Very slow rebuild
Discussion
Oh dear, I just noticed the date I started this thread, it was meant to be the Cerb almost back on the road update, I’ve almost missed another summer
It was ready in March but one very short test drive resulted in a stuck valve, I don’t want to go into it all here but suffice to say with a full set of new valves & a few other bits it’s finally passed the MOT, first time too
I spent ages trying to persuade the tester that Cerbs fall into a different category for emissions but he wasn’t having it as it was it, luckily it passed on the normal car values so the engine must be running well now!
It had to sit like this for a month or two as the heads went away again & I fixed all the things in the house that had been neglected in the push to get it finished, they need doing as our house was going on the market.
With an offer secured on our house I could get on with the Cerb again. So I rebuilt the top of the engine again & dropped it back in. Then fitted some extra heat shielding over the gearbox mounts:
There was a little left over to try to keep the new battery cool too:
This little chap was a three month old baby who fell asleep when I took him out last time it was on the road, he was being properly helpful here holding the fuel tank bolts in for me as I put the nuts on:
He keeps asking how fast it is so I told him it’s one of the fastest car in the world, which isn’t too far from the truth. He can’t wait to be taken to Nursery in it now!
Engine back in for the second time & seeming to actually work this time:
I’m trying to keep the revs down but it feels much faster than I remember, only going up to 4k it’s faster than my 300bhp 200SX that weighs much the same. It’s lovely to have that V8 grunt back I was getting tired of turbo lag!
I’ve changed my brake cooling ducts a bit. I made the front ducts years ago:
The pipe did feed directly to the back of the disc:
But in the winter that just sprays salt directly onto the disc & as you can see they haven’t fared too well (I’ve not quite decided what to do about the front discs yet but the work very well as they are).
So to be able to shut off the air supply in the winter I fitted some direction vents like there are inside the car that can be shut when needed.
The pipe direct to disc is better for the track but it’s going to be more of a GT car now making use of both back seats for the kids.
It just needs a new immobiliser fitting tomorrow then I can fit the rest of the interior & take some outside pics, not that the outside has changed at all from when I started
The MOT man didn’t say a word about how it looked underneath, you have to wonder if it all worth it.
That is till driving it again then you know it was
It was ready in March but one very short test drive resulted in a stuck valve, I don’t want to go into it all here but suffice to say with a full set of new valves & a few other bits it’s finally passed the MOT, first time too
I spent ages trying to persuade the tester that Cerbs fall into a different category for emissions but he wasn’t having it as it was it, luckily it passed on the normal car values so the engine must be running well now!
It had to sit like this for a month or two as the heads went away again & I fixed all the things in the house that had been neglected in the push to get it finished, they need doing as our house was going on the market.
With an offer secured on our house I could get on with the Cerb again. So I rebuilt the top of the engine again & dropped it back in. Then fitted some extra heat shielding over the gearbox mounts:
There was a little left over to try to keep the new battery cool too:
This little chap was a three month old baby who fell asleep when I took him out last time it was on the road, he was being properly helpful here holding the fuel tank bolts in for me as I put the nuts on:
He keeps asking how fast it is so I told him it’s one of the fastest car in the world, which isn’t too far from the truth. He can’t wait to be taken to Nursery in it now!
Engine back in for the second time & seeming to actually work this time:
I’m trying to keep the revs down but it feels much faster than I remember, only going up to 4k it’s faster than my 300bhp 200SX that weighs much the same. It’s lovely to have that V8 grunt back I was getting tired of turbo lag!
I’ve changed my brake cooling ducts a bit. I made the front ducts years ago:
The pipe did feed directly to the back of the disc:
But in the winter that just sprays salt directly onto the disc & as you can see they haven’t fared too well (I’ve not quite decided what to do about the front discs yet but the work very well as they are).
So to be able to shut off the air supply in the winter I fitted some direction vents like there are inside the car that can be shut when needed.
The pipe direct to disc is better for the track but it’s going to be more of a GT car now making use of both back seats for the kids.
It just needs a new immobiliser fitting tomorrow then I can fit the rest of the interior & take some outside pics, not that the outside has changed at all from when I started
The MOT man didn’t say a word about how it looked underneath, you have to wonder if it all worth it.
That is till driving it again then you know it was
The shims you had on the disgustingly dirty lathe you were using earlier are probably case hardened rather than fully hardened. Therefore the hardening is only very shallow, and it you take a lot off you caan easily remove most of the hardening. I bought case hardening powder a few years ago but it was so useless that i when back to heating and quenching.
When I rubbed mine down last year they thinned so quickly on the emery paper that I decided to harden them the old fashioned way. Also did it with a spare shim to test it. It certainly made a differnece to how long it took to emery it down!
When I rubbed mine down last year they thinned so quickly on the emery paper that I decided to harden them the old fashioned way. Also did it with a spare shim to test it. It certainly made a differnece to how long it took to emery it down!
julian64 said:
The shims you had on the disgustingly dirty lathe you were using earlier are probably case hardened rather than fully hardened. Therefore the hardening is only very shallow, and it you take a lot off you caan easily remove most of the hardening. I bought case hardening powder a few years ago but it was so useless that i when back to heating and quenching.
When I rubbed mine down last year they thinned so quickly on the emery paper that I decided to harden them the old fashioned way. Also did it with a spare shim to test it. It certainly made a differnece to how long it took to emery it down!
Yes it is a bit grubby, its in the dirty bit of the garage, not the engine build room (or utility room as my other half keep telling me it was supposed to be). When I rubbed mine down last year they thinned so quickly on the emery paper that I decided to harden them the old fashioned way. Also did it with a spare shim to test it. It certainly made a differnece to how long it took to emery it down!
That's interesting about the shims, everyone else says they are fully hardened. There are probably a few different types about now though, that first batch I got were proper rubbish, the last lot I got were from Racing Green & were perfect in every way.
The engine failure was confirmed to be valve material vers guide material miss match, nothing to do with the shims in the end.
Luckyone, I'm having a similar problem with the cold fan's lack of enthusiasm in my Cerb. Could you tell me where you connected your blower fan to? As far as I can work out the green ignition wire and black/white cold speed wire on the cold box connector (J13) control the fan speed, with the voltage on the cold speed wire reducing as fan speed increases. Is that right?
CerbWill said:
Luckyone, I'm having a similar problem with the cold fan's lack of enthusiasm in my Cerb. Could you tell me where you connected your blower fan to? As far as I can work out the green ignition wire and black/white cold speed wire on the cold box connector (J13) control the fan speed, with the voltage on the cold speed wire reducing as fan speed increases. Is that right?
I was going to look into makIng the extra blower variable speed, but when testing it I found it about doubles the orgnal fan output. So you still have the variable speed of the orginal fan up to its max then with that off & the new one on you have the same air output as the original on max, that then leaves you the full range of the orginal on top of the new one. Even without the A/C gassed (next job on the list) both fans on max were keeping me cool the other day when it was still sunny driving in slow traffic. Of course I had both windows open to apreciate the exhaust note at higher speeds 
CerbWill said:
Thanks for the info Luckyone. If you didn't connect the blower fan to the wiring controlling the standard cold fan, where did you connect the blower fan up to, and how did you switch it on and off?
I just tapped into the feed to the cigarette lighter & used one of these switches. How ever I see they have these possibly nicer ones now. The one I got fitted nicely into the hole where the immobiliser black key used to push in (since I've got a different alarm now) it's a similar size & would sit next to that in a new hole & look fine assuming you still have the original alarm. The only slight problem I found was that the cigarette lighter is permanently live so the extra fan stays on when you turn the ignition off, but it's not like you can miss the noise it makes & leave it on by mistake!
Much like Baldrick, I have a cunning plan. I think a 12v PWM motor controller would do the job. There's a few of these controllers on eBay going cheap, and they're controlled by a potentiometer. I think, if the earth wire coming off the pot was replaced with the Cold Fan Speed Wire from the Heater Control Unit, and the pot then set for maximum output, the output of the controller , and fan speed, would rise as the voltage dropped on the Cold Fan Speed Line, just as it does with the standard set-up. Assuming that bit works its a matter of finding a suitable power source for the controller & fans, possibly the cigarette lighter as you used but the standard power source, the green wire on connector J13 might well work as the fuse is rated for 25A, and somewhere under the dash to hide the controller.
Edited by CerbWill on Saturday 16th August 11:36
CerbWill said:
Much like Baldrick, I have a cunning plan. I think a 12v PWM motor controller would do the job. There's a few of these controllers on eBay going cheap, and they're controlled by a potentiometer. I think, if the earth wire coming off the pot was replaced with the Cold Fan Speed Wire from the Heater Control Unit, and the pot then set for maximum output, the output of the controller , and fan speed, would rise as the voltage dropped on the Cold Fan Speed Line, just as it does with the standard set-up. Assuming that bit works its a matter of finding a suitable power source for the controller & fans, possibly the cigarette lighter as you used but the standard power source, the green wire on connector J13 might well work as the fuse is rated for 25A, and somewhere under the dash to hide the controller.
As cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.Let me know how you get on with it as that fan on full is rather noisy, even with decats to drown out! If it was running a little slower it would still help & may be quite a bit quieter.
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