Fantastic
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Fantastic
Loving this build Craig, really jealous of all the posh parts that are going into it. Given me some inspiration to tweak my own car a little bit too.
Thanks guys, yes I plan to get it out to some shows this year as It's not too far off now.
Oh thanks, I wouldn't say posh though. The Stack instrument was born out of necessity, Its just so compact and versatile that its hard to find an argument against fitting one. Except maybe the price, but once you have bought all the individuals and wired them up to senders you probably wouldn't be far shy of the retail price anyway.
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A little progress, but still slow as all the jobs are despite being small, very time consuming. Started by fitting a Jenvey linkage and a throttle cable.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa87f40c8.jpg
Started work on the Oil fittings. (Lets not have the upside down cooler debate, it's fine).
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps4ff4da55.jpg
Wired the alternator and starter
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps336d65bd.jpg
Then made up some templates for my new coolant feed hoses.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps096f68c4.jpg
Sent them off and went to see my welder friend who helped me knock this up together.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse862a434.jpg
Still might need the tails trimming, but will keep them long if I am able to due to the bead roll's.
Side repeaters, (Thinking possible MOT).
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps859a317c.jpg
Oil filter
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psf0e82ae7.jpg
Exterior pull cords sorted.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps1acaa221.jpg
Fuel lines secured, cable's ran, passenger footrest in.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc029bf40.jpg
Dash flocked and re-assembled (Thanks Al)
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps99ef745b.jpg
Rear window fitted.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps2d86a158.jpg
And finally the bay starting to fill up.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...pscfc26469.jpg
Shouldn't be long now. I just have one more bout of spending to do on Leads, Fuel reg and injectors then we should be good for a start up.
I made up a nice coil pack bracket yesterday too, but that's in for powder coating already, along with the bumper irons as they were a bit crusty.
nice work, will stainless braided lines pass the mot ok? i was thinning of using then for my fuel and brake lines.
Yes, should do, they are all Teflon core so don't breath like rubber.
Superb! What regulator are you going for? May seem an odd question, but I've just bought a new aeromotive one.
Thanks Will. Im looking at the Fuelab regulators.
Fantastic !
Looking good dude.
Ok, So this is due an update.
Anybody who attended PVS yesterday and wasn't completely overwhelmed by the vast variety of top class cars to look at may have spotted this at the front of the Total Vauxhall stand, looking remarkably complete. Its nigh on finished, and despite trailering it there, there is no reason why without some vital fluids it wont start up.
So, towards the end of the build I didn't take so many pictures, but here goes.
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Front grill, Wasn't happy with the standard one so removed the slats and grafted in some honeycomb mesh from another vehicle.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9cb88380.jpg
With all the panels and windows fitted I took it down to the guy who painted it to rub out some runs and machine polish it.
The only picture I have of the windows going in. 121 M4 stainless button heads with nylock nuts inside. I never want to see another 4mm drill bit or 7mm spanner again.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...pse2bc96e1.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps5d961c23.jpg
On the same estate I know a guy who lets me use his vapour blaster, so gave the bodies a squirt,
(then thoroughly rinsed and dried of course)
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps640ab049.jpg
Happy with them, so collected up some other bits to do, (not using that diff cover though)
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psee42e60a.jpg
Made a neat little bracket for the regulator and plumbed up the rail. Fuelab do supply one, but I didn't like it.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps56e6498e.jpg
Under the bonnet finished.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb7f1aa56.jpg
Spent an hour or so fitting a sun strip
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psaa5d95b2.jpg
Errr? fitted some mirrors too. Scary.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa157d9b5.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6986554d.jpg
Gave it a hoover and a good wipe down inside
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdaa02d95.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdbd6b736.jpg
Seats went in at 9pm Saturday night, gave it a quick chamois off then home to bed. Back up at 3am to load it and arrived at Santa Pod 7:30.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps80e70b15.jpg
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps5ee525e4.jpg
And a shamelessly stolen bay pic thanks to Johnny. I actually watched you take it but was lording it up on the balcony so couldn't say hi.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...psdec15477.jpg
Whilst chatting with Dan White yesterday it was agreed that another TV feature will follow which will be shot in their studio's. The plan is to start it up very soon, iron out the niggles on a friends private road then get it photographed before it gets used.
Thanks for reading.
Car looked awesome, are you replacing the front lower valance as noticed I nice new one in the back ;) lol
You had a new one of these in the back
http://www.247spares.co.uk/res/direc...166-wm-nwm.jpg
Are replacing your patched one
Ha, I know! It dawned on me about 10 miles into the journey! Really pissed me off for about 5 min's, but then realised that it was a minor and most people wouldn't notice. lol
Craig awesome to see your car looked really really good, think the panel that conza123 saw was mine and it was in wills silver gsi I only bought it because it was cheap!
Its been an amazing build, loads of people talking about it - all the best ideas for a Nova are here to be pinched I reckon. The benchmark, ha. The only photo I took all day at the show.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...ps9c5eef66.jpg
that looks spot on craig, I would be too scared to track it myself......bet you can't wait to get it around a track now.....
Post deleted.
Tease. I want updates!
It was up for a whole 40mins. I'l update it properly in the new year.
Hope it's running better...
Better than what?
Stop teasing :p
just show us some pictures :p
I haven't taken a picture of it since back in August when it was partially mapped. The engine suffered a failure on it's second afternoon of mapping, and as a result has been stripped for an expensive rebuild. It will definitely go back together in the new year, but for now it's not my main priority.
http://youtu.be/9kE9d3vtxvM
This things pure epic
Wat caused the failure mate? That's devestating! Can you get any compensation from the original builder etc?
Sounds like the engine builder was off the Christmas card list then lol
You weren't by any chance bringing the car into Salisbury on the 10th December? Only I espied a neat white Nova being trailered down the A36 near Petersfinger around the middle of the day, first thought was it might be yours Craig?
Looking forward to reading the sorry tale soon! Nice to see the car still lives, I've missed the frequent updates...
Yes that would have been me Dave. It was a miserable day and the Nova got absolutely plastered. I used to rent a unit down Petersfinger, but have since moved on so you probably saw me on the day the cars went over.
Not sure what caused the failure yet Will, there were a few different issues, both completely separate. Neither were catastrophic though so the pistons, head and 3 rods will go again.
I spent last Sunday taking the remains out. The head was already off as its been for crack testing at Ridgeway, so didn't take long.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps487593b4.jpg
Got the rest of it apart.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps32f4d4c0.jpg
Then seeing as I'l be needing a new block and crank decided to strip another XE as a donor.
http://i995.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps64a966c0.jpg
Block is getting bored on 7th Jan, rebuild parts can be ordered on Monday 5th. It's still not my main priority though so will be fixed when its fixed.
Can i ask, did a rod leave the block then?
Glad it wasnt a complete catastrophe craig! Still a huge pain in the ass though.
have you seen the new Millington blocks on eBay?? Mmmmmm! Lol
Is that a forged crank that failed? Did something break or overheat?
Yes Will, those MD blocks look dead nice, designed for a completely different build to mine and yours though without lopping 10mm off.
BRG, no it was a GM crank
Ok, so without wishing to intentionally ignore any questions I'l just state the facts from which you can draw you're own conclusions. Morning one on the rollers went fine, Mapping idle, running in and sorting out weeps, fan polarity etc. Morning two was a little more fraught, with a drop in pressure @ 5k immedietely after an oil and filter change had gotton up to temp. We shut it off and called it a day.
Later that week at home I ran it back up and found it to have good pressure, all be it not so hot, but then when idling the cambelt tensioner bolt failed. Caused a right racket, which sounded like contact so I took it to the guy who built it and had the head off for a look. All seemed well so reassembled with a new gasket, ran it up and down the road, came back, did a compression test and #4 was down.
That brings us to now, where its been stripped to find a spun #4 big end and a piston to head contact, #3 following closely behind but salvageable.
That's why its a little difficult to explain. 99% sure the #4 bearing turned on the rollers, which in the builders defence wasn't apparent when the head first came off, then our reassembly and further running has caused it to wear enough to enable the piston to hit the face. The tensioner bolt was just unfortunate and nobody's fault, it had more to do with the type of idler I had fitted.
I haven't stripped the pump yet, nor have I blown through the crank, but will do both. If I don't find anything obvious, which I'm not expecting to I'l start looking at the design of the oil tank and hose runs to determine whether the pump could have suffered cavitation or not.
The crank is scrap, one of the Arrow rods has had it.... that's it, so some might say lucky.
I don't feel very lucky though.
Did you run new main bearings, rods & bearings, pistons & rings, cams & followers for the first time on the rollers that morning?