3 November 2007
Session 210 - Tubular exhaust headers & oil sump
Did not spend as much time on the car than I would have liked.
Here is a picture of a JP exhaust that I have acquired.
Working back from the rear of the car, back section with dual silencers.
Now the centre mufler.
Y-piece.
and one of the headers with the collector.
I think you will agree quite nice.
To install you have to remove the collector from the primaries and install each one separate, quite close, look at this.
Picture underneath, only trial fitted so not completely straight but as you can see the clutch hydrolics are getting in the way, I shall need to obtain a right angled connector into the clutch slave cylinder.
I also tried installing the sump and this also fowls with the clutch hydrolics. I am also a bit concerned that the wing on the sump may fowl with the exhaust which will be a damn shame as I would have to get it modified to clear the exhaust.
As you can see from the photo at least I manged to get the oil strainer on! I only installed this so that I could take some measurements to work out how close the oil pickup sits of the bottom of the sump and it seems to be aproximately 10mm.
Here's a photo of the wing on the sump that fowls the clutch cable and quite possibly the exhaust.
4 November 2007
Session 211 - more exhausing stuff
The garden needed some attention before the winter sets in so really only spent 30minutes in the garage today. I just trial fitted the exhaust headers on the left hand side.
Its going to be shame to wrap these up in heat wrap. Next photo showing the clearance underneath. It's hard to belive these exhaust system was just sent through the post and that they did not need more car, granted that have done this before but impressive all the same.
This a better shot of the left hand side showing how they wrap around the steering column and miss ancillaries like start motor, clutch slave cylinder, engine mounts etc.
Will the winged sump fit in here, it if does it will be damn close. The headers are only trial fitted here so no gaskets are in place and bolts only hand tight. Once gaskets in place and the collector attached to the primaries then this may open up the clearance a bit anyway.
I sold my MandP black headlights and replace with MandP carbon fibre effect ones! Note to self, don't every buy that first bit of carbon fibre!
7 November 2007
Session 212 - Sump, clutch slave, heat management
All up in the air, the sump does not fit with these headers so I have provisionally sold that to someone that needs one and I have ordered a non-winged sump instead. As you can see from previous photos the clutch hydraulics were to close to the prmaries so I have fitted a 90 degree bend and turned the clutch around so that the hose is closer to the sump and I have used some heat reflective sleeving.
I have sleeved the loom in the high temperature areas also and installed self adhesive heat reflective matting on the inside of the tub and overlaid the loom with this also, maybe a litte over the top! Apparently this matting can withstand over 1000 degrees centigrade and reflects 90%.
My plan regarding using exhaust wrap has changed after speaking to some WSCC members. Apparently there's not enough room and if there was once the exhaust is installed difficult to remove again. So instead I am going for a triple ceramic coating which will preserve the look of the exhausts and reduce the radiated heat. I need to look into how much but apparently it is significant enough that 10-20minutes after the car is turned off you can touch the manifold without burning. Reducing the radiated heat not only improves engine performance because under bonnet temperatures are lower but also the fact the exhaust gases will keep the heat and hot gases escapes quicker than cooler gases.
10 November 2007
Believe it or not spent about 2 hours installing the interior panels. Well you have to measure and mark the panels, drill out and then drill through the chassis and rivet into place. The only other job I managed today was to bleed the clutch after installing the clutch hose.
Pictures below, as you can see I was working in the dark again!
12 November 2007
Decided that I would not purchase the Westfield carpet set a while ago. A lttle while ago I bought a 2m x 3m square of proper automotive carpet. This carpet is very light weight also rot and water proof as it is 100% polyprolene, this should mean that it does not fray meaning no need for bonding on the edges.
Tonight I covered the transmission tunnel and rear bulk head and cut out carpet for the floor.
15 November 2007
Went up to Mulfab fabrications to change my winged sump for the non-winged version. Now this will fit. Plan to install the weekend.
24 November 2007
Session 215 - Crank shaft pulley
I think I mentioned that I had at last obtained a serpentine crankshaft pulley and damper. These are not manufactured anymore and you have to obtain a used one from a salvage yard or 4x4 parts specialists. They're difficult to get hold off. I used a special on-line service that sends my requirement out to a multitude of dealers. I had one dealer come back to me. Cost £129 pounds! thats probably more than they paid for the car, cheaper than a new pulley and damper I suppose, but little choice I had to buy it. Anyway today I was hoping to install my sump but I am on call today and knowing my luck I would get called the moment I applied silicone to the sump so I thought I'd leave until tommorrow. So today I decided to set about refurbing my pulley and preparting for installation of the EDIS trigger wheel. You remember the trigger wheel this is used to tell the ECU, well the EDIS system the position and speed of the crankshaft.
I gave the pulley and damper and real good clean, removed the rust with a dremel. Also had to remove the mud guard and this is not needed for a road car really and besides it occupies the space where the trigger wheel needs to go.
As good as new.
The damper is held on with six bolts as you can see above, bolts removed. I am going to replace with nice black allen bolts. Using hex bolts here is crazy as you have to whack the socket on! The damper position is held with a dowel pin which is inserted through the pulley and the damper. This dowel posses a problem as it protrudes through the damper and will stop the trigger wheel from being installed so I had to grind it down level with the damper as you can see in the next picture.
25 November 2007
Session 216 - Sump installation, etc
Finally tackled the sump today, it fits, hooray! 16 bolts are used. I used all allen bolts I used 14 off 5/16" by 7/8" as I used both plain and spring washers. the 2 bolts at the rear are 1" long as I used a strip of thick steel bar which acts as a brace on the rear most bearing, probably an overkill but some of the older rovers used it so why not.
Getting the sump up to the block and positioning the oil pickup thorugh the hole in the baffle plate, a very close cross member on the front and a bell housing cover all had to be negiated around without touch the silicone bead on put on the sump flange with anythink. Suffice to say there was a bit of swearing and numerous reachings for the silicone! All torqued up now to 17ft/lbs, hopefull it wont leak! If it does leak then I think this is a job for a pit not lying on your back under the car with it an axles stands.
I also had time to install some studs for the exhaust headers, a much better proposition than plain bolts which are notorious for seizing. You will note that these studs have brass nuts, I guess this is to prevent the nuts from seizing onto the studs.
Also placed my newly refurbished crank pulley on the crank with the trigger wheel loosely bolted into place, nice!
Whilst I had the car on axle stands I tweaked the hieght up a bit to allow more clearance.
Go to December 2007