More fluid movement

Wanged some oil in the engine, halfords track day synthetic 5/50w - like water!

This is caterhams motorsport oil, Comma make halfords oils, and Comma make Caterhams fluids, so same stuff...First time I have spent more than £12 on some oil.

Checked all connections cranked the engine over and some moments later 60psi of pressure at cranking speed.

No leaks or issues with the system at this stage. Tappets all filled up in short time, and looks ok.

Just need to add the last of the fuel line (hopefully this weekend) and sort the exhaust, then broom broom, oh and brakes. Need to refit the windscreen, ideally want a new screen, but might just wang the old seal and screen back in...More into saving than frittering atm. This projects not cost me a heap of cash, it's been pretty good value.

My aim was try to limit the expenses related to the engine swap bit to less than the cost of replacing my 1300 with an engine made from parts to give durability...which was about £2500.

With some wheeling and dealing I just about completed this task...also with flogging off all my triumph engine stuff, the actual cost of the engine swap parts, to my pocket, was barely £1000. The other stuff, brakes, suspension, seat, instruments, wiring and stuff I do not class as part of my engine swap, but upgrades just cause I knew what I wanted from where it was...

Fluid exchange.

Filled the cooling system last night. All worked as planned. Appeared to have self bled too.

I spent a while pressuring the system to check for leaks, fixed a weap or two. I attached a foot pump to the header tank connections I added for this reason. I used some rubber tube and a old tyre valve and some hose clips. I attached the fuel pressure gauge in the cabin to the cooling system. This enabled me to "blow-up" the cooling system, not literally...

Anyway tells me the system blow's off at 17psi. As planned.

It also told me I had a small leak somewhere, or a couple of microscopic leaks.

I blew the system up to 15psi, left it for 2hrs for a leakdown test, this showed pressure had dropped to 13.5psi. I then deflated it and went to sleep.

Today I looked around for small spots of coolant on all the alloy parts...The coolant I am using is OAT, its bright pink so easy to see.

I note two microscopic drops of coolant on a weld on the headertank, so there is part of the answer. Although these are only equal to about half a drop of coolant in 12hrs (2hr under pressure-10 static), quick blob of TIG will sort.

Also there is a tiny leak on the water rail flange at the cylinder head...This only happens over 10psi, but will need to be fixed. I tried to fix it by "twatting" the flange with a blunt object in a dodge attempt to force a seal...thats worked for me before!

I need to whip the water rail off again once the system has been run and assessed as to the pressure and flow in different areas... to plumb the heater system, so I will cut off the 5mm flange and make a new one from some 10mm and get that welded on...

This is a problem on caterhams too, the flange can really only be one shape with two bolts, ideally it needs 3 bolts or 4 to even the stress on the flange. I have the original cast flange here I cut off the original water outlet, that might be weldable, the cast material is stiffer than alloy sheet you see. Anyway bar that it's ok bit of pain removing the strut brace and header tank again but, hey ho.... I decided to try the twat it approach after realising that replacing the flange was probably the only decent fix.

I'd just like the cooling system to hold pressure like a tyre, thats not too much to ask, no?

Stuff

Well been taking it easy on my car, some small jobs done.

I mocked up an exhaust from some old pieces, a dummy, just taped together.

Basically can get away with just buying two bends of 2.25" 304 stainless and a 800mm straight bit, bit of welding.

Couple of these http://spdexhaust.com/VBK_B.html type connectors to hold it together. These make taking it apart a doddle.

Currently the starting to fit the front-end to Matt's mobile, the space is so tight I need to make use of every centimetre, so I have atleast something to work from I need fit the valances, get the bonnet inplace on hinges. Been looking around for radiators, and parts, but need precise measurements, so will have to await some bonnet hinge brackets and tubes to arrive and get the front-end in place. It's gonne be a total squeeze. I am not quite sure I can resolve the packaging without the front-end inplace, not without a large headache anyways.

Can't really totally finalise much at this stage. I really want to stick the dry sump tank right by the pump, as I need to alter the wheelarch a bit anyway, I could alter the hinge tube layout on that side, moving it more outwards...this means I can stand a tank by the side of a large radiator and buy myself some space...I could make a fancy wheelarch for this side, one that is shaped to the travel of the wheel, lock to lock, so buying maximum space. It's all rather of a headache, hense I need firm stuff to work from.

5litre dry sump tank anyway, a massive one will just mean it takes ages for the oil to warm, ideally maybe best to run a laminova exchanger in place of the oil radiator (cooler). As this simplifies the oil system, packaging. Does away with the need to run a thermostatic oil cooler plate and oil radiator...The laminova being heat exchanger, this means it can warm the oil when its cold and cool it when its hot. It also means a simple loop for the oil system without the need to duct air and find space for a radiator. Warming the oil also means the car can be thrashed quicker from cold etc.

Lightweight brakes

Don't come any lighter than these!
Well having a measure, the rally design bells are too big, they are 7" bolting centres for the disc, so the bell needs to be almost 8" in diameter.

To use this setup I'd need to make my own bells on a 5.5" disc bolt pattern...cause the rally design ones are 7" and larger discs really...Also cause of the 14" wheels I cannot have a bell with a larger O/D than 6.5", the minimum safe material size is 6.44".

6.5" also cause 7" will push the caliper out more or foul it. This forces me into the 5.5" pattern discs.

These come in 260mm and 266.7mm.

http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=562_1214_1216&products_id=10022

Some messing the cardboard discs and sized caliper printout tells me I need the 266.7mm. Cause the 260mm will leave the caliper too close the outer edge of the bell, or need a chamfer. With 266.7 there is no great clearance issue.

The stock offset on the disc is 1/2", so the bell is quite simple, it would be a piece of 1/2" thick alloy, sized on the o/d to 6.5". The centre will need a 66mm hole to slip over the hub. It will need 4 holes for the disc to hub bolts, and 6x M8 size holes with a recess for a socket cap bolt on a 5.5" pattern. It will need a flange on the back to locate the disc, for concentric reasons.

I can hopefully poach a set of caliper brackets, as if the offset is setup right, I can pack the radial mount calipers out from the disc to cover the difference from the 247mm discs in kit the brackets were intended for, as now using a 266mm disc...So a 9mm pack on some well made washers. Or I can just make my own brackets from some alloy bar.

Not sure if its worth the effort, just messing about seeing whats do-able.

Brakes

Another idea.Use some Midilite Wilwoods

Use seperate discs that bolt to a bell, centre.
Buy some bells, they will need the hole in the middle opening out to slip over the hub, then the 4 holes drilling, thats easy enough.
Need to knock out some caliper brackets.

Bonus is obviously they are slighly lighter, heat transfered to the hub is less via better and quicker cooling of the alloy bell and the fact the disc is bolted to the bell by only 7 small areas and not part of it, so heat stays in the discs. The discs are lighter anyway, they are decent quality wilwood items.

The discs come in loads of sizes, I can run 260-265-270-275mm discs, just need to allow for the wheel, the normal Wilwood kits are 247mm discs. Which will be fine, I'd think I would go for the same size as the GT6, 265mm?

Also by not buying a kit I can spec the caliper piston sizes to the master cylinder. Plus its something different! Unique. If spending £500-650 on Caterham, Alcon, Wilwood anyways, I can build my own spec stuff from parts for the same figure and say I did that, plus get a lighter and superior setup!

http://www.rallydesign.co.uk/pdf/designing_4_pot_brakes.pdf