January 2010
Friday 29th January 2010
My carbon dashboard turned up this morning, from Hansell Composites (http://www.fibre-lyte.co.uk) and they've done a superb job of interpreting my cardboard prototype and producing a first rate copy. The quality is second to none, and the end product is better than I'd ever imagined it could be. They've also supplied me with a spare front panel, just incase I decide to change the instruments at a later date. The dash weighs 680grammes, so its also very light.
I've now completed the wiring inside the car. The wipers are connected, as are the brake lights, brake pedal switch etc, and I'm now busy crimping all the pins on to the connectors of the bare wires. I have power inside the car, and the relays in the control box operate, so the car is finally coming to life. I've updated the 2010 event calendar too, though I doubt I'll make the first few events, as the car will need testing before I turn up at an event.
Saturday 23rd January 2010
Phew, what a busy week? I sent my dashboard prototype that I made from cardboard at the weekend, to Hansell Composites (aka Fibre-Lyte) on Tuesday. And they're constructing one out of matt carbon sheet for me, and I should get it back in the next couple of weeks. I spoke to Commercial Propshaft Services, following a recommendation from John at Fostek, to find out how much an axle bar was going to cost. I still need a single driveshaft making, to connect the intermediate output shaft from the gearbox, to the drivers side front wheel. CPS quoted me £295, using 300M impact resistant steel, and I may take them up on their offer, as Recoprop wanted £350 for the same work. The passenger side driveshaft will be retained, as all I need to do is replace the IB5 output cup on the gearbox with a Mk3 Fiesta output cup, and I can then use the existing RecoProp shaft with the same trilobe joint as before. The ST output cup on the other side of the gearbox uses the larger Fiesta ST trilobe joint, which I've already sourced from M-Sport, so the new drive shaft will need to be made to take the ST trilobe.
I've also been hard at work in the garage over the evenings, finishing off the rear loom, which now has the waterproof connectors on for the rear wheel speed sensors. The fuel pump is now wired in, as are the rear side lights and brake lights. I've also laid the new cockpit loom inside the car, and its now joined, and sleeved with heatshrink, to the rest of the loom, so I can concentrate on the final task of joining the ECU to the loom. Not a job I've been looking forward to to be honest.
The oil arrived from Anglo American Oils this week too. 10 litres of Sunoco 10W60 for the engine. And the Ferodo DS2500 rear brake pads came from coordsport.com (Thanks for the discount)
Monday 18th January 2010
I spoke to Mike Quaife at the Autosport show, and Allan Warburton at DTA, and met various other suppliers (Plays Kool, Anglo American Oil) and contacts, and generally had a useful and interesting time at the show. Quaife are going to produce the 25 sequential boxes this year, and are now producing a similar item for the Toyota FWD cars. DTA had a new dashboard CAN bus system on display, though at £750 it was still a little too pricey for me. Innovate confirmed that its OK to shorten the wiring thats supplied with their wide band controller, as the loom is over a metre long, I dont need to carry that length of wiring inside the car. I also spoke to Fibre-Lyte, about a dashboard for the Fiesta, as they produced all the carbon for Simon Bainbridge's Audi TT Quattro Libre car. I've produced a mock up dash for the Fiesta, from Cardboard, and I'll see if they can produce me something out of carbon. Back to the car and I've wired in the rear lights and brakes, as well as the fuel pump feed, and both the rear wheel speed sensors. So thats pretty much completed the loom, and with a bit more sleeving and heatshrinking, I'll have it all complete soon. SFS hoses said that they'd welcome the Fiesta at their business in Luton, so I'll take the car down for the day, to get all the hoses measured up for the radiator/cooling system. They can probably use off the shelf items for other engines/cars to fit, and this is easier and cheaper than trying to buy bits off the internet, on the off chance that they fit. Dave Moore was on the Mountune stand, in his new role, and the stand looked very impressive, and was certainly very busy. I also found the PPC magazine stand, with the 27L Rover SD1, which has a tank engine installed in it. Bonkers.
Wednesday 13th January 2010
Crimped all the wires on to the dashboard section of the loom tonight, and pushed them in to the ITT Cannon Neptune 19 way connector.
Sunday 10th January 2010
Its so cold outside at the moment, -5 some nights, that I've not spent as much time outside this last week as I could. I have recieved the Innovate LC-1 wideband lambda sensor from Burtons, via Graham Goodes of all places, and thats now waiting to be installed. I'll do a write up on the LC-1 when I fit it. I've also stripped out the old wiring for the rear lights and fuel pump, and I've run in new wiring, and the two shielded twisted pair cables for the two rear wheel speed sensors.
Its the Autosport show this week (14-17th Jan), and I'm going on Thursday, armed with a list of items I'm looking for. I've got myself a Sony Compact camera DSC-W210, as the Canon was getting long in the tooth, and the battery life wasn't what it used to be. The new one is 12MP so the images should be a lot better than before, and it was £99 which is incredible value given the technology inside it. I'll be speaking with Quaife about their plans for the sequential IB5, and I'll be sure to visit the Bloodhound SSC stand, to check on the progress of their 1000MPH land speed record attempt.
Tuesday 5th January 2010
So I'm in between contracts at work at the moment, which gives me some more valuable time off to spend on the XR2. Back on the wiring again, I've now added all the wires to connect the control/fuse box to the ECU, so the ECU can now switch on the radiator fan and fuel pump. I've also added feeds for the DL1 datalogger, and the Lambda Sensor. And I've wired in the isolator switch, so it cuts the power to the Coil on Plug units, when the isolator is turned off. This ensures that the engine cannot run-on when the battery kill switch is hit.
I've also fitted the control box to the floor using the same quick release latches that I used before. No sign of the Innovate LC-1 I ordered from Burtons on 21/12/2009, so I'll ring them again tomorrow to chase it up. I wired up the DL1 today and connected the Dash3. I was quite disappointed with the display, and I'll certainly stick with Stack for the instruments, particulary a dedicated 0-4-10000rpm rev counter.
Saturday 2nd January 2010
I've found a mistake with the wiring of my wiper motor intermittent relay, so I've redesigned the circuit, and rewired the relay, and tested the box across a 12V battery, and everything appears to work normally. The Nagares relay gives a 5 second intermittent wipe when switched on.
The circuit diagram can be seen here
