Over the last 2 nights (working after baby  has gone to bed till around 10pm) I have got the new clutch installed and the engine back in and fully hooked up with water and electrics again. Last night was spent re-making electrical connections that got broke on engine removal, and re-installing the exhausts.

I didn't actually start the engine and tets the clutch as it was 10pm at the time and I would have woken the baby, and annoyed the neighbours. I'll see this evening after work if all the hard work has been worth it and the clutch operates again.

It had better do, I have a track day on Saturday!!!

Well, I broke it again, and this time I had to get the engine out to fix it. On my last track day the clutch gave up and I couldn't get any gears. I suspected hydraulic failure, but after changing the whole system, there was no improvement.

So I proceeded to remove the engine to get at the clutch and find out what was wrong with it.

My wife and daughter lending a hand.

A hole I had to cut in the passenger footwell to get at the clutch slave cylinder.

Front bodywork and radiator removed in preparation for engine removal

Lifting the engine out (yes, by the exhaust manifolds)

Bits of friction material sticking out of the clutch assembly:

More friction material in the bellhousing and on the floor

Here you can clearly see that it's a dual mass flywheel :(

And at last the answer, all friction material missing from the flywheel side of the friction plate.

Looking at the side of the friction plate, plenty of friction material on one side, all missing from the other!

Hello everyone! Well I haven't postsed since May, and the reason for that is that this is the build diary for the car, and, well, it's built!

As you may have already read, the car did it's first track day a couple of months ago, and came through it with some minor issues, all have now been fixed. The next track day is in a couple of weeks time, but this time It has a full set of track day tyres, which should hopefully provide much more grip. I also intend to tweak the brakes to get more power out of them.

I won't be posting here very frequently any more, as like i said, the car is built. I am planning on some big upgrades over the winter, and will post as I'm doing them. I intend to replace the BMW master cylinder with a servo assisted one for a sierra XR4i I have. And that will require removing the engine and gearbox to re-route brake lines. At that time i will also repair the leaking oil seal on the gearbox.

I will post pics up as they come, but for now - thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.

Sam.

I've sneaked in some garage time this week.

I've fitted a new circlip to the gear selector mechanism to stop it separating again, hopefully.

I looked at the cooling system and found that the rad bottom hose was leaking as the hose clip simply wasn't done up tight enough - doh! The thermostat housing was indeed cracked and has been removed. I've ordered a replacement housing and am awaiting it's arrival in the post.

Apart from the repairs, I've been making new camera mounts. I did use my on board video camera last week but unfortunately it's location meant it couldn't see much and the videos were crap. So my small camera is now mounted on the steering rack extension just inside the drivers side front wheel. It should have a great view from down there. I've also made a roll bar mount for my ordinary camcorder.

Will do some more work on it tomorrow.

Should have mentioned that the pics below were taken by Ian Stent of Complete Kit Car magazine, many thanks Ian!

Ok here's a couple of pics from the track day:

The rear squats down low under hard acceleration!


Being chased down by a Westfield ZEi

Well yesterday it went out on track for the very first time!

I had a track day at Llandow circuit, arranged by Complete Kit Car magazine and in the morning the 40 cars were split into 4 groups, according to driver ability - I was in the begginers group.

The experts group went out first, and withing about 5 laps, there was an accident! One car span out following the slow section of the track, the car following didn't see the yellow flags and drove into him. Both cars retired for the day with front suspension and chassis damage. The rest of the day was incident free.

My group went out at around 11am, the first few laps taken at low speed to get to know the track and get the feel of the car. It all felt ok so after 3 laps the yellow flags are lifted and we can start going for it at full speed. The car was VERY quick, but the brakes are quite weak - I had to press the pedal very hard to slow it down, and use lots of engine braking - so much so that I was getting small lock-ups when dropping to 2nd gear for the "bus stop" chicane.

After 10 laps or so, coming around "devils elbow" I heard a bang! I decided immediately to return to the pits. When I went for a gearchange, I found the gearstick was floppy and not responding - the car was stuck in 4th gear. I drove it back to the pits and found the selector linkage had lost a retaining clip and separated at the earbox end. With some help from my passenger and some bits and bobs from fellow drivers, we cobbled together a repair in time to get back out for the next session.

The second session was incident free, and I got more confident with the car and was pushing it hard. I nearly span when entering the bus stop in 3rd gear after overtaking somebody and missing my gearchange, and had a good fishtailing session round devils elbow after getting on the power too early too - great fun! We did the whole session with the repaired selector!

On returning to the pits - disaster! My Dad pointed to the nose, and a lot of water pouring out of the car! The bottom radiator hose was leaking badly, and on removing the bonnet, I also found the thermostat housing had cracked and was leaking water badly. That was the end of that.

I let the car cool down over lunch break, and John helped me load it back on the trailer. After lunch I got offered a ride in a Westfield ZEi which was great, and showed me just how far I have to go with my car, the grip was much better and his brakes were a lot stronger.

So now I have a bunch of work to do before the next track day:

Repair the cooling system.
Repair the gear selector properly.
Upgrade the brakes (somehow?)
Fit better tyres - slicks maybe?

I'll put some pics up as soon as I get them from the people who took them!

Wow getting behind on here again.

It tuned out the problem with the brake lights was with the mechanical switch I had fitted under the pedal was fouling and shorting out, blowing the fuse. I have now replaced this with a hydraulic switch in the front brake line.

I have now at last sorted out my cooling woes, I connected the top hose of the header tank back into the radiator top hose by using a take-off, this eliminated the airlock there and sealed the system, i also plumbed the overflow to an expansion tank which will catch any overflowing water. I tested the system yesterday and it all works as it should, no bubbling, and the cooling fan kicking in and out automatically.

I've also fitted a warning light to the low coolant sensor (part of the BMW donor) to give me early warning if the system is getting low in use.

I've fitted a few nice new decals i picked up at a recent car show to tart it up a bit.

I've made and fitted a mount for the on-board video camera.

Been polishing some of the oxidised aluminium panels.

Basically it's pretty much ready for it's first outing on track, which is next Saturday - can't wait!

Here's how the rad looks from the front now, with the fan behind it.

Here's the new fan in position behind the rad.

Here's how it looks with the nose and bonnet back on, and the mesh grille fitted.

Today I fixed a leak from the oil pressure sensor location using some good old PTFE tape, and finally replaced the nosecone and bonnet. I then remembered how dissapointed I am with the fit of the bonnet.

I'll have a look at the brake light wiring tomorrow.

yesterday I installed the new cooling fan, this time behind the radiator to maximise airflow to the font to improve cooling. This meant I had to fabricate new top brackets for the rad to move it forwards, this time I made them from aluminium and they look really good.

I've rewired the fan switch circuit, correctly this time, but it still doesn't seem to want to work. I might add in a manual switch for it.

I also secured the connections for the brake light switch, and when testing it the fuse blew, not sure what I've done there...

fixed the indicators, found a couple of butt crimp connectors had let go in the loom where I had slightly stretched it in order to bind it to tidy it up a bit. I re-made the connections and it's all working properly again.

plan to get lots more done tomorrow.

Ok I've completed the oil and filter change, and have been going over the car in preparations for the track day.

I found the cooling fan wasn't operating, and traced the fault to a broken wire in the loom, and repaired it. However, I found that in operation, the wiring got very hot, I'm guessing that this is because the old BMW fan is a little stuck, so I've ordered a new fan.

I also found that the left indicator isn't working, I'm not sure why yet, but I'm hoping it's not the relay, as a replacement may be quite expensive.

I still need to find a permanent fix for the brake light switch, and sort the loose bonnet out.

Ok, I finally got the cooling system to flow properly - and it was a very old school method of doing it. As the thermostat wasn't opening early enough, I drilled 2 4mm holes in it to allow water to flow through it at a reduced rate before it opens by itself.

I was busy all weekend so didn't get any time on it, but have tomorrow off, when i will change the oil and filter, and re-assemble the completed nosecone onto it.

I also want to sort out the loose fitting bonnet and charge the battery, and then it should be good to go.

It's only 3 1/2 weeks to go now before it makes it's track debut at Llandow!

Ok, re plumbed the rear water rail to re-establish flow through the redundant heater circuit. Not pretty (14 jubilee clips!) but it works.

I'm getting some really good advice on this from the guys over on the haynes forum. Looks like i have prevented the water flowing round the system properly by blocking off the redundant heater circuit. So I basically need to re-arrange the the hoses on the rear water rail to resore water flow. I'll try and get this done over the next few days, I may have to order some new parts (pipe connectors etc)

here's a slightly better one, with some parts dleted which were not applicable to the donor.

Ok here's a few drawings that may help:

Got a bit done today, fitted the aecond of the 2 extra silencers, and the exhausts now sound much quieter. In fact, it sounds great, really very happy with that. Also fitted the new water pump and thermostat. Ran it up, and after 15 mins of running - IT BOILED UP AGAIN!!!! Really fed up of it today. spent over £100 on new parts and it's just no different at all. It MUST be airlocked, there is no other explanation. I thought I had got all the air out via the top hose at the pump end. Have a look at the pictures below and see if you can see where the air is trapped and how to get it out. Comment if you have any ideas please. 1. Water pump removed 2. New pump and stat assembly bolted on - with original pulley. 3. Pipes and drive belt fitted - the theromostat is located in the plastic housing on the left pipe, this goes to the radiator bottom outlet. 4. a wider view, you can see the header tank behind the engine, on the bulkhead. 5. profile view of the back end of the engine, showing the header tank and it's hose to the rear water rail.