Lee's Garage

[lee303]

Top banana, glad the nova is back on form.

Brian's boot looks awesome. How did you do the masking (as I'm tempted to test my theory that the manta needs a viper stripe ) :-)

Last night was quite entertaining, Had a look at the mould, did the coin test (which it passed very easily), and then it just sort of inevitable...

lol, knew you wouldn’t be able to wait!
as for the masking, just taped it off, had a tiny bit of seepage as the tape wasn’t the best quality, but the 3m stuff would be fine, i think you need to think about not doing viper stripes, but adding some colour elsewhere, have an idea but will tell you when i see you does look good though mate, and ya, nova being back is a nice feeling

good news mate! Spa will be immense!

oh yes, me and bri were watching the f1 quail and getting all excited lmao

[spanishfly]

Wonder how to explain to Traci that we wanna do a scientific test on a Spanish,German and French built car.

[lee303]

lol

[DarrenH]

lee, how do the FIA approval dates work on motorsport products ?

is the date the manufacture date and you get X years from that point ? or is it forward dated from manufacture, like a expiry date

[lee303]

depends which products, seats and harnesses for example have a use by date on them, but i think fire extinguishers are different, in the main its a use by date though, but you can get stuff like seats and harnesses checked and re dated if they still comply with the current regs

[DarrenH]

nice one tx.

[lee303]

so, an adventurous weekend by all accounts lmao

finally found and fixed my oil leak, and have done 150 or so miles, so one more oil change and i’m ready for the rollers, as you can see though, Brian has a slight issue with the manta
seems the oil cooler filling up when it got to temp caused a decent amount of oil starve to the engine, and it developed a bearing knock last night, luckily its not had any load as it all happened at idle, and we’re hopeful we caught it quick enough that a set of shells will fix it for now,
but having the sump off nd engine off its mounts this close to mapping isn’t ideal, should still get there though....


brian has bearing pics etc,the crank/rods are fine so thats a good sign, just need to locate some bearings and bolts now....

[peester]

snug in there these days aint it..

[lee303]

its getting that way, but we have the added room-grabber of matts fiberglassing shenanigans at the mo, we still have a bay each and the fourth one as a workspace on a normal day...

[DarrenH]

good stuff, glad the running in is going ok. not so good about brians, but if everything worked and went to plan, youd have a severe lack of shonky opels to fill the books !

[Brian_S]

Yay:





Oh...



...dear!



Oops, have the oil stat + cooler on the pump pressure side. Holding at 4.5 - 5k when the stat opens for the first time after a rebuild means there's a massive starvation from empty JIC-10 hoses to the cooler, and splat - spun a bearing.

Should be good to go with a new set of bearings though, the dry sump pump still managed to keep oil pressure (around 2 bar)

D'oh!

[lee303]

oops indeed, lets hope tomorrow brings some luck...

[lee303]

so, went mapping today...



and all was going well, the engine wanting a bit more advance and fuel than last time, and looking promising, all the drivability mapping done, then as we went to start doing a couple of higher rev runs, the ****ing clutch slave cylinder burst so game over FFS!
cue the recovery drive home from hell on the M25 (4 hours!!!) have already got the new slave to put in, so thats my fun for tomorrow, then me and brian are sharing the rollers on the monday before we go to Spa, lol
so, bit ****, but the engine is intact and looking good, so thats a bonus i guess....

[Benn]

So the cooler took aload of oil (being dry) and didn't leave enough in the sump? Real sh*tter.

Bad luck on the slave, pressure make it pop?

[lee303]

not sure tbh, might know more when i get the box off tomorrow, as for the manta, yeah, combination of that and old bearings i reckon, bit of oil starve and bang, the bearings were gone, but its back together now anyhow

[Benn]

You lot do work fast.

[lee303]

we do when its needed! lol, brian did well to be fair, and i’m not leaving the garage tomorrow till the nova is fixed either!

[Benn]

Good man.

[spanishfly]

Dude not good. Sorry I missed your call last night. Was raping Nicole, I won't ring ya today as you'll be busy, feel free to ring me though Working 12-12 so anytime from now till then is good!
Dude a motto of shonky opels should be we break our cars but fix them quick lol You with the nova, me with the coupe for the track that time, and Brians manta!

[alexcrosse]

at least it broke on the dyno and not half way around spa! surprised it was wanting more advance though with the higher cr! mad as cheese! going to be a fair bit more powerful I guess! Good luck with the fix dude

[lee303]

at least it broke on the dyno and not half way around spa! surprised it was wanting more advance though with the higher cr! mad as cheese! going to be a fair bit more powerful I guess! Good luck with the fix dude

that is true, and as for the ignition/fuel, we’re optimistically putting that down to better VE, so hopeful for some more torque and power, yet to get up the range enough yet to see though...lmao

righty, so after a night sleep to let the annoyance die down, cracked on with fixing the poxy clutch slave today…
so, driveshafts out, linkage off etc etc then box off, offending item pictured…

seems it over-stroked at some point, which is probably my fault…

installed a new one, with a new pipe to feed it too as the original union seized in the cylinder, made the pipe myself btw, that big stupid looking bleed thing from vauxhall apparently not as necessary as i was led to believe…

also went to a three bolt mount, as bri had the bits and as shaking it about by starting it in gear yesterday had lost me one of my mounts' bolts!!

probably a good idea with a dog box anyway tbh…

so, all back together, and with a nice strong clutch pedal limiter to hopefully stop it happening again

glad thats done, now can concentrate on other stuff before Spa

matt meanwhile was getting bored of fiberglass, but he will have a front end to pop out next week!

and Brian has been busy, manta is back in one piece, looks lovely outside, especially with these two reprobates posing by it lmao


and the inside is looking neater by the day!


so, roll on next monday for mapping and then we're off to Spa!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brian_S]

Was a good day today, right up until putting the manta back in the garage - sounds like the bearings might have gone again. Will have to check properly tomorrow, but tbh, 90% they've done it again! D'oh!

[Benn]

What's the huge bar next to the gear shift? Thought you'd have a plated on tp rear mount... Awesome work on getting it all working.

[peester]

its a full time job to keep up with the goings on here these days cripes

[rc]

some serious cool cars in this garage