Sports Car Sunday

This weekend saw three Birkins head down to Rockingham (a suburb just south of Perth) for Sports Car Sunday, run by Shannons insurance in aid of Telethon. Lucky for me, I got to head down in the yellow Birkin you see below - a really well put together little car.

http://www.classicrally.com.au/Sports_Car_Sunday.htm

It was a pretty good event, with a few cars I recognise turning up, either from track days, or from the car show on Channel 31. Along with the usual contingent of Fords and Commodores, there was a large number of MR2s, Minis, a few exotics (Ferrari, Stratos etc), American muscle cars (and their eccentric owners), plus Elises, Japanese turbo monsters and so on.

Tell you what though, when the Birkins showed up the crowds soon followed:

Kerry's car, with it's polished skin and well sorted engine got a lot of attention, especially when the bonnet came off. The others were also inspected minutely, and it was good to see a few Birkin business cards get taken from the cars as well - hopefully the day proves to be the genesis of a few more Perth Birkins.

After that, it was back to Blair's place for a BBQ and a few beers (not too many ;-) Many thanks to Blair and Christie (not sure if that's the right spelling ;-)

A few other cars there:

Zen and the Art of Engine Maintenance

Yup, this important step has begun. And with a bang, too.

There are a few things that need to happen to the engine before it can go in (and to the car too, but that's another post). The new cams give higher lift - cam designs these days (sure, like I knew what they were before) give higher lift and less duration for more power, better efficiency and lower emissions. Basically, the way the cams are ground means the valve open wider (better breathing) but for shorter periods. The science behind all of this really does escape me, as most websites start talking about flow rates and the effect of turbulence as described by fluid dynamics, and chaos theory as well (if a butterfly in Perth gets sucked into a throttle body in Perth, it causes hurricanes in the American mid-west, apparently).

Anyway, the upshot is that if the cams are taller (ie the lobes on the camshaft are bigger), then it stands to reason that they need more headroom in which to turn. So, to achieve this, little pockets need to be fly-cut in the top of the pistons so that the cams don't get fouled. This means removing the head to remove the old cams, and then getting the pistons themselves out to be cut.

Getting the top off the engine wasn't that hard - here's a photo of what it all looks like:

You can see the two cam shafts clearly in this photo - they're the two rods running down the left and right on the top of the engine. You can also see the lobes of the cam shafts, all offset from each other to open the fuel and exhaust ports in sequence. You can also see the chain that drives it all, as distinct from the Zetec which is driven by a rubber belt.

The new cams also come with adjustable verniers, which

allow minute adjustment of the cams and timing. This should mean that I get the most out of the new cams once they're installed.

The next step was to open the whole thing up to get at the pistons, which is where things got trickier. In order to take the whole thing apart, there's a main bolt at the front of the engine that needs to be undone. Now, the rotating parts on the bottom end of a Duratec are all pressed together- ie relying on friction to stop things from slipping. So far this is apparently very reliable, even up to hp and torque levels above where I'm going, however if the engine is coming apart, I'll get these sandwhiched parts keyed. This picture helps describe what this means:

OK, it's a crude representation, but you'll have to work with me and my poor left-brain dominant art skills.

The picture shows two cylinders. Now imagine that the dark blue cylinder spins, and through friction the light blue cylinder spins as well. However, you can imagine that if you apply enough force to overcome friction, you could force the two to slip. Given that this is an engine, where all sorts of components have to move in some complex little ballet, this would be bad. For example, if the crank gets out of sequence with the cams, you'll get all sorts of weird things happening.

If you add a key, however, this is what you get. A groove gets cut and a key added. As you can imagine, this means that the two disks can no longer slip, giving a more reliable engine under power.

OK, enough of the amateur mechanics, and back to the story. In order for all of this to happen, there's a bolt. As you can imagine, when Ford put all this together, they didn't want things to slip for 200,000km or more, so there's a bit of torque applied to this bolt. Getting it undone would require some force. Here's a photo of the delicate instruments and techniques used to achieve this.

In case you're wondering, what has happened is the guy on the left has just taken an almighty swing with that lump of wood at the spanner on the bolt, and the guy on the left is trying to make sure the engine doesn't turn over. This, and several other violent attempts, didn't work. Ford know what they're doing when they build these things ;-)

The answer, apparently, is a rattle gun - a tool powered by an air compressor that applies a huge amount of force (1000ft/lb of torque) to turn a nut. It's the same sort of tool used by F1 pit crews to remove and replace wheel nuts. If that doesn't shift it, nothing will.

Oh, and in other news, I finally bought a new camera, so the photos on the blog should improve. And if you're wondering how I managed to cut everyone's heads off in the previous photo - that was deliberate. Not everyone wants their face plastered all over the web......

The wishbone's connected to the, upright.....

More work on the front end this weekend, with the front disks and calipers going on. So now we have round things on either end of the car.

Putting the front disks on introduced some new elements, such as the front mudguard brackets. What it also demonstrated once more is that it pays to prefit, think about it all, then take it apart again.

To put the front disks on, you do the following:

1. disconnect the steering arm from the upright
2. offer the disk up to the upright
3. put the nut on the spindle on the disk
4. try and tighten the nut
5. find out that turning the nut means the spindle turns as well
6. remove the disk and use a cold chisel and a hammer to notch the spindle so that it grips
7. put the disk back on the upright and tighten the nut
8. put the brake calipers on to the upright
9. remove it all again when you find out you've forgotten to put the mudguard bracket on
10. put the mudguard bracket on, tighten the but on the disk spindle, and replace the calipers
11. discover that the mudguard bracket prevents you from reaching the nut holding the upright to the lower wishbone
12. remove the guard by undoing the nut once more
13. discover that the taper on the lower wishbone has been made too thin, and that the nut runs out of thread before the upright is secured to the wishbone. Find out that you need a washer to bridge this gap
14. start work on something else......

However, I now know how it all goes together (and comes apart), so there's no worries in future if I need to rework some of this.

What needs to happen is I need to get the space machined up, then I can tighten the nuts on the uprights (not fully yet), and get the rest of the assembly pretty much all in place. Then I can hook up the brake lines to the calipers, and the front assembly will be pretty much complete.

Springs and shocks

Hi all,

Another weekend of highly visibly progress, which is good for the soul, let me tell you.

This weekend, the shocks and springs have gone on. As it turns out, a relatively easy process, really, once Frank spent a day machining the spacers. The spacers were needed for the front shocks - basically, the point where the shock meets the chassis had significant gaps between the bracket and the shock itself, leading to a lot of lateral movement - not ideal. So some small aluminium spacers needed to be machined up. They aren't load bearing or anything, they just need to keep things in place.

So really it was just a case of bolting the things on. The only tricky part was on the front cross-member, as the threads needed to be cleaned out. Unfortunately, doing this chipped some chrome off the front left hand side. Nothing huge, but it's there if you look hard enough.

With the shocks now on, it's only a short step to putting the uprights and the wheels on, and then it can go onto the ground. But it will stay up on the stand for a lot longer yet - I want to get most of the drivetrain and remaining wiring in before I drop it (including things like lights etc), as it's much easier working at this height. I'll put it on the floor once I'm ready to get the engine in.

On the lights, I need to buy:

• Headlights
• Front indicators
• Side repeaters
• Rear brake lights and indicators
• Reversing lights

There are, of course, a series of rules around what lights can be used, and visibility of things like repeaters. I believe the basic rule is that if it's "E"-marked, then it should be fine.

I've found a few sites to look at lights - S.V.C seems pretty good (http://www.s-v-c.co.uk/), a few motorcycle sites (like http://www.bikeit.co.uk/) and obviously sites like Demontweaks (http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/). I've also been advised to go around and see what Harley Davidson have to offer, as they often have decent options for bikers. Anyway, more money to spend I suppose ;-)

The Duranail

I did a google search on Duratec engines, and came up with the following link:

http://www.jackals-forge.com/lotus/duranail.html

This guy has basically build the same car I am, apart from the diff and gearbox. He has the 220bhp Raceline setup, DTH Jenvey throttle bodies etc. It's a good little page from someone who knows his cars.

Hopefully I have as much fun as he obviously has, although if you check out the rest of the site, you'll also see what it looks like once you've run it into a wall at Spa, so something else for me to take note of.....

Hartley Enterprises - V8 for a clubbie

Frank pointed me to the following website:

http://www.h1v8.com/

These guys have bolted two Suzuki Hayabusa engines together, and made a 400bhp engine that revs over 10,000 rpm on stock everything. Madness. They have quoted a price under $USD30K for the whole thing - hmmm, upgrade, anyone?

According to the website, it does tend to break traction in nearly every gear, which would make it a handful to drive, I would imagine. Or that may just be sour grapes.....but in the video's the back end does step out a lot, even when he's not pushing it.

Suspension and carpets

As I write this post, you'll have to excuse any typos or grammatical mistakes, as I'm off my nut. However, more on that later.....

Been doing quite a bit of work this weekend, but for the most part you wouldn't notice. First, I've redone the back end. When I did it the first time, it was with the intention of having to remove it all to fit the differential in, however it appears that with the smaller Subaru differential, you don't have to remove the plate which supports it at the back - it can be maneuvered in with everything in place. So that means I can get all the bolts into place properly to hold the upper and lower wishbones in place.

Easier said than done, of course. The basic idea is to get a bolt through a bracket, with a washer on both sides of the bracket. If that isn't clear, here's a picture:

OK, so that isn't the prettiest of pictures, however you get the idea. Anyway, the problem is getting the washers in there (it can be a tight fit), getting them to stay there, and in most cases getting everything (bolt, washers and holes) to line up to get the bolt through takes some effort. So I referred back to one of the previous lessons - don't be afraid to hit it with a hammer. Hard. And sometimes that even worked ;-) Other tricks included sticking an 8mm allen key through the other side an using that to lever the arm and move it around to get things aligned, and using screwdrivers etc to allow me to hammer the washers in from the side.

However, after some perseverance, it all went in. There's only one spot where it didn't go perfectly - the two inside washers ended up on the same side. That's just the way the arm wanted to sit. I had to remove the uprights, but that's OK, as they were going to come off anyway to get the halfshafts in (once the diff is in, which is waiting on the moving of the brakelines.....)

After that (and the usual time for standing around talking - it is a shed after all), came putting the carpets in. And this is where the light-headedness comes in.

First, I needed the glue to keep it all stuck down. So off to Bunnings, where I find the glue locked in a cage. When I ask why, it's because people buy it to sniff it. I assume the kid decides that I'm an upstanding member of society and not likely to be a glue-sniffer (dunno why - I'm in my usual Saturday uniform of an old t-shirt with holes in it, cheap trousers and trainers) and hands me a tin. I also grabbed a few $2 paintbrushes to sacrifice.

Back to the workshop, and prefitting the carpets. Only a bit of trimming required - the carpets were cut for the longer footwell for the passenger. If you recall, all footwells from now on have been shortened to allow for Duratec installation.

The glue itself then goes in. I'd masked everything up beforehand, as the stuff is apparently lethal and gets everywhere, and I can imagine putting a dollop on top of a screw or down on of the threaded holes for the seats and mucking it up. It's at this point that the fumes hit me.

The tin warns that it should only be used in well ventilated areas - they must mean outside in a gale, because under any other conditions, this stuff is potent. I'm applying it into a small space inside a clubman, so it tended to hang around. Plus you have to get your head right in there to get the glue to the front of the footwell. Once I'd finished the passenger side, I was feeling it, and the drivers side finished me off.

However, it's all in there now (and boy, it's not coming out, I can tell you). Yet one more thing completed in the build.

And now I'm off to lie down. And not operate any heavy machinery......