lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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Apr 11, 2021 17:02:57 GMT
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This week I decided to increase the rake on my front seats, to give more leg support as it's not very comfortable to drive long distances. No leg support = backache after a while.
I thought this would be an easy job, but it was unbelievable faff and took me most of the week. The seat bottoms were originally pretty flat and used the Rover runners. Here is an old picture. The Rover runners are heavy and not very well suited to being modified, so I dug out my original Avenger runners and decided to adapt them to the seats. Unfortunately they were in pretty poor condition though and needed some renovation. The main problem I had was that the seats are right on the limit in terms of width. They just fit between the seatbelt reel at the bottom of the B-post, and the prop tunnel with about 5mm to spare on either side. However, as soon as I tilted the seats back to a position I was happy with, the handwheel for the recline mechanism hit the seatbelt reels. After pondering this for a while, I decided that I would refit the original static seatbelts and do away with the ineria reels. This would give me enough clearance and make the job much easier. However, my Dad then suggested that I might be able to remove the little gearboxes on the sides of the seats, and then raise up the handwheels to give enough clearance. I tried this, and luckily enough there was the same DD fixing allowing me to do this. I could then swap the drivers and passengers seats around, putting the handwheels in the middle of the car, and they just clear the prop tunnel. This unfortunately meant I had to lose the centre console device that sits around the handbrake, but I can live with that.
The Avenger runners were pretty rusty and one of the springs had snapped, so I had to make another from an old spring I found in the garage. Some of the ball bearings had escaped from the runners so an old bearing donated some replacements. Also rather annoyingly, the two seats had different mounting attachments. The drivers seat was originally height adjustable, so each runner had to be designed differently. Anyway, I got there in the end and I'll let the pictures do the talking.  IMG_20210411_160656 by Chris Witkowski, on Flickr I also made a new steering wheel centre out of a Vaseline tin lid, as the old one (made from a deodorant lid!) was getting a bit tatty. |
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Apr 11, 2021 19:54:57 GMT
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Those seats are from some sort if Rover turbo or vitesse aren't they?
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Apr 11, 2021 20:05:00 GMT
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Very nicely done - good work. I’ve been faffing with seats myself this week. Firstly to actually get them in the car, but also in an effort to get a bit of rake and aid comfort, so I feel your pain. I’ve just made some spacer block type things which will do the job, but not as nicely as your runners.
Lovely motor too by the way. 👍🏻
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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Apr 11, 2021 21:13:36 GMT
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Those seats are from some sort if Rover turbo or vitesse aren't they? Correct, they were from a Rover 800 Vitesse originally Very nicely done - good work. I’ve been faffing with seats myself this week. Firstly to actually get them in the car, but also in an effort to get a bit of rake and aid comfort, so I feel your pain. I’ve just made some spacer block type things which will do the job, but not as nicely as your runners. Lovely motor too by the way. 👍🏻 Many thanks. Yes, I saw your seats in your thread. They look absolutely fantastic after the re-dye! |
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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Apr 19, 2021 18:36:16 GMT
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Apr 19, 2021 21:37:28 GMT
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I’m glad you beefed-up those front mounts.
Nice work,
John
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fascinating read chris , thank you, if you get really bored , you could try popping a throttle body on the pipe to the plenum , and fixing the itb's open , and try speed density ,just for fun  |
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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May 16, 2021 12:10:44 GMT
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Thanks ivanhoew.
It was originally mapped in SD, even with the ITBs. Surprisingly it didn't work too bad, but most of the map is just wasted because you go from vacuum to atmospheric pressure over the space of about 5% throttle angle, meaning you just jump from one spot to another on the map. In boost it didn't seem to make any difference.
I have thought about getting rid of the throttle bodies and going with a homemade plenum bolted straight to the inlet manifold. It would probably be easier to map and would pull more/some vacuum at cruise, leading to slightly better economy. Realistically the 45mm bodies are too big for a 1600. I should really have got 40mm ones as it would be easier to tune the acceleration enrichment. At some point I'll pay for a full day on the rolling road and raise the boost, as well as asking the operator to spend a lot of time getting the AE spot on. It's not far off to be fair, but it's not quite perfect.
I'd quite like to build another engine with a fully worked head and a hotter cam. I think it would be easy enough to get to 250bhp which would be interesting. With the current cam I'm seeing max power at 5800rpm, after which it's tapering off. Something like a Kent AVRL1 should allow it to rev to 7000 which ought to see me over 200bhp.
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May 16, 2021 12:31:03 GMT
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Yes found the same with medusa , that's a 4.0 litre and a 3.6litre on 38mm gsx bodies ,and a tiny movement at low rpm and your on the top line on the map . i am now running itb mode , which does give more map usage , but i find it hard to get the advance i want,eg part throttle can be on the top line map wise , but half way up the map with the tib mode ,so you have too much advance for say , 95% map.
I was thinking it would be easy to pop a thrttle body in the hose connector to the plenum , wedge the itb;s open , and do an experiment with only 10 mins work , if only to see what the auto tune did .
jut in case it helps ,looking at that ign map you had on here earlier , i would have about 10 degrees more timing in it throughout the off boost map ...that could make it a lot more economical .
regards
robert
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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May 16, 2021 13:58:16 GMT
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Interestingly, I did have a discussion with a man on the ASOC forum regarding ignition timing. It seems that the Sunbeam Ti engine (which is what this is, albeit with a reduced compression ratio) gives best torque with the ignition timing at about 40 degrees upto an absolute max of 45 degrees. This obviously sounds like a lot but it's an open, biscuit shaped combustion chamber so it needs time to burn. My max timing in the NA portion of the map is about 32 degrees as you can see, so potentially I could make some improvements in performance with another 10 degrees or so of advance. When I return to the rolling road I will suggest adding some cautious advance.
The red portion of the map used to be more advanced than it is, with numbers in the 40's, but it used to pop and bang on the overrun which I found a bit annoying, so I retarded it a bit.
I'll have to have a proper read of your Medusa thread by the way. It looks like an interesting beast! I had a quick look at the video.
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May 16, 2021 15:36:47 GMT
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yes i agree , i was thinking in the high 30's on the 100 map line and your low cr will increase it too . then at around the 40 line i would have 15 to 20 more ,interpolated upwards to the 100 line .
to stop the pops and bangs , drop the fueling on the overun boxes , and also you may be able tp use the overrun fuel cuttoff feature , i use on the astra , but not on medusa cos i like the popping , i just retarded the timing to make it more burbly on the overun .
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Congratulations on luring me back to rr, this is a terrific build! Absolutely brilliant and highlighted lots of issues for when I start my build. What size tyres are you running? I've got 14x6s for mine too. Probably be rereading this thread lots sometime soon.
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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Aug 24, 2021 13:39:16 GMT
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Many thanks, much appreciated!
The tyres are 185/60/14 and off the top of my head, I think the offset on the wheels is ET15.
You're probably aware, but there's far better tyre choice in 195/50/15, although personally I think Avengers look slightly over wheeled on 15's.
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Aug 24, 2021 16:04:00 GMT
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Many thanks, much appreciated! The tyres are 185/60/14 and off the top of my head, I think the offset on the wheels is ET15. You're probably aware, but there's far better tyre choice in 195/50/15, although personally I think Avengers look slightly over wheeled on 15's. Yes, I prefer avengers on 14s, although in a mad fit I bought some 16" steels too! Mine are similar offset, but they're allycat cheetahs and rather flat faced, and I don't want anything too bulgey. Loved the look a 155/65r14 gives but I'm not exactly planning a stock engine either so they'll just end up toast  Once again, awesome build thread and really helping my mind whilst I'm off ill. Such a great looking car you've built. |
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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Aug 24, 2021 18:47:02 GMT
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What's the plan for yours?
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What's the plan for yours? Fast road car. Probably next year when I'm better and can clear the workshop I'll start a thread instead of derailing yours lol. Only thing I got majorly different is a light jdm engine and gearbox swap planned. But I have a question on your brakes. Well two. Can a normal 406 fist caliper be used instead of the brembos? And what you doing for a master cylinder? I got m16s but being off ill I'm finding lots of alternatives. |
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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Aug 25, 2021 10:13:00 GMT
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The 406 brembos are used as an upgrade on Peugeot 306's and Citroen Saxo's as far as I know, so there's probably a sliding caliper available in the Peugeot range that will bolt straight on.
The master cylinder is from a LandRover, I think a Defender. It bolts straight on too.
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Aug 25, 2021 19:56:09 GMT
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Thank you for the info. Knowledge is certainly power! Land-rover master cylinder gets everywhere, was the upgrade of choice for capri's when I had one eons ago.
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lebowski
Part of things
Hillman Avenger, Clan Clover
Posts: 488
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A long time since I updated this thread. I picked the car up today after a long winter in storage.  IMG_20220503_161835 by Chris Witkowski, on Flickr  IMG_20220503_162120 by Chris Witkowski, on Flickr I put it into storage back in December after discovering footwells full of water. I only discovered it a day or two before I went away for a month, so I was rushing to take all the interior out and get the car dry the day before I left. It seems to be leaking in the corner of the front window where the seal is a bit tight, and has exposed a tiny bit of the recess. I'm not sure where the back window is leaking yet, but the back shelf was also wet. Anyway, the car was looking nice and clean when I picked it up, and drove fine except for the voltmeter which seems to have stopped working. I've also misplaced the windscreen wipers which I removed for some reason. First job will be to get it watertight again and get the interior back in. After that I might look at the suspension. Although it looks good height wise, it's pretty rock hard and unforgiving over potholes. |
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Looking at your power graphs from a few pages back I think you've got camshaft / valve overlap ruining things. It's not a good idea on a turbo engine but great on a normally aspirated one. Overlap means you can't keep pressure in the cylinders as the higher pressure on the intake side is escaping through the open exhaust valves while both intake and exhaust are open together.
On normally aspirated engines this is desirable as the fast flowing exhaust gasses cause a draw thru effect pulling more air into the engine, in theory.
This corresponds with the boost increase as more pressure escaping into the exhaust manifold drives the turbine harder and makes more boost.
So have the camshaft checked for overlap. You might be able to get the specs somewhere and read about it without having to physically check the camshaft. If this is happening a subtle reprofiling of the camshaft could sort this issue.
Boost control solenoid shouldn't be mounted on the engine. It should be suspended on a rubber anti-vibration mount somewhere on the bodywork.
Finally, great thread. I think if you got 'TURBO' channelled through the middle of the wheel sticker design that'd be a great detail. Keep the outer lighter colour bars and replace the centre bar with the wording.
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