Slightly O/T my 1380 rally car
Turbo Mini Forums

As im sure alot of you can relate to, Im one of those who take on far too many projects at once, alongside the 998 turbo hillclimber project, the seemingly never ending british open classic resto, and doing my little boat up, for the last 4 or 5 years or so Ive been slowly building up a 1380 tarmac rally car



The original plan was to keep it rough, cheap and cheerful, keep it on the road and improve on it as and when things break, which they did, when the flywheel fell off in late 2004...

Due to waiting on parts, next to no progress has been made in the last 2 years, but it has given me chance to take nearly every nut and bolt off, give it a polish or lick of paint, spend a small fortune on bits i dont really need (bloody ebay!)

Anyway, finally got all the bits for the engine, its a 1380, 12:1 cr, 649 cam, usual race bits, sc everything, jkd lsd, 3.9 cw etc

Whilst waiting on parts, fully refurbed the subframe with a few nice bits and bobs:





Just need a few bits and bobs finishing, I didnt chamfer the spacers Ive used on the delicious bottom arms (cheers fastcarl), so they are restricting the rose joints movement, only a 5 min job.
Has anyone used those poly bumpstops? they seem awfully hard..

The shell needs a pair of doors (tempted by the street fighter ones after seeing nics) and a cheapo respray (groan...) gonna have it tweed grey with a diamond white roof.

Hopefully should be in car and rumbling in the next month or so, and about time too! simply cant wait!!

Finally feel like things are starting to take shape at last, been a long few years without any of the minis on the road!

Wish me luck

Joe

Edited by joeybaby83 on 26th Oct, 2009.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

I just hope you've strengthened the tie bar mounts!

Wow ye just a few projects. am just as impressed with the workshop joe.

The garage was a stroke of luck really, its at the back of a property my old man rents off, but the tennents didnt want it.

Count myself extremely lucky to have it.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

yeah nice workshop joe... Im the exact same trying to do too many projects at once... looks good and cant wait to see when its finished!

On Picture 50 in your putfile archive thingy, don't you think that's a bit of a bad omen!

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

looking good, have you still had no luck getting someone to paint it?

Getting cars painted on the isle of man is like getting laid in a gay bar, no doubt possible, but its a massive pain the ass.

It would have been quicker doing it myself, my fault for not plucking up the courage to give it a try.

I think ive finally found a desent outfit who i can trust, will have to wait and see!!

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

It's a picture with your weber carb's trumpets showing, and has some newspaper underneath saying 0 - 80 in 4 hours

Jeepers, thats broke along the hole I put the bolt through.

Will go mad with the welder next weekend

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Vegard,

I spotted that pic when you posted it on another forum,

I think i'll be modding my nicley welded subframe shortly!!!

So will I, on ALL subframes from today on.

So close to startup today, pretty sure tomorrow is the big day, a bit nervous haha

Spent most of the day putting the fan belt on, its a bit of a mission with the trigger wheel in place (fucking nightmare)

Used an old battery with jump leads on the starter, the battery died off whilst cranking, but was getting about 9 psi on a low battery (with plugs out) which seems ok

Found a great way to prime the pump before cranking over,





tried jacking a wheel up, and turning it backwards in 4th, but ended up having to drop it down and push the car back as the LSD seems to not like letting the wheel move once off the ground...

so tomorrow ill wire in the fuel pump, set the reg to 3psi and fingers crossed ill get some life out of her

I was lucky with the weber box, the air filter fits, but only just, i dont know how its so far off, im a measure twice and cut once person, so a little annoyed about that.





Gonna read up tonight on adjusting the weber for tickover etc, if anyone has any tips etc id much appreciate them tonight Never used a dcoe before

Keep your fingers crossed!

Edited by joeybaby83 on 25th Oct, 2009.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Joey, If you struggle with the DCOE give me a call tomorrow (01405 785686) and I should be able to help you. I will be around all day tomorrow.
Regards
Dave

the carb actually sits off centre in the car i believe, and i presume youve fitted the box perfectly central in the car

looking good none the less

Cheers Dave, much appreciated

I did offset the box, about 1" to the right iirc (when veiwing from the front) but I think Avonbar have made the box big enough to accomodate the offset, so me being a clever dick has just nullified the extra width haha

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

well started today by ingesting a gobful of petrol siphoning it from the volvo to the rally car, still burping up fumes

dave, tried to ring you today, but i entered your number into my mobile wrong, anyway i spoke to a very confused lad just after lunch, i think he thought i was mentally deranged...

does anyone have the float height figure to hand for a dcoe?
I can find the figure for the round brass floats, but I have the square shaped plastic floats in mine and it seems to be way out.

first the float valve was staying open constantly, so unbeknownst to me the whole manifold and cylinders 1 and 2 filled with fuel when i turned the fuel pump on, so when i cranked it over with no plugs in to get oil pressure (me knealing in front of the engine shorting the starter) i got a facefull of fuel, which was nice.

anyway, tweaked the float height, blew the cylinders/spark plugs out with the air line, got 80 psi oil pressure, wired up the ignition and gave it a spin

she barked first go! but didnt catch, then tried again and she burst into life, but only for a float bowls worth of fuel, it seemed not the valve isnt opening at all...groan

also managed to set my lovely k&n on fire whilst tweaking the timing, only briefly thankfully so no damage done.

need whip the cover off and reset the float height after work tomorrow, then will run her continuous for the 20 mins

at last she runs!

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

joey, typed in the wrong number.
try 01405 785 685
regards
Dave

Few back fires here and there make it more exciting and keeps you on your toes.

Back once again like a renegade master

top stuff! joe

i did not think you was as geared up as that buddy

righto, bit of a progress report, and a few timing/weber/AFR Q's im hoping someone can help with



Bedded the cam in, held 3000rpm for 20 mins or so by winding out the throttle stop, held a constant 150F water temp and 70psi oil pressure the whole time, but the wideband showed 15:1 which didnt thrill me...is that ok?

Oddly (i thought) the plugs were a little black, probably just a bit of oil being sucked through, but the engines not breathing at all(?)...ill post a pic later




Tonight I was playing about with the ignition, im using a aldon red top with lumenition, ive tried various places, and it seems to be sweetest at about 18/19 degrees btdc @ 2000, but then it doesnt seem to want to idle below 1500rpm, which im not too bothered about, but was hoping for a little bit less...

Can you guys recommend anything to get the tick over down a shade?
Or am i being a bit optimistic bearing in mind its rinning close to 12:1 on a 649?


Anyway, once i got it comfortably tickiling along at 1500 i noticed the wideband was dropping right off the lean side of the scale, having zero experience with AFRs, is this ok?

What sort of AFR reading should i be hopeing for at idle?

One thing I am very pleased about is it hasnt leaked a drop yet, ive always used hylomar, but after hearing Tom F go on (and on, and on LOL) about Wellseal I thought id try some, and i have to say it seems to be working a treat thus far :)

Cheers guys

Joe

Edited by joeybaby83 on 26th Oct, 2009.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Joey, where is your lambda sensor fitted? If it's just stuffed up the tailpipe it could be giving you a false reading.
Assuming for now that thye reading is correct I would suggest you use some richer idle jets as these control both idle and progression up to around 3,000 rpm. I would suggest 55f8's as a start and set the idle mixture screws to 1.5 turns open.
It would be helpful if you could post up all your carb settings.
I think you will find your timing will come back to a sensible figure once you have the carb idle circuit set reasonably accuratly.
you should be able to achieve a 1,000 to 1,100 rpm idle speed with a reasonable progression despite the cam and CR.
once you have the idle somewhere near you can alter the progression by varying the idle jet fx number after the 55 to make the progression richer or leaner. One point to remember is that the fx numbers bear no logical relationship to one another.
The other option, bearing in mind you may not have access to a range of idle jets, is to buy a set of micro drills to alter the jets. The fx number refers to the size of the air bleed hole in the side of the idle jet.
The idle mixture screw should not be open more than 1.5 turns if it is you will need to swap the idle jet up a size but 55 should be a good starting point.
I cannot emphasise enough how important the idle/progression adjustment is, if done correctly it will make the car so much more driveable.
When checking the progression do not floor the pedal just move it very slowly and this will stop the accelerator pump circuit from effecting the correct readings.
if it cuts out lean solder up the air hole and drill smaller, if it bogs down rich open it up.
Hope this helps and when you get round to setting the accelerator pump circuit and main circuit give me a shout.
Going from lean to rich the following list of fx numbers may be useful:-
F3.F1.F7.F5.F2.F4.F13.F8.F11.F14.F9.F12.F6.
Regards
Dave

Edited by danboy on 7th Sep, 2007.