[trackday_prep] Cameron's Mi16 / Gti6 Hybrid

[Baz 421]

PPS.. It passed it's MOT!!

 

And, I got my insurance swapped over to Sky. Cost me £391 with everything declared and like for like mods. Thanks to bloke off here who's name I can't remember.

 

Awesomes!

 

That sounds excellent! Wonder why they couldn't get anywhere near competitive for me a few months back!

[Cameron 16]

No idea! I insured the Mondeo with them while I was at it.. Admiral wanted £1300-odd for both, got it for £860-something. Not too bad!

[hexhamstu 9]

So how did the mapping go?!?! did the tapping go away?

[Cameron 16]

Well, it went really very very badly.

 

I started the car up this morning and it was tapping, so I went for a short drive up the road and it went away, hooray! So I chucked my tools in the car and headed up to Emerald, had a really very nice trouble free drive. When I got there it went straight on the rollers for a quick power run, and that's where things went very wrong. It revved up no problem, and the power curve was looking great, then when Dave jumped off the throttle to let it wind down it just cut out and then wouldn't start. It was sounding pretty unhealthy on the starter too! Gave it a compression test and cylinders 1 & 3 had absolutely nothing.

 

So we took the inlet rocker cover off and turned the engine over, the cam was turning which seemed to be a good sign. When I went to take off the master cylinder (to get to the exhaust rocker) I noticed a bulge in the cambelt cover, so whipped that off to find that the exhaust pulley had come off completely!

 

 

So, called up the AA and got towed home!

 

 

When I got home I took the head off expecting to find utter carnage, but there were no hideous bent valves or munched pistons, it all looked pretty good. To be sure I took the valves out and lapped them, not a single one had been bent!! I honestly can't believe it, the chances of a cam stopping at 7K and managing to stop in just the right place at just the right time so no valves get walloped must be one in a million!

 

Anywho, at least I wasn't the only person having a bad day.. This Caterham had it's prop shatter on the rollers!

 

 

So, its looking like I might be able to get a head gasket and bolts and stick it all back together. As for what caused the pulley to come off (it was loctited on and FT) I think it might have something to do with the wobbling pulley. When I swapped the cams to standard, I kept the verniers on and found that they were perfectly true. When I swapped the cams back the exhaust pulley wobbled again. I also tried swapping the inlet and exhaust pulleys around and found that the exhaust still wobbled!

[hexhamstu 9]

nightmare! That really sucks! hope it all goes back together ok!

[gti-si 0]

 

Thats a nightmare...Although I can't quite believe how lucky you've been with the valves! Sorry it didn't go to plan again.

 

I think it might be time for a phone call to Newman...You think the cam surface for the pulley is running out? Would be the only explanation really

Edited August 11, 2009 by gti-si

[Toddy 7]

Bad day, but it seems you were v. lucky with the engine, better luck next time you're on the rollers!

[Cameron 16]

Well I mentioned it to Newman and he basically poo-pooed it saying they're bought in large batches and I must have them on there wrong. The only way to be sure is to dry fit the cams and check the runout with my dial gauge and I'll try that tomorrow.

 

3rd time lucky I guess, I'm on the cancellations list for asap so fingers crossed I'll get one before Germany. Otherwise I'll swap back to the standard cams.

[James_R 3]

Fingers crossed for you cam, mine just scrapped it's MOT, emissions are a bit special with the cam in, will try and blag a day off if you get a cancelation and get mine on there too

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Sorry to hear about this Cam (you jammy tike you!).

 

Fortune favours the brave.

 

There were comments about these wobbly pulleys earlier, on here and DJMini's project thread IIRC. Why has the emphasis on the reason here shifted from the pulley manufacturer to cam maker? I'm not sure I understand; which one's the more likely root cause?

 

As for the picture outside Emerald ( ), I know that view. Not only of the houses but of an AA van outside. After my first mapping session, at about 6pm when everyone wanted to go home, just as I was about to drive away my clutch cable snapped!

 

I wonder if it was the same AA man+van?

 

Chin up; press on.

Edited August 11, 2009 by DrSarty

[Cameron 16]

Thanks Dr S

 

I did originally think it was the pulley as people had warned me about DJMini's troubles with them, but the fact that the pulleys were dead straight when fitted to the standard cams makes me think it could actually be down to the cam. I don't know if it is so its just speculation at the moment, but its certainly looking that way.

 

I think I'm going to re-fit the cams and wait for a mapping session, then if I don't have one by say the 25th then I'll stick the standard cams back in. Will be ordering a new gasket and bolts tomorrow.

[taylorspug 7]

Could it be something to do with how the key on the pulley locates onto the cam? Maybe its an interferance fit and not locating properly? Or the key is a bit too long for the keyway on the cam so it wont tighten down flush?

[Cameron 16]

Well, all will be revealed!

 

I sat the head up on my bench, fitted both cams and got the DTI on the end of the exhaust cam to check if the surface was flat and it isn't! There's 8.5 thou (0.2mm) of runout which doesn't sound like much but it equates to about 4-5mm of wobble on the pulley.

 

 

 

I then checked the inlet cam and its perfectly flat!

 

 

I decided to swap the cams around, inlet in exhaust, exhaust in inlet and check again and got the same results.

 

So I called up Newman and have sent the cam back to have the end skimmed flat. It cost me £21 to post the cam so I'm going to call up and try and get them to cover the postage. Anyway, it should be back with me on Friday.

 

I also got a call from Emerald this morning, they have a cancellation on Monday so I have snapped it up! Gives me a couple of days to get it all back together.

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

3rd time lucky me old mucker!

 

Royal f*** up that really shouldn't happen and could of cost you your snazzy engine, least they can do is pay the postage!

[tom_m 0]

...

So I called up Newman and have sent the cam back to have the end skimmed flat. It cost me £21 to post the cam so I'm going to call up and try and get them to cover the postage. Anyway, it should be back with me on Friday.

 

I also got a call from Emerald this morning, they have a cancellation on Monday so I have snapped it up! Gives me a couple of days to get it all back together.

 

I love it when a plan comes together

[Cameron 16]

Yep, it all seems to be falling into place. Its about time I had some decent luck with this engine!

 

Done all I can today, got the valves back in and de-pressurised the followers (not taking any chances this time!) and got the inlet cam in and bolted down. Just got to wait for Friday when my cam should hopefully come back.

 

In other news, I went to lower the front end a little more; since its on stiffer springs it sits a bit higher than it used to. I noticed that I only have about an inch of suspension travel left, so after a bit of thought I've gone and ordered a set of Gaz Gold dampers with short bodies. My coilovers will be up for sale as soon as the new ones arrive.

[James_R 3]

There was me thinking you were going to put the top mounts on top of the turrets

[Cameron 16]

 

That would have been a recipe for fail.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

I may be interested in the coil overs Cam, pending spec and Colin's advice.

[Cameron 16]

Well basically they're brand spanking new! I had them rebuilt with new pistons and re-valved to suit my car, they've been on the car for about 300 miles, if that!

 

I have either 350lb or 280lb springs for them too.

[gti-si 0]

Sarty beat me to tht post purely because my sodding mobile internet won't let me post!

 

If Sarty doesn't want them, there's a good probability I will

[Cameron 16]

Cool, well I'll keep you posted when the new shocks arrive, should hopefully be in the next week or so.

 

It gives me grrrrreat pleasure to announce that the engine is back in one piece and running!

Just been for a quick spin and realised half way through that I had forgotten to tighten the wheel bolts (after faffing with the top mounts) which was almost a disaster! Luckily they hadn't loosened themselves much. What a tit!

 

Seems pretty good anyway, and no more wobbly pulleys!

[Cameron 16]

Had a little tinker today, having woken up in the middle of the night realising that the sender for the EWP controller had been pushed down the top hose towards the radiator. How? I remembered when I put the top hose back in after refitting the head that it wasn't there.

 

Anyway, I had to make a hook out of some welding wire and fish it out of the depths of the top hose, then I made a coil out of welding wire to clip into the top hose and secure it. No pics I'm afraid so that probably makes about 0.01% sense.

 

I also took it for a nice drive down the A361 (couldn't resist!) and it all went without fault. So, fingers crossed for tomorrow! Mapping take 3!

[gti-si 0]

Good luck mate, sounds like you've got it covered.

 

And oh yes, I can relate to the A361, I loved my spirited drive down it in a Vauxhall Combo 1.7D

[Baz 421]

*Quietly awaits report from Cameron after mapping at Emerald today!*