Bumblebee Posted October 21, 2018 Author Share Posted October 21, 2018 I changed my leaky front shocks. does this constitute worn to excess? Not unsurprisingly with new shocks and everything else adjusted etc and tightened correctly (trunnion bolts overtightened) it drives much better. Just need to book a full alignment now and a small part of sorting the car is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 AVOs in their default condition - shagged. That bottom bush is designed to fail. I changed mine 4 times before the rest of damper gave up and started piddling oil. Total life probably under 15k. There is at least one AVO abuse thread on here......... The Konis that I replaced them with are in a different league. Loss of the adjustable spring platform was an irritation - now overcome. What did you replace yours with? Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted October 21, 2018 Share Posted October 21, 2018 Andy, Glad you're progressing. Should have mentioned that like the Sprint championship, my events (CSCC Swinging 60s (!)) are all over England and Wales. The draft calendar for 2019 is at https://www.classicsportscarclub.co.uk/race-calendar. I'll tell when I'm entered, and I'm delighted to.See Sidewazers at cirvuits! See you then, JOHn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebee Posted October 21, 2018 Author Share Posted October 21, 2018 I have a pair of Protechs on there now. Time will tell if they are any better. One of the Avos sicked all its oil up when laid on the floor thus justifying the effort of pulling them off in the first place. Whilst in the vicinity I replaced all the dust covers on ball joints too, and sorted out some play in the steering column , which turned out to be missing spring clips. An added bonus is that the indicators now self cancel once I set the steering column back to the right place. Things are moving on slowly. I have done the initial pricing up of stuff whilst still trying to sort stuff I have already sorted once (diff leaking again, gearbox I had rebuilt having a whine .) Jigsaw do a rear roll loop with cross bracing and harness mounts for 550 quid. I think a sparco sprint seat will fit, although that will be a calculated gamble. Ive got all the switches I need. I am having a straight ignition cutoff, a fuel cutoff, then a master cutoff with a dump capacitor for the alternator. Ive got an inertia switch to go into the fuel pump circuit, which seems a no brainer so I dont know why it hasnt been done. Ive got some 3mm aluminium which which I plan to box in the fuel tank if my rudimentary engineering skills will take me that far. I also need to fab up a cold air intake for the webers. I got stuck in traffic the other day and whilst the engine was perfectly happy the car got very lumpy, and when throttling up to move tried to die when I came back off throttle. As soon as I was clear of the traffic things when back to normal , so I am guessing that pulling in ridiculously hot air when stuck in traffic is upsetting the carbs. This however may well be beyond my metalworking skills. Still, I will give it a go at some point. I am commiting myself to doing a couple of track days and having at least an attempt at a hillclimb or sprint, allowing for the fact I have to drive the car there and back too! So I currently have to commit half a grand to a roll cage/ or take the box out for another look/rebuild. Im working on the theory the box whines in first and second but not in 3 and 4 ( well the engine noise drowns it out if it does!) so I will go with the cage now , it is done then so I dont have to worry about it. my budget is about 1500 all in , to do all the things I want to do safety wise including clothing. I will deffo come and watch a couple of your events John , my youngest son loves car racing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Cold air is a must, Andy, as you have found. A simple air-box around the intakes should be as big and wide as possible. The duct from the front can be in aluminium flexible ducting, doesn't need metal working skills, but again should be as wide as possible, as the inside surface roughness makes its functional diameter significantly smaller. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebee Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 Yes I need to get on it , it will be a winter project. Because they are webers and stepped I need to make a backplate that will take account of the step down , the stacks and the fact the inner wheelarch is only 80mm from the carb bodies. The intake from the front of the car will be the easy bit. Me making a backplate and box that fits all the carbs, that I manage to actually drill in the right places and that fits in all the right spaces will be testing my "making stuff" skills. It also needs to leave cecent room around the stacks to breathe, and I would rather not have to buy another 6 throats! It 100 percent needs it though as even with exhaust wrap and carb heat shields it wont stop the throats dragging in air at extreme temperatures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtuckunder Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 As per project Binky using CAD is a great aid as cardboard is cheap and easy to cut, and is easily welded with Duct Tape! Also remember that you are creating a plenum/duct that's aim is excluding as much hot air as possible and getting as much cool air as possible back to the inlet area, and if you can around the carb bodies as well, but what you create doesn't have to be air tight just exclude as much hot underbonnet air as possible, especially when the electric fan(s) are running at idle, thats when things get really hot under there. So joints in what you construct don't have to be seam welded or the like, simple brackets to connect different sections of the plenum/ducting will be fine a 1mm gap at the joints etc is going to have almost zero impact on its effectiveness. Just an idea, but don't regard the inner wheel as an obstruction, but rather a nicely fabricated wall that you can use when the bonnet is lowered! Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) Revington offer an airbox for Webers on a Six: https://www.revingtontr.com/product/rtr4423/name/airbox-6-cyl-3-x-40-45dcoe That'll be for a TR so no step-down, but a useful model? I think it bolts onto the Webers by the same bolts that hold the trumpets. Me, I think it's too small. I'm on Lucas Pi, and the 3" diameter (like this Weber one) tubular air box is restrictive, IMHO, so I made one of 6" diameter. That's about the most that can fit inside the wheel arch, but with Webers that'll be different. And the fastening of the Revintion one must be fiddley. The OE air box comes with trumpets built in. Their throats fit into rubber adaptors on the injector bodies, so it just slides on and is secured with jubilee clips, and a strut below. See below. I'd consider something similar for Webers. John Edited October 22, 2018 by JohnD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zetecspit Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 On my spitfire I moved/reduced the wheelarch by (about?)50mm with no effect on tyre contact etc. Though I have also slightly reduced full lock, again no downside... But you may be surprised how much spare space there is that could be liberated for a larger airbox. And not difficult, a cut, another cut, weld and seamseal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Cool air for webers a must. The Revington box , like the Bastuck-box ( Google for "Bastuck V200TRW" or here the pdf instructions with Pictures https://www.bastuck.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/14_v200trw_internet.pdf ) is fitting to TR6 and GT6. But GT6 has a stepped manifold, it does not fit. I copied it and made a plate from alloy and for the round air filter I sliced from a cheap stainless steel tube from ebay. Then you can take care about the stepped carbs. I added some short 16mm ram pipes from fastroadcars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) NIce, Martin! Bit narrow, IMHO, but get very nice! (Fat fingers on tablet again!) J. Edited October 22, 2018 by JohnD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebee Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) Nice Martin! wow...if I can come up with something remotely like that I will be well pleased with myself. Nice engine bay too, mine looks, .... not like that! By the way ,someone has stolen your steering column Edited October 22, 2018 by Bumblebee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6Steve Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 (edited) http:// Edited October 23, 2018 by GT6Steve trying to insert text Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6Steve Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Above is my solution using a K&N air filter and hammer formed flanges. Sorry I can't find better pics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Beautiful work, Steve, how did you achieve the filter? Did you unwrap sme smaller ones? But doesn't address Andy's problem of hot underbonnet air. IHO, a wide bore feed of cold air from the front is needed, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtuckunder Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 Not totally clear from the pictures but my solution was to separate the carbs and the intake from the engine, manifolds, and hot air flow from the rad, by making up two sides of the box, when the bonnet closes it completes the top, and the wheel arch the missing side, the box then is completed as a fresh air duct to the front of the car alongside the radiator. With bonnet up its easy to work on carbs, and I can even swap between different sizes of carb without having to make any changes at all. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebee Posted October 23, 2018 Author Share Posted October 23, 2018 Thanks everyone. Clearly there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. I am going to play with a few ideas, using old cornflake packets, a tape measure and a marker pen, and see what I come up with. May take a few weeks though so don't you all go holding your breath. How the hell is everyone's engine bay so much cleaner than mine? I am right letting the side down . Mine looks "used" I can only assume you have all cured your minor oil leaks by selling you souls to the devil, and you all have big enough garages to actually paint stuff when its off the car. Mine has to be back on its wheels every night or it cant go in the garage, which means I dont get the chance to paint stuff "off the car" like wishbones and springs and stuff. And there is no room to work on it in the garage due to the fact there is a Spitfire tub leaning against one wall! I clearly need to up my workshop game, but around here anyway, small little cheap workshops are hard to come by. On an exciting side note I picked up some old wolfrace slots. With the right offset. So they are getting polished up (ish) between other stuff and I am going to use them. Old school. On the minus side my 22 year old compressor seems to be on the point of expiring completely. So I need to find a new (old) one on the bay. Thanks all for your ideas. Apart from the Megajolt, sorting out the cold air intake will be the biggest thing I have done on the "make it yourself " kind of front. Im looking forward to it , but feel it may not be as aesthetically pleasing as some others work. By the way ... Mighty impressive work all round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtuckunder Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 2 hours ago, Bumblebee said: How the hell is everyone's engine bay so much cleaner than mine? They aren't, we just only take pictures on the odd times they are Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GT6Steve Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 5 hours ago, JohnD said: Beautiful work, Steve, how did you achieve the filter? Did you unwrap sme smaller ones? But doesn't address Andy's problem of hot underbonnet air. IHO, a wide bore feed of cold air from the front is needed, John This is the Mojave Desert John, there ain't no cool air LOL. Seriously speaking though the wheelarch insert is gone from that side and air is ducted inside the bonnet much like on the E-Type Jags. Filter is made by K&N to suit a Maserati. Standard catalog item ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zetecspit Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 On my spit I made a less elegant version of Steves filter. It only has a return on the top and bottom straight edges, but stays in place. I searched fleabay, bought a K+N filter (just the filter, no front/back) meant for some big american V8. It is 90mm or so deep! In the end it was slightly too long when squashed into my oval, but I cut the filter, and rejoined it using a bit of ally as a crimp along one of the flutes, with a bit of tigerseal to help. At some point I want to make it into a proper boz, and have a 3 1/2" pipe to a cone filter to get cold air (and less noise), but at least mine is a crossflow engine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted October 23, 2018 Share Posted October 23, 2018 5 hours ago, Bumblebee said: How the hell is everyone's engine bay so much cleaner than mine? The camera lies maybe....... I know mine looks well used, (especially around the clutch master cyl....... ) but tends to look ok in photos. Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebee Posted November 6, 2018 Author Share Posted November 6, 2018 So things are moving on. The panel with my switches (fuel off on, ignition off on and master electrical cutoff) are now built into a panel (read old bit of cutoff mild steel I found on the floor) so once I have decided where they are going to live in the car I can mount them. I am putting off boxing in the fuel tank, namely cos I have not really worked out the best way yet. The diff will have to come out again for another oil leak, and the box , well who knows. However I have started calculating the cold air intake side of things. And I am no engineer , but can hopefully do basic maths This is where Ive got to and now I have questions Firstly are my calculations right... its been a while. Zetec reckons there's about 50mm to be had moving the inner arch outwards. Currently there is 80mm between carb body and arch, so if I moved it it would give 130mm room..SO...according to my fag packet calculations if I just split a 100mm tube and open it up the length will be 128mm (which will go down a tad when I add some lips to actually bolt it to the back plate) and that gives loads of room for the stack openings. The "easier" option is to cut the opened part back from 78mm to 32mm so it will fit without arch mods, but then the stack throats will already be into the circular area of the box, and I am not sure it gives them enough clean free air (because I dont know how much each body wants.) Of course there's a middle ground of somewhere between the two, but that means moving the inner arch, in which case I may as well go the whole hog. I am going to use ally to knock it all up, and find a friend to tack it all together once it is made. The tube I am looking at is width 1.6mm . will 1.5mm thick plate be enough for the backing plate to bolt to the bodies or should I go thicker, or maybe rivet 2 sheets together to get a 3mm backing. Currently my thinking is a backing plate bolts to the bodies and holding in the stacks, then the box bolts to that with m5 bolts with a butterfly nut on the back maybe. Then some 75 or 100mm tube off the front down to by the rad shroud with a filter on it. Excuse the questions. Engineering is not something I have done really before, fixes on the fly yes, but actually making something proper and fit for purpose is a new experience. And if my "just split a tube is the easiest way" isnt the easiest please tell me to do it right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zetecspit Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 I have just measured mine. Measuring from the outside of the wheel arch/wing, about half way along the top, to the inner wing, I have 315mm. Maybe more important, from the centreline of my engine to the outside of the airbox, I have 400mm This is a mkIV spitfire, but errr, zetec/st170 engine. It may be possible to lose a bit more from the inner arch? I wasn't particularly scientific. As to thickness of ali, 1.5mm should be plenty, but only gut feeling. Cheers Clive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtuckunder Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 Re backplate thickness, just measured an ITG one and its 2mm. I think what you have to guestimate is that if I'm guessing right from your description/drawing is that the backplate is going to be the fixed/stiff bit and the weight of the box and some of the ducting weight is going to be carried by it, and you don't want it flexing and fatiguing with vibration bumpy roads etc, I might be tempted to use something slightly thicker on the back plate, or double up the 1.5 as you suggest. The box itself can be as thin as it will structurally stand, plus a bit of weight of the ducting to it, so I recon 1.5 would be fine. NB. JUst a thought re volume and clearance and construction, rather than using round alloy and splitting, I might be thinking of using the same 1.5 flat sheet and making a box that steps off from your back plate and just clears the inner wheel arch, If I'm right you have about 80mm total, and 40mm trumpets should be fine for clearance. I only suggest sheet as its easier to work with limited tools than round, if you have a vice or a clamping work bench its very easy to form long straight bends in alloy. Just find a couple of lengths of 1" angle (alloy if you can as it will leave less marks, but steel will do) then you can put the angle in the vice/workbench slip your sheet of alloy between them, clamp up, and you will find that by hand you can form fairly long neat 90deg bends. NB as you will need to transfer from a box plenum shape to the inlet duct, have a look online at all the various ventilation duct adaptors, that will go from square to round, oblong to round, and a whole bunch of variants and sizes, only a couple of quid each and would simply pop rivet or glue into the end, sprayed silver afterwards and would look quite professional, and guaranteed that there is off the shelf ducting tube to fit. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bumblebee Posted November 19, 2018 Author Share Posted November 19, 2018 So this weekend, between being asked to paint the kitchen walls grey from white , then after having put two coats on being told to paint it back to white, I actually wheeled the car out of the garage and started the electrical side of things High on the hit list was an inertia cutoff for the fuel pump. so I decided to do that first then work on switches inside the car after that. The switch itself was an e bay special from an old Renault of some kind, and after trying about 40 different places I decided behind the battery was the place to go so I got it all fitted up and pointed the wires in vaguely the right direction . I then moved into the car itself to sort out the switches. I wanted an FIA approved master cutoff. Then a separate fuel and Ignition switch. I wanted the fuel to not work unless the ignition switch was on, and deffo the ignition switch not to work unless the key was turned to live, otherwise there would be a drive off with steering lock on moment somewhere down the line, so I binned the push button start idea I had . I have a sheet of Ally , 1.5 mm thick which I will be using for cold air intake , and boxing in fuel tank , so I made a mounting plate up out of that and then worked out where we were going with wires. I ended up with this. It sits above passenger footwell, but as I am lanky and the car tiny I can reach ok. Red does ignition, blue does fuel, which means I can switch fuel off before stopping the car ( and saves garage from smelling of fuel for a day after use) and master, is obviously master! The empty gauge hole I think is going to have oil temperature, but that's for another day . all I need to do now is some labels and that bit is done. I'm usually not very good at aesthetics but I am vaguely pleased with the outcome as normally my wiring works , but is all over the place. After that I had enough time to make a cardboard backing plate stencil for the cold air intake project, which I may begin this week , if I ever finish painting the kitchen walls back to the colour they were in the first place. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now