Re: 172 Cup track toy!
Update time!
As I said, I went to Scoffs to get the car fully mapped last Sunday. Things were totally fine on the drive down and I arrived just before 12pm which was a 4 hour drive. Scoff quickly got the car on the rollers but it became quickly apparent that things were going to be up against us all day. Firstly, we had a rattle coming from the nimbus heat shield that was sounding like massive detonation and so the first 5 runs or so was only putting out 100hp. Once that was put right a dodgy coolant temp reading was plaguing us all day. It seemed to miss a reading every so often causing the ecu to think it was cold and so dumping 20% more fuel in and killing the power. So the sensor was changed and all seemed well for next few runs and then the problem came back so we ran a new cable in for the sensor. Again, next few runs all seemed fine then on the 3rd run back it came. It seemed to be temperature related as after the car cooled slightly it would be fine for a few runs then it would come back.
We were getting round it and starting to make some progress but then disaster. The timing side crank seal failed and oil started to drip. We pushed on for another few runs but the oil leak was getting worse until we had to stop as I was cautious that I still had to drive 250 miles home and was loosing oil at an alarming rate. 5 hours later and 1 ltr of oil topped up I made it home.
The seal has to be changed and will be very soon. I also wanted to check the timing as the car only produced 237bhp which was a lot lower than I hoped. This turned into another nightmare. When I tried to Remove the crank pin cover it would not budge. I used the inverted torques bit but no luck and couldn't get in with the impact gun. Eventually after partially rounding it off trying to remove it I decided to remove the engine again and get all jobs done at the same time with the engine out. Tried again to remove the crank pin plug and the same again, would not budge and ended up totally rounding it. Couldn't understand how or why this little bugger would be so tight!
So it will have to be drilled out and re-tapped. A little worried about dwarf falling into the sump so might take the sump off.
Think the oil was overheating on the rollers too so bought a mocal laminova cooler that will be getting fitted once the engine is back in and all the fitting arrive. Need a new radiator fan too as temps are not coming down even when the fan is on, on hot days. After speaking to Andyrg about all the issues, he thought the cause of the crank oil seal leaking was the fact that i have an breather filter on the head breather port that is too restrictive and so causing too much crank pressure. This will be getting changed to a catch tank with an open vent to under the car before it goes back on the rollers!
So, to sum up, another set back but on the plus side I have learnt a lot about the car in the last week and it will make it stronger in the long run to find these issues out before it goes on track for some major abuse. Hopefully, it won't always be like this!!
Cheers
