Liam's Z4C race car project
- Thread starter Liam22
- Start date
And moved the weight backwards. Like it 
Some more fiddling/ fine tuning.
Discovered that one of the brake cooling ducts had slipped off the bumper intake. The offside brake pads noticeably more worn as a result!
It is very difficult to attach the duct hose to the bumper so I decided to attach the duct to the front crash structure instead of the bumper. Took an insane amount of time to trim the ducts to match the interior contours of the bumper, but I can confirm that the bumper can now be removed in a couple of minutes now!
The facelift fog lamp holes are quite small but I've got the duct lined up nicely now
New VANOS solenoids are fitted and I've booked a rolling road power run for this Friday. With bhp and heat soak on my mind I decided to wrap the airbox in shiny aluminium tape to reflect some heat away. Might not be worth much in power terms but looks better than I expected.
Discovered that one of the brake cooling ducts had slipped off the bumper intake. The offside brake pads noticeably more worn as a result!
It is very difficult to attach the duct hose to the bumper so I decided to attach the duct to the front crash structure instead of the bumper. Took an insane amount of time to trim the ducts to match the interior contours of the bumper, but I can confirm that the bumper can now be removed in a couple of minutes now!
The facelift fog lamp holes are quite small but I've got the duct lined up nicely now
New VANOS solenoids are fitted and I've booked a rolling road power run for this Friday. With bhp and heat soak on my mind I decided to wrap the airbox in shiny aluminium tape to reflect some heat away. Might not be worth much in power terms but looks better than I expected.
Power run went OK
249.7bhp at the flywheel (coastdown calculation), so we'll call it 250.
Slightly disappointing, but maybe not too bad for an engibe on 109k miles. Nonetheless, I am immediately blaming thr ebay exhaust for the torque drop above 6000rpm. Will look into a custom backbox.
249.7bhp at the flywheel (coastdown calculation), so we'll call it 250.
Slightly disappointing, but maybe not too bad for an engibe on 109k miles. Nonetheless, I am immediately blaming thr ebay exhaust for the torque drop above 6000rpm. Will look into a custom backbox.
No engine mods to speak of, and its making 230lbft which is pretty much bang on. So I want those top end horses back It feels like it just isn't breathing properly over the last few hundred rpm.
The pipework in the ebay backbox is terrible, doesn't even route to the tailpipes. It's gotta go.
The pipework in the ebay backbox is terrible, doesn't even route to the tailpipes. It's gotta go.
I now have a hypothesis about what this one is about. Code 2E83 is "Electric coolant pump, power-reduced operation".Liam22 said:
The pump itself is new - replaced last year before my trip to the 'Ring. But since then I have deleted the HVAC system and looped the pipework that would have gone to/from the heater matrix. So the effort required to circulate the coolant at the expected flow rate is reduced - therefore the pump goes into reduced-power mode".
It has done 30 minute track sessions without overheating, and sits at idle on a hot day without the fans kicking in. I've run the bleed cycle several times, and checked for air pockets by opening the bleed valve next to the cap. Doesn't lose water. So at this point I think it's fine and I'm going to stop worrying about it.
Any other ideas are welcome, before I put some black tape over the radiator light on the dash!!!
Is that an S54 thing? Don't think I have one of those.Vanne said:
But speaking of HVAC, I spent this weekend fitting a custom solution for interior ventilation and windscreen demist. A horrible job, been putting it off for ages. It's no fun with your head in the passenger footwear.
I bought a pair of 12V ventilation fans (3" and 4") as used in boat bilge rooms. They're noisy, but move a lot of air without weighing a lot. The big one is for the windscreen demist vents. It splits into 2 hoses that end up meeting the dash where the HVAC unit previously did.
I fitted a spare brake duct to the original fresh air duct which was a delightfully perfect fit. Then mounted the smaller fan next to the fuse box on a simple aluminium bracket. This feeds a hose up and along the top of the windscreen so that it blows cold air at my face. If this keeps me cool enough then I'll think about replacing the windows with fixed polycarbonate.
Took just as long to tidy up the wiring and fit a pair of switches, on automotive connectors so that I can still remove the dash panel relatively easily.
With everything back in place (and a painted lap timer bracket) I'm pretty happy with how it has worked out.
Looks like I'm gonna end up a fair bit over my 1200kg target. Maybe 1225-1230, so this winter will probably be about more extreme weight saving.
I don't have corner weight scales but I'll be resetting the ride height and suspension geometry before its first race in a couple of weeks. Might see about borrowing some, as with social distancing at circuits I don't think I'll have access to the weighbridge.
I don't have corner weight scales but I'll be resetting the ride height and suspension geometry before its first race in a couple of weeks. Might see about borrowing some, as with social distancing at circuits I don't think I'll have access to the weighbridge.
I didn't think that I would get another chance to drive the car until its first race, but GAZ came through with some new springs, and I got a cancellation at last week's Snetterton MSV track day.
Spent literally *all day* Tuesday swapping the springs, resetting ride height, camber, and wheel alignment. In the middle of which I discovered the car had no electrics. Initially suspected the little lithium battery had died but eventually turned out to be a bad earth at the isolator. My stupid fault for fitting it on the floor - too easy for water ingress to corrode around the connection. Will need a better location for it in due course.
The new springs are stiffer all round: +12% at the rear and a whopping +25% at the front. So the track day was mostly about seeing whether this was a good move or not. I left the damper settings where I found the best balance previously and then started to soften up the damping front and rear. Found a nice balance with the rear dampers a fair bit softer than before and managed a 1:12.7 on what are now, very old tyres.
Other good news:
1. We're back up to 126mph (GPS) on the back straight - looks like a failing VANOS solenoid was robbing me of 3mph previously.
2. The interior ventilation is working really well - don't even need the fan on at track speeds
Spent literally *all day* Tuesday swapping the springs, resetting ride height, camber, and wheel alignment. In the middle of which I discovered the car had no electrics. Initially suspected the little lithium battery had died but eventually turned out to be a bad earth at the isolator. My stupid fault for fitting it on the floor - too easy for water ingress to corrode around the connection. Will need a better location for it in due course.
The new springs are stiffer all round: +12% at the rear and a whopping +25% at the front. So the track day was mostly about seeing whether this was a good move or not. I left the damper settings where I found the best balance previously and then started to soften up the damping front and rear. Found a nice balance with the rear dampers a fair bit softer than before and managed a 1:12.7 on what are now, very old tyres.
Other good news:
1. We're back up to 126mph (GPS) on the back straight - looks like a failing VANOS solenoid was robbing me of 3mph previously.
2. The interior ventilation is working really well - don't even need the fan on at track speeds
