With a bit of help from Peter, a fair bit of form filling, some obits and a LOT of receipts, it's done. Just need to wait for them to call me back and take all my money!!
Friday 28 March 2014
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Jobs That are definitely not sexy, but necessary...
Greetings...
Just a very brief update this evening, last few bits on the car finished so it's essentially at status "complete awaiting IVA" :)
I had trouble with the self centring on the last outing, as in; it was non-existant. I had some helpful suggestions from Dave (rodgling) that it could be the track rod ends. I suspect he was right, because when I took them off they were stiff as anything - "could hardly move them in the vice with a large spanner" stiff. So with replaced TRE's and 40psi in the tires the steering is indeed much lighter now, but still not sure on the self centring bit. The manual states that it has to show "some sign of self-centring above 10mph", slight flaw as I can't really get much past 10mph in my yard without risking smashing into something; so it will have to be what it will be for the day. See what happens!
The exhaust randomly started blowing at one of the joints, but then I realise that I might have caught it on a low kerb and twisted it off a bit - but that was an easy fix.
Finally, an extra bonnet catch either side - I had a not-so-hilarious incident on one of the outings where the front clip popped itself open and the bonnet nearly flew up and smacked me in the face. Mildy amusing at 20mph as it was, but not so much at 70 and beyond.
I imagine the fault lies with myself - either the way the bonnet is bent or the positioning of the clips, but the extra clips stop the problem I had before where under vibration the whole bonnet was slipping forwards. Works like a charm now, and actually holds the bonnet much more neatly towards the shut lines.
So the massive paper trail has now begun to gather together all the necessary docs for IVA. As well as the application form(s) themselves I've filled a lever arch folder with relevant documentation:
So all that is most definitely un-sexy, but very necessary. Just a few last minute outstanding queries with Peter and then the forms and the very lumpy cheque can be sent off.
In order to leave you on a high I'll show you what arrived for me in the post this week - my wife ordered it for my Birthday a few months back but it only showed up now - full nomex and colour matched to the car. She's awesome isn't she...?
Thanks for reading
Just a very brief update this evening, last few bits on the car finished so it's essentially at status "complete awaiting IVA" :)
I had trouble with the self centring on the last outing, as in; it was non-existant. I had some helpful suggestions from Dave (rodgling) that it could be the track rod ends. I suspect he was right, because when I took them off they were stiff as anything - "could hardly move them in the vice with a large spanner" stiff. So with replaced TRE's and 40psi in the tires the steering is indeed much lighter now, but still not sure on the self centring bit. The manual states that it has to show "some sign of self-centring above 10mph", slight flaw as I can't really get much past 10mph in my yard without risking smashing into something; so it will have to be what it will be for the day. See what happens!
The exhaust randomly started blowing at one of the joints, but then I realise that I might have caught it on a low kerb and twisted it off a bit - but that was an easy fix.
Finally, an extra bonnet catch either side - I had a not-so-hilarious incident on one of the outings where the front clip popped itself open and the bonnet nearly flew up and smacked me in the face. Mildy amusing at 20mph as it was, but not so much at 70 and beyond.
I imagine the fault lies with myself - either the way the bonnet is bent or the positioning of the clips, but the extra clips stop the problem I had before where under vibration the whole bonnet was slipping forwards. Works like a charm now, and actually holds the bonnet much more neatly towards the shut lines.
So the massive paper trail has now begun to gather together all the necessary docs for IVA. As well as the application form(s) themselves I've filled a lever arch folder with relevant documentation:
- Info from the donor (V5 etc.) BMW info ont he powerplant and gearbox ID codes, EWS anti-theft principle of operation etc.
- Insurance
- GKD instructions and build plan
- Wiring loom info and basic car dimensions
- Previous MoT info (1 x fail, 1 x pass)
- Receipts and invoices
- scrap metal receipts from donor (Made £240, woo hoo. When you couple that with the eBay sales of donor parts at £255 and I only paid £410 for the car itself, I'm £85 in profit and still got all my base donor bits for free)
- Certs. of confirmity for seatbelts, battery etc.
- Relevant Correspondence
- Photo story board of the build
So all that is most definitely un-sexy, but very necessary. Just a few last minute outstanding queries with Peter and then the forms and the very lumpy cheque can be sent off.
In order to leave you on a high I'll show you what arrived for me in the post this week - my wife ordered it for my Birthday a few months back but it only showed up now - full nomex and colour matched to the car. She's awesome isn't she...?
Thanks for reading
Wednesday 12 March 2014
MoT Pass
Awesome news!
2nd round of the MoT was a thundering pass :) That's made me one very happy Engineer.
The drive there was much, much nicer this time on account of the weather being "almost spring", there was a bit of blue sky and sunshine - even better.
Arrived with plenty of time to spare, didn't want to get stopped by the police (which didn't happen) and be late
We had a good chat about what I'd been up to (I bring 5 cars per year there, normally twice each test as well so we tend to get along) and then he got it on the ramp.
.JPG)
Steering wasn't a problem as the new rack was fine. New nuts/bolts were also fine too. Handbrake cable routing was much better, and the front brake flexis were deemed fine as well. As for the handbrake efficiency, well I was still having trouble with it, but as I'd effectively paid for a full test and all he was doing was checking a few bits; he was very kind to help me adjust it up correctly. The trick is to let all the slack out of the cable so the lever on the caliper hits the back stop, pump the pedal and THEN take up the slack in the cable. That worked a charm, and the handbrake pulled 20% efficiency. (MoT limit 16%, IVA limit 18%, so all good on that front).
So finally just down to the emissions then. This is the scary bit because if that ain't right, then who knows what's wrong with it? Clear conscience on the error codes and a new MAF and CPS?
To start with, it wasn't good:
Mercifully, after much revving it started to come down a bit, but at 0.307 still over the BET limit of 0.2000
But then finally, it dropped and settled below 0.200 and finished at 0.195. I then had a chat with the tester who explained that if it fails the standard BET test you can go onto an extended test which takes about 10minutes, and allows a lot more revving and a higher limit of 0.300, which is what happened at the first test. Although at 0.600 it was massively out last time. The IVA limit is 0.300 as far as I can make out from the manual, so I should be OK.
This time though, settled down below and passed fine. Hope it does this on the day of the races though!!
So in the end it was a pass, and now the car has an MoT - awesome news. (but no tax or a number plate yet... lol) Gives me confidence that an IVA is indeed within reach.
Whilst out and about and "legal" to drive with my letter from VOSA, earlier in the week I booked in a four-wheel alignment at another garage on the way home from the MoT. Something else you can't really do in your shed, at least not with any degree of accuracy. This garage has one of the most sophisticated bits of kit in the area.
Because of the nature of the car, and the fact the garage staff had absolutely no idea what to do with it (also possibly because it was a sunny Saturday and mine was the last job of he day and perhaps they couldn't be bothered) I ended up helping to a large extent. The camber adjustment isn't easy as you have to take the wishbone off, so I ended up doing that and taking the wheels on and off with their tools, in their garage with me paying them!!!! The supervisor joked "don't think this makes the price any lower". Cheek!!
After a great deal of faffing we got it pretty good, except the n/s/f camber which ended up 0.7° negative instead of the 1° of the other side - but it literally wasn't playing ball. Of course all the measurements for camber and toe are linked, so when you adjust one, the others all jump around. that's "within tolerance" I feel (a posh way of saying "close enough"). Or at least I'll give it a go and see what it drive like. I did get them to put a rather substantial -1.5° of toe in on the front, hopefully that will help with the self centring issues.
So that was my exciting Saturday out. Achieved a lot. EXCEPT the self-centring issue. It's still not even budging when you let go of the steering wheel. With a brick for the accelerator pedal the car would happily drive around a roundabout without me in it - not good news for the IVA. Further investigations required I feel... Other than that, the car is driving very well indeed -most lively now. I did take video footage on the way there, but it wasn't a clear run - lots of traffic and crawling in queues, not particularly exciting and hardly worth the effort in editing and rendering the clips.
This was truly a kit-tastic weekend - On Sunday, I did another exciting thing.
I went forth and collected the S50B32 engine like-wot-I-won on eBay earlier in the week :)
Nice chap all the way up in Kent sold it to me - very reasonably as well I feel. (Why is Kent is some sort of mecca for me and BMW car stuff? hah.) He had it in a track car and spent a fortune building up the engine, only for a tiny piece of metal the size of a grain of rice get into one of the cylinders. Being the fastidious sort he immediately stripped it down and then promptly decided it was lower priority than other stuff - hence me stepping in. It's missing a few key components, but it'll do nicely for a winter project and phase 2 of my car
I fetched it back to the workshop and had a quick look - yes it's damaged and will need some machining and yes it's missing a few key components, but nothing insurmountable. Although the first few bits I've tried to seek out is like hunting horcruxes or pieces of the devil's soul, so a formidable challenge it will be!
Exciting stuff....
Thanks for reading.
2nd round of the MoT was a thundering pass :) That's made me one very happy Engineer.
The drive there was much, much nicer this time on account of the weather being "almost spring", there was a bit of blue sky and sunshine - even better.
Arrived with plenty of time to spare, didn't want to get stopped by the police (which didn't happen) and be late
Steering wasn't a problem as the new rack was fine. New nuts/bolts were also fine too. Handbrake cable routing was much better, and the front brake flexis were deemed fine as well. As for the handbrake efficiency, well I was still having trouble with it, but as I'd effectively paid for a full test and all he was doing was checking a few bits; he was very kind to help me adjust it up correctly. The trick is to let all the slack out of the cable so the lever on the caliper hits the back stop, pump the pedal and THEN take up the slack in the cable. That worked a charm, and the handbrake pulled 20% efficiency. (MoT limit 16%, IVA limit 18%, so all good on that front).
So finally just down to the emissions then. This is the scary bit because if that ain't right, then who knows what's wrong with it? Clear conscience on the error codes and a new MAF and CPS?
To start with, it wasn't good:
.JPG) |
| Still High CO... |
.JPG) |
| Coming down... |
This time though, settled down below and passed fine. Hope it does this on the day of the races though!!
.JPG) |
| Passed! |
Whilst out and about and "legal" to drive with my letter from VOSA, earlier in the week I booked in a four-wheel alignment at another garage on the way home from the MoT. Something else you can't really do in your shed, at least not with any degree of accuracy. This garage has one of the most sophisticated bits of kit in the area.
Because of the nature of the car, and the fact the garage staff had absolutely no idea what to do with it (also possibly because it was a sunny Saturday and mine was the last job of he day and perhaps they couldn't be bothered) I ended up helping to a large extent. The camber adjustment isn't easy as you have to take the wishbone off, so I ended up doing that and taking the wheels on and off with their tools, in their garage with me paying them!!!! The supervisor joked "don't think this makes the price any lower". Cheek!!
After a great deal of faffing we got it pretty good, except the n/s/f camber which ended up 0.7° negative instead of the 1° of the other side - but it literally wasn't playing ball. Of course all the measurements for camber and toe are linked, so when you adjust one, the others all jump around. that's "within tolerance" I feel (a posh way of saying "close enough"). Or at least I'll give it a go and see what it drive like. I did get them to put a rather substantial -1.5° of toe in on the front, hopefully that will help with the self centring issues.
.JPG) |
| 4 wheel alignment kit |
.JPG) |
| A rare moment: garage staff working isntead of me |
.JPG) |
| computer readout, in this instance, rear toe |
So that was my exciting Saturday out. Achieved a lot. EXCEPT the self-centring issue. It's still not even budging when you let go of the steering wheel. With a brick for the accelerator pedal the car would happily drive around a roundabout without me in it - not good news for the IVA. Further investigations required I feel... Other than that, the car is driving very well indeed -most lively now. I did take video footage on the way there, but it wasn't a clear run - lots of traffic and crawling in queues, not particularly exciting and hardly worth the effort in editing and rendering the clips.
This was truly a kit-tastic weekend - On Sunday, I did another exciting thing.
I went forth and collected the S50B32 engine like-wot-I-won on eBay earlier in the week :)
Nice chap all the way up in Kent sold it to me - very reasonably as well I feel. (Why is Kent is some sort of mecca for me and BMW car stuff? hah.) He had it in a track car and spent a fortune building up the engine, only for a tiny piece of metal the size of a grain of rice get into one of the cylinders. Being the fastidious sort he immediately stripped it down and then promptly decided it was lower priority than other stuff - hence me stepping in. It's missing a few key components, but it'll do nicely for a winter project and phase 2 of my car
.JPG) |
| Fit an M3 engine they said... it'll make your car faster they said. Didn't work though. |
I fetched it back to the workshop and had a quick look - yes it's damaged and will need some machining and yes it's missing a few key components, but nothing insurmountable. Although the first few bits I've tried to seek out is like hunting horcruxes or pieces of the devil's soul, so a formidable challenge it will be!
.JPG) |
| Block and head |
.JPG) |
| "Piston broke". Note numbers 2 and 3 have some chattering on the top face |
Exciting stuff....
Thanks for reading.
Sunday 2 March 2014
Video from "socks blown off"
Link to Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fJcE3kiLkw
Might have problems viewing it on mobile, apparently the owner of one of the songs I've "borrowed" won't let me share it with you on your mobile - best watched on a PC.
I'll do another vid some other time and won't use any music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fJcE3kiLkw
Might have problems viewing it on mobile, apparently the owner of one of the songs I've "borrowed" won't let me share it with you on your mobile - best watched on a PC.
I'll do another vid some other time and won't use any music.
Socks... blown off
Greetings readers.
High time for an update, especially since it's been about a month and I'm nearing completion with the MoT fail list.
To refresh your memory, the following was picked up when I took the car for its first MoT:
Nuts were easy enough to sort. two I replaced with longer ones, two I removed washers (not needed arguably), the remaining two I replaced the nyloc nut with a plain nut and used threadlock to secure.
Handbrake cable was re-routed, and the steel braided hoses had a rubber sleeve put on where they secure to the cycle wing bracket.
Now the harder ones...
Steering rack I took out and there was definitely some play inside somewhere (manufacturing fault?) , but Peter was a star and exchanged it for me without any fuss. That took 2 evenings to swap out, but not overly complicated.
Emissions... where to start? Well a good place is to get some OBD software or else you're just stabbing around in the dark. So I purchased a set via eBay from BMcables.com - having spent about 4 hours trying to persevere with a downloaded copy, a 60-page instruction manual "auf Deutsch" and a VW cable that was never going to work... this was like a breath of fresh air. Completely works 100% out of the box and one-click installation. Brilliant.
And the INPA software is very comprehensive:
High time for an update, especially since it's been about a month and I'm nearing completion with the MoT fail list.
To refresh your memory, the following was picked up when I took the car for its first MoT:
- Play in steering rack (excessive)
- Nuts too short for nyloc x 6
- handbrake cable fouls on spring n/s only
- parking brake (low efficiency @8%, excess travel)
- steel braided brake hoses chafing on cycle wings
- Emissions
Nuts were easy enough to sort. two I replaced with longer ones, two I removed washers (not needed arguably), the remaining two I replaced the nyloc nut with a plain nut and used threadlock to secure.
Handbrake cable was re-routed, and the steel braided hoses had a rubber sleeve put on where they secure to the cycle wing bracket.
Now the harder ones...
Steering rack I took out and there was definitely some play inside somewhere (manufacturing fault?) , but Peter was a star and exchanged it for me without any fuss. That took 2 evenings to swap out, but not overly complicated.
Emissions... where to start? Well a good place is to get some OBD software or else you're just stabbing around in the dark. So I purchased a set via eBay from BMcables.com - having spent about 4 hours trying to persevere with a downloaded copy, a 60-page instruction manual "auf Deutsch" and a VW cable that was never going to work... this was like a breath of fresh air. Completely works 100% out of the box and one-click installation. Brilliant.
And the INPA software is very comprehensive:
Car-ception - car within a car
Sowing some of the live analogue data displayed whilst the car was running.
So what did it tell me? A great deal as it turns out. Many error messages at first, but once you whittle down through and clear the obvious ones ( e.g. Your electric windows aren't working, the rear seat is missing etc) I learned that the MAF and Crank Postion Sensors were giving error codes, both transient and long term. So I replaced both of them, fairly easy tasks, and hey presto - all fixed :-)
It now starts, runs, and idles much much better. It's the most significant improvement I think I've ever seen on an engine, and in some respects it was a miracle it would even run before. The MAF readings were off the scale and I think it was running using the cam position sensor to get a basic reading of engine position. Clever really, in that the whole system can adapt to live with the failure of two main sensors, and had defaulted to a basic fuelling map so you could get home in the event of an emergency.
Difficult to say with any certainty, as of course I'm relying on my own sense of smell, but there seems to be a lot less un burnt fuel coming through the exhaust as well. So hopefully, that's all mended too.
Finally, the handbrake needed some attention. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but I managed to reduce the amount of travel by fitting some spacers on the handbrake cable which helped with the adjustment. Although now, if adjusted for a positive handbrake, the callipers are still grabbing at the discs when the handbrake is off. Cure this and you get about 9 clicks of travel on the lever. Sort of tinkering with the adjustment, the only thing I can think of is that the pads needs to bed in, after all the discs are so new they have still got their machining marks on. Might need to bed them in with some gentle application of the handbrake to rough them up a bit.
So I decided on another quick trip to the MoT station (sic) for a test drive. Straight away you can feel the difference. Before it was flat and down on power. Now it is completely electric!! Definitely found the "blow your socks off" vibe this time. It accelerates insanely fast, wheel spinning in 1st 2nd and nearly 3rd... Incredible. It's going to be entertaining in the wet!!
So with that, a short video to entertain you all:
Video uploading to YouTube... Update this with the link in a minute.
Think we're ready to start the process of getting it tested now.
In other news, just purchased the bare bones of an M3 3.2 Evo engine - exciting things ahead with phase 2 of the project!!,
Thanks for reading
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