March 2021

Numbers on

The number 8's are stuck on, I think they look really good. And I've stuck the Advan logos on the rear wing and both of the side pods. I've another pair of logos to order for the front wing, I got my measurements wrong and they're too long to go either side of the nose cone. I also fitted a pair of 175A Anderson connectors to the battery to allow it to be quick disconnected from the chassis. I used size #4 crimps which were difficult to source, but are needed for the 16mm² cables used on the car.



The entries for Snetterton in June opened over the weekend, and its a whopping £350 for the weekend. This is due in part to MSV raising its circuit hire costs by 5% following the pandemic. I also saw that the sold-out Abingdon Long Course sprint in April has been cancelled. This is due to a film company currently occupying the air-field, apparently filming a Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg film about the US Air Force based in the UK during the 2nd world war. Its a shame that the sprint couldnt run, there's a lot of disappointed sprinters now looking to enter other events.

---

Numbers ordered

With 51 days to go, I've got a set of number 8's ordered to replace the union jack style ones I ran last year. I've also got some Tow stickers coming, since MUK now insists that all cars require an indication as to the positions of the tow points. Given its a single seater, and the only tow point is the roll hoop, this seems a bit pointless, but rules are rules. I need to order more 102RON fuel, since I'm down to just a Jerry can's worth. I'm planning on running the Gemzoe tank at half capacity this year, since I ran it down to 2 litres at Combe and there was still no fuel surge. So if I make sure its 5L at the start of the day, and maintain that level, I shouldnt be in any danger of running out.

---

Airfilter selected

I've selected an ITG Maxogen STAB99XL cold air intake setup, to replace the small K&N. It has a 100mm inlet, and a 70mm ID outlet, and I've got a 100mm ram pipe on order, so the inlet has a better chance of drawing air in under load. This should change the noise levels too, which might make driving the car a little less uncomfortable. The K&N filter made an almighty racket at full speed, and with it positioned behind my head, it was VERY VERY LOUD. To connect the ITG filter to the flexible hose that feeds the turbo, I've bought a 70mm OD 90° aluminium pipe, which I'll wrap with gold heat reflective tape. The challenge is going to be finding a way to anchor the filter housing securely inside the roll hoop.

---

More mods...

I've wired in the 2ch Reveltronics K-Type thermocouple amplifier, to AN03, so the ECU now has the post-turbo EGT temperature using an analogue input rather than over CAN. The Ecumaster EGT2CAN box presents the actual temperature of each thermocouple, rather than a voltage between 0 and 5V, so the ECU is unable to do anything with the data other than log it. This modification allows me to set the ECU to have a strategy for the EGT temp, to add more fuel etc if the temperature suddenly rises.

I've fitted a Funk turbo blanket to reduce the under bonnet temperatures, and it was surprisingly easy to fit. Its held together with a couple of springs, so it just wraps around the underside of the S280, and provides around 90% coverage. It could just do with a small cutout for the wastegate actuator arm, but I've fitted the blanket out of the way so it shouldnt interfere with the wastegate operation. I've also added insulation to the manifold itself, which is sitting underneath the OEM manifold cover, again to reduce temperatures. I'll see when I next drive the car what difference it makes to the EGT temperatures.

I then removed the K&N air filter and hose, and realised I still had a 63-70mm adaptor fitted to the hose, so it adapts the smaller 63mm filter to the 70mm turbo inlet. I've now removed the two pieces of flexible hose and the adaptor, and replaced them with a single piece of 70mm id hose, which has saved a bit more weight. I'm looking at options for a cold air intake, and speaking to ITG to see what they have.


The Reveltronics 2 channel K-Type thermocouple amplifier, connected to the EGT sensor that's fitted to the exhaust pipe.


The Funk turbo blanket fitted, and the chassis member replaced, ready for testing.

---

Further weight saved

There's clearly a theme this week, with more weight saved yesterday. I've removed an earth lead, and the pair of 8mm power distribution posts, which I fitted when the lithium battery was relocated to the side pod. The earth lead simply connected the battery 0V lead to the isolator, via the 8mm post, so I've now connected the battery lead directly to the top of the isolator, removing the short lead and post in the process.

I also took the new +12 battery lead from the rear of the car, and bolted the five ring terminals together (12V, ECU Power, Radium Fuel Pump, X10, Fuel Pump Fan), covered the joint in adhesive heatshrink, and then placed it alongside the main bundle of wires that sits in the cockpit. By doing this I was also able to shorten the new 70A cable I ran in to the car the previous day, and in total I've saved a further 150g this week. Generally the wiring looks far tidier, and I'm now thinking about moving the cartek isolator from the floor, just to remove the final piece of clutter.

To test the rewiring, I then connected the bench power supply to the chassis, and switched the cartek isolator on, just to see how much current was drawn with the ignition off, and it starts at around 4A, falling quickly to 1.27A. This is without the ignition on, which would run both the fuel pumps for 10 seconds to prime the fuel system. So 1.27A is the total current draw from the Life ECU, the X10 module, the GPS board, the ECUMaster EGT2CAN and CAN-Switch boards, plus all the various sensors on the car. I'm a bit surprised about the initial 4A draw, which might be down to the ECU performing self tests at first power-on.

---

Further weight saved

When I relocated the 12V battery from the cockpit, to the side pod, I left the heavy duty cable in the car which connected the battery to the starter motor. The cable was also providing power to the ECU, the X10, the fuel pump, and the radiator fan. So I still needed to have a cable to run to the front of the car, where the ring terminals were joined together, but the cable didnt need to be a heavy duty one. So I've replaced it with a red 70A cable, and this has saved over 400grammes of weight. I'm doing quite well this week with shaving weight off the car.

---

Pneumatic pipes replaced

A little bit of preventative maintenance, I've replaced the blue hard plastic pipework on the Geartronics actuator and solenoids with some fresh SMC 6mm black plastic pipes. Since the blue pipes were several years old and had a few marks on them where they'd touched suspension arms etc. I've also used the 6mm pipe to run the header tank overflow to the rear of the car, replacing the much heavier rubber hose that I last replaced a few years ago. This has saved another 200grammes of weight.

---

SSR swaps

I've replaced the pair of electromechanical relays for the fuel pump and radiator fan, with the solid state relays. I've saved about 100grammes in the process since I'm no longer using the relay holders, as the SSR's are stuck to the chassis rails using 3M Dual Lock SJ355X tape. Both relays work as expected, so thats another job ticked off the list.

---

Ambient air temp sensor

I've added an ambient air temperature sensor using an NTC thermocouple, which is now reported as 'aat1' by the ECU. Although there is no strategy for ambient air temperature, the fact that I can see how hot the air is entering the turbo, will help me work on keeping the intake temperatures cool. Something I'm going to be focusing on this year is reducing air charge temperatures, and we've a few ideas up sleeve's on how to tackle that.

---

Blyton Park entries

There are 71 people registered for the LDMC Blyton Park sprint, with a maximum of 110 drivers, thats since entries opened on Monday evening. No news on the Pembrey entry levels yet.

---

Blyton Park entry accepted

This is proving an expensive month so far, I've now entered the LDMC Blyton Park sprint in May, and I expect they'll open on the online bookings for Anglesey also in May, in the next couple of weeks. Before we can travel to Wales however, we have to remember that we really are dependent on the Welsh government lifting lockdown and allowing travel in the first place. Fingers crossed. For the Longton events, they haven't declared the number of timed runs in the supplemental regulations. That will be declared on the day of the event. So we're still not sure if we get two timed runs, and two BSC run off runs afterwards, or more than two timed runs, and the run off runs are blended in with the timed runs. Confused!?! The answer is to 'be prepared'. And drive flat out all of the time.

---

The Exhaust VVT is working

Finally, after some more headscratching, I managed to get the exhaust VVT working on Saturday. Basically, the connector for the VVT solenoid, that I'd wired in, was wired the wrong way round. I thought I'd got the +12V supply to the same pin as the inlet VVT solenoid, but I hadn't. So I swapped the wires over, and pushed the starter, and after the usual startup delay, the exhaust cam started moving under ECU control. There was me thinking solenoids didnt have a polarity as its using PWM to adjust the angle. Well on the Ford EcoBoost 1600, the VVT solenoids certainly do have a polarity. Maybe they have a diode inbuilt?

With that sorted, one of the steps I also had to take was to reset the exhaust angle offsets for the Piper BP285 exhaust cam. This is done by running the engine with the exhaust VVT solenoid disconnected, and displaying VVT1 Exhaust Raw. The two values displayed were 226.50° and 503.75°, which I then entered in to the cam angle offset table. They werent significantly different to the original values, only several degrees out, but the cam is different to the standard ford item, and it was worth getting it right.

As part of the testing on Saturday, I could also see that the solid state relay controlling the +12V to the alternator was working nicely, turning the alternator on and off under ECU control, so that passed the test. The Cosworth air charge temperature sensor I fitted was also returning accurate air temperatures, so another test passed.

So thats the X10 wiring finished. Everything checks out, and I can now get the car booked in at the rolling road, with full VVT, so see if we can get a bit more power. That will have to be in April, since there are still movement restrictions until March 29th.

The next bit of rewiring to tackle is to relocate the +ve battery terminal and heavy duty cables from the cockpit. Where the original battery sat, between the drivers legs, there are a few cables which need shortening, and moving, saving a little bit more weight in the process. I'll start on that job this week.

I've entered the BARC Wales sprint at Pembrey on June the 5th. The entry fee was a whopping £295, and if thats a sign of whats to come, its going to be an expensive season. There are only three timed runs mentioned in the regs. No mention of the additional 4th timed run for the British Sprinters. I'll explain. As its three timed runs, the first timed run (T1) is the qualifier for the first run off run, which takes place on the second timed run (T2). And the third timed run (T3) is the qualifier for the fourth timed run, which must follow after everyone else has finished their third timed run. Sounds complicated? These are the new rules which were introduced in 2020. So we no longer have two top 12 run off runs following the close of competition. Not at events where there are three timed runs anyway. Asprin anyone?

We still havent tried the new format, wether its condusive to an enjoyables days racing remains to be seen. There are certainly different psychological angles to the format change. No more second chances to qualify. You get a practice run, and then you have to drive flat out on the first timed run to qualify. And there are only 12 places in the run offs. There are still points available to anyone finishing 13th or lower. But the winner of each run off gets 25 points, so there's 50 points a day up for grabs. The biggest issue with the run offs was the time taken by the dual driven cars to swap drivers over. This will have to be dealt with, as its the single biggest head f*ck, when you're strapped in the car for 10 minutes waiting for someone to get ready. The run off run's, will be run in class order though, so the Top 12 qualifiers arent put in a batch and run together. Well at least for the first run off run (T2). If we get a seperate T4 run, and do run seperately, will that be run in Top 12 qualifier order, or again in class order? The weather could be play a big factor in that decision.

---

ARDS test postponed again

My ARDS test has moved again, this time to April the 12th. Hopefully it wont get postponed or moved again. MUK has issued a note saying Travel outside of a person’s local area is not allowed except where permitted and then for essential reasons, and, Essentially dual occupancy of vehicles by persons not from the same household in the context of a driving test is not permitted until 12 April at the earliest, subject to local devolved government legislation. Hence the delay

We've now compared the VVT settings between mine and Pete's cars, and one setting is different, which is the Exhaust Integral Gain. Pete's is the blue graph. Mine is the black. If I look at an unlocked 2017 EcoBoost map, the setting is the same as mine, so at some point Pete's had his tweaked, which could explain why his engine runs with the Exh solenoid plugged in and in closed loop mode, whereas my ECU trips to open loop after a VVT Failure error. I will alter my gain settings to be the same as Pete's and we'll see if that solves the problem.

---