I've been trying to get little jobs done, but have been plagued by broken parts, wrong sizes, shorts, the seven has current priority, but am aiming to get going again in a month or so. I am making progress with the dashboard though.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Fury Progress
Has been slow, lots of things getting in the way of moving forward, engine wiring has stalled, i can't seem to find a fault, and am wondering if its the ECU. I also have an oil leak (Joy) from the o ring in the sump, so that needs to come off and be fixed.
Mallory Six Hour
Despite the seven going belly up en-route, we entered the Mazda, it was pretty good fun, we were doing 1:9s-1:11s with Edwinas, and my lap times were consistent throughout. Paul had a small off, failing to turn left into the Edwina chicane but didn't clout anything which is the main thing.
The car held up ok, however post Cam belt change the (new) fan belt gave up after 2 hours and we had to repair that, and a split hose which cost us about an hour. In the afternoon the rear tyres were off, so we rotated the inside and outside rears which made the car much more drivable.
People were very friendly and we got a lot of encouragement throughout the day. We were pretty fast through Gerard's, but just didn't have the power to get the speed up the hill towards the hairpin, so we did find ourselves out-braking people into the hair pin, being overtaken down the hill, then overtaking them again round Gerard's which made things pretty interesting.
Lotus had a clear win, with some good driving and team management. We were the only mx5 to finish (out of 3 starters) and came mid way up the finishers which was good enough for us. In all honesty i was just glad we didn't bend it, or worse, vomit in our helmets like some copilots.
Houston, we have a problem (Twice.)
Despite being thrashed incessantly for 4 weeks through morocco resulting in only self inflicted trauma, the seven has now left me stranded by the side of the road twice in 3 weeks. The first through a head-gasket problem, the second due to something big going bang.
The end result is that the block, crank, rods and head are back at Jem Engines, where they will be cleaned, bored/ground/skimmed and balanced, before being sent back for the final build. In preparation for the six hour at mallory I thought I should try to put as many miles on it as possible, sadly following the two dry days in March, there hasn't been much dry weather in Holland since which meant getting out in the car has been difficult at best and not possible the rest of the time.
The weather in Western Germany, and Luxembourg was due to be not-wet, so off I set, laptop running auto-tune in the passenger seat, following the Waal/Rhine over the border, then heading cross country towards Trier, the TomTom provides a lovely route, (Set max speed to 40kph) about 4 hours into the drive, somewhere near Aachen, I came into a small town and as I slowed down into traffic, and up to a red light, i noticed the engine was stumbling a little, queue comedy smoke screen as the revs fell to idle and i had to nurse it to keep it from cutting out.
I could feel my hand rushing towards my wallet as I thought of all the possibilities, but when i realized it was just a head-gasket, my next thought was to get it to Holland so I could be recovered directly home. I was about 60km from the dutch border, so I hopped on the Autobahn direction Maastricht and hoped for the best, about 5km later the temperature shot up, so i pulled off, cooled down and poured in 3 liters of water, queue more comedy smoke at idle, but was fine for another 38km where i had to do the same again (Thankfully, i was feeling thirsty earlier.) I made it about 10km over the border before it was out of water again, and managed to pull into a service area to call the ANWB.
I then spent 4 hours waiting on the ANWB, who got lost, then sent a guy that couldn't tow it, who got his mate with a beaver tail that didn't fit the car..... In the end it made it on a flat bed, after my ordeal by the side of the road, I was only just able to cope with 3 hours of dutch country music in the truck home.
The gasket had failed, and was repaired the next day. The following week I was due to take it to the UK and park it up at Paul's house in preparation for Mallory meaning i could fly in in Thursday night, get in the car friday, and all would be fine. I set off, everything was going well, then on the M2 I noticed oil pressure was a little lower than normal, I assumed it was just the thinner oil i'd used post-head gasket, but pulled over to check there was still some in it, there was, so off I set again. I got to my favorite spot on the M25 when there was a funny noise, the engine changed pitch, and overheated whilst i did a 4 lane dash, at this point i noticed i barely had any oil pressure and had that sinking feeling.
I ditched the car, and spent a long time on the phone to the ANWB to try to get recovered, in the mean time i noticed that i was getting enormous blow back out the crank case breather, this was going to be expensive.
The car was then recovered and despite every mechanic trying to tell me it was the fuel pump, or a wiring fault, despite me explaining that this thing called an immobilizer was cutting the connection because they hadnt wiggled the fob.... Its back in holland now, there is a lot of metal floating in the sump, so it looks like a bearing had failed either as a result of low oil pressure, or possibly the root cause. I'll continue stripping it down and hopefully figure it all out soon.
The end result is that the block, crank, rods and head are back at Jem Engines, where they will be cleaned, bored/ground/skimmed and balanced, before being sent back for the final build. In preparation for the six hour at mallory I thought I should try to put as many miles on it as possible, sadly following the two dry days in March, there hasn't been much dry weather in Holland since which meant getting out in the car has been difficult at best and not possible the rest of the time.The weather in Western Germany, and Luxembourg was due to be not-wet, so off I set, laptop running auto-tune in the passenger seat, following the Waal/Rhine over the border, then heading cross country towards Trier, the TomTom provides a lovely route, (Set max speed to 40kph) about 4 hours into the drive, somewhere near Aachen, I came into a small town and as I slowed down into traffic, and up to a red light, i noticed the engine was stumbling a little, queue comedy smoke screen as the revs fell to idle and i had to nurse it to keep it from cutting out.
I could feel my hand rushing towards my wallet as I thought of all the possibilities, but when i realized it was just a head-gasket, my next thought was to get it to Holland so I could be recovered directly home. I was about 60km from the dutch border, so I hopped on the Autobahn direction Maastricht and hoped for the best, about 5km later the temperature shot up, so i pulled off, cooled down and poured in 3 liters of water, queue more comedy smoke at idle, but was fine for another 38km where i had to do the same again (Thankfully, i was feeling thirsty earlier.) I made it about 10km over the border before it was out of water again, and managed to pull into a service area to call the ANWB.
I then spent 4 hours waiting on the ANWB, who got lost, then sent a guy that couldn't tow it, who got his mate with a beaver tail that didn't fit the car..... In the end it made it on a flat bed, after my ordeal by the side of the road, I was only just able to cope with 3 hours of dutch country music in the truck home.
The gasket had failed, and was repaired the next day. The following week I was due to take it to the UK and park it up at Paul's house in preparation for Mallory meaning i could fly in in Thursday night, get in the car friday, and all would be fine. I set off, everything was going well, then on the M2 I noticed oil pressure was a little lower than normal, I assumed it was just the thinner oil i'd used post-head gasket, but pulled over to check there was still some in it, there was, so off I set again. I got to my favorite spot on the M25 when there was a funny noise, the engine changed pitch, and overheated whilst i did a 4 lane dash, at this point i noticed i barely had any oil pressure and had that sinking feeling.
I ditched the car, and spent a long time on the phone to the ANWB to try to get recovered, in the mean time i noticed that i was getting enormous blow back out the crank case breather, this was going to be expensive.
The car was then recovered and despite every mechanic trying to tell me it was the fuel pump, or a wiring fault, despite me explaining that this thing called an immobilizer was cutting the connection because they hadnt wiggled the fob.... Its back in holland now, there is a lot of metal floating in the sump, so it looks like a bearing had failed either as a result of low oil pressure, or possibly the root cause. I'll continue stripping it down and hopefully figure it all out soon.
Friday, April 23, 2010
APK and Gaskets
The seven sailed through the APK, more or less at TheFritz.nl. The CO output at fast idle was a little over, so i adjusted the load bin down in the megasquirt. He asked if the noise at the rear was the wheel bearing, but its just the noise the diff makes and he was happy with that. I demonstrated that there was really no play in the wheel, and that it turned freely.
He pointed out that copious oil was dripping out the car, whilst this isn't an APK failure, its bad for the environment and can get me fined. I obviously don't want an oil leak at all, for a whole host of reasons. I explained it was from the rocker cover and i was having lots of problems with it. A few minutes later he emerged behind the counter with a carpet tile and said this will work.
I cut it to shape, and sure enough, it seems to do the trick. I noticed a few spots on the floor still, so i think i still have a leak somewhere, but its nowhere near as bad as it was, and it certainly isn't from the rocker cover or the breather pipe now.
He pointed out that copious oil was dripping out the car, whilst this isn't an APK failure, its bad for the environment and can get me fined. I obviously don't want an oil leak at all, for a whole host of reasons. I explained it was from the rocker cover and i was having lots of problems with it. A few minutes later he emerged behind the counter with a carpet tile and said this will work.
I cut it to shape, and sure enough, it seems to do the trick. I noticed a few spots on the floor still, so i think i still have a leak somewhere, but its nowhere near as bad as it was, and it certainly isn't from the rocker cover or the breather pipe now.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Crossflow Rocker Gaskets
I think I finally found the cause of all the oil leaking everywhere. It seems that its pouring out of the rocker cover flange. I have an alloy one, and its always somewhat awkward to fit it. There is a cork gasket which invariably isnt quite the right shape, when its tightened up, it has a habit of being squeezed out.
To make it easier to fit, I usually use copious amounts of loctite gasket sealer which bonds the cork gasket to the rocker cover, making it easier to assemble. It seems that this is still not good enough, I've always been aware of a small amount of oil on top of the inlet manifold, which I assumed was mainly runoff from when I'd filled it, however on closer inspection there is actually quite a lot of oil running out and down the block.
I've since dispense with the cork gasket all together, and cleaned the alloy back to bare metal. I've applied a fair bit of loctite 5922 flange sealer, hopefully this will be the end of the leakage. On a better note, this seems to be the only leak that I actually have, although its hard to say as it gets everywhere.
To make it easier to fit, I usually use copious amounts of loctite gasket sealer which bonds the cork gasket to the rocker cover, making it easier to assemble. It seems that this is still not good enough, I've always been aware of a small amount of oil on top of the inlet manifold, which I assumed was mainly runoff from when I'd filled it, however on closer inspection there is actually quite a lot of oil running out and down the block.
I've since dispense with the cork gasket all together, and cleaned the alloy back to bare metal. I've applied a fair bit of loctite 5922 flange sealer, hopefully this will be the end of the leakage. On a better note, this seems to be the only leak that I actually have, although its hard to say as it gets everywhere.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Engine
I thought I was all set to start the engine in the Fury, the last time I did anything with the engine, i was unable to get the expected output on the original bike clocks. I put it to the side as actually starting the engine was a long way off.
Since then I've plumbed the engine, and lengthened/shortened the loom to fit the car installation, the prop shafts are connected, the wheels are on, and the controls are connected up. It was time to have a go starting it.
I put the engine fuses in, filled the engine with 3.8l (Total oil capacity according to the service manual) and wired the bike clocks up permanently, it took a while to work out which wire did what for power and earth. It immediately registered a few error codes, i reduced this down to one for the EXUP motor, which i am not using.
I turned the engine over, and the digi dash registered a tach signal, and the injectors were firing, and the fuel pump was running when turning over. The engine had oil pressure, it was time to start the car.
I pushed it outside, filled it with fuel, and went to start it up, for some reason the bike dash was no longer displaying any error codes, and i had no sparks, no fuel pump and no injector firing. I spent the rest of the day trying to find the problem, it seems to be related to the wiring, and the relay box. I think the fault is somewhere between the ECU and the Relay box, related to either the immobilizer, or the relay box itself. I think the ECU is not receiving any indication that it should run.
I also found a minor wiring problem, in that i'd wired up the connection between the ECU and the #1 injector to the ignition live. They both use the same color wire. It does make me worry what other mistakes i've made though. I also noticed that I could hear a relay clicking when i leant on the wiring loom. I expect that this is probably the root cause, and is either a break int he wire, or an intermittent short somewhere.
Little Jobs
Its been a whilst since I posted, lots of non-car related things going have kept me from posting progress. The car is nearing completion now, my current todo list is:
Seven:
Fury:
Seven:
Paint metalwork at front of car- Fix the oil leaks
- Fit the additional return spring on the throttle
- Check the exhaust fittings for leaks
- Check the state of the exhaust wadding
- Make a new boot
Make a floor for the boot of the car- Check if the fuel tank is actually leaking or if its just overspill from where i was careless.
Set the TimingAdjust the tappetsRemove the foam from the underneath of the bonnetRemove the old fuel filler, fill the hole and paint itRewire the tachometer to work with megasquirtPaint the aerocatches black
Fury:
- Fit the trim to the windscreen
- Fit the flat shifter kit
- Fit the battery holder
- Make a bracket and fit the speed sensor
- Fit the indicator side repeaters
- Fit and wire in the IR beacon for the data-logger
Fit the warning LED for the immobilizerSort out the heater ductingAdjust the headlamps and fit the cowlingConnect up the earth for headlamps
MX5:
- Change the oil
- Change the cambelt
- Flush the cooling system
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