Build Diary May 2 July
On the 30th of April, I was out riding my BMX, managed to fall off and in the process, break my navaculare bone in my right wrist (which is located at the base of the thumb). As a result, my wrist and forearm had to be put in a cast for THREE MONTHS. Not good, seeing as I am unable to work or work on the car until the beginning of August. I will try to use my time by updating the site in the mean time though!
If you want to see what a broken navaculare bone looks like, click on the link
| Driveshaft Connector Bolts | Dashboard Thoughts | Optimal Gearing Calculator | Extra Info On Turbo |
| 06/07/01 | 15/07/01 | 23/07/01 | 31/07/01 |
Although I am sitting at home nursing my painful arm (whilst all the other little kiddies go out and play in the sunshine!), it hasn't stopped me from trying to organise some things using the telephone.
The weekend of my 'accident' I had fit the rear diff and driveshafts only to find, that the bolts holding the drive shafts to the hubs were to big to fit and made contact with the rear shocks. I called Peter Walker at Dax, who told me that he had not yet come across this problem as nobody had built a De Dion chassis with a complete Cosworth rear end before. Hmm. Being ever helpful as he is, Peter sussed out the problem and sent me some replacement bolts to fit. These did splendidly. Thank you Peter.
Having decided to use the dashboard from an Aprilia RSV motorcycle (more can be read about this in the dash out of an Aprilia RSV section), I have now come to the stage that I have to actually conceptualise and put into practice how I was going to make the dashboard work, whilst keeping the racing ideology in clear focus.
I have some other 'tricks' that I want to incorporate into the dash as well. These have to all adhere to the digital / racing look (like this design or not, but remember that I am going for function rather than snazzy / plush design) which I think looks the absolute dogs danglies. I decided this morning to spend the extra dosh (much more than you might think) to get a SPA digital dual gauge.
The one that I wanted to get is depicted in the picture below and will read the turbo boost pressure and oil temperature. Both of these readings are vitally important to a turbo driven car.
For further specifications on this gauge please click on the link
to Syclones web-page,
to SPA
gauges or for an excellent deal on these gauges and other
SPA products, get into contact with Mike Topp from MTMotorsport.
Having read the specs on these gauges, I realised what the money is for, it has more akin with a micro computer than anything else. Even though I haven't even bought the thing yet, I have already been toying with some ideas for making the temperature gauge 'switchable' to read 2 alternative temperatures like engine oil temp and diff temp or gearbox temp or even turbo induction air temperature. This will require a bit more thinking I think.
As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site, I have had some trouble trying to figure out what size rims I should fit. Performance, cost and looks (in this order) are the main criteria. What I don't know, is whether I want 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17 inch rims? Most Lotus 7 replicas seem to be running 13 inchers, which to me is much to small (performance wise - they don't allow the fitting of large brake discs, looks wise - they just look too small) but with 17 inchers, the tyres will be too expensive.
I have made some preliminary calculations using a formula I found in CCC magazine. Click on this link to see the rim size calculations for my car: Cossierush Rim Size Calculations
What you can see from this, is that in theory the car will be laughingly fast car (top end at least). Take note however, that these calculations do not take account of wind resistance and drag. What it also tells me, is that I will probably go for 16 inch rims, as tyres of this size are relatively affordable and at a constant cruising speed of around 150 kph, the car will not be running too high revs.
If you want to calculate the rim size for your car, try my link to see if this model is accurate or not. Could you please e-mail me the results so I can update the model! Cheers :)
Something that I hadn't mentioned before, was the fact that C & E's could tell me a little more about the origins of my turbo. Something that proved to be rather revealing as these findings did not correspond with the origins of the car!
What C&E's told me, was that instead of my turbo charger being from the German imported, 1988, 2wd Sierra Cosworth, that it was actually (although still a Garrett T3) a unit from a later model - model year 1990, fitted to cars sold in Italy and in the UK. One of the differences being that these did not have lambda sensors.
Another strange thing, was the fact that the turbo is actually from a 4 * 4 version of the Cosworth and not from a 2 wd car such as that my engine came from. In addition to this, the exhaust manifold was also from a 4 * 4 engine and not a 2 wd. The question is, what are these doing on my 2 wd engine? I will let you know as and when I find out more.
I AM FREEEEEEEE!! I have been freed from my cast cage and duly celebrated by starting some light work on the car today. I had found some Citroen Deux Cheveaux (aka 2CV) headlights before my accident and thought it time to now take care of them. These were primed and re-sprayed in matt rally black so they wouldn't look too out of place. I have to say at this point that I deliberately chose to use the square lights instead of more common round one. I think that it is a matter of taste, but to me the round ones just don't look the business.
I had some more contact with Peter today as the diff bolts can't be sourced in the UK and I will have to get them here in the Holland. In addition to this, I have asked him for advice as to how the gearbox fits between the chassis rails, as at the moment I can't get it to fit. I am also bewildered as to how the steering rack will fit as it seems that the track of the car is a lot wider than the reach of the steering arms. I will keep you posted.
I am fairly excited at the time of writing this update, as I actually think that I will get my engine this week (although my bank account will be less happy with this fact)! Mike told me yesterday that he has completed the bottom-end and that he will be starting and finishing the head this week. When I get it back I still have to put the head onto the bottom-end.
On the downside, I had completely finished re-furbishing the front hubs only to find that the bearings on one of the hubs were nackered. I will have to disassemble them again at the risk of damaging the paint. Oh-well, that is the way it goes.
I sent a long fax to Peter yesterday asking him to look at solving the problems with my car. the problems I have asked him to look at the following:
1) the gearbox that does not fit in between the frame spars
2) the drive shaft bolts that touch the rear shock - the ones that he sent me didn't fit as the pitch of the thread was different. We are now looking at cutting the head of a normal bolt down in order to fit it.
3) the steering rack which seems to be too short, but this is something that Peter says is easily solved as there should have been steering rack extensions in the pack. there weren't, so these will have to be sent to me. Therefore not a problem per se.
One more night and a days work until I see my engine again (after several months) and the real work can start. I will add the next up-date with pictures of the engine as it stands.
I HAVE THE ENGINE BACK!!! Sadly I haven't found the time to get the photo's developed yet, but I will get round to this this week and update the engine section of the site.
Regulars to my site will know that I have had some questions concerning the origins of my engine. Well, I have only come to question its whereabouts even more since my last writing. The reason for this, is as follows: I have started to put the engine back together and am finding that my engine is different in many places to what it 'should' be. Not only is the turbo for the UK or Italian market, was the exhaust manifold of a 4 * 4 car as is the water pump, but I have now seen, that instead of having a YBB block, I do actually have YSA designated block! This is all very strange. The one thing that I could find as being 'correct' on the car, was that the camcover is red and that the bore quality is 2 for all four bores, which was a pre-requisite for Cosworth blocks.
Although I have had the engine completely rebuilt, I am finding that there are still parts that need replacing for new ones. I took the precautionary measure of buying a new rev counter sensor, something that was not cheap to say the least. Perhaps I will put all of the costs on the site at some point, but think this will frighten me to much!
TIP OF THE YEAR!!!
BEFORE YOU DISMANTLE ANYTHING, TAKE LOADS OF PICTURES!!!! This may sound daft, but by the time you come putting it all back together again, you will have forgotten where most parts go and the pictures will be your best reference point. In addition to this, I would advise you to put all of the nuts and bolts that you remove in separate bags and label them clearly, something I didn't do and am paying for now. I just hope that I won't have all too many parts left over at the end!!
I have finally had the time to scan some more pictures and had a 'play' with the engine and gearbox to see if it would not fit into the chassis some other way. It did, but now the engine mounts don't line up. Strange but true. I have faxed Peter again to ask him once again how I should solve this. Other than this I have dismantled my front hubs again and installed new bearings as when I reassembled them with the old bearings one of the hubs started 'crunching'.
Click through to the engine rebuild section to see the pictures of the semi completed engine and the rebuild process of the engine. I will post more pictures of this process at a later date as soon as I finish of the role and get them developed.
I have a small picture for this section, namely the de Dion tube and rear diff fitted (before I took the diff out again to fix an oil leak).
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