MadaboutKitcars

Not much done over the last few weeks, only time to plan and take a few photos.
Here's just how close the whole fit is.

Off side chassis turret



Near side chassis turret, the whole alternator bracket had to be re-done and a smaller belt fitted



The crank sensor just clears the front chassis cross member.



Steering linkage just clears the exhaust and engine mount.



The sump is about 10mm clear of the re-shaped (not altered) chassis



Finally I had to nick-out a small "V" on the chassis edge to clear the gear box flange. On the next conversion I will avoid this but fitting the engine further forward by 30mm.



The only major job to do is to re-make the exhaust down pipe to clear the engine mount and chassis, I'll do this by routing the pipe forward then sweeping it back.

Dash will be in the centre console, just an ignition switch, light switch, temp gauge, rev gauge, and GPS speedo.
All done minimal racing style #

Anyone got any bucket seats for sale??

Looking very good. Close call indeed.

Michiel

I might have some fibreglass ones soon as I'll be pulling a mould from the one I have modified for the large muscled frame.......

Been a while since we heard from you Micky, any progress to report?

Not much progress at all. I'v not even looked at the car for a few weeks as my work load has gone mad, sorry

Still earning plenty of wonga so I have ordered the wire wheel adaptors for the G-46 .

I did call at RIBBLE HQ in the week and had a chat with Andy.
He says he has found some one to rebuild and balance the prop-shaft so that will be one major problem solved.

Just read through your fascinating build thread again - I love my straight six Spyder, but as it's been on the road for nearly a year now my engineers fingers are starting to get a bit twitchy...

If I were to build another car, and it's a big if, I would probably look at going down the ultra lightweight road/racer route. As you've quite rightly pointed out, modern motors give you a much better power to weight output and I'd be very tempted by the 1.7 Ford Sigma Zetec SE engine as used in the Puma. Although it 'only' has 123bhp it also only weighs 81kgs*, is relatively cheap and easy to convert to rwd using a type 9 gearbox**, has loads of character (co developed with Yamaha) and an MOT failure donor car can be bought for a few hundred quid***.

* http://westfield-world.com/enginespecs_car.html

** http://www.rwdmotorsport.com/zetec-se-to-ford-gearbox-bellhousing.html

*** http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251472106586?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Sorry to have gone all round the houses, but my question is in relation to the engine management on your car - I know a fair bit about carburettors but nowt about efi - are you using the donor's ecu or will you have to use an aftermarket engine management system?

As a general question for anyone out there in madaboutkitcarworld, is it possible just to unbolt all the ecu bits 'n' bobs from a Puma/MX5/318i/etc and just plug it all into a kit car/buggy wiring loom and have the engine work like it did in the donor?

If not, is there a cheap, basic ecu that can be bought off the shelf and fitted by a diy mechanic?

Looking forward to learning something about ecu/efi.

To be honest I do not know and thing can get complicated .

The BMW engines use a completely independent engine loom which then joins the rest of the cars wiring via the fuse box and ignition.

I have separated this loom and using all the original parts re-wired it again as a stand alone unit.
That said some BMW have a EWS alarm/immobilizer system that need some work on the ECU wiring.

The Zetec "red top" is used in many track-day type kit cars so some body will know how to wire it up.

Hope this help.

tbh all I could find on the 'net was Marlin owners complaining that their BMW immobilisers were doing just that.

As for advice and guidance about what components to use to get a working ecu/ignition system during an engine transplant I found pretty much nothing of any use, with only the Westfield World Web Site engine comparison tool hinting at a possibility in its description of the Rover K Series VVC engine, stating Excellent budget engine as it can be installed with original ECU and plenum. Interestingly it also advises retaining its ignition key because of the immobiliser...

http://westfield-world.com/enginespecs_car.html

So can you just pull the motor out of a Puma together with all its magic wiggly amp boxes, dump the whole thing into a Herald chassis on a type 9 gearbox, make a few connections to the battery/earth, turn the key and drive off into the sunset?

Someone must know...

If the Marlin owners want to drop off their problems to my workshop I'll sort it for them

Mr T if you want a BMW engine and gearbox with a sorted loom just let me know.

Any progress Micky?

A little, built the centre console and fitted the dash so I now know where I'm going with the wiring.
Unfortunately or fortunately I am just so busy what with the new contact and the Ribble/Sammio business.
One will have to take priority but which one only time will tell.

Like I keep saying keep watching this space

BTW, Mr T, speaking of your "horsey" thing take a look at the Testa Rossa and my new Spyder's front end

OMG, it's been 6 month since I'v set a hand upon this beastie!!!!

Well, got it out of the workshop today and it's been the first time I'v been able to stand back and take a look at the whole car.

I am glad I decided not to fit a scoop and just make a large bonnet bulge instead.
I think the BMW badge is going to make the "car park experts" think twice


It's still a little "high" in the wheel arches but I still might fit 14" Wire wheels which would fill the arches more.
BTW the Spyder body in the fore ground is not just a body, it is actually a body mounted on a rolling chassis!!! More about that later!!!





The dash is now in place so I can start with the wiring.
I plan on having 2 looms, one loom for the engine and engine bay + one loom for the car's lights, indicator, horn ect.




I intend to use the original column switches with a digital GPS speedo fitted to the column some where.

The plan is to sort out the wiring this week and fire it up, then there's the rad, seats, seat belts or harnesses, lights, interior ect, just a few things left to do.

The hardest thing left to do will be deciding which colour to paint it!!!

After all, it's less than 6 weeks to Stoneleigh.

Micky - Good luck getting this build up and running, it would be nice to see it on the road.

Hope all is well, Paul.

Boxed in the bulk head today and there not a lot of room between the two hwell:





I also had to re-do the dash as the clocks hung to low.



Also got the engine loom in place and tried to fire it up today, got a fantastic spark but no fuel pump via the ECU.
Manual wired the pump through a switch but still it's a no go

It's now running.
The problem was the fuel pump not working via the ECU, so had to put a extra switch on the dash for the pump.



Every thing seems to be working OK but the tacho and as it's the focal point of the dash it's needs fixing.

Congratulations on getting your motor running, it's quite a milestone.

Having things like switches for fuel pumps is one of the delights of these cars - you don't just jump in and turn the key, there's a start-up ritual to observe first.

Keep up the good work.

Your right there Mr T.
How did it go "mag on" + "fuel pump on" + "contact"!!

Got to sort out an exhaust system next so I can run it up to temp without upsetting the rest of the estate!!!
Then bolt in a seat and "try it"

You forgot to retard the ignition and use the 'Ki-Gas'!!! LOL

Ha ha! A bit before my time, I was a cold war warrior. We still had prop planes, mainly Shackletons, but I joined up in the jet age.

The start up drill on Jaguars was a bit more complicated:

Accompany growbag (pilot) on his pre-flight walk round and tut as he kicks the tyres that you just inflated to 150 bar.

Plug in guns and secure gun bay doors.

Strap in growbag.

Remove ejection seat main gun, drogue gun and canopy jettison pins and hand to growbag.

Try to recover ejection seat pins dropped by growbag.

Climb down and unclip ladder from side of airframe, place ladder on top of GPU.

When growbag remembers what he's supposed to be doing and nods at you, man fire extinguisher, check APU exhaust clear, then twirl a finger to indicate 'clear, start APU'.

Once APU running, check engines clear and twirl another finger to indicate 'clear, start engine 1'.

Once engine 1 running, twirl two fingers to indicate start engine 2.

When both engines wound up to idle, pull GPU lead and secure panel, climb up into nose-wheel bay and check weapon system circuit breakers all set, then take position at front of aircraft and perform arm signals to indicate control surfaces responding to growbag inputs - 'tailplane up, tailplane down, fin left, fin right, port tailplane with port aileron, starboard tailplane with starboard aileron, flaps and slats to mid, flaps down, flaps and slats up.

Pull remaining weapon pins and hold up for growbag to count.

Make 'pull pin' signal to growbag, give thumbs up when he shows that he's pulled his seat pan pin.

Make switch sign to indicate 'MASS to standy'.

Pull chocks and marshal aircraft out onto taxiway.

Rush back to crew room, make coffee, light fag, watch Rainbow.

Those were the days...

I never dropped the pins.....

Maybe not, but it was a daily occurrence having to pull the ejection seats out of every type I worked on looking for lost pens/keys/loose change/golf clubs.

Aeroplanes don't like random objects clattering around inside them, they tend to jam/short/unexpectedly initiate relatively important systems like flying controls, avionics and atom bombs.

During one ignoble incident a golf club blew a canopy to smithereens on a Red Arrows Hawk. The pilot was due to spend a weekend at Leuchars and wanted to play the course at St Andrews.

There isn't much baggage space in a military jet so he stuffed his clubs down the side of the rear ejection seat without telling the ground crew.

When he closed the canopy, the head of one of the clubs got in the way of the lever that initiates the MDC - an explosive cord that shatters the canopy on ejection - and detonated it, shattering the canopy, sending debris into the engine (which lunched itself) and leaving him with some quite bad face and neck injuries, not to mention a substantial quantity of egg-on-face.

Ahh, those were the days.

Changed days Towed. I am having to put a request in to MT for them to ferry my Golf clubs up to Lossiemouth for me at the end of the month...

It was a lot easier to slave start the main engine from the generator engine on a Chieftain tank
And nobody played golf cause squadies can't count.

Micky - Congratulations on getting the engine running.

Good luck with the rest of it, Paul.

Ha ha. Funnily enough I've also got an HGV class H as we used Scimitars for EOD reconnaissance. I'd love to have a go at something bigger though, a main battle tank perhaps. Whatever happened to Jim'll fix it?