318iS race car - back on track

[rix313]

Cheers Mart

Today I had a nice delivery from the postman. My Cotswolds BMW bits, Deutsch plugs and a joiner for the cooling system.

Now the BMW bits have arrived I was able to finish the last valve and get the head bolted down properly (it was merely balanced on in the previous photos). With this fitted it enabled me to test fit these bad boys



I need to now figure out how to make a fuel rail for it, fit an air temp sensor to the airbox, modify the pipework underneath for the ICV and I imagine it could to with some bracing too.


When I incorporate the oil and water temp sensors into the engine loom I realised I needed to add a connector in order to keep the loom fully independent from the chassis. So I ordered some more Deutsch plugs and fitted one of them for both sensors. a 6 way plug was perfect as each sensor cable has three wires. I then mounted it on a TC105 cable tie saddle which is attached to the loom carrier with Loctite 330 adhesive (it's great the nice bits you acquire in the motorsport industry).




Next I bought a 20mm hose joiner to connect the coolant port at the back of the head to the black water manifold on the side of the engine to complete the heater delete. There is a threaded boss under the pipe I was trying desperately to stop the pipe rubbing against. I ended up sticking the joiner in the lathe (again, god love it) and modifying it to suit. All the jubilee clips aren't really pretty but I'm really happy with the end result and a simpler system.






Final note:

I decided to weigh everything I removed and compare it to everything I was replacing it with and modifying. The standard cluster, loom, intake, air box, heater and bulkhead panel were 18kg all told. The new loom, ITB set up, bulkhead panel and cluster came in at 9kg! That is a 9kg saving as a result of all of this work PLUS a simpler car and (I hope) more power. Win, win, WIN!

[shedrool83]

9kg saving is great.Love this thread and the car. The pic of it on two wheels is cool ,would of be epic if not for the e46 but still a great pic .

[rix313]

Glad you're enjoying it I try to make it interesting.

Today has felt like a good step forwards, much like when I finally finished the loom. The ITB set up is bolted on and in its final home. Before it could go on I had to play around with the ICV location. As standard the set up is supplied with hoses that come pre-assembled on the bottom of the throttle bodies. However while it worked off the car, it certainly was no use when bolted in. The ICV was pushing the loom box down and was hitting other components. Not to mention the connector would have been too short to reach it.



So I dug into my giant box of rubber hoses, fittings etc and set about making something. To be quite honest, I am dead happy with the outcome. I ended up using the off cuts of the old heater matrix pipes and I still can't get over how well it worked out and how factory it looks! I also tweaked the standard ICV bracket so it is correctly mounted too! Now all the hoses and components underneath have plenty of clearance and I don't have to think about anything rubbing.




Lastly; The loom case needed some support at the rear as it is usual held up by the manifold which of course, is no longer there. I fabricated an aluminium bracket, profiled the bottom section to fit the contour of the starter motor. I then used two strong cable ties as well as some A330 Loctite adhesive underneath. Job done.




Big thought for this evening is once I have made the fuel rail, everything will be ready to turn the key and hope to god it all works

[rix313]

Up next was to change the clusters over. Again, years ago I bought a stepper motor tacho from SPA. Removing the old cluster and fitting this saved me 1.1kg on its own!! (This has been included in the 9kg I mentioned before). I chose the version with has a digital speedo and odometer. I’ve wired it into the tacho signal from the ecu and you can program it to work with the standard speed sensor. Obviously I cannot test yet. It lights up at least. I then changed the other gauges to blue so they all match.






A bit of house keeping as well. The seasons started to take their toll with stone chips etc so I gave the grilles a paint as well as the lower balance and splitter. Looks much better now.




The intake pipe ended up being another easy job. I bought a 45degree 70mm O/D pipe from eBay with leg lengths of 240mm. Coupled with a new K&N filter which sits directly over my cold air feed from the valance. I didn’t have to cut or modify a thing it is perfect. The pipe was shiny chrome which I hated so I dulled it down with some scotch bright.






I made a good start on the fuel rail. I bought a 14mm mill slot drill to make the hole for the injectors. I knocked up a test bobbin and made use of the standard injector clip to hold it in place. Then I cut the 25mm x 13mm aluminium box section to length and drilled it for the bobbins. I opted for 2mm wall section to make welding the parts on easier. I’ll have AN6 fittings at each end for the feed and return.











Only problem is I should have bought a 13.5mm drill as the 14mm doesn’t quite hold the o-ring tight enough. So that stopped me in my tracks on that front. It did allow me to line up my fuel pressure regulator. Attached to this is a dry break. I will have one of these on the feed and return. A; it allows me to disconnect the system and not get fuel everywhere and B; I will continue to pump my fuel out.




This is what I have been left with in the engine bay. I’m really happy with it. I have a few more plans to free up some space and then I’ll start buying AN6 braided hoses and fittings to make the fuel system.





Matching car covers for Poppy and Winston. Safely tucked up while I go away for work.

[rix313]

Ciao all. Obviously with he current situation I have been given A: more time to work on the car. However B: no income to buy anything for the car. As such my fuel system dream will have to wait for now.

Before all this cack happened I did buy a Tilton overhung pedal assembly while in the states. I bought a range of cylinders after Lewis (ganglyboffin) did some calculations for me. I also bought their small all in one reservoir and a bias cable. I removed all the standard servo and pedal box and set about working out how to fit it. For LHD cars where is a bolt in solution available from the states. Sadly in the UK we have the battery tray and the steering column to contend with. As far as I could find, there wasn't anything similar.

First I mocked both assemblies up. Thankfully the lengths and angles were pretty similar so a great starting point.




So some CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) and some old thin aluminium door cards came to the rescue and I mocked up a bracket which uses all the standard mounting points for the strength that would be required.






Then I fudged it in to make myself feel I had accomplished something.




My current plan is to make use of the standard bracket but modify it for my needs. I think this should be really simple and I have a plan for how I'll achieve it. All being well I'll look to have the adaptors and brackets drawn and laser cut in order to make this a much easier conversion for people in the future.

[rix313]

So I've been persevering with the pedal box. I spent a lot of time making the idea in my head, come to reality. I made the carrier box from 3mm steal. It was tough work as I had to use a vice, a hammer and a blow torch to bend the steel and it wasn't pretty so I decided fairly early on this was only ever going to be the next evolution of the mock up.



I pushed on with my plan to adapt the standard pedal assembly and fit the new carrier to it. Initially my main focus was to set the distances with the clutch pedal and master cylinder as they were so very close to the column and the throttle mechanism, it seemed a good place to start.



So far so good, Until I went to fit the brake pedal. Doing this killed the idea instantly. All the bias adjusting mechanism on the pedal clashed with all the webbing and strength from the standard bracket rendering it totally useless. My attention then turned to making the bracket fit on its own so I replicated the top mount bracket and hung the bracket from that. The same method as used on the LHD brackets available online. This worked but it not strong enough to be able to lean on the brake pedal with, god knows how the LHD ones actually work as there needs to be additional bracing. I've added this by attaching it to the old battery tray and an M8 bolt hold it. It feels very solid now.





Mock up complete, I've got a friend drawing up the final version to have it laser cut and folded.


I used what was left of the pedal box and slimmed down, cleaned and painted the throttle assembly ready to be refitted.




Next up I removed the old foam, mechanical, two nozzle extinguisher and swapped it for a gas, electronic, 6 nozzle system. I've installed the cabin nozzle in the dash facing me and installed the two engine bay nozzles in the carbon bulkhead panel pointing and the main fuel and electronic sources. The remaining nozzles will be installed around the fuel tank once it's in.








The brake bias adjuster has found a home utilising the light switch bracket. Yet another carbon plate made and bonded on and it's really nice and in reach from the seat.






My front iS splitter was a gift from Alex Ball who used to frequent this forum and competed with good success in PBMW. The whole time I've had it, it's been a bit worn, a bit used and loved and near enough every time I went on and off the trailer, it got knocked off. As a result, the corners have nothing left to hold it on. FINALLY after years of meaning to do so, I've finally sorted this out and its quick release. Thanks to work I have acquired some live lock body work fixings.








AND NOWWWW THE MAIN EVENT

After waking up one morning and feeling an urge to make sure the engine ran, I anxiously set about trying to start the car. There is currently no fuel tank fitted as it was donated for another one of my 318iS and this car will get a fuel cell in the boot. So I rigged up a system to make it just start. All I wanted to do was hear it do something after rebuilding the engine, modifying the engine loom and installing the Emerald ECU.

I put a fuel pump in a jug of fuel connected to the loom which I pulled from the back, through to the passenger door. I then connected this to the fuel rail with a gauge inline to check the pressure. I then put the return from the FPR into another jerry car I know it is horrendous but I had no option. I plugged the laptop in to check all the sensors were working and all was well! I turned the key for a few seconds, as I was about to give up, the bloody thing started I could not believe it! Still can't! I started it one or two times and it seemed to run ok although sounding awful due to a lack of exhaust system and eventually low fuel.




So since then I have done a few tiny jobs and completed my final fit and instal of the throttle bodies. Now I know it runs, it is my intention to remove the chassis loom and rebuild it to my spec (on top of the pedal box, new brake lines, complete fuel system.... etc etc ) On and in the top left you can see the new brake fluid reservoir installed



Thank for dropping by

[martauto]

WOW
Most of the stuff I have no idea about but the quick release is soooooooo cooooool
I love the way you think about situations, are you an engineer ???? lol.

Mart.

[rix313]

Ha, thanks Mart. In the old fashion sense of the word I like to consider myself an engineer, making things, solving problems. All good fun Just hope it goes as well as it looks haha.

[rix313]

Hope everyone is well. Another week has flown by and here is what I've been up to.

Now I know the engine at least starts I can stop worrying about that and focus on some other jobs. The next MAJOR job is to re-visit the wiring harness for the chassis side of things. When I had this car at college, some 14 years ago, we did strip out a lot of the stuff we didn't need; electric windows, central locking etc etc. So the loom is already somewhat trimmed down. However things like my single headlight conversion, running an electric fan plus some scotch locks I discovered on the rear light loom and having moved everything it makes sense to just remake the loom. I will move the fusebox into the cabin. This will free up space in the engine bay which I'm going to allocate to an oil catch can. I will be using mostly Deutsch connectors and then using elements of the standard loom where possible for the special connectors, for example at the rear lights.

So it's all been pulled out and I've laid it out on my trailer to get an idea of what I need to do.






Whilst rummaging through the box of tricks I've had stored away for this car, I found an AKG shifter. As you do. I even had the M8 anchor nuts and fixings I needed to fit it stashed away so I decided that it had been in the dark long enough and fitted it. Removing the Z3 shifter and the arm mounted to the gearbox was a nightmare, my god. But eventually I got there and got this snazzy beast fitted. I think the Z3 one was short but wow, this thing is like switch in comparison!




The other main task of the week has been the fuel tank. Some 10 years ago I acquired this ATL 30 litre fuel cell and I haven't really known what to do with it. 4/5 years ago I designed and had the top plate made with the pump assembly and since then it's been collecting dust. Originally I made some 3mm aluminium straps for it with the rather simple idea of just bolting it to the floor in the spare wheel well. Given the shape of the well, it became apparent this was a crap idea. So I made a cradle from some aluminium angle, turned some feet up for it then remade the brackets which hold the tank in the frame. Dropped it off at my fabricator mates house and a couple of hours later it was done!

I am waiting for the correct M10 bolts to arrive to bolt it on finally. The cradle is quite a thing but this is not somewhere to skimp on safety and strength. All in all it is just shy of 2kg lighter than the standard tank. Not amazing but there are lots of advantages to a tank like this. It is foam filled so reduced or eliminated fuel surge, it is stronger than a steal tank and much more versatile.

Pictures from start to finish.
















Once I had the tank in situ I then mounted the extinguisher nozzles and pipework. I opted to mount them in the firewall facing towards the tank. I still will use the remaining boot space to transport my spares in and I didn't want them getting knocked. this hopefully gives the best of both worlds.





It also allowed me to route the rest of this line and connect it to the extinguisher.




Throttle mechanism has been refitted now too and the holes in the bulkhead have been covered with some carbon plates. Once they are dry I'll be drilling the hole for the throttle cable to go through.




Finally, Cardboard Aided Design met the Computer version and we have the first version being made up soon for test fitting of the peddle box. Looking forward to seeing the results of this for sure.




All remaining jobs such as the fuel system, brake lines, wiring loom will have to wait until I can start spending money again

[JungleGus]

I love the workmanship - thanks for the great read, have been following this one for a wee while now. Great to see in action!

[martauto]

I love the workmanship - thanks for the great read, have been following this one for a wee while now. Great to see in action!

What this man says
Great approach to things

Mart.

[rix313]

Much appreciated guys! This car means a lot to me as it really does document my journey though life and my career for the last 14 years!

So first go for this week, I wanted to use M10 cap head bolts to fix the fuel tank frame into the boot. This posed its own unique challenges as the bobbins needed to be counter bored to accept the head of the bolt. I ended up buying a range of drill bits and machining tools to achieve my goal. In hindsight I should have done this on the lathe but the fixing method progressed from using keenserts to this very quickly once I looked at it.







The bolts I used were M10 cap heads as previously mentioned. As luck would have it I had four which had the exact length shank I wanted. The shank is where the strength is so it’s always worth specing a bolt which is too long but has the correct shank. It’s then a simple case of cutting the excess thread off and tidying it up.



Once the bolts were the right length, it didn’t make sense to me to have all those big bolts attached to the thin wheel-well material. So I made two spreader plates from some chequer plate aluminium. This should grip on the under seal and add a lot of extra strength.



So finally it is all in!






During the pedal box faffing I noticed to my horror there was a small rust hole in the floor. So I cut that out and my super welder guy welded in the replacement plate.





I also found when the guy fitted the cage a couple of years ago, he didn’t treat the area he welded and as such it had started to rust. Thankfully race tracks don’t get salty so the rust was only on the surface and cleaned up. I painted it with rust proofing primer and layer it with wax oil.






Nasty stuff out the way I focused on what is, let’s face it, the fun stuff and continued with fitting ‘new bits’. I turned my attention to the brake lines. I remade the front to rear line but haven’t terminated it yet as I want to wait until the pedal box is in properly. I also made the front brake lines and a new clutch line. While doing this I trimmed part of the battery tray away to give me some space to run and mount the lines. I’m waiting for a T piece to arrive for the front lines and again, when the pedal box is in I can finish and terminate the remaining pipes once I know where everthing sits.



[




Lastly I was tired of the rather rubbish quality vinyl on the bonnet. To be fair to it, it’s been on there a long time but it had given up the ghost along the ridges in the middle and broken. So rather than having to re-wrap the whole bonnet I decided I’d have a bit of a play. I cut away the offending area and gave myself a pair of whole stripes on the bonnet. I’m rather fond of them! I may get some black pinstripe to define them a little more but I’m actually really chuffed with the result!








I also decided to weigh some of the stuff I’ve removed, stuff I’m going to fit to see the difference. At the moment the approximate tally is I have saved 20kg with all the modifications I’ve made so far! Coupled with the fact they’ve all been performance based modifications, this certainly feels like the car is an ‘revolution’ compared to how it was before I start this work.

So that’s all again for this week! I have various bits hopefully arriving next week so I can continue to tick off jobs. There’s a sniff I maybe starting some work in the next week or so as well, so that’ll mean I get start buying fuel lines and wiring loom parts

[martauto]

Quality work mate,
Love that welding , keep that lad in beer
Stainless bolts and not from China etc is the way to go buy you knew that .lol

Mart.

[rix313]

Quality work mate,
Love that welding , keep that lad in beer
Stainless bolts and not from China etc is the way to go buy you knew that .lol

Mart.

He visits frequently as his Mrs has mk1 Clio Williams which they have got stuck into. Lots of rust on it sadly but they’ve made some great progress.

Also regarding bolts, stainless bolts are actually more brittle! Self colour (black) bolts have the higher tensile strength as they have not been put through any plating process. Coated bolts are often 10.1, most are 8.8, anything less than that is good for fack all

—————————————————————

So another week has sailed on by, it never ceases to scare me lol.

To carry over from last week I finished 95% of the brake lines. I fitted the t-piece in the engine bay for the front lines and made the first run at the clutch, front and rear lines to connect to the master cylinders. I mounted the pedal box in on the ‘development’ bracket so I can have them all sorted when the proper bracket arrives. Sadly the fittings I had were too short so I’ve had to order some longer ones so I can finish this portion off.








I wanted to run an oil catch tank. It makes no sense to clog up the throttle bodies, intake and cylinders with waste oil vapours. We want that burn to be clean air and fuel! With the removal of the fuse box I saw this as the perfect place to put an oil catch tank. Mocal ones are woefully expensive and after some research there are some very well priced ones on eBay. Now I’ve bought an eBay special before and I could not believe how heavy it was so that got moved on. The one I bought is probably from the same Chinese factory as the Mocal ones but cost £25. It arrived quickly and frankly it is AMAZING value. It’s perfect. So I made an aluminium adaptor plate to mount it to the fuse box bracket and it looks like it was always meant to be there!





Now the fittings it came with are only 9mm and the breather hose from the engine is 18mm. So I decided that I wanted to use this as an excuse to practice cutting threads on my lathe. After some trial and error and YouTube videos I cut the M14x1.5 thread on a piece of aluminium and made a new adaptor so I can run 18mm hose from start to finish Final piece of the puzzle will be to order some pipe and I plan to fit an E36 rocker cover as the breathe spout is at the back of the cover and it’ll make the pipe run neater.






I have decided to swap out the mechanical battery isolator for an electronic one. This Tyco b200 is inexpensive and something I have used on various GT cars over the years. I also changed the cable for 16mm cable instead of the 25mm I had been using. 25mm is just over the top plus it’s heavier and bulkier to route. The relay sits next to the ECU with the cable, cable tied to the extinguisher line. I’m waiting for some crimp terminals to arrive to connect the engine loom power cables to the isolator. There will be a main switch inside and then an external cut off as per racing regulations. I also had my fire extinguisher serviced. There is a rule from the manufacturer that they ‘can’t’ service them if the service has lapsed for 6 years. By chance I found that my extinguisher was a day away from this peril! Not ideal when it would cost £600 to replace. Thankfully it was sorted and I got it back and fitted.





On the subject of the extinguisher, I chose to mount the control box next to the hand brake. This means I can easily switch it on and off from the seat. The old mechanic one used to catch me out all sometimes if I forgot to take the pin out. Strapped into the car and waiting to go out. The last thing you want to have to do is rush your belts off, take the pin out then get strapped back in. I’ve ordered some two core wire to complete the wiring. It runs off its own 9v battery and again a has an internal and external switch.

[rix313]

I dug out my E36 M42 rocker cover to continue the breather system alterations. It was pretty grimy, it took some elbow grease, a wire wheel and a cleaning tank to get it clean enough to paint but I got there in the end. The VHT (Very High Temp) paint I bought turned out to be matte finish which is a recipe for disaster seeing as I have chosen to keep the cover white. I painted it with this paint as it's all I had but today I picked up some glosss white radiator paint which I have smothered it with. I need to give it some more coats then I can swap them over.




I ordered a small filter for my catch tank and fitted that. I did have one but it was blue, which of course wouldn't do when the 'theme' of the car is red, black and white. I also wired in the external switch for the fire extinguisher. I decided to keep the external pull cable to use for the battery isolator. I had looked at some trick relay boards which turn on and off with momentary signals however it did dawn on me that is important to keep things simple. For example was the board designed to be in a hard, vibrating environment (no), if it fails I could fail scrutineering, what if it cut out during a race? the list goes on. For scrutineering, any electrical cut off has to be able t be reset from the drivers seat. There are expensive options available fro the likes of Cartek however I have had countless experiences of these failing and they are also expensive. SO! I shall use a toggle switch, wired in series with the main power switch which the external pull cable 'kill's. I tested the theory with my old dash panel and it works great. I have a new one being laser cut and folded so also made an experimental version (more Cardboard Aided Design) so I have everything sorted for when it arrives,








Over the last 2 months I have been planning my fuel system. Finally I ordered everything I needed (or so I thought). I set to work fitting it all. It was another good lesson in theory vs practice. In my mind I had it all planned out as best I could but once all the parts arrived I quickly realised that this wasn't the case. A few alterations but finally it all worked out. One main change was the FPR location. the fittings were slightly larger than I anticipated so I needed to relocate it. I'm actually much happier with where it is now. Also removing the servo in favour of the brake pedal box has been an absolute life saver for this job. I'll start at the front and work back.

Fuel filter mounted with Staubli dry break (this one will allow me to pump the fuel out of the car so I know my fuel consumption so I can calculate the correct fuel level I need). This then goes to the fuel rail. Then there is the new fuel return and FPR set up. I have a dry break going into the fuel pressure regulator. Using dry breaks enables me to easily disconnect the fuel system if, for example,I have to remove the engine, Between the Staubli and the FPR is the sensor for the fuel pressure gauge. Furthermore, to the left of the FPR is the battery junction box. I decided to fit this for the engine loom electronics to connect to the battery isolator to keep everything modular and not clutter up the isolator terminals.





In to the cabin the lines run down from the bulkhead, and along the tunnel with the rest of the lines. I have used rubber lined P clips and in the gaps, large cable tie saddles and cable ties. It's worth noting at this point the fuel lines are PTFE internal pipe which is reinforced with stainless steel braided with a cotton braid over the top. Racing regulations require this as standard rubber fuel hose allows fumes to leak through and the cabin stinks of fuel and gives you head aches.



In this pic I also will point out the fire extinguisher wiring and plug. Internal and external switches wired into a 2 pin DTM connector which sits nicely between everything. Wiring in and testing an electric extinguisher system is quite nerve racking. If done incorrectly causing it to go off, there is no stopping it, and they are expensive to refill!





And into the boot to the fuel tank. The lines are organise and lined up to allow me to also load my storage boxes in the boot for transporting the spares and equipment I need to events.






I've been informed my laser cut metal parts will be finish mid week, next week. This includes my pedal box bracket which I'm keen to see and hope very much it fits as I hope. Assuming all is well there, it'll be great to finally get the brakes finished. I've also started picking away at the old chassis loom to see how much of it I can re-use for my new loom.

Watch this space

[DanThe]

Some great mods happening Rich

How do you find those isolators with regards battery life? Do they cut the battery off completely or still have a small drain?

[rix313]

To be fair Dan I actually am not sure! When we leave an event we always disconnect the batteries for travel so they only stay connected for 4 days max. In between sessions the cars were always on charge because of the laptop c*nts being permanently attached to the car

[steve_k]

love the updates.

the level of attention to detail is astounding.

in regards to the oil catch tank, i bought one of ebay last year, it was a copy of the BMS (burger motorsports) N54 one for my 2.7 m20 it cost me £30 (far better than the £200+ bms want), fitted perfectly & wasn't to heavy,

just goes to show whats out there if you look hard enough.

keep the updates coming.

[rix313]

Thanks Steve

I haven't got a super duper amount done this week. I swapped the cam covers over and fitted a length of silicone breather pipe. Swapping the covers may seem a bit extreme really but it's made running the breather pipe much neater.




I didn't post a picture of the fuel rail lines last week so here's that.




Most importantly is I have got little bit more done on my wiring loom. A couple of weeks ago I started the painstaking job of designing the wiring loom. Something I have no prior experience in so again it seemed a great time to start and learn another new skill. I decided to start drawing it on Excel which has been a handy tool. It's maybe not the fastest way to do it but it's helped me a lot. I've done scribbles in my note pad then once I've got an idea I then take to Excel to 'draw' it. These are some screen shots of my overall schematic. I've got as far as numbering plugs, allocating which pins do what, cross referencing where each pin needs to end up. I've no doubt there is still a tonne of information to add as I go but it's something I sit down in the evening and faf about with.







My plan is to try and utilise existing wiring for the most part. New wire reels are pretty cheap but for the purposes of any fault diagnosis it is handy to have colour coded wires. That said, the new loom will be so simple and slimmed down there won’t be much fishing around to find wires. Bearing in mind this loom was already reworked, this is the old fuse box and the wire I’ve taken out. Any long lengths, large gauge etc wire I have been removing and coiling up to save for later.




The first part I’ve done on the car itself wiring wise is to remove the wiper stalk. It was without doubt the biggest pain in the arse for its positioning. I was for ever kicking It and knocking it when climbing in and out. Hardly a first world problem but I’m happy that from now on, this will be no more lol. I also have a bit of a plan for the indicator and high beam stalk. I’m still trying to plan it but ultimately what I have done so far is remove the side light wires from the stalk and fit a 6 pin Deutsch plug ready for when I do the rest of the dash wiring. I chose to keep the flasher relay on the column as its simpler this was, and it frees up a space on the new fuse box. For removing the wires, a solder sucker was simply the best tool ever and made this super easy.








I've a large order of plugs and wiring bits arriving this coming week so I can start to physically see what will sit where and how best to route everything. Hopefully I can make some good steps forward on that. Fingers crossed my brake pedal box bracket turns up too. what was promised to be a week has been nearly three now

[martauto]

Great stuff as always Rich, that idea with Excel is really cool and a lovely example of "thinking differently"

Mart.

[rix313]

It's been super helpful and a crucial tool. It's developing as I go. Now I've started to actually crack on with it I note down which plug is where, wire colours, PIN numbers etc. Not that I anticipate any issues once running but it'll be very handy to have as I go through it.



My order of connectors and bits arrived last week. Came from a company called Polevolt, very impressed with their service. I have a good amount to stuff to crack on now so I've been working on starting at the rear and working my way forward.



First up was the lights. At some point long ago this car must have had a tow hitch on it because the rear light loom was scotch locked. Although it has been 'fine' up to now, I didn't want to do all this work then have an issue. So I decided to fit a plug here. £20 worth of flipping Deutsch connector for the privilege The fuel pump and wheel speed sensor plugs are mounted in the wheel arch. I had to slap myself a bit as I was so focused on using the original 1.5mm wire for the pump, but the Bosch 044 pump I have really needs a bigger wire to be safe. SO! I have run a 2mm cable to the pump and connected the earth to the one which is in the cabin which also serves the rear lights. I just need to do the speed sensor wires then I can wrap and clip these in place.








I continued through into the cabin. I have mounted the 12v to 5v converter for the go pros on the wheel arch. There is then the 5v along with the signal wire to turn them on which will go to the dash.



The go pro connectors I soldered up a while back now were joined at a 3 pin plug which nicely sits in-between one of the brackets. Then the wires run down the roll cage.








My laser cutting stuff has also arrived. This includes the brake pedal box bracket. But I haven't had a chance to properly look at that yet. The other part I was waiting for was my new Lowe dash panel or 'kill panel' as I call it. I'm really happy with how it has come out. Far left is the extinguisher which is purposefully away from the others to avoid accidentally pressing. Blue is for the isolator, then the ignition switch toggle and the momentary starter toggle switch. At the bottom is the 'external' battery kill switch which is activated by a pull cable. This switch is in series with the blue button and is 'normally on'. This set up allows me to 'reset' the switch from inside which is a requirement for certain racing series. It also adds a layer of security by making more complicated for anyone should they want to try and drive it off.








This coming week I plan to focus on the brake pedal box bracket and get that all finished off. Finish the Reservoir brake likes then fill the system with fluid and get them bled up. This will then allow me to get the dash re-fitted and continue with the wiring

[rix313]

So it's been another week of being surrounded by wires, cable ties and head scratching. I decided to modify the 'kill panel' wiring and replaced the insulated terminals for non insulated ones with covers. Reason being non insulated ones fold over on the wire and the crimp is much stronger and more secure. I also re-configured some of the switches which I'll explain shortly.



I then finished the switch and gauge panel with the same terminals on the switches. Also shortened and terminated the gauge sensor wires. I forgot to add a couple of extra tails as I intend to send the oil pressure, oil temperature and fuel pressure signals to the ECU for the internal data logger.




Back to the reconfigurations! After plugging everything in to run some tests, it transpired there was some back feed from the ECU which was preventing the main relay from turning off when the ignition 12v was removed. So I had a think, contacted Emerald who yet again were amazingly helpful and came up with a solution. I ended up adding a third relay to the engine loom. There is the fuel pump relay, the main relay which switches on the ECU and provides the gauges and switches with their 12v feeds. The third new relay now powers the injectors and the coil packs and is switched by the toggle on the kill panel. This means now that everything comes on when the master switch is pressed except the injectors and coils. This has two benefits for me: first, I can crank for oil pressure without the car starting and all of the gauges, ECU etc will remain on. Second is it will help to show as a large visual reminder that the battery master switch is on thus prevents for getting about it and the battery going flat.




I've completed all the wiring under the dash now and I'm happy with how it is all run. I need to finalise a couple of bits to complete the run to the fuse box and I still need to fit the wires for the head lights and wipers, but you get the idea.






Finally on the wiring front, I've run the wheel speed wires and wrapped the fuel tank wires then cable tied them all down with cable tie saddles.




I took some time out of the wiring to fit the first version of the peddle box bracket. All seems well with it and happy with the results. Once I knew it worked, I made some spacers for the rear mounts welded it all together and painted it.






Then bolted it all in and finished off all the brake lines which was very satisfying after all this time. Sadly, the 19.1mm master cylinders I bought have a lot of free play between the piston and the rod. The other cylinders I have don't have anywhere near the same movement. I have contacted Tilton, however I will likely make something up on the lathe so I can get them fitted and finally bleed the brakes! Also just waiting for some 1/4UNC (good old Americans) cap heads to arrive to fix the top of the pedal box to the bracket. It seems really strong and these final fixings should take any slight movement out of the frame.






Leaving now with this picture. It made me laugh because I turned the workshop lights off but my spotlight was still on inside the car. Looked like a museum exhibit to me

[rix313]

It feels funny to me I was updating this thread every Sunday for 8 or 9 weeks on the bounce. As lock down stuff eased I've been back to work again so progress has slowed a little. I was also a bit burned out after spending so much time working on the thing. So some updates...

I finished off the wiring at the front end. Originally I was just going to run my outer headlights with a dual filament LED bulb which would enable it to flash faster that a standard Halogen. I then decided I would run the 'inner' light as my normal lights and then have the outer ones as the fast flashing ones. I have used a series of timer relays and flasher modules so when the flash stalk is momentarily pulled, it will activate a flasher module for a fixed period of time. I've tested it on the bench so looking forward to seeing it work on the car.

So with details like that sorted I could wire up the headlights, select plugs and route the wires.







As I opted to do a bit of recycling, I used as much of the old wiring loom as possible. This is the box of what was left



The fuse box is a work in progress at home. I have been wiring all the connected relays and bits but soon it will be time to take it to the workshop and start the process of attaching It to the car.




Back to the pedal box! After some conversations with Tilton they seemed happy with the amount of 'lash' between the piston and the push rod on my 5/8 master cylinders. I was not! There was so much play in it the rod was wanking around, when attached to the pedal this was only exacerbated. So I took to the lathe and made some replacement retaining collars which reduced the 'lash' down to next to zero. Reassembled the cylinders and then set about the trial and error process of fitting the box, seeing there the pedal sat and adjusting the rod lengths to get the correct pedal position. As a static test I think they are ok but I'm sure when it comes to the practice side of things they may need adjusting. something I can't say I'm looking forward to as room under the dash is almost zero



But here is the finished product. As a side note this bracket is available for sale or as a complete kit





I did a quick brake bleed on my own and all seems well so far. Once my ramp is free I will get all the wheels off and some able assistants to come and help bleed everything properly Since it was bolted in I then refitted the dash and fitted all the gauges etc back in. A good bit of visual progress and nice to know the pedal box is finally in too. This does mean going back to the top of this post that I can now focus on getting the fuse box in and bring him back to life with some power. Ultimately once that is done I can put some fuel in and then start him up again and see how he engine performs for some live mapping on a rolling road!

So (for now at least) this is my finished engine bay

[steve_k]

looks like it's coming along at a fair old pace, keep it up,

anymore info on the LED headlights? it's something i've been thinking about for a while.

[martauto]

Spot on Rich, great work and lovely detail

Mart.

[rix313]

looks like it's coming along at a fair old pace, keep it up,

anymore info on the LED headlights? it's something i've been thinking about for a while.

Hey Steve. For my application I don't have to really worry about beam patterns or night time performance, they are there to be visible and to make my jazzy headlight flasher system work (I'll post a video of this in the next update ). As such I can't really comment on how good they are I'm afraid.

[steve_k]

looks like it's coming along at a fair old pace, keep it up,

anymore info on the LED headlights? it's something i've been thinking about for a while.

Hey Steve. For my application I don't have to really worry about beam patterns or night time performance, they are there to be visible and to make my jazzy headlight flasher system work (I'll post a video of this in the next update ). As such I can't really comment on how good they are I'm afraid.

No worries dude.

[rix313]

No worries dude.

Hi Steve,

So I ordered some H1 bulbs for the inner lights but I will not be using them. Granted, I bought cheap as I don't need them to really function as night lights, so as such the quality of the ones that arrived weren't great. Maybe more expensive/branded ones will be better? The body of the LED bulbs are quite large so you would likely need to remove the water proof cap from the rear and change the connector.

[NoTurbo]

This is the best build thread I have read In ages!

Great work Rich.

[rix313]

This is the best build thread I have read In ages!

Great work Rich.

I really appreciate that dude, thank you

-----------------------------------------------------------------

I can now finally say I have finished the wiring loom (Thank F*CK!). I admit I wasn't anticipating it taking this long but it was my first foray into this sort of thing so it was a huge learning curve. I found myself doing something, realising there was a better way or maybe I should add XYZ while I was at it and found my self redoing some bits, 2 or 3 times. I had a couple of hick ups with a dodgy earth at a relay causing the lights to do random stuff, then a thermal event with the wiper wiring more on that shortly.

Fuse box mounted in rubber AV mounts in the passenger footwell in line with the fire extinguisher. Main power wires go off to the right to the isolator and the loom to the left. The 6 micro relay and 4 mini relay slots have worked out perfectly. 2x micro for the head lights, 1x micro for the rain light and 2x micro for each circuit of the heated screen (haven't got one yet). Then there is the timer on relay for the headlight flashes system, timer off relay which in turn activates the heated screen relays (this turns them off after 60 seconds), starter relay and a somewhat overkill go pro power circuit relay (i had to fit this to make the circuit work correctly). If I ever found I needed to expand I can always repurpose the starter and go pro relays into micro relays and add another bank of 6 slots but I can't imagine I will need to.







Tunnel with 'kill panel', isolator and the ECU.



Switches labelled with jazzy gold and black dymo labels.



Engine bay gubbins.





Aaaand my Simtek Bodylogic Wiper controller that has got me out of the poo and saved me a tonne of head aches. My friend and I did manage to get the wipers to park in the slow function, but we had a bit of an issue with the fast wiper function. While we were looking at it, to my horror I saw smoke appearing from under the fuse box. Thankfully I killed the power in time and the only damage was to a couple of easily replaceable wires. After this I decided to try and build a test rig from some spare relay holders on the bench. This proved aggravating and as such I lost interest and set about looking for other solutions. I've dealt with Simtek in the past and they really know their stuff. They do this really neat little wiper controller module which sorts out all the park functions, is capable of variable speed intermittent wiping, plus wipe/wash. I am not using this thing to it's full potential as I just needed the fast and slow + park function. It came with the fly loom, easy instructions and it made me smile so much just to plug the thing in and watch them work.




Small video of the headlights. One feature of the sports and GT cars I work on is they have a flash button for when lapping slower traffic or intimidation purposes. A bit over kill for my car but it's a feature I wanted to have. It works with LED bulbs, a 'strobe' relay module, a change over relay and a timer relay. I reconfigured the contacts on the indicator stalk so now the forward position is just the inner lights, the middle position is all the head lights and the momentary flash position triggers the timer relay (I can adjust this to get the right amount of flashes), which then in turn activates the strobe module. Once the timer runs out it switches back to the normal light function.



Soooo yeah! It's all wrapped up, saddled, fixed and plugged in. Final feature list:

• Tyco electronic isolator with external pull cable and resettable internal switch

• Reconfigured indicator and light stalk

• Flasher head lights

• Wiper activation moved to rocker switches on dash

• Heated windscreen wiring (for when I get one)

• Additional sensor input to ECU

• Go pro power and video start switch

• All lights

• Ignition and start switches on centre console

• Electric cooling fan controlled by ECU

A dodgy photo of my exhaust as it stands. When it was made, it was done as a complete unit, so taking it off, storing it, doing ANYTHING was a pain in the arse with a 3 meter long heavy pipe to wave around. Plus it has always been on the quiet side so my friendly fabricator has chopped the centre silencer out, added slip joints so I can add a straight pipe in. I can always add the silencer back in if it is too loud, sounds crap etc. This also saves me the best part of 3kg too so win win win. I've also dug out the bracket which bolts to the gearbox so add an additional hanger to support the front section.



Very lastly for this week. I purchased some motorsport set up equipment from a team I used to work for. So now I can set a proper flat patch to do set up measurements on the car with. Until the exhaust is on and I get some dummy driver weight I can’t get stuck into it. However I did weigh the car with the exhaust sat on the engine bay and the scales came in at 917kg. I am suuuuper happy with that. I do need to add coolant to that figure so that’ll be a touch over 920 I imagine. Plus fuel and me I should be only a fraction over 1000kg

[martauto]

Hell this is sooooooooo good Rich, I was over the moon last weekend when I got the Baur started so God knows how you feel mate !!!
One of if not "the" best build threads I have ever come across.

Mart.

[DanThe]

Looks great Rich, are you booked on for Brands?
Nice weight too, very satisfying when it turns out lighter than you expected

[rix313]

Hell this is sooooooooo good Rich, I was over the moon last weekend when I got the Baur started so God knows how you feel mate !!!
One of if not "the" best build threads I have ever come across.

Mart.

Wow thank you Mart

Looks great Rich, are you booked on for Brands?
Nice weight too, very satisfying when it turns out lighter than you expected

I’m still thinking how I can try and get a little bit more out of it but I am very happy with that figure. I doubt I’ll get a chance for any races this year. Next up is to get it mapped and see where I’m at, then I want to do a couple of track days to get the pedals and everything dialled in.

[rix313]

Been quiet on the Winston front for quite a while! Back in November I dropped the whole car off at BDS. Long story short, the Dbilas cams I bought were utter garbage and detonated the engine when I fired it up! BDS sent them off to be measured. Quite shocking results. They weren’t straight and the lobs had ‘overrun’ which basically meant the back of the lobe, the ‘closed position’ had a lump which was opening the valves at TDC! Total trash. BDS said it’s not the first time they’ve seen it from Dbilas cams.

So! I decided that I would finally get a decent engine built up. Bruno is doing one of his stage three heads with his special 1mm larger light weight valves. M44 bottom end with over sized pocketed pistons. All balanced. He’s doing a short run of custom exhaust manifolds as well. Once it’s running and on the rolling road he will be tuning the plenum. The overall spec should produce great torque across the range and good power too!

It’s coming together now. Only have a couple of photos of the engine. Excited to see the outcome.

[MrBenn]

Lovely stuff Rich! this has been an epic read. Keep it up ;)