985cc Turbocharged Nova Sprint Car

A couple of potential weight savings I've just spotted...

You appear to have stainless overbraided rubber fuel hoses, these can be swapped with PTFE lined stainless hose or kevlar hose http://www.earls.co.uk/earls/hose/ultraflex.html

Also the brake lines are stainless overbraid throughout, solid bundy where possible is lighter and can provide better feel.

I'm also a bit dissapointed that you painted AND put a piece of carbon fibre on the rocker cover :(

Also is the intercooler spray really necessary? Surely a blast onto the cooler with a hand-held fire-extinguisher would drop the charge temps for the startline, plus you could always take a coolbox with some icepacks to cool all the piping/intercooler prior to runs and when you are moving the airflow should be sufficient :confused:

Nice to see your progressing and 565kg is a job well done! :cool:

Oli hes got it WAY below that now mate..

But im sure there is more simple savings as you say..

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Originally Posted by scott.parker

Oli hes got it WAY below that now mate..

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What is it now then?!?

I'm not sure, but i don't think that weight is with the single skin passengers door, or the carbon skin bonnet etc..

Ask Colin, as he might know the exact weight, but I'm sure i heard it was "possibly" 25kg lighter??

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Originally Posted by Ben

i have always been led to believe the rule of thumb for limit of hydrulics was 7750 and anything around 8k was a job for solids!

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Interesting, thanks for that Ben.

Anyone else with any information on this?

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Originally Posted by dhdev (Oli)

A couple of potential weight savings I've just spotted...

You appear to have stainless overbraided rubber fuel hoses, these can be swapped with PTFE lined stainless hose or kevlar hose http://www.earls.co.uk/earls/hose/ultraflex.html

Also the brake lines are stainless overbraid throughout, solid bundy where possible is lighter and can provide better feel.

I'm also a bit dissapointed that you painted AND put a piece of carbon fibre on the rocker cover :(

Also is the intercooler spray really necessary? Surely a blast onto the cooler with a hand-held fire-extinguisher would drop the charge temps for the startline, plus you could always take a coolbox with some icepacks to cool all the piping/intercooler prior to runs and when you are moving the airflow should be sufficient :confused:

Nice to see your progressing and 565kg is a job well done! :cool:

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Fair points Oli, and the fuel lines are certainly an area I plan to look at one day.

For the moment though I can't afford to spend any more money on it, so unless it can be done for free it's not happening!

I did consider the fire extinguisher way of cooling, but I think it would be frowned upon by the organisers......

The intercooler spray hasn't been tried yet, if it doesn't prove effective in testing I will remove it, but for less than £20 it was worth trying.

As for the rocker cover, the carbon fibre and paint was a trade off of looks vs. weight. That cover still needs work as it was leaking a bit of oil from the breathers at the weekend, so I need to re-think the design of that.

By my calculations current weight is 560kg, although I can't confirm that yet as my corner weight scales STILL haven't been returned to me from their loan out to a 'friend'.

There's roughly 10kg still to come off with the new solid front disc brakes and the 15" split rim wheels I'm having made for it.

So in the end I hope to have 550kg, and there's no real scope for going anything beyond that without spending serious money.

just out of intrest how much time has the 15-20kg's saved you?

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Originally Posted by Ben

just out of intrest how much time has the 15-20kg's saved you?

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Impossible to quantify, as the weight reduction has been in conjunction with better tyres, more power etc.

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Originally Posted by scott.parker

Oli hes got it WAY below that now mate..

But im sure there is more simple savings as you say..

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That was when you said it was 620ish at nats, I didn't realise he'd gone below 600 now, and well below it too lol

Hi Colin,

When i built my 1.2 engine in its first guise, it was running hydraulic lifters. I was recommended to go to solid lifters with the revs that i was wanting to use (8250rpm) and with the camshaft, but with only a student budget to be used, a new set of hydraulic lifters was found and fitted. The engine in combination with a kent race cam made just over 100hp at the flywheel which at the time i was vey happy with. This proved that yes, solid lifters could be used at this rev range as the power was still increasing when the 8250 was reached.

It is possible that the lifters could quite easily be allowing the valves to remain open, however what timing are you running as this in combination with some worn hydraulic lifters could cause issues.

Try removing the lifters and either cleaning them or even better replacing them with some new ones as this could help allow the oil to drain quicker and reduce the possibilities of the valves remaining open.

Another worthwhile test is as this has only just started to occur (i believe? and i am not sure what camshaft you are running) try running a milder cam or even a standard road one as with the shorter duration the effects of the hydraulic lifters are vastly reduced.

another thing is, have you checked your valves are straight as i had one that was bent that could not be seen that well and meant that it was not seating correctly reducing the compression on the cylinder

could these help you?

sorry for the spelling mistakes as i have cut me fingers and its hard to type :(