Beef's scratch built ditchmeister

[B33fy]

A few images from yesterday as mentioned..

[B33fy]

Bored this afternoon so ended up browsing the bay.. 4.6 V8 engine purchased for a winter rebuild project, for the princely sum of £103. If it's any good, the target is 300bhp with new pistons and a typhoon cam. Be looking to get some TVR or stage 3 heads to match.

[Wardy]

Haha, nice! eBay can be dangerous

[B33fy]

Haha, nice! eBay can be dangerous

Got to live dangerously once in a while..

The rover lumps had its time IMO, big capacity not a huge amount of power unless you spend a fortune. I refuse to pay big money for engines, as no matter what the sellers says about condition you have to factor in a rebuild and a cam change. Using decent parts a rebuild adds about £5-600 to the cost if no machining is required.

The liners have a habit of dropping in a 4.6 mainly because they were run leaner and hotter to get through emissions in later cars. The block walls are thinner as well so they may also suffer from coolant leaking past the dropped liner into the cylinder. One of the signs and symptoms is a steam cleaned piston.

The block will need machining and new top hat liners fitted which are clamped into place with the cylinder head curing the problem. Cost is around £700 to do, hence the reticence to pay too much for an engine.

[B33fy]

Lost the clutch today, seems that the clutch arm has bent or broke in some way, the only bit of the clutch I didn't replace... It's an engine out jobbie, so not bothering until the new engine and box are ready to drop in. Hey ho..

[B33fy]

Been keeping an eye out for another diff.. Nothing wrong with what's fitted other than its open and a 3.36 ratio. Been after a 3.14 with a slipper for better cruising and longer gearing generally. Rare as rocking horse poo only fitted to Sierra diseasal back in he day and every fooker wants one.. Hence selling for silly money.. Anyhow a few have popped up and I couldn't resist.. bang goes the engine build budget Looking forward to proper doughnuts, 11's and replacing the rear tyres every 5 minutes

Also got a few metres of vinyl wrap delivered, "rose red" (pink in plain language) taking the paradoxical approach.. so girlie it'll look as hard as fook . Might have a practice on the nose cone at the weekend. Images to follow.

[B33fy]

Picking up the Diff on Saturday so there goes my wrapping.. not too bothered as I'm collecting the diff from AB Performance who build bike engine race cars and who some may recognise from Dragons Den where Andy Bates secured the services of Peter Jones. Looking forward to meeting Andy and taking a gander around the workshop.. will definitely remember my camera

[B33fy]

James and I got to AB performance in Suffolk this morning and met Andy Bates, a top guy, and some real serious quality work going on in the workshop. Despite having injured his back earlier in the week, Andy showed us round and went through some of the finer points of the work they do at AB. The two cars below pretty much wiped the floor in the 750 club series of races this year with total reliability. Andy’s not too sure why they offer a spares package as it hasn’t been required, such is the reliability. The workmanship helps,.. an example of a suspension rocker below, a work of art. Andy also showed us an exhaust system tigged without filler rods,.. perfection (no photo sadly).

Could have stayed all day and nattered but was on a mission, for the puppy below.. a rare as rocking horse ****e 3.14 diff, this one being rebuilt by road and race with a Tran x slipper, never fitted to a car, or turned a wheel in anger,,.. all set up correctly ready to drop in and go.

Andy did me a great deal on the diff, and it was a massive pleasure doing business with him… Total Respect.

Looking forward to getting the diff fitted and leaving a few trails behind, and no more **** taking from the Snodhurst girls for leaving 1's.. :lol:

[B33fy]

Not a great deal of news on the car as I've been laid up with a bad back since picking up the diff, which is still in the boot of the daily driver. Back probably due to offloading the car and pushing into storage on my Jack Jones.. made more difficult with the broken clutch, heyho.

Got a long list of minor upgrades I'm wanting to do, including stiffer rear springs and bigger master cylinder for front brake circuit.

Fit a removable steering wheel with wireless button system for indicators, horn, headlight flash, hazards etc, using a new system on the market at reasonable money. I've already wired the car with this in mind so shouldn't be too tricky.

Fit new LED rear lights and make good rear wings. Rear high level roll bar mounted indicators, tail and brake lights. I'll have a look at some motor bike light for this as there's some trick LED versions out there.

Get my weight down so I can dump the sh1te seats and fit some JK composite shell seats which I've had knocking about for some time. Made a start and put a new battery in the bathroom scales

Awaiting a response on a bid for a new gearbox, I put in some time ago, via a sports car specialist who I've known for years. He swapped out a rebuilt gearbox on an MGV8 and replaced it with a slightly different type. My current gearbox is noisy and a bit tricky when changing gear, needing a rebuild. Easier and cheaper to swap it out. The plan is to get the car back to the garage over xmas / new year and do the diff/gearbox and clutch arm.

Engine... In two minds about what direction to go in at the moment, so will put the 3.9 back in with the new gearbox and diff. In the meantime I'll have a think.. TBH depends what comes up st the right price. If I find a rear ended Monaro for £2.50 I'll shove an LS3 in the car. If someone pays me to stroke the rover lump to 5.0, I'll do that Whatever option once it's back under its own steam it'll be up to Telford for a much needed remap at Bailey Performance.

Edited 23 November, 2016 by B33fy

[BossFox]

Sorry to hear about your back issues Mike.

Hopefully it won't last too long and you'll soon be cracking on.

[B33fy]

Thanks Richard.

 

Not done much with the car, just amassing a few bits as and when they come up. Ordered a "freewheel" system for the steering wheel which enables wireless buttons through a miniature transmitter on the wheel and a control unit behind the dash. I'll use it for indicators horn, flash, main/dip and hazards. then add a removeable boss to the wheel , probably a B&G one.

 

On the engine front just keeping an eye out for the rights bits, managed to nab a set of Merlin Heads, which are basically a bespoke set of heads with a slightly different layout and internal casting than the original Rover heads which drastically improves breathing. library image below.

 

 

Got to go miles to collect but they are worth it. They will give an easy 300bhp with a decent cam and improved induction. Two minds about the induction, tempted by the ACT induction packages, but its at a cost, so may well just improve what I have. The car is only supposed to be a bit of fun after all rather than a money pit. Unfortunately a bad case of the upgraditus has set in.

[B33fy]

Picked up a few bits from Rally design, a new fluid level switch to replace a faulty one, a couple of master cylinders and spare pushrods to sort the brake balance and some fat b@st@rd springs and bump stops to stop my spine from being shattered. "What rate springs you want sir" "what's the biggest you got, they'll do.." 350lb.. that's each side

Just as I was leaving, the manager grabbed hold of me, pulled my pants down for a box of bits and had me over for the rest of my xmas bonus.

Looks like the new induction system for the rebuild will now be made of paper mache if anything at all. I've a spare set of drive shafts, hubs, etc that need rebuilding for the diff swap, because of the different size lobros, So I might as well upgrade the rear brakes and get the suspension, brakes and diff all sorted in one hit. Plus it'll give me something to do over xmas.

[Wardy]

Hmmm, Wilwood... 

[B33fy]

Hmmm, Wilwood... 

A bit cheaper than Hispec and I've six pot Wilwoods on the front, so it's about time I had a matching set

[B33fy]

Family wedding this weekend gone, told SWMBO I wasn't going for various reasons, when the invite landed on the mat a while ago. It worked out as a good opportunity to pick up the heads whilst I visited big sister in Cardiff which I told SWMBO.

Anyhow went to leave on the Friday.. "Where you off too?" I thought it didn't really warrant a response as said response had been provided recently so of I went "laters love, enjoy.."

Not good.. :lol:

Anyway it was worth it got the heads, below, and as a bonus, SWMBO still isn't talking to me :lol:

Also picked up a Brown and Geeson Quick Release. Not silly money but better quality than the Chinese knockoffs

[B33fy]

A few hours spent sorting out out a few parts.. The spare 4.6 came in bits, so separated the pistons from the rods then dug out the con rod bolts and end caps and spent a while matching them up, as the previous owner didn't mark them. He did mark the pistons using a hammer and Chisel by the looks of things, lucky he didn't do the same to the rods, knob.

I'll measure the con rod big ends to make sure they are matched ok. New standard oem ones are £80 each, there are no forged ones as such, unless you want to do some serious machining which I don't... therefore it's worth the effort getting them paired up properly. If There is any doubt I'll have to bite the bullet and get new ones.

[B33fy]

Teaching myself AutoCAD and had another bash to hopefully draw the new brackets for the rear brakes. Once done the hope is they can be made from the file. Hub carrier below, probably the most tricky bit. A few more bits to do then I can "virtually" assemble them and design the brackets to suit (I'm not doing the bearings!!)

Edited 31 December, 2016 by B33fy

[B33fy]

Did the hub this evening. Need to do the disc and bell then maybe the brake caliper then I can work out the bracket.

[B33fy]

Did the custom bell and thrown it together out of curiosity, getting there, though still needs a fair bit of work along with the rotor and a resemblance of a brake calliper. Not sure what the white square is probably a plane that I didn't hide.

Working on the vented discs though the vanes are proving a challenge.

[B33fy]

An image of the rear of the disc assembly and hub, there's more detail on the back with the lugs and vanes. A right royal PITA to do, with a very steep learning curve. I found the Ray tracing button, which basically adds the light bouncing off the object, giving it a more realistic appearance. I couldn't resist a bit of tweaking in Flickr as well. Some little adjustments needed, such as a very small chamfer on the disc edges and a slight adjustment to the mounting lug profile, though overall I'm pleased with this effort, even if I say so myself. :)

[B33fy]

Still sourcing a few bits for the engine rebuild, picked up a lightened flywheel and a spare heavy duty clutch. Also had a secondhand timing cover plate turn up. The oil pump is integrated so will renew the internals. Also got another inlet manifold and plenum base on the way, though won't be keeping them long, stripping them down and px'ing for a set with bigger trumpets. I'll stick a few before and after images up once sorted.

[B33fy]

Not a lot today, borrowed an antique bore gauge to check the big ends, as the previous engine owner muddled up all the caps. Took James and I an age to sort but pleased to say they are all back where they should be. Saved the best part of £400, now not needing to get new ones... means more dosh for the TB's :D

[B33fy]

Finally picked up a gearbox, it's as mint as you could get, still got the factory scrawling's on it, was out of a crashed SD1 back in the day, been in a workshop used as a jig for shortening remotes for 20+ years. thought it had a couple of tiny patches of surface rust but turns out to be brown paint. Well pleased.

 

Also messed about with the steering wheel and made up a button plate for the freewheel. Made it pretty big so I can operate the buttons with my thumbs. Also there needs to be a bit of room for the receiver unit on the back. Some simple soldering and a bit of Velcro will sort it.

 

[mdk1]

Coming along nicely Mike.

[B33fy]

Couple of images below for the kit car club photography competition, the theme of the month is cafe's or greasy spoons. My favourite is the last one though the first two were quite challenging with Kenton and Tony blasting past at warp speed

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 30 January, 2017 by B33fy