GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[JonSegger]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Thanks - it certainly didn't feel like we had much grip, I was trying very hard not to go sideways and feed in the power gently, didn't always work though

I'm down to my last few PB20's now and none of them have much tread left (and they're not made any more) so I'm going to invest in a set of x22's cut into full wets - I remember Windy at Millbrook a few years back going very well in heavy rain on x22's all round

Maybe the x12's were too hard to work in those conditions?

Yeah, I guess x22s on the back would have been better. My throttle linkage is quite 'snappy' too - i.e. pretty much on or off. I need to gear it down a bit somehow so I can be a bit more gentle with it I think.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Midsummer Caerwent 20th June 2010

After going to Caerwent for the first time a year ago I fancied another go, and was hoping for a more successful event without any incidents

Holly was codriving again and there was a full entry of 100 cars including 20 F1000 Juniors, so our seeding of Car 51 was a bit disappointing, just behind a Quattro and ahead of a couple of Impreza's. There were 7 stages, each 10 miles long. I went over to scrutineering Sat afternoon, the only comment was about the front towing eye not being that obvious, so a small arrow was stuck on the front spoiler to keep everyone happy, and I collected the stage maps so Holly could have a good look at them - they looked very similar to the previous year but the stages are so long I couldn't remember much, and Holly had never been there before

Stage 1 & 2
Everything started well, keeping neat and tidy and after about 4 miles, exiting the tight quarry section for the first time, we spotted the Quattro not far ahead. A couple of straights later and we got past. Into another narrow section a bit too fast I went wide onto some gravel and up a grassy bank before regaining the road - Holly thought this was good technique, but I'm not that clever
With 4 miles to go, the engine started misfiring slightly, not pulling smoothly all the way to the limiter so I started changing up earlier, and then all of a sudden it cleared and the last 2 miles were good, overtaking a 205 just before the finish
Back in service I checked everything under the bonnet, but it was difficult as we'd finished ok, so we got ready for the next stage. Nothing happened when I pushed the starter button so I grabbed a few people to push and we were away. Once again the first part of the stage went well until the misfire returned a bit worse but it had cleared again by the finish. Our time was 1s slower so it was definitely a problem

Stage 3 & 4
During service I removed the sumpguard, changed the starter and refitted it, but didn't have much time left to look at the engine so we carried on. Stage 3 was better with only an intermittent misfire but on Stage 4 it was worse again.
A long service after Stage 4 so I removed the spark plugs - the front 2 looked good but the 2 rear were a slightly different colour, possibly pointing to a fuel problem with the rear carb. I took out all the jets to make sure they were clean, then a chap next door having similar problems with his Escort suggested fuel vapourisation, so I found some heat wrap and tied it round the dry sump pipes which run just below the rear carb. It seemed to make sense that it was a heat problem as we were finishing the stage with the oil at 110 degrees and the misfire was worse after a shorter service as the engine had less time to cool down.

Stage 5 & 6
It was all going well again until about half way through when the back end started getting a bit loose and I realised we had a slow puncture on the back right. We carried on for a bit being gentle round left handers and normal speed round the right handers but when the tread flew off with 4 miles to go I thought we'd better stop and change it. I don't normally carry a spare but with the length of the stages I thought it was a wise move. We found a good place to pull over and jumped out to change it, but a combination of everything being too well strapped down in the boot and me forgetting the best place to put the jack, we ended up dropping 7 minutes on this stage, finishing 2 seconds under the Stage Maximum
In service we just had time to change all 4 wheels and sort out the boot (the other wheels had small dents in them and the one that had punctured had a bigger dent but nothing too bad) and it was off to Stage 6. Still misfiring on and off, we persevered, not going that quick but not getting caught by anyone either

Stage 7
The last one and on the road section before it the misfire had started. There was a bit of a delay at the start so I turned her off to try and let everything cool down even more, but when we got going she was only running on 3 cylinders and stayed like that all the way round. But we still managed to overtake the Impreza in front of us

When the results came out, we were 32nd overall and 9th in class - about 45 cars finished the main field and 15 Juniors. Without the puncture we could have been just outside the top 20

I started her up to drive back to the trailer park, and Holly kept her running while I pulled the plug leads off in turn and it looked like No 1 had a problem - when I unloaded the other night I changed No 1 spark plug and everything is running sweetly now, but I'm still not 100% convinced that it was the cause of the problems all day

So a slightly disappointing day, not even getting through one stage cleanly, but many thanks to South Wales Auto Club for running the event so smoothly and of course to Holly who did an excellent job on the diagrams all day - I promise DVY will be running perfectly for our next event and I'll try not to hit any kerbs

No in car as its MOD but there are some pics on the EDP Photo website

[cossie matt]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Well done mate it's a frightening venue for sure, there are so many Kerbs, and obstacles to hit or take your wheel off.

I remember bricking myself on the start of SS1 only to see an escort with it's rear wheel ripped off after about 6 corners to boost my confidence!!! Neat and tidy is definately the way to go there.

Be great to do an event together soon? We've put an entry in for the Richard Burns, John Segger, Ashley Davies and Paul Alex (if he pulls his finger out Hint Hint) are doing it too.

Matt

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

I'm sure we'll meet on an event soon - I'm not doing the Richard Burns but might be over that way in September

My next rally is Fat Albert at the end of July but I'm back at Loton Park in a couple of weeks so today I made a start on some more weight saving mods

1. Empty engine bay of everything not that important (expansion tank, catch tank, air horn compressor) and reroute wiring out of the way


2. Fit dry sump tank, bought from HT 18 months ago


3. A bit tight to the alternator but I can get my fingers in between


Tomorrow I'll be doing some plumbing, need to cut a slot / hole in the slam panel to route the return pipe into the tank

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

A bit more progress today - air horn compressor mounted in wheel arch


As the tank has 5/8" BSP connections and my current system is 3/4" BSP, I removed the rad to access the oil cooler and swapped this for one the same size but with 5/8" connections

Cut the slot in the slam panel and routed the first pipe


More to follow this week - I want to be out testing next weekend so I can make sure it all works before Loton Park the week after

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

good stuff mate

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

More progress today

Feed pipe installed




Twin scavenge into a single pipe to the oil cooler. Bit of a tight fit so I moved the pressure pipe and sandwich plate round. As there's no fitting for temperature in the tank, the sender is mounted at the back of this union. Hopefully it'll be immersed in oil all the time




Catch tank squeezed in next to the oil tank, I could do with a smaller one but it'll do for now. And some heat shield round the alternator and throttle cables


Radiator back in, no expansion tank anymore so I've connected the water pump back to the cylinder head


Just got to fill with oil and see if everything works

[dangerousdave]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice one gavin, looking good

With the missfire, is there a chance it could be the coil pack breaking down by not liking being above the hot exhaust?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Nice one gavin, looking good

With the missfire, is there a chance it could be the coil pack breaking down by not liking being above the hot exhaust?

Possibly - the coil has always been mounted there but I cannot remember when I last changed it so it's probably worth changing for a new one. Just got to find the bit of paper which tells me which car it's off, I think it's something French

[dangerousdave]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Got to be worth a try, could also be the wiring getting hot too?

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Got down to the workshop today, filled her up with oil, no leaks, started her up, dripping from the oil temp sender

Took the union off, covered the nut I'd welded on with even more weld, squirted some 3-in-1 oil into the union, covered the holes and blew into it - no leaks this time

So all back together and running sweetly. Oil warms up after a few minutes (used to take 10) so I went for a drive, did about 20 miles, some fast some slow, no problems though except for some water coming out of the radiator overflow so I'll get a higher pressure cap

No trace of the misfire but obviously driving on the road is nothing like doing a stage, so I've got some new spark plugs to go in and I've just ordered a new Bosch coil - it's off a Peugeot 106 from 1993

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Loton Park 10/11th July 2010

During the week before Loton I'd removed all the old dry sump pipes and tank and weighing these against the new bits I'd put in, I think I've saved 12.5kg

And I spent 15min in Halfords opening every radiator cap box until I found a 20psi cap, much to the confusion of the shop assistant but now the temp gauge goes well over 100 without any water loss

Saturday

There was the usual entry of Escorts in my class, Karl going even quicker this year in his Mk2 having done a 57.99s at a recent National A meeting, Steve out for the first time in his Mk1 with his new N/A Cosworth engine looking very smart on throttle bodies, fresh from a dyno run where it gave similar power to mine, and Stuart in his flat front RS2000 and the weather was very hot, hardly a cloud in the sky

1st Practice was a good sensible run to 60.60s but Steve was in trouble with clouds of smoke coming out from everywhere, he pulled off near the top and pushed the car down the old return road through the woods back to the paddock while the marshals cleared up the oil slick which had started at the first corner.
Further investigation showed that a core plug at the front of the dry sump pump had been blown out meaning that oil was being pumped everywhere except round the engine Steve phoned a friend who turned up with a selection of core plugs, some sealant, a lot of rags and some brake cleaner and during lunch all the oil was cleaned off, the dry sump pump removed, a new core plug fitted and lock wired into place and the engine was run up to check for any strange noises. It sounded ok, but after 5min the core plug was weeping oil so Steve sensibly called it a day.
That night he drained the oil to find quite a lot of swarf so the engine is going back to the engine builder for a bottom end rebuild and the pump (which was brand new) will go back to the manufacturers to be sorted / replaced. What none of us can understand is why there is a core plug there at all - it's on the nose of the pump opposite the pressure valve???

2nd Practice started well but half way up Cedar Straight the engine went flat and then picked up again once I was going straight, I assume due to lack of fuel, although she started up ok to drive back to the paddock where I filled up the 2.5 gallon tank. One problem I have with this small tank is that it's foam filled and doesn't have a sight gauge so I'm finding it difficult to tell how much petrol is in it - apparently I need a sharp stick to poke in it

1st Timed Run - An amazing start of 2.24s due to the hot weather, round to Triangle in 22.74s, about 0.1 off my PB, up to the split before Fallow in 41.99s, but was a bit tentative over the crest remembering the problems I had under braking there in April and set a time of 59.46s. Stuart had gone up before in a 62s, followed by Karl who always struggles to get off the line, was a fraction behind me to Triangle but then got to Fallow split in 41.38s and crossed the line with a 58.74s to lead the class at this point. When I got back to the paddock, Steve said that my engine didn't sound quite on song, although it felt ok inside I fitted the new coil and 4 new spark plugs in case it was the misfire returning

2nd Timed Run - Stuart did a similar run but his Pinto started rattling just before the finish so he shut it off and coasted round to the holding paddock worried he might have damaged it. Karl couldn't match his first run, the track having cooled down and did a 59.42s. I felt I had a lot better run, although still tentative over the crest into Fallow, I got her drifting nicely out of Museum and crossed the line only 1/100 quicker in 59.45s which was disappointing.
Back in the paddock, Stuart started up his Pinto and the rattle was coming from the top end, so we took the rocker cover off and found one rocker stud had come loose giving a clearance of 1/4" instead of 10thou. This was adjusted but when he started her up again it still didn't sound right, so Stuart and Karl went through adjusting all the tappets (a lot of them were too tight) while I went to collect the awards for Karl and myself

That night I stayed with Dave as usual and was wondering whether to do the next event in August as I didn't feel I was making any progress. I don't mind coming 2nd but I want to feel that I've gone the best I can and to be over 1s behind my PB, similar to what happened in April, was not good. Dvy was handling a lot better as I'd swapped the tyres corner to corner so the slightly less worn ones were on the back but the times just weren't there

Sunday

Another lovely day but a bit more cloudy. Karl and Stuart were out again and Steve was there spectating and supporting his partner Lucy who hillclimbs a 106 Rallye. When I'd got up that morning I decided that maybe it was just me not driving hard enough and not being committed enough at the top of the hill to get a decent time

1st Practice - As conditions hadn't changed overnight I thought I'd better start off quick and see if I could get quicker through the day and back down to a 58s time. This one was 59.81s. Sturat was going better today after Saturday night's tune up and was down to consistent 61s

2nd Practice - After the first one I'd taken the plugs out and 3 & 4 looked quite sooty whereas 1 & 2 looked the correct colour, so I had a quick fiddle with the balance lever between the carbs to reduce the throttle on the rear one. This run was better again, not that quick to Triangle with 23.11s but got to Fallow in 42.13s and was more committed over the crest, finishing on 59.27s

1st Timed Run - I'd taken the plugs out again and still wasn't happy so I had another play with the mixture screws but when I started her up to go and line up she was sounding a bit rough so I adjusted them again until it sounded better (can you tell I don't really know what I'm doing? ) and went like that. I couldn't get the start quite as good as Saturday, maybe because the revcounter had given up, but I got to Triangle in 22.81s, Fallow split in 41.62s, completely flat over the crest, under braking sideways one way, then the other, then back again, luckily just at the right moment to turn into Fallow, so I dropped her into second and floored it up to Museum, nicely round there and over the line in 58.59s, my 2nd quickest run ever
I got to the holding paddock and there was Karl looking very happy having done a 58.03s so I was still 2nd. He'd decided that the 10" slicks on the back weren't working that well as he couldn't get enough heat into them, so he'd gone back to some 8.2" ones (the same as I use) and done his best ever start of 2.27s, Triangle in 22.25s on his way to the 58.03s

2nd Timed Run - I checked the plugs again and they looked ok so I didn't touch anything this time. Karl was fired up for the last run because he's been .5s ahead of me before and I've pulled it off on the last run, but I couldn't see any way of getting down to his time. He went up first but couldn't match his first run but still got a 58.52s
I did an intensive tyre warming session, got a superb start of 2.23s, braked nice and late for the SqL at Hall, just held on through Loggerheads as the back end started to drift out, cut the edge of the grass into Fletchers Dellow, getting a bit sideways and having to put on some opposite lock to narrowly avoid clipping the bollards on the inside here before lining her up and blasting down the straight to Triangle in 21.57s my best ever time to here, braked late again and locked everything up but got out cleanly, through the Right Left at Keepers and early on the power up Cedar Straight, through the split in 41.27s well on target for a new PB, completely flat over the crest before it all went wrong under braking
The problem is that if I take the crest flat I have to brake hard before Dvy has settled so the back end always locks up and we go sideways, sometimes I get away with it, sometimes I don't, but if I don't take the crest flat I cannot seem to get under 59s
Anyway we went very sideways, got a couple of wheels onto the grass on the inside, full opposite lock in both directions, heading onto the grass a bit more on the inside of Fallow, then the grass ran out and I was drifting sideways across the exit of Fallow, found some grip and in amongst all the chaos I'd changed down to 2nd (not sure how) so I floored it and we were away up to Museum, tidily round there and over the line in 59.11s
On reaching the holidng paddock I was greeted by Stuart and some other drivers from the Roadgoing classes who had seen it all and thought I was going to have a big off at any moment

So 2nd in class again, but a lot better day than Saturday, now I'm confident that I can go quicker than last year and I've entered the August events. Hopefully it will be another sunny weekend and I can see if I can get a 57s run

Before then I've booked a session on HT's Rolling Road to get the carbs set up properly and check the timing as she hasn't been tuned for a couple of years now, and then we're off to Fat Albert at the end of July, trying to avoid any bushes this time

And finally, some in car from Loton, just the 2 Sunday afternoon runs this time as the consistent 59s runs aren't that interesting after a while

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Spending time in Halfords Gavin, you feeling ok

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Halfords is useful occasionally, £3.49 for a radiator cap instead of £10 for a competition one

I had a day trip to HT yesterday, and after a slight delay while Arron found the software and an old laptop that would talk to my Lumenition ECU, we had a few power runs, balanced the carbs, changed the idle jets, tweaked the timing, swung the cams and gained about 10bhp from 5k all the way up to 8k rpm, back up to the power she always used to give

Just a few days left to Fat Albert, we're seeded Car 16 out of 85, really looking forward to it as its run by my motor club, Tavern MC

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck with the Fat Albert Gavin.

I have joined Basingstoke MC now.................trying to get back into 12 cars