Yes, you read that right, a 1.4 
I'll flesh this out later but for now, just some quick descriptions and pictures to bring it up to speed - take one wee 306 and stick some 405Mi16 alloys on:
Be less than impressed with brakes.
Swap these:
For these:
And acquire these:
Swap these:
For these:
(yes, I know, extra weight, but they're sooo comfy)
Make it a touch quicker with these (although still working on the manifold for the TB's):
And fit new rear ARB:
Still not happy with handling?
Make some shiny droplinks:
Along the way, patch up newly found letterbox in sills:
Save at least 16 grams with a shiny 7075 ally bonnet prop (vital performance mod):
Hit big puddle, wonder why car is pulling all over the shop, 3000 mile old wishbone bushes:
Mmm, quality, having gone through 3 sets in short order I was pretty fed up, so made myself some polyurethane ones:
Rework cylinder head as it was a bit breathless near the redline:
Make some ally spacers to replace steel ones:
Make lower strut brace to take some flex out of the subframe:
Go play:
Whoops:
Fit ZX rear arms and machine stub axles for 1 deg more neg. camber to stop that happening again.
Replace dying clutch with Kevlar one:
Lighten flywheel at same time, and make shiny black colour, me being a tart:
Not being happy with the damping on track, borrow some 4-way adjustables, as you do:
Then cry when I have to give 'em back.
And 'cause the shell is still flexing, make a carbon fibre upper brace:
Blow up gearbox:
Build new gearbox with 4-spider diff. EN26 shafts, slightly wider bearings and boron-nitrided gearset:
Yes, I know, I've tarted it up, sue me
Make even lighter spacers to bring wheels to right offset:
So that these can go on:
And do this:
Whilst car is off the road, make some 2-stage poly engine mounts:
Modify Gaz front struts:
Fit nice leather steering wheel to go with a 2.2 turn steering rack (no power steering, car parks are fun...):
Finally finish work on designing internals for new rear dampers and have Fox send a set over:
In case any of you ever wondered what the internals of a monotube look like, I stripped them down anyway to make some tweaks, so here's a load of component pictures if you couldn't give a monkies what the insides of a damper look like then skip the next 2 dozen pictures
How to turn perfectly good, shiny spangly dampers into a box of parts:
Step one, undo little lock screw:
Which lets you unscrew the wiper cap with a pin wrench:
Then you need to push the billet alloy main seal/shaft support down to expose the snap ring it holds against:
Prise that out with a tiny screwdriver and you can remove the shaft support and the 3 captive seals:
This is the bleed hole to purge air from the shock when rebuilding in case you were wondering.
Progressive rebound bumpstop, to prevent that horrible \\\'click\\\' you often get with GAZ/Avo/Koni\\\'s at full extension:
And the main valving piston, complete with shims and high-speed circuit backstop so that you can go jumping over humpback bridges if you like.
The patina is the oil draining off in ripples, not muck
Bronze PTFE coated main piston band, stagger cut for less leakage, and main body circlip:
[/quote]
Main compression stack shims once the piston is taken apart:
Compression valving side of the piston:
Rebound side:
The original rebound shims stack:
My rebound stack:
Remote res. end cap - secured with a circlip the same as the main seal:
And the billet floating piston:
There a barrel adjuster and another set of valving behind that...
Billet floating piston from the other side:
Barrel-type compression adjuster:
And the secondary set of high-speed digressive-linear blowoff valving for when the low speed circuit chokes.
I've got to take that apart later on for cleaning so I'll get some pictures of the internals...
You can re-stack all the shims in here too to adjust how much change the adjuster gives each click, and where in the curve the adjuster comes into effect.
Just in case you'd got bored with those 27 million stack combinations in the main body...
The secondary valving ports - as you can see 2 of these have spring loaded ball-bearings in them, these are to allow the oil to flow back freely in rebound.
The secondary shim stack - in this case a digressive stack due to me machining a concave surface on the adjuster (and drilling 4 oil ports instead of the standard 2) - all those thin shims make a strong, but fairly soft stack, so they have a set amount of preload against the housings, and that means it takes a set amount of force to open them but relatively low force after than, changing the preload affects where the high-speed blowoff comes in, the shape and thickness of the stack adjusts the ratio of low-to-high speed damping and the shape of the high speed curve.
This is what your shiny aluminium knob adjusts - the bypass that goes around the shim stack, as you can see, 8 settings with various orifice sizes to give a consistant, linear and repeatable adjustment every time, unlike the cheaper needle setups.
And the floating piston from the reservoirs - the O-ring seals the fluid from the gas, and another telfon-coated PEEK wear band to prevent the piston twisting.
Right, think that's about the end of the shiny pictures, back to underpowered 306's.
Bye, bye Gaz:
And make some broken brake discs, fully floating:
And I finally fell to the dark side and fitted something that didn't make it quicker this week:
So to make up for it I've shave half a kilo from the droplinks:
And I still haven't sorted out a new grill
New shiny brake bits - residual pressure valves to reduce pedal travel:
And a few bits of updates:
Today's job was a little tweaking and chopping in the form of lengthening the wheelbase by 15mm by shifting the front wheel forwards in the arch, plus corresponding tweaks to the geometery - and measuring the bumpsteer at the minute (it has more than a standard car as I'm running much more castor), and correcting as much of it as I could, which meant lifting the steering rack up by 10mm.
Unfortunately, the steering rack bolts horizontally to the subframe, so I've spent most of the day under the car getting hot welding splatter down my arms whilst I welded the original holes up and drilled 2 new mounts, rather than just being able to shim the rack.
That's got the bumpsteer curves almost back to standard.
A couple of small changes but they've made a huge difference to the traction and stability of the car, power on at the apex now actually pulls the front in rather than pushing into understeer - any corner it will turn into you can almost certainly plant the throttle right out of without worrying about even a hint of the car pushing wide.
Might be able to tell I'm quite happy with the changes
And a few issues:
Updated lower brace:
Structural foam filled sills and pillars:
+ Shiiiiteloads of maintanance and probably a lot more I haven't got pictures of, you know how it is. (Solid rear beam mounts, Glacier rear beam bearings, titanium fittings on the rocker arms, anti-knockback springs in the calipers and drums, + lots more)
And I'm currently working on the Gaz front struts to give me 3 way adjustment and a remote canister, along with some internal valving and sealing tweaks, plus a complete new rear suspension setup with tubular arms.
I'll flesh this out later but for now, just some quick descriptions and pictures to bring it up to speed - take one wee 306 and stick some 405Mi16 alloys on:
Be less than impressed with brakes.
Swap these:
For these:
And acquire these:
Swap these:
For these:
(yes, I know, extra weight, but they're sooo comfy)
Make it a touch quicker with these (although still working on the manifold for the TB's):
And fit new rear ARB:
Still not happy with handling?
Make some shiny droplinks:
Along the way, patch up newly found letterbox in sills:
Save at least 16 grams with a shiny 7075 ally bonnet prop (vital performance mod):
Hit big puddle, wonder why car is pulling all over the shop, 3000 mile old wishbone bushes:
Mmm, quality, having gone through 3 sets in short order I was pretty fed up, so made myself some polyurethane ones:
Rework cylinder head as it was a bit breathless near the redline:
Make some ally spacers to replace steel ones:
Make lower strut brace to take some flex out of the subframe:
Go play:
Whoops:
Fit ZX rear arms and machine stub axles for 1 deg more neg. camber to stop that happening again.
Replace dying clutch with Kevlar one:
Lighten flywheel at same time, and make shiny black colour, me being a tart:
Not being happy with the damping on track, borrow some 4-way adjustables, as you do:
Then cry when I have to give 'em back.
And 'cause the shell is still flexing, make a carbon fibre upper brace:
Blow up gearbox:
Build new gearbox with 4-spider diff. EN26 shafts, slightly wider bearings and boron-nitrided gearset:
Yes, I know, I've tarted it up, sue me
Make even lighter spacers to bring wheels to right offset:
So that these can go on:
And do this:
Whilst car is off the road, make some 2-stage poly engine mounts:
Modify Gaz front struts:
Fit nice leather steering wheel to go with a 2.2 turn steering rack (no power steering, car parks are fun...):
Finally finish work on designing internals for new rear dampers and have Fox send a set over:
In case any of you ever wondered what the internals of a monotube look like, I stripped them down anyway to make some tweaks, so here's a load of component pictures if you couldn't give a monkies what the insides of a damper look like then skip the next 2 dozen pictures
How to turn perfectly good, shiny spangly dampers into a box of parts:
Step one, undo little lock screw:
Which lets you unscrew the wiper cap with a pin wrench:
Then you need to push the billet alloy main seal/shaft support down to expose the snap ring it holds against:
Prise that out with a tiny screwdriver and you can remove the shaft support and the 3 captive seals:
This is the bleed hole to purge air from the shock when rebuilding in case you were wondering.
Progressive rebound bumpstop, to prevent that horrible \\\'click\\\' you often get with GAZ/Avo/Koni\\\'s at full extension:
And the main valving piston, complete with shims and high-speed circuit backstop so that you can go jumping over humpback bridges if you like.
The patina is the oil draining off in ripples, not muck
Bronze PTFE coated main piston band, stagger cut for less leakage, and main body circlip:
[/quote]
Main compression stack shims once the piston is taken apart:
Compression valving side of the piston:
Rebound side:
The original rebound shims stack:
My rebound stack:
Remote res. end cap - secured with a circlip the same as the main seal:
And the billet floating piston:
There a barrel adjuster and another set of valving behind that...
Billet floating piston from the other side:
Barrel-type compression adjuster:
And the secondary set of high-speed digressive-linear blowoff valving for when the low speed circuit chokes.
I've got to take that apart later on for cleaning so I'll get some pictures of the internals...
You can re-stack all the shims in here too to adjust how much change the adjuster gives each click, and where in the curve the adjuster comes into effect.
Just in case you'd got bored with those 27 million stack combinations in the main body...
The secondary valving ports - as you can see 2 of these have spring loaded ball-bearings in them, these are to allow the oil to flow back freely in rebound.
The secondary shim stack - in this case a digressive stack due to me machining a concave surface on the adjuster (and drilling 4 oil ports instead of the standard 2) - all those thin shims make a strong, but fairly soft stack, so they have a set amount of preload against the housings, and that means it takes a set amount of force to open them but relatively low force after than, changing the preload affects where the high-speed blowoff comes in, the shape and thickness of the stack adjusts the ratio of low-to-high speed damping and the shape of the high speed curve.
This is what your shiny aluminium knob adjusts - the bypass that goes around the shim stack, as you can see, 8 settings with various orifice sizes to give a consistant, linear and repeatable adjustment every time, unlike the cheaper needle setups.
And the floating piston from the reservoirs - the O-ring seals the fluid from the gas, and another telfon-coated PEEK wear band to prevent the piston twisting.
Right, think that's about the end of the shiny pictures, back to underpowered 306's.
Bye, bye Gaz:
And make some broken brake discs, fully floating:
And I finally fell to the dark side and fitted something that didn't make it quicker this week:
So to make up for it I've shave half a kilo from the droplinks:
And I still haven't sorted out a new grill
New shiny brake bits - residual pressure valves to reduce pedal travel:
And a few bits of updates:
Today's job was a little tweaking and chopping in the form of lengthening the wheelbase by 15mm by shifting the front wheel forwards in the arch, plus corresponding tweaks to the geometery - and measuring the bumpsteer at the minute (it has more than a standard car as I'm running much more castor), and correcting as much of it as I could, which meant lifting the steering rack up by 10mm.
Unfortunately, the steering rack bolts horizontally to the subframe, so I've spent most of the day under the car getting hot welding splatter down my arms whilst I welded the original holes up and drilled 2 new mounts, rather than just being able to shim the rack.
That's got the bumpsteer curves almost back to standard.
A couple of small changes but they've made a huge difference to the traction and stability of the car, power on at the apex now actually pulls the front in rather than pushing into understeer - any corner it will turn into you can almost certainly plant the throttle right out of without worrying about even a hint of the car pushing wide.
Might be able to tell I'm quite happy with the changes
And a few issues:
Updated lower brace:
Structural foam filled sills and pillars:
+ Shiiiiteloads of maintanance and probably a lot more I haven't got pictures of, you know how it is. (Solid rear beam mounts, Glacier rear beam bearings, titanium fittings on the rocker arms, anti-knockback springs in the calipers and drums, + lots more)
And I'm currently working on the Gaz front struts to give me 3 way adjustment and a remote canister, along with some internal valving and sealing tweaks, plus a complete new rear suspension setup with tubular arms.
Big G.
