[mr drew]

Not much progress recently,
Installed the download panel for the dash/data logger.

Purchased an Aim lap trigger so I could use my friends track side beacon at considerably less than the £1000 Xap want for their offering.

added a small circuit to amplify the signal and output a single pulse to trigger the dash.

programmed another screen to show lap times as well as other info.

loaded the car into the trailer

and trundled off to Blyton Circuit for a shakedown.

Installed my un-tamed racing driver, some say he has Stella Artois for blood and Tony Southgates wife once ate his dessert! All I know is he's not the Stig....
First session he managed a couple of laps and came back in because of a smell, turned out the gearbox had belched some oil out of the breather so we jerry rigged an alternate system with a long piece of hose and a discarded water bottle which solved that problem.

 

[mr drew]

Third run of the day and as the wind died down marginally and the temperature came up the oil temperature warning came on so we removed the blocker that I had installed for road use as it was impossible to get the oil hot, another problem resolved.

 

[mr drew]

For the final run I decided to go out and mostly had the track to myself. Before the criticism starts I'd like to say a) I'm a crap driver b) I havent driven on track for 14 years. c) I've never been to Blyton before. d) I've never driven FWD on track before. e) I don't care, I enjoyed myself.

Ready to load up at the end of the day, still in one piece.

Apologies for the wonky camera and after sorting out the lap timing equipment I forgot to use it!

 

[vantastic007]

Total respect for the work on this car fella!

 

[ayresyy]

Looks like a really good day considering all of the work you have just done. Great work!

 

[mr drew]

Total respect for the work on this car fella!

Looks like a really good day considering all of the work you have just done. Great work!

Thanks fellas.

 

[carnegstar]

The unloading pic is a good one. Looks like a great day

 

[mr drew]

Pulled the car out of the garage to continue the post shakedown once over. There was a knocking from the rear, this turned out to be a loose nut on the trailing arm which adjusts the toe so out with the strings to reset it.

and unfortunately the engine is smoking, number 1 plug on the right.

Compression is equal across all cylinders but i suspect 12psi of boost /270+bhp has done for the stock piston.

Started pulling the engine apart to see how broken it was, I removed the exhaust manifold, was very glad to see nothing had got out and damaged the turbo but cylinder one was oilier than I was expecting given the amount of smoke i was seeing.

None of the pistons show any signs of detonation or deformation

But I've definitely broken the stock piston, judging by these marks its broken/damaged the unsupported ring land area directly above the piston pin.

 

[mr drew]

Yesterday I removed the remains of the engine, that's a tight squeeze with the gearbox still in situ.

Then pulled out piston 1 to have a look and was surprised to find the piston hasn't failed, the pin has walked out of the conrod into the bore, also mangling the rod and crank due to the thrust load. If the engine had run hard any longer it would have probably broken the piston as there is only 1-2 millimetres of pin in the opposite side.

Need to source a replacement motor now then I can fit these..

and get back out on track.

 

[ayresyy]

I love to see some forged goodness!

What sort of pistons are those?

 

[mr drew]

The pistons are just off the shelf dbilas items.

 

[Marks-gte]

Such an epic build. And great to see it performed well on track, especially after all the work. Ive never seen or heard of a pin doing that, its lucky it didn't weld/jam itself in the bore.

 

[mr drew]

Bought a 'low' mileage engine from ebay for £220, tore it down and the claim of 40k miles looks plausible.

Honing marks still clearly visible in the bores

and quite a clean cylinder head

I'll also post these photos of the sump and adapter for the oil pump I use as i've been asked about it a few times but never took any photos..
Aluminium adapter bolts on to the original pump where the standard oil pick up pipe would.

and lines up with the integral pickup on the sump, the factory orifice is an odd shape so to ensure it seals i made the small aluminium infill panel with the square hole.

next job is to finish cleaning up the block and drop it off for machining.

 

[vantastic007]

My Volvo 940 engine looked like that inside at 118K miles ;-)

Nice Work BTW.

 

[astraturbo2]

what throttle body did you use on the z16let inlet manifold and was it a direct fit??

 

[mr drew]

X20xev, I don't remember having to modify anything for it to bolt up.

 

[astraturbo2]

cheers...im in the middle of a big bhp x18xe1 turbo build and was debating how to get round the throttle body issue as the original is smaller than the 16let opening and bolts are totally different locations

 

[mr drew]

So.... long time since my last post, I got the block and head machined

checked and adjusted the piston ring gaps

Checked the bearing clearances

gave the bores a good scrub and test fitted the pistons to check the deck clearance

then fitted the rings to the pistons

Whilst I was having a tidy up there was a small accident, I dropped the short motor, breaking the corner off the block and bending the crank!

So I stripped the ,luckily, undamaged pistons and rods out and had to find another block and crank and start over again

I then came to the next problem, early cranks have two flats that drive the oil pump like this.

Later ones have six flats like this,

The later pump bodies don't have the crank sensor bracket that I need, luckily the pump rotors are interchangeable, however somebody at GM decided to change the oil seal diameter to a different, dumb, size so the pump body was dropped off for machining to take the later seal.

I then built up the bottom end and fitted it back in the car before I could damage it.

Lapped all the valve seats and built the head up with new springs, seats and retainers

and dropped that back on the block

Because the head and block have been skimmed I checked all the valve timing (forgot to take a photo with the dial gauges on) found the exhaust to be spot on but the inlet cam was advanced 4(cam) degrees so I redrilled the gear ten teeth plus 4 degrees retarded, pictured here before I timed everything up

All back together, doesn't look any different to before.

Its had a bit of a break in and there's no fluid leaks so should be able to start winding the boost up soon

Also cut the bonnet for extra ventilation

need to make some guides and gurneys now to finish them off.

 

[mr drew]

Todays progress..
Started with some cardboard to get the shapes correct for my vent gurneys

Cardboard patterns ready for making in aluminium

Let the aligami begin

Next I will polish the aluminium and use them as tools to make carbon ones.

 

[RobJenko]

Stunning workmanship on this.