New engine built, in and running !

After countless setbacks and huge amount of blood, sweat and tears the new hand built engine is in the car and running

Now for some running in miles before setting it loose around Cadwell on the 1st August for the next Time Attack round.

Rodtastic !

We have Connecting Rods !!!

Carrillo Super A Rods in fact from Lateral Performance (Cheers Mark)

Very lightweight at 515g each and very very lush.

Build starts again tomorrow

10 days til brands and counting !

ok latest news… and the plan after a huge disappointment on monday being told that the existing block could not be relinered with the liner I supplied. After ringing all and sundry, the only option was to order a new liner from darton in the US but that would take 20 days min. Not an option.

Also contemplated boring out to 101mm and getting some custom pistons – again not an option in the timescales.

Also contemplated running 2.1 stroker in a CDB block or even just nailing a std ej257 casing in there and hoping for the best but neither of these engines are what I want in the car so were dismissed on the basis I didnt want to spend money on something just to get me through Brands.

So.. Mark at Lateral to the rescue with a damaged EJ257 set of block halves and Paul at Zen with some darton liners that I could then get to the machine shop for them to mate the two together. Thanks guys :thumb:

I picked up the block yesterday from mark and dropped the block and liners over at the machine shop this morning and they will be machining the block to take the ductile steel liners, then flatting the tops of the bores to be ready for the rebuild.

I will pick it up from them on wednesday next week and then go to zen to hone to block to take the new cosworth forged pistons (standard size) and bring all back to mine wed evening to start cleaning it all up (sorry in advance for the mis-use of the dishwasher rachel ) Also picking up the new dry sump pump, bits and custom tank.

Thursday – build starts. This will take all day (and probs late into evening too or maybe next day gulp)

Friday – Test fit dry sump tank into empty engine bay then slot new engine in and bolt everything up ready to fire up late friday.

Saturday – run it in and map it on the new fuel (probably while driving it down to brands in the late afternoon)

Fingers crossed there are no gotchas cos there is no room for movement in timescales

Anyway, it will end up a very strong engine with Lateral internals, ARC race shells and will be good for 700bhp + should I need it. I will continue to run on the MD321V though for this round at least as I think it is very well suited to Brands.

The other block will wait for the custom darton sleeve and will get readied for selling on as a 700bhp capable 2.5 engine.

Roll Cage built and interior painted

SHP Motorsport were trusted with the job of building a weld in cage for the Impreza in order to comply with the regulations under MSA rules for Time Attack this season.

They have done an awesome job !

Some initial pictures are below:

The rest are in the gallery on here.

598.3 BHP on the dyno

Scoobycity held it’s annual dyno day on saturday at Clive Atthowes in Norwich and I ran the car on the rollers.

I was very pleased with the result of 598.3bhp – hopefully with a bit of time on the dyno I can top the 600bhp mark

Snetterton Track Test – BC Coilover review

Well, first time on track with the BC ER Series coilovers today at snetterton in the wet.  Although they have not been properly aligned yet I have set them up to visually replicate what was there before – way off being finished though but it doesnt tramline or pull either way so cant be a million miles out.  The ER Series are the external reservoir set up and I have uprated the springs to 10kg front and 8kg rear to use this as a baseline for future changes.

BC ER Series Coilovers

Previous suspension set up worked well but was always under-sprung bearing in mind the downforce I am now running and the power.  BChave been very helpful in providing excellent support during the set up process and I am pleased to have their support during Time Attack 2010.

I have played with the set up of these on the road and got them to what I thought was a good compromise set up for general road use and track work in particular. Today I managed to spend some time at Snetterton testing them and spent some time setting them up to provide a good predictable ride in the wet.

I was running T1R road tyres and normal fuel on low boost so not out for lap records but to get a feel for the composure over kerbs, on turn in, mid corner, exits etc to see where I go from here.

Unreserved judgement is that I am impressed – still. They work great and very smooth and controlled in the wet. I will reserve judgement for the dry until I have tested under those conditions but from what I have seen so far the extra stiffness of the set up is helping stability in braking as well as reducing weight transfer during turn in so it feels more planted than it did with the ex-tc in the wet. Riding the newly raised kerbs in the wet was a test to see how settled the car is on return to black tarmac. My passengers for the day seemed very impressed with the predictability of it.

No drama today but no lap records – some ten + seconds off the TA times but you would expect that in the wet. Mind you quite impressed with the T1R’s in the fully wet too.

I am very excited about a dry track test next month on 888’s to see whether this revelation continues.

More coming soon….

Dry Sump Kit installed and working

After spending four solid days on it and lots of work the Dry Sump kit designed and built by Zen Performance is now in place and fully functional !

Huge thanks to Paul, Liz, Tim, Steve, Ren.

Zen Performance Dry Sump Kit

The long awaited dry sump set up is now off the drawing board and firmly into reality…

Who says function isn’t beautiful ?

Paul at Zen Performance in Wellingborough has designed and developed this set up specifically to solve the dreaded oil surge encountered on track in an impreza on high g corners  – the most frequent cause of engine death on track.

With the continued chassis developments and set up from Zen in the handling department along with aero (and it would seem faster driving), this dry sump kit is now a necessity on my car and most definitely needed for the long right hander of Coram at my local Snetterton circuit.  I am pleased to say that we will be endeavouring to be fitting a kit to the car before the grand final of 2009 Time Attack at Snetterton in 2 weeks !

Initial indications from Zen are that the kit will retail around £2K – £2.5K which may initially look like a lot but it pays for itself every time the car is taken on track by saving from VERY expensive engine rebuilds.

I am very excited about having the opportunity to test this pre final production item and curing oil surge for good !

A huge thanks also go to Ben Viner at HEL for supplying of all the braided hose and lush black anodised fittings for the kit… pictures will follow of the install.

Rear diffuser made & fitted

This has been nagging at me for ages and have been meaning to get it sorted to tidy up the rear of the car and improve aero flow / reduce drag and help downforce.

I wont go into the research and ideas behind what works and what doesnt but the design is simple and should prove effective enough to assist in corners and on the long straights of Snetterton.

Fuelab Prodigy Fuel Pump and Filter

The single bosch 044 has been struggling to keep up with demand recently as a result of running on pure E85 BioEthanol and needing to be run at higher fuel pressure.  This was causing it to heat the fuel up unnecessarily and making the car run a little leaner than I want.

The solution I have chosen is a Fuelab Prodigy Fuel Pump from Lateral Performance – this is a 1000bhp capable fuel pump and will be more than enough for anything that I want to do with the car in the future.

This will be accompanied by a matching Fuelab Billet fuel filter to help protect the engine.

again from Lateral Performance.

These arrived yesterday and just waiting on a couple of extra fittings for the fuel pump which should hopefully arrive today from HEL and I will fit them later.