2024
13th September 2024
Wow, where has this year gone? the weather (summer) has been awful, so not really many opportunities to take the car out. When I do, it is just for a quick spin round the block.
i have done quite a lot, firstly I fitted a digital water pump controller. this meant not only removing the thermostat but also removing the vanes off of the water pump. That was scary, but, to be fair it gets to 89 deg C quickly and stays there + or – a few degrees.
I have also worked on the front and rear suspension. I had the tracking and 4 wheel alignment checked, the car is square, but there was not enough caster on the front and too much neg camber. I also reset the lower wishbones 2″ lower, this means at normal ride height the lower wishbone is flat. This completely got rid of the bump steer. The rear of the car has too much toe in and too much neg camber, I have adjusted the camber but need some special bolts to adjust the toe in. On my to do list!
it is still very hard on your back when driven, also really does not like any imperfection on the road, and if you live in my area that is a bad thing,
The engine is smoking a bit, this in mainly due to using old pistons and rings when I built the engine, so i have got hold of a new engine, and am starting to build that. It will have 100% new parts installed. That work will start later on this month or October. I am also installing a Garrett G30 660 turbo in place of the Pulsar G25 550.
the new engine will have 82mm (up from 81mm) JE pistons, ProRace forged rods, ACL bearings and all ARP bolts. I am also fitting a new Integrated Engineering big port inlet manifold – should be a little 500bhp + monster!
I did also get rid of the Chinese manifold and made my own, this has less restrictions and flows better, but that too will have to go when i fit the G30 660, and that has an external wastegate.
Other jobs done.. new alternator fitted, new front rollbar clamps fitted, and I am sure there was a whole load more
Also on the list new front and rear HiSpec calipers and getting the seats recovered.
16th April 2024
Took the car to a breakfast car meet at Pine Ridge golf club in Bagshot on Sunday. 74km round trip, the weather was good, and the little car was epic. The one issue I do have is coolant temperature, even after a 37km (23 mile) drive at motorway speeds I still wasn’t up to temperature… that means the car might still be running rich.
I got to Bagshot just before 9:00am, and secured one of the last places in the static show carpark. It was really really busy! I guess one of the first weekends we have had without rain 🙂
So I next need to bite the bullet and remove the engine’s internal waterpump … that means messing with the cam belt 🙁
2nd April 2024
I’ve been busy 🙂
I now have OBD socket working on te Emerald K6+ ECU, the issue was that I am running an ME7.5 breakout loom and the OBD2 breakout loom. The ME7 loom has a plug that goes to the ECU and a COM plug that goes to a serial cable, for use with a laptop. There is no CAN connection between the ECU plug and the serial plug. So you have to run a pair of wire from pins 1 & 2 to bridge that connection.
6+ com port pin 1 = CAN H, this needs to end up at OBD port pin 6.
K6+ com port pin 2 = CAN L, this needs to end up at OBD port pin 14.
And I now have a hardtop, it is quite odd as there is a glass roof on it .Next job, change all rubbers and work out how to fit it.
4th March
A new year and we are already in March, not a lot is happening, the weather has been awful, so bad i have a swimming pool in my garage’s pit! I have only driven the car a few times, 2 car meets, one in Runnymede and one in Fulmer.
I have changed the car’s side windows, a job I have been dreading, the old windows were really badly scratched, and made the car look bad.. The new ones are crystal clear 🙂 I bought them from Moss London
The only problem i had was my car is fitted with central locking, so I had to remove the locking mechanism to get into the door’s guts.. no big deal all went together very nicely.
Next on the to do list:
Add OBD connector to Emerald ECU
New hard top
and the big job.. remove the engine’s water pump.
