January 2019
29thJan
Triple M visit
I took the car over to Triple M on Sunday for the suspension alignment, and after four hours, with the car sitting on a set of Pirelli PZero tyres, it was all done. The first step was to measure the ride height of the front wing with the Avon's fitted, which was 72mm. Then the Pirelli Supersoft tyres were swapped for the Avons, and the car was aligned, corner weighted etc, while sat on the Pirellis. The fronts are now 10mm taller than the Avons, so the ride height needed adjusting accordingly. The front wing remained 72mm off the deck, while Alan made some changes to the front wishbone I'd replaced, and restored some missing camber from the offside rear. All in all, the car looks more agressive on the Pirelli's, with camber angles tweaked to make sure the tyres will be running at their optimum angle. With me sat in the car, without the engine cover, bonnet and nose cone, the car weighed in at 535Kg (I'm 95kg) so the car with fuel onboard, was around 440Kg, which is an improvement of some 5.0Kg compared to 2018. The new tyres are lighter, I've fitted a lighter flywheel/clutch, and I've removed the data logger & potentiometers, and quite a few other parts which all add up to a good saving.
With the car safely home following a very windy journey back from Gainsborough, the focus is now on bodywork, exhaust pipe angles, and a fair few other things. As I've entered the Bristol Motor Club Castle Combe sprint in March, I've approx 8 weeks left to get everything finished off, and thats including doing some testing if the weather holds out.
20thJan
Diffuser improvements
The diffuser fits so much better than before, and with a set of 15mm wide aluminium stays joining the floor to the bellhousing bolts, I can lift it right up so it sits perfectly in-line with the Mygale floor. I removed the red heavy duty 175A Anderson connector and excess battery cable from the end of the section that allows the jump start battery to be plugged in. This took almost 400g off the car. I've replaced the connector with a smaller grey 50A Anderson plug, and using the hydraulic crimp tool I bought off ebay, there is no more need to solder the connections, which used a lot of energy to get them hot enough for the solder to melt. The crimp tool works really well, and can excert a claimed 10T of pressure on the crimps. Thanks to Simon Boulter for the suggestion. A few more evenings this week, and the diffuser will be finished, and the car is then off to Triple M on Sunday for its setup and weigh-in.
19thJan
Clutch bite point tested
I ran the engine today, and with rear of the car raised off the floor, and the rear wheels fitted, I tried the operation of the clutch, and the bite point feels really good on the clutch pedal. So the pedal stop is working, and I'll have to wait and see when we go testing if the clutch feels ok as I actually pull away from the line.After fetching my van from storage, and collecting the diffuser from the rear of the van, I set about modifying the diffuser to give me more ground clearance. So I've removed the central section out of the diffuser, where it sat underneath the chassis below the engine. I'd fitted a plywood plank to protect the underside of the car, but this created a step for the air to pass underneath, and meant unnecessarily raising the rear of the car to clear the diffuser floor. With the section removed, the diffuser now matches the shape of the chassis, so I can fit the diffuser again without needing to fit the plank. This mod has also saved about 1.75Kg in plywood, and nuts and bolts, and I just need to attach the diffuser now so it sits higher up, level with the chassis floor.
14thJan
Chassis setup booked
I'm booked in at Triple M later in January for the chassis alignment, and a set of Pirelli tyres. I've downloaded the data from the ECU following the engine run yesterday, and there are dozens more channels available now to diagnose things like engine knock, speed sensor faults, paddle up/down, etc etc. Lots more opportunities to diagnose any issues on events now. Very happy.
New channels
cyl01KnockIgnRtd (25Hz) Unit(Angle, Degrees)
cyl02KnockIgnRtd (25Hz) Unit(Angle, Degrees)
cyl03KnockIgnRtd (25Hz) Unit(Angle, Degrees)
cyl04KnockIgnRtd (25Hz) Unit(Angle, Degrees)
drivenSpeed (25Hz) Unit(MPH)
flSpeedSpikeCount (2Hz)
flSpeedV (10Hz) Unit(Volts)
frSpeedSpikeCount (2Hz)
frSpeedV (10Hz) Unit(Volts)
gearCutDogKickCount (No samples)
gearCutFailCount (No samples)
gearDownShiftOutput (On or Off)
gearUpShiftOutput (On or Off)
gearShiftDecision (Status)
gearShiftDirection (Up or Down)
gearShiftState (Status)
gearShiftOutput (On or Off)
knockControlActive (Idle or Active)
knockShutdownCylinder (Cylinder number 0..12)
launchRPM (10Hz) Unit(rpm)
launchSwitch (On or Off)
paddleSwitch (None, Down, Up or Both)
paddleSwitchV (1Hz) Unit(Volts)
preIgnShutdownCylinder (Cylinder 0..12)
radarSpeed (10Hz) Unit(mph)
radarSpeedSpikeCount (2Hz)
rlSpeedSpikeCount (2Hz)
rlSpeedV (10Hz) Unit(Volts)
rrSpeedSpikeCount (2Hz)
rrSpeedV (10Hz) Unit(Volts)
preIgnShutdownCylinder
radarSpeed (10Hz)
tcSpinErr (50Hz) Unit(%)
tcSpinTarg (50Hz) Unit(%)
tcTrq (50Hz) Unit(%)
wg3MapErrPct (25Hz) Unit (%)
wgBaseDuty1 (25Hz) Unit(%)
wgFinalDuty1 (25Hz) Unit(%)
wgIgnRtd1 (25Hz) Unit(Angle,Degrees)
wgIgnDuty1 (25Hz) Unit(%)
wgMapErr[0]) (25Hz) Unit(Pressure,Millibar)
wgMapTarg1 (25Hz) Unit(Pressure,Millibar)
13thJan
Engine Runs
After purging the dry sump tank of oil, and filling the gearbox sump tank with 4l of new 10W60, the engine starts and runs with no issues. The tickover when cold is quite lumpy due to the lighter flywheel but that can be sorted easily.12thJan
Brakes bled
The brakes all bled ok, with no leaks, and the clutch is also bled. I've added a spacer to the clutch pedal stop to prevent the clutch slave from extending too far in to the clutch, and it all seems to be working OK8thJan
ECU refitted
The ECU is fitted back in the car, and the dashboard is showing the usual readings from sensors on the engine, so it all looks good so far. I started on bleeding the brakes, front and rear, and this will need a willing assistant to push the pedal, so I'll wait until the weekend when my volunteer is available. I've filled the new engine oil filter with oil, and I'll start filling the engine sump ready for running the engine again. The clutch still needs testing, but I'm confident it'll all be OK.No Autosport show for me this year, I'm giving it a break as work is ramping up and I need to be on-site rather than drooling over race cars. To be honest, there's been a decline in the number of exhibitors over the past few years, and last years show was disappointing, especially when you consider the cost of getting in, and parking.
5thJan
Fire (almost)
I bought a 5V USB power supply from eBay before Christmas, in fact I bought two, as they were about £3.50 each, and I needed a power supply for the T5.1 to charge a GPS tracking device off the van's battery. So I rigged one up on the garage bench, to check the current consumption, and make sure it didnt drain the battery when loaded by the GPS tracker. Afer a few days of checking the battery voltage, I went out to disconnect the USB charger from the car battery, and noticed that the wires feeding in to the base of the USB charger had burnt through! It was clear that the device had malfunctioned internally, as the potting compound had also melted. That was a lucky escape, as I hadnt fused the charger, it was just connected directly across the batteries terminals.
As these chargers are basic in their construction, rather than chance buying another one that might also fail, I've got hold of some 7805 regulators, and heatsinks, from RS, and made my own, reusing the USB outlets from the burnt out USB charger. The 5V regulator and heatsink cost around £1.00, and after 15 mins of soldering and heatsinking, I can happily say that I now trust my USB charger far more than the cheap one I bought off eBay, and the spare charger (I bought 2) will definitely be going in the bin.
I know these are popular devices. I've seen people use them on competition cars to provide 5V USB power for GoPro's and other USB powered devices. But all I can say is, please add an inline fuse to the device, or make sure you run it off another fused supply. The current draw is minimal, so just a 1A fuse would provide more than adequate protection incase of another short-circuit failure inside the modules themselves. I was lucky!
4thJan
Anti-squat
The rear suspension has been altered now for medium anti-squat as per the Mygale User manual. It was set to maximum, which suits lower powered cars, so we're going to try the medium settings to see if the car is any different when accelerating out of slow corners.