Archive for the ‘Garage Services’ Category

Hot Oil Headache part 2

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

No sooner had we completed the ZR than a ZS needed a rather large oil cooler fitting in to help deal with the extra power his new turbo was producing. Unfortunately on this one the front was already full of radiators and intercoolers. The solution? Put the oil cooler at the back.

A tunnel was cut to allow the air up to the cooler and vents were cut to duct to the rear. Pipework was easy this time thanks to a standard sandwich plate and plenty of room to run the hoses through the car. It still needs finishing off and painting but we need to give it a run and check to see how it controls the temperatures first. If oil runs too cold it’s worse than having it too hot.

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Hot Oil Headache

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

If you had spent lots of thousands of pounds on a shiny new race engine you’d want to keep it safe.  When this ZR Trophy spec race car was fitted with it’s new 200BHP Janspeed built K series the owner was told he must be careful not to let the oil overheat.

Oil temperature has never been a problem in the past due to the oil/water intercooler fitted but now an extra oil/air cooler was required to satisfy Mr Engine Builder. Space behind the bumper wasn’t a problem but mismatched pipe threads, odd bore sizes and torturous pipe routes meant this job used a whole weeks worth of swear words in one day. It all went together in the end and now if the engine goes bang we know it’s the driver’s fault… Not that racing drivers ever make mistakes of course.

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When no-one else can help….

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

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Ever seen a honda Jazz before? Not many people have because there’s not many around. Even rarer than  Honda Jazz are parts for a Honda Jazz.

Most of these old jap cars have rotten away long before they reach the Retro Cool status that this little town car has achieved. It came to us for a little exhaust work and some of the inevitable welding that goes into owning an old car. To be fair it was in very good condition, just a patch or two here and there followed by a liberal dose of waxoyl.  The main problem was the bottom ball joints in the front suspension. They are as rare as the preverbial teeth from a hen and when we did find some they cost more than the car did. The solution was to break out the parts catalogue and get welding.

We found that some Peugeot ball joints had the same dimensions so the lower arms were measured and moddified to take some bolt on ball joints. It takes a whole lot longer to do than it does to say but we’ve done this several times on track cars to get more camber on them and the results speak for themselves.

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Moggy 2000- nearing completion

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

DSCF1686The Morris minor having a zetec engine fitted is close to completion. Cooling systems, fuel system, exhaust, gearbox mounts, chassis mods to fit the starter and many other small jobs are all hugely time consuming but progress is slowly being made. There’s a few more small jobs then the car needs switching over to negative earth and the ECU needs fitting and programming. We can finally start looking forward to the maiden voyage!

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Diesel Particulate Filters

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Diesel particluate filters are the latest piece of nonesense fitted to modern diesel cars and vans to satisfy emissions legisalation. They work by catching soot particles which are caught in a fine mesh. They build up in the mesh until the vehicles computer senses the time has come to burn them out, at which point a bit of extra fuel is injected into the exhaust to burn the carbon out at very high temperatures.  The theory is fine but the reality is they block up, restrict your cars power and put the engine management light on. They also normally cost about a thousand pounds to replace. Gulp.

AA Silencers has teamed up with Mike at Rapid Remap www.rapidremap.co.uk to provide a better solution. We at AA Silencers can remove the paarticulate filter and disconnect or relocate any relevant sensors. The car will then go to Mike who remaps the car to remove the management warning light and at the same time if required give you more power and better fuel economy. All of this at a fraction of the cost of your replacement Particulate Filter.  Everyones a winner.

Moggy 2000 update

Friday, March 12th, 2010

It might not look like much has happened on the moggy but there’s hours of work happened to get the zetec engine to fit. It’s now been mated to the type 9 gearbox and all of the associated clutch issues dealt with. Engine and gearbox mounts have been made and some more chassis work done to accomodate the final assembly. The radiator just fits into the front panel so now we have lots more fianl dressing of the engine bay and then the endless task of wiring and piping. Next on the build list is the prop and exhaust manifold!

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FTO Fast gear change

Friday, March 12th, 2010

This FTO came in to us for a gearbox swap. The customer had supplied the gearbox and even had the forethought to get the correct ECU to control it. It should have been a like for like swap but we’ve done lots of like for like swaps over the years and know how things like this turn out. Nothing had prepared us for this one though. The gearbox came straight out and the new one fitted straight in. Everything worked first time. I’ve never been a huge fan of FTO’s to be honest but suddenly I think they’re great little cars.

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MGZS T16

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

We’ve worked closely with this customer for some time and his skills and ideas have become ever more adventurous. When faced with the usual K series headgasket failure he was easily talked into a T16 engine conversion. He has tackled a lot of the work himself including wiring and hydraulic installations  but the mechanical engineering side has been left to us. The process is fairly simple- line up the driveshafts, get the engine as low as possible and make some  mounts. Then all you have to worry about is  the fact that none of the driveshafts are the right length and nothing else on the car fit’s the engine. It’s during a project like this you realise how many things there are connected to an engine. We’re currently working on new front suspension location points to give better traction and make the most of the new engine position. Development of cars like this is never ending but the owners enthusiasm seems endless so we’ve plenty to work with. 

DSCF1611 The rear wing is nothing to do with us by the way!

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Moggy 2000

Monday, February 1st, 2010

If you have an old classic and love the character but get tired of the gasping little engine you have 2 options. Modify the engine which may cost a lot to return a little or modfiy the car the take a better engine. I favour plan B as did our customer when he brought in his Morris Minor. Various options were discussed but a Ford Zetec 2.0l from a Mondeo was the power plant of choice.  Rear wheel drive conversions with this engine are well documented and it’s a nice tractable and readily available engine so all we had to do was work out how to make it fit!

There were a few small problems such as the steering rack being in the way and the engine bay not being long enough but as each challenge develops so do the solutions. It’s lovely watching a project like this grow. There’s still a long way to go but here’s a few snaps of the story so far.

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Residential MK1 Escort

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Progress has been slow on our residential MK1 as we’ve been very busy of late. the snow in January stopped a few customers reaching us we had the time to get some done on it. We left it last time with very little floor and as welded began so more rust became apparent and more floor needed replacing. The metal that wasn’t rusty was like tissue paper so welding in structural modifications such as 4 link boxes or a roll cage without extra strength being added wouldn’t have been wise. After much welding, grinding, swearing and welding again the car finally has a large proportion of it’s major components and a floor pan strong enough to build in to. There’s a few finishing touches underneath then on to the roll cage.

 

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