Spotted: Yellow Ultima A6 Duffield, Thursday
Discussion
tuxman said:
i have only ever seen 3 can-ams and they have been yellow ,would be great to see a black one but there seems to be a general lack of can-ams must be the british weather
I am leaning towards the can am and black is my preferred colour. So I've just spent 15 minutes on this:
Apologies for my limited Photoshop "skills"...
Edited by andynormancx on Monday 4th September 23:28
To answer the question of who was the yellow ultima A6 Duffield. It was me on the way to the best engine man in the business, who happens to be in Duffield, to refresh the engine. Check the carb,ignition,timing & sort the duff starter etc. Picked the yellow peril up today. Turns out that I was only getting 3/4 throttle and as the man said its the cheapest gain of 100bhp I will ever have. Together with other tweeks I have a much smoother motor that now goes a lot better!! As for the colour - its growing on me.
Next move is to fit an uprated alternator, to replace the American Speed effort, that will cope with the full load of all the electrics; specifically the air con and the cooling fans. I will keep you posted.
Finally a proper tried and tested handling guru who I have trusted with other cars eg Elise & Cobra, will give the car his once over to set it up for fast road and track use before going to the Nurburgring at the end of the month. Will the car need a major fix to stop it dodging around or will it be a case of a proper set up? I will let you know.
Next move is to fit an uprated alternator, to replace the American Speed effort, that will cope with the full load of all the electrics; specifically the air con and the cooling fans. I will keep you posted.
Finally a proper tried and tested handling guru who I have trusted with other cars eg Elise & Cobra, will give the car his once over to set it up for fast road and track use before going to the Nurburgring at the end of the month. Will the car need a major fix to stop it dodging around or will it be a case of a proper set up? I will let you know.
PeterSpeed said:
To answer the question of who was the yellow ultima A6 Duffield. It was me on the way to the best engine man in the business, who happens to be in Duffield, to refresh the engine. Check the carb,ignition,timing & sort the duff starter etc. Picked the yellow peril up today. Turns out that I was only getting 3/4 throttle and as the man said its the cheapest gain of 100bhp I will ever have. Together with other tweeks I have a much smoother motor that now goes a lot better!! As for the colour - its growing on me.
Next move is to fit an uprated alternator, to replace the American Speed effort, that will cope with the full load of all the electrics; specifically the air con and the cooling fans. I will keep you posted.
Finally a proper tried and tested handling guru who I have trusted with other cars eg Elise & Cobra, will give the car his once over to set it up for fast road and track use before going to the Nurburgring at the end of the month. Will the car need a major fix to stop it dodging around or will it be a case of a proper set up? I will let you know.
Next move is to fit an uprated alternator, to replace the American Speed effort, that will cope with the full load of all the electrics; specifically the air con and the cooling fans. I will keep you posted.
Finally a proper tried and tested handling guru who I have trusted with other cars eg Elise & Cobra, will give the car his once over to set it up for fast road and track use before going to the Nurburgring at the end of the month. Will the car need a major fix to stop it dodging around or will it be a case of a proper set up? I will let you know.
Welcome Peter. You've kept yourself very quite.
The 'dodging around' you mention is most likely bump steer as a few owners have recently dialed this out. The work is easy enough to do just time consuming but your man should have all the kit to hand.
Keep us posted as to what he finds in case there are some easy wins in there for the rest of us.
Steve
andynormancx said:
Yeah, I was worried that my desire for a can-am and a black Ultima were going to clash. After that bit of Photoshoping though, I think it works.
I already have one black convertible, two can't hurt
I already have one black convertible, two can't hurt
Looks brill in black - just loose the periscope mirrors and get some tasty Porsche GT1 style affairs and your there!!
It was quite a shock to realise that there are Ultima spotters out there and to see that I had been rumbled. OK Micky g you are probably in the position that I was in over a year ago. I had followed the web sites on Ultimas, visited on an open day last year and had a very impressive demonstration by Ted Marlow in August last year. So I wanted one and I wanted to build it. After following the few build web sites I realised that a build was a bit heavy for me in time and probably ability! Next best buy one that has been built with some TLC. So a 2003 with 2000 miles and 6.3L 480bhp seemed to fit the bill. I used to sprint a Ginetta G16 with and Oldsmobile in the back but that was back when and I had forgotten how much hard work they can be on the road. At that time my 635csi was such an easy tool in comparison. So I hated the Ultima for a while but now I am addressing the cause of my concerns I am moving to a comfort zone.
Interestingly the nice guy I bought the Ultima from said that when he came back from a run he always took off the distributor cap. If he didn't it suffered from condensation and consequent tracking etc. Strange I thought considering the position of the dizzy; very hot after a dry run so where is the moisture coming from. Needless to say I did not heed the warning and low and behold a verdigre dizzy and backfiring etc. But the engine man said did you know there is a hard rubber blanking piece in the side of the dizzy cap - no says I; so remove it says he and allow the dizzy to breave - job done. Hopefully no more condensation problems. Does this ring a bell with you guys out there?
My starter, a Porsche Hella, failed and needed a rebuild due to the kickback of the engine on starting especially when starting when hot says my man. He altered the static timing by rebuilding the dizzy to try and spare the starter. The solution may be a dedicated geared starter that we are looking into. Any comments out there.
On the road I was getting oil starvation round right hand bends so despite a baffled sump there is a need for the Accusump that has now been fitted. Problem solved. Interestingly the electric solenoid has not been used so the Acusump only fills up on fire up in readiness for action so there is no injection of oil on fire up to prelube the engine. I have always warmed up my engines by sympathetic driving for a few miles until there is a decent temp. reading so I thought it strange that an engine man with considerable experience of all types of V8's let alone Jags and Coventry Climax engines says that modern oils have the fire up lube covered but a lot of damage is done by petrol wash in the bores. This brings me to another point. This particular engine seems to use a lot of oil, apparently acceptable for this engine especially that it probably has JE pistons that are quite generous in their bore clearances creating blow-by and black oil within 1000 miles or so. A bit disconcerting but the upside is that the engines should stand a good hammering around a circuit for hours on end. So the oil needs changing every 2000miles; the price we pay for performance - your comments please?
My friend Rhoddy Harvey Bailey is arriving from Devon tomorrow to appraise the set-up of the car so watch this space for further comments.
The Ultima is due at the electricians on Monday for an appraisal of the electrical system to see if improvements are needed and/or identify any problems so I will keep you posted.
The bottom line here is that there is work to do after a good build to really get the car to as good as position for the use that we individuals feel confident with. I am on that learning curve and will relish any comments from you guys who have laboured through a similar scenario!
Interestingly the nice guy I bought the Ultima from said that when he came back from a run he always took off the distributor cap. If he didn't it suffered from condensation and consequent tracking etc. Strange I thought considering the position of the dizzy; very hot after a dry run so where is the moisture coming from. Needless to say I did not heed the warning and low and behold a verdigre dizzy and backfiring etc. But the engine man said did you know there is a hard rubber blanking piece in the side of the dizzy cap - no says I; so remove it says he and allow the dizzy to breave - job done. Hopefully no more condensation problems. Does this ring a bell with you guys out there?
My starter, a Porsche Hella, failed and needed a rebuild due to the kickback of the engine on starting especially when starting when hot says my man. He altered the static timing by rebuilding the dizzy to try and spare the starter. The solution may be a dedicated geared starter that we are looking into. Any comments out there.
On the road I was getting oil starvation round right hand bends so despite a baffled sump there is a need for the Accusump that has now been fitted. Problem solved. Interestingly the electric solenoid has not been used so the Acusump only fills up on fire up in readiness for action so there is no injection of oil on fire up to prelube the engine. I have always warmed up my engines by sympathetic driving for a few miles until there is a decent temp. reading so I thought it strange that an engine man with considerable experience of all types of V8's let alone Jags and Coventry Climax engines says that modern oils have the fire up lube covered but a lot of damage is done by petrol wash in the bores. This brings me to another point. This particular engine seems to use a lot of oil, apparently acceptable for this engine especially that it probably has JE pistons that are quite generous in their bore clearances creating blow-by and black oil within 1000 miles or so. A bit disconcerting but the upside is that the engines should stand a good hammering around a circuit for hours on end. So the oil needs changing every 2000miles; the price we pay for performance - your comments please?
My friend Rhoddy Harvey Bailey is arriving from Devon tomorrow to appraise the set-up of the car so watch this space for further comments.
The Ultima is due at the electricians on Monday for an appraisal of the electrical system to see if improvements are needed and/or identify any problems so I will keep you posted.
The bottom line here is that there is work to do after a good build to really get the car to as good as position for the use that we individuals feel confident with. I am on that learning curve and will relish any comments from you guys who have laboured through a similar scenario!
Only messing wit ya Peter, hello and welcome. It would seem that many of the points you have mentioned seem to be regularly experienced problems and to that end, you should be able to find some useful info amongst the archives (takes a while to trawl through them but worth it if you are able to glean some handy tips). The only tip I am qualified to pass on to you is paint it BLACK!
Peter
Am I reading you correctly that the Accusump is open all the time?
If so then my concern would be that on startup not only do you not have a pre-oil you will also get very low flow and pressure into the bearings as the easiest, low pressure, route for the oil will be to fill the Accusump. Only when it is full will pressure build in the bearings. Secondly, when do you dip your oil? If you do it when the engine is off and set it at the normal level then when running you will have 6 pints less oil in the engine than you should.
Never heard of the condensation problem.
Steve
Am I reading you correctly that the Accusump is open all the time?
If so then my concern would be that on startup not only do you not have a pre-oil you will also get very low flow and pressure into the bearings as the easiest, low pressure, route for the oil will be to fill the Accusump. Only when it is full will pressure build in the bearings. Secondly, when do you dip your oil? If you do it when the engine is off and set it at the normal level then when running you will have 6 pints less oil in the engine than you should.
Never heard of the condensation problem.
Steve
Steve d
Thanks for your response & concern.
The use of the basic Acusump, as here, is the basic option with an Acusump. I understand your concern and will raise it with Dave whitehurst, the engine man. Because it is a basic use allowed by the Acusump company then I dont imagine that they have concerns about the filling of the Acusump on fire up and the possible lack of oil to circulate around the engine.
In the static position the Acusump is empty as you said so the dip stick has been calibrated to allow for the extra oil.
Peter
Thanks for your response & concern.
The use of the basic Acusump, as here, is the basic option with an Acusump. I understand your concern and will raise it with Dave whitehurst, the engine man. Because it is a basic use allowed by the Acusump company then I dont imagine that they have concerns about the filling of the Acusump on fire up and the possible lack of oil to circulate around the engine.
In the static position the Acusump is empty as you said so the dip stick has been calibrated to allow for the extra oil.
Peter
peterspeed said:
Steve d
Thanks for your response & concern.
The use of the basic Acusump, as here, is the basic option with an Acusump. I understand your concern and will raise it with Dave whitehurst, the engine man. Because it is a basic use allowed by the Acusump company then I dont imagine that they have concerns about the filling of the Acusump on fire up and the possible lack of oil to circulate around the engine.
In the static position the Acusump is empty as you said so the dip stick has been calibrated to allow for the extra oil.
Peter
Thanks for your response & concern.
The use of the basic Acusump, as here, is the basic option with an Acusump. I understand your concern and will raise it with Dave whitehurst, the engine man. Because it is a basic use allowed by the Acusump company then I dont imagine that they have concerns about the filling of the Acusump on fire up and the possible lack of oil to circulate around the engine.
In the static position the Acusump is empty as you said so the dip stick has been calibrated to allow for the extra oil.
Peter
I thought the basic Accusump came with a manual valve which you were supposed to close before switching off the engine.
Steve
Steve d
Spoken to Dave who says that in his experience of the Acusump system with the Chevi engines there is such a good oil supply/oil pump system that delivering oil to both the engine and the Acusump is not a problem. He says that if you watch both the Acusump gauge and the car oil pressure gauge on fire up that there is no delay in the pressure build in either.
In response to your comment of closing a manual valve may I suggest that this is when you want to maintain the oil in the Acusump to use on fire up; a task performed by the electric solenoid if we had fitted it. A switch in that circuit to isolate the solenoid would avoid the Acusump oil going into the engine should you just want the ignition on but not fire the engine. In essence we are just using the basic Acusump to cover the oil starvation due to cornering hard and are not concerned with the pre-oil etc.
Regards, Peter
Spoken to Dave who says that in his experience of the Acusump system with the Chevi engines there is such a good oil supply/oil pump system that delivering oil to both the engine and the Acusump is not a problem. He says that if you watch both the Acusump gauge and the car oil pressure gauge on fire up that there is no delay in the pressure build in either.
In response to your comment of closing a manual valve may I suggest that this is when you want to maintain the oil in the Acusump to use on fire up; a task performed by the electric solenoid if we had fitted it. A switch in that circuit to isolate the solenoid would avoid the Acusump oil going into the engine should you just want the ignition on but not fire the engine. In essence we are just using the basic Acusump to cover the oil starvation due to cornering hard and are not concerned with the pre-oil etc.
Regards, Peter
Always wondered what a Canam would look like in black. Looks good in picture, has one ever been done. Sometimes with a dark solid colour you wisually loose some of the curves of the body. Great post Peter, interesting had a similar problem with dizzy, first one was recked by corrosion after a year. Never did find out where moisture came from, even the garage has a dehumidifier. Problem solved by having a vacuum air supply through dizzy pulled in by vacuum on carb. Looked recently after a year and no sign of a problem.
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