589 replies to this topic

[LXCHEV]

Love the updates - looking really good.

[kudu]

Great work!

[SmacT]

How satisfying are these fine tune mods - only you will know they are there unless pointed out to someone, but what a difference.  Tops work.

[76lxhatch]

Sprung a significant coolant leak last night... turned out to be the cheap heater tap. I always run coolant purely for the anti-corrosion benefits but yes, that's a hole right through the bottom of it as well as part of the hose nipples rotted away.

 

I had a new spare VN unit, still has a thin metal component but mostly plastic so perhaps it will last better. Not quite configured correctly off the shelf though.

 

Made a suitable cable bracket along with a small nylon bushing to suit the cable end. The only modification to the valve itself is to bend the arm to a more suitable angle.

 

Assembled view.

 

Painted and installed. It's actually slightly smaller which is nice, and as an added bonus doesn't need as much effort to open and close.

[76lxhatch]

Have also been trying to improved the general driveability of the tune, but wasn't getting far with the areas where pulse width is minimal. The Deka 60lb injectors were always a bit overkill but they were available (and black), and I was still above the advertised minimum pulse width. But I was starting to get the impression that there was just a bit of a lack of control at low pulse widths; tried swapping out the factory 19lb injectors to test the theory a few weeks ago and was able to make some improvements. Those are definitely too small though so I managed to find a set of supposedly genuine Bosch 36lb.

 

These needed the additional groove cut for the retaining clips. This can be done with a hacksaw but I wanted a nicer result so made a small clamping sleeve to mount them ever-so-gently in the lathe (the blue injector was for testing before ruining the new ones!)

 

Ground down a tool to 1mm wide and cut the grooves, happy with that.

 

Installed. Unfortunately they're not black, but at least they're not blue or green or some such either.

 

So far so good, I need to do some more tweaking but I think a definite improvement. Only problem is now I fixed the heater tap, the top tank on the radiator has starting leaking...! Great.

[Heath]

You are a smartarse and a half.

 

Very nice.

[76lxhatch]

So the leaking top tank on the radiator had never been right from new, it opened up in one particular spot where the solder join was a bit average (just out of warranty, of course). I'd done a quick and dirty repair previously which surprisingly lasted a few years. Easy enough I thought, just remove the top tank and clean everything up properly then re-solder it. Nope. Cleaned everything really well and somehow that same spot still acted contaminated when I put it back together and it just wouldn't seal up.

 

While everything was out I figured a trim and tidy up of the folded chassis rail flanges was in order. Managed to keep the chassis number intact with some very careful welding.

 

 

Hunted around for a replacement that looks of reasonably quality, and was actually available (a difficult combination). Found this universal one which looks OK and is very similar dimensions to HQ, a little thicker.

 

New radiator, new mounts. Decided a small amount of rubber isolation was a good idea, made up some shoulder bolts to suit standard rubber grommets.

 

Mounted.

[76lxhatch]

Side-tracked again... now the wiring that was hiding beside the radiator had been exposed, it needed tidying up. Looked around for a mini fuse block and couldn't find anything even remotely neat, they all seem to have ugly spade connectors and are generally huge. Found some OEM fuse box terminals and 3D printed a holder which also has provision for a relay holder to clip on.

The relay and one fuse is for the cooling fans, there is another fuse for the fuel pumps (relay closer to the ECU) and one for the ignition box.

 

Back to the radiator. Fans cover the core nicely, well perhaps a bit more than that.

 

Started making sheet aluminium mounting flanges which wrapped around the ends of the fans, following by much swearing at the tig welder and giving up. Switched to thicker angle flanges which are more within my current skill level.

[76lxhatch]

Checking all the fittings on the radiator to make sure everything is sealed up... the overflow hose tail had been forced in and broke on removal.

 

Leaving a chunk of aluminium stuck in the filler neck which needed drilling out on an awkward angle. Found a super long drill bit and managed to get that done... along with damaging the cap seat! Crap.

 

This is another one of those times the lathe gets me out of trouble, this incredibly simple chunk of steel has a small ring of sandpaper super-glued to it for fixing the seat.

 

Fixed, phew.

[76lxhatch]

All those big fittings in this radiator came with o-ring seals. They would have worked fine to begin with but without any proper locating grooves I was a bit suspect of their long-term resilience especially with the heat. I was tempted to just crank up the fittings with a bit of sealant but decided I could make some aluminium crush washers which would be even better.

Used aviation sealant too, can't hurt and I have no plans to change the fittings around.

 

After all those tweaks I thought I'd better make sure it doesn't leak before installing. Only one leak - the test bung!

 

Oh, and I fixed the colour.

 

As usual everything is tight, but it fits.

 

I still need to make a new cover for the top (mainly because it will cover up the cracked paint on the radiator support) but otherwise mobile again.

[76lxhatch]

The radiator support really needs stripping and re-painting.

 

We'll cover that up.

[76lxhatch]

Needed a slightly bigger expansion tank to go with the new radiator and a friend gave me a piece of stainless sheet so I just had to dig up some material to turn a filler neck.

 

Still takes the original style cap but is not a horrible shade of yellow plastic. Welding could be prettier but it doesn't leak.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 26 February 2023 - 12:32 PM.

[76lxhatch]

The fuel, temp and oil pressure gauges started playing up recently, mostly not working at all but occasionally coming back to life. I had a standard instrument cluster on the shelf so I thought I'd steal the voltage regulator from that - turns out that puts out a steady 9V (should be 5V). Testing the original shows it to be in even worse condition.

 

So that generally means converting to a solid state regulator, but where to get one at short notice on a weekend? Then I had a thought.

 

Sure enough, pulled it apart and there's a neat little board containing the regulator portion only, separate to the socket mount and silly LED. It even fits in the original housing!

 

 

As expected the gauges are a little slower to rise but everything seems to work fine. According to the label this tiny thing is good for 3.1A so should be plenty for the instruments.

[hanra]

Lolz. That’s clever. I just bought an ardunio 5v reg from Jaycar for my cluster. But it dosnt fit inside the original reg can. I like your idea!

[Shiney005]

Anybody else not seeing the pictures?

[Bigfella237]

2 from the catch can and 3 from the cluster repair all appear above okay for me.

 

They appear to be hosted by https://img.v8comp.co.nz

[SmacT]

Nice one! I wouldn't have known to look there for that regulator. Ha ha.

[Shiney005]

2 from the catch can and 3 from the cluster repair all appear above okay for me.

 

They appear to be hosted by https://img.v8comp.co.nz

I only get this. And when I click on those links ti says This page is not available.

 

 Screenshot 2023-02-27 072028.png   758.51K   7 downloads

[Bigfella237]

Very strange? I can only think that either your ISP or your anti-virus / anti-malware software is blocking the URL for some reason?

 

Let me know if you want me to send you the photos via email?

[Shiney005]

I wouldn't mind the voltage regulator ones Andrew. Without pics I don't even know what he used.  You still have my email?

[hanra]

I cant see the pics at work. But can on my phone. 

[76lxhatch]

That's weird. I know that some (particularly Windows-based) clients still don't like the LetsEncrypt SSL certificates, otherwise it could potentially be a temporary Internet routing problem.

 

For those who are still guessing, it's a cheap USB charger.

Attached Files

•  20230225_113421.jpg   187.95K   9 downloads
•  20230225_115844.jpg   145.79K   6 downloads

[Shiney005]

Those pictures worked.

[76lxhatch]

Found an old V8 distributor, set it up in the lathe and gave it a haircut.

 

 

 

Add a chunk of steel.

 

 

 

And an aluminium cap.

 

[76lxhatch]

Made myself a small furnace to melt aluminium.

 

 

Here are some suitable candidates.

 

 

Need to get some greensand and do things properly but for now steel does the trick.

 

 

Many hours of machining.

 

 

 

End result is to adapt this throttle body to a square bore four barrel manifold.