Track Preperation Part 1

General Meets + Track Day Reports
181

sweet,

what they like cold?

are the pads mainly a hot use???

what size are your front and rear wheels?

sorry few stupid questions

you reckon the new engine will be in for bedford the end of feb???

182

also one last question

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/engineoilcooler.jpg[/image]

what’s the black tube inbetween the blue hoses???

183

Nos




not really its an oil cooler

184

Nos




not really its an oil cooler

ah cheers dude

i assume it’s only the exige that has these???

185

sweet,

what they like cold?

are the pads mainly a hot use???

what size are your front and rear wheels?

sorry few stupid questions

you reckon the new engine will be in for bedford the end of feb???

Yeah they work OK cold, never had a problem.

They are race pads, so yeah they get better with heat, but as I say I use them on the road without any problems.

Standard Exige rims. 16" on the front, 17" on the rear.

As Dave says, the black tube looking thing is an oil / water engine oil cooler. It’s not a standard Exige thing, I have fitted it instead of a conventional oil / air radiator, as the pipe runs are shorter (and therefore lighter) and the whole system is more simple and easier to work on.

186

The car has been moving on. I got my fuel level sender and fitted it to my now modified top plate

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/newfuelsenderfitted.jpg[/image]

I refitted the top plate and then started doing the final fit of the engine bay wiring.

I am wiring it all up so that everything that is connected to the engine will pass through the quick release connector, so that it makes taking the engine out a bit quicker.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/enginewiring.jpg[/image]

I then run all of the rest of the wiring through the bottom corner of the bulkhead. These wires run things like:
Water pump
Gearbox cooler pump
Fuel pressure sender
Power gear change controls
Gearbox temp sender
Fuel pumps
Starter motor and starter solenoid

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/rearbaywiring.jpg[/image]

I then decided to do some final tests on all of the pumps and stuff. So firstly I filled the fuel tank with fuel. Now that all of the plates were finally fitted I wanted to make sure we had no leaks, so I brimmed the tank which took about 78 litres of fuel.

Then the first real nightmare struck. The bloody tank leaked. It was coming from the fuel level sender / fuel return / internal pump wiring top plate and it was bloody everywhere. The real problem was I couldn�t tell where it was coming from. There are so many holes in that top plate, it could have been coming out of the mounting holes (12), the fuel sender mounting holes (5), the fuel return, or the wire connectors. Plus the fuel was reacting with the glue on the heat reflective sheeting and basically pulling it off the bulkhead. I was going bloody mental. Lol. The first thing I had to do was get all of the bloody fuel out of the tank, so I connected all of the fuel pumps up and pulled the pipe off the fuel rail and pumped all of the fuel back into the jerry cans.

The heat reflective sheet was trashed, so I peeled off what was destroyed and took the offending top plate off. Everything was tight and everything looked good, so I started to think maybe the top plate just hadn�t seated properly or something. All I could do was test it again, so I took the ally plate off the bulkhead that the tank top plate sits on. I then bolted the top plate back on again and refilled the tank to the brim.

Fuel everywhere again, but this time I could tell where it was coming from. I had air bubbles coming from around the fuel return fitting. Basically the ally washers I had used to seal the fitting, weren�t bloody working. I couldn�t believe it. Basically they are very soft ally washers that squash and seal what ever you bolt them to. Or at least that is the theory. So I took the fitting off and launched the offending washers across the garden and refitted with doughty seals on both sides. A doughty seal is basically a steel washer with a rubber sealing ring around the inside edge of the washer. When you bolt it all up, the steel doesn�t deform, but the rubber is squashed and forms the seal.

So top plate refitted, I refilled for the third time and thank god, no more leaks!!!.

I cut some more pieces of heat reflective sheet and recovered all of the areas that were damaged last time. I also decide to completely cover the top plate.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/fuellevelsenderandreturnfitted.jpg[/image]

I then filled the engine with coolant, thankfully no leaks!! and turned on the water pump. Jesus man it seriously pumps. What ever doubts I had before about the flow of this pump have now gone out of the window. It is awesome, you can feel the water gushing through the pipes and it comes out of the return from the head to the header tank with some serious force.

I then filled the gearbox up with oil and turned on the gearbox cooler pump, again no leaks thankfully and like the water pump, this little oil pump didn�t disappoint. I had disconnected the return pipe so that I could see how much oil was flowing, and I reckon it must have shot the oil six foot across the workshop!!

As a last thing I threw the suspension back on. I have moved the remote canisters from the rear stays of the roll bar as I think they look a bit neater now.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/RearleftOhlinsfitted.jpg[/image]

The front ones are in the same place as before.

Hopefully get a bit more done tomorrow, but then that�s it for this week as I am off to Tokyo on Wednesday for the rest of the week and the weekend.

187

Phew! Glad you got it sorted, that could have been nasty!

If you hadn’t found the cause I was going to suggest taking your laundry out of the tank, as that surely can’t help!

Ian

188

excellent result in the end dude, nice one

would love a set of those shocks

wont be long before it’s fullying running again then

189

Great update Sean (as always!).

Sorry to hear things didn’t quite go according to plan, but glad to read you got it all sorted in the end.

I really will have to try and catch up with you once you’re back from Tokyo.

190

Sean

Gld to here the Water Pump looks like it will do the business. Another interesting post

Where do you take the oil OUT of the gearbox before going into the pump ? I re-read the earlier post but can’t understand where you pickup the oil

191

Cheers amte and Happy Birthday!!!

On the quaife sequential box there is a hole where the reverse lock out mechanism goes. It is very low on the front of the gearbox. I am not using the mechanical reversw lock out now as I have my paddle shift system, so I took the whole mechanism out and welded up a fitting to come out of there and go to a -10 hose that goes to the pump.

Its not a great picture, but you can see the fitting and the pipe coming off it on its way to the pump.

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/gearboxcoolerdrainpiped.jpg[/image]

And the other end of it going to the pump

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/SeanBicknell/Gearboxcoolerpumppiped.jpg[/image]

Sean…

192

Ahh… just gone midnight thanks for the birthday wishes and thanks for th eclarification… you did say in your earlier post about the reverse lock-out, but now I understand what you’ve done… how could I have forgotten you have a different gearbox

193

Sean,
Do you have any p/n for the AP rotors and hats? Also, what is the p/n of the front callipers?
Can you fit any bigger discs to the front, i.e. 305mm?
Cheers,
George


I run the Lotus Motorsport setup mate. Basically 295mm AP disks all round. I run the two pot standard front callipers on the back and a set of 4 pot AP callipers on the front.

I also run Performance Friction, Carbon Metallic brake pads all round. There a pretty agressive compound, but they certainly stop the car!!

Sean…

194

Just wondering when the next instalment of Track Prep is coming up. Really enjoyed reading it so far.

195

I actually spent a day working on it yesterday. I haven’t touched it for a month as one of my best friends has been in hospital for the last 4 weeks after having 4 strokes in the space of a couple of days. Nearly killed him and he is only 32. Just haven’t been able to focus on much apart from work and hospital stuff. He is well on the mend now though and should be out of hospital soon.

Sean…

196

I actually spent a day working on it yesterday. I haven’t touched it for a month as one of my best friends has been in hospital for the last 4 weeks after having 4 strokes in the space of a couple of days. Nearly killed him and he is only 32. Just haven’t been able to focus on much apart from work and hospital stuff. He is well on the mend now though and should be out of hospital soon.

Sean…

Sean

Best wishes to your mate hope he’s up and about soon.

197

Sorry to hear about your mate. Hope all goes well with him and your car. Will you be ready and out at Donington?

198

Yes will deffo be at Donnington. I am off to the US tomorrow working, so another week away from it. Fingers crossed wen I get back I can get a few good days on the thing.

Must post the pics of my new fuel setup, it’s proper bling man!!!

199

anymore updates??? i really enjoy n like this thread a lot…

200

anymore updates??? i really enjoy n like this thread a lot…

Me too!