Not very brisk right now is it?!  

 

It is in my mind

Right Mr Tom, distance between the rails is 910mm or a smidge under 3 feet in old money.

 

Left hand side of bay:

 

 

I've seen a Felica rally car with a vauxhall red top before now too so that could be another option to think about.

yes i reckon that would go in there. a lot more plentiful than the redtop engines too. thanks for that..

Loomin' hell!

 

This is what I've been playing about with for the past couple of nights

 

 

It took me a very long time to take the old loom and the new loom apart to figure out what does what and alter the new loom to fit the existing fusebox.

 

This is my bible and one of the most useful things I've ever aquired

 

 

Hopefully, it'll make the engine run, if not, there will be a massive tantrum 29 year old stylee.

 

 

 

 

I know that wiring feeling well, it's when you start cutting them and you reach the point of no return that it starts getting hairy.

Well after spending the afternoon getting really cold swapping bits from the old engine to the new, baffled sump, fuel pipes, gearbox, right hand engine mount and probably something else, it's physically in the car

 

 

Next thing will be to see if my loom works.

Will it be ready for an outing at Oulton Park on 21st February? 

 

 Hope so..   LINKY

nice to see someone still into rovers

Will it be ready for an outing at Oulton Park on 21st February? 

 

 Hope so..   LINKY

 

Ideally it needs to be a goer by next weekend for the autosport show. Oulton park is a no go for me anyway as it's on a week day.

 

 

nice to see someone still into rovers

 

It's my 3rd one of these. Such a fun car

Shame that mate, maybe next time. 

well?? is it going yet?

well?? is it going yet?

 

Dunno yet, I've just got out of the bath so no more tinkering today. Hopefully it'll make a noise tomorrow. Maybe.

Dunno yet, I've just got out of the bath so no more tinkering today. Hopefully it'll make a noise tomorrow. Maybe.

 

 

i think i read that wrong the first time, tinkering in the bath...

Well after going over and over in my head as to whether my wiring was right, I loosely threw it all in the bay, piped up the engine, put some oil and water in and turned the key

 

 

It turned over twice and then fired up and ran lovely despite being a bit noisey without even a manifold on it yet

 

Pleased I am.

 

Now just need to tidy it all up and put the rest of the car back together. Looks like it'll make the autosport show next weekend and give those all important autosolo passenger afterall

  i hate that nervey moment the first time the key is turned, normally it just goes clunk-gurgle in my case...

Very nearly done.

 

Everything back in the bay

 

Even tidied up the wiring for my spot lights and air horns

 

Got my little bro to weld the ZR down pipe to the coupe exhaust system this morning so I could fit that.

 

It would've fitted absolutely perfectly had I not cut the coupe downpipe in the worng place. I should have cut it where the 2 pipe become one but instead, like a tool, I cut it at the start of the flexi ehich meant I had to bodge an extra length in. Looks gash, but it's solid and doesn't leak so it'll certainly do for now.

 

Might have to do something about the tail pipe. The old back box had  twin round pipes and looked nice. Single, slightly wonky tail pipe is foe bumders.

 

Engine is running nice. Tappets were a bit noisy for a while but soon settle down once the oil had flowed round. Most importantly for a K series, it got to temperature and stayed there and the fan is working as it should

I've refilled the gearbox and put the front suspension back together. The front subframe needed editing slightly to clear the downpipe but that's fine

 

So all that remains is to dump the plain water out of the engine and fill with a coolant mix, now I'm satisfied nothing leaks and everything works properly, poly the rear trailing arm bushes, put the wheels back on and head out for a test drive.

Gotta go back to work tomorrow so will have to wait til tomorrow evening to play again.

 

 

 

 

 

Mega progress tonight. Job done

 

Just been for a test drive and me likes

 

Took it gentle at first and then a quick check under the bonnet, everything was still where it should be and nothing broken so I jumped back in and opened it up. The power is lovely and smooth and then when you get to 5500rpm all hell breaks loose right up to the 7100rpm red line. Sound good too.

Feels a lot more stable with fresh suspension all round, needs aligning but already feels more planted.

 

Celebratory McDonalds on the way home. Sorted.

Crikey that was a quick transplant.

Crikey that was a quick transplant.

 

Had to be, it'll be making it's motorsporting debut at the autosport show on saturday. Wanted a bit of breathing space and testing time so I made the final push tonight. Finally downed tools a 10.30, probably ****ed off the neighbours in the process but I'm not bothered, their existence offends me.

Given it a more extensive test drive tonight, 70 odd mile round trip to Scalextric club and back

 

Engine is fine, pulls really well, just got a slight blow from the exhaust maniold gasket despite it being brand new. Quick coat of fire gum should sort that out. I'm not happy with the poly rear trailing arm bushes though. They utilise the mount pins from the standard bushes and I've noticed that they have actually slid along the pins a bit so tomorrow night they'll be coming out and it'll be getting normal ones again. Car is booked in for 4 wheel alignment on Thursday so I don't want to risk it being set up and then straight away losing that setting. A lot of people are of the opinion that it's better to keep the standard trailing arm bushes anyway as they have a little bit of give in them which effective allows a sort of passive rear steering.

 

Apart from those two little issues, it's quite a machine now

Oh and I need to get my brother to do a bit more welding. Found a scabby bit on the sill so I poked it. Now it is a hole

It's a horrible sound when you lower a sill onto an axle stand when the car is crusty, it's like the sound of a packet of dark chocolate hobnobs being crushed..

This is terrible news, you were already too quick in that motor at solos, now it should be even quicker  Not much chance of me catching you this year then :(

Just found this thread - Awesome (The 214SEi was my brothers car I lusted after)

I run a 1.8 non-VVC in my MGTF, and have rebuilt two VVC MGF's.... the tapping is normal on the VVC, but the best advice I can give you is to get down to Mark at Z'n'F Tuning for a remap.

 

1. He only works on MEMS3 ECU's (Caterhams, MG's, etc)

2. He wrote the original maps for the F/TF

3. Its only £200-£250 to do!

 

It got rid of the kink in my power curve on the TF, and standard procedure he does with the VVC engine i to increase the rev limit , stops it lowering the rev limit to around 6700 when you actually hit the stock limit, and tunes the delivery according to your setup

This is terrible news, you were already too quick in that motor at solos, now it should be even quicker  Not much chance of me catching you this year then :(

 

Hello mate

 

You should know by now it's not the fastest car that wins. Practice makes perfect and it'll take me a little while to re-learn the car anyway