S.L.R race car build
Discussion
Had Friday off so I popped over to my mate at http://www.lightningmotorsport.co.uk/ to split my engine mounts, he specialises in these cars so had the wrench big enough for the nut! Then went back to visit http://www.geoffpageracing.com/ who let me have an hour in the bead blaster to clean off 120k miles worth of road dirt from various mounts that will be needed fairly soonish. Popped into http://www.fieldmotorsport.com/ to get the final few nuts and bolts to complete the fuel system install.
Cleaned, painted and heat wrapped the plastic bulkhead cover for the steering rack
Cleaned, painted and heat wrapped the plastic bulkhead cover for the steering rack
motorsportbeng said:
Cheers guys!
The swirl pot is only a little one litre thing, it looks dodgy in the pictures but it does sit above the floor of the main passenger section of the car and above the bottom of the rear beam
Still looks a little exposed to me, scrutineers (if they ever venture under the car, unlikely but not unheard of) might be a bit concerned - so would I considering what's in there....The swirl pot is only a little one litre thing, it looks dodgy in the pictures but it does sit above the floor of the main passenger section of the car and above the bottom of the rear beam
Thought about a flat floor to cover it and also aid air flow underneath, not difficult to do with ali sheet and some fabricated brackets?
Nice project though, good attention to detail, looking forward to the engine stuff.
Yeh I know what you mean from the photos but I'm confident with it for the moment at least. When I'm near completion I plan to take advantage of a local scrutineer's generosity and get their opinion on the car as a whole and the swirl pot location before I turn up to a meeting. I'm confident that there's more than enough clearance for it.
To be honest If I was going to go to the trouble of making an ali sheet compartment for it I would just take the sacrifice of moving a couple of kilos up half a meter and mount it in the boot of the car for ease of access.
To be honest If I was going to go to the trouble of making an ali sheet compartment for it I would just take the sacrifice of moving a couple of kilos up half a meter and mount it in the boot of the car for ease of access.
motorsportbeng said:
Yeh I know what you mean from the photos but I'm confident with it for the moment at least. When I'm near completion I plan to take advantage of a local scrutineer's generosity and get their opinion on the car as a whole and the swirl pot location before I turn up to a meeting. I'm confident that there's more than enough clearance for it.
To be honest If I was going to go to the trouble of making an ali sheet compartment for it I would just take the sacrifice of moving a couple of kilos up half a meter and mount it in the boot of the car for ease of access.
Good idea getting a scrutineer to look at it, in my experience it's good to get their input before 8.30am on race day...To be honest If I was going to go to the trouble of making an ali sheet compartment for it I would just take the sacrifice of moving a couple of kilos up half a meter and mount it in the boot of the car for ease of access.
With regard to clearance, it's not so much clearance on a smooth track, but if you took a trip into the gravel and bogged down could it be ripped off, could debris be kicked up by the wheels etc.
Difficult to tell from pictures though, so I won't labour the point
I was thinking more of flat-flooring the whole underside of the car, giving aero benefit and enclosing the swirl pot at a secondary benefit.
I see what you're saying and a flat floor as you suggest would be a good solution should it be flagged up as a problem. It's no more exposed than the standard fuel tank that's on there that a lot race with and I'm sure the swirl pot is probably stronger than the tank so I'm confident it should be fine.
Picked up my coilover's from www.GazShocks.com after they took an interest and kindly helped me out nicely on a set of their Gaz Gold kits. Pictures to follow when I upload them to photobucket or alternatively check them out (and like!) my website. www.facebook.com/studentloanracing
Picked up my coilover's from www.GazShocks.com after they took an interest and kindly helped me out nicely on a set of their Gaz Gold kits. Pictures to follow when I upload them to photobucket or alternatively check them out (and like!) my website. www.facebook.com/studentloanracing
Haven't updated this in a while. Gaz shocks have kindly taken a bit of interest in my project and I got a nice discount on their gold kit. I fitted them to the car with the previously re-furbed hubs/hub carriers using new bolts and standard top mounts for now. I just need to get new pinch bolts for the front hub carrier and make some anti-roll bar drop links.
I started stripping 2 of the 3 engines I have, one of them was the one i built 2 years ago that never ran and sat around uncovered in my garage. I decided the gulf colour scheme I originally went for didn't quite work so started removing that. I won't be using the phase 1 head due to wanting to run lairy cams and the biscuit shims have been known to flick out I believe. noticed a significant design and 3kg in weight difference between the phase 1 and phase 2 cranks so that's what I will be running!
had a bit of progress with this on the engine side of things thanks to FMS letting me go back and use their facilities. First though popped down to GPR to use their bead blaster to prep some bits. pics speak for themselves.
Then started prepping bits down at FMS. De-coked the valves and cleaned the cylinder head enough that I could lap in the standard valves, managed to get a good seat in the end, exhaust's were proving tricky. De-burred the various water jacket and oil ways in the head face and paralleled off the head face and all the other mating surfaces. Then a bit of elbow grease and a few stages of cleaning got it to the stage it was ready to build back up. I ordered the Burton head gasket set but unfortunately one of the stem seals was damaged when I opened it. Using the standard valve springs that came out of my dad's caterham when he got their engine upgrade as the springs have done less work than the springs that were in the engine.
lapped the cams to the pulleys, important because there aren't any locating dowels or key ways.
standard rods and pistons have been cleaned up, same with the oil pump and various other components.
The engine block was prepped in the same fashion as the head with the de-burring and paralleling of mating faces. It was also given a light ball hone just to break up the glazing in the bores.
I then painted the block with the same sparkling graphite as the car mainly so it looks good but also to stop surface corrosion.
I then got some nice and shiny lightweight bolts for the low load fasteners such as cam cover and breather box.
My carbon sheet turned up so hopefully this weekend I can make a few of the carbon HT lead covers I designed
Then started prepping bits down at FMS. De-coked the valves and cleaned the cylinder head enough that I could lap in the standard valves, managed to get a good seat in the end, exhaust's were proving tricky. De-burred the various water jacket and oil ways in the head face and paralleled off the head face and all the other mating surfaces. Then a bit of elbow grease and a few stages of cleaning got it to the stage it was ready to build back up. I ordered the Burton head gasket set but unfortunately one of the stem seals was damaged when I opened it. Using the standard valve springs that came out of my dad's caterham when he got their engine upgrade as the springs have done less work than the springs that were in the engine.
lapped the cams to the pulleys, important because there aren't any locating dowels or key ways.
standard rods and pistons have been cleaned up, same with the oil pump and various other components.
The engine block was prepped in the same fashion as the head with the de-burring and paralleling of mating faces. It was also given a light ball hone just to break up the glazing in the bores.
I then painted the block with the same sparkling graphite as the car mainly so it looks good but also to stop surface corrosion.
I then got some nice and shiny lightweight bolts for the low load fasteners such as cam cover and breather box.
My carbon sheet turned up so hopefully this weekend I can make a few of the carbon HT lead covers I designed
Very impressed with the work on this build! I also did Motorsport engineering at Uni and this reminds me of a build a guy in the year above did with a 205 gti, albeit that was for sprinting, but off the back of that project, he has gotten a job with Penske Racing.
Look forward to seeing it finished
Look forward to seeing it finished
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