Well after my Cup dying from cambelt failure 3 and a half weeks ago I have her back on the road plus some upgrades.
After collecting a low mileage engine from tomtom172 a couple of weeks ago I have been stripping out the dead one over the last weekend and fitting the new one. After panicking because it wouldn't fire I discovered that I hadnt reconnected the flywheel (crank) position sensor. plugged it in and Bob's your uncle, Brooooooooom!
Managed to fit my pair of new wishbones, removed the fog-lights and loom ready for brake cooling ducts or CAF..... haven't decided which would benifit more yet......and gave her an oil change/filter on the new engine, new gearbox oil, fresh coolant....you get the idea. The Streamline Carbon wingmirror covers I had are fitted, just have to fit the rear CF bumper insert and rig up some bolts to attach the CF washer blanks on the front bumper.
Took her to Tyres Northampton for a full Geometry setup. Had them dial in 1.5 degrees of negative camber and 4 minutes of toe out after reading some reviews on setups and a long chat with the technician. Drives like a dream now, so much more stable, the old shed is now on 101k so definately needed the TLC. The toe out setting combined with the new ball-joints/bushes has made the car a lot more pleasant to drive, no torque steer noticeable, does not follow the road camber etc. A very worthwhile exercise and the feel through the steering wheel is fantastic compared to before! Very impressed with the service at Tyres Northampton too.
Having looked at the dead engine the cause of death was a tensioner/roller failing. The plastic roller surround had disintergrated, damaging the cambelt and obviously loosing its grip on the top pulleys. Belt looked like the original from factory one, even though the service history had belts changed at 73k.....think I was conned by the garage I bought it from 2 and a half years ago, and surprised it lasted so long.
Over the winter I intend to strip the engine down, find out the extent of the damage if there is any, rebuild the head as the stem seals/valve guides were leaking oil before anyway and possibly get a younger bottom end and build a low pressure supercharger'd engine to drop in to the cup or a donor shell for fun or something similar.....we shall see. Having thoughts of maybe dropping it into a 106 S1 Rallye as I have always had a thing for them since I had my old one. Not sure if it would fit or even be possible tbh. It would be awesome if it would (200+bhp in a 850kg car) but I might get bored and just sell off the block etc and revamp the Cup.
Will add some pics of during the rebuild/pics of damage to old engine this evening.
After collecting a low mileage engine from tomtom172 a couple of weeks ago I have been stripping out the dead one over the last weekend and fitting the new one. After panicking because it wouldn't fire I discovered that I hadnt reconnected the flywheel (crank) position sensor. plugged it in and Bob's your uncle, Brooooooooom!
Managed to fit my pair of new wishbones, removed the fog-lights and loom ready for brake cooling ducts or CAF..... haven't decided which would benifit more yet......and gave her an oil change/filter on the new engine, new gearbox oil, fresh coolant....you get the idea. The Streamline Carbon wingmirror covers I had are fitted, just have to fit the rear CF bumper insert and rig up some bolts to attach the CF washer blanks on the front bumper.
Took her to Tyres Northampton for a full Geometry setup. Had them dial in 1.5 degrees of negative camber and 4 minutes of toe out after reading some reviews on setups and a long chat with the technician. Drives like a dream now, so much more stable, the old shed is now on 101k so definately needed the TLC. The toe out setting combined with the new ball-joints/bushes has made the car a lot more pleasant to drive, no torque steer noticeable, does not follow the road camber etc. A very worthwhile exercise and the feel through the steering wheel is fantastic compared to before! Very impressed with the service at Tyres Northampton too.
Having looked at the dead engine the cause of death was a tensioner/roller failing. The plastic roller surround had disintergrated, damaging the cambelt and obviously loosing its grip on the top pulleys. Belt looked like the original from factory one, even though the service history had belts changed at 73k.....think I was conned by the garage I bought it from 2 and a half years ago, and surprised it lasted so long.
Over the winter I intend to strip the engine down, find out the extent of the damage if there is any, rebuild the head as the stem seals/valve guides were leaking oil before anyway and possibly get a younger bottom end and build a low pressure supercharger'd engine to drop in to the cup or a donor shell for fun or something similar.....we shall see. Having thoughts of maybe dropping it into a 106 S1 Rallye as I have always had a thing for them since I had my old one. Not sure if it would fit or even be possible tbh. It would be awesome if it would (200+bhp in a 850kg car) but I might get bored and just sell off the block etc and revamp the Cup.
Will add some pics of during the rebuild/pics of damage to old engine this evening.
