leavingeasy - track 20vt

[leavingeasy]

Managed to work on a few things that had been driving me mad but i just couldnt be arsed to do.

First was the fitting of the cold air duct for the air filter. Eventually the plan is to build a cold air box where the battery used to be, but for the time being this option should do the trick.

I was going to put the duct in the bumper, but frankly it looked sh!te, so Jason suggested mounting it behind the grill in front of the intercooler. This meant removing the slam plate and the radiator, but the end result is quite neat.



it did mean taking a hacksaw to the grill to remove some blocks


But the end result is quite pleasing and not in your face


Next was fitting some evil grippy stuff to the floor. It is like sand paper and it really would take an idiot to try and rub it down with their fingers, after all it would obviously just take your skin off.

Ouch. 

So this is how it was before:

And this is now:


Next job was fit the crutch strap- not a tricky job when the seat was on a nice high frame, but finger-nipping tastic when its bolted to the floor. Even worse if you finger is sore cos you might have rubbed some sandpaper type matting for some reason.


Next it was time to try and sort out the wiring- it is quite frankly a bloody mess, but most of this is the way it is in the car itself, its just hidden by the the dashboard.

I started with my hand crafted and loving cut out centre dash. I'd wired the boost gauge into the wrong light feed so everytime I used main beam it switched off. Also needed to change the feed to the AFR meter and get the switches earthed properly.


That done I needed to create some kind of feed for my V-box and GPS. The answer was a multi plug from eBay for a fiver, wired via a switch and fuse from the battery.

I love these LED tipped switches- this one glows a lovely red when its switched on!


Finally I spent an age tidying the fuse box wiring. When I'd finished it looked exactly the same!!



I finished the day by going down the barn where the Caterham is kept- seems it is in good company:

2x DB9's

My cousins very spoiled 964RS rep

The old girl enjoying an easy life!

[leavingeasy]

By now it was Novemeber 2007 and the car was to be used at Cadwell in a few days. Yet again it was at Gareths workshop to be checked over- particularly as there was a dreadful clunking when going on and off the power.



Embarassingly the clunking turned out to be loose gearbox bell housing bolts- oops

An oil leak was also fixed and a few days later I headed north again to Cadwell

So after a very suceesful few sessions in the Golf all apeared to be working very well- it's quick, it handles and whilst the gearbox was very noisy, it didnt fall aprt either:

Brakes got HOT!

however whilst the car proved to be brilliant, the driver had a few issues:

Using armco to stop seemed to be having an effect on the quality of my front wing, it also bent my bumper and oil cooler mount :blink:

Luckily my mate Jimmy had a useful panel beating kit and I took the bent bits with gay abandon (calm down Weemna- this just means I attacked it with no idea what the hell I was doing)

Bit of hammering and soon the brackets were straight and the cooler refitted

My Gucci bumper pins had gotten bent too, so more hammer work soon fixed them- just got to add a splash of black to protect the uncovered metal


Damage post Cadwell:

1. Both drive shaft gaiters have split
2. Slight water weep from fan sensor on rad
3. bent wing
4. split bumper
5. knackered indicator

Pleasingly everything else seemed to be ok so I gave it a wash.

Then set about fixing the bumper. I should really just buy a new wing and bumper but it seems more "race" to try and repair, so I made up a small metal bracket and rivetted it in place.

A quick splash of Gareth's gothic nail varnish and you would never know. Ok well you would, but if you close your eyes a lot, you would never know.




A quick trip to the local scrap metal dealers to use their weighbridge (was worried they would junk it) saw it weigh in at 920kgs

then it was loaded up and sent to Surrey Rolling Road



the rolling road vid is here (tried to make it interesting but quite frankly its not!!)



So now it is double the bhp/tonne it was when it was first built. Doesnt go twice as fast though!!

[leavingeasy]

New to do list

FIT BIGGER BRAKES

1. Make a dash
2. Fit plastic front windows
3. Fit new door cards
4. Fit some kind of passenger foot rest
5. Flooring
6. Tidying
7. I would like an electric heated windscreen
8. Re-do the wiring again!

I built a bracket to mount the digidash on



Gareth was clearly impressed by my metal working skills!!  we both went to the same school and I think its fair to say our metal work teacher would not have been using my work as an example of perfection!

However after a splash of paint it looked ok- then it was just a case of undoing the steering column mount



Dash fitted and I'm really pleased- it appears to float above the centre of the wheel



And actually looks pretty tidy



Then fitted some Hi-Spec 285mm 4pots





Next stage is interior sorting and lilly guilding.....

Needed somekind of flooring as the quality blagged grippy wore straight through at Cadwell.

Liked thes checker plate solution but I'm far too lazy to go cutting up bits of metal so I bought some from DT.

Really need to clean the floor:



Also bought a passenger foot support





Next job is to bond/glue some suitable rubber matting I think on the heel part of the pax side to stop it wearing through.

So this is my finished interior!! Hmmm comfy!



Then I fitted my helmet hammock and put my helmets to bed!

[leavingeasy]

Decided to clean the cars:



The 911 has a new fab speed exhaust and its very LOUD!



Fitted new rear discs and bearings



Couple of hours fiddling about and some guidance from Gareth saw the job done



Fitted my boost pipe after the last one burst (still waiting for the silicone hoses to arrive )




Finally fitted the short shift



The at last my christmas present from the wife arrived - only took eight weeks!!!



Didnt have a heap of time today but the plan was to remove the glass windows and fit plastic sliders, then replace my home bodged ali door cards with these new ones.

So it started like this



And ended up like this



fitted the pax side - very bling bling!



Also decided to remove the locking pins as anybody could reach through the window sliders and unlock the door otherwise



That brings us up to date

Next things to do:

Sort other intercooler pipe
Fit camera mount
Fit silicone hoses when they eventually arrive
Fit rear turret brace and harness mount.

Oh and Bedford on 23rd if anybody is coming

[leavingeasy]

Oh just realised I missed some stuff I didnt photograph!

The car was taken to track'n'road after Surrey Rolling Road to sort out the fuelling. Basically at 4000rpm it was hugely overfuelling and washing the power away, literally.

Steve Greenald is recognised as one of the top mappers in the industry, but he struggled with the MBE set up Ben Leach had provided for me. Whilst it was safe, there were some strange anomolies he couldnt work out.

It took him a week to sort out but had transformed the way the car drives.

As I've had a bit of history with engines and this BAM is totally stock, we decided to run it at 1bar only. However, with his expertise it produces the same bhp as Ben's map with 1.5bar. That said torque is now down to 230lbft, which sounds a shame, but actually it makes it much much easier to drive and has more of a n/a feel to it now.

I also bought a G60 gearbox with rebuilt internals and ATB Quaiffe diff. Fitted that (but forgot my camera). The gearing is shorter than my previous 02A which suits the track but not the road.

Guess the next test will be on 23rd Feb at Bedford

[leavingeasy]

Bedford this weekend so it was a desperate panic to get everything ready in time.

First thing to do was get rid of the old intercooler pipes and knock up something more permanent.

Still not happy with the end result, but they are way better than the half Mercedes half Audi hoses I had bodged together before. They can stay like for this til after the weekend and then I'll try and improve them further




Next stage was to put together a decent camera mount- this was done using an old exhaust clamp, a camera tripod mount and POV.1 bullet cam



One of the rules of Bedford is that each car must have their towing eye attached. Errrrr- problem there, I cut mine off to fit the intercooler. Bugger! This schroth belt was the answer- £10, problem solved!!



of course the car now looks like its sticking its tongue out



I've always been unhappy about attaching my harness to the seatbelt mount in the fllor under the rear seats, so I bought a bar of CDS, a mate rolled some endplates for me, I profiled it using a die grinder and my mate Gareth welded it in between the rear struts.



The end result looked like this



Also had a problem with a knocking under load and turning. I feared it was a drive shaft UJ, but it was  lot simpler to fix than that- the driveshaft bolts had worked loose- I guess doubling the torque will have that effect

Couple of other bits of tidying, including re-earthing the water temp sender and generally checking it was all in one piece and now its ready.

Tomorrow a wash, then back to the barn, put on its trailer, ready for taking to Bedford Friday night.

[leavingeasy]

Feb 23rd saw the first track day of 2008 at Bedford GT Circuit.

It seems I am quite probably the unluckiest bloke in the world, or probably more likely, the clumsiest.

Suffice to say the car didn't make it unscathed!

I pitched up early, the day was cold and clear, I was over excited.

Noise testing was an embarrassment- it was a 98dB day. I did 79dB @ 4500 rpm. The marshalls checked twice, they thought I was lying about the revs I was doing!

On track the car was definitely quick, handled well and, as is often the case with mk2s, it continued to upset a few expensive bits of kit.




During the briefing the instructor had made a big song and dance about how tough Bedford is on brakes, and how car's with standard brakes would suffer fade. I chose to stick my fingers in my ears, sing la la la and stare vacantly out the window, why should I worry, after all I have brand new freshly fitted Hi-Spec four pots with highly recommended new compound EBC red stuff pads.



I dont like EBC pads but the guy in Rimspeed really rated them and suggested I try them.

About 11am after maybe 90 mins of track use (not continously) they started to fade. Fair enough I thought, after all the VBOx data showed me hauling the car from 130mph to 90mph, back to 120 and then down to 45mph in quick succession lap after lap.

I let them cool over lunch, but in the afternoon they were no better.

There is a clue here- but I stuck my fingers in my ears, sang La La La and kept lapping.

Earlier in the morning I had suffered an almighty clunk going round one of the many fast left handers. Popping the bonnet up over luch revealed the first problem- the intercooler hot pipe (upwind of the intercooler) had thrown the bracket. God knows where- probably into somebody elses path!

I tried a temp fix with wire before giving in and hoping if I used lots and lots of cable ties it wouldn't melt through.

Can you see the fix?

before:



after:



see also how the rubber hose I used (silicon one was sat in the back of my Volvo still) melted and deformed.

Turns out that wouldn't be the only thing getting hot.

As the day went on the brakes got worse and worse. Following Tallchap in his mk2 saw me pushing hard on the pedal when he braked rather earlier than I had anticipated (not due to lack of skill incidentally but courtesy to other slower traffic) and the harder I pushed the less effective the brakes were.

Decided to call it a day as I was nearly out of fuel anyway, just doing the cooling down lap, gentle braking into the chicane and the brake pedal hit the floor!!!

Jesus! A few pumps felt it come back up but I slowed to 40mph, kept off line and plodded back to the pits. I decided a few experimental left foot pumps might be required, see if the pedal would come back.

Suddenly there was a huge cloud of smoke and fearing I had blown the car up I dived off the road and yanked on the handbrake to stop me.

The smoke was coming from the front wheel and the disc was covered in fluid. The calipers had burst a seal. I was fuming, so angry that faulty goods had nearly killed me.

Or so I thought..........

[leavingeasy]

What causes DOT 5.1 to boil?

Ask a mate of mine who accidentally fitted a pad back to front in his AP 6 pots when he was in a hurry to get out on the Ring! Piston pushed through the pad material, pushed the metal backing plate onto the disc, heat was conducted from disc, to pad plate to piston and boiled the fluid. Pedal hit the floor, he hit Adenau bridge!

Well I didn't put the pad in back to front.

However, it seems Bedford GT circuit is hard on brakes!

This is the best pad I had left:



This is the worst:



it got so hot it warped



did this to the disc



and this to the caliper pistons



here's what the other side looks like, note the non burnt dust seals as well as the normal shaped pistons



A long chat with Hi_

[leavingeasy]

A long chat with Hi-Spec suggests the Red Stuff pads were a very VERY bad recommendation.

They recommend carbone-lorraine D6's for my type of (ab)use.

However they have been incredibly helpful and have offered to rebuild the calipers on Monday whilst I wait, they will also skim the discs to get them back in shape. Guess we'll see what happens then.

So I put the car on the ramp today at my friend Gareth's workshop. His other track day creations were also there:



A post track day analysis shows:

Centre exhaust hanger melted through (luckily we fitted two just in case)



Fitted another intercooler hose bracket, with nyloc nuts this time



Also the damn drive shaft bolts were loose AGAIN!

A slight weep from the radiator temp switch

Dodgy earth on the water temp sensor (explains the sudden 148 deg temp spikes being displayed!!)

Going to address some of these issues tomorrow and Monday, more pics to follow.

Also need to sort out the damping, it looks a bit too soft at the front which would explain the loose back-end despite slacking of the rear ARB. Will play with them a littel on my next outing in March!

[leavingeasy]

OMG I got up horribly early this morning, in order to get my buggered calipers up to Hi-Spec in Dartford.

Spoke to Jeff there (looks like he spends a lot of time indoors!) he was full of top advice "when it starts making a grumbling noise they are buggered"

Actually, he was really helpful and 90 mins later my calipers were refurbished with all new seals, two new pistons and the discs freshly skimmed. He also recommended the carbone -loraine 5 pads.

So lunchtime today the rebuilt brakes were refitted and bled.



the new skimmed discs from this



to this



Fitted the silicon hoses



and finished the afternoon by getting rid of the recirc valve electrical gubbins as it turns out the way I had the recirc set up, it wasnt doing anything and potentially stalling the turbo. Arse.



Finally I refitted the number plates and gave it a road test



The brakes are fooking amazing:

From cold they are ok, they work which I wasn't expecting, but when they are hot, well OMG, the biggest problem was moderating them sufficiently to stop my eyes popping out and white van man from marking his sun covered dashboard in my boot.

Next test is North Weald on 13th March. Will keep you all posted.