Sunday, 5 September 2010

NEED A NEW ENGINE ? .




I have decided to list my Rover T16 turbo engine which I had planned to fit to my previous Spit , along with a pair of LT77's on ' The Bay ' to give me a bit more space in my single garage and a bit of cash for further parts .
The Rover 620 Turbo engine is listed with some Rover SD1 and Land Rover MPI bits including a bell housing , engine plate , rear deep section sump with a compatible oil pump and a performance AP racing clutch plate suitable to mate it to an LT77 box . It also comes with a 620 MEMS ECU . It is a wasted spark engine meaning there is no cam rear mounted distributor to foul the bulkhead .
The boxes are listed seperatly , one is freshly rebuilt by Hardy Engineering of Leatherhead and the other I drove back in a SD1 from Coventry to London so I know it is a good box .
It would be a shame not to see someone knowledgeable enough to fit this to a Spit , GT6 or MG .

Matt 07733137231

Monday, 26 July 2010

TESTING TIMES !!





Even though it is all a learning curve it is good to be actualy putting a few bits together .

For everything done there is at least one rethink but I guess thats the learning progress .

As can be seen I will need a sideways extension to the current bonnet bulge but only to the same height as existing so should barley show .

The oil layout is particulary chalenging as there are so many components to fit into such limited space , especialy with four longish Jiffy-Tite couplings to fit in with the laminova , thermostat , filter preasure warning switch and Accusump , together with trying to keep the lines as sraight as possible . NOTHING LIKE A CHALLENGE !!

I spent 15 mins cutting a very rough template for a turret brace to work from , which unfortunatly has to avoid my dry sump pump , not ideal but not impossible . This should then give me something to mount some of the components to .

For those who warned me about the jic fittings being a pain , you underestimated ! Even putting a full 12 plus stones on the fittings the threads still would not engage so I resorted to G clamps as well as the big Record vice with soft inserts . GRIM JOB !!
More fittings are due out tomorow so I should have the worst of this side of things decided by the weekend .
Sorry should have rotated the first picture .



Friday, 16 July 2010

CANTON IN LINE OIL FILTER .


As well as the jic fittings for the Jiffy-Tites , the Caton -12 in line oil filter turned up .

However with the fittings it is 27cm long so in order to fit it on the 19mm bore hose between the sump outlet and dry sump pump at least one of the straight push on couplings will have to be changed for a 90 .

I have taken Mr Sideways old advice and purchased a Dremel mini auger and cutting discs to cut my taped up Aeroquip hoses .

The AH Fabrication Escort MK2 expansion tank hopefully completes the main water components .

Thursday, 15 July 2010

JIFFY-TITES .


In the hope that I might get my dry sump tank plumbed in this weekend I obtained these very tasty Jiffy-Tites along with bulkhead fittings from Think-autos , these quick connect fittings might be expensive but once fitted all round will make engine removal so much easier .

The other fittings are jic -10 fittings for the pump .

Think are also sending an inline oil filter to sit between the sump and pump .

This means I should have all I need for one stage of the dry sump pump at least .

Friday, 9 July 2010

FIVE MONTHS LATER !




I am relieved to have receive my pump bracket after numerous e.t.a's .
It needs very minor mods as expected but looks good to go once these are done . This means I can then set the engine position for once and for all and get the mounts welded up .

Monday, 14 June 2010

COIL .

Dry coil pack and throttle position sensor .
Missed Bromley pagent yesterday , drove passed there twice on Saturday evening and saw nothing to indicate it was on on Sunday . Did not even twig when Gary texted to say are you going , took it it was on some upcoming weekend . Old muppet syndrome I guess !!

Friday, 11 June 2010

OMEX .


This took less than 24 hours to get to me from Northampton Motor Sport , cant be bad .
A dry pack coil and throttle possition sensor are still to follow .
I wanted to retain my distributor if at all possible to retain period look and this allows me to do that .
Thanks to peoples advice pushing me down this route some months ago , makes good sense now .
I also tried posting a thank you and update on Mr Sideways site but found myself SHUT OUT, not sure what is going on there ?
I need to phone Titans today and see when my d.s.p bracket is arriving .

Monday, 7 June 2010

FIRST ROUGH TRIAL FIT .


This evening I decided to spend an hour just roughly fitting the main components for the first time to see how much room there would be in general .
It soon became clear that the best place for the dry sump tank would be neatly tucked into the corner of the passengers footwell , leaving more room under the bonnet and bringing the centre of gravity further rearwards . The Caterham race rad makes things easier being reasonably small and the accusump could possibly be mounted to the susspension turret brace seen here as a bit of 3"x1" timber . This should all leave plenty of room for laminova , swirl pots , thermostats and filters etc .
I am still waiting for my estimate for the Omex 200 and associated bits but that should certainly be here by tuesday .
It does not matter how much progress one makes the list of things still to be done never seems to get any shorter !

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

BIRDS EYE VIEW .

Not even enough room to apply full lock ----- grass is allways greener , eh !!

INDUCTION PROGRESS



Engineering Solutions in Bexley Kent returned my plennum today and I have to recommend them on their quality of work , time keeping and pricing .
As long as I do not land on my front d/s wheel on full left lock things should be O.K.
The plennum will be linked to the K and N Apollo remote filter at the front of the car .
Titans are due to finnish the dry sump bracket on the twelth of this month , Allthough I have to say I will be more than surprised if this date is met .
There were two main issues I felt had to be overcome in this build ( which I purchased in engineering ignorance from the original owner ) , both needed in order to sit this engine where it belonged and for others sake I should here inform members that the redisign of the pump and bracket alone will cost me £2,300.00 enough to purchase a Spit on its own . The Induction issue thankfully was not so costly .
This should , I think , be enough to encourage other people to do their homework before embarking on a major implant . This venture is certainly teaching me a great deal with every
step .
However I am still very happy to be involved with this car as I am sure it will one day return the favour in full .

Friday, 23 April 2010

REVISED PUMP .



My reversed drive pump turned up from Titans yesterday . I am yet to hear how much they are to charge for this revision but I hope it is not too astronomical as I still have the new bracket to pay for yet .( see , you learn something looking up in a dictionary instead of spellcheck --- Astronomical unit = 149.6 million KM , the distance between the center of the earth and the center of the sun . No doubt old news to Starman ! )

Monday, 12 April 2010

INDUCTION .


Seems my only progress of late has been a slow accumilation of parts and these are the latest .
A KandN Apollo in line filter which will feed my dcoe cool air and a shallow Parts Range Plennum which will go to Engineering Solutions in Bexley next week to be squared off on top and bottom to give me the wheel clearence needed .
I also now have short trumpets to fit the plennum and a carb banjo and hose .
Also not shown I purchased a pair of fitting brackets and JIC fittings ( including a one way valve ) for my accusump .
Titans are overdue with the return of my pump but they seem sure it will return this week .
I have had to purchase and fit new fencing to my garden over the last couple of weeks which looks good but has eaten much money that might have been available .
At least the weather has improved !
I keep meaning to say , if any one lives or is passing any where near S.E London area it would be good hear from you . Matt .

Saturday, 27 February 2010

ONE LESS WORRY ? CARB/WHEEL ISSUE .




Apart from an increased amount of work sorting the air supply and wheel arch squeeze , I am relived this questionable issue appears manageable .
I have been looking at some of Reverie's air boxes which look promosing . Luckily the trumpets can be reduced right down which opens more possibilities.

Friday, 26 February 2010

RAIN THERAPY !


A package is allways welcome even though with my current progress and lack of funds , I think it might be quite some time yet before this car is where it should be .............. ON THE ROAD !!
Thanks to Guy for setting up the 40 DCOE ( just need to swap the chokes and reverse the linkage mech' ) , fabricating this fine one off manifold , sourcing the Helix clutch and for packing this lot up so well , very efficient !
This weather has not helped at all , neither Psycologically or in my ability to carry out external work but I guess it must change sometime .

Thursday, 4 February 2010

LOOKING GOOD !


Bar a small additional bevel needed on the top arm to increase clearance from the supercharger belt , these drawings are now good to go . All works out in theory but however confident I feel , until its all fitted together I can still not be certain .

A big thank you to Stuart and Dave at Titans who did very well considering the amatuerish drawings they had to work from .

Foolishly I did get a shock by forgeting about the dreaded VAT which means I am going to be broke for the next month or so . Still as I said before , assuming this works , it will make a massive difference to this build , so it has to be worth the sacrifice .

Thursday, 28 January 2010

More bits .


Nothing posted through my door only to find on phonning Demmons these have been sitting in my neighbours hall for three days .

Now I need to probe G.C. forum to establish the optimum layout for this engine .

I have decided to return to Titans soon to ensure for once and for all the pump bracket drawings are as they should be . I must confess I realised I made one stupid oversite myself and failed to allow space for the aeroquip fittings but luckily this was easily modified .

It seems day return tickets might be as low as £14.00 to Cambridge so I might take the train and cycle , motorways are so borring !

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Drawings back from Titan/ few bits .


Titan have sent out their cad drawings of the revised pump bracket , basicaly as expected but a couple of issues they have overlooked will need to be revised ( so it goes on ! ) but no reason why this should take too long and the drawings can then be signed off and bracket machined . This will be a major hurdle overcome . Had the origional builder done his homework I could have saved £1300.00 on dry sump pump revisions !

In the meantime Think have sent out a few bits to use in planning the layout of the oil cooling and dry sump system and Samco and AH fabrication water system samples should be turning up from Demmons tomorow . All new to me but with a bit of effort and peoples advise IT SHALL BE DONE .

I also spoke to Guy today and my DCOE manifold is soon going to be ready , nice !