Alex less power lots more driving time You admitted yourself you couldn't belive you had no issues in the morning The majority of you turbo guys have reliability issues ( yes I cooked my engine at donnington but that was my fault not realy the cars ) Nige has a budget and prefers track time quantity over out and out speed I want to get my car reliable so I can get maximum track time from my available time and money If you're prepared to have high power ,high speed expensive half days that's fare enough . But personally I prefer Niges approach of chassis over power Great report , great car and you're a nice guy well done
The odd kerb? lol I do need to think about wet days, but the plan has always been to get a second map. Just never got that far. The ECU I use now doesn't support multiple maps, but the other DTA ECUs in do. Mike, I suspect there was some damage to the gearbox from before, as there was a gearbox oil leak, meaning it had run low. It's been fine for a few track days, sprints and drag strip runs. The history was also relatively unknown, as I bought it used as is from a friend. He abused it loads in his 400bhp Mk4 as well. I'm sure a rebuild will be reliable.
Where were you sliding when >30psi hot ... front only I guess ? I agree with Hummuh regarding the rears and would start the day at 40psi and work from there. Thank you for the write up
Yup, front only. No problem, I enjoy putting this in to words, and getting other peoples' input. It can only help in the long run.
Great write up. Really like your car apart from the gearbox lol ! I also start around 38/40 psi cold on rear with 888s. Do you run a brake bias valve? Running crap pads in the back of my car and a lot more front bias has given me a lot of confidence under braking now where before it would try and squirm.
Thanks, me too. Wow, that's high, I'm going to have to try harder on mine. It might be the tyre rolling under lateral load. Yup, bias valve and Mk1 pressure reducer. It doesn't feel like they're locking any more, but I'll check that as well. If they are, I'll add a Mk2 compensator, and just close it so there's no rear braking.
Any reason to keep the compensators/reducers as well as the bias valve? I don't have much experience but from what I know they don't always work well together. Tried it with just the bias valve on the rear lines? There should be enough adjustment in that, assuming it has a decent range, to stop the rears locking. Wouldn't advise no rear braking, that wont end well, I know that only too well after my compensator locked last year in a practice session
With only the bias valve, and the larger Mk4 calipers I then went to the smaller Mk4 rear calipers, and fitted the reducer at the same time. It doesn't feel like it's locking any more, just moving around under braking.
Good call. Replaced last year, poly bushed. Purple, but unsure of make as they came with the triangulated beam.
I wanted to understand what was causing the oil surge I'd seen above, so I redid the second session with oil pressure shown. [video=youtube_share;ah6S6ClnfyM]http://youtu.be/ah6S6ClnfyM[/video] That shows it's clearly the oil moving forward under braking, then to the left when I turn in to right hand corners. This makes sense as the oil pick up is on the right hand side of the oil pan. I'm not too concerned as the oil pressure warning didn't go go off, but I'd like to keep it above two bar if I can. I need to check the oil level to see if I can run a bit more oil. I was always averse to doing this before, as the turbo was smoking when cold, but that's now fixed, so I have a bit more leeway.
I checked the oil level this morning, and it's at the top of the dip stick marks. However, Nige has pointed out that I have a big oil cooler, and it's mounted like this: This means the oil will drain out of the oil cooler when the car is stationary, but fill up when the engine is running. This means the oil level will be lower when the car is running. I need to measure the capacity of the cooler and pipes, and then play around with adding oil next time out. It won't be exact as some oil will be left in the cooler and pipes.
This has also popped up on PH: I'm in touch with them to see if I can track down some more history on mine.
So, Curborough is only two weeks away, and I haven't had time to touch the car. I have booked the car in to Stealth, as that's the only way I'm getting it fixed for Curborough. I have a spare gearbox, identical ENJ to what I have in the car now. Stealth will pull the current box, and check the diff hasn't been damaged. If it's OK, they'll pull the spare box apart, and create one good box from the two. If the diff on the current box has been damaged, they'll just fit the spare box, and change the oil.
After Curborough, there are a lot of changes planned for the ECU. As I've taken over DTA, I need a development car to test out changes. This will become that car in the short term. That means I need to wire in as many of the ECU functions as possible. So I'll be fitting a DTA S80, and wiring in ALS, launch control, traction control and the CAN output. I will also have separate wet and dry maps. I also have some bigger injectors to fit, which is something I've wanted to do since the car was first mapped, and the injectors were slightly too small. I've got Genesis 630cc injectors to fit, so same make, but the new version. Later this year, I'll look at a proper tubular manifold like Gurds and Nige. Next year, I want to start racing. I'll look at sprint and hill climb series, as well as circuit race series that the car will be legal for. Very exciting times.
I got the gearbox out today. I'd bought a beam to support the engine during the week, but only found out on Friday evening it had no clips. A trip to Screwfix sorted some D shackles were purchased today. I took off all the cables, speedo drive, clutch cable, earth wire, broke the starter motor wire, removed the bolts holding the box on, took off the gearbox to mount bracket. I then roped in John, and the box was out. Stealth aren't able to do the box, as they've had a nightmare week. However, it looks like I'll be spending some time in Wales with the master himself. I'm not planning on staying for the rebuild, but will fit in however it suits Mart. Curborough is going to be really tight!! I was hoping to try some negative scrub at this event, but I'll settle for just being there.
Thanks Mike, but I already have a complete spare. Mart's also said he won't need that, so I'll just fit that next weekend if needed.
I think I broke it: Luckily it's in South Wales. The good news is there's no serious damage, so most of the bits are already there, with the rest supposed to arrive tomorrow. The gears on the diff are quite worn, but as it's a Peloquin, I can't get spares to rebuild it now, so that will wait for another time. I plan to fetch it on Saturday, fit it and fill it with oil on Sunday, and go to Curborough on Monday. If anyone is in the area and feels like helping, pizza will be provided. I need to clean and rebuild one inner CV, as it dismantled itself on to the ground while removing the gearbox.
Great work and progress. Do you have any idea what circuit series you may be able to enter ? Trying to find something that would suit old VAG and 350ish bhp also. Are you running mk3 uprights for speed sensors when you run traction control ?
