Project Scimitar MV6
Discussion
I fiddled with the car yesterday afternoon and this morning, adjusting ride height and checking wishone angles and camber.
I initially raised it up from what you saw in the photos, to get it somewhere near standard, but then realised that the lower wishbones are pointing downwards quite a lot. The uprights I made put the ball joints a bit lower than the trunnions used to be with respect to the wheel, so this makes the role centre higher, so I can get the car a bit lower without messing up the handling (thats if the lower ball joint hasn't messed it up already). It'll all be trial and error and for now its academic as its still sat on the AVO suspension. The height will need redoing when the Gaz dampers turn up.
I took the SS (and non magnetic) radiator cover off to paint it. Strangly it has started to rust since I cleaned the car so it must be a lower grade of SS, but it is not magnetic.
Anyway while that was off I noticed that the oil cooler leak is coming from the union, result!!!! tightened that up, and fingers crossed that has saved £80 ish
Here's the newly painted (well stonechip) rad cover
I've also ordered the last of the LPG hose covers so that can be plumbed in.
MOT is booked for friday afternoon, a waste of 4 days insurance, but on the plus side I can drive it in myself
More to come.
I initially raised it up from what you saw in the photos, to get it somewhere near standard, but then realised that the lower wishbones are pointing downwards quite a lot. The uprights I made put the ball joints a bit lower than the trunnions used to be with respect to the wheel, so this makes the role centre higher, so I can get the car a bit lower without messing up the handling (thats if the lower ball joint hasn't messed it up already). It'll all be trial and error and for now its academic as its still sat on the AVO suspension. The height will need redoing when the Gaz dampers turn up.
I took the SS (and non magnetic) radiator cover off to paint it. Strangly it has started to rust since I cleaned the car so it must be a lower grade of SS, but it is not magnetic.
Anyway while that was off I noticed that the oil cooler leak is coming from the union, result!!!! tightened that up, and fingers crossed that has saved £80 ish
Here's the newly painted (well stonechip) rad cover
I've also ordered the last of the LPG hose covers so that can be plumbed in.
MOT is booked for friday afternoon, a waste of 4 days insurance, but on the plus side I can drive it in myself
More to come.
Evening all, a little update is due. The MOT was booked for Friday but.... 
I've changed my mind and will be waiting till the start of April. I'll have more money, I'll have a little more time to finish a few extra jobs, and most importantly I won't have any time this month to fiddle with or drive it, so I might as well wait and not spend any money on tax this month when I wouldn't be using it much. Its a bummer, but what is a couple more weeks after 3 years!
On a lighter note these arrived today, the fronts only at the moment, as the rear AVOs weren't as bad as the front's and money was tight. The rears will be on order very shortly.
I spent a few minutes with Rivnuts mounting the little fire extinguisher (or however you spell it)
And the spare wheel arrived today, it appears to have never been used, so I'm quite pleased with £30 delivered Anyone guess what its from??
You can see I've found another jack too, and made a little modification to it to make it a little more stable. I know where the wheel is going, just got to find somewhere secure (reads no rattles) to put the jack and wheel brace.
On another note, I had a thought regarding the dampers. I'd like to protect these ones a bit better than I did the AVOs so I think I might try and find some covers for them, like water proof canvas or something.
More to come
I've changed my mind and will be waiting till the start of April. I'll have more money, I'll have a little more time to finish a few extra jobs, and most importantly I won't have any time this month to fiddle with or drive it, so I might as well wait and not spend any money on tax this month when I wouldn't be using it much. Its a bummer, but what is a couple more weeks after 3 years!On a lighter note these arrived today, the fronts only at the moment, as the rear AVOs weren't as bad as the front's and money was tight. The rears will be on order very shortly.
I spent a few minutes with Rivnuts mounting the little fire extinguisher (or however you spell it)
And the spare wheel arrived today, it appears to have never been used, so I'm quite pleased with £30 delivered
Anyone guess what its from??You can see I've found another jack too, and made a little modification to it to make it a little more stable. I know where the wheel is going, just got to find somewhere secure (reads no rattles) to put the jack and wheel brace.
On another note, I had a thought regarding the dampers. I'd like to protect these ones a bit better than I did the AVOs so I think I might try and find some covers for them, like water proof canvas or something.
More to come
ridds, It ran like turd, but this is because I haven't done anything with the LPG software yet. It doesn't use a MAF sensor anymore, it measures load from a MAP sensor taken off the right side of the plenum. There is a large butterfly valve that opens making the plenum effectively one manifold rather than two at low RPMs, so it should all be seeing the same the pressure (at least at low rpm)
I hadn't considered the inbalance between side at middle and high RPM..... There should be very little inbalance really, the throttle bodies have been acurately machined with new butterfies very accurately made, the two butterflies share the same shaft and close together, I shouldn't think that will be an issue. In fact there is no accounting for inbalance when the engine was in the omega, the MAF sensor was upstream of the divide.
I hadn't considered the inbalance between side at middle and high RPM..... There should be very little inbalance really, the throttle bodies have been acurately machined with new butterfies very accurately made, the two butterflies share the same shaft and close together, I shouldn't think that will be an issue. In fact there is no accounting for inbalance when the engine was in the omega, the MAF sensor was upstream of the divide.
A little update.
I started fitting the Gaz dampers last night only to find the spring seats are too big, and the 2.25 springs won't fit over them. I considered ringing Gaz, but these took 6 weeks to make, so my thinking was, that I can't use the 2.5 inch spring seats so I might as well turn them down on the lathe. The tops I could nab from the old AVO dampers but the bottoms have a different thread (the gaz dampers have a much more course thread), so this evening I did the lathing and fitted it all.
I got the front on axle stands so the front of the car was perfectly level and lifted the rear end from the centre of the axle a number of times to watch the wheels leave the ground, this meant by adjusting the rear ride height on each side I could get the back end level.
This also meant that when the front was put back on the ground any diffences in ride height left to right would be due to the fronts, so I could adjust until the car sat level and at the right height. This isn't quite corner weighting and makes the assumption that the weight balance is perfect left to right etc etc.... but its a start, it'll all be apart again when I start the calculations to figure out the correct spring rates.
Oh and I also put sealer around the damper adjustment nob, its easy enough to cut it off and I don't want these corroding like the AVO's did.
I'll mess about with it again tomorrow, but its ready now, it could be driven to the MOT station tomorrow (or a week saturday as the case may be )
I started fitting the Gaz dampers last night only to find the spring seats are too big, and the 2.25 springs won't fit over them. I considered ringing Gaz, but these took 6 weeks to make, so my thinking was, that I can't use the 2.5 inch spring seats so I might as well turn them down on the lathe. The tops I could nab from the old AVO dampers but the bottoms have a different thread (the gaz dampers have a much more course thread), so this evening I did the lathing and fitted it all.
I got the front on axle stands so the front of the car was perfectly level and lifted the rear end from the centre of the axle a number of times to watch the wheels leave the ground, this meant by adjusting the rear ride height on each side I could get the back end level.
This also meant that when the front was put back on the ground any diffences in ride height left to right would be due to the fronts, so I could adjust until the car sat level and at the right height. This isn't quite corner weighting
and makes the assumption that the weight balance is perfect left to right etc etc.... but its a start, it'll all be apart again when I start the calculations to figure out the correct spring rates. Oh and I also put sealer around the damper adjustment nob, its easy enough to cut it off and I don't want these corroding like the AVO's did.
I'll mess about with it again tomorrow, but its ready now, it could be driven to the MOT station tomorrow (or a week saturday as the case may be
)Thanks Cerbie Not long now
I appologise if these updates are dragging on little, it feels like the car has been "nearly ready" for ages. I'ts a shame it didn't quite make it a week or so back, but I have still been doing plenty with it. Tonight I faffed on with the ride height some more and really got it right where I want it. The camber looks ok at zero on the passenger side and about 10 mins negative on the drivers side (the book recommends 0-1 degree negative). This little tool has proved very good and very repeatable:
Then it was time to fine tune the tracking. Instead of borrowing the dunlop gauges from work again, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the kit pictured below. I can't speak highly enough of this kit, it was just £70 delivered (delivered really fast in fact). It takes about twice as long as dunlop gauges to set up (but we're still talking about less than a minute till you get the reading), but it seem really repeatable and precise. I measured the car three times and got:
13 mins toe out
11mins toe out
and 13mins toe out
So plenty repeatable enough, the scale is really precise and it feels well constructed and solid even if it is plastic. Very Pleased
The car is now set at about 6 mins toe in (book recommends zero, so its close)
More to come
Not long now I appologise if these updates are dragging on little, it feels like the car has been "nearly ready" for ages. I'ts a shame it didn't quite make it a week or so back, but I have still been doing plenty with it. Tonight I faffed on with the ride height some more and really got it right where I want it. The camber looks ok at zero on the passenger side and about 10 mins negative on the drivers side (the book recommends 0-1 degree negative). This little tool has proved very good and very repeatable:
Then it was time to fine tune the tracking. Instead of borrowing the dunlop gauges from work again, I decided to bite the bullet and buy the kit pictured below. I can't speak highly enough of this kit, it was just £70 delivered (delivered really fast in fact). It takes about twice as long as dunlop gauges to set up (but we're still talking about less than a minute till you get the reading), but it seem really repeatable and precise. I measured the car three times and got:
13 mins toe out
11mins toe out
and 13mins toe out
So plenty repeatable enough, the scale is really precise and it feels well constructed and solid even if it is plastic. Very Pleased
The car is now set at about 6 mins toe in (book recommends zero, so its close)
More to come
IT PASSED
Its fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It passed the MOT this morning, with no probs at all I nursed it over there having found it very difficult to map while driving. It was very lean to and from the MOT, so I messed about some more, then it was too rich, but at least I could safely put my foot down. Its awesome, Its really really dam fast. We did a cheaky little 0-60 run and it came out at 5.4s, but I'm allowing for some error here, I'll do a more accurate one later. It reaches 62 in second though, so only needs the one gear change, giving it an illusively quick 0-60.
I found my ear ringing after about an hour of driving it round, it really is very loud in there too much really, it'll be ace fun on a track day, but it really is crazy loud for a commuter.
Anyway, that won'y stop me driving it work and showing off
FUN FUN FUN
Its fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It passed the MOT this morning, with no probs at all
I nursed it over there having found it very difficult to map while driving. It was very lean to and from the MOT, so I messed about some more, then it was too rich, but at least I could safely put my foot down. Its awesome, Its really really dam fast. We did a cheaky little 0-60 run and it came out at 5.4s, but I'm allowing for some error here, I'll do a more accurate one later. It reaches 62 in second though, so only needs the one gear change, giving it an illusively quick 0-60. I found my ear ringing after about an hour of driving it round, it really is very loud in there
too much really, it'll be ace fun on a track day, but it really is crazy loud for a commuter. Anyway, that won'y stop me driving it work and showing off
FUN FUN FUN
Right I've covered a few miles now the list goes a bit like this:
Connect Power steering pump (that didn't take long )
Sound deadening in the car, on the big flat panels and around the fuel pumps
Maybe a quieter middle box (see how it is after the above)
and I need a new fuel filler gasket.
Every time I floor it (which seems to happen lots) the fuel pushes up against the fuel filler cap and leaks out I've seen flames from the exhausts so this needs sorting really.
Let the project continue
More to come
the list goes a bit like this:Connect Power steering pump (that didn't take long
)Sound deadening in the car, on the big flat panels and around the fuel pumps
Maybe a quieter middle box (see how it is after the above)
and I need a new fuel filler gasket.
Every time I floor it (which seems to happen lots) the fuel pushes up against the fuel filler cap and leaks out
I've seen flames from the exhausts so this needs sorting really. Let the project continue
More to come
Thanks guys, it is awesome fun
Thanks folks
I had a little look over the car last night after its first 150 miles, Everything seems good on the suspension front, but the gearbox seems to have sprung a leak at the rear seal, so I've got the parts coming, and I'll try and change the seal without anything drastic like taking the back cone of the gearbox off (fingers crossed the flange comes off).
There is a bit of vibration over 90mph, the prop shaft looks god with all the balance weights still in place, I think this might be the re-drilled hubs coming back to haunt me, I'll see what the vibration is like on the rolling road when the time comes. Hopefully that be at the end of this month some time.
It turns out my exhaust pipes are noisy in more ways than one, they like to hit the road and make a loud noise as they do. I've never been completely happy with how low they were at the back of the car, just the look of them really, but thought there was little I could do about it. After having another look, there was room to raise them up by nearly 2cm, heling the look and hopefully the clearance too.
Before and after:
And lastly I'll be reconnecting the PAS pump to the engine and rack shortly, and am now in need of a full set of pipes as I cut mine to bits
More to come
Thanks folks
I had a little look over the car last night after its first 150 miles, Everything seems good on the suspension front, but the gearbox seems to have sprung a leak at the rear seal, so I've got the parts coming, and I'll try and change the seal without anything drastic like taking the back cone of the gearbox off (fingers crossed the flange comes off).
There is a bit of vibration over 90mph, the prop shaft looks god with all the balance weights still in place, I think this might be the re-drilled hubs coming back to haunt me, I'll see what the vibration is like on the rolling road when the time comes. Hopefully that be at the end of this month some time.
It turns out my exhaust pipes are noisy in more ways than one, they like to hit the road and make a loud noise as they do. I've never been completely happy with how low they were at the back of the car, just the look of them really, but thought there was little I could do about it. After having another look, there was room to raise them up by nearly 2cm, heling the look and hopefully the clearance too.
Before and after:
And lastly I'll be reconnecting the PAS pump to the engine and rack shortly, and am now in need of a full set of pipes as I cut mine to bits
More to come
Got it back on its wheel last night after changing the gearbox rear seal, changing the diff oil and checking it all over.
I found quite a bit of metal in the diff oi, well you know some fine stuff stuck to the magnet, not exactly loads, but I'm not sure if this was from the dust in the garage or from the Quaife diff wearing in, I'm not sure if I've done it too early but I guess I'm happy that that metal is out.
Did some more mapping on the way to work this morning, if you're not too interested stop reading here.
I had tried changing the load sites so there were some really low values of MAP, then I set the fueling to zero, so that it would not fuel on the overrun. I had a suspicion that this was making the car really loud at traffic speeds, so I changed it this morning so it fueled everywhere in the map and now it seems a lot quieter. Result.
I've found with the BMW LPG system, in its history of playing up, it mostly does so just after the overrun (i.e. after zero fueling), so perhaps having the scimitar not do 'overrun fuel cut off' right help the LPG to run better when I get that set up.
I really must upload a video soon, perhaps I'll take one tomorrow morning, or this evening after work if its still light.
More to come.
I found quite a bit of metal in the diff oi, well you know some fine stuff stuck to the magnet, not exactly loads, but I'm not sure if this was from the dust in the garage or from the Quaife diff wearing in, I'm not sure if I've done it too early but I guess I'm happy that that metal is out.
Did some more mapping on the way to work this morning, if you're not too interested stop reading here.
I had tried changing the load sites so there were some really low values of MAP, then I set the fueling to zero, so that it would not fuel on the overrun. I had a suspicion that this was making the car really loud at traffic speeds, so I changed it this morning so it fueled everywhere in the map and now it seems a lot quieter. Result.
I've found with the BMW LPG system, in its history of playing up, it mostly does so just after the overrun (i.e. after zero fueling), so perhaps having the scimitar not do 'overrun fuel cut off' right help the LPG to run better when I get that set up.
I really must upload a video soon, perhaps I'll take one tomorrow morning, or this evening after work if its still light.
More to come.
I took the car to Stamford this weekend and covered quite a few miles. It performed excellently, I'm so dam pleased with it. Its such a great all rounder, or will be when I've fitted the PAS pump and some sound deadening.
I'm really sorry having made the promise, that I still haven't got any videos of it, but it was wet on the way home when I had thought of doing a vid or two, I will soon.
On the subject of sound deadening I've got two plans, and need help with one of them, firstly I'm going to run some of that pond hose down the rear quarters of the car for all the cables and stuff then foam fill around them. Then I want to fit sound deadening mat to all the larger pannels and under the LPG tank, and the rear floors, and even the door skins, but......
Which product to buy????? There are a lot, Silent coat seems to be one of the expensive ones, does this mean it's any good? Should I be looking for something specific as its GRP pannels?
Any help on this would be greatly appriciated, ideally I'd like to be able to order it real soon and have it in there in time for the Rolling road session on friday (as its a long way away).
Thanks for any advice
I'm really sorry having made the promise, that I still haven't got any videos of it, but it was wet on the way home when I had thought of doing a vid or two, I will soon.
On the subject of sound deadening I've got two plans, and need help with one of them, firstly I'm going to run some of that pond hose down the rear quarters of the car for all the cables and stuff then foam fill around them. Then I want to fit sound deadening mat to all the larger pannels and under the LPG tank, and the rear floors, and even the door skins, but......
Which product to buy????? There are a lot, Silent coat seems to be one of the expensive ones, does this mean it's any good? Should I be looking for something specific as its GRP pannels?
Any help on this would be greatly appriciated, ideally I'd like to be able to order it real soon and have it in there in time for the Rolling road session on friday (as its a long way away).
Thanks for any advice
An overdue update.
I've found a micro usb cable and got the videos off the phone. We tried a 0-60 on video but it became obvious that my brother was more interested in spinning the wheels and laughing about it and its really hard to find a perfectly level bit of road here, but it looks like being somewhere between 5.5 and 6 seconds.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZeZcZZHifc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq5YiYwJQ5c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3ZPV6I4KA
On another note, I visited Maynards last night for a rolling road session. Martin (I think was his name) has masses of experience with ECU mapping and seemingly carbs too. I told him I was nervous, and he said we'd not hold the engine on massive load for long
Then we got to mapping the top end and it was seriously nerve racking, I felt like having a breakdown The floor was getting hot from the long manifolds below, the strong smell of hot paint was making my eyes water, the coolant temp was rising, but it held together, no a drop of oil or water below. I was so proud, he seemed pretty pleased with the result and went off to show his collegue the flat torque curve. I was pretty releaved by the end of it, and the power run seemed tame compared to the torture of earlier. Here are the results, ignore the low spike at the start, that was a gearchange.
There is lots of discussion about rolling road opporators adding a little for happy customers, I had considered asking about this, but I don't think he was really concerned, he described it as a tool for getting the fueling right, and made very little of the end result. You make up your mind about the result.
250ft/lb @ 4725rpm (as you can see)
262bhp @ not sure actually, forgot to ask
I'm really pleased with the improvment in drivability, power, the smoother delivery, and the noise. I think it was well worth it
I've found a micro usb cable and got the videos off the phone. We tried a 0-60 on video but it became obvious that my brother was more interested in spinning the wheels and laughing about it
and its really hard to find a perfectly level bit of road here, but it looks like being somewhere between 5.5 and 6 seconds. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZeZcZZHifc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq5YiYwJQ5c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba3ZPV6I4KA
On another note, I visited Maynards last night for a rolling road session. Martin (I think was his name) has masses of experience with ECU mapping and seemingly carbs too. I told him I was nervous, and he said we'd not hold the engine on massive load for long
Then we got to mapping the top end and it was seriously nerve racking, I felt like having a breakdown
The floor was getting hot from the long manifolds below, the strong smell of hot paint was making my eyes water, the coolant temp was rising, but it held together, no a drop of oil or water below. I was so proud, he seemed pretty pleased with the result and went off to show his collegue the flat torque curve. I was pretty releaved by the end of it, and the power run seemed tame compared to the torture of earlier. Here are the results, ignore the low spike at the start, that was a gearchange. 
There is lots of discussion about rolling road opporators adding a little for happy customers, I had considered asking about this, but I don't think he was really concerned, he described it as a tool for getting the fueling right, and made very little of the end result. You make up your mind about the result.
250ft/lb @ 4725rpm (as you can see)
262bhp @ not sure actually, forgot to ask
I'm really pleased with the improvment in drivability, power, the smoother delivery, and the noise. I think it was well worth it
Its been dark times for the Scimitar recently, it looks like turd!
I polished the car for eight hours a couple of months back and you can see the results a few pages back, it looked pretty good, but there were a few blemishes I wanted to sort. So the plan was to brush paint over a few chips in the paint and do the whole process again. The blobs of paint went on fine, then I sanded them flat, and this is where it all started going wrong!, I sanded through the paint in a number of places, but the Donnington historic was drawing near so I soldered on and polished it up anyway. But it didn't polish up like before, It wouldn't come up as nice as... tried lots of things.... long story short it looks awful at the moment. And this was the state it was in when I took it to the Donnington historic. While it was nice meeting a load of Scim enthusiasts, it was rather depressing having the only s**t looking scimitar there, it was in no way representative of all the money and effort that had gone into it.
I'm in a better frame of mind now and hoping I can get it shiny again, I've done it twice and its worked once, so I guess I've got a 50% chance right! If it still looks crappo after this attempt then I will be throwing in the towel and paying someone to make my car look nice.
Last night I masked up all the rough areas and sprayed them, I've got some paint left over from when I sprayed the car a few years back.
Tonight I shall pull the masking off and maybe tackle some other jobs then tomorrow start the polishing.
I've not left it quite as late this time, with the next show being PPC In The Park at Mallory Park on the 18th
More to come
I polished the car for eight hours a couple of months back and you can see the results a few pages back, it looked pretty good, but there were a few blemishes I wanted to sort. So the plan was to brush paint over a few chips in the paint and do the whole process again. The blobs of paint went on fine, then I sanded them flat, and this is where it all started going wrong!, I sanded through the paint in a number of places, but the Donnington historic was drawing near so I soldered on and polished it up anyway. But it didn't polish up like before, It wouldn't come up as nice as... tried lots of things.... long story short it looks awful at the moment. And this was the state it was in when I took it to the Donnington historic. While it was nice meeting a load of Scim enthusiasts, it was rather depressing having the only s**t looking scimitar there, it was in no way representative of all the money and effort that had gone into it.
I'm in a better frame of mind now and hoping I can get it shiny again, I've done it twice and its worked once, so I guess I've got a 50% chance right! If it still looks crappo after this attempt then I will be throwing in the towel and paying someone to make my car look nice.
Last night I masked up all the rough areas and sprayed them, I've got some paint left over from when I sprayed the car a few years back.
Tonight I shall pull the masking off and maybe tackle some other jobs then tomorrow start the polishing.
I've not left it quite as late this time, with the next show being PPC In The Park at Mallory Park on the 18th
More to come
Well it was well over 4 hours with the rotary polisher and G3 cutting paste. Its not that rewarding, but there is a flat surface under the crud. I did a cheeky half hour this morning and the wing tops are shiny again The photos not great, but you can see the difference between the bonnet and wing top. I'm very releaved, it could be a nice shiny car again
More to come
The photos not great, but you can see the difference between the bonnet and wing top. I'm very releaved, it could be a nice shiny car again 
More to come
Sorry Rodders, I've been guilty of something I hoped I wouldn't do, stop writing when the car got its MOT.
The latest attempt with the polishing mop was a great success, as was taking it to the PPC in the Park show, the car drew lots of attention and looked awesome, I'll put some pics up at some point.
I'm running what I brung at Santa Pod on the 1st june if you're in the area.
I've done a few miles in it and decided to put the PAS back on hence the following:
I've really enjoyed a productive evening I've messed about with the steering some more
I've put the pump back on and faffed around with bracketry until it started looking like this, just need to reattach the rack, and get the hoses made up to connect the pump and rack.
More to come
The latest attempt with the polishing mop was a great success, as was taking it to the PPC in the Park show, the car drew lots of attention and looked awesome, I'll put some pics up at some point.
I'm running what I brung at Santa Pod on the 1st june if you're in the area.
I've done a few miles in it and decided to put the PAS back on hence the following:
I've really enjoyed a productive evening
I've messed about with the steering some more I've put the pump back on and faffed around with bracketry until it started looking like this, just need to reattach the rack, and get the hoses made up to connect the pump and rack.
More to come
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