4722 replies to this topic

[Nev]

Im coming up to the Peak in a couple of weekends time Tim, might pass by your place. Will probably come in my Focus though, as we are camping and walking and biking.

[Nev]

Nipper is now up and running, took him for a good 60 mile shakedown yesterday. Goodness what fun he is, just a 20 min drive makes all the hassle worth while. The idling gremlins he had before (because of a partial charge leak) have improved somehow and engine pick up through the pre-boost to boost transient is faster and smoother as a consequence. The cleaned clutch still needs to bed in fully. My revised bypass valve configuration seems to have helped improve the driving characteristics too. The only bad thing is that one of my drive shaft seals is weaping a fair bit and the resulting gearbox oil is being atomised onto the exhaust causing copious smoke - thankfully this is a fairly easy job and I have a spare in the garage already. Am about to go for another blast now before the traffic builds up and then maybe install the aux brake vacuum servo this afternoon if I can stop driving him for long enough !

[Ormes]

Nipper is now up and running

Congratulations

[Nev]

God, what an epic early morning run. Just so sweet to whoosh along with minimal traffic, dry roads and cool air temps. We are all so lucky to have these little cars. Thx Ormes, when are you coming down to Bath BTW? We must meet up.

[Ormes]

...when are you coming down to Bath BTW? We must meet up.

I need to get a move on! Be popping down hopefully late October/early November to have a look around the area. ...start new job 3rd Jan!

Once I've decided when I'm popping down, I will give you a shout

Edited by Ormes, 16 October 2011 - 08:38 AM.

[Zoobeef]

I had a drive shaft before that i thought was all the way in but wasnt so leaked a bit. took me pushing and someone pushing on my back to pop it in properly and was fine then. worth a check

[Nev]

I had a drive shaft before that i thought was all the way in but wasnt so leaked a bit. took me pushing and someone pushing on my back to pop it in properly and was fine then. worth a check

I'm fairly sure I have them whacked in the correct distance but will check. I fear I was a bit too casual extracing the driveshafts last time and I think this leaky one was caused by accidentally tearing the seal . They are quite delicate things really, hardly surprising they fail so much.

In the mean time, I have installed my aux vacuum brake pump and taken Nipper for a test drive. I have written about it here with some pics and results.

[Nev]

7 hours of grovelling and I have opened up the engine to try and fix the slight oil leak. Update here.

[cnrandall]

Blimey, I just counted 5 adaptors on your turbo oil feed pipe! If you want to pop the pipe into us we will happily braze a new end on it to reduce that to one!

[Nev]

Blimey, I just counted 5 adaptors on your turbo oil feed pipe! If you want to pop the pipe into us we will happily braze a new end on it to reduce that to one!

LOL, yes, it is a hell of a string of adapters from the male BSP OEM hard pipe. In the middle of that lot is a male AN6 teminated 30 micron gauze filter to protect the turbo, so the stack of converters was rather shocking. Amazingly however, it doesnt leak what so ever ! Also, I dont think my turbo weaps any oil, so the pressure that arrives to it seems to be right - surprising really, as I thought the pressure the pump would deliver would leak past the seals which are meant to cope with arround 80 PSI. I think the final AN4 flexi pipe which is quite narrow helps restrict the flow.

Thanks for the offer of the brazing, though if I thought about it I am sure I could find you a few more important jobs to fix on my car

Edited by Nev, 27 October 2011 - 08:01 PM.

[cnrandall]

Filter is a good plan, doesn't take much to clog an oil restrictor. If it seal up its all good, just don't add up the receipt for all the adaptors!

[Nev]

Yea, a very fine pre turbo oil filter is the difference between replacing the turbo CHRA every 10,000 miles and 50,000 miles. That and carbon build up on the spindle due to not cooling it down well enough, my electric aux water pump doesnt seem to everk (can someone tell me under chat circumstances it does work?). Having said that though Garretts dont have a good name for having a strong thrust bearing and until I fix the issue with my recirc valve not being man enough fo r the job, this is stressing the turbo with reversion of the boosted air under certain circumstances. Basically I think I need to buy another recirc valve and install it in parallel as the Bailey one I have isn't big enough to release the air fast enough.

[cnrandall]

The hot soak pump only comes on under EXTREME circumstances... IIRC the engine needs to be over 120 degrees C when you turn it off! Might be worth thinking about putting it on a switch instead, at least then you know its doing something worthwhile. I'm surprised your re-circ valve is causing issues, I run an OE Evo 10 valve and its not that big and works absolutely fine.

[Nev]

Im not sure about my recirc valve, something about it isnt perfect, i does work, but quite as well as it might. I might buy another and just swap it over and see if it makes a diff. In not, then might open it up and adjust the spring pre-load with a spacer.

[Nev]

Prior to being struck down with near deadly man-flu (with added chest rash!) I was working on a completely new airbox for the VXT and a super wide throttlebody. I am hoping these two things will liberate another 20 odd BHP at peak revs so I can drop the boost down and lower the torque at the next remap.

Write up here.

It's funny that I am now running 3 PSI less boost to make 500 BHP than a stage 4 car does to make 300 BHP. This is all to do with making the engine breath better and increasing the engines dynamic VE (volumetric efficiency), partly by virtue of the turbo and party due to these seemingly minor mods I make.I love all this R&D work, I wish it was my full time job really.

Edited by Nev, 02 November 2011 - 06:15 PM.

[haggi961]

Have you got a video of it in action yet mate

[Nev]

I took Corey out in it last weekend down some nice A-roads and he took a long video, am waiting for him to give me a copy.I reckon we were overtaking cars in approx 2 seconds - thats the whole manover from pressing the pedal, passing and then tucking in infront of them. Anything from 50 Leptons to 180 Leptons is just insane acceleration, we were both laughing our heads off in the car, just from the madness of it all. And that was with a slipping clutch which I have now mostly remedied.

Edited by Nev, 02 November 2011 - 06:35 PM.

[MrSimba]

definatly want to see a clip of the beast in action!!!

[Bargi]

In the mean time, I have installed my aux vacuum brake pump and taken Nipper for a test drive. I have written about it here with some pics and results.

Just out of interest has the increased pressure/braking affected the ABS?
Do you get Ice mode more often braking hard?

[Vespa]

In the mean time, I have installed my aux vacuum brake pump and taken Nipper for a test drive. I have written about it here with some pics and results.

Just out of interest has the increased pressure/braking affected the ABS?
Do you get Ice mode more often braking hard?

I imagine like most people he has the ABS switched off