3rd June 2006
HEADS
In pic below you can see the heads ready for assembly. On the box from left to right are the valves, spring retainers, spring seats, collets or valve locks, valve stem oil seals and the springs. The springs consist of an inner and outer spring and damper.
Another pic of the heads awaiting assembly. This one also shows the 0.015" shim in front of the valves. The shim sits under the valve seat to set the required installed height of the springs. In this case 1.8"
In the pic below I am fitting the second to last of the springs and valves into postion.
4th June 2006
Engine building
In the pic below I am setting the engine to TDC (Top Dead Centre) as a reference for a new timing pointer. The bar fitted to number 1 cylinder is a piston stop. A degree wheel is fitted to the crank and a pointer of made of welding rod is used to find TDC in conjuction with the piston stop.
In the pic below the new head gaskets have been placed into postion. They are made of solid copper with a stainless wires inserted into a groove around each bore.
In the pic below you can see a close up of the gasket and the goove mentioned above. The V groove also helps to seal the bore with the cylinder gasses pushing in the groove and helping to made a gas tight seal. The pic also shows the cross hatch honing of the bore.
In the pic below the heads have been fitted along with the rocker covers, headers, timing cover, vibration damper and supercharger crank pulley.
In the pic below the supercharger has been added.
And the final pic of the day taken outside. The fuel pump blanking plate has also been fitted ( the red part ).
12th June 2006
CHARGECOOLING
I collected the chargecooler, pre-rad and header tank from Pace Products last Tuesday. Here are the pics. The pre-rad is 800mm x 230mm.
In the pic below is the chargecooler and a twelve inch ruler to give some scale.
In the pic below the chargecooler has been placed into postion. It will be fixed the the chassis tube below it and supported on a bracket at the rear.
Another pic of the chargecooler in postion.
In the pic below you can the chargecooler though the carbon side pod. The air flowing over it will assist in keeping it cool.
INLET MANIFOLD
The inlet manifold has required some addition weld adding due to the size of the inlet runners on the cylinder heads. I did farm the job out but was told it would not weld. I tried it myself on my own TIG set to find that it would. So yesterday I spent several hours adding additional material to the manifold. I was only wearing a short sleeved shirt and got some nice UV burns. It was so hot yesterday. Had to wear overalls once I realised I was getting burned. Anyway I got the job done and this morning I took it to Whitby Engineering to have the welded area faced off.
The pic below is of my workshop showing the TIG welder and manifold on the bench. The roof is polycarbonate and it was like an oven yesterday. I must have lost a few pounds in sweat.
Below is a close up pic of the inlet manifold after I had added the weld. The surface is being machined flat but the top side will be cleaned up and made good my myself.
21st June 2006
MANIFOLD PORTING
I collected the inlet manifold today from Whitby Engineering. They made a great job of refacing the the area you can see in the pic above. Here is a pic of the manifold with its new machined face. I have already cut back the outer edge so that it would sit correctly between the new cylinder heads.
In the pic below have have marked out the area to be removed. The inlet gasket was used as a template after checking it against the cylinder heads first. The holes seen in the pic are where the injectors sit.
BULKHEAD PANEL
The pic below is of the new bulhead panel and for me it has been the most difficult part of the project. There is no way on earth you could CAD this and have someone make it. There are too many small bends and curves. You need to see it up close to appreciate it. I was going to make it out of stainless steel until I spent time doing all that ally TIG welding last weekend. With renewed confidence I decided to make it out of ally, which was my first plan. I should have it finished tomorrow. I'll be glad when it's finished and fitted.
In the pic below you can see the area in the upper right hand corner. This where the supercharger pulley will be. It sits just behind the passengers head.
In the pic below you can see how my welding skills are coming along. Not as pretty as the welding on the bits from Pace Products but it's not bad. Each weld is getting better as I go along.
OTHER NEWS
I have fitted the cooling fans to the new radiator. The pre-rad for the chargecooler had to go back to Pace Products for reworking as the feed and return pipes needed moving closer to the end tank. I did not notice it when I collected it from Pace. They where great about it though and had it collected and returned to me within a few days free of charge. A big thankyou goes to Roger King at Pace Products for all his help. I'll find out soon enough if it all works. Once the bulkhead panel is fiited and a few small jobs carried out in the engine bay the engine and transaxle can go in. I've got the last few things on order form the States. I bought a new gauge for the dash from SPA. It's a combined digital gauge. It shows boost pressure on the top and fuel pressure below.
25th June 2006
WINDSCREEN SURROUND
I collected the windscreen surround yesterday from www.option1sportscars.co.uk and they have done a great job. They took some pics for me during the work of which you can see a select few below.
In the pic below Brian from option1 is cleaning out the joint between the two sections.
The cleaning out continues below.
In the pic below the joint is being filled with a mixture of resin and chopped strand glassfibre.
In the pic below the panel is in its primer.
And now for the paint. It had several coats of base coat and top lacquer.
And finally safe at home. I will fit it just prior to getting the car back on the road.
THE BULKHEAD PANEL
The bulkhead panel is almost finished. In the pic below it has been temporarily fitted into postion.
The pic below is a close-up of the panel. It will be fixed in place with 34 stainless M4 buttonhead machine screws. I will fit it finally once the engine is in postion. The reason for this is that looking through the hole with the rear clamshell back in position gives me a chance to see that there is enough clearance around various items that are still to be fitted. Such as the chargecooler.
In the pic below is a view of the panel from the interior. The only visible part will be above the the chassis tube to which the shoulder straps mount. This part of the panel will be painted black. The electronics panel will sit in the middle section.
NEW INDICATORS
In the pic below you can see the standard indicator fitted to the car. Compared to the headlights it looks old-fashioned and out of place.
In the pic below I have temporarily fitted the new indicator just for the photo. The Ultima factory are looking to offer these are standard equipment in the future. They are made by Hella and mine are fitted with special diadem bulbs which look blue but are orange when on. The perspex covers are being replaced with new ones as the one above has a crack in it which you can see if you look closely.
In the pic below you can see I have removed the rear clamshell (clip) and also the old engine has been removed for the last time.
That's all for now!