The Cobra Adventure
Discussion
Successful trip to the breakers. One thing of note is how few E46’s are left in breakers yards. There was only two and about 50 E90’s.
Anyway, found a 320i that looked like it lived under the sea, but it had all four carriers I needed.
Part way through a clean up:
Fitted after a lick of paint along with the new discs.
Anyway, found a 320i that looked like it lived under the sea, but it had all four carriers I needed.
Part way through a clean up:
Fitted after a lick of paint along with the new discs.
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 13:07
Great tyres. Run them on my GT40 also. Have 6500 miles on mine so far and are about half worn. Will likely replace them at the end of this year though as, although they have plenty of tread left and no sign of cracks, I bought them early in my build and they are now almost nine years old.
Timing.
Or control of timing.
Always the big weak point on old stuff. You either have set timing, vacuum advance (and hope it works) or a box like I have, MSD 6AL, which basically says, you aren’t idling anymore, here’s 20deg extra timing.
I was going to buy all the Holley Hyperspark gear to make my car have the ability to use the Holley Sniper ECU to control timing. All the gear is about another £600.
When someone said on a US forum, Holley own MSD, so all your current gear will work, just get a adjustable rotor for the distributer.
So £50 on eBay later, I have a new rotor coming. After that it’s literally, 4 wires to fit and my distributer to lock out and phase and I’ll be good to go.
Having some timing control will be great for totally nailing the idle stability along with being able to lean the cruise out even more for a bit better drivability.
Or control of timing.
Always the big weak point on old stuff. You either have set timing, vacuum advance (and hope it works) or a box like I have, MSD 6AL, which basically says, you aren’t idling anymore, here’s 20deg extra timing.
I was going to buy all the Holley Hyperspark gear to make my car have the ability to use the Holley Sniper ECU to control timing. All the gear is about another £600.
When someone said on a US forum, Holley own MSD, so all your current gear will work, just get a adjustable rotor for the distributer.
So £50 on eBay later, I have a new rotor coming. After that it’s literally, 4 wires to fit and my distributer to lock out and phase and I’ll be good to go.
Having some timing control will be great for totally nailing the idle stability along with being able to lean the cruise out even more for a bit better drivability.
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 13:09
Did a thing.
Took all the gear to advance the timing out of the distributer.
Locked it out, phased the timing to 45deg before tdc.
And bugger me it works, the ECU now controls my timing too! All for £50 and some wiring.
Timing table is taking some time though.
Took all the gear to advance the timing out of the distributer.
Locked it out, phased the timing to 45deg before tdc.
And bugger me it works, the ECU now controls my timing too! All for £50 and some wiring.
Timing table is taking some time though.
Edited by Waitey on Monday 19th June 13:11
mattdavies said:
Looking good, I am really enjoying this thread.
I find it interesting the modernisation of a classic without making it too obvious when you can.
Yes that is important to me. I find it interesting the modernisation of a classic without making it too obvious when you can.
It all still looks period. It just has modern parts (ECU, Brakes, tyres and steering/suspension) where you want them!
I've not updated this since all my Photo's died on the thread.
Well I moved house and made the garage into a nicer workshop with a mini lift.
Nice to have the whole gang in one place. The 275k mile Alpina, the Mrs' EQC, The Cobra and the Double write off Lotus. The Lotus is sold now, to pay for house things...
Had an overall just lovely summer using the car for fun car things
Well I moved house and made the garage into a nicer workshop with a mini lift.
Nice to have the whole gang in one place. The 275k mile Alpina, the Mrs' EQC, The Cobra and the Double write off Lotus. The Lotus is sold now, to pay for house things...
Had an overall just lovely summer using the car for fun car things
Then came the big job this winter. LHD to RHD. Along with sorting out my oil leak.
I'll be using a 'purple tag' BMW steering rack for the conversion. Which will allow me to have power steering too.
Old rack out and BMW in place on custom mounts
Oil filter instantly in the way!
With that removed the alternator wasn't in a clever place either
Resulting in terrible shaft angles. Alternator will be moved inward 50mm to clear this. Allowing for this shaft run. Which isn't ideal with the miss matched angles of the UJ's but its the best I'll get.
Pedal box mocked up
Astra PAS pump mocked up
Electric water pump test fitted
I got really lucky in the dash, there was already a mounting point for the RHD column
When meant I could get that all in place and working nicely.
I'll remake the dash once I'm all done.
I'll be using a 'purple tag' BMW steering rack for the conversion. Which will allow me to have power steering too.
Old rack out and BMW in place on custom mounts
Oil filter instantly in the way!
With that removed the alternator wasn't in a clever place either
Resulting in terrible shaft angles. Alternator will be moved inward 50mm to clear this. Allowing for this shaft run. Which isn't ideal with the miss matched angles of the UJ's but its the best I'll get.
Pedal box mocked up
Astra PAS pump mocked up
Electric water pump test fitted
I got really lucky in the dash, there was already a mounting point for the RHD column
When meant I could get that all in place and working nicely.
I'll remake the dash once I'm all done.
Speaking as someone who has an Astra PS pump, do what you can to soft mount it as it's a fairly noisy old thing.
In terms of wiring, and you may well already know all this, but apparently nobody has managed to blow a 70A fuse with one, although apparently 80A is recommended, personally I haven't blown the 70 yet.
Also, the 3 wires in the 'signal' connector, brown-white is for diagnostics so can be ignored, black is 12v ignition signal, and blue-white is off the alternator in an Astra. The reason being to save voltage for cranking, and then trigger the pump once the engine is running.
You can just join both of these together to 12v ignition on for simplicity, but it then starts up in 'safe' mode, where it slowly (very slowly...) climbs to operating pressure. The whole jetsons take off sequence is amusing the first few times, but soon becomes irritating. If you sequence the wires properly, it'll start and jump immediately to full operating pressure
In terms of wiring, and you may well already know all this, but apparently nobody has managed to blow a 70A fuse with one, although apparently 80A is recommended, personally I haven't blown the 70 yet.
Also, the 3 wires in the 'signal' connector, brown-white is for diagnostics so can be ignored, black is 12v ignition signal, and blue-white is off the alternator in an Astra. The reason being to save voltage for cranking, and then trigger the pump once the engine is running.
You can just join both of these together to 12v ignition on for simplicity, but it then starts up in 'safe' mode, where it slowly (very slowly...) climbs to operating pressure. The whole jetsons take off sequence is amusing the first few times, but soon becomes irritating. If you sequence the wires properly, it'll start and jump immediately to full operating pressure
Edited by SturdyHSV on Monday 13th February 16:01
Waitey said:
I have one of these to mount it, so it shouldn't be too loud. Not hat you'll be able to hear it....
Ahh nice, yeah hopefully that does the trick You'd be surprised how audible it is as it's not a pitch that the engine drowns out, and if the vibration gets to the chassis it's then a proper hum
Not sure why the embedded video doesn't work, but here's how long it takes to reach operating pressure and an indication of the comedy noise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEYN03FykbU
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