GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Hi David,

I bet you've still got your hands full. Hope everything is going well

oh yes...................hands well and truly full

motorsport projects on hold for the time being

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Over the last few weeks I installed the throttle bodies on DVY, refitted the injection pumps and filters, connected the fuel pipes in the engine bay and spent hours sorting out a twin cable linkage that I was happy with, and yesterday I took DVY back to HT

Ron sorted out the injectors, water temp sensor, TPS, AFR sensor, air filter and neatly installed all the wiring in the engine bay while I mounted the fuel regulator and coil pack on the bulkhead, then the ECU and ignition amp in the passenger foot well

Then today the ECU was connected to the ignition, the fuel pumps turned on for the first time (no leaks from my plumbing ) and after a few attempts and some head scratching over the Vipec ECU software, she fired up on injection for the first time around 11:30am

Many hours and 5 gallons of Shell's finest V-Power later, this was the result (the "yb 06" curve was on the carbs last summer)



A slightly different shape to the curve, but with the rev limit set to 8600, shift light at 8000, some calculations show that if I change gear at 8300, the revs will never drop below 6500 where the curves cross

The power figures may seem low, but if the Cossie's only had 198.6bhp all these years, then all the people with 250bhp engines that I used to beat don't have as much power as they think, or I'm a really quick driver

More interesting for me is the power gain of 25.5bhp (or 12.5%) and 2 lb ft of torque (up from 158 to 160)

Should be fun in Ireland in a few weeks

Many thanks to Ron for all his hard work and to Steve for helping on the rollers and making the coffee in between working on his own engines

[Graham]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

nice one your certainbly notice the top end improvement especially the way it now hangs on to the power

[alladdin]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

has the engine spec been changed in any other way ? if not i dont see why you should be losing power everywhere below 6k5 by switching to management ? i would have expected the opposite ? (the to end looks a good improvement tho )

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

has the engine spec been changed in any other way ? if not i dont see why you should be losing power everywhere below 6k5 by switching to management ? i would have expected the opposite ? (the top end looks a good improvement tho )

Hi,

Yes - new cams designed to work with the injection and a 4-1 exhaust instead of the 4-2-1 system so the curve is pretty much as I expected, you should have seen the first one which had a big dip at 5k and max power of 207bhp

Ron spent a couple of hours sorting out the fuelling every 500rpm before starting the power runs which took another 3-4 hours - the final curve was the 10th power run

I'll take her up the road next week to see how she feels and make sure everything is working perfectly

[team_zi]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Wow, what a difference fuel injection makes.

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

I'm off to West Cork in the morning, all loaded up and ready to go, passed the MOT on Sat so went for a 5 min drive up the road and back, feels very strong

There's a full entry of 150 cars and we're seeded car 92, and we've got an extra stage this year, 1.5 miles through Clonakilty Town Centre on Sunday evening, that should be interesting

[mexicotait]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

good luck gavin cant wait to read the report!

[david_white]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good luck Gav

[dottydogmk1]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Good to hear your motor is sorted, best of luck in Ireland! I am back to square one with mine - a long and boring story.....

[GavinR]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

West Cork Rally 19-20th March 2011

It was March and time again for my annual trip to Ireland for the West Cork Rally. As in the previous 2 years, Cath was co-driving with Carrie and Guy servicing. This time they brought Guy’s Road Rally Sierra so we used it for the recce and had various good comments from the marshals and even spotted another crew recceing in an identical Sierra. This year there were 17 stages covering 145 miles with the final one finishing in Clonakilty itself for the first time in 20 years. We finished the recce Friday morning and got DVY ready for scrutineering which was passed with just one comment about my throttle return springs – the scrutineer was not too keen on the tie-wrap holding one spring to the oil filter
This was quickly fixed afterwards with some lockwire and we had a relaxing afternoon before taking DVY to Parc Ferme that night. We went up to Rally HQ and bumped into the Clerk of the Course, Darren McCarthy, who said he hoped we would get further than last year when a ball joint sheared after 5 miles…

Saturday morning was bright and dry so we left the slicks on and headed off to Stage 1. It was all going well until about 5 miles in when the engine suddenly cut out and we coasted to a halt in a gateway
Since the engine was mapped I’d rewired the fuel pumps through relays which were controlled by the ECU and thought this might be the problem so Cath flicked the bypass switch but there was still no life. Cath checked the trip to see how far we’d gone and spotted the ECU light was out – I checked the fuse and it was blown, chucked it behind me, grabbed a higher amp spare from the auxiliary fuse box, stuck it in, pushed the start button and we were up and running again

While we were parked up 2 cars had gone past but the next one wasn’t in sight so I pulled out and we completed the stage without any further problems. We’d probably lost a minute and a half and our time left us were 123rd overall out of the 134 starters. Stage 2 we lined up behind a Skoda Fabia TDi, and overtook him after 6 miles and set 66th quickest time which was a lot better

In service we saw Vincent Fagan, who we’d met in previous years and he congratulated us on getting this far! It was starting to drizzle but the clouds didn’t look that dark so we decided to stay on the slicks, but as we approached Stage 3 it turned to rain and we had a steady 2 stages with a couple of moments and overshoots but made it back to the next service without a major incident and were now up to 103rd

This time we fitted the X22 wets and stage 5 was going a lot better until near the end when the heated windscreen couldn’t cope with the conditions and started to mist up in front of me, so I backed off and we were overtaken by a Suzuki Swift. Stage 6 was shorter we made it nearly all the way through before the screen misted up and we set a lot better time. DVY was idling a bit rough by now and backfiring at times but once we were going it was fine, which was strange

In service I dug out a demisting cloth and Guy attached it to a handy stick so Cath could use it to clear my side of the screen, but it didn’t really work as the cloth was old and damp. We got to Stage 7 and there was a delay due to an accident so I switched off and we sat and waited. After about 10min they decided to cancel the stage but when I went to start up again the battery was nearly flat as the heated screen and fans had flattened it while we were idling. Luckily we were on a slight uphill, so Cath pushed DVY backwards and I bump started in reverse.
Stage 8 was chaos – the Civic in front of us asked if we wanted to go first but I didn’t think we’d catch him so we said no, then caught him after 3 miles! With about a mile to go the windscreen was getting quite bad again but we were catching the next car, a Puma, when we had a huge moment nearly stuffed it into a bank, but got past the Puma and over the finish to find the car behind us had caught us as well! But we were just pleased to finish the day in one piece and hoped Sunday would be better. Back in service, Carrie kept the engine revving to charge the battery while Guy, Cath and myself sorted everything else out we took DVY back to Parc Ferme overnight. Back at the B & B I was exhausted from peering through the windscreen and my arms were aching from holding on so tight

Sunday morning the weather was a lot better, but after the problems on Saturday we were lying 78th overall out of 92 cars left. The first stage was Ring which is the closest one to service so Carrie walked up to it and phoned us with a weather report – the roads were damp in places but dry in others, it was cloudy in one direction but sunny in the other, but good enough for us to put the slicks on and see if we could make up a few places. I also changed the plugs but it didn’t make any difference to the rough idle. We were held on the start line of Ring for 2 minutes while a blockage was cleared before they let us go and we had a good run through setting 39th fastest time. On the next road section, the scrutineers were pulling everyone over for a clothing check, which we’d never had before, and they checked we had fireproof underwear on under our overalls. Cath was a bit concerned about this but the scrutineer was very friendly and sensible about it! The next stage, Inchybridge was going well until I pulled the handbrake for too long round a hairpin and had to do a doughnut to get going the right way, but we still overtook the car in front and caught up with another one at the finish

Back in service we had a slight oil leak where a bolt had come out of the sump but this was quickly fixed by Guy. Back to the Ring stage and we were 15s quicker and overtook 2 cars. Inchybridge was a lot better the second time through, 36s quicker, overtook another 2 cars and we were 33rd quickest

Checked everything in service but nothing needed doing, the slicks were lasting well. The afternoon stages were Ardfield and Hayes Cross which were very enjoyable but I wasn’t happy with DVY – we’d come out of tight corners and the shift light would come on immediately, then we would get some traction and it would go out and then come back on at the right time. I wasn’t sure whether it was the clutch slipping or the LSD playing up but after the second stage I was pretty convinced that the inside wheel was spinning out of corners and a quick check in service showed a very loose LSD. As there was not much we could do about this we just checked the oil and carried on

The second time through Ardfield was good but only 0.4s quicker than the first time and then we got to Hayes Cross only to find it had been cancelled. This left the final Town stage to finish the event, and we had a good go at it, only 1.5 miles long but loads of spectators on the edge of Clonakilty and we were amazed to be 23rd quickest


The final result was 46th Overall out of 69 finishers and 8th in Class, on the Sunday stages alone we were 35th quickest so we headed home early Monday tired but very happy. Thanks to Carrie and Guy for servicing and the loan of the Sierra, and to Cath for an excellent job on the notes as always

Pics and some in car footage to follow

[exboyracer]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Superb write up Gavin, well done

[Rwdaddict]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Great result! Keep the reports coming. I have really enjoyed reading all of this thread. Riveting read

[david_white]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Well done, look forward to seeing some pics.

[Tazman]

Re: GavinR's Mk2 Stage Car - DVY

Great result Gavin