[trackday_prep] My 205 Xt Trackcar Project

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Theres gearbox oil all over that sump! didnt do a very good job cleaning it

[swordfish210 20]

Theres gearbox oil all over that sump! didnt do a very good job cleaning it

 

Yes Ed, now go back to the institutuion.

[swordfish210 20]

I had a bit of time in the workshop at Uni today now that i'm back on planned lessons so i did some more work on the engine. First i removed the old oil selas from the ends of the oil gallery and replaced them as the rubber seal was rock hard and would have probably pee'd oil out :

 

 

I then cleaned up the water distrbution block and fitted the new seal in to the block with a bit of silicone sealant. When i was cleaning the block the chemicals i used completly erroded the old seal :

 

 

When i had refitted the block i cleaned up the flywheel in the washtank and refitted it with a dab of sealant on the bolts:

 

 

 

and then the clutch on afterwards:

 

 

I'm going to try and get the front end back on the car before i go to Scotland so it will be ready for the engine and i can plumb in the new cooling system.

[swordfish210 20]

Not much of an update but i got my cylinder head back from Sandy Brown on Saturday. It needed a fair bit of work doing, mostly to the inlet ports as they were too small for the valve size and had a nasty ridge in them. Once he had ported it he took it to see Pete Willis who cut some 3 angle valve seats in it and sorted out one bent valve :? Glad i had it done now though as it would have been a waste to leave it the way it was.

 

 

 

 

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Was this bent valve from the 'bolt'?

[swordfish210 20]

Was this bent valve from the 'bolt'?

 

Nah, wrong cylinder. Probably where the valves clashed with the pistons when i over-revved it.

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Ahh ok, got some interesting news for you if, didn't see you at the carnival yesterday so not sure if you would know of the decisions made...

[swordfish210 20]

drop me a PM, dont want to keep clogging up this thread.

[swordfish210 20]

I had a bit of time in the workshop today but i somehow managed to get buggerall done. I started by putting my cylinder head in the washtank and going to town on the gasket faces with a scotchpad. I got most of the remnants of the inlet and exhaust gaskets off and got a pretty good shine on the mating faces, i also got any remaining bits of sealant off ready for the fresh stuff:

 

 

 

 

I then took my old fuel pump/distributor mount and made a new plate to cover up the distributor hole as i won't be using it anymore. I made a template using a dirty finger and some paper:

 

 

I then marked it out on some aluminum and cut it out with some tin-snips and a half round file and i sealed it on to the mount:

 

 

I then had some mad idea that the whole thing would look better in black:

 

 

Hopefully i'll have a more exciting update next week.

[swordfish210 20]

I had another semi productive day working on the engine today. I ordered a new cam from Piper to replace the Schrick cam that was in there because it lasted about 8,000 miles before the lobes got eaten by the followers :x I spoke to Sandy Brown what seems like ages ago about cams and he recommended a Piper 300 (rally) cam as it had a decent power band, i then spent ages trawling through cam catalouges for the TU engine and came to the same conclusion that the 300 was the bst one, thanks again Sandy.

 

The cam and followers turned up yesterday so i used some free time at uni to get the head reassembled. I had to start by measuring valve spring lengths as i was getting some bounce with the Piper 240lb springs. The quoted fitted length from Piper is 38.5mm but after assembling one of the valves i had a fitted length of 39.5mm. So i stripped down a spare cylinder head and robbed the valve spring shims from it, assembled a valve and i had a fitted spring length of 38.5mm Massive time saver as i dont have to turn any shims on the lathe now.

 

The work area was getting a bit crowded as i had a special person taping a race seat and hogging half of my bench:

 

 

My spring layout now:

 

 

I then tapped in the new stem seals with an 11mm socket and fitted all of the valves and springs:

 

 

I then went to fit my new rockers and predictably hit problems. I stripped down the old rocker gear:

 

 

And fitted the new rockers only to be hit by the notion that my new rockers had a decidadly smaller stud hole that the old ones (M6 Vs M8) Which was a real pain in the arse as i dont have any M6 studs and will have to try and get some from Peugeot. Why is nothing simple.

 

I then greased up my new cam, fitted a new oil seal and slid it in to the cylinder head. Once it was in there i decided to check the timing marks on my pulley, reading glasses may be needed for this part. Here is the standard pulley lined up with it's TDC hole:

 

 

Now here is the vernier pulley i've been using, the TDC timing marks on it are two scratches on the pulley wheel that should line up with the top of the cylinder head......however as you may see, they do not:

 

 

It's about 2-3 teeth out. This old engine really was a piece of crap and i'm so glad to be shot of it. Thats as far as i got today but hopefully i can get some studs for the rockers asap and get it back togeather and in the car.

 

[swordfish210 20]

I went to Peugeot this morning to order some rocker studs as the guy i was speaking to at Piper never got back to me (surprise surprise). They had them available for order but not in stock so i have to wait til Saturday for them. I then went to Uni to do what little work i could without them.

 

I decided to use some M6 bolts to operate the valves so i could at least do a dummy build to check the valve to piston clearance. I built up the head with the pikie rockers and lubed everything up. I then put some white-tack on the pistons, put a manky headgasket on and refitted the dowles then i put the head on, oiled up the bolts and torqued it all down.

 

 

 

I then put a belt on, tensioned it and gave the thing a few turns.

 

 

Once i had wound it round i remove the head again and checked the white tack:

 

 

Theres a good 5mm between the valve and the piston so i'm pretty happy that they shouldn't make contact.

I then spent the rest of the day just cleaning bits and bolting them on in boredom really. I PTFE'd my oil temp sensor adaptor:

 

 

Cleaned the engine mounts:

 

 

I need to paint the bolts for the top engine mount as they'd gone all rusty so i gave them a tickle in the blasting cabinet. I then TIG'd up the hole for the vaccum advance in the inlet manifold as i'll no longer be using it:

 

 

Heres the old camshaft that i took out, as you can see it's fit for the scrap as the lobes are badly worn:

 

 

So heres the engine as it stands currently. I can't get to it next week as the Uni building is all locked up so i'll hopefully have it finished in the first week of November.

[swordfish210 20]

I forgot to add I should be fitting the front end this weekend as I need to get the car ready for the engine to be put back in it so I can do things like the cooling system etc. I'm also going to be playing about with carbon fibre next week as I have some fancy new mirrors to go on that need mounting ;D

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

College will be open monday as ive got to finish preperation for the walter hayes trophy... engine shop might be getting crowded as a couple of cars are being put in there from what duncan says.

 

Coming along nicely, shotgun passenger ride when its finished.

[swordfish210 20]

College will be open monday as ive got to finish preperation for the walter hayes trophy... engine shop might be getting crowded as a couple of cars are being put in there from what duncan says.

 

Coming along nicely, shotgun passenger ride when its finished.

 

Yeah but i'm working monday and tuesday and i don't like working in a small room crammed full of cars.

[RossD 44]

Just out of interest, how much were the new rockers?!

[swordfish210 20]

Hi Ross, can't remember how much they were but i'll dig out the recipt. Quite pricy though iirc

[swordfish210 20]

The rockers were £160 plus VAT and delivery. Add another £11 for the new M6 studs from Peugeot as well

[swordfish210 20]

I had a mate come round today with a generator so i could use the grinder over the garage and get the front pannel chopped so the brake vents would fit. The pannel is soft as hell so the grinder made light work of it but i forgot to take any pics of what was chopped out as i wanted to get the front end back on to see what it looked like.

 

 

 

I think it looks pretty good and if you see in this one you can allmost see what has been chopped out:

 

 

Just needs an engine in it to lower it down :x :x

[Galifrey 1]

 

Sorry, but that numberplate position looks terrible...

[swordfish210 20]

I moved it there to get some more flow through the radiator. Plus i think the standard position looks terrible.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I love that number plate position! square ones on the right look even better!

[ilovemypug 1]

hey swordfish, how much do you reckon the bhp figure was when you had the bike carbs on? do you think its worth changing the original solex twin carb with a set of carbs? i also own a xs 1.4

 

cheers

 

are those wheels off the 1.9gti? the 15" speedlines?

Edited October 28, 2009 by ilovemypug

[swordfish210 20]

hey swordfish, how much do you reckon the bhp figure was when you had the bike carbs on? do you think its worth changing the original solex twin carb with a set of carbs? i also own a xs 1.4

 

cheers

 

are those wheels off the 1.9gti? the 15" speedlines?

 

Hi, i have no idea what BHP the old engine was producing, they did make a fair bit of difference to the old carb though. If you dont mind forking out the extra money for fuel then yeah you could swap them over.

 

Yeah the wheels are 1.9 speedlines, i only use them for road stuff now though as i prefer the C5 steelies for track stuff.

 

 

Small update, i'm having some real problems trying to get the rocker studs. Piper are being really gay about it and keep fobbing me off every time i call them, Peugeot have them on back order and won't tell me when they're going to be in and i tried to pillage some from the scrap yard but the owner was wise to my tricks and would only sell me a complete cylinder head for £50. If anyone has some then please get in touch.

[Anthony 1,003]

i tried to pillage some from the scrap yard but the owner was wise to my tricks and would only sell me a complete cylinder head for £50. If anyone has some then please get in touch.

What engine(s) are they from Mark, as I thought TU's were M8 as standard (I know both the XS heads I had were)? I need to pop to the scrappy at some point in the next couple of days assuming the good weather holds out, so if you're not sorted by then I'll grab you some if they've got any

[welshpug 1,661]

later TU's were M6 according to Servicebox (M9 previously);

 

part Number ; 0908 20 RP 0908 21 M6X100 - SINCE RPO No. 07610

 

seems to be September 9, 1997 if you convert the RP to a date, which is quite odd!

Edited October 28, 2009 by welshpug