My Ultima - on the road for a week !! - first impressions

[pilbeam_mp62]

I went to the factory last Thursday to collect my Ultima. The team at the factory
(mainly Dave and Jeff) had finished it off for me, by installing the LS7 engine and
the G50/03 transaxle, as well as glazing the windows and taking the car for it's IVA.
These were jobs that I felt were so important that they needed to be done by the experts
- and I am glad that I made that decision, as they have done a fantastic job on my car.

I had arranged for a guy to come with a covered trailer to take it down to near Lymington,
as I wasn't sure what the weather would be like and I thought that I should take it for a
few shorter runs before a run of that length (160 miles)

I could hardly believe that it was actually finished and ready for the road ! The whole
experience up till then had been about building the car, and I had never really thought
about using it !! I took it for a short run , just up and down the road really, and
then it was packed into the trailer for the drive South.

I have taken the last 4 days off work and have been very lucky with the weather, so I
went out 5 times in the car, doing a total of 130 miles - going a little further each time,
as recommended by Richard at the factory. My last run was about 40 miles, or so.

Wow ! The car is awesome, but it will take me some time to get used to the power, which
I don't think can really be used on the road - maybe I will go to a track next season to
try it out.

Having examined the engine installation carefully, I can see why people can have problems
with trying to modify a stock LS7 engine - there is zero room to play with, especially at
the bulkhead. If you don't stick to the locations on the factory documentation for the
pipework, pumps etc., you are going to have problems. Richard said that "it was a pleasure
to work on my car, as it had been so carefully put together" - I was very pleased to hear
that, as I haven't built a car before.

I stuck religiously to the recommended positioning of everything, and apparently the engine
dropped in with no fuss or bother. I am sure it is possible to go your own way with the fuel
system, engine etc., but I did not feel skilled enough to do that, so American Speed it was !!

The LS7 engine is very docile in traffic and even though I got stuck in a jam near Lyndhurst on
one run, I didn't see over 93 degrees water temp - the fan cut in and kept it all under control.
The clutch is very heavy, and requires full travel to get a good, clean change. The gear lever is
a bit "flabby" and is not sprung at all, so I occasionally selected the wrong gear, but there is
so much torque and the clutch is very progressive, so it wasn't always obvious to me that I
was in the wrong gear !

1st gear is very short, and is only good for getting moving I think - maybe some people start
off straight in 2nd gear with this box ? - once you get into 2nd and hit the gas, you are moving
at warp speed within a couple of seconds. Having said that, I am restricting myself to 5k rpm
for the time being.

I was driving on some fairly bumpy country roads at times, and the initial set-up I have on the
Intrax shocks is 5 clicks clockwise all round. I might try 0 clicks all round just to see how that
feels, but I expect that would be too soft on decent roads.

The seat itself is really comfortable, with a bit of lumber support. I need it quite far
forwards so that I can get full travel on the clutch pedal, but then my right leg is a bit bent.
Maybe I will try adjusting the clutch pedal itself so that it's a little closer.

I have the fuel surge kit fitted - recommended by the factory for the LS7 engine - the pot is not
that far from the exhaust manifold, and I noticed that it had got quite warm after a run - I have
now covered it in heat-resistant material - that should help. I intend to do the same with the low
pressure pump that is sited lower down on the inside of the chassis, below the tank.

I hope I haven't bored you all !!

Regards

[robm3]

Great stuff, nothing like the excitement of buckling up the first few times hey...

Regarding the clutch, mine runs a servo (don't forget to connect it back up Kyle!!!) and makes it so much easier. Yes it's girly but I'm a wimp... just a thought though.

GL with it.
Robin.

[Stig]

Nice one! Always good to hear when another Ult hits the road

[rdodger]

Pictures?

[pilbeam_mp62]

rdodger said:

Pictures?

The most recent pictures of when the engine was installed, and some of the finished car can be found in this previous thread:-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Pictures of the whole build from the start in Nov 2007 can be found at
www.jouhar.com/ultima

Regards

[spatz]

so if your clutch feels heavy this zylinder i was installing from MPL might work as advertised as my clutch is not heavier than on a porker still it comes very early - probably because new and as intended by the factory
i have some problems below 2000rpm the whole car starts bouncing back and forth have you noticed that too ? i had plenty of oil learks (probably mainly because of my high pressure) so glad to hear that you do not have this problem

[martinlaw]

congratulations, you must be very proud of your achievement.

Ask the factory about a different master clutch cylinder, cannot remember now if it was a larger or smaller bore - i fitted one and it made the clutch pedal a lot lighter.

Don't set the shocks at 0, the car will not be stable at faster speeds, i have mine 6 at the front and 9 at the rear for normal road use and 9 at the front and 15 at the rear for fast road use.

Hope this helps?

Martin.

[pilbeam_mp62]

spatz said:

i have some problems below 2000rpm the whole car starts bouncing back and forth have you noticed that too ? i had plenty of oil learks (probably mainly because of my high pressure) so glad to hear that you do not have this problem

I believe that you are using a different ECU from the one that I am using.
My engine was dyno'd before it was sent over, and it uses the GM ECU. It is very smooth at low revs and I don't experience anything like you have described.

The oil pressure is just under 6 bar (approx 80 psi) when the engine is stone cold and when it is completely up to temperature it seems to go between 4 and 5 bar, depending on revs (56 - 70 psi)

Regards

[pilbeam_mp62]

martinlaw said:

congratulations, you must be very proud of your achievement.

Thank you very much Martin

martinlaw said:

Ask the factory about a different master clutch cylinder, cannot remember now if it was a larger or smaller bore - i fitted one and it made the clutch pedal a lot lighter..

I did ask them about this very early in my build, but they did not recommend a different bore, as they said it could cause "clearance issues", so I did not progress this idea further - I think I understood what they meant, because on a racing car I had once, the clutch pedal stop was not set properly, so pushing the clutch TOO far caused the spring fingers to go too far and actually allow the plates to start to come together again - thus preventing a decent change....A lighter clutch (i.e. shifting more fluid) could possibly have the same effect I guess ?

martinlaw said:

Don't set the shocks at 0, the car will not be stable at faster speeds, i have mine 6 at the front and 9 at the rear for normal road use and 9 at the front and 15 at the rear for fast road use.

Hope this helps?

Martin.

Yes - good advice Martin - Thank you.

Regards

[spatz]

I believe that you are using a different ECU from the one that I am using.
My engine was dyno'd before it was sent over, and it uses the GM ECU. It is very smooth at low revs and I don't experience anything like you have described.

oh it is not the engine that is stalling it more like an effect that whole car with drivetrain start bouncing back and forth, probably because of the low weight of the car. I will look into it at a later stage if ECU tuning can help there, as I still do not understand why this is occuring at all. I had experienced that on production cars on some rare occassions and if I remember right Mercedes had once a larger issue with it. They called it "Bonanza" here in germany and if I remember
right it was said it had to do with too soft engine mounts.

[UltimaCH]

Kelvin, great to here your car is finished. I was checking out your site from time to time and became worried when nothing happened after the July update. Very good work done.

[martinlaw]

I solved the 'overthrow' issue by shortening the pushrod to reduce the travel and then extend the length of the foot plate so in effect the pedal is in the same position - hope this makes sence???

it did work.

Martin

[60mph]

A smaller bore master would be smaller diameter and longer travel so amount of fluid displaced would be the same . You would do the same work but it would feel lighter but gear changes would be slower unless you depressed the clutch pedal faster then you knacker your leg again .

Frank
P.S. Congrats on the car . It looks well "balanced" visually re; shape and colour .

[pilbeam_mp62]

UltimaCH said:

Kelvin, great to here your car is finished. I was checking out your site from time to time and became worried when nothing happened after the July update. Very good work done.

Thanks very much - I didn't keep the website up to date towards the end - I will finish it off soon, I hope.
Regards

[pilbeam_mp62]

60mph said:

A smaller bore master would be smaller diameter and longer travel so amount of fluid displaced would be the same . You would do the same work but it would feel lighter but gear changes would be slower unless you depressed the clutch pedal faster then you knacker your leg again .

Frank
P.S. Congrats on the car . It looks well "balanced" visually re; shape and colour .

Thanks Frank,

I might try your idea of the spring to make the lever go more easily to the 3rd/4th plane.

Regards

[crafty]

I also found the clutch on mine heavy. I also found that because the pedals were small, and close together, I tended to only be able to get the inside of my foot on the clutch and brake rather than the ball of my foot. It was almost like driving with my big toe on the clutch and brake.

I also found that the pedals were facing perpendicular to the bulkhead, which is not perprendicular to the driver.

So, I remade the pedals.

Green is the original, red is the modification. Not to scale, but you get the idea.


I used slightly bigger pedal "plates" and offset them.

I offset the plate on the clutch pedal to the left
I offset the plate on the brake pedal to the right
I made a new plate for the face of the throttle, and angled the throttle to the right a bit

This brought the pedals a bit closer, made more space between pedals, and faced them towards the driver.

Now I can get the ball of my foot onto the clutch and the brake easily, making pedal effort seem much less as I am using a stronger part of my foot. It is also MUCH more comfortable.

With the longer (and curved) plate on the throttle it is much better for heel/toe and much more control on the throttle. I found with the standard (flat) throttle it was quite awkward.

Easy mods, well worth it.



TOP VIEW




FRONT VIEW




REAR VIEW




ISOMETRIC

[spatz]

yes I totally agree with the pedals being too close together, I will probably change that too and redo the pedals. Also extended the foot rest on the left side which now has restricted space even further.

[GTRCLIVE]

Funny you should mension that.....I Altered my chassis mounts....

[martinlaw]

i actually moved my brake and accelerator pedals closer together and moved the clutch over to the right slightly as i like to use 'heel and toe' when changing down.

i used to find that occassionally my left foot would catch the brake when using the clutch before i moved it (i suppose it would have been ok for left foot braking!!!)

[UltimaCH]

On reading the comments, I wonder if people drive with mountain boots or clod hoppers or whatever. I remember with my Porker RS I had to drive with narrow shoes or better still with racing shoes