Zetecinside's Weblog

Lydden hill - Video

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:05 +0100

As my GoPro never worked, I'm pleased to find some youtube video of the 2nd Demo Cars session on Sunday afternoon. Look out for the little red Fiesta passing everyone.

Lydden hill - Apex Festival

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:00:05 +0100

Pleased to report that the trip to Lydden went without a hitch on Sunday. I never even had to take a spanner or screwdriver to the car. She performed flawlessly. Oil pressure and water temperatures were normal. The new clutch has transformed the driving experience, I wish I'd never fitted that paddle clutch now. I had two 15 minute 'Demo' runs on the circuit, and after a couple of slowish laps on the first session, I opened her up and was soon overtaking the other cars. I drove the wheels off the car, and put in a good show of just how quick she is.

Back from another week in Germany

Mon, 13 May 2013 22:00:05 +0100

I've been working over in Germany again for RR, at their Dahlewitz factory, and I returned back on Saturday morning, flying from Berlin to Frankfurt, and then on to Birmingham. My first visit to Frankfurt airport was also my first opportunity to see a pair of Airbus A380's, which were parked alongside five Boeing 747's. The A380 is an enormous aircraft, and with four Trent 900's hanging off the wings, it makes the 747's parked alongside look small in comparison ;) Now I'm home again I've got a McGill motorsports rear brake limiting valve waiting to be plumbed in to the rear brake lines. And a list of about 30 tasks to perform on the car before she is ready for the Apex Festival next Sunday.

Radiator back in, and a change to the plumbing

Mon, 6 May 2013 22:00:05 +0100

A lot more progress has been made over the weekend. I've connected the earth strap, and refitted the radiator and refilled that with 2 litres of anti-freeze plus 4 litres of tap water. Thats 6 Kg of weight I'm carrying around just from the quantity of coolant! I've also changed the 3.5mm rubber hose that ran across the front of the engine, from the swirl pot across to the header tank. I bought another 2M length of hose from Halfords, and I've now run the hose below the airhorns, to keep the heat from the pipe away from the fuel rail, thus the fuel rail should run a little cooler without the heat transfer from the water pipe sat next to it. The new section of hose is held in place by several recycled Earls P clips that I'd previously used to the hold fuel lines with.

Gearbox refilled, almost time to drive the car again

Thu, 2 May 2013 22:00:05 +0100

Refilled the gearbox with 2 bottles of Castrol Synthentic oil, with no leaks so far. I didn't drain the box totally when I took it off the other week, and luckily I had another 0,5 litre spare on the shelf, so the 2,5 litres I've added brings the oil up to the 3,1 litres required to fill a box. I've also fitted a new throttle cable. I had to buy another stainless steel inner from Halfords, and set about filing the size of the lead ferrule on the end down from 7mm to 6mm od, so that it fits in the linkage on the TB's. Its all connected up now, and the next job was to align the barrels on the left hand TB because at full throttle they weren't opening as much as the right hand barrel. The two sets of throttle bodies are connected together in the center, so as the right hand barrels open, they push the left hand ones up at the same time with a simple linkage. So theres an adjusting screw and locknut that needed to be loosened and adjusted to bring the two pairs of barrels in to alignment. Anyway, thats now done, so there could be a little bit more BHP at full throttle than before. Just the radiator and earth strap to fit and she's good to go.

On all four wheels again

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:00:05 +0100

After what feels like an eternity, the XR2 is now back on her wheels again. I still need to refill the gearbox with oil and check for leaks around the new potentiometer, but I wanted to get her off the axle stands, as all that weight resting focused on the two stands doesnt really do her much good. I know that the roll cage spreads the load, but I'd rather she sat on her wheels again particularly now the engine and box are installed in the car. Tonight I refitted the top engine steady bar and removed the throttle cable as its showing some wear and tear and needed replacing.

Changed the potentiometer

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:00:05 +0100

Over the weekend I replaced the sensor on the gearbox. It was sealed to the box with silicon, and a careful bit of cutting using the stanley knife blade, helped the old sensor come away. I cleaned the surface of the gearbox with solvent, applied some blue hylomar, and stuck the new sensor on the box. Care has to be taken when aligning the input shaft on the sensor. If you look carefully at the picture with the two sensors side by side, you can see a tiny dimple in the shaft below the slot. So long as the replacement sensor has the shaft in the same orientation so the dimple is on the same side as the one being removed, then there wont be any issues with the pot sweeping through 0V as it rotates. That would be bad for the gear position indicator and the ECU as they'd both be very difficult to calibrate.

Little bit more progress

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:00:05 +0100

You know that sinking feeling when you realise you'd not fitted something in the right sequence. I went to refit the lower gearbox steady bracket, that sits underneath the steering rack, and found that of course it cant be fitted when the exhaust manifold is already on the car. So I removed the manifold again, scratched even more paint off the new steering rack, and fitted the bracket, and refitted the manifold again, and ran out of enthusiasm. I'll continue on the car after the weekend. I'm not at all impressed with the paint finish on the Kiley Clinton rack. Its been sprayed with gloss paint. You know the stuff. It flakes off when you go near it, so the slightest knock and the paint comes off. And its one of those spray jobs where they just mask off the rubber boots and spray everything with paint. Not impressed given the cost of the rack.

Steering rack fitted

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 18:00:05 +0100

I fitted the Kiley Clinton steering rack tonight, after fitting a Ruland collar to the offside end of the rack to limit the full left lock (which prevents the tyre from hitting the end of the Quaife box). I now have a centralised steering wheel, and 2 turns lock to lock (one full turn each way) which should make for far more accurate and rapid cornering on the tight and twisty stuff. I also reconnected the gear selector cable, various oil and fuel hoses, and the radiator header tank. The exhaust manifold is also back on and tightened up and on Friday evening I'll refit the remainder of the exhaust system, and the front suspension.

The refit begins

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:00:05 +0100

Reconnected the hydraulic clutch, and bled it. Attached the starter motor, and both engine mounts, and I've used new socket head screws to fasten the gearbox mount to the top of the box. I've also used some longer bolts to hold the intermediate driveshaft mount on the rear of the engine, so thats now nice and secure. The alternator is wired in as is the starter motor. And the two remote oil filter lines are also reconnected, though not yet tightened up. Tomorrow I'll get the zorst back on, and the suspension, and hopefully have the car back on its wheels again on Friday evening. I still need to fit the Geartronics dual channel gear position sensor, and as the box is currently empty of oil, now is as good a time as any to do it.

Reinstalling the engine

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 17:00:05 +0100

The engine and gearbox are back in the car again. I used the new AP 220mm clutch plate with my existing uprated AP cover. I torqued the clutch cover up, fitted the box back on the engine, and hoisted the car high enough again to allow the engine to be slid back underneath the car. I'll get some bolts tomorrow on the way home from work, to replace the three that hold the M-Sport gearbox mount to the top of the box. The ones I'd used were bolts that I'd shortened and I need to replace them with socket heads of the correct length.

A step closer

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:00:05 +0100

I removed all the front suspension on Sunday afternoon, and disconnected the oil lines, gearbox cables, and last of the wires from the engine. All I need to do now is remove the exhaust and the engine can come out. I need to measure up the gearbox and engine for a longitudinal brace, that will act as the lower engine mount, before I take them out the car, which shouldnt take too long to do. This will replace the troublesome gearbox link that I'd used to steady the engine. There's too much torque for the drop link to work and its a very harsh gearchange, which I'm hoping will be smoothed out by using a brace/cradle. I've just spent another week working in Berlin, and I'm returning to the UK this afternoon. Its a bit of a pain being away from home so much, but the work is very rewarding so I cant really complain. The Supertech pistons have arrived from the USA and I'll get to see them this weekend. The Subaru started on Monday morning without even as much as a misfire, so that could be the BG244 starting to work. I'll see this afternoon when I dig the car out of the snow from Birmingham airport if she's as willing to start, having stood for four days. I missed the sprint at Mallory park on Sunday, and opted for two hours in the garage, simply because of the snow and rain. Spectating or Garage? It wasn't a difficult decision.

First round this weekend

Wed, 12 Mar 2013 07:00:05 +0100

I've been joined in Class 4E in the Service Hydraulics speed championship by a Mini Clubman. I hope we get to have a scrap at some events this year. Its the first round this weekend at Mallory Park, which I intend to go along a watch. My first event this year wont be until early summer, once I've put the car back together again.