General Guess what i've gone and done now?! :D - stage 2 begins

[randomizered]

The car failed MOT today, as per other thread, so a bit more work to do. However, it was washed and cleaned, and i did a tiny bit of tidying up.


The install is no where near finished, there are a lot of wires and looms to tidy, washer tube to sort, bolt down the MS yada yada, but i may as well stick the pictures up.


Cosmetic pics of the car can be found in my members motors thread in my sig. Obviously the newer pics are the ones at the bottom It's nice and shiny


Enough babbling :











Cheers,

Kristian

 

[arc]

get that bay tidied up

(i didn't know you had a D80! )

 

[randomizered]

Well, now the MOT's done I gave it a proper run, as much as I dare.

The road was wet, and the map isn't perfect, it's all at stoich rather than rich under load/WOT, so plenty more power to be had but OMG!!! It goes like stink!


First gear is gone very quick, there's plenty of low down torque, and it just keeps going all up the rev range.


Torque steer was an issue on the wet roads, as with the 1.2 16v, but now it's much more noticeable. It's no longer possible to keep it planted most of the time, which was a fun feature of the standard car, you'd just loose it. Take it a bit easier on the bends etc and its a beast!!! :devil: :slayer:

I am tempted to get a rolling road soon, as it certainly feels quick. It may not be the fastest cento out there, but it's putting a big grin on my face at the moment.

Some time soon I'll get a few videos made up of it in action.

The sound of the engine is fantastic, though i do now hear an annoying whine from the box i think.

Well pleased :yum:

Kristian

 

[99sei]

congrats dude

must feel good to have got it through the mot aswell doing all the work your self.

whats the next step? is there one? there aint much you can do now. got the biggest engine possible, running your own ecu, where now

 

[allanhelen]

Well done for getting it road legal

I think the whine that you are hearing is your credit card complaining of the raping it's been suffering. also you're missing a fare bit of soundproofing so you have to expect things like that.

Torque steer is a fact of life i'm afraid that is the biggest problem with the turbo's too I expect this is why Fingers is determined to sqeeze 15's onto Blue. I was driving my NA the otherday and was thinking how easy it was to drive when compared to the Turbo in fact it was great fun.

you soon learn to adapt to drive to the car if you drive smothly and don't floor it until your wheels are straight (and you have a good grip on the wheel) you'll be fine

 

[adz182]

Well done mate , Took ya time but got there in the end !!

 

[randomizered]

Cheers everyone


As allanhelen said, I'm feeling the strain in a big way, and i've yet to tell the insurance company (tomorrow morning), so lets hope its not too bad It was insured on the 1242 16v anyway, so hopefully just the admin fee


Plans in the future are:

Full roll cage
Cut and weld the strut brace to fit
Stripped rear
Buckets
Harnesses
Rear Tints
Rear spolier (so i can put the skirts on i already have)

Then in the even further future, NOX, or turbo conversion...when i do that though, i'll buy a cheap run around, so i'm not off the road when i do all this silly stuff

Kristian

 

[fingers99]

Torque steer was an issue on the wet roads, as with the 1.2 16v, but now it's much more noticeable. It's no longer possible to keep it planted most of the time, which was a fun feature of the standard car, you'd just loose it. Take it a bit easier on the bends etc and its a beast!!! :devil: :slayer:

What tyres/wheels are you using? I'm just surprised that you got torque steer on the 1.2. Blue 2 is 8 valve and is probably pushing out 65/70 bhp, and -- I'd imagine -- more torque low down than a 16v, but I get no torque steer at all on either Falkens or Uniroyals, wet or dry. Putting the Uniroyals on was a revelation. The Falkens are a very good, very grippy tyre, and probably suit stock suspension fine. But all the irritating things both me and Aaron had thought were down to the Spax set up being simply too hard (the gripping and then running wide, the tramlining, the sheer harshness) have more or less vanished. Unless you've driven a Cinq/Sei on 195/45/14 Uniroyals, you haven't lived!:yum:

Martin is right, though -- I'm going to be trying 195/45/15 Marangonis on Blue to try and ameliorate the torque steer (and raise the top end a little).

 

[randomizered]

I run Nankan 145/70/14's ........












not


Its got Continental Sport Contact 185/50/14's with a lot of life left in them.

With the 13's on Pirelli p700, after i put the 1.2 in, it was a nightmare, I regretted the whole swap, as it was all over the shop and just plain dangerous.

The Continentals made a HUGE difference and gave it back all of it handling and power, but yep, on a damp road, it likes to snake from side to side a bit. To much power on the bend, adn the wheels just start spinning as well, and you go towards the kerb lol

I think it makes 97lb ft @ 4250rpm as a standard engine, so not that huge. Maybe the exhaust setup and intake have had their play in incresing or shifting it. Plus with my map I may have managed to get some more out of the engine.


As long as your aware about it though, it's no biggie. I do know how to deal with it, and minimise it

I may change tyres once these are worn, but I think the Continental did a great job, and would worry that i'd pick something worse

 

[allanhelen]

Tyres are a mine field (just like brake pads and discs) if you read different reviews of the same tyre they give different results and opinions


I run exactly the same Conti sports on my NA and they are excellent tyres especially when compared to the std Pirelli's on 13"s

The Turbo is on Toyo Proxes T1-R's that do a good job considering what they have to cope with!

On My Cavalier I run Bridgestones and they suit the car to the ground

The GP runs Michelin's and they are better than the Conti's it came with

And the Lotus uses Goodyear's which do the job

so as you can see no brand loyalty at all!

 

[randomizered]

Insurance all sorted ... £40 admin fee though Luckily it was just the admin to pay, and no increase. Seeing as thats more almost 15% of my poilcy cost, its a bit steep though.....still, now i'm legal again

 

[fingers99]

Tis right, the tyre thing is wierd. I think Aaron stumbled on the "Cinqs like Uniroyals" phenomenon. Dunno how. Anyhow, next time your tyres are on their way out. PM me and you can try my set (if there's any tread left on them).

 

[Brooky]

mine will be fine on 13"s with nankangs fitted eh fingers99
899's will have more power

 

[fingers99]

mine will be fine on 13"s with nankangs fitted eh fingers99
899's will have more power

You might find 12" suit the nature of the engine more. And I did say "useable power"

 

[Brooky]

mmm, i have some 12"s from me mine, i wonder if they'll fit over me UT brakes

 

[GoBe]

Torque steer was an issue on the wet roads, as with the 1.2 16v, but now it's much more noticeable. It's no longer possible to keep it planted most of the time, which was a fun feature of the standard car, you'd just loose it. Take it a bit easier on the bends etc and its a beast!!! :devil: :slayer:

Depending on how the PAS ECU works there's a possibility that the PAS is amplifying the torque steer. You could try removing the PAS fuse and see if it improves things.

 

[randomizered]

Steering is incredibly heavy without the PAS fuse. I always thought it would return to a similar state as the no PAS versions, but it doesn't. Theres no way you would even want to drive a little way without the fuse in.

Did 350 miles this weekend and ran perfectly....bags of power and a big amount of fun!

The rpm seems quite high though, probably as it was designed for 15" wheels, and probably as i can hear the engine so much more, i'm more aware of it. A GPS indicated 80mph will see you at 4200rpm. Still seemed good on fuel though, and thats right at max torque as well :devil:

Only one issue on the way home, my alternator belt disintegrated Only half of it, so it kept the battery charging all the way home, but it wasn't a nice noise to hear at 70mph....i though my tyre was shredding up and about to blow Probably due to the crappy Halfords belt. It doesn't catch on anything and was tensioned ok


Kristian

 

[Brooky]

oil contamination to the belt causing it to disintergrate???
Old belt???
Heat???
Halfords product

 

[randomizered]

No oil on it

Only fitted during the conversion so less than 1000 miles

brand new

It must just be a Halfords thing, though i have used them before....the only place open on a sunday when you realise you've forgotten something

Kristian

 

[GoBe]

Steering is incredibly heavy without the PAS fuse. I always thought it would return to a similar state as the no PAS versions, but it doesn't. Theres no way you would even want to drive a little way without the fuse in.

Kind of the experience I had with the 14" wheels on my Mk2 at lower speeds, but once moving it was much better. Seriously go somewhere with some open roads take the fuse out then test.