Got another set of TC105N's in 8.5'' to suit the stock front wings slightly better, with some AR1's in 245/40/18. My other TC105N's were 9.5'' and with 265 tyres were prone to touching on the wing on full lock, so hopefully gain a few mm back whilst sticking with the front wing.
9.5 with 265's
8.5 with 245's
Might go back to the 9.5's one day, but gave up trying to source a genuine ridox front wing that wasn't going to take 14 years to get delivered.
The conclusion to the dash situation in the end was to remove the stock dash all together. By the time I had cut and contorted the stock dash to fit around the cage, there was nothing left of the OEM mounting points for any of the panels. The amount of work required to build new brackets for the dash, the panels and any reinforcement bars got a bit out of hand pretty quickly and defeated the object of keeping things simple for the mounting on the dash.
With the stock dash removed, a panel of some sort was needed in order to mount the Motec Display and provide something dash like to fill the void. Ash started a template that could be built on later on.
Whilst I had the subframe out, I started running and routing the new fuel lines (AN10 Feed, AN8 Return + Nitrous AN4 + Battery Ground)
Wanted to mount my flex sensor inline on the fuel feed, so I didn't get any ethanol% fluctuations on high load when seen when it's mounted on the return line. Ran out of room near the engine, so mounted this Nuke Flex sensor Inline adapter under the rear passenger seat.
Between a crazy busy workshop and travelling abroad for work I decided to transport the car back to james at retro road sports to make a bit more progress on the car.
His main tasks were as followed:
- Fabricate cover plate for transmission tunnel
- Fabricate cover plate for cabin heater to protect heater core fins
- Weld up front waterneck & powersteering resevoir
- Make a plate for ECU's & Electronics to be mounted to + a kickpanel plate to cover it all
- Mount dash panel properly + integrate a C1212 mount + C1212 Dash Cowling
- Mount rear PDM
- Finish off brake lines front + rear
- Run fire extingisher lines + mount nozzles in enginebay
- Mount Motec Rear Camera in rear light keyhole.
- Mount fire extinguisher controller
- Fabricate rear numberplate mount bar
- Converter redundant clutch pedal to a driver dead pedal
- Fabricate fuel brackets & mount for interior.
- Modify PHR fuel line brackets to accept battery grounds & miscellaneous lines.
Once back from my trip abroad, I got the car back from James and I pulled everything back out the car as the stage of dry fitting everything was basically done.
With the engine back on the stand, I started by fitting a new strainer and tomei baffle kit, with a small mod for the PHR dipstick oil temp sensor. Followed by mounting the upper and lower sumps for real now.
With the sumps mounted, and the long block sealed, I finally moved onto installing all the manifolds & auxiliary components properly, torqueing everything to spec and marking bolts once tightened.
To complete the long block, I dialed in TDC with my own markings, then dialed in the camshafts to Kelfords cam centerlines, then put on the billet valve covers for real.
And back in she goes for the last time.
(Also got some new facelift wings to replace the prefacelift ones I had, need to paint them white, but I'll sort that out later)
Next I took the pedalbox back out, installed all the cylinders, torqued and marked all the bolts/nuts/arms/sliders etc on it and set it all up in the PE specs that were provided to me. Also mounted my front and rear brake pressure sensors.
Once the pedal box was back in, I made the last break lines and started bleeding the brakes. To my surprise, everything bled up perfectly first time with no leaks. Buying the right tools certainly helped there!.
Next up was to get the gearbox installed properly. Going to test the car with the OEM diesel converter initially so I can get an idea on power band before speccing a hi stall later on.
Managed to pick up and SFI rated flex plate last minute from a customer which was handy.
Whilst all that was happening, I had sent off a load of brackets and panels for powder coating in satin black.
Here's how it looks with a few of them installed
So next up on the agenda is wiring. Just about to pull the trigger on some 8STA connectors to cover all the cars requirements and all the wiring to go with it.
MIchael Yazgic @ 0x33