Pauls Astra Mk2 rallying adventures...

[RallyMarshal]

Been a busy few months so a couple of updates over the next week or so to bring us up to date... May and the start of June was our holiday and Rally Barbados..

First weekend of hillclimb went OK - safe but not quick enough against the quick boys in our class.

Then a week of pacenoting, spanner checking, enjoying the island and mainly drinking rum we got to the main event.

Friday started steadily until we had a big spin under braking a few miles in which shook me up and killed my confidence in the car on the night stage..



Think we were 8th in our class and 59th overall going into Saturday. We did a swap of tyres from inters on the front and cut wets on the back to softs on the front and wets on the back.

Saturday was a mixture of technical stages with some fast bits thrown in. Had a bad start in the morning with brakes boiling badly so had to bleed and refill them on the road section from stage 3 to stage 4 and from stage 4 to stage 5 but got that sorted and started to work our way up. However the car didnt feel "right" all day with a loose back end meaning it was difficult to commit to the faster bumpy bits. Had an 80mph spin in the road with only a tiny bump into a bank at the end which was extremely lucky! However, finished the day 5th in class and 39th overall.



Then onto Sunday. Thought it was going to rain, so tyre swapped to inters front and softs rear for the first loop which was the wrong choice as it didnt rain and the inters were too soft leading to major understeer. So we changed to some mediums on the front and kept the softs on the rear after the first loop. The car immediately felt "good" again allowing me to push much harder and was around 2-3 seconds a mile quicker and certainly the best it had been all rally. Throughout the day, we did our own thing and pushed where we could but backed off when it got lairy. In the meantime, others were throwing themselves off the road.. So we worked up to 4th in class then up to 3rd in class and ended the rally 32nd overall and 3rd in class.



On the basis that the 2 cars ahead of us in our class were Citroen DS3 R3 Max cars which are going for around 70K Euro at the moment with sequential boxes, works type suspension etc, then I dont think the Astra did too badly all in all. It was also a learning curve on the tyres so will be better in 2019!

Had 4 days after the rally to chill out, drink some more and enjoy the island and friends out there. Luckily we have a great partner in the Coconut Court Beach Hotel who help us whenever we are at the rally - http://www.coconut-court.com is highly recommended if anyone is looking for a great hotel in Barbados



Next post will be about the Flying Fortress rally in June in the other car!

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

Back from holidays middle of June and the following weekend was the Flying Fortress Stages. Its a WW2 airfield with fast and slow sections and bits between the trees on concrete. Love the event stages so wanted to push on and get a good result.

Was a hot sunny day so felt a lot like Barbados again in a race suit.. Had a corner plot so set up with our friends Mk1 Escort.



First stage started well, small off but no damage..



The stage 2 I pushed on and we were lying 10th overall and 1st in class - the tyres showed how hard we were going..



Then it all went Pete Tong... Stage 3 had a driveshaft inner CV pull out of the new diff so did 5 miles on one shaft dropping us down the order.

Then went back out for stage 4 in maximum attack mode.



and just as we came towards the finish, noticed a trail of smoke from the car. Finished the stage (quickest in class!!) and stopped at the finish line, powder fire extinguishers used just in case and made a right mess. Realised that it was complete coolant loss rather than smoke once we had the bonnet up but better to be safe than sorry.

Took the car back to service and worked on it for the next hour and a bit, changing the coolant pipes and resealing everything. Restarted the engine and started to see steam again as the coolant rapidly disappeared from the header tank. Headgasket gone. Time to put the car on the trailer and go home...

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

So in the first few weekends in July, managed to get a bit done to fix the damage..

As we had used powder extinguishers on it, everything was a mess...



First job was to remove the engine



Had to remove the clutch to fit the flywheel to the engine stand.. All year we have suffered with a vibration but not understood what. Realised what it was when we took the clutch off - the straps holding the centre central had snapped meaning it was offcentre



Then took head off.. Its definately headgasket on #3 then...



Not a good sight..



Lots of detonation marks.. Its got to the point where its eaten into the head and breached the fire ring but only allowed the water / cylinder to mix



So then cracked on with stripping and cleaning the engine bay.. Thats better :-)



Paul..

[total_vauxhall]

That looks like it was alot of fun .
Well done pal

[RallyMarshal]

Video from stage 2 of the Flying Fortress at

[totalnova]

Always enjoy reading your updates, shame about the engine but I'm sure you'll have it back up and running soon.

[RallyMarshal]

At the end of July, I took a few days holiday which allowed me to sort a few more bits.

Started with a Nexia radiator and a Mk3 lower crossmember.. The Nexia rad is the same width as a 2.0 8v GTE but the same height as a 2.0 16v so more capacity for cooling.



Got jiggy with the angle grinder and cut off the standard 8v type lower crossmember then mocked up the radiator, Mk3 crossmember, towing eye etc



Tied the box section into the chassis leg and lower rail but also tied another piece into the substantial front sumpguard mount too. Nice and strong.



and painted it up in glacier white



Also cleared the garage out and moved stuff to fit some vinyl floortiles. The concrete was breaking up, getting very dusty and needed redoing properly. These were a better option I think. Theyre 495mm x 14mm thick coin top interlocking floor tiles from the likes of bigdug and the photo was taken 3/4 way through.. Its now finished and 10x nicer to work on under the car.



Also continued with engine stuff. Block stripped to check bearings - all fine but replacing anyway whilst its stripped.



Piston #3 shows severe detonation though so new one was ordered..



Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

and into August we go..

Gearbox stripped, cluster out for inspection.



Diff out and stripped, cleaned and reassembled. We discovered that the GKN inner CVs we use are bottoming out on the outer edge of the Tranx casing, meaning the snap-rings arent locking the shafts into place properly. So we have modified the outer casing by a few mm to allow it to hopefully lock in properly now.



Head was skimmed..



Lots of expensive new parts arrived - head stud kit, new pisto, 4 x new ring sets and a cometic 1.7mm



Started work on the fuel system changes to add a better filter system and a swirl pot. Started with this..



and a pile of existing bits..



Added some new bits..



and ended up with this!! Still waiting on a couple of adapters to finish off but hard work is done.



Ive also ordered a new Helix clutch but been told its on backorder so picked up a spare LUK cover to use if we need to. If not then its in the spares box anyway.



Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

I had hoped to show more progress but machine shop holding up things at the moment so will be a big rush for the next 10 days to get the car ready for the 3rd September..

Front suspension all checked and balljoints / trackrod ends changed, brakes cleaned and refitted too.

Essentially, once the engine is built and fitted, the car will be going to be re-setup suspension wise and the gearbox linkage tweaked and then we are good to go..

Paul..

[RallyMarshal]

So its been a while again.. Will try to be better this year..

Due to various issues, decided to knock last season on the head and save the money whilst finishing the car properly ready for 2018 season.

Found a small crack in the gearbox casing so that got repaired..



and the cluster inspected and box reassembled.



New paddle clutch arrived..



and new pressure regulator..



Head came back from machineshop after skimming 20 thou to remove marks and was rebuilt / reshimmed for the solid lifters..a very timeconsuming job without a shim grinder!



Clutch fitted nicely..



Box refitted after a massive effort to line her up



and all refitted in the car. Swapped to c20let yellow injectors as we think we were at the flow limit of the c20xe creams used previously



More updates tomorrow!!