Project Scimitar MV6

Project Scimitar MV6

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Discussion

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Friday 10th January 2014
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I finished off the "fish mouth" joints last night and got it all welded up, just waiting for the paint to arrive then I'll paint and put it back in. I did a fair bit of tack welding in situ and then took my time to do little sections at a time, but I'm still dreading putting it back in, I bed its all warped to hell. Watch this space.





More to come.

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Friday 10th January 2014
quotequote all
Its all painted now, stone chip is great for this sort of thing, its really tough and leaves a functional looking finish.


I was very surprised when it went back in without any drama, I could even get all the bolts in by hand smile no ratchet straps needed.

More to co

ivanhoew

974 posts

240 months

Monday 13th January 2014
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really interesting thread , thank you .about to map a megasqirt lpg too.

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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Thanks Ivanhoew, good luck with the Mapping.

I've had a little look but can't seem to find a thread for your car???

ivanhoew

974 posts

240 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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lozzzzzz said:
Thanks Ivanhoew, good luck with the Mapping.

I've had a little look but can't seem to find a thread for your car???
there isn't one lozz, its just my run around ,a 95 astra estate with a 1.4 8 valve in place of the ecotec 16v 1.6 ,then turbocharged and lpg .

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&...


bit of threadage there .

regards
robert

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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An interesting move to a lower capacity, is this an economy project?

I'm going ot have a go at something economical in the near future.

ivanhoew

974 posts

240 months

Tuesday 14th January 2014
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yes economy with more torque ,and 100 quid less rd tax. I had all the bits .

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Friday 24th January 2014
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Nice Project! I'm planning an economy machine soon too, it will will much more boring that yours though frown



Had the evening on the car last night but didn't actually get that much done (spent most of it on the phone).

I thought this might be of interest to some folk.

You know how you spend lots of money on adjustable suspension. Its normally good quality stuff but hasn't had much attention in the corrosion prevention department. After just a few years of reasonably regular use you can kiss the threads goodbye and the adjusters might even be seized too.

I've got a plan.

I've bought some "layflat" plastic tubing that you might imagine a curtain rail to be wrapped in, except this is the thickest I can find. Its 0.25mm thick, similar to the that blue sheet you lay down in building foundations.

First I cleaned the units up, and copper greased the threads,


Then I put lots of sealer round the neck


Then cut an appropriate length of layflat (I had to buy 82m of the stuff frown )


And cable tie it tight around the top ensuring the sealer goes into all the creases in the plastic


The length is about as long as the unit, so will be longer than necessary when the suspension compresses. It sits loosely around the bottom end and should stop the majority of road muck from getting to the damper spring assembly smile


Refit and repeat


I only got three done, but I'll be done tonight and will be able to drive the car in all weather and not sorry about ruining my expensive new GAZ dampers smile

More to come

ivanhoew

974 posts

240 months

Friday 24th January 2014
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lateraltastic thinking loz.

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Monday 17th February 2014
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There has been steady progress made over the last few weeks.

I look the wheels back for re-balancing as there is a vibration at high speed, £20 later there was no difference frown

The track is 3.8 miles long and should suit the car quiet well, but there will be lots of time spent above 80mph, so this vibration will inevitably damage something. So I took the propshaft off and asked the chap who mate it to check the balance for me. It's hard not to sound rude asking someone to re-check their work, but I'm glad I did. He found that the prop was slightly bent!!!!!

I can't recommend Proptech near Kidderminster enough, they're excellent! Derek (of proptech) made the prop up near enough from scratch for under £150 (I think it might have been £120?). This time he checked it, straightened it, re-balanced it, and repainted it for...... free!
(he didn't repaint the damage so I could see where it was under the car)

I'd like to think I'm reasonably thorough with this sort of thing, but it turns out the oversize propshaft was hitting the extended handbrake bracket with the suspension is fully compressed. frown

So I chopped it about a bit and as the photos show it now clears the handbrake bracket all the way through the suspension travel. smile

Tested the car and no vibration, its super smooth all the way up to a high speeds.




I slapped some paint on it then to see if there are any witness marks later on.

I also said goodbye to the second omega around Christmas time. I think the 3.2 engine, stronger gearbox and shed load of other spares ended up costing between £200 and £300 after selling and scrapping the remainder of the car smile must'n grumble!


I'm very excited and very worried about the trackday which is less than a week away. It's so much harder on the car than anything it's done so far. I've got a list of things that could go wrong in my head.

There are fewer people coming now than I thought, but its probably a good thing as Bedford isn't that great for onlookers really.

All the bucket seats and harnesses are now in. I've just got to change the diff oil once again and clean the car and it should be ready. smilefrownsmilefrownsmile

More to come

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Monday 24th February 2014
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Well then, a much needed update folks.

The trackday at Bedford went really really well, in fact I can't believe how well it went. It got me there with no hassle, did a full track and got me 2 and a half hours home too.

It managed 118mph but we subsequently limited ourselves to 110mph as there was a fair bit of vibration near 120mph.
It burnt its way through £125 of fuel on the track alone
It covered 250 miles on track alone
And I'm confident in saying it was the single most used car of the day.

My two brothers and I drove the car, it came into the pits, was left running while we swapped drivers and went out again, non stop until lunch then again afterwards with a fairly early finish at 4 ish.

The engine behaved perfectly, the cooling system is up to the job, the brakes didn't overheat or fade or boil.
The handling was awesome, this was a worry of mine as I've done all the calculations but never pushed it. It was so predictable, full of feedback, and really well balanced, I'm over the moon with the handling.

And it performed really well, there were some serious cars there and I think the Scim and the three drivers were about a third of the way up the field, with plenty of vx220s, lotus', a GTR lots of BMWs etc being pretty dam fast. The Scim showed up lots of hot hatches, the odd elise, a 944, an E36 M3 (although I'm sure that's more about the driver). Suffice to say I'm really really pleased with how it went.

There were a few points to work on. The rebalanced propshaft has meant that the vibration at 80mph has gone, but there is still a vibration at 120mph (this will be a little harder to sort out on the road).

The front discs have cracked too. I'll go on about this a bit more in another post, but I won't be buying cheap drilled discs again. And that's about it really! smile


Anyway enough of that. Here are a few snaps of the car on track, firstly my younger brother pushing on just a little too much smile








Next the car is off the road for a couple of months until funds allow. In the mean time, an inspection of the important bits, new discs all round, road seats back in, and try to locate the vibration problem.

More to come

E36GUY

5,906 posts

217 months

Thursday 13th March 2014
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lozzzzzz said:
Anyway enough of that. Here are a few snaps of the car on track, firstly my younger brother pushing on just about enough.

EFA

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Friday 14th March 2014
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Fair enough smile

Devon Dubber

19 posts

147 months

Friday 14th March 2014
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Hi Bro'.
Had a wicked day. Was MASSIVELY enjoyable and the car was simply awesome!
Well done for your amazing result it is highly impressive.
Looking forward to the next one hopefully with my own car as well next time!


lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Monday 17th March 2014
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Fancy seeing you here smile

Glad you enjoyed it, bring on the next one (when I get the propshaft back and some new discs smile )

itsrodders

212 posts

184 months

Sunday 20th April 2014
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Keep the updates coming, Loz!

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Sunday 27th April 2014
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There is very little to say at the moment. I've changed the cracked front discs and messed about with a couple of little niggles. The road seats are back in. But I'm trying to save a bit of money at the mo so the car is still off the road. I still haven't got round the 110-120mph vibration problem, but can test for it with the wheels off and the car on axle stands. I think the rear bearing in the gearbox might be to blame, I've had the prop checked and its fine.

The Scim will return to the road, most likely in a months time. The 3.2l engine is waiting on the engine stand and will be tweaked and supercharged in the winter. Then with a few more minor things to see to on the "to-do" list the Scim will be finished.

The next car project should be in full swing in the next year hopefully.

I'm spending my time making up a biodiesel processor at the moment. Would anyone like me to post pics of the progress?

lozzzzzz

Original Poster:

339 posts

156 months

Monday 11th August 2014
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I've been busy making a bio-diesel processor.




And making my first batch, bio @ 29p/l smile The next one should come out to be more like 25p/l

So it was an absolute pleasure to work on the scimitar again after so long. I have finally got round the high speed vibration problem, a major milestone as this has been a pain in the a*se as long as the car has been on the road (or track). It will now do a very high speed free from vibration.

The fix was as simple as raising the gearbox, and therefore changing the angle of the gearbox flange a little to match the axle. I had previously ruled this out but hadn't make accurate enough measurements.


Of course the exhausts then knocked on the bottom of the car so the next little job was to adjust the angle of the manifolds. Here is a pic of how they have fared after 6000 miles.


Now those with any kind of memory will know that my Scimitar isn't a diesel and neither is the LPG BMW, so I have no car to burn this new bio-diesel.

So here is my next (and very controversial) project. An MR2 TDI, with a VAG AFN engine and a few choice modifications for about 140 - 150hp
This is it just back from the garage where I had the bodywork sorted (I'm not good with rust). I'm still in the process of finding the AFN engine, I've been looking to buy a Sharan, Alhambra or Galaxy. This is of course a source of much p*ss taking from my brothers.


In the meantime I'm wrestling to contain all 56hp of a pug 106 diesel frownfrown fun times.

More to come

ivanhoew

974 posts

240 months

Monday 11th August 2014
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nice project lozz.

PATTERNPART

693 posts

200 months

Tuesday 19th August 2014
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I saw the Scimitar at Curborough last weekend and very good it looks too. Unfortunately I wasnt able to stick around for long enough to see it on track. Good luck with the new project and job.