So where did I leave this… ahh yes… so I’m working out in the Black Sea and need to get back to land, the boat works 24/7 and barely makes port anytime so it’s time to give PANH a call…
IMG_1579 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
These things don’t have the best safety record and you reek of AVGAS when you get off but it made the hour trip out and back without anything noticeable falling off. An interesting machine.
No record of my agent booking me a hire car at the airport and it’s ridiculously early in the morning at Heathrow but managed to wangle one somehow, without showing my card details, and zoomed the 3 hours back to Devon.. of course I stopped in at the Super Secret Shore Base (SSSB) first thing before home…
IMG_1584 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Ahh some presents have arrived courtesy of Pete at Sparrow Automotive, his friends at ProTech have custom valved me some ultra light weight all 6262 CNC’d aluminium shocks (bear in mind that 2cv shocks work the opposite direction than normal – ie. the suspension compressing is on the extension of the shock). These are their 400 Series single adjustable models (in bump and rebound) which don’t have a typical rubber bushing but a gimbaled bonded bush. I don’t know how they make these for the money.
IMG_1620 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1618 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
AVO rear = 2.56kgs
AVO front = 2.06kgs
Pro Tech rear = 1.55kgs
Pro Tech front = 1.36kgs
That’s a saving of 3.42kgs already.. win.
IMG_1621 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Anyhow, turns out my old AVO rear shocks were pretty seized anyway, no wonder I was getting problems last season!
Yeah they look pretty baller as well.
IMG_1623 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Finally changed the gear oil out as well in the ‘box, I meant to do this after one weekend of racing after the last box build a year ago but never got around to it… whoops. The tiniest slither of metal was on the drain plug but little else, perhaps a bit off of the first gear layshaft or something from the rebuild.. I’m not bothered enough to investigate that.
IMG_1626 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
The Setrab coolers are really nice, together with the SUSA fittings, but annoyingly none of my Goodrich aluminium spanners fit the fitments so I had to use a waterpump spanner and tape over the alu to try and prevent me scratching it up too much. The smaller cooler is for the supercharger system.
IMG_1636 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
And they fit in pretty nicely here.
IMG_1638 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1637 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Whilst we’re on that I ran the hoses for the supercharger system and scratched my head for a while for the best routing and placement for the reservoir and filter, it has to be under the level of the Rotrex charger as the seals in the Rotrex aren’t actually 100% oil proof and if the head of oil is above it it can lead to ingress into the air chamber of the hideously expensive Rotrex traction fluid.
IMG_1639 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Without the bumper this is pretty much where we are at.
IMG_1640 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
My friends at AC Haines had finished Tig’ing up my inlet plenum…
IMG_1653 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
… and also got my lash caps back from hardening, what a ball ache that has been! So the port side head taken off, swapped to the ported one and swapped to the normal cams.
IMG_1654 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1655 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Whilst I’m on a bit of a deadline.. sure.. why not fit a cage to a Mk1 MX5.
IMG_1670 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
TR Lane fabbed this up, and it’s the second I have fitted to a Mk1, I quite like them, perhaps one day I’ll get one as well… but for now too many projects.
IMG_1673 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1675 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
So the hose routing for the two wing mounted coolers to the central cooler is with really large diameter piping, this meant I couldn’t make any sharp curves as as there is little room at the front of a 2cv a pair of these nice stainless fittings from Pressure Lines in Plymouth was needed… one quick trip to town later…
IMG_1688 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
You can see where it has ended up over the top of the head.
IMG_1692 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1699 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Right, now the head is on it’s time to look at mounting the throttle bodies, but before that.. and whilst I remember… I’d best change the oil filter on the motor… and actually put some oil in it…
IMG_1693 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Throttle body want’s to end up around here somewhere… and Oooooof look at that TIAL BOV. I likes it.
IMG_1694 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Vacuum manifold can go here…
IMG_1695 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Now that both heads are on I fitted the rest of the exhaust system… hmm… a bit tight here…
IMG_1696 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Glad to of had it plasma coated and also to have that EGT sensor now.
IMG_1697 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1698 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
OK! Enough dawdling now, back to oil cooling, here are the lines all fitted up. TIGHT.
IMG_1706 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Because the ports on the Ti valved heads have been moved I need to remake the inlet stubs… although I didn’t think about this that well before doing this….
IMG_1708 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Probs because I was hungry and needed lunch… I never needed to cut the extra bits for the sides and weld those on.. just weld the hole up and re-drill.. doh!
IMG_1710 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Get distracted, fire up plasma cutter…
IMG_1712 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Badass. Yes.
IMG_1713 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Gonna need some more holes here for air to get to the wing coolers..
IMG_1715 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1716 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Whilst we’re at it with wings, how do the rears look with those foam core carbon spacers the hobbit and I knocked up the other day… ahh… that’ll do pig, that’ll do…
IMG_1719 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1718 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Don’t especially want to think about the front end at the moment so how about some…
IMG_1722 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
WIRING.
The combined EGT/Boost gauge from SPA Automotive and the Wideband Lambda gauge from Stack are in roll cage pods and wired in. There are outputs from the wideband to go to the ECU.
IMG_1723 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
A bit of a rush at the end and not getting the chance to take pictures… also, have a look at the bolt mounts for the wings….
IMG_1725 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
For farrrrk sake I never did a test fit or double checked the measurements when welding… I’ve made the top bar 10-20mm too wide which has left the wings unable to fit at the base – will have to redo that when its back from Emerald M3D… DOH!
IMG_1724 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
But for now…. Get him on the trailer and 6 hours across the country… STAT!
IMG_1726 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1727 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Bit of a lonely space without him.
IMG_1729 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Jon sent me these after he’d dropped him off… safe at his holiday home in Watton, Norfolk.
IMG_1736 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Right, some jobs to do… this Series IIA was in to fit a turnstyle winch that I rebuilt a few years ago and gave as a wedding present…
IMG_1742 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Note to self, when backing landy off of ramps make sure you remove the rear chocks and that it is in 2wd drive only. Rear chocks + 4wd = ramps shot out of the front.
Ahh… and I’d best fix that front caliper back onto the caliper mount on little UMM after the bolts snapped in the snow the other month..
IMG_1744 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
FFS… Landy giving CPR to the Perry-Smiths 2000 Estate – it hates life.
IMG_1745 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Little UMM is happy and Triumph is back oozing fluids on the floor inside.
IMG_1746 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Drive it Day out in Loud Car.. why not… when you live on Dartmoor!
IMG_1764 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
So it’s time to head up to Watton in the Adventure Van, I stopped at South Warnborough on the way, a pretty village next to RAF Odiham where they keep the UKs fleet of Chinook helis. My grandfather was the vicar here when I was growing up and both he and my Grandmother are buried just next to that tree. It’s nice to visit whenever I get the chance to pass.
IMG_1796 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Ahh, GOD DAMN Watton in Norfolk is a very long way from Devon… that was a long trip up. Arrived and found Green Car in a little more of a state than I expected, they took one look at the 2cv/BMW spliced loom and decided that it would be much nicer to tear the whole lot out and reloom the enginebay side from scratch with something bespoke and much much much simpler (& lighter weight). Not something I had asked for or expected but had planned on doing next Winter – a massive win and a sure sign that I had picked the right Manufacturer for the loom and mapping!
IMG_1797 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1798 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Some other things in at the same time…
IMG_1799 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
This Triumph had just poo’d itself, perhaps Green Car had brought Triumph Aids with him up from the 2000 back at the SSSB? Sorry yellow Dolly. Stayed till late afternoon, got dinner at the pub I was staying at and then wandered back up the road to Emerald, its 9pm and one of the lads is still there wiring Green Car – these guys are TRUE enthusiasts and absolutely love it!
IMG_1800 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
It turned into a bit of an epic with the rewire and the day booked out for mapping quickly passed as we continued to work on green car, finally it the mid afternoon and after a break for lunch we were ready for a fire up.
IMG_1808 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Seen a 2cv plugged into a laptop before? No. Me neither.
IMG_1807 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Ohh. Ohh no.
IMG_1805 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Ohh.. not ideal. Spitting fireballs out of the port side. A valve is leaking back then. Go to check the adjustment which I had done the night before sending it up… perfect on the starboard side, but for some reason the port side rockers touch on the inner edge and are just just just holding the valve open. God damn it! Now it is mid to late afternoon and I strip a head off onto the workbench, no time to map today and I am offshore in a couple of days and don’t have anywhere to stay tonight...
5pm and I have a head off, we measure the difference in the cams, see that I have put the standard one back in which is what it needed as the race cams lift the valve into the piston (as these ones are stock compression and also only notched for stock valves)… I hadn’t noticed this, and not even thought about it… but the valves stems are a custom length on the Ti ones, I have no idea how it is working fine on one side of the motor but not the other, but it isn’t, and right here, right now there is nothing I can do but swap back to the stock set of heads which fortunately I brought with me.
IMG_1806 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Again Keith who was working late last night to get me ready for mapping today (the whole place knew I was on a bit of a time critical mission) stayed until midnight and helped me wrestle the exhausts off (this is a massive pain with their tight and intricate fit in the engine bay) and then button things up at the end, but otherwise it’s pretty much a one man job so I cracked on swapping the heads back to the old stock set (slightly gutted I had not forseen or noticed that valve clearance issue before). I finished at around 11:30pm and had to leave it with them like that, the only job to do was for Keith to weld up the holes I had redrilled in the inlet manifold and then redrill the adapters AGAIN for the stock heads… doh!
IMG_1809 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
IMG_1810 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
And that’s how I left him, in their capable hands as I had to jet off to Mexico for another job…
Ohh, I brought the wings home though as I had a day free and wanted to finish fitting the ducts…
IMG_1813 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
Quite pleased with that.
I’d like to say this again – I can’t recommend Emerald M3d enough, they are true enthusiasts and I’m not quite sure how they make their business run and keep their marriages afloat with the amount of time they give at the workshop, the long extra hours going the extra mile (and more) to help you out. They really pulled out all the stops with me, and I’m pretty sure they are like this with anyone else! Lots of advice from Dave, Jon who maps the cars is very knowledgable, Karl who I believe writes the software for the ECUs was good to chat with (has a nice CX tucked away too) and Keith who is the go to guy for fitting/wiring/one off parts. It really is an exceptional team up there and the product seems spot on so far as well.
And off I go to Mexico on another trip.. the SSSB tucked up.
IMG_1834 by
Alex de Vries, on Flickr
So I’m offshore of Mexico/USA and Green Car is still in Watton, it’s been a couple of weeks and they give me a shout to say they have had time to do the final bits of wiring, tidying and a couple of other bits. One of the throttle bodies wasn’t closing correctly due to a frayed wire, the inlet stub adapters needed welding up and the fitting holes redrilling for the stock heads to be port matched. Time to fire it up for the rollers… I am getting these updates live on Whatsapp from Jon and he sends me a quick walk around the front of the car with him revving the motor, it sounds glorious with the boxer sounds and those from the BOV dumping pressure when he lets off.
Time for the rollers!
They have run it up to 6000rpm and it has made 125bhp (it’ll rev clear over 9000rpm safely), they are now hitting a wall with the fueling… injectors out and they are only making 350cc at 3psi of fuel pressure. This is much less than I was expecting and we decide to go for 550cc injectors and a boost referenced fuel pressure regulator… a few days later and Keith has made up some adapters, jiggled the placement of various filters and pumps, and fitted the new FPR with reference lines to the vacuum manifold (this I set up to drawer from the base of the throttle bodies past the throttle plate so really is a real time one rather than referencing further upstream from the inlet plenum).
Jon tells me he won’t be taking it off of the rollers until we make over... tbc...
IMG_1567 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr
3b0f4987-83dd-49e4-8f02-0cbb3a355a0f by Alex de Vries, on Flickr
d91be5d5-a8f5-47c0-b543-28acda6d7228 by Alex de Vries, on Flickr
