Ordered some exhaust bits from eBay and got them welded together by a local custom exhaust place, not the prettiest but functional and avoided having to trailer the car to the exhaust place to have it made up properly which would have cost a fortune.
So.. the first drive of the car out of the garage :-)
(Click the video once its playing to see it larger in youtube)
Who doesn't love a dump valve?
Monday 29 August 2011
Sunday 10 July 2011
Engine Running Properly
All back together, but it still wouldn't start. Before the clutch woes the engine was running then it sluttered out and wouldn't start again. Either meant something had burnt out electronically or no fuel/no spark for some reason. I tested all sensor resistances, the exhaust smelt petroly so I thought that was all ok, and I checked a plug was sparking while the engine was cranking. I thought maybe contaminated fuel, and was just about to start draining when we noticed a fuel pipe into the HP pump was kinked. Took the fuel line off the engine and ... no fuel! Woo Hoo! Longer bit of pipe sourced with a strip of heatshrink-coated aluminium to hold the radius and we were back in business.
Not for long though, oil leak again. Which meant (depressingly) the N/S engine mount, intercooler pipework, exhaust downpipe etc all had to come out. The turbo oil feed adaptor had bottomed out in the block - could tell because the black anodising was stripped off the first couple threads on the adaptor. Using a spare crush washer/copper washer, and loads of PTFE tape the joint was remade, we restarted the engine while it was half dangling on the crane and no leaks.
All back together, here's a video of it finally starting and running well, no leaks, nice and smooth.
Next jobs - trimming inside and getting an exhaust made.
p.s. excuse wobbly camera work on startup, watch the exhaust you'll see why! That was much louder than it was on video.
Not for long though, oil leak again. Which meant (depressingly) the N/S engine mount, intercooler pipework, exhaust downpipe etc all had to come out. The turbo oil feed adaptor had bottomed out in the block - could tell because the black anodising was stripped off the first couple threads on the adaptor. Using a spare crush washer/copper washer, and loads of PTFE tape the joint was remade, we restarted the engine while it was half dangling on the crane and no leaks.
All back together, here's a video of it finally starting and running well, no leaks, nice and smooth.
Next jobs - trimming inside and getting an exhaust made.
p.s. excuse wobbly camera work on startup, watch the exhaust you'll see why! That was much louder than it was on video.
Sunday 3 July 2011
Found another problem, but cured now!!!
So spacer machined, engine back in, clutch bled, still didn't work...
Took it all back out and with some advice from members of Locostbuilders, added a couple of washers behind the spacer to end up with a clearance between clutch fingers and thrust bearing (when fully pushed back against its spring) of about 1.2 - 2mm.
Back together, still no luck. Then read up after an extensive amount of internet searching about the gearbox input shaft possibly to tight into the spigot bearing in the crankshaft. When in 4th the clutch would slip a bit when pedal fully depressed, and in 5th moved easier, but still locked in 1-3. Suggested that something was locking eng and box together but could be overcome with enough effort. Quick and easy way to check, undo the engine to box bolts a bit, pull the two apart and stick a couple washers between each bolt hole. Back together and....
IT WORKED! Clutch depressed and all ok, biting point seemed fine. Lots of money spent replacing cylinders, fluid lines, 3 bottles of fluid and a new slave cylinder unecessarily, oh well at least we're back on track. Few hours later and hoses pipes and wires all back together. Next step - starting the engine again!
Took it all back out and with some advice from members of Locostbuilders, added a couple of washers behind the spacer to end up with a clearance between clutch fingers and thrust bearing (when fully pushed back against its spring) of about 1.2 - 2mm.
Back together, still no luck. Then read up after an extensive amount of internet searching about the gearbox input shaft possibly to tight into the spigot bearing in the crankshaft. When in 4th the clutch would slip a bit when pedal fully depressed, and in 5th moved easier, but still locked in 1-3. Suggested that something was locking eng and box together but could be overcome with enough effort. Quick and easy way to check, undo the engine to box bolts a bit, pull the two apart and stick a couple washers between each bolt hole. Back together and....
IT WORKED! Clutch depressed and all ok, biting point seemed fine. Lots of money spent replacing cylinders, fluid lines, 3 bottles of fluid and a new slave cylinder unecessarily, oh well at least we're back on track. Few hours later and hoses pipes and wires all back together. Next step - starting the engine again!
Saturday 25 June 2011
Found the problem!
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| From Zero 250611 |
So new bigger master cylinder in (can see in the photo how much bigger the new one is), while the engine was out we checked carefully that we were getting full travel on the slave cylinder. I pushed slowly on the pedal while Mike held the thrust bearing pushed back as far as it would go. The full 1 inch of travel was achieved with the pedal on its highest ratio (there's three holes drilled to allow us to vary the pedal ratio). We thought we'd need to get more extension against the clutch cover to spaced out the cylinder with a few washers. Engine back in, still no luck disengaging clutch. Pushed pedal again and 'POP', fluid all over the floor... No option for it but to get engine out. How depressing.
With the engine out it seemed the slave had only slightly over-extended and pushed fluid out as the slave cylinder had gone back into the slave housing. Then after a bit of searching on Locost Builders I thought I'd take another look at the clutch plate. It had witness marks around the outside of the splined bit, it seems the fixed guide tube in the slave was permanently holding the friction disc hard against the flywheel. Some measurements taken, and without the washers we just added, there was only 0.3mm clearance between guide tube and cluth plate...
So, the spacer we had made is too thick. Looking at the clutch cover plate, the pressure ring can only come out 4mm, so we thought we'd skim 4.5mm off the spacer to give a bit of clearance. Just trying to track down a local lathe person today then hopefull we'll be back in business.
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| From Zero 250611 |
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| From Zero 250611 |
Green arrows show depth of plate from finger. Engine face to fingers = 60mm, fingers to plate = 19.3, so engine face to plate = 60-19.3= 40.7
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| From Zero 250611 |
This gives just 0.3mm clearance.
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| From Zero 250611 |
Monday 20 June 2011
More bad times..
Disaster after disaster. We realised that due to the Omega originally running a Dual Mass flywheel which is very thick, and we are using the saab one which is thin, we'd need a spacer behind the clutch slave to make up the distance. Using our previous measurements where we thought all would be fine, we realised that when clutch and gearbox are mated the thrust bearing is pushed back against the spring around the clutch slave (this should make sense if you're looking at it). The thrust bearing is always pre-loaded against the clutch fingers.
Measuring it extended and fully depressed came to 25mm ish, so we had a spacer bought from SBDEV, part ref CLT-HCS-30, lathed down to 24mm.
Fitting it all back together, we bled it through to get what felt like a firm pedal. However depressing the pedal the full travel of the 3/4" bore Land Rover Clutch Master didn'r release the wheels from the engine. Some head scratching and it seems we just aren't shifting enough fluid to fully extend the the slave. So we found a single port 1" dia brake reservoir for a Series 3 Land Rover on ebay and ordered that plus a reservoir. Waiting for delivery to see if we can finally get a break with this build!
Measuring it extended and fully depressed came to 25mm ish, so we had a spacer bought from SBDEV, part ref CLT-HCS-30, lathed down to 24mm.
Fitting it all back together, we bled it through to get what felt like a firm pedal. However depressing the pedal the full travel of the 3/4" bore Land Rover Clutch Master didn'r release the wheels from the engine. Some head scratching and it seems we just aren't shifting enough fluid to fully extend the the slave. So we found a single port 1" dia brake reservoir for a Series 3 Land Rover on ebay and ordered that plus a reservoir. Waiting for delivery to see if we can finally get a break with this build!
Monday 6 June 2011
Engine Running
Sunday 5 June 2011
Disaster!!!
So with the engine in and all wired up we started to fill it with fluids. Water went in, leaked from various places, tightened things up, water stopped leaking. Realised that you have to have almost perfect size matches i.e. you can't get away with putting a 40mm hose on a 38mm pipe - it'll leak! No matter how tight you tighten it.
Oil filled up, leaked everywhere - forgot to tighten the oil unions in a couple of places which seems pretty basic but it's easily done!! Also the oil filter leaked slightly as there's so little chassis clearance you can't get a good hold.
Put clutch fluid in, spend ages bleeding it but no pressure in the pedal. Eventually found the fluid dripping out of the gearbox bellhousing... NOOOooooo...
So it appears that the seals are gone on the slave cylinder, so engine out again. This is very depressing - the car looks a mess again and it almost looks the same as it did a year ago. These things happen I guess - the lesson here is don't trust anything, check it before fitting; a few minutes saved can prevent days of misery later.
One concern is the actual use of the Saab flywheel and Omega clutch. When we put the engine and g'box together we measured clutch face to engine block, and slave cylinder to bellhousing mounting face. These appeared to match so all was thought ok. But its possible the slave cylinder had been locked in the out position from being over-extended. Reading up more, it seems that as we're using a normal saab flywheel, not the thicker dual mass omega flywheel, we have some extra space to take up. This means we might need a spacer under the slave cylinder.
Oil filled up, leaked everywhere - forgot to tighten the oil unions in a couple of places which seems pretty basic but it's easily done!! Also the oil filter leaked slightly as there's so little chassis clearance you can't get a good hold.
Put clutch fluid in, spend ages bleeding it but no pressure in the pedal. Eventually found the fluid dripping out of the gearbox bellhousing... NOOOooooo...
So it appears that the seals are gone on the slave cylinder, so engine out again. This is very depressing - the car looks a mess again and it almost looks the same as it did a year ago. These things happen I guess - the lesson here is don't trust anything, check it before fitting; a few minutes saved can prevent days of misery later.
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| From Zero 050611 |
 |
| From Zero 050611 |
One concern is the actual use of the Saab flywheel and Omega clutch. When we put the engine and g'box together we measured clutch face to engine block, and slave cylinder to bellhousing mounting face. These appeared to match so all was thought ok. But its possible the slave cylinder had been locked in the out position from being over-extended. Reading up more, it seems that as we're using a normal saab flywheel, not the thicker dual mass omega flywheel, we have some extra space to take up. This means we might need a spacer under the slave cylinder.
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