MadaboutKitcars

Whoo hoo.... I think i've got to the bottom of the electricity leak!

It's turned out to be 2 issues rather than 1.

First problem was a constantly live mechanical voltage regulator and gauges which have now been rewired to go through the ignition.

Second problem seems to be a dicky alternator. I'm still running tests, but hopefully it should be a simple replace job!

Radiator grills and covers refitted.
Alternator now wired in properly and battery no longer decharging overnight
Horn repaired (sounds like a truck!)
Seats refitted.
Bonnet shut line adjusted.
Light bulbs replaced and while I was at it I removed the headlight surrounds and painted them black to look more OEM as they were niggling me being red!



So just a few bits of interior trim to refit and I'm going to go with a generic gear gater for the moment as the open gate is proving tricky and..... as far as I can see.... its ready for an mot!

Yes there will still be a list of to-do's, but hopefully nothing fundamental

I have 2 tubes of sealant and a few cans of underbody spray ready to be applied to the rear wheel arches and the underneath of the car when the weather warms up.

I still have to panel in the front wheel arches and to also improve the ducting to the air to the new rads, but I want the car MOT'd and on the road first otherwise I will just tinker with little jobs and miss the summer!

Dan, which vents were you after? Drop me a pm as I've got an attic full of Countach odds-n-sods, but I'm going to be using some so it'll depend on exactly what you're after.

Big Red Car (that's what my sons call it!) is now booked in for it's MOT next Tuesday!

All going well i am hoping to take it to the Bristol Classic Car show the weekend after, as long as i can build up some confidence in it quickly before then!

Fingers crossed there is nothing found that can't be sorted on the day!

Interior all back together!

Steering wheel dyed black.
Dash board sprayed metallic.
Gear gater replaced (still a work in progress).
New leather gear knob replaces old chav-knob.
Centre tunnel switches slightly moved and new side pieces fabricated (also still a work in progress).
Handbrake cover and location slightly modified, with still more to do, hence the rumpled leather.

So, i'lll be much happier with a those niggles removed as they were very visible to me when driving, but still plenty to redo after the mot.

Delivered to local garage at 9, got call at 10.30 telling me that they couldn't get in on their ramps so they couldn't test it and I'd have to take it to a garage in the next village over!

Bit annoyed, but these things happen.

Took Lambo home (there really isnt _any_ visibility!) and then popped to new garage, spotted crypton tuner on way in (old skool tech is good for me!) Had a good chat with the owner about what ive got and what i need and he confirmed hes got a sunken ramp so no problems there! But the bad news was that they can't fit it in until next Tues, so I won't be taking it to the bristol show this weekend

But..... they were very positive and said that they'll start by mot'ing it. Then see what (if anything) needs doing, and also tune the engine!

So apart from the time delay, I'm actually quite happy how things turned out!

As the postmistress put it as she handed me my Tax disc this morning:

"there you go, now you can go and play!"

Car finally passed the MOT this morning! It did fail yesterday on _really_ minor things. i.e headlight aim, loose fuel hose that i hadn't spotted, split gater.

Nice new garage fixed them all in 1/2 hr this morning I was also advised that while they're more than happy to MOT it again in future (and i'd certainly use them again!) that if i didn't mind, if anything needs fixing then i'd have to do it myself as its "a bit of a bug*er" to work on


Just took it for a spin now for fuel and at the petrol station a car pulled in behind me just so that her son could come and have a look (to much embarrassment from me!)

Then in order to keep up with my kit car owning traditions, just as i got home and pulled up on the drive one of the old coolant hoses split! <sigh> and ended my 1st big drive in a dramatic cloud of steam

New temp hose already fitted from spares box and 2m of nice new hose ordered from CBS to replace all 5 large bore flexible hoses over the weekend.

Now the fun really begins

Interesting development on the cooling front last night.

In preparation to replace the large bore cooling pipes i disconnected the header tank and when i did I noticed that all the water stayed in it! Which was odd So with all the pipes off i found that the main hose input to the header tank had been crushed and was completely clogged with what i think is "bars leaks"!

So i opened up the connector and dug the gunk out before flushing everything through and then with a new hose i plumbed it all back in and when i did a hot run i could actively see the coolant level rise in the header tank as it heated up. Result!


So i suspect that this not working previously led to excess coolant being expelled from the system and the level getting low, causing extra heat, causing the pipe to burst.....



New big hoses from CBS are now here, so they'll go on this weekend and i'll try again to do more than 5 miles without a comical explosion (although TBH i do enjoy fixing it when it does go wrong )

Well i can agree with Mr Clarkson in that driving a Countach is a bit like driving a pill box, but strangely quite good fun

Unfortunately I'm still encountering some minor issues due to some of the original design decisions, but I'm quite happily chugging through them.

I've now fettled the new cable gear change and that is working considerably better than the old rod linkage.

The latest issue is the wiring for the cooling fans (described in another thread), but now that's hopefully sorted I'll be doing some more test runs tomorrow to see if I've nailed the overheating issues. Fingers crossed!

Then it's onto setting up the suspension and fixing the fuel gauge.

While i'm at it, i've started scanning in pics of the original build as the MasterCo build is a bit different to a Mirage.

Some pics of the space-frame and initial panelling:

Front end:


The cockpit panelling going in:




More to come..

Cheers matey, maybe next time..... Ideally i want to get it all done ready for a run to Exeter at the end of the season. But we'll have to wait and see how it all pans out!

Some more updates.....

Even with the correct fan wiring I've still got cooling system problems It is already better than it was so I'm happy that the new wiring made a difference, but i am now also:

• Ducting in the back of the rads to make the hot air flow through without flowing back on itself.
• Blanking off around the rads in order to force more air through them when on the move.
• Ordered 2x10" high flow cooling fans to replace the cheepo 9" ones I've currently got fitted, as while the 9" ones do lower the temp after a run, it's very slow to do so.
• I've also noticed that now the header bottle/expansion tank is de-gunked and actually working, that it may not be plumbed in correctly. What i assumed was a pressurised overflow tube, may in fact need to be plumbed in! Which would explain the coolant leakage when everything gets hot! So I've done a bit of reading up on how the V8 cooling system _should_ all be connected and i think i now know what needs to be modified.

Apart from that, after checking all of the wiring and a bit of poking around inside the fuel tank, i have found out that the cause of my non working fuel gauge is due to a rusty fuel tank sender. So a new one is now on order!

I've also finally managed to set the timing But this was only achieved by temporarily having to strap a mirror to the back of the bulkhead with cable ties and gaffer tape! (there _must_ be an easier way?) While doing this i did start to have concerns about the fuel tank plumbing, so I may also have a look at that when i fit the new sender as i'm not at all sure that it is balancing out between the 2 tanks.....

Things have been a bit photo-light recently, so i thought i'd make amends.

Here's where i mounted the fused fan relays, just by the variable thermostat switch for the fans in the passage between the fan duct and the engine bay. I also continued tidying up the existing wiring with split conduit.



Rimmer bros sent through my new fuel tank sender and when i changed it over my fuel gauge now works a treat!

I think it's obvious why the old one didn't want to budge!:

As a result of all of my investigation into the cooling system and a lot of reading up, i now think that i've got a head gasket problem as i'm getting a rapidly pressurised cooling system and it's getting far too hot far too quick.

I'm going to try and scrounge one of those test meters that analyses the gases in the cooling header tank in order to prove this before i go much further.

Also, while doing some of the short runs to get the car warmed up i started to get a squeaking/rubbing from the rear offside wheel. With the wheel off i could see where it was rubbing at the back and i ground it down a bit to see if that would cure it (i was thinking rust or bashed backing).
You can see where it was rubbing as the shiny bits on this photo:


Sadly, that stopped for a while but then came back, so that is still being looked into. Possible bearing issues?
I also think that this is quite a nice photo of the rear end and suspension set-up, especially for those with other brands of Countach replica.


Also while the wheel was off i noticed that the boot gas ram seems to warp / lift the boot on the nearside edge when closed:

So for the moment I've swapped that back over for the non-hydraulics that was on there previously.

And i'm dreading the day that i ever need to replace one of these!!

I think i've now confirmed my my previous suspicions about head gasket problems, so while Steve, Dan and the others continue adding bits to their cars, i'm back to taking bits off of mine

Manifold and engine cover off and new gasket set ordered. I'll wait for that to turn up before i go any further in order to keep crud out of the engine.



In the pic you can also see the temporary engine bay fan to keep the air moving when the car is not moving. This was an idea taken from my old MR2 and it did make a bit of difference, so the big vauxhall fan will be replaced with something better engineered eventually.

Also through the engine bay side hatch you can see the exterior-ply ducting to flow the hot air from the Kenlowes out of the back vents and to keep it away from the engine. Those panels will be replaced in Alloy eventually as i'm still in the "get it all working" phase atm and the "make it look pretty" phase can come later

Hopefully due to the fact that my engine is nowhere near as large as a Lambo V12 and due to the advancements in tech, such as the better efficiency of the alloy rads and the newer fans i'll hopefully be able to engineer something that looks and works cleanly.

As you can see from this pic of an original Countach, Lamborghini had everything in one large compartment and went for a "cram it all in there" approach due the sheer size of the engine!



Scary, but i wouldn't say no to one though

I know i've been quiet this last month, but i's been a month of ups and downs..

I replaced the head gaskets and managed to rebuild the engine and set it up running lovely and smoothly.

But it still got hot...

So i did some trial runs and noticed that when stationary it didn't seem to be bringing the temp down and it was still very slowly getting hotter. But, if I revv'd it a bit the higher water flow did play a part. So i have to accept that i've got flow issues and i reckon mainly due to the differences in hose sizes with 38mm main hose runs, but 25mm connectors on the Mini-rads.

So, i fitted an after market Davies Craig 115 Electric Water pump:



Which is wired to come on with the fans and has successfully stopped it getting hotter when stationary

But it still got hot.... too hot for my linking and even with the EWP it wasn't bringing the temp down very much when all the electrics kicked in

So I re-did my calculations on Rad size and from what i can tell:

An original Rover SD1 V8 radiator is:
core size - 610 x 440 x 30
volume - 8052000 mm cubed
And mounted right at the front of the car!

My after market alloy Mini rads are:
core size - 264 x 260 - x 50
Volume - 3432000 mm cubed
and are tucked away in the haunches.

So while i knew that even with 2 rads i'm not as big as OEM, i had hoped that the extra volume of water in the system overall, the switch to higher powered fans, alloy rads, ducted air flow and an EWP would counter this, but i have to admit defeat

So rather than carry on faffing around, I've decided to rip out the mini rads and start again.

So this is one of the mini rads in situ and it clearly shows the space I've got to play with and how it's limited horizontally by the diagonal bracing in the background. :

So after a few weeks of web trawling i've come across a new contender that will fit in the space I've got with only just a few mm to spare. The Renault 5 GT Turbo rad!

Core size - 310 x 388 x 38
Volume - 4570640

and while 2 of those should be more than enough capacity, if i'm going to do this then it's going to be belt-n-braces this time around as i don't want to have to go through all this faff again and i want to know that if i get stuck in traffic that i have more than enough cooling capacity so as not to have to worry!

So i've found some after market deep-core Renault 5 GT Turbo rads that come in at:

core size - 310 x 388 x 70
Volume - 84,196.00



Just one of those is bigger than the Rover SD1, if 2 of those don't work then I give up and i'm going back to build another Sammio!

I'm also changing my old Landrover plastic header tank whiel i'm at it to an alloy one:



And while the boot lid was off i tidied up some of the reflective coating:


(every little helps!)

Cheers guys. I did duct the airflow and I did also mess around with the pipe routing in order to try a near identical setup to what Oxford describes, but to no avail.
I agree that from my experiences i also think that the original pump isn't up to long piping runs at low revs, but I think that I'll leave the electric water pump plumbed in as that seems to cure those symptoms and changing to the new header tank and a 2-pipe header with a constant flow rather than the old Rover 1-pipe header should also give me the setup you mention.

As I said, this time its belts-n-braces! :-)

The first of the Renault 5 GT Turbo radiators has turned up and i think this may just solve my issues!

Side-by-side with one of the mini rads, which i thought were deep!





Then a quick bit of fettling and it went in _very_ easily! In fact i'm a bit unnerved by how easily and how well it fitted as it looks custom made and is, quite frankly, a bit of a monster!

side-by-side comparison with the previous setup:



And with the airbox top on it really is a very, very good fit!



So back to the plumbing and i hope the 2nd radiator and the new header tank turn up soon as i'm dying to try these out!

Quick update as I'm shattered after 2 long night nights of tinkering.

I've got the new rads and header tank plumbed in and all the leaks sorted and. I've now had a few long in-garage test runs under both low and high revs and the initial results are very promising!

It eventually gets hot and then the new fans kick in for a few mins and the temp drops noticeably and then the fans switch off . This is a massive difference to what it used to do and much more how I was expecting it to work!

Now I just need to try and fit the car around the new rads and hopefully do a few test runs over the weekend to see how on-the-move cooling has changed.

Fingers crossed!

Bodywork all back on with a few minor modifications to one of the grills for the moment (i'll get some photos shortly) and i took it out for a 10 mile drive the other night and the temperature stayed right on the 1/2 way mark!

But.... not wanting to break with tradition, when i got home and I let it tick over on the drive for 10 mins (to further give myself confidence that it's not going to overheat) the engine slowed and stopped and it turns out that i'd run out of electricity

From what i can see this was caused by a not especially well charged battery, lots of small test drives, and the cooling fans and water pump being set to kick in too early so being nearly constantly on.

I have now fettled the fan settings and they come on a lot less and seem to stay on for a shorter period, which makes me think i'd just had it set too low previously. I also had tick-over set too low, that has also been adjusted.

So i'm just doing a big full charge of the battery and i'll give it another longer run out one night in the week when it's not raining.

Then i'm going to enjoy driving it for a bit before i start addressing the major flaws in the bodywork and then replace the centre console when winter comes.

Getting there slowly!