1975 LA Lancer Buildup - First Build - Page 8
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29th April 2008 - On the dyno!
After the best part of a decade of working on the car, it has finally hit the dyno. A number of issues had to be sorted out so that the engine was running properly. After giving up on the standard ignition and entirely new system was fitted with instant improvements in driveability and power. Some modifications were made to the carb linkages so that the carbs could be balanced properly and the cam timing was corrected after realising that the factory timing marks are now in the wrong location. A large amount of time was spent on the dyno sorting out these issues, running in the engine, tuning the carbs and ignition and finally tuning the nitrous. Unfortunately the lack of a nitrous bottle heater meant that we had to stop working on the nitrous as the bottle pressure was too low causing some odd mixtures. Once the nitrous heater is fitted and the car is ready to run, it will go back for final tuning. All of the work was completed by Hi-Comp Performance Engines & Tuning and I was very impressed with the work completed and would highly recommend them for any performance work.
I have taken a few videos of the Lancer on the dyno:
Running through the gears Power run with carbs Power run on Nitrous
Pictured below (click on the picture for a larger picture to open in a new window) is a printout from the final dyno runs on carbs and on nitrous. The nitrous run shows the fluctuations caused by the low bottle pressure.
2nd July 2008 - Minor clearance issues
After getting the car tuned, I was keen to get the remainder of the interior completed including the harnesses. I purchased some harnesses and helmets and when I test fitted them in the car, I couldn't sit up properly as my helmet was hitting the roof! This called for some serious work to be completed. The standard brace that the front of the seats mount to has been removed and replaced with some braced square tubing sitting 4cm lower then the standard setup. The legs on the back of the seat mounts have been reduced by the same amount to keep the angle the same. Whilst it doesn't sound like a lot of work, it took a lot of effort to decide on the best method to use and then get it all removed and the new metal cut up and welded in properly.
A large number of small changes has been completed as well, the straight through muffler caused some problems on the dyno as any unburnt fuel ended up in rather spectacular flames when you backed off the throttle, this has now been replaced with a baffled design which appears to have resolved the issue. Bonnet pins have been fitted to meet safety regulations as well as the removal of the internal bonnet release. The front tow hook has also been fitted, the back one still needs to be worked out as I can't find a convenient mounting location without cutting in to the bodywork. The battery has been moved to it's final location where the rear seat used to be and the rear seat area has been blanked off with some aluminium sheets.
The interior floor has been repainted to cover the new seat and battery mounts, the roll cage has also been painted and is ready to be re-fitted to the car. A harness bar has also been fabricated and mounted on the back seat area and one new mount created for the lower harness mounts, the other lower mount is using the factory seatbelt location. The crutch strap mounts need to be sorted out once the seats have been modified to allow the straps to be used.
The gauges have been mounted in a new aluminium surround to replace the temporary wooden one that was used to ensure they all fitted and worked. The hydraulic handbrake has also been mounted with the adjustable proportioning valve, however they still need to be plumbed in to the brake lines. Speed bleeders have also been fitted to all callipers to allow for easier brake bleeding during and after events.
The nitrous bottle warmer and blanket have been fitted, however the warmer needs to be wired up to the new switch mount section in between the gear lever and handbrake. Once this has been fitted it will need to go back to Hi-Comp Performance Engines & Tuning for final tuning.
1st September 2008 - First event!!!
It's been a busy couple of months since my last update and the Lancer has completed it's first event! Before it got there a lot of work had to be completed.
Firstly, the remainder of the interior was put back in the car, this included the newly painted roll cage with padding, aluminium sheets over the back seat area to separate the boot from the main cabin area and plumbing for the hydraulic handbrake and proportioning valve. A new steering wheel was also fitted and some trim put over the aluminium area to cut down on the glare. The wiring was completed with a new mount for ignition kill and nitrous switches between the gear lever and handbrake and this was connected to an external power release cable so in the event of something going really wrong power can be cut from outside the car.
The final safety pieces were finished with a rear tow hook and stickers to label the location of the battery, kill switch and tow hooks. Hopefully this will satisfy the scrutineers when it goes for it's log book check shortly.
The battery also had to be changed after going flat one too many times. It was about four years old and had been treated very poorly so I was not at all surprised when it died.
As the exhaust had been changed and the nitrous bottle warmer fitted, it was time to get it back on the dyno. The first thing noticed was that the mixtures were now noticeably different and the jetting on the webers had to be changed, this was most likely due to the different muffler design as well as sorting out an exhaust leak that was before the oxygen sensor and may have caused the readings to vary a little. Power output was almost identical to the previous tune but without the backfires and flames out the exhaust on deceleration.
Tuning under nitrous did not go as smoothly, firstly, we ran out of nitrous! With all of the testing on the first session, we only managed a handful of runs before it ran out and had to stop until the bottle could be refilled. Once it was refilled and the car back on the dyno, the fuel pressure dropped off and the mixtures went dangerously lean. Fortunately the run was aborted before any damage occurred to the engine but it was decided to stop tuning and do some changes to the nitrous fuel system before any further tuning.
Once home, the Lancer had a flat battery which puzzled me as the car had been on the dyno for a substantial amount of time and the battery was new. Further testing showed that it was not being charged and the cause was a faulty alternator. This was originally purchased as a reconditioned unit and I was not happy that it had died, however it was well out of the warranty date and was replaced with a brand new unit. In hindsight, this may of caused a loss of power to the fuel pump in the nitrous run and hence a loss of fuel pressure.
Another change that was recommended was the replacement of the ignition leads with some higher quality units as the ones on the car were not designed to fit the engine properly and were of unknown quality. New Magnecor ignition leads were custom made by Thundercords to fit in the spark plug holes in a much neater fashion, besides working better, they also look a lot better then the ones they replaced and cover the holes stopping anything from falling in.
One of the remaining items from when the car was still going to be registered was the fuel tank emissions equipment, this was removed and replaced with a tip-over valve and filter directly on the tank.
With a quick check to ensure everything was OK, the car was finally ready for it's first event! More details to be placed in the event section shortly.
13th November2008 - First track events repairs...
After the Lancer's first track event at Oran Park (detail's in the Event section) there were a few issues that had to be dealt with.
Rear suspension - the rear end of the car was very loose and causing quite a few issues on the track, after some investigation, it was clear that there was not enough bump travel as the bump stops had been rubbing on the chassis rail and at the same time, the rear brake calliper was rubbing on the body work. After looking at several different options, it was decided to reduce the size of the bump stops and relocate the brake callipers to give more bump travel. This has been completed and there is now approximately 6cm more travel then before the modifications were performed. If the car behaves in a similar manner in the next event, then I will need to look at some softer springs and lateral location devices (panhard rod or watts link)
LSD - My original assessment of the LSD breaking seems to be incorrect, after the car had sat overnight, it was back to proper operation without any signs of slippage. Draining the oil out of the diff revealed that the oil had gotten very hot and was not in good condition. As the rear suspension was effectively too stiff riding on the bump stops, it was possibly due to the inside wheel being off the ground too often and making the diff work harder. As the suspension is being worked on, this should reduce the load on the LSD and hopefully reduce the temperature. I have also filled the diff with some Redline oil that is designed to cope with higher temperatures without breaking down unlike the oil that was in there previously from the diff rebuild. If these changes do not help, then the diff will need to be replaced with something that can handle the treatment better.
Alternator mount - throughout the day, the alternator charge would slowly drop and the fanbelt needed to be tightened up on several occasions. After looking at it more closely, there was a small amount of movement in the pivot point that was causing the pulley to be misaligned with water pump and crank pulley. This movement was wearing out the fanbelt at an alarming rate with small pieces of rubber being all around the pulley area's. The movement has been removed and the pulley realigned to hopefully stop the fanbelt from rubbing too much.
Engine mounts - the drivers side engine mount had snapped in to two pieces! As it was a brand new mount fitted to the car, it was obvious that a new mount was not going to fix the problem. New mounts made from urethane suspension rubbers were fabricated and put in to place. Whilst this has made the engine vibrations more noticeable inside the car, it has stopped the engine movement and should be much stronger then the previous setup. Whilst looking at these mounts, I had a look at the gearbox mount which was also starting to break, a similar method was used to replace this mount with a stronger setup.
Front sway bar - I had had several attempts at mounting the aftermarket sway bar on the Lancer and all of them have proved to not work properly. The last method allowed some movement in the bars location and by the end of the day, the ends were hard up against the lower control arms. I have given up on getting this to work on the car and re-fitted the factory swaybar. Whilst the front suspension was out, I also decided to fit some longer control arms from a Sigma to give a wider track and more negative camber. Removal of the old control arms showed that the inner control arm bushes had worn out and the pivot hole was elongated allowing the control arm to move around. New rubbers were needed with the change to Sigma control arms so it was not an issues, but it was a concern that the old rubbers needed replacing after such a short period of time.
Hopefully these changes will reduce the number of issues with the car on it's next outing, I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but fewer broken bits would be good.
17th November 2008 - Next event.. more repairs
Yesterday saw the return to active duty for the Lancer after it's round of hasty repairs. A couple of annoying issues appeared early on, firstly, the wider front track was causing the tyres to rub on the guards and at one point, grab the lip and bend it outwards. Some hasty panel beating was completed to minimise the issue, but there was still signs of tyre contact at the end of the days proceedings, so flares will need to be fitted to ensure they clear. Secondly, the u-bolts came loose after a few runs of the motorkhana, they were tightened but came loose again at the end of the day. Extra lock nuts will be fitted to keep it tight.
Most annoying of the issues was the alternator seizing and snapping the fanbelt. This caused an early end to the day much to my annoyance, but I was glad it was noticed when the car was sitting still, not going along a circuit straight! After pulling apart the alternator, this is how the bearing and pulley looked, complete with part of the fanbelt attached...
a new bearing has been purchased, along with locknuts and front and rear flares, hopefully they will all go on smoothly before next weekends track day at Wakefield.