TOM'S 96 Rev 3 GTS - BREAK ME UP, BEFORE YOU GO GO

[C35Rob]

Tried to get the car properly aligned this morning, unfortunately none of the tyre places (ATSeuromaster, HIQ, halfords autocentre and tyre spot) near me were willing to touch it because it's "too low"

but where there's a will there's a way, I went old school and did it myself



there was mega toe out on both rear wheels and a bit too much toe in on the NSF wheel, I've lined it up pretty square now and it's more than good enough to do me till I can get it booked in at my preferred alignment place who have got a proper Hunter rig.

then the only thing left to do was wash it,



Done. Finished.

[craig]

Looking good mate.

[androo007]

That looks SO good

[jimGTS]

looks great

that reflect a gold looks familiar

[C35Rob]

Thanks guys

@jim I knew I'd seen the reflect-a-gold on someone else's car too.. Did you ever do any before and after testing to see if it actually made a difference?

[jimGTS]

That IC pipe never gets hot now.
But whether or not it helps drivability, temps, hp I couldn't tell you.

I'd have thought heatsoak can only be bad for the 'cold' pipe. Anything to help I guess.

[Martin F]

Finally one Journey comes to an end and the start of a more enjoyable one begins, Car looks great Rob, Hope mapping goes to plan and we see decent weather for the next few months, looking forward to the dyno results and hearing some of your fun times ahead, well done dude

p.s. I'm even diggin' those orange repeaters

[C35Rob]

MOT'd this morning, no issues at all, as expected.



then quickly nipped round to my dads house (a mile or so from the mot station) and taxed it online.

then on the way back home this happened



I noticed the lights on the gauges getting a bit dim, flicked my commander onto battery volts and it was 9V and falling.. pulled off the road and luckily the alt belt was still there, it seems when I reconnected that part of the engine loom after having it out to fit the injectors I hadn't pushed the alternator wiring plug home fully, and it had backed off causing it not to charge. I plugged it back in, jumped the car with my booster pack and all was good

I even got out for a little bit of road mapping with the mrs this afternoon, idle/cruise AFR's are pretty much on point, I really need to get back out at night when the roads are clear to do any more though.

I'm mega, mega happy though, can't wait to get some boost into it and drive it properly.

a few random points from today's driving:

1) positive manifold pressure by 2500rpm, 7psi by about 3200 @ nowhere near full throttle. it's only got a 7.25psi spring in the wastegate too so I imagine when it's running on the boost controller which will stop it cracking early it'll be very responsive.

2) I need to roll my rear arches badly

3) I think I'm over having a fixed bucket seat in it. I may look for a set of period correct Bride Brix

4) screamer pipe sounds mental..

[ashley]

Well done

[C35Rob]

got the car out tonight for a little more road mapping



roads were nice and clear so got some long smooth accel runs done, some steady speed cruising and a few quicker bursts at low boost

quick little shot when I pulled over to write some changes to the map, engine lid up to let some heat out, I think I'm falling for this thing again, really enjoying driving it



this is the target AFR map I'm working to, It's quite rich, but I don't want to lean it out on the road, I'll let the dyno operator do that when he's wearing det cans.



and as of tonight this is how the map looks, this is Inj MS (base map x correction factor) with the Y axis being MS, the X axis is RPM and the lines are the load points (low load at the bottom, high load at the top) obviously I'm still running low boost so haven't touched the top 5 load points, but the map is looking quite smooth, there's clearly a few lumps and bumps that need smoothing out but that will come with time




the only other observation from this evening is that I think the wastegate spring may be a bit weak so i'll order a stiffer spring, I wouldn't want to have to re-visit the dyno over something like that.

[JD]

Awesome. I cannot wait to have mine back.

[gnzyza]

Well done mate, how does it drive?

I have a arch roller, shame your not closer but happy to post if you need it

[C35Rob]

Well done mate, how does it drive?

I have a arch roller, shame your not closer but happy to post if you need it

cheers mate,

it drives really well, needs a proper alignment and I need to stiffen the dampers up a little (on the softest setting for the first few miles as per HSD's instructions) but I'm more than happy with it.

thanks very much for the offer! I've got an arch roller myself, just need to get round to doing it, hopefully get it done this week then I can get the new tyres fitted to the back

[C35Rob]

Arches rolled today, felt a little guilty taking an arch roller to totally mint, unmolested factory arches, but my car isn't a show pony or a concours machine so needs must.



looks like I've definitely got clearance for the 255 wide tyres now, just need to get them fitted.

the rain tray was cut out for more ventilation, need to get some edging trim to finish it off, I'm not bothered about rain protection since the car is garaged and only gets driven in dry weather anyway




I got a new battery (under guarantee, bonus!) as the old one wouldn't hold a charge, I think the big discharge the other day when the alt wiring plug came loose finished it off.

and just as I was about to tidy up for the day a DHL van pulled up with a delivery from Owen Developments, a new wastegate spring, I've gone from a small green 0.5 bar (7.25psi) spring to a big red 0.8 bar (11.6psi) spring which should keep the wastegate from cracking open too soon and aid spool up. so 20 mins later the wastegate was off, springs swapped over and reinstalled.

Professional alignment being done @ AK Automotive on friday then on the rollers at Evotune on saturday..

[gnzyza]

Getting there now, looking forward to your results. I felt the same when I rolled the rears lol. You probably have but it's a good idea to seam seal the arches

[2barGee]

Awesome read!!!

Looking forward to the results from Saturday!!! Be interesting to see the dyno graphs!!

[C35Rob]

Cheers @geeman

@gnzyza - I've got loads of tubes of sikaflex in the garage but I've not sealed the arches up yet.. I rolled them to the point where I thought if I went any further the paint would crack, if my new tyres don't rub then I'll seal them up as they are and pack the gap out with sikaflex, if they do rub I'll have to go back in and roll them totally flat (which will probably crack the paint :/ ) so I didn't want to fill the lip with sealant yet

[androo007]

Excited to see what you get Rob. What's the number dyno telling you at the moment?

[C35Rob]

Excited to see what you get Rob. What's the number dyno telling you at the moment?

I'm not sure, I know what power I'd like, but I'll wait til sat before shouting my mouth off! I drove it to my parents house and back today, the new wastegate Spring has really woken it up.. I'm pretty sure it's at least as quick @11psi on this turbo as it was on 18psi on a ct20 - hard to be sure though based on 18 months break from driving it and only really giving it part throttle etc now.

I did, however, have an odd misfire today.. It drove mint on the way to my mothers house, then when I went to go home I got a couple of miles from their house, and it started missing at idle and crawling in traffic, afr was swinging rich/lean on the wideband sensor and it was stumbling and farting on. I spun round, pulled into a shell station and topped the tank off (it was on just under 1/4) in case it was the sender reading wrong and I was running out of fuel. I plugged my laptop in and started logging via FCedit and drove it back to my mams, checked the log, no obvious bad data, checked all the usual stuff - plugs, leads, injector connectors etc etc and all was fine. Left it for 10 mins and it started up and ran fine, drove it home with no issues at all - very strange.

All the ignition components are new or near new, injectors are brand new, nothing 'obvious' that would cause it.. I'll double check all earths etc tomorrow, do a check on the coil etc, hopefully it's just a freak blip and it doesn't come back.

[C35Rob]

alignment sorted this morning, top service again from the lads @ AK Automotive..

we've gone quite aggressive with camber, since it's not a daily I'm not fussed at sacrificing tyre wear for cornering ability, more caster than stock (better self centering and more -ve camber gain on lock) and a touch of toe in all round for stability




for people who deal in the metric system that works out at 2.8 deg -ve camber, 4.5 deg caster, 0.05 deg toe in on the front and ~2.5 deg -ve camber, 0.08 deg toe in on the rear

It's fair to say it drives like a totally different car now, I'm genuinely surprised how much difference it's made.

Rollers in the morning. Nervous.