985cc Turbocharged Nova Sprint Car

[novarally]

Scarcely an update, but I did visit my Nova on Monday, which was the first time I'd seen it in nearly 6 months.

I forgot to take the camera with me, sorry.

The new spaceframe front looks even better than the photos indicated, so I'm well pleased with that.

The tie bars and new steering arms are still to be fabricated, but will hopefully be done fairly soon. Once those are complete it's just the pedal box fabrication to be done, and then the car will come back to me for the engine and gearbox to be re-fitted, along with new air intake, radiator and intercooler to replace the ones damaged in the crash.

I also had a catch-up with the engine at Brett Sims' workshops, he's waiting on the custom con rods to be made (at huge cost!), and then everything is ready for it to be put together again.

I'm not worrying too much about timescales now, as I won't have sufficient time/money to race this season anyway.

[Royston]

Nice to see you popping up again Colin, will be nice to see her finished and running again once complete

[burgo]

Planning on popping to any shows this year colin?

[novarally]

Planning on popping to any shows this year colin?

Probably not I'm afraid, the cost of travelling is prohibitive, not to mention a house which needs complete renovation taking up my spare time.

[rallypvc]

Have you given up on this Colin? Hope not i enjoy following your progression

[novarally]

Have you given up on this Colin? Hope not i enjoy following your progression

No, I haven't given up on it.

Other things have got in the way, such as house renovation and building a garage to put it in.

I have been playing about with the gearbox today.

I've decided to convert it to use the Vectra hydraulic clutch release bearing.

I know Lee303 did this on his Nova........anyone got a list of the parts I need to fit onto an F15 garbox please?

Is it just a question of getting an F18 with hydraulic clutch and robbing all the bits from that? If so, anyone got one of those they want to sell?

[Southie]

Nice to see you back on here Colin, 2014 will be your year

[BRoadGhost]

If you can get under a Vectra down the breakers you can liberate the plumbing easily and the ally bleed piece that goes on the top of the gearbox casing, then the part number for a new slave cylinder is CSC007 for QH equiv: MSC007

[MK999]

I've decided to convert it to use the Vectra hydraulic clutch release bearing.

I know Lee303 did this on his Nova........anyone got a list of the parts I need to fit onto an F15 garbox please?

Is it just a question of getting an F18 with hydraulic clutch and robbing all the bits from that? If so, anyone got one of those they want to sell?

You may want to look into whatever self adjusting mechanism this system has if it's on the gearbox end... each of the X18XE1's I've taken apart so far (both from Vectras which would obviously have the setup you mention) have had serious thrust wear issues. One to the point of munching about 1.5mm out the crank which isn't easy to do with a soft metal bearing! The only thing I can put this down to, since there are no other forces acting on the crank assembly and the clutch is obviously OE spec, is the hydraulic cylinder stroking beyond what's needed to disengage the clutch and forcing the crankshaft assembly against the thrust bearings. Although I would have thought this would make a godawful noise as clutch spring hits clutch plate, so it may well be an oiling issue to the thrust bearings themselves, but thought I'd mention it so you can make sure all is well with your setup.

I'm not sure if this is a common problem as it's generally not picked up on in your average family runaround, the engine would just get 'noisy' or lose comp due to thrust wear in the bores and it's sent to the scrapyard with no further investigation. However I have a 2 out of 2 stripping them down so I figure it can't just be coincidence.

[lee303]

No, I haven't given up on it.

Other things have got in the way, such as house renovation and building a garage to put it in.

I have been playing about with the gearbox today.

I've decided to convert it to use the Vectra hydraulic clutch release bearing.

I know Lee303 did this on his Nova........anyone got a list of the parts I need to fit onto an F15 garbox please?

Is it just a question of getting an F18 with hydraulic clutch and robbing all the bits from that? If so, anyone got one of those they want to sell?

hi colin, yeah its that simple, but you need to make sure the slave has the correct sized seal for the input shaft, as some of them are larger diameter, dont have the part numbers sorry, can find out though
the other option is to fit the external actuation version as fitted to some corsas and chevrolettes as this means you dont have to split the box if you have issues with the hydraulic side as it just actuates the normal release bearing with an external slave cylinder, and also you can get round nose release bearings more readily if you're running a 7.25'' clutch