Ongoing Maintenance

Part of the reason for doing the short-course races up at UAQ is to identify and resolve issues with the car, before we launch into the DC.  (The other 95% of the reason is, of course, just to have fun.)  So the first issue is to replace the flexible elbow with something more rigid.

The solution Robbie at Saluki Motorsport came up with is a rectangular air-box, with stub pipes for inlet and outlet on adjacent sides.  We haven’t yet put it to the test, but I’m confident this will solve the air-starvation issue.

Richard came over the other night and we pulled out the near-opaque side windows, which are now at Exclusive Acrylic to be copied.  We also drained and flushed the clutch fluid, which has become a disgusting brown colour because the master cylinder lives close to the exhaust.  We also pulled out the thermostat to check the dimensions against the one I'm ordering to replace it.  The new one will be a high-flow 160f (72c) unit, which should reduce the water temperature from is current 92c

He was also able to find the cause of the backfire – there’s a clean break in one branch of the Y-piece which leads to the main exhaust, which was replaced last year for the same reason.  The car is booked into Fox Exhausts on Monday, and a flexible section will be inserted to (hopefully) prevent this happening again.

Another ongoing problem has been the proximity of one of the front HT leads to the exhaust manifold, which toasts the insulation until it eventually fails.  My last attempt at a solution was to wrap the HT lead in exhaust wrap, but upon unwrapping it, it fell apart.  No worries – I bought a set of 8, so I have 7 left to play with.  The problem is that the semi-rigid moulded insulator is just too long, and practically touches the manifold.  So I decided to remodel it.  By slicing through the insulator I was able to pull the HT lead 20mm further back, enabling me to cut 20mm off the plug end of the insulator.  After re-contouring it to fit, and wrapping it in tape, I also cut down the tubular aluminium protector which sleeves over the insulator.  The result is that the HT lead now emerges from the insulator well clear of the exhaust, like the other 7, which have no such problems. Time will tell, but I think it will be a permanent solution.  The pix show the original (left) and modified (right) plug leads, and the plug lead in situ.

Finally I have relieved the engine compartment of various items of non-functional hardware, and blagged a gallon of white Smoothrite from David ‘Streaky’ Chambers.  The current under-bonnet colour scheme is blue, white and rust, so the next job is to give the engine compartment a serious spring-clean, and then coat it in Smoothrite which is like Hammerite – but smoother.