4722 replies to this topic

[NickB787]

Nipper really looks nice Nev, you must be proud.

[siztenboots]

Job done, 2.25 hours. The T3 gasket only had approx. 0.25 mm compressed/burnt out of it, but was making a hell of a racket, and most probably slowing spool up slightly.

 

I have binned the gasket and decided to mate the exhaust manifold flange directly with turbo flange (ie no gasket between any more and full flange to flange tightness - fnaar).

 

are they similar metals each side, just thinking more thermal expansion , my first option would be new gasket.

[Duncan VXR]

New gasket would be my initial advice also. Check mating faces are still nice and flat also Could the noise be a manifold gasket leak or a crack? The joys of cars DG

[manus]

Job done, 2.25 hours. The T3 gasket only had approx. 0.25 mm compressed/burnt out of it, but was making a hell of a racket, and most probably slowing spool up slightly. I have binned the gasket and decided to mate the exhaust manifold flange directly with turbo flange (ie no gasket between any more and full flange to flange tightness - fnaar).

are they similar metals each side, just thinking more thermal expansion , my first option would be new gasket.

Just weld them together. No gasket needed....

[siztenboots]

in a way the gasket has done its job , but its failed so this suggests the two faces need a thicker gasket

[Nev]

Went for a little drive this afternoon and popped into Castle Coombe for a nosey. Met a somewhat reticent Exige LF1 owner, came back and had to look it up to work out what bits and bobs it had. I noticed it had somewhat more meaty brakes than a VX220.

[hairy]

About time you took nipper around that track Nev!

[Nev]

About time you took nipper around that track Nev!

They aren't very happy with his noise output, wouldn't even let me on for a single lap

[Sticky]

Went for a little drive this afternoon and popped into Castle Coombe for a nosey. Met a somewhat reticent Exige LF1 owner, came back and had to look it up to work out what bits and bobs it had. I noticed it had somewhat more meaty brakes than a VX220.

Was it a 15 plate in black? I passed him at 7.30 this morning near Membrey services going west.

[Nev]

Went for a little drive this afternoon and popped into Castle Coombe for a nosey. Met a somewhat reticent Exige LF1 owner, came back and had to look it up to work out what bits and bobs it had. I noticed it had somewhat more meaty brakes than a VX220.

Was it a 15 plate in black? I passed him at 7.30 this morning near Membrey services going west.

Yep, he sounded like he had a London/estuary accent, so most likely I think.

[Nev]

Bastard car did my back in over the weekend. It seems my aging body can't cope with 6 hours in the seats (which to be honest is the longest I've ever sat in the thing in a day I think).

[hairy]

Old fecker!

[mbes2]

About time you took nipper around that track Nev!

They aren't very happy with his noise output, wouldn't even let me on for a single lap

You lost a full days track cost?

[chris_uk]

nev... please put a coupe and diffuser on nipper.. please!! it would so fcuking good! 

[Nev]

Yesterday I went round to Josh's garage for an 11 hour stint to machine up all the front brake parts we need. Josh was ever so helpful as usual, and we must have spent most of the day using his impressive lathe to machine up some precission parts to mate the Bremo calipers with the VX220 and Alfa 159 discs.
 
The first thing to resolve was the fact that the Brembo calipers each have 2 * M12 mounting bolt holes. As the Elise Parts front uprights only accommodate M10 bolts this meant we need make some 1 mm sleeves to fill out the gap between the M10 caliper bolts and the M12 holes in the calipers. This was painstaking as we had to skim off the excess material from the outside of the sleeve material (a length of aluminium tube) and drill out the centre of it. As the wall thickness was only 1mm some care had to be taken as the final items are quite delicate. You can see a pic below:



Next, we used the M10 bolts and sleves to mount the Brembos on the calipers. We then had to measure up the precise offset required to push the Alfa 159 brake disc from the hub to centre between the brake pads of the calipers. This turned out to be 7.2 mm, so we then took some old 10mm spacers and milled these down to 7.2mm:



The resulting 7.2mm spacers look like this, with an inner and outer face as they required a chamfer on the inside edge to mate with the hub that has a couple of locating bevels:



The final part required to fit all this was a set of spigot rings to convert the Alfa 70mm fitting down to the VX 65.1mm hub, you can see the purple coloured items snapped into the disc here:



11 hours later and the entire assembly is ready to fit, I measured the length of the existing front brake hoses and now need to buy in some brake pipe fittings and Teflon braided hose to make up a new pair of front flexi hydraulic hoses. These will replace the rather tired looking OEM hoses and need to be approx. 7cm longer as the new calipers are now further away.

Many sincere thanks go to Josh, his time & his machine shop "man garage".

Edited by Nev, 03 May 2015 - 08:15 AM.

[Ormes]

Good to see the progress

[2-20]

Don't VX220 discs use a 70 mm centering hole and only the wheels use the 65.1 mm diameter ???

 

Have a look on a hub and you will see that there are 2 diameters on the hub...

 

 

Edited by 2-20, 03 May 2015 - 02:55 PM.

[2-20]

OK, i think i've understood...

 

As you have moved the disk away from the hub, you can only center it on the 65.1 portion of it.

Why not shiming the hub in this case ?? (shim between hub and hub carrier)

[chris_uk]

Whats wrong with the usual. 308mm standard astra discs ?

[Nev]

Whats wrong with the usual. 308mm standard astra discs ?

The main reason is that if I am going to re-engineer something I might as well do it to the max, having 330mm discs increases 2 things: leverage effect and better pedal feel between locking/unlocking (usually). I am hoping that once all the changes are implemented this setup will be properly powerful (ability to lock out at any speed), fade free, correct the bias issue and also provide good pedal feedback. I didn't want to go to the effort of changing everything and only get a small % increase in braking, so hence why I have plumped for 330 discs. The key to the improved braking will be the master cylinder change and brake bias valve I think, with the increased discs and bigger pad area dealing with fade issues. I will also be thankful to get rid of the RC6 metalised pads I've had to use for the last 5 years, as the dust they make is terribly nasty to the wheels. Porche pads can get got for £25 a set too, so far cheaper than £200 for RC6s.

Edited by Nev, 03 May 2015 - 05:21 PM.