985cc Turbocharged Nova Sprint Car

[lee303]

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.

yeah its essential to have a decent clutch pedal stop, setup so the clutch just releases at full stroke of the pedal, fairly easy to do though

[novarally]

I wish there was more to tell on the progress of rebuilding the Nova, but the truth is there is little movement, which is mostly because I still don't have my new garage built so I can bring the car back home.

But I have been acquiring the odd part here and there, so just to prove it hasn't been forgotten, I thought I'd update on things;

It's always been my intention to reduce weight with the use of a lighter exhaust system. At one stage this was going to be with the use of aluminium tube, but the company who were going to make that for me went out of business. So I may try and utilise this titanium and carbon fibre motorcycle system, which is very lightweight;

[novarally]

Photobucket seems to be largely impossible to use now, so I will have to find a new photo host.

When I get this sorted I will update on;

Repairs to the carbon fibre bumper and front wings which were heavily damaged in my accident

New Pace Products alloy intercooler

Carbon fibre air filter housing

Development of a carbon fibre front splitter

New lightweight alternator

Modifying the gearbox to use a hydraulic clutch release bearing (thanks to Lee303 for his help on this one)

[novarally]

[novarally]

[lee303]

front lower air dam looks great, be nice to see it going back together!

[novarally]

front lower air dam looks great, be nice to see it going back together!

It's from an Integra Type R, I've cut and shut it a little, and it's not too bad a fit. Needs a bit more fettling to improve things now.

I bought a Corsa C gearbox from EBAY for £2.22 (!), and that's got me the clutch release bearing and the pipework to connect it all up. I'm using a 5.5" Superclutch (single plate), so I will need to modify the bearing assembly to accept the round-face type of bearing, rather than the flat-face which the OE clutch uses.

I haven't weighed all the bits yet, but it should be a bit lighter than the old steel clutch arm set-up.

[Hobbit]

Will be good to see this upsetting the mini boys again soon.

[mowgli]

good to see you working on it again colin.. soon as you have any events booked, let us know, i'd love to see it at full chat

[lee303]

It's from an Integra Type R, I've cut and shut it a little, and it's not too bad a fit. Needs a bit more fettling to improve things now.

I bought a Corsa C gearbox from EBAY for £2.22 (!), and that's got me the clutch release bearing and the pipework to connect it all up. I'm using a 5.5" Superclutch (single plate), so I will need to modify the bearing assembly to accept the round-face type of bearing, rather than the flat-face which the OE clutch uses.

I haven't weighed all the bits yet, but it should be a bit lighter than the old steel clutch arm set-up.

looks like it will fit nicely with a little work, nice! and good shout on the box, i believe BigRon on MIG has a source for round nose bearings to fit the hydraulic slaves, will ask him and let you know...