GTE valver fast road/track car project

[DarrenH]

as of february 2019 it wouldve been 15 years of abuse total ! (which is wow, but also depressing at time flying) good work so far do you think you will do a change of overall spec while its apart, or just a fresh build?

[Harvey]

Thanks for the info Darren, it's been driven hard for 15 years so has done very wel indeed. Regards spec I'm keeping it as is because the drivability is excellent. It's pumping figures out, or was, that I'm more than happy with & had been super reliable. It will be getting a fettle here & there on the chassis while the engine is out as I've had a set of rose joint front wishbones for around three years so about time I got them installed.

[DarrenH]

Crank is made of stern stuff if it's still in tolerance, think it was nudging 160k miles before omegas went in.

on subject of omegas, I guess hindsight is "excessive piston to bore clearance" piston is rocking at tdc, being forced into thrust side of the bore on power stroke. sbd did the 87 bore originally (or rather whoever they sub it out to) that will be the true value of doing it all under one roof at AP

[Harvey]

Dropped my head with Andy at CHD last week. I?ll be collecting it next month after it?s had a hot bath and thoroughly cleaned, new valve stem seals and all the valves lapped. Going by my past experience with CHD it?ll be like new when collected.

A few more engine rebuild must haves purchased. I love my Millers so it was a no brainer to use their running in oil and assembly lube.



Omega had new 87mm rings in stock for my 3520 pistons so a full engine set was promptly ordered and arrived next day.



I had the opportunity to upgrade my seating this week so Happy Christmas to me and behold my new pair of used Cobra Evolution Pro. Hopefully no more moaning from passengers, ?Why is your seat better than mine? blar blar blar.



Today I popped outside in the 1 degree C temps to remove my old seats. It was too cold to do any more so I gave up and came back inside, brrr cold out there.

[Harvey]

After initial thoughts on how I was going to get the new seats in it wasn?t too bad after all. The drivers side was the easier of the two as it just required the outer seat rail moving 20mm further out. There was no wiggle room with the inner seat rail as the tunnel had already been chopped into to get it as far in as possible. The silver bolt on the right below was temporary as all seat fitting are now 12.9 tensile cap heads.



The passenger side was a little trickier as I had to move both seat rails 40mm forward as the upper left seat loop fouled on the roll cage. Again the outer seat rail was moved 20mm outward as I had no room to move the inner as it was tight against the tunnel.



Inner seat rail moved forwards.



It required some ?hammer time? against the tunnel at the front of the inner seat rail needed a few millimetres of clearance.



You can see why I had to move the passenger seat forward as its tight but just fits.



All done and both fitted in their new home.



One thing I have found is the leg support felt a bit odd and lacking in the new seats. I figured out why after comparing my old driver?s seat cushion base (top) with the new seat base (bottom). I?ll be ordering new base cushions as my old one feels much nicer.

[Harvey]

A new year meaning time for a change and up in the air it goes.



So I could strip the front suspension and remove these perfectly good wishbones.



Reason being I thought it was about time I fitted my Rose Joint (RJ) arms I?ve had stashed away for around four years.



To fit them properly I bought the Harry Hockly Motorsport fitting kit consisting of the pivot inserts and brackets.





To fit the inserts it was deep breath time and crack out the 40mm hole saw. Removing the front and read skin I fitted a 10mm ? drive socket to the arbor drill bit to centralise and used lots of cutting lube.



Once the skin was removed it revealed this anti crush loop or whatever you wish to name it.



I then moved up to a 13mm socket on the arbor bit and more cutting lube to leave me with this.



The inserts fit like this.



To my amazement the cheapo hole saw remained sharp after doing both sides with just one broken tooth when it snagged due to too much pressure. Lesson being, let the hole saw do its thing and use little force.



I them tickled the rear brackets with a grinder to get them sitting flush against the chassis.

[Harvey]

The rear brackets use an additional third fixing so a thread insert required fitting. More hole sawing using a 19mm which I then opened up with a die grinder bit. This third fitting is due to all the forces pushing back as the RJ don?t cushion like the original bush offers.













Insert, bracket (modified), arm, RJ and misalignment spacers mocked up. Yes I know the bolt is the wrong way you clever folk.





It was then time for the welding, eek!!! Not being an expert welder and this being a key suspension mount I enlisted the assistance of The Steg. Some say he eats rust flakes for breakfast and sweats the odour of Roses but we all simply know him as The Steg.









More to follow soon when extra motivation arrives in the post. Huge thanks to the welding genius of Ste aka The Steg.

[DarrenH]

nicely done! looks like the kind of welding that makes your neighbours kitchen strip lights cut in and out.

also quite comforting to know these parts have, how shall we say, been "soak tested" on a rally car already

[Harvey]

Welding completed, happy days.













Then sploshed on a few etch primer coats, base coat and finally a couple of top coats and the painting was done. Bit cold for painting outside but I like the smell so didn?t care.













Sneaky pic of why this is being done. For anyone who cares OE wishbone on the left and super sexy RJ fully adjustable replacement on the right.

[Harvey]

I had a suspicion the exhaust required some TLC with the last sound check at Croft being 98dB and I?d also heard a few pops, bangs with raspiness. With the car in pieces it was chop chop time so I started with the center box.



Being seamless I sliced down its length then ground a couple of mm from the end lips which were TIG welded and this freed the outer can perfectly. I found very little of the original wadding inside which is what suspected. Having researched and asked around I?m opting to repack with Acousta-fil which is what the white bag is.



The rear box was next but I cut down the MIG welding along one length and again ground the TIG welded ends until it popped off.



I knew I?d find wadding inside so not a big surprise when I opened it up.





It had burnt away along the perforated tubing and when I picked it up the wadding just fell apart so worth the effort to replace it.



Once repacked I?m going to tack the covers on with stainless MIG wire I?m borrowing from my mate then The Steg will be sorting the proper welding as he?s a genius welder.

[DarrenH]

yuss !

whats your plans on the new control arms? get them roughly same dimensions as standard arms, then go for lazer alignment to target settings ?

embarrassingly ive not looked close enough at adjustment method, it looks like you have to turn the whole rose joint to adjust the lengths ? which would mean removing the suspension for every tweak. ?

[Harvey]

whats your plans on the new control arms? get them roughly same dimensions as standard arms, then go for lazer alignment to target settings ?

Yeah, something like that. My mates got some basic alignment kit so I'll get him over and we'll have a play to get me going then I'll have it properly checked.

it looks like you have to turn the whole rose joint to adjust the lengths ? which would mean removing the suspension for every tweak. ?

Unfortunately you are correct with the only adjustment being a half turn by removing the RJ fixing or full turn removing the opposite end. The blessing is once it's setup that should be it for a long time to come. I don't plan on going too aggressive with the settings but we'll see come playtime

[AndyGee]

Hi Harvey, I'm watching the Silencer Box Repairs with interest as I have heard of other folk "re-packing" the Boxes but I have never actually seen it done.
I have exactly the same problem on my GTE as it's way too loud, The Magnex Exhaust was OK on the 8V but is way too loud after the swap to the 16V, I suspect it has done the same as yours and blown most of the wadding out of the back.
If this Acousta-fill stuff works for you, I reckon I will give it a go on mine.

Please let us know the results after the exhaust goes back on.

Oh, and the new control arms look the dogs nads?.

[Harvey]

With the new RJ arms I didn?t require the front ?cup? washers so grabbed my hole saw and made some custom 4mm thick M14 heavy duty ones. OE ?cup? washers left, custom made center and OE rear washers right.



Rear bracket fitted and with thread-lock.



Finally got the arms fitted the other week with Febi ball joints, really pleased with them so just alignment required once the engine is built and in.







I got fed up with the boot smacking me on the head so treated the car to new struts (gas springs). These are OE spec for none spoiler and none rear wiper as the hatch is really light with the polycarbonate instead of glass. They have the extra damping as per OE Stabilus versions and slow prior to being fully open.



After taking the plunge and hacking my silences open I got the Acousta-fil. For identifying the amount of wadding required I used this online calculator and it was spot on. The center box, as expected, required a strip cutting off as you buy over length and trim to fit.



I had to get creative with the rear box packing and cut one of the 1m lengths to get the shape required. I held it together with tape before sliding the cover on. The tape will just dissolve and yes this is the recommended temporary fixing. Both covers were tacked in place using stainless steel welding wire.



The silences were taken to my professional welder otherwise known as The Steg. The covers were TIGed in place in a much more friendly looking manor than I could have ever managed with my MIG welder. The Steg once worked for Magnex Exhausts so I knew they would look amazing when completed and I?m sure you?ll all agree they look factory fresh.

[Harvey]

After assisting a fellow Team Shonky member (Iain, you know who you are) and noticing how nice his hose clips were after 10 years of abuse I?ve took the plunge as I?ve never been impressed with my genuine Jubilee clips. The new hose clips are Kale branded in W2 stainless steel with zinc plated worm drive. It was cheaper to buy the kit in the blue box and then the few extras to replace everything on the car.





Behold, my new block a 20XEJ variant thanks to Vauxhalls random block naming. Huge and I mean HUGE thanks to another fellow Team Shonky participant namely, Paul AKA RallyMarshal. It was a fully built tall engine on Sunday before being stripped and having all threads checked. It?s being dropped off today with my chosen engine machine shop along with the crank for checking.