Well there's more news, again... The car ran beautifully over the bank holiday weekend up to Donington and Silverstone, very pleased with how it's been behaving of late. It was nice to finally show you what we've been up to in the flesh.
In the name of progress today I finally managed to service the car with new oil and plugs in preparation for a trip over to BD Engineering in Kent for some Rolling Road tuning to dial the car in properly, see where we've got to and understand how best to drive the car. The car has also just ticked over 84,000 miles albeit I doubt that number really has any meaning these days, triggers broom and all!
The nice surprise what that Andy still had a record of my last run back in April 2017 when the Head Gasket pissed coolant all over his floor and we had to abort his run so I actually have a bench mark of the last setup which I thought was lost. At the time of the last visit, the car was running original carbs, old exhaust setup, K&N filters and obviously a leaking head gasket.
The scary thing is that it's taken me two years to get back however so much has changed, even Andy noting the gearing and road speed change due to the 5 speed box and 3.9 Diff. We've dropped 20mph at the same rpm from the last visit for starters!
So interestingly having dialled it all in the first run actually provided the same peak power and a bit more torque but no major differences in terms of power, the midrange had however vastly improved. Having left Andy to work his magic he identified that one of the carbs was sticking slightly behind the other, the needles were set too low, two spark plugs were incorrect and advanced the timing slightly.
With all of this done the final run gave us 149bhp and 162 ft lbs peak power at just over 5100 rpm with some nice smooth curves to match. You can certainly see where the cam and exhaust kick in at 4k rpm and hear it. Short of engine work or a triple setup we've maximised what we've got and its really lively to drive, I was hoping for around 150bhp so quite happy and now know to drive it to around 5k rpm for best performance albeit it will happily go up to 5500 rpm.
Certainly a few hours and £165 well spent in my eyes. Even with the drive over, the RR time and a little hooning around at home for testing purposes of course
the car still produced a healthy 26.4 mpg, so very happy just ahead of our trip to Spa.
For those that don't know the current spec is currently a Stock L26, Schneider Stage 2 Cam, Ztherpay Carbs, Zstory Raceport Exhaust, Custom Airbox, OS Giken 4.7KG Flywheel and upgraded Mishimoto cooling system with Spa Fans.
Dyno Graphs and Video of the final as follows:
0A5FA893-54FE-4343-AD19-E15234B149F5 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Comparison, run from 2017 with old setup, first run tonight and then final run after setup
IMG_0043 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Final Curve
IMG_0047 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Numbers Breakdown
IMG_0044 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Power at the Wheels, Peak 118.2bhp
IMG_0046 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Video of my final power run
In other news my newly refurbished brake callipers should be arriving tomorrow so all being well I just need to find time to fit it all now, this car really is all coming together finally!
Fingers crossed this can be done before Spa, I just may chicken out of swapping the Master Cylinder out until our return in the event that something goes sideways!