My Mars Red Mk1 - Thread REBOOT- P82

Whats the plan for the oil cooler? Are you going to duct it in?

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Certainly am happy with it so far.

Mec82. Exactly. Going to make up an ally shroud with some ducting fed to it.

 

Nice,you've done a cracking job,taken it to another level.

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Excellent work, it might just be the photos but is the actuator very close to the strut brace?

Have you considered a diesel/8V spring loaded alternator setup? It would tidy things even further and get rid of the tensioner pulley that's currently there, one less thing to go wrong on track!

 

It is just the photo Murph. There is plenty of space for the actuator during engine movement. Have a look.



I have considered the Mk3 8v alternator setup but tbh not too concerned about it.

 

Thanks guys! :veryhappy:

So the ignition key was turned for the first time since September 2014... It fires into life! I was conscious not to leave the engine sitting at idle for too long so the idle was varied to while it warmed up. I needed to make sure the fans kicked in and that it didn't overheat before going for a drive.

Click on the picture to see a video:



I took the car out for it's first drive and began to load it up. Yes that's right, no nannying about during run in. During run in, I swung by Rayhoop's house to say hi.



With a couple of late nights under the belt, my favorite local calibration specialist Toyotec was drafted in for some late night adjustments. We spent a fair few hours bringing the cal into check and making sure things were safe. When we got onto full load pulls. Immediately there was a high load missfire. It was more apparent at higher boost levels but was definitely a concern.

We headed back to my garage and checked plug gaps. These were NGK Copper tipped BKR7E plugs but I did have a set of BKR8EIX iridium plugs spare too. Eddie suggested swapping over to these. We headed back out and loaded the car up again.... No missfire! As it was late, we did a quick afr check at each boost level saved and then engine pulled through each one clean! Result! We stopped play at around 1.2 bar as the acceleration was becoming a little ridiculous for our private road *cough*. Comments went like this:

Eddie: "Pull through the gear yours in"
Me: "Ok"

Few seconds later

Eddie: "Ok try that again in 5th please"
Me: "That was 5th"

Eddie stares at me.....

So with Curborough fast approaching, I needed to build a new front splitter. I don't think it will help much there but it will help protect the front valence from getting damaged over curbs etc.

A 12mm thick piece of exterior grade ply was bought and I cut the rear profile to match the old splitter. It was then offered up to the car and a new profile drawn out.



Cut to shape and front edge radius sanded, the mounting brackets were added.



Finally some wear squares were made from some steel and bolted into place.







Just some coats of paint needed and it'll be ready to fit.

 

Excellent work Gurds, this has gone too a whole new level now!
Will be interesting to see how you get on with the oil cooler. I have a 16 row jobbie mounted like that with cold air feed on my 16v T in my mk1 and it struggles to keep oil temp under 115-120 depending on outside temp. I haven't had chance to use it much in anger as it keeps giving me little niggles at track days so I have to abort, but currently it's an issue for me. I'm sure yours has had more thought put into it than mine though lol.

 

I'm also still using the factory water to oil cooler too. Never had an oil temp issue in the past with this setup but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

Love it!!!

What year/model Starlet is the steering rack from?

Thanks, Gavin

 

Thanks Gavin.

I believe mine is from an EP82 but think the EP91 stuff fits too. So that's 1990 through to 1999. Mine is from a GT model. Physical fitment is pretty easy but it's the bumpsteer that needs to be carefully dialled out. I spent a fair bit of time shimming the tie rods and spherical ends to eliminate it completely. Without doing so, the car would be dangerous to drive.

Gurds

 

As Gurdip said, 92 on, look for one out of a turbo, Glanza, they are about 2.75 or so turns lock to lock.

 

Well it passed MOT yesterday . Just need to get the breather system back in place and I should be good for Curborough on Sunday!

Gurds

 

Well done Guds monster effort in getting it done

 

Fantastic effort pal! can't wait to see more, and hopefully in the flesh!

 

I was fortunate enough to get a ride the day after Eddie calibrated it... oh lord, it is quick.

 

With Curborough fast approaching, the car had a list of things that still needed to be sorted out before serious abuse could be given. The car still had significant bumpsteer so after discussing it at length with Nige, I put together a rig that would allow repeatable measurements of what was going on.



The spring was slackened right off and the jack would allow control over damper position. The horizontal bars and vertical plumb lines would allow for the toe change to me measured and mapped on graph paper. What I found was quite shocking. The wheels still suffered some serious toe change when moving through suspension travel. The tie rod end position was shimmed up and down until the bumpsteer was corrected.

The diagonal line shows the change in toe before which was corrected to a line that followed the vertical axis.

X - Axis is toe change
Y - Axis is damper travel with zero being 50% damper travel.



So the wheel went from having 5.5mm of toe change to virtually none. Result! The same was repeated on the other side.

Next up was the cam cover and breather system. The cam cover was modified and had a breather mod added to suite. The old one was a little large and fouled the new turbo position so this was implemented instead.














Finally, the splitter was given some coats of paint and offered up to the car. Gotta say I'm happy with the outcome even if it is a bit low.



With all of that in place, the car was loaded up and was ready to attend Curby....


Gurds

 

All looks really good mate
I may have to pop over to have a butchers

 

Just shows you how little the real hands-on practices have changed over the years.

35 years ago I used a long broom handle mounted horizontally and watched the end of the handle to see how much it moved.

Your method is a bit more technical (and accurate) but it's the same principle and one that's guaranteed to improve the steering. Should give you much more confidence going through bumpy corners now.

Next step might be to park the car on a big piece of paper and drop plumb-bob lines from the major suspension points to check if it's perfectly aligned. Mark each plumb-bob point on the paper and then measure the diagonals to see if each side is exactly the same distance.

Very old school but it makes a very good reference point to start with.

Cheers

Paul

 

Thank you very much Paul. There is so much that can be done with a piece of string and a ruler. Nice shout about the paper and plumb bobs. Thanks.

Gurds