Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

[Stuart Mchugh]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

nice nova i do mine

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

A small update, but in reality quite a big step forward. Firstly the rear beam is already to back in. New bushes, re-painted and lacquered, just waiting on some new brake lines and wheel cylinders and it will be re-fitted.



So onto the front of the car and the engine bay. The engine has been noticeably down on power this year and breathing very heavily out of the breather, imagine a steam train chimney! So I have been on the lookout for a replacement, these 1300's are very hard to find now and are very popular for stock rods and auto grass racing so not cheap either! I did toy with the idea of putting in 1400 injection motor but the fuelling and management changes to the car were too much for now, in terms of time mainly. I looked at having mine rebuilt, blueprinted, but the timescales for getting it back were an issue for our event at the end of November. So I now have a Dave Walker built Autograss engine. It's only done a handful of auto grass meetings so should be good for a couple of seasons for us. Basically its blueprinted and built with selected components which should give us as much power as we can get out of the standard motor within the regs. So onto fitting and the first issue! The front engine mount bracket had a crack, we had a bolt work loose last year and its oval led the hole and cracked it! So had to sort a replacement.



All refitted now, gearbox checked over and new crown wheel and pinion fitted, managed to get the lower ratio available for the Nova.
Just need an oil filter this ones an imperial thread and my other engine was metric, so all my spares no longer fit! Should be running by the end of the week.

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

A bit of a frustrating day on the car at the weekend, 2 steps forward and one back! Refitted all the suspension which went fine but had a few issues with the brakes. The new handbrake cable proved to be too short, would you believe there are there are three versions for an Sr Nova, mines right on the change point. So a longer one ordered, arriving tuesday I hope. The new aeroquip pipes were great, except they had manage dot get the wrong fittings on two of them, so for now I have managed to swap the hoses around, which means a silly long hose from the master cylinder to the bulkhead, but with a rally next week no time to get a new one done. Even more frustrating was taking qmaster cylinder in to make sure I had the right thread sizes only to find the new m/c has a different size!! Adapter on the way for Tuesday.

On the plus side the engine is running, started up instantly which I am taking as a good sign. Bit of delay on the startup as the start motor failed, so back on with the old one. The new one arrived on a spare engine and looked new! Also the bracket that the engine mount fits too on the body at the front was cracked so a bit of welding required. This was the one with the damaged mount. Getting there now and with luck should be up and running this week which gives me next week for a shakedown and to get used to driving it again!

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

On other job I managed to complete was fitting my new alloy rad and fans. Not really had overheating issues in the past but the extra capacity is nice to have. Main benefit is moving the fans to the outside creating some much needed space in the engine bay.

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

Well after a lot of effort last week we made the start of the Great Bustard Rally last Saturday. The first time I got to drive the car was from the trailer park to the start, all seemed ok and the engine was pulling well. The first test, not allowed to call them stages! was at Worthy Farm home of the Glastonbury festival. This is a test I have really enjoyed in the past and was looking forward to it, a nice fourteen miler to get us warmed up. Started off well and the new engine was pulling much better than the old one definitely quicker. I managed to overshoot a junction and a rover on his second lap was catching us, so I let him past, but we were actually quicker than he was! So followed him for the next couple of miles. Then disaster braking for a very tight slot right through a gateway the brakes felt a little odd, then stopping for the next passage control I realised we didn't have any!! So we limped through the rest of the test back to the trailer park, at Worthy as well. Fluid poured out of the N/S rear drum when you pressed the pedal, caused by a failed brake cylinder, these were only fitted the week before and it looks like a faulty seal, ripped in two! We were making plans to seal off the brake hose when Dave Whittock arrived, yes former international co-driver to Per Eklund, he said have you tried the local motor factors. I had but could get no reply, Saturday afternoon so shut. I'll ring my mate he says, long story short 20 minutes later he had us a new wheel cylinder. One of the attractions of endurance events is that you can miss a few tests and rejoin later, so we fixed the car and planned to rejoin at the next worthy test. This was going really well, I was getting used to much improved handling and really enjoying things. Then Disaster number two going up a very steep hill I changed down to second or rather the lever did but we still in 3rd gear! Near the end of the test this time so managed to limp through in 3rd and back to the trailer park again. This time a broken bolt in the gear linkage proved un fixable, we didn't have one small enough and long enough, so game over. Our first retirement in 3 1/2 years and over 25 events.
Looking on the positive side the new engine was great and the suspension is much improved especially over the bumpier stuff. Also not much re-prep to do before next year, although the next event isn't until February.

Not the best pic but you can just make out the damaged seal on the piston.

[anotherdeadhero]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

Damn shame the Nova let you down on the Bustard Dave, especially after your hard work.

It does sound like you'll be a very competitive package again on the X-Part - looking forward to dicing with you over selectif times already

I just had to chip in with a couple of my favorite pic of the Nova in action, from the 2012 X-Part:

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

Well I have now changed the other rear wheel cylinder, which was also leaking! Wont be buying these of ebay again! A also stripped the front brakes whilst I was about and found this issue with the pads. They look like they are rusting and breaking up in chunks around the edges, anyone any idea whats causing this? They are Ferodo pads and have performed fine, now changed for Mintex!





All set for Weston motor clubs christmas gymkhana now.

[Graham]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

pads that break up chunks around the edges are usually pads that are being over heated

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

I did wonder that, but no other signs of overheating on the discs and we have not had any fade issues either. Ghe new pads are harder and a different brand so hopefully that will cure it.

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

Well its been a little quiet work wise on the nova over christmas but got a couple of niggly jobs done. At the end of last season the dashboard rev counter failed so I bought a new dash off ebay to swap over the counter. Did this still no good, bugger, the cause was traced down to a broken track on the pad on the back, the lower edge overlaps the unit and when its removed and installed a few times it gets damaged and breaks. I tried soldering it but it went going to hold up.


So I thought I would just fit the new dash I had bought, wrong, it's a mk2 dash and has a different multi plug on the back to my mk1 wiring. So back to ebay and find another, except none are early ones so ended up paying well over the odds for one on a Nova forum. But all works now even all the warning lights!

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

I have also been out competing in our Motor club boxing day auto test on Weston Airfield. These run more as a giant slalom down the flu length of an old runway and are proving very popular. We had over 30 cars out ranging from full spec group 4 escorts to an Audi TT. I managed 7th in my class which wasn't too bad, more importantly nothing broke!

Then last week I was out on a club 12 car over the Mendips and the edge of the somerset levels. Very wet conditions in places, a boat would have been better at one point! I had a new to me Nav out who hasn't competed in 20 years so a bit of fun and finish was the aim, ended up 5th and quite please with the nav and the car. The only issue to crop was that the front brakes are not working as well as they should with the rears locking up very easily and not enough front effort. I suspect it's down to some air still in the front circuit so a another eezi bleed session this weekend.

[mexicotait]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

I never managed to get a good pedal using easy bleed
Gravity bleed the brakes worked far better

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

Brakes are now back to how they should be, managed to get some more air out which has definately sorted the issue. It was mot day today the little nova sailed through, we'll it should really given how much of it has been replaced in the last few months!

With the postponement of the Xpart rally this coming weekend, down to the weather unfortunately, my first rally of the year is the Bath Festival road rally next week. Bit of a dilemma over tyres as the Dunlop forest tyres I was planning on running are not E marked. Given the furore about this at the moment not sure I will rake the risk, even though they are perfectly legal there is a police issue with them over in wales. So may just leave my endurance tyres on, they are pretty good in the wet!

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

We'll that was great fun, a cracking event and superbly organised. A must do event for any road rally fans I think. We finished and we're not last, but hampered by a puncture on the third test and a few navigation issues from my novice nav, he did well though to get us around.

An odd issue at halfway, a kinked oil breather hose meant loads of oil out the breather and hardly any in the engine! All sorted for the second half though. The weather was horrendous, horizontal rain most of the night, you had to feel for the poor Marshall's.

It was a great shakedown for the endurance season though which starts on next weeks south west, in Devon and Cornwall. The car just needs a good wash and a spanner check and we're good to go, really looking forward to it. The new suspension is a huge improvement, it saw me breaking way to early most of the time, so I need to get used to that a bit I think!

[novadave]

Re: Nova SR Endurance Rally Car

Last weekend saw us competing on the South West endurance rally, first round of this years championship. Had a good day really, car handled well, new engine was strong. Unfortunately I was a little enthusiastic through a very deep muddy puddle. This resulted in a small amount of crud entering the carb and blocking the idle jets etc. So retired with the engine running on two cylinders, carb off and cleaned at home and she started first time!!