these before I attempt any longer journeys. I think that they could do with a 3rd central stay and a better clamping mechanism.
Robin
The 'original' e36 demonstartor had quite substantial wing stays.
Arms are at a right angle to each other and there is a third vertical stay.
I've put some pictues i've had since 2004 on my Flickr site....
That's the nice thing about E36 front suspension, the hub comes off the damper giving you two nice big screw holes to bolt stuff too. Much better than the U clamp solution on E30 struts.
It was good to see everyone on Sunday at the show. Congratulations to Patrick for winning best Sportster at the show and I hope to give you some strong competition next year!
We popped back in again on Sunday morning but it was drizzling and there were very few kit cars in the park which is a shame for the visitors. The only other Sportster there in the morning was the blue one with the , er, interesting (?) hood fitting. Lots of other die hard MOC owners who camp/caravan overnight but even they were complaning how cold it was the night before.
We set off home about midday and it was an interesting drive back sometimes through quite heavy rain. Driving with the hood on is an interesting experience and quite noisey which gets a litle tiring after a while. The hood, windscreen wipers and demisters all had a very good test and worked very well. (the wipers seemed to improve as the blades/screen got used to each other:smile. The only area the rain comes in is the gaps between the windscreen shaped filler plate and the scuttle. The rain builds up in the hollow of the scuttle and then the wind forces it through and splashes you in the face!! No real problem, just adds to the amusement of driving in the rain. I didn't push too hard in the rain as I know my cars supension is not set up properly and is quite skittish over bumps or ruts in the road.
The journey back was almost un-eventful until about 20 miles from home I could hear the now familiar sound of one of the front mudguard stays rubbing on the wheel rim. Luckliy I stopped before any serious damage and was able to just tighten the u bolt up again as it hadn't snapped. This was the one that i 'glued' up last year and has now failed. I'm not sure if the u-bolts stretch or whether the lock nuts come undone?
An alternative wing stay mounting system is now #1 on the 'to do list' closely followed by getting the supension set up properly...
...but all my kitchen cupboards have just been delivered so I guess i'll be busy in the new 'workshop' for the next few weeks.......
Good you got back OK, also no issues to report either. Those side screen have made a world of difference to driving. I have run into one minor issue, the side mirrors are very deceptive as to how far away a car in the outside lane is. According to the chase car I pulled out a bit close to some people even though it looked fine in the mirror! So I need to keep that in mind when motorway driving.
I didn't push too hard in the rain as I know my cars supension is not set up properly and is quite skittish over bumps or ruts in the road.
Just something simple but have you tried your front dampers on a softer setting? Sometimes it can make a huge difference.
peterux wrote:
The journey back was almost un-eventful until about 20 miles from home I could hear the now familiar sound of one of the front mudguard stays rubbing on the wheel rim. Luckliy I stopped before any serious damage and was able to just tighten the u bolt up again as it hadn't snapped. This was the one that i 'glued' up last year and has now failed. I'm not sure if the u-bolts stretch or whether the lock nuts come undone?
An alternative wing stay mounting system is now #1 on the 'to do list' closely followed by getting the supension set up properly...
I am pretty sure that the U-bolts stretch slightly. They simply weren't designed for the amount of vibration they get on the front struts. Once they have stretched slightly it allows the nylock nuts to start moving.
I think there are two things that need doing to make them satisfactory.
1. Add a third stay to reduce the amount of movement, and hence induced vibration, from the mudgaurd
2. A more secure way of fixing. Perhaps by extending the mounting plate and adding another clamp or Stuarts suggestion of using two exhaust clamps back to back and HT bolts rather than the grotty U bolts.
The E36 wing stay struts bolt straight on, but this doesn't seem to reduce the problem. A friend suggested putting some rubber washers on the bolt to cut down the vibrations??? The demonstrator had a third strut, so I will give that a go I think.
Tim
We went to the Luton Festival of Transport today and I am pleased to say that the new mounts for the wing stays are a great improvement.
The festival itself was well worth going to with over 100 cars - mainly pre 1980 but also some hot rods, American muscle cars and a few kit cars.
The hot rods had obviously never heard of the SVA with all manner of sharp bit sticking out. There one that was running completely wingless and another with a huge supercharged V8 shoehorned into what looked like a bog standard Ford Pop chassis. The chassis rails were about 2" x 1".
A couple of things I noticed about the Sportster that you guys can perhaps throw some light on.
1. The rear wheels have a lot of negative camber. In fact one side looks worse that the other but it may be an optical illusion.
2. I get some "crashing" from the rear on large bumps. There is nothing obviusly touching. Does anyone else get this? I am wondering if my (custom made) springs are bottoming out.
3. Although the engine temperature gauge indicates it is running at a steady 85 to 90, after a run the rocker cover seems very hot. Much too hot to touch in fact. Is this right? Logically I suppose it is but I just can't remember any other car I have owned where the roker cover got that hot.
I'll post some pictures of the show later (including the hot rod with the huge V8) I did a survey of two tone colour schemes in planning for the winter paint job.
From memory of reading the Marlin instuctions, the rear camber changes with the setting of the height adjustment flange. It might be worth checking the chassis height from the ground on each side.
My rear suspnsion does 'bang' sometimes but not sure what it is. I have shortened rear springs but standard shock absorbers so have wondered if the shocks bottom out first? I've been meaning to take off the springs and see what bottoms out first, but have got a bit distracted by fuel dripping out the back. But if I go over a big dip in a road at speed it's usually the exhaust mounting plate on the gearbox the hits the ground first which can be amusing. I'm thinking of grinding a bit of it off, but it only happens rarely. ( I had better be careful until i've fixed the fuel leak )
My rocker cover gets very hot but I assumed this is normal.
I too have often wondered about how 'rodders' avoid the SVA rules. I guess they are still registered as a 'Ford pop' but just have few mods and engine changes.
........just got to figure out the wiring now........
Peter
I can't believe it is a whole year since I bought this engine and i'm afraid it is still languishing in the back of my lockup garage. I did have a few attempts to get a spark but no success. I don't like to be beaten by a problem and i'm sure i'd eventually crack the BMW security but with the reliability issues Tim has experienced i've been thinking about another approach...
Maybe an aftermarket EMS is the way to go?
They don't have any security issues and are fully tunable and some have goodies like traction and launch control which sounds like some fun
I've started my internet research and so far come up with the following...
Megasquert and Emerald do not seem to support the twin Vanos control.
Gotech claim they can do it but want about 9000 SA Rand!
The Omex manual suggests they can support twin Vanos but no details and their customer support have so far failed to respond to my email.
DTA Fast have wiring diagrams for an M50 and an M54 with double VANOS. They haven't seen an M52 but the fact they have done an M54 installation suggests it should work. So they look favourites so far. Their customer support has been very reponsive and helpful. Very expensive but a very flexible package that seems to be able to do almost anything.
Looked at a couple of others (EFI and ???) but couldn't find anything suitable.
Are there any other makes out there that I may have missed??
Mine is leaking tiny bit too. As far as I can tell it's normal.
)
