My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

[PaulAlex]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Hi Jon,

I'm in Shenzhen, just over the water from Hong Kong, doing some IT infrastructure work at our office there. Slight problem is that some of the kit has been held back in customs, so I'll be scrabbling around for stuff to do after tomorrow I'd say.

If no parcels arrive, then I'll be coming back home earlier and then another trip out in January Airmiles!!!

BTW If you ever want to borrow some 15s to try the car, just say the word...

Cheers,

Paul

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Hi Jon,

I'm in Shenzhen, just over the water from Hong Kong, doing some IT infrastructure work at our office there. Slight problem is that some of the kit has been held back in customs, so I'll be scrabbling around for stuff to do after tomorrow I'd say.

If no parcels arrive, then I'll be coming back home earlier and then another trip out in January Airmiles!!!

BTW If you ever want to borrow some 15s to try the car, just say the word...

Cheers,

Paul

Ah OK. Yes I know it, I've been to HK quite a few times - also for IT infrastructure work. We have a data centre in HK.

Cheers for the offer of borrowing the wheels. I'm thinking it would be worth buying a set of 15s if some come along at the right price to use on the road or for track days where there are longer straights to help gear it up a little. But I might give you a shout if a track day comes up before I've got some.

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

So final preparation before Brands Hatch this weekend...

All the jobs have been completed, including fitting these bad boys:


We also made some new over sized mud flaps to meet the new regulations. Off with the old:


..and on with the new:

[dobuy]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Love the slightly tatty, ridden hard put away wet look Jon, suitably pukka

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Love the slightly tatty, ridden hard put away wet look Jon, suitably pukka

I prefer to think of it as the 'pre-loved' look...

The bodywork will get a tidy-up at some point soon. We've pushed out the dent in the rear quarter to a reasonable shape, but I'll get the next couple of events out of the way before going any further with it.

[cossie matt]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Good luck Tomorrow Jon

I'm coming down to watch and make sure you are suitably sideways so I'll come say hello anyway.

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Good luck Tomorrow Jon

I'm coming down to watch and make sure you are suitably sideways so I'll come say hello anyway.

Cheers fingers crossed it's dry, not too cold, and holds together OK.

See you tomorrow.

[mervhill]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

You may get the dry bit at least I would have liked to have come to watch myself, but my rugby team have a match tomorrow so I have refereeing duty.

Good luck though mate, hope it goes well for you!

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Well, unfortunately it didn't go entirely according to plan. All was going well and I was getting used to the new brakes until the 4th stage when we had gearbox problems. We lost 4th gear - just couldn't select it. Then I managed to get 4th, but it jumped out of gear, so at that point it was time to call it a day as I didn't want to wreck the gearbox.

We took the box out last night and had the lid off. We can't see anything obviously wrong, so its now going to go to someone who knows what they're looking at.... I wish I had the cash for a 60G...

[dobuy]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

bugger, the joys of Motorsport

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

So, the gearbox is now with Competition Transmission Systems for repair. It seems that they have the exclusive rights for selling and repairing the older style Type9 sequential boxes now. The 3rd/4th dog gear was knackered, which is what was causing my problems, but the 1st gear was apparently also worn.

They're repairing it and at the same time upgrading the maincase to an alloy one. The original cast cases are a known weak point as they are prone to cracking.

Here's a few videos from Brands. I was braking far too early on almost every corner as I was still getting used to the brakes.

Stage 1. We went straight on at the first corner of the first stage as it was incredibly slippery:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4. The gearbox fails at about 2 and a half minutes in:

[dobuy]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

pretty slippery at the start, engine sounds very crisp

[GavinR]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

So, the gearbox is now with Competition Transmission Systems for repair. It seems that they have the exclusive rights for selling and repairing the older style Type9 sequential boxes now. The 3rd/4th dog gear was knackered, which is what was causing my problems, but the 1st gear was apparently also worn.

They're repairing it and at the same time upgrading the maincase to an alloy one. The original cast cases are a known weak point as they are prone to cracking.

Hi Jon,

I'm sure they'll do a good job at a sensible price, my 6 speed came from them

You'll save some weight with the alloy maincase as well

Good videos, I think a lot of people nearly went straight on at the first corner, I know we did

[JonSegger]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Sorry... I haven't updated in ages. Its been a busy few months.

The gearbox went to CTS for repair & rebuild. At the same time, the case was upgraded to an alloy one.

So I got that back and took it for a test on a track evening at Snetterton. It went very well, gears all working perfectly.

Then, I had a call from Mr Dunnell. One of his customers in the FIA European Rallycross Championship was in a tight spot with their engine. They'd had a problem and damaged one, but they'd left it too late to get to him for a rebuild. Their engine spec was pretty similar to mine, so, long story short, they borrowed mine on the basis that they'd foot the bill for a rebuild when returning it a few weeks later. As it turned out I ended up with their old one once it was rebuilt - but with a new oil pump and all new induction system and throttle bodies:

The overall induction length with these throttle bodies is shorter than my old ones, which means that there is more clearance to the inner wing and I can get a 'proper' filter on instead of having to make an air-box which just about touched the end of the trumpets on the old set-up.

So then it was on to the Richard Burns Memorial Rally in August. I hadn't had an opportunity to test it since fitting the new engine. And, I was using a throttle linkage which I had made myself - so it was also untested. I was expecting teething problems of some sort.

Scrutineering went OK on the Friday evening. Saturday morning was wet, but it was warm and muggy. We lined up for the first stage and the engine was getting quite hot. Once we got off the line though, it soon returned to normal operating temperature.

About half way round the first stage though, the oil pressure warning light came on and the gauge read zero. I killed the engine and we parked it on the grass to take a look. The belt was still on the pump. There was still oil in the dry sump tank. There were no obvious leaks. So, we started the engine again and made sure that oil was returning to the tank. It was a faulty oil pressure sender! The warning light was driven from the SPA oil pressure gauge, so I had no way of confirming whether there was a problem.

We carried on to finish the stage. Looking back at the in-car video, we were parked for 7 and a half minutes. We carried on the rest of the day without an oil-pressure indicator, which is not a nice feeling. After stage 1 we were in 102nd place.

Overnight, I found an oil pressure switch in my bucket of spares, so we rigged up a bulb on the end of a piece of speaker wire. For day two we had an oil pressure warning light

On the sunday we started in the order of our current position, so we were down at 60-something, which meant we were starting behind some slower cars. It was good fun catching and passing them though - especially knowing that being held up wasn't costing us a trophy because we were well down anyway.

We finished the rally 39th overall and 15th in class - which, considering the time we had lost on the first stage was OK I think.

Here's a few photos:

And a video:

Since then, I have replaced the oil pressure sender and also fitted a separate oil pressure switch which operates the warning light on the dash.

I then did a track day at Woodbridge last weekend for a bit of fun. I was using some very knackered slicks on the rear which gave very little grip, but made it a lot of fun. Here's an in-car video:

We couldn't make the Woodbridge rally this weekend, but we hope to be at the Lynn Stages in October - although that depends on whether or not my second child, who is due on the 18th October, arrives at a suitable time and not during the weekend of the rally. Fingers crossed

[DarthVader]

Re: My mk2 Rally car - Duratec power

Sounds mint! So smooth.