[race_prep] Hill Climb 1.6 Gti

[harryskid 193]

Nice track Wiscombe, watch out for sawbench !

[jonb_5 6]

Thought I would take a couple of pictures today, the car is coming together with all patches and paintwork touched up.

 

The next job is to sort out suspension, gear linkages and rear brakes which will come in the next few months.

 

After that I hope to loose weight with perspex windows and fibreglass bonnet, doors and tailgate.

 

Does anyone know what sort of weight I would be looking at with all this done, my boss at work have a stripped out Nova GTE and had it weighed at 625kg, am I going to be able to get anywhere near this?

 

Cheers

 

Jon

 

[tri_longer 25]

Your passenger door bar looks to be mounted quite high

[welshpug 1,661]

"quite high" is a bloody understatement !

[jonb_5 6]

Hi

I had my first event today at Wiscombe, scrutineering was OK apart from the door bar which they wanted removed so well spotted guys.

 

Unfortunately the event was cancelled due to the weather, it was awful. Anyway I will be back to Wiscombe in 3 weeks with a few jobs to do in between, seem to have a small miss fire which is going to need checking out.

 

Anyway a couple of pictures with the C5 wheels and A048 tyres, shame I didn't get to see what it could do, although on the run back up the hill to the trailer it did feel sluggish, could this be the miss fire? I have also fitted a 4 branch manifold, modified the filter position and it has a large filter on it, could it be running too lean, if so how would I ritchen it up being on injectors?

 

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[jonb_5 6]

Finally getting round to doing some updates for this season, decorating seems to have a higher priority. Anyway, twin 40's sat on work bench with alluminium fuel tank. new spray job in the pipeline but got mh 13" wheel fitted finally with some spacers made from ally.

 

Edited January 31, 2013 by jonb_5

[jonb_5 6]

Hi

 

Started work on the car again this evening, the plan being to get a long list of jobs done before next season ready to compete.

 

Twin webers sorted, in need of a rolling road and at the same time I will have the car corner weighted to have the suspension set up correctly.

 

All holes welded up tonight and the first bit of filling and sanding followed. In the next couple of weeks the car should be a brighter shade of orange.... (I THINK) unless, anyone has any better suggestions.

 

Modifications to the roll cage are next up, adding door bars (in the correct position) and a harness bar which should be a lot safer than putting the harnesses down to the floor behind.

 

More to follow soon.

 

Jon

 

[jonb_5 6]

Few more updates:

 

Added door bars in a more suitable position and a harness bar as well to the roll cage. I am going to invest in some proper roll cage padding to kit it out suitably. I have been using pipe lagging.

 

Also added the tray for the fuel tank to sit in, I will add a cover over the top so it is fully enclosed.

 

I need to find out about regulation but was hoping to add a sort of strut brace between the turrets that I have had put in to stiffen it up, not sure if I can do this at the moment however.

 

The picture of the garage is where we are working and will be spraying the cars. At the same time we are working on a mates CRX. A bit of competition, although he is a fair bit faster than me.

 

[Mr_E 7]

How tall are you as I think your seat will hit that new harness bar and you would need to use the short type single seater harnesses on that.

Most people put the harness bar across the two bars going down to the boot floor.

[jonb_5 6]

Done some more work on the car this evening.

 

Seat fits fine, I did measure but have refitted it to double check. The harnesses needed some adjustment but seem to work fine with the bar.

 

I didn't mount it across the rear bars as they are stepped in and the right hand shoulder harness would be on a weird angle to wrap around the bar.

 

[stu8v 68 1 Cars]

I think I would have cut the cage out and started again with a known quantity.

[jonb_5 6]

Paint job almost complete. Need to get a polishing mop and some cutting compound on it but looking really good at the moment.

 

[jonb_5 6]

[jonb_5 6]

In keeping with the budget hill climb car, I got some cheap gauges locally to me and fitted. RPM, oil pressure and water temperature with a warning light in the centre connected to the oil pressure switch.

 

I will pull it out of the garage at some point in the daytime, give it a clean and take some decent photos.

 

I am hoping to do a few races at Wiscombe this year, jobs to complete are:

 

Fit fuel tank

Fit internal braided fuel line

Remove centre exhaust box and have made a replacement pipe and weld up.

Rolling road tune

Weigh the car

Tidy up inside of car and paint

 

[jackherer 543]

You might also need to fit some sort of battery warning light to get the alternator charging.

[jonb_5 6]

So finally got round to having the carbs setup with a max on 93bhp at the wheels. Pretty chuffed as ran really well.

 

I am pretty sure I am going to need a fair bit more power however if I ever want to be competitive so have been looking at cams to do this.

 

Managed to get myself another set of peperpots with some wets on, no doubt being England I will need these.

 

 

[jonb_5 6]

Finally made it back to Wiscombe this weekend after 3 years, managed a new PB after steadily improving over the weekend of 49.05, still not great but heading in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

[jonb_5 6]

After a fair bit of discussion on the forum I am gathering some bits for the new engine build. To be an XU 1.8 16 valve build.

 

Just to start with and keeping with the way I plan to do everything as cheap as I can. Here's my engine stand I have been pulling together.

 

I have some casters and will bolt the plate on the front when I pick the engine up and can measure the hole pattern.

 

[td_dan 7]

Build looks good mate, iv got a 1.8 16v out of 306 in breaking just needs a clutch if your interested

[jonb_5 6]

My other little project with the car before I fit an lsd was to fit either power steering or assisted column, I decided on the later after driving a couple of cars with them and it seemed the cheaper and easier option, although now it is almost finished I am not sure.

 

It's been a sizeable job with uprating mounting points to resist the torque if the motor and the column needed cutting about a little to shorten, u managed to adapt it however by changing the splines to retain the original steering wheel.

 

Because of steering locks, ignition barrels I ditched the key and went with a switched ignition which was alot easier to fit that I though.

 

 

[jonb_5 6]

Start of the new engine build.

 

 

I have a XU7 JP4 engine on its way aswell. First to strip this one down to just the block.

[jonb_5 6]

Started to strip this down today once I had bought a TX55 torx bit for the head bolts. I was a little worried after ready some threads on here that I was going to have a job getting the head off but it only took 10 minutes and it was off.

 

I need to get the engine stand finished up now and I can mount the engine and finish stripping it down before starting to piece it back together.

 

Any suggestions on the best holes to use to mount the block to the engine stand?

 

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[welshpug 1,661]

Best to use the usual engine to bellhousing holes, you'll need a few longer bolts and a bit of allthread and two nuts.

[jonb_5 6]

Thanks for the advice. The plan is to cut a plate on the laser at work with the 4 holes in to match up with the gearbox holes and weld this with some bracing to the engine stand.

 

Block is now pretty much completely stripped, needs a good degrease and paint. Any recommendations on products to use??

 

Would a pressure washer be any better??

 

Also can I just use Hammerite paint or is it best to go with actual engine paint?

 

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[barneys66 123 1 Cars]

I used Gunk, brushed on, then pressure-washed off..

 

 

 

..then a bit more rubbing down with some Scotchbrite pads, followed by X/VHT paint off eBay.