The Build
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The Chassis
The Bodywork
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
April 2007
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Friday 2nd February 2007
No work yesterday evening but a couple of hours this afternoon before heading off for a meeting. Added a couple of jubilee clips to the fuel hose, then moved back onto the aluminium panels. This bit's a bit tedious, as it involves joining together a few panels to both support the bodywork and enclose the cockpit from the wheel arches. To add to the complexity I want them to slope outwards from the chassis as it's fairly tight in there and I've got fairly broad shoulders.
The rear panel was already done, so I got to work on the next one working forwards. Using some cardboard for templates and liberal amounts of gaffer tape I got my head round the various shapes and bends and got all three small panels done a bit quicker than I'd expected. The plan is to get them all cut to size and drilled then take them to the powder coaters. Getting the right height and profile along the top of them is going to be tricky but I plan to stick the bodywork on and make some cardboard templates from the inside. No pics for now, I'll take some once I've got them all done and temporarily fitted.
Monday 5th February 2007
Unfortunately Friday's meeting was in Oxfordshire and lasted till Sunday afternoon, so no progress over the weekend :-(
This evening I jacked the nearside rear corner up and took off the wheel so I could drill the chassis for the rivets to hold my new panels on. I also stuck the roll cage back on to see where the side mount goes - fortunately its flange is on the inside of the chassis rail so all I needed to do was drill holes through my panel to allow the bolts to pass through. By the end of my session I'd got them all drilled and temporarily fixed with clamps and duct tape with some rivets pushed into the holes to line them up. While the wheel was off I rerouted the handbrake cable to make sure it clears the drive shaft. Next job will be to get the top profile sorted before moving onto the offside.
Tuesday 6th February 2007
Called in the motor factors at lunchtime and got some brake fluid, a can of waxoyl (since these holes I'm drilling are right in the wheel arch they'll get sprayed with water so I plan to spray through all of them with the waxoyl before riveting) and a couple of jubilee clips for the fuel tank filler. I'll probably get the brakes sorted fairly soon - I want to turn the car round soon to work on the panels on the offside rear wheel arch and since the garage is at the top of a slope I reckon brakes will be handy.
More work this evening on these panels. Getting the top profile right did turn out to be tricky. I also discovered that they'd be better leaning out even further than I'd planned to make sure the tub fits on properly at the back, so once I'd got the top profile more or less sorted I revised a couple of the bends. This then had the effect of increasing the gap between panels and bodywork in places so I'll try to have another look tonight and maybe redo them all - now I have them to use as templates it wouldn't take long.
Thursday 8th February 2007
Looking again at the panels I decide to leave them as they are. The gap is only a few mm, and I realise my cunning plan to replace 2 panels with a single one was doomed to failure as it would have been impossible to bend it as the panels are on different planes. After a bit of effort tidying them up with a file I reckon they're done.
Friday 9th February 2007
Day off today and hoping to get quite a bit done. Started a bit late as had a few worky things to get done, then made a start on marking out the panels for the driver's side. Basically they're a mirror of the passenger side with a couple of minor differences. By 9 o'clock the sleet's turned to snow and started sticking. This wasn't forecast - we were forecast snow yesterday but it just rained. Mid morning had a phone call from Jen to say the toilet's knackered in the salon so i have to go down there to have a look. A good inch of snow by now, but the Cayenne's no problem, although when I stopped to park up it just slid. ABS in snow isn't A Good Thing, as soon as it detects slip the system basically turns your brakes on, whereas without your tyres tend to slide down through the now until you hit tarmac. Big wide smooth road tyres don't help either. Couldn't fix the toilet, needs a new flush syphon. Get back in the Cayenne, creep to the end of the road and find myself just sliding towards the Mini that's sitting in a queue. I'm a passenger with no brakes and it's definitely scary! Fortunately I slither to a halt a few feet short of the Mini - I don't think she'd noticed :-) The drive back was probably the most scary driving I've ever done, the car was great for traction but no brakes. I resorted to getting it out of auto into manual and keeping in first gear which was better as I then had engine braking. The roads were absolute chaos. It's hilly round here and cars were just sliding and wheel-spinning everywhere. Jen had gone out and got stuck on a roundabout and was in a right state on the phone.
So when I got back I had a bit of a disjointed time - Jen ended up parking her car up and walking the 3 miles home through the snow. I did get the panels for the passenger side all cut and bent to shape. Some of the holes are drilled but I need more access to get the wheel off, and will need to turn it round to do that as it's up against the wall.
Decided to start thinking about the sidepod on the passenger side. I still haven't got a cunning plan for this. first off the top surface doesn't reach inboard as far as the chassis rail, so I'll need to bridge it with aluminium. I decide I need a single sheet with a bend in it to form a cover for the sill, and get to work on cutting this to shape. It's an awkward shape and you can't get the size right until you've bent it.
Saturday 10th February 2007
Finished off the sill/sidepod cover for the passenger side but still haven't worked out how to fix it. Rivets would be the most secure and involve weakening the chassis the least, but it really needs to be removable. I'm not prepared to fit the exhaust then rivet the sidepod and sill cover on. I'll probably end up with rivnuts.
I decide to have a look at the exhaust next. I temporarily fit the headers with a couple of bolts, and stick studs and nuts on the shopping list. It seems to stick out quite a long way from the chassis, and I have a feeling there's no way I'll get the sidepod over it but I'll worry about that later as there's nothing I can do to change it! I made the mistake on the Westfield of not cutting the end of the header pipe down and ended up with the rear exhaust outlet a bit close to the wheel arch. I decided I want the silencer as far forward as I can get it, and marked up and cut off the end of the header. Also drilled out the bung for a lambda sensor, if I'm going to do any fiddling about with fuel maps I'll need a lambda sensor. Martin had supplied an exhaust hanger bracket but firstly I can't see a sensible way of utilising it and secondly it looks like it was left over from constructing an overhead cable pylon! It also comes with a hanger made of a spring with a bolt welded on each end which appears to be similarly heavy duty. I'll need to fabricate a couple of brackets but need a couple of rubber bobbins first. I'll order those on Monday - until I've got them and know the exact size I can't really make a start on the brackets. A bit of duct tape stabilises the silencer to have a look at the sidepod.
I can't get the sidepod near until I've got a hole cut in it for the exhaust silencer tip. Guessing where to make the hole provides amusement for a while, but once it's done I realise I'm going to have to hack large chunks out of the sidepod to get it anywhere near the chassis. Ho hum ... After an hour of progressively removing more GRP with the angle grinder it's about done. It's not what I'd hoped for but clearly the supplied silencer is bigger than the one originally stashed away in a Fury sidepod. Browsing the Fisher build photos site I found a pic of another bike engined Fury which also had half the sidepod missing. So long as the gaps around the silencer are evenly spaced it'll look OK, and hopefully the larger silencer will mean less problems with the noise police at circuits, I had no chance at places like Castle Combe or Donington with the Westy. I'll finalise the cutting when I know exactly where/how the sidepod will be fixed on.
I have a few other jobs to do including making up a mounting plate for a wall fan for the salon and that takes up quite a chunk of the day. Last job is to make a start on the braking system. It's more or less finished but I need to go round it all tightening up unions etc. At present there are no hoses from the brake fluid reservoir to the master cylinders, and I need to open up one of the blanked off secondary outlets for the clutch cylinder supply. Once I've done that I cut the hoses to length and stuck them on. The reservoir isn't far above the cylinders but I don't see it as a problem. I have to finish at 3pm to go and get cleaned up and changed to go to a shift in the out of hours centre at 4. This page is looking a bit bare, I must take some photos tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be better and I can move the 360 out of the way.
Sunday 11th February 2007
After tightening the clips on the brake reservoir hoses I cut off a short length to blank off the outlet for the clutch and stuck a bolt in the end of it. Couldn't find any proper clips the right size so used a couple of tie-wraps temporarily. Should be OK at atmospheric pressure but probably not if I use my Easybleed. Then started working my way round tightening up all the brake pipe unions. Once that was done jacked up the rear and removed the wheels and made a start on bleeding the rear brakes. This went smoothly enough. Moving on to the front and my problems started. Couldn't get fluid to flow at all, wondered if I had an airlock in the master cylinder so tried the Easybleed (basically a kit to pressurise the reservoir using a hose to an inflated tyre) and ended up with brake fluid leaking out of the clutch hose. So I nipped up to B&Q and got a couple of jubilee clips which sorted that. Also discovered a couple of other leaks, like the brake light switch that I hadn't tightened at all!
After all this faffing about I still couldn't get any fluid out through the front calipers. I tried slackening off a hose and fluid flowed out of that no problem so the problem was in the calipers. I then wondered if maybe the back of the piston was butted against the end of the hose, which turned out to be the right answer. I'd assumed the hose butted up against a taper at the bottom of the thread but on removing the caliper the threaded hole was just that, a threaded hole straight through into the caliper cylinder. Rather confused and just a bit frustrated I had a chat with my brother who knows a bit more about mechanics and engineering than me. He confirmed that the union should either be a hose seating against a taper or should use banjo unions. Clearly I could get no further on this today so I'll ring Hi-Spec tomorrow to confirm that I need to get banjos on the end of my hoses. Hopefully if so I can get these made up locally.
This had all taken up an inordinate amount of time and I was feeling a bit demotivated. I did have a little fiddle with the 360. Undid a couple of covers at the rear of the engine bay and a couple of wires seemed to accidentally fall off the solenoids controlling the valves in the exhaust. These usually open up at about 4.5-5k rpm resulting in a significant ramping up of the noise. It seems the solenoids hold the valves closed so with them disconnected they're open all the time :-) After a quick test drive to confirm it sounded as antisocial as I'd hoped I then stopped for lunch and to get a couple of others jobs done.
Mid afternoon I decided I may as well carry on with what I could, and realised that now the rear brakes are done I could sort out the handbrake. First off I wasn't happy with the cable routing round the diff, drive shafts and wishbones, so tried a few different routes until I was happy. Then it was just a matter of fiddling with the adjuster nuts at the lever end to get the slack taken out and I then had a functioning handbrake. It's not terribly impressive but I suspect it'll get a lot better once the brakes are used and pads bedded in a bit.
When I was in B&Q I also picked up a metre length of 3mm x 15mm x 15mm angle iron and I want to use this to make a bracket for the exhaust. I worked out how this was going to fit and realised that if I stuck a 90 degree bend in a length it should work quite nicely. A quick check on the NF Auto website gave me the dimensions for the bobbin I plan to use so I set to and made the bracket. I used a load of washers to act as a spacer instead of the bobbin and after a bit of drilling and filing had a bracket in place that I was happy with. Looks much better than a bit of duct tape ...
Next I decided it was about time I started thinking about where all the other bits and pieces will go under the bonnet so I went up the loft and got them all down. I'd already tried the dry sump tank for size ages ago and decided that it was a problem. The normal site for this is right at the front of the engine bay in the centre, but in their wisdom Fisher had changed the design and mine has a pressed steel stay running right across between the suspension top mounts. I'd thought about chopping this about and coming up with some other way of replacing it but really wanted to avoid that if possible. The tank just about fits in on the driver's side with about a centimetre clearance between engine, steering column and the aforementioned strut brace. One of the gussets on the chassis bottom tubes was slightly in the way but Mr. Angle Grinder soon sorted that out. It has a square base plate with a mounting hole in each corner and now I could get two of these holes directly over the centre of chassis rails. I'll need to fabricate some sort of bracketry to support the other two, but I'm fairly pleased to have solved the problem that's been hanging over me for ages and I'll worry about that later.
The other boxes on the garage floor included the battery and the Davies Craig electric water pump. The Varta battery turned out not to have any electrolyte in it yet so I rather anxiously followed the instructions for adding that to it and left it to stand. I haven't started thinking yet about all the routings for the dry sump hoses and the cooling system, but I think I need to get going on it soon. I haven't even worked out yet where the inlets and outlets for both are on the engine. The instructions with the water pump suggest it needs to go in the rad bottom hose, so I reckon a good place for this will be right up front near the radiator. This will then rule out one potential battery location! On top of the scuttle may well turn out to be the easiest place, this will have the advantage of nice short easy runs for the main power cables - I remember fitting the battery cutoff switch for the Westy well after I built it and had to run quite long cables from the battery which was at the front of the chassis back to the switch on the dash. The other part sitting there looking for a home is the coolant reservoir. I really haven't got a clue where this can go yet, I'm fairly confident there isn't room up front and maybe this will need to sit on the scuttle also. Due to its shape and the configuration of the two mounting lugs on it this may well require some rather creative bracketry!
The other part I've been a bit worried about is the fuel swirl pot. This is a rather nicely fabricated aluminium item. Pics Martin sent me of another Fury seem to show this sitting on top of the scuttle, but if I put mine there the bonnet won't go down. There's a little space with a nice flat plate immediately in front of the master cylinders and I think it will go there without too much trouble, I don't suppose it matters that it's fairly low down as I'm not relying on gravity for fuel supply.
So, having got stuck with the front brakes I haven't actually got a lot done but the time spent looking at these various ancillary bits and pieces has actually done me a lot of good and helped me get my head around it. I'll do a bit of homework next on sussing out the coolant flow circuit, ditto for the dry sump system. I haven't taken any pics either but that's cos the only thing to see really is the exhaust bracket and that needs painting. Five o'clock now so time for a quick shower then over to the pub for a pint with Rob and Dean ...
Monday 12th February 2007
Rang HiSpec this morning who confirmed that a banjo fitting is needed. For £20 they're sending out a pair of adapters that'll hopefully let me use my existing hoses. Well pleased. Also ordered some rivets, bolts etc from Tifosi and the rubber bobbins and a couple more bonnet catches from NF Auto/Car Builder Solutions.
In the evening I refitted the offside brake caliper and pads etc. albeit without a hose at the moment. I then removed my exhaust bracket and gave it a coat of primer.
I had another look at the dry sump tank next. With a bit of masking tape on the chassis rails I marked the holes for the tank base plate fixing holes and decided how best to stabilise it. During the day I'd been wondering if I'd be able to fit a length of angle iron across the chassis to support the other side and indeed this seemed eminently doable. I cut a piece to length and cut a recess in each end to allow it to sit flat on top of the chassis rails with the other side of the angle hanging vertically down. It should be pretty solid like this - I did wonder about using some aluminium angle but the tank's likely to weigh quite a bit with probably over 5 litres of oil it in. I'd need to use pretty thick aluminium which wouldn't fit in so well. Once I was happy with the fit of my strut I marked up the holes and drilled the strut and the chassis to take some 6mm screws. Then a coat of primer on the strut and the chassis where I'd attacked it with the angle grinder. The exhaust bracket was now dry so I sprayed that black.
I had a look at the coolant reservoir next. From the pics on the Fisher site most seem to mount it on top of the scuttle, with a few mounting it up front on top of the struts between suspension top mounts. I'd rather it up front if possible to retain as much space around the scuttle as possible. It looked like it wouldn't fit and would impinge on the bonnet but it's a bit deceptive, there's quite a bulge in the bonnet around there and there's plenty of clearance. I didn't fit it, I just wanted to establish where it's going to go.
By the time I'd given my new strut a coat of black paint the exhaust bracket was dry so I refitted that and decided I wasn't going to get much more done tonight. I spent 10 minutes eyeballing the coolant inlet/outlet on the block and the dry sump connections to try to visualise it all. It's all starting to make a bit more sense. I'm not sure which way the coolant flows and sadly there isn't a nice schematic in the Haynes manual. The main hoses for the dry sump system are fairly easy to work out, but there are 2 additional ports on top of the dry sump tank and I'm not sure where they're supposed to be connected to.
Tuesday 13th February 2007
The additional wheel arch arrived from KCW today. Pleased about this as I was going to have to try to make one myself otherwise.
Fitting the dry sump tank didn't take long - the clearances are fairly tight, with only about 5mm between it and the engine clutch cover, but the engine's fairly rigidly mounted so that should be plenty. Once I'd done that I started measuring up the runs for the oil hoses. I've been looking up prices for the braided steel hose and the fittings and they're all a bit steep! The genuine Goodridge stuff is £44 a metre, with the fittings being £18 for the plain straight female ones to £40+ for the 90 degree connectors. There do seem to be some cheaper options though, Think automotive do some cheaper ones (£24 per metre for the hose). I've posted a message to the BEC list asking for advice but there were no replies by the start of the evening.
I then started looking at the cooling system again. I'm still not absolutely clear about the flow directions. My understanding at present is that the coolant's supposed to flow out of the engine via the thermostat, through the top hose into the radiator, then out the bottom hose, through the water pump and back to the block. The bottom hose looks tricky - first off the outlet from the radiator has a big chunk of chassis right opposite it, so I'll need a pair of 90 degree bends to get around that, then the electric water pump needs fitting, along with a T-piece somewhere connected to the expansion tank. I've heard some bad reports of the Davies Craig pumps packing up, but seeing as it's already paid for (and wasn't cheap!) I'll go with this for now. I added on the hose connections for it and worked out where it'll mount in the chassis. It's going to be a bit of a pain but there's enough room between rad and engine to get it in. It's just difficult trying to work out exactly what combination of 45, 90 and 135 degree bends is going to work.
When I came in there were a couple of replies on the list - both suggesting Rally Design for the oil hose and connectors. I'll perhaps give them a ring tomorrow. Not much progress tonight really but I'm nearer being able to actually order the bits and pieces I need - once I get them I suspect it'll all go together fairly quickly.
I also had a look at the fuel swirl pot to try to work out what'll connect to where on that. Trouble is all the spigots are different sizes, but I think I've worked out what goes where.
Wednesday 14th February 2007
Couple of things arrived today - the brake hose adaptors from HiSpec and the bits and pieces from Car Builder Solutions. I also spoke to Rally Design to order the oil hose and fittings but wasn't certain about some of the sizes. I tried to speak to Neil at Pace who's their sump guy but he was unavailable. I need to check with him about the thread sizes on the tank etc. I'd naively assumed that for JIC -12 fittings you use -12 hose but the guy at Rally Design reckoned you use -8 hose with the -12 fittings ...
Once home I started by fitting the brake adaptors which seem to work fine. Then went round and bled the brakes including redoing the rears. There's a tiny leak from a union on the rear master cylinder but I'll look at that later. I also stuck one of the new bobbins on the exhaust hanger.
Friday 16th February 2007
Frustrating day yesterday - lots of phoning round but not much real progress. I spoke to Neil at Pace Products - the make lots of the dry sump kits. My oil pump is definitely one of theirs but it turns out the tank isn't as theirs are all 2 piece which mine ain't. Neil was helpful though and confirmed that indeed you most certainly do use -12 hose for -12 fittings! He did comment on Rally Design's competence, but then he also went on to blame the Americans and Vietnam for the odd fittings we're stuck with ...
Spoke to TTS also who similarly couldn't help with the tank but confirmed that I need a -16 hose from tank to sump. I then got an email back from Teresa saying Martin got the tank from Rally Design ... by then it was too late to ring them. After work I went over to the Porsche Centre in Cardiff to drink some of their champagne while they showed off the new model Cayenne. I also booked mine in cos the dash says the Porsche Stability Management is dead. Good news is they're giving me a Cayman S as a courtesy car which should be fun. Then I was working overnight from midnight till 8am :-( Oh well, have to pay for toys somehow ...
I got through to Rally Design this morning and they said the inlet and outlet are 3/4" BSP, the 2 breather bosses are 1/2" BSP. This meant I could now go ahead and order the stuff. Unfortunately it's not simple as Rally Design are very keenly priced but don't seem to have all the adaptors I need. I ended up ordering a load of stuff from them, some from Think Automotive and some from Merlin Motorsport. It came to well over 300 quid in the end which is a real pity as most of it was actually supposed to be included in the price I paid Martin for the engine :-(
By the time I'd got all this little lot sorted out it was late morning. Seeing as my fasteners had arrived I started by fitting the exhaust headers with their gaskets. Then I tightened up the brake unions and adjusted the master cylinder pushrods so the pedal was a bit further back to give a bit more travel.
i thought I'd have a look at the fuel swirl pot next. Plan A was to fit it in front of the master cylinders, but I wondered if it would fit above the pedal box, which it seemed it would, so I set to making a bracket to get it level as the pedal box slopes downwards to the front. Once this was done I decided to make a start on the fuel hoses. I nipped up to Pontardulais to get some hose, and then spent ages fitting the hoses. It's a bit of a pain as most of them were going on different sized spigots at each end. By the close of play in the afternoon though I had them all done, just need to get a bigger in line filter for the supply to the FI pump.
Yes, I know I need some more hose clips :-)
Saturday 17th February 2007
The stuff from Merlin and Think arrived this morning. The BSP fittings are correct for the tank, but I realised I've ordered a -16/-12 reducer that won't help me much as it's male/male. Probably easiest to keep that and order another fitting to sort it out.
While I'm waiting for these other parts I need to get the bodywork sorted out. I've decided to temporarily fit the panels round the back of the cockpit with screws and a couple of rivets so I can get them completely finished and make sure the bodywork fits on OK. After a bit of drilling and filing it's all on and is surprisingly rigid even without fasteners in all the holes. A few bits need taking off to allow the bodywork on properly but overall I'm pleased with it. Partway through this I had a visit from Neil who's building a Fury in London but visiting his son in Swansea. Nice to have a chat with someone else building one - his is getting an engine from an MX5.
Once this is done I decide to get going with the sidepod on the passenger side. I've decided I'm going to cut a lot of the upper surface away and support it with some aluminium brackets off the chassis. A fair bit more needs cutting away for the exhaust. I've been a bit worried about fitting the sidepods, main concern being getting them secure and rigid enough. I end up with a thin strip as a strut up front, a broader angled bracket at the back and a couple of screws directly through the GRP into the lower edge of the scuttle. With a couple of temporary fixings through the bottom edge into the fillet strips on the lower chassis rail it was all surprisingly solid.
I decided to fit the bonnet latches next - I got 4 with the kit but reckon it'll be better with 3 on each side, one for the bonnet and 2 for the rear bodywork. The additional pair I ordered from CBS came with a nice instruction leaflet including spacings for the holes. I decided to make a jig out of a piece of scrap aluminium to check I had the spacings right, then used it to mark the holes. I was tempted to fit them with screws but don't have any penny washers the right size and in any case the holes are too close together to fit the washers in. I decided to use some peel rivets, I can easily drill them out when I come to get the bodywork sprayed. With all 3 latches clipped together the passenger side is really looking like a car now. Pity so much of the sidepod had to go to accommodate the exhaust but at least it means I don't have to worry about exhaust cooling problems.
Last job of the day was to mark up and drill the aluminium panel to go on top of the sidepod and side impact bars. I'm using 4mm screws with rivnuts for this, it isn't structural, it's just a cover. I was hoping to stick some rivnuts in the top of the sidepod GRP using a bit of aluminium as a backing but it didn't work as the rivnuts compress right at the top and just splintered the GRP. I've tried aralditing them in, if it doesn't work I'll have to get some form of captive nuts.
Sunday 18th February 2007
Another productive day, albeit with a late start cos of another wedding fayre. The plan today was to get the offside sidepod done. It was all fairly straightforward without the complication of the exhaust, but didn't seem to fit quite as well, needing a bit of tension here and there to get it to butt neatly against the bonnet and main tub. Also the aluminium panels around the back needed trimming a bit. By early afternoon I had it done and the latches fitted.
Next was sorting out the sill cover on the driver's side. I used the passenger one as a template and by mid afternoon had it shaped and drilled with rivnuts in the chassis. Once that was done I dismantled all the bodywork and the aluminium panels, gave the panels a final tidy up with the fine file and stacked them all in the house ready to take to the powder coaters tomorrow.
That was the day's main goal done really. While moving the car back and fore to sweep around it I discovered a more than slight problem - as soon as there's anywhere near full lock on the steering the front wheels rub the bonnet :-( I was initially annoyed with myself for not noticing it earlier till i realised there was nothing much I could do about it. The height of the bodywork is set by the chassis, no real scope for raising it up, and I already had it as far forward on the chassis as I dare, I'm going to need to hack acres out of the rear wheel arches as it is. I decided not to worry about it too much for now, I'll need to hack some of the bottom of the headlamp pod away and will just have to come up with some solution.
Once I'd cleared up I started thinking about how to sort out the lower oil line. I've got a 3/4" BSP to -12 outlet on the tank, but the hose to the sump needs to be -16, hence the reducer I ordered. I reckon my best bet is to just order a couple more -12 straight female unions and have a very short section of -12 hose on the tank outlet running into the reducer then a -16 90 degree union. I'll order them from Rally Design tomorrow morning.
One thing that's been sitting around for a while is the Pipercross air filter and backplate. The engine's been sitting with wads of paper towel down the throttle bodies till now to keep dust/debris etc. out. I decided to have a look at fitting the filter. I've got the original 'Busa airbox, and on dismantling it it looks like I can pull the rubber bellmouths out of the housing and will just need to cut the right size holes in the filter backplate to fit them in. Indeed they did, they're fairly rigid rubber with a groove running around them which sits on the rim of the hole in the airbox. Once I'd pulled them all out it was easy enough to measure up the holes and bolt the centres onto the aluminium backplate. I then dug out my old hole saw to find that the biggest blade in it was exactly the right size. Once the holes were cut and tidied I prised the bellmouths in. Two are fairly short trumpets with the outer two being longer and too big to fit inside the foam sausage, so I took the stanley knife to them. With the foam fitted the engine's now safe from foreign bodies entering it. The bonnet also won't go down ... I did expect this so not terribly disappointed. I'll need to hack a hole in the bonnet and fabricate an air scoop. I've already had a short tutorial on this from brother Andy. No pics today as Jen has the camera.
I might well get an airbox fabricated up at some stage, one of the problems with bike engines is the noise they make. I think they sound great, but the fall foul of a lot of the circuit noise regs, especially ones with the drive by sensors. Induction noise is a problem. I'm sure Terry O'Hara would fabricate me a nice little aluminium airbox that I could connect a duct to.
Things are starting to come together much faster now and I'm starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of just having an almost infinitely long to do list I'm starting to think about what bits are likely to hold me up. One such item is the prop shaft, so I measured up from the face of the flange on the gearbox output shaft to the face of the one on the diff, then removed both flanges. I'll stick them in the car and take them to whoever's going to do my prop. I'd originally planned to use Bailey Morris but it makes more sense to use someone local if I can. There's definitely a place in Bridgend but I have a feeling someone mentioned one in Neath which is closer. Other items include the gearshift cable, so I'd better measure up and order one of those. Also a Power Commander - one thing I discovered the other night when looking at the Haynes manual was that only the GSXR1300 X ('99) and Y (2000) models had the FI pump on the back of the block like mine is. From the K1 (2001) onwards it was inside the fuel tank. This tallies with Martin seeming to recall it was a 2000 model engine. According to www.dynojet.co.uk '99 and 2000 models use the same unit so I can go ahead and order one now.
I've been exchanging emails with a chap called Rod who owns the Busa engined Fury Martin was building when I was ordering mine. It's almost identical spec to mine. He didn't SVA his and says he's never had a problem getting it on a trackday - I was a bit worried some of the organisers would demand it to be road legal, which is partly why I've been planning to SVA mine. Rod does add however that if he was doing it again he'd probably SVA it for the benefit of being able to take it out on the road for shakedowns ... which was my other reason! My last reason was resale value. I think the main issues are likely to be the height of the headlights and the emissions. The latter's a known quantity, the former I need to investigate. I remember Martin saying something about the classic bonnet with a lowered chassis presenting problems as the headlights are too low and you need to put the front ride height at a silly level. The lights on the Le Mans bonnet like I've got are set a bit higher.
I'll need to decide on a colour soon as well, once the ally panels are powder coated they can be riveted on and I can do the final fettling on the GRP bits and get them painted. At the moment my thoughts are either pearlescent orange (like the Ford Focus STs and Lambo Murcielagos) or Kawasaki Green.
So, help me out, let me know what you think - should I SVA it or not, and what colour do you think it should be?
Monday 19th February 2007
No building today but still had a fairly fruitful day. Dropped off the panels for powder coating, they'll be ready Thursday. I rang the prop place which is actually in Pyle (quite a bit closer than Bridgend) and the chap was very helpful. I ended up having a quiet hour in the afternoon so nipped over there and dropped off the two flanges and the transit bearing. The chap reckoned there wouldn't be a problem with a one piece prop for the length and power, but I decided to stick with two piece. He said he'll have it ready for Wednesday, so hopefully I can pick it up on my way back from dropping the Cayenne off for its service.
I got home in the evening to find the delivery from Rally Design. All seems OK apart from the anodised fittings. The 90 degree fitting for the -16 hose is fine, but the ones I ordered for the -12 hose are miles too small. I'll ring and speak to them today - trouble is they don't specify them in dash sizes, I ordered 3/4" which should be -12 but these are about 1/2". Rally Design have a full refund returns policy though so no real problem. I was itching to get out and play with my nice shiny new Samco hoses but wasn't allowed :-(
Tuesday 20th February 2007
On looking through Rally Design's website I managed to suss the oil connectors. Basically their sizing is odd, they don't quote the dash sizes, and I'd assumed a 3/4" connector would be -12 but it turns out it's -8. I realised when you actually click on the connectors or add them to your basket you get the part number, which includes the dash sizing :-) So I got some new ones ordered, along with some connectors and hose to make up a clutch line, I hope I've ordered the right ones ... I had thought I'd have to get one made up somewhere and didn't realise you could make up brake and clutch hoses yourself until I read about it on Tim's site.
After fitting the remaining exhaust header bots that had arrived from Tifosi I made a start on trying to get my cooling system sorted out. There are two main problems, first is where/how to fit the electric water pump in the bottom hose and second which way round the coolant's supposed to flow. According to the EWP instructions the flow is supposed to be out of rad bottom connector, through pump into engine block then out to the top rad connector. According to the Haynes Hayabusa manual it's supposed to flow out via the thermostat to the rad. Looking at Rod's pics it looks like his bottom hose is connected to the thermostat, so either he's got the rad flow the other way round or it doesn't matter which way the coolant circulates through the block. I also can't see how his EWP is plumbed in. I'll email him for some clarification. I sort of got mine worked out but need a different combination of elbows and connectors to what I ordered so I'll wait till I'm confident about the flow route before I go ordering more bits or cutting up more of the rather expensive blue samco stuff. I'm also not sure what the small additional spigot off the thermostat housing is supposed to be connected to. Or where I can get a T-piece to connect the reservoir to the bottom hose ...
Wednesday 21st February 2007
First disappointment of the day was the propshaft not being ready - they were waiting for a part. It should be ready tomorrow afternoon, so I'll probably pick it up on Friday now.
The stuff from Rally Design and Think arrived, so I was keen to get going on the oil hoses. I decided to tackle the bottom one first, the -16 hose. It's huge, 1" diameter. Once you take the masking tape off the end the cut ends of the braiding are like needles and soon my right hand was doing a good impersonation of a pincushion and bleeding everywhere! The fitting is a very tight fit, and after the best part of an hour struggling (and failing) to get the fitting on I decided that Goodridge hose probably wasn't compatible with the Icore ProGold fittings. It looks like the inner hose on the Goodridge is thicker and I simply couldn't get the inner part of the fitting into it.
I gave up and decided to have a go at one of the -12 fittings. This was also a struggle but I won in the end, and could then try it for length and mark/cut the hose ready for the fitting on the other end. After wrapping it in electrical tape I cut it with the junior hacksaw and got the fitting on that end quite a bit quicker. The fittings actually go on quite nicely, the tricky bit is keeping them anodised! I was using fibre covered jaws in the vice and an adjustable wrench with electrical tape over the jaws and it was OK till I got to the last bit of tightening at which point it started to chew up the vice jaws and slip.
Once the hose from pump to oil cooler was done I made up the one from the oil cooler to the tank. Discovered another problem here - the fittings are actually quite large and a couple of inches long and the fitting to the top of the tank couldn't go on because of the pesky cross member. So I undid the screws holding the tank and moved it round a bit. This worked but of course I'll have to rethink my mountings for it - either redo them completlely or use spacers to raise it a bit. I think the latter sounds easier. So here are a couple of pics of the finished hoses - they aren't tightened up yet so they look a bit untidy. I think the coolant hoses need redoing as I've come to the conclusion that if the water flows into the engine via the thermostat there's a good risk the thermostat will be permanently closed as it'll be receiving cooler water from the rad rather than the hot water from the cylinder head ...
Thursday 22nd February 2007
Had a browse around for a Power Commander, there were a couple of used ones on there but they were older models, PC II's or PC III serials. A couple of suppliers on there were priced below retail for new PC III USBs so I ordered one of those. Also had a call to say the prop was ready.
Sorted out the clutch hose this evening. Couldn't find any instructions for the Euroquip hose fittings but found a quick mention on someone else's build site that told me all I needed to know. Just like the oil hose fittings there's a little olive that you push down over the PTFE inner inside the braided steel. Then tighten up fully and Bob's your uncle. Got it a comfortable length, finished the other end and fitted the assembly to the master and slave cylinders. Then fitted the push on union for the supply from the reservoir and connected that up before I ran out of time. Working overnight again tonight :-( But day off tomorrow :-)
Friday 23rd February 2007
Had to go over to Cardiff soon after I got home from work to collect the car. In the end they'd given me their Cayenne S demonstrator as a courtesy car. Very similar to mine but 4.5 litre V8 and someone had clearly had a small convulsion while ticking boxes on the options list. The main difference to mine apart from the engine was the air suspension which really made quite a dramatic difference to the ride quality. The engine was fab, loads of power and sounded great too. I did at times think however that above the howl of the V8 I could hear the air whistling in through the fuel filler cap. David liked it and decided I should upgrade mine. He had a play on Porsche's online car configurator and came up with £58k for one spec'd like the demo car. It's an extra £10k alone for the upgrade from 3.2 V6 to 4.5 V8, I just don't see how they can justify that. I think I'll stick with mine, it's quick enough.
Called in at Pyle on the way home and collected the prop. Not bad at £199 including VAT I thought. I thought the centre bearing looked suspiciously close to the front end of the prop, and looked forward to checking it fitted once I got home. Then called in and collected my aluminium panels and then to Swansea Fasteners for some tensile bolts for the prop - I had to guess the sizes.
First thing I did when I got home was check the prop and my suspicions were correct, the bearing was in the wrong place and was so far forward it dropped off the front of the brackets on the chassis. Grrrr .... first thought was that I'd been an idiot and measured wrong so checked that. Nope, my measurements were spot on. I rang them and they just said to bring it back. I also checked my bolts and I'd guessed about 10mm too short so I'll need to call in for some more.
Once I'd calmed down I went back out to the garage and bled the clutch. I'm a bit worried about this - the long thin pushrod swaying in the breeze concerns me, and Rod says his has some 13mm tube as a pushrod which I just can't visualise. Once it was bled I tried pushing the pedal down with my hand but couldn't, so had to get in the car and push with a foot. It does seem to work and is suprisingly heavy - I was expecting it to be like my MegaBlade which was very light. I'll get David to come out and press it down while I watch to see what's happening at the business end.
I was tempted to fit my aluminium panels next but decided to wait till I've got the prop fitted as they'll make it more difficult to lean over to bolt up the diff end. I did fit both flanges though using some threadlock.
I had a quick look at the fuel tank - Martin had supplied me a one way breather which is a very nice little anodised part, but I'd had to order the fittings. I checked these all fitted which they do, but I need a copper washer and don't have one the right size.
I decided next to have another look at the cooling system now I felt more confident about how it should work. Sorting out the top hose took no more than a couple of minutes then it was on to the bottom hose and water pump again. I spent over an hour just trying different configurations for this - it comes with removable inlet/outlet spigots and one's straight, the other 90°. Eventually I found a new layout I hadn't tried before which seemed to work and as an added bonus it worked with the hoses I already had without having to order any more; there was even a section that should be easy enough to connect a T-piece into for the reservoir connection. Still haven't worked out where I'm going to get one of those though, can't find any apart from getting them custom made which Pace offer. I suspect Terry O'Hara could make me one, he'd probably sort out a boss for my oil temp gauge too - I want it on the sump tank. So I actually got the coolant hoses sorted - very pleasing as they've been troubling me for a while. I made a start on adding a few jubilee clips but ran out of time. I also need to order some more.
Saturday 24th February 2007
A bit of a late start today. Set off on my errands, first stop B&Q looking for some aluminium tube - I have a cunning plan for raising the sump tank involving aluminium tube and some rubber fuel hose. Partial success. Then on to Pyle to get the prop which this time looked right. Then back to Swansea Fasteners for some 40mm tensile cap headed bolts.
Once back at the ranch I checked the prop fitted which it did, then set to work fitting it. I usually find the bolt head clearances around the universal joints are tight, and this prop was no exception. The prop angle is fairly low too which meant I couldn't position it to get maximum clearance for them. After popping a couple in the front flange loosely to hold it in place I bolted up the rear flange using threadlock, spring washers and some washers to make sure the end of the bolts didn't catch on the diff casing. Then the same process at the front end which was a bit easier as there was more space behind the flange. Once these were done I drilled holes for the centre bearing and bolted that in place spacing it upwards a bit with some washers just to improve the prop angle a bit.
I decided next to sort out a couple of jobs round the back of the car prior to fitting the aluminium panels. First job was the fuel tank breather. I made one of the copper washers I already had fit using a file then fitted the spigot to the tank, the a length of hose and the one way valve. Next was the reverse gear lever at the diff end - it sits on a squared off shaft, but the internal size of the square recess on the lever is a bit too big. I decided to try some JB Weld - I rested some cling film over the shaft before sliding the lever on. It was taking ages to go off in the garage so after a while I took it off and left it in the kitchen.
Once that was done it was time to fit the panels. I'd toyed with the idea of using screws and nuts to make it removable but decided I wasn't likely to need to remove it and it would be more secure and lighter using rivets. So out came the rivet gun and mastic. I was well pleased with them in the end, it all looks nice and tidy and is very rigid.
Once that was done I could secure the breather to the back panel using a couple of sticky backed cable tie mounts and ties.
The bonnet still won't close cos of the air filter, so after marking it's position out came the angle grinder and made a mess of the bonnet. I've deliberately left plenty of space around it as I do plan to fit an air box later. I've already been thinking about the bulge the bonnet's going to need and had a chat with brother Andy about it. We agreed that on some of the pics of Furies that we've seen the bulge/air scoop could actually be in negative pressure (Andy works on British Aerospace's Typhoon so knows a bit more about it than me!). I decided therefore I probably won't even have a hole in it and will run a NACA duct from the sidepod up there.
The cooling system expansion tank was next on the agenda. Now the bonnet's got a ruddy great hole in it it was easier to see the clearance up front. It turned out there's plenty so it can sit on the chassis rails. It only has two fixing points and the lower one of these was at an angle to the base of it for some reason meaning that when I tightened up the screw holding that it tilted the tank. I thought for a while of what I could use to make a wedge shaped spacer before hitting on the solution - I used my hot air gun to warm it and using the pliers twisted it into the right shape. This worked a treat. I then made a bracket for the other end and got it all fitted. I'll take it off tomorrow to paint the bracket.
It was past 5pm by now and time to clear up. Feeling very satisfied this evening, I really feel I'm making some progress, and after sticking the rear bodywork back on was struck by how much more finished it's looking in the cockpit. I did realise however that I've overlooked the section over the diff which will need an aluminium panel making up and powder coating. Looking forward to getting back out here in the morning :-)
Sunday 25th February 2007
I refitted the reverse lever which was now a nice snug fit on its shaft, then added some oil to the diff. Then removed the expansion tank bracket. along with the bracket holding the fuel swirl pot, for painting. After a bit of wet and dry to smooth the edges off they were degreased then got a coat of etch primer.
I wanted to make a start on the electrics this morning. I'd been thinking of trying to site the battery somewhere up front but there really isn't any space with the dry sump tank and electric water pump. I still need to find room for the oi catch tank. So the battery was going to live on the scuttle just behind the engine. One advantage of this is very short runs for the main battery cables. I made a strap out of some aluminium and once it was bent, drilled and tidied up that got painted too.
I went up into the loft next and got down the box containing the bike loom. I thought the best way forward was to just work my way through it using the wiring diagram and label all the connectors. My Power commander had arrived yesterday morning so the first think I looked for was the connector block for the fuel injection system - the Power Commander has a Y shaped lead with one end going into the loom and the other into the lead going to the injection system. Identifying all the other connectors took quite a while. The pic on the left below shows it all labelled up. There seemed to be quite a few bits of additional tape on the loom, and I decided to strip all the tape off it so I col dget rid of any wiring I don't need. This took ages too, but the pic on the right below shows the loom after this process with all the bits of tape in a pile next to it.
I wasn't really sure which bits I could safely ditch - bikes have interlocks to prevent you doing things like setting off with the sidestand down. I had list of bits I had to short circuit or add resistors into but wasn't sure about a couple of others, like the coolant temperture, the air pressure sensors and the oil pressure switch so I posted a query to the BEC list.
I decided to stick the ECU in place using some sticky velcro, with the Power Commander nearby - its position was dictated by the length of the lead. I realised I also needed another hole down into the tunnel - the main loom more or less fills the one I already had, so I cut another one using my hole saw then superglued some rubber edging strip around it as a grommet. A bit more sticky velcro and this was now fitted.
Back to the loom next, and stripping out any extraneous wires. All the lighting wires could go, along with the wiring and connectors for the dash and switchgear and the relays/fuse block. This took quite a while, and once it was done I had another pile of scrap bits.
It was getting late in the day by now so after a bit of a clear up I fitted the battery and sorted out fitting the voltage regulator next to it. I reversed the starter relay on its mounting bracket and added that near the battery.
Then I refitted the expansion tank and fuel swirl pot and fitted some hose clips to the coolant hoses. I've run out of the clips for the 25mm ID hose and will need some more. The plumbing's now looking like this:
Monday 26th February 2007
Over the weekend I'd compiled a list of all the bits I needed from Rally Design and placed an online order with them first thing Monday morning. It included a piece of -16 ProGold hose and a couple more fittings for that, some more hose clips for the plumbing, a T-piece for the bottom hose and some fittings to make up a remote oil pressure sensor hose - screwing them directly into bike engines isn't recommended as the vibration kills them. I also added a note to the order asking if they could supply an adaptor for me to connect my coolant temperature sensor into the top hose. They rang me back mid-morning to confirm they could. Got an email a bit later to confirm the order was despatched - very good service.
In the evening I set to re-wrapping the loom. This wasn't as tricky as I'd expected. I also added in some wires for my electric water pump and the coolant and oil temperature sensors. After an hour or so it was looking nice and neat. I decided I may as well get it on the car. Obviously the way the loom gets routed on the car is different to the bike, so I didn't expect everything to fall in the right place. And it didn't! I started with the connector block for the fuel injection as my main reference point and worked from there. I soon realised I was going to have a problem with overall length - the connector blocks for the ECU were barely going to reach the dash area. I'm happy extending bits of the loom where required, but the bits I can't really fiddle with, or at least don't want to, are the fuel injection connector and the ECU connectors. In the end I managed to get the ECU connectors up behind the dash but not as far over as I'd planned. I realised the best way to proceed was to start connecting things up, so I started working my way around the engine, first connecting up the cam position sensor and spark plug leads, then voltage regulator, alternator and crank position sensor. The gear position lead is way too short, and there's another problem. When I was looking at the loom on Sunday I couldn't find the lead to connect this to on the engine. After a while I realised it's cos it isn't there. The outlet from the crankcase is sealed off with silicon. In addition the lead on the loom has a little black box connected to it which looks distinctly aftermarket. I've no idea what it is, but I'm going to need to remove the clutch cover and have a look what's happened to the gear position sender and the short lead inside the crankcase. If it's missing or non-functioning I suspect it'll be expensive to replace! I'm just hoping the external lead had got physically damaged at some point and that there's something there for me to splice fresh wires onto.
After half an hour of fiddling I had the loom pretty much sorted out, with a few of the spurs needing lengthening. Since I was happy that it fits OK I decided I may as well start cable tie-ing it into position, and removing the labels from the spurs that were connected. By the time I had to finish I was fairly happy with progress.
Tuesday 27th February 2007
Started to think about what other bits might hold me up now - got a busy week in work so won't get much done after today until the weekend. Ordered a 1/8" NPT aluminium boss from Pace for my dry sump tank and will get that welded on there. Also ordered a 1/8" NPT female/female adaptor so hopefully I can make up a remote hose for the oil pressure sensor.
Sadly the Rally Design stuff didn't arrive today. I did get the coolant temp sensor spur lengthened, and have more or less sorted out positions for the vacuum solenoid and sensor.
I decided next to investigate the gear position switch wire as that's been bugging me. Only took a minute to remove the clutch cover and then a few seconds to see that there was no internal wire there at all. The switch itself lives behind the clutch so I couldn't see but I presume it's malfunctioned at some stage in the engine's life and been removed. I was pretty gutted about this as replacing it will mean removing the clutch, which would have been a relative doddle with the engine out but a bit of a hassle with it in. No doubt they're ludicrously expensive too. I decided to check out the DigiDash instructions to see how vital it is. I wondered if the DigiDash needs a neutral light indication to suss out the gears but it appears not - it just does it via programming the gear ratios in. So essentially all I'll be missing is a neutral light, which is inconvenient but not the end of the world, especially since I'll be selecting gears with my hands, rather than a size 12 boot, making it easier to feel the neutral position. For quite a while the neutral light on my MegaBlade died and I coped fine. I reckon the little black box I referred to yesterday is some electrickery to fool the ECU into thinking the bike's in 5th or 6th gear. The Hayabusa ECU retards the ignition in first gear (possibly also in 2nd, I can't remember) to reduce the power slightly in the vague hope of keeping the bike's front wheel at least within sight of the tarmac and I'd heard of a mod involving a resistor which told the ECU it's in a high gear and therefore OK to apply full beans.
So, a bit of disappointment and not much progress, but at least I know where I am with it now and can get on and stop worrying about it.