Engineering - Part 2 (Emissions)

Today was emissions testing. I had to pass the RTA's IM240 test certification which is the equivalent of Euro 2 emissions testing.  Given the engine has no mods and uses the factory ECU, tune and intakes and I have a Euro 3 spec CAT, it should be pretty easy to pass. And it was! It passed with virtually no emissions, with all the key numbers being so far below the max. The test did show up some interesting NOX levels on hard acceleration and a bit of fuel dumping on sudden overrun. Something to work on with the tuner, but its another major milestone passed!

Engineering - Part 1

Last Sunday was the first day of engineering tests. I needed to do some last minute modifications to the exhaust heat shield on Saturday to stop a resonant vibration. Steve "the welder" made short work of this problem. The engineering tests took place some 300km from home, so it was up early on Sunday to load up and head out. It rained all day Saturday, so I was not able to load the car the day before. This meant loading up at 3:30am in the dark and wet. The car got even more wet on the 4 hour trip but I got there on time. 

Upon arriving at the test location, the first challenge was to cross a muddy red clay field to get to the track. Luckily I was towing with a 4wd, but churning across the paddock got the Birkin pretty dirty as it was sitting directly in the path of the flying mud. After unloading the tests begun. There was a whole bunch of other cars being tested including one other Clubman, a scratch build running a Zetec. It was 6 degrees celsius where we were testing, so it was a pretty long day standing around in the cold waiting for my test. 

Once it was my turn to go I already had the car warmed up and the V-box Racelogic system was installed to do the measurements. The engineer was doing a range of tests including general driving, braking, lane change/stability and noise (stationary and moving). It was a pretty proud moment to see my little car drive down to the end of the test track then come flying back up the strip in anger and full voice. Here's a clip of it making its second pass in to the braking test, which requires 15 consecutive stops from certain speeds, where each time it must stop inside a specific distance under a certain pedal load.

It passed the braking tests easily which is fantastic given the brakes were brand new and haven't even been properly bedded in. It passed the lane change and stability tests, although it whacked a cone on the first run. Due to Greg Fraser's (Redback Motorpsorts) work, the tyres didn't even chirp as it was hurled through the lane changes at increasing speed. Alas it failed the noise test, but more so on the induction air box noise rather than the exhaust. It is making some fairly high frequency noise on intake so this is not surprising. Not to worry as I needed to go back for other checks anyway. All in all a long day with another 4 hour drive home in the rain and dark. I now have a very dirty little car!!!!

Next test is this Wednesday, which is IM240 emissions. Stay tuned!

Shakedown - Part 2

In Shakedown - Part 1, I had 3 things to fix after my first real drive.

• Broken headlight globe
• Stuck closed thermostat
• Broken exhaust mount

The headlight was easy to fix. The globe broke due to the vibration in the lens. I removed the whole light, replaced the globe, and then tightened the spring clips in the lens holder. Fixed.

The thermostat was harder. It involved a complete drain of the cooling system, removal of all the hose clamps, nose cone, fan belt and idler pulley. 3 bolts took 3 hours to remove! I tested the new thermostat before fitting, and the same 3 bolts took another 90 minutes to reinstall and torque. It was then just a case of replacing the other parts I had removed. Refilling with coolant took two nights of bleeding the air out of the system until the coolant level stabilised.

I used some fencing wire to hold the muffler on so I could test drive it and check the thermostat. Good news, the temperature stabilised at around 95 and held and the lower radiator pipe was also warm after 15km.

The problem with the muffler was that it had been hard mounted to the chassis (not by me). This meant that there was no isolation from vibration, so something had to give. The chassis mount was welded direct to the muffler body, and this broke after 20km, and it also bent the mount pretty badly. To fix this I got a rubber mount, and Steve the welder fabricated up an S bracket. We bolted the rubber mount onto a thicker chassis mount, and then welded the S bracket to the muffler body. We also took the S bracket a lot further under the muffler body and shaped it around the muffler allowing it to be welded on 3 sides (tripling the amount of welded joint). I then cut an adjuster slot into the chassis mount and bolted it up to the car. The chassis mount acts as a cantilever, and the whole thing is a lot more secure than before, but it also now has a vibration damper. I look forward to another test drive and hopefully it will last a bit longer than 20km.

Workshop Fitout

On top of the lessons learnt, I thought I would share the additional tools I have used or added to the workshop during the build. This will give new builders an idea of what is needed beyond spanners.

• Engine crane - rated to 750kg with adjustable boom and castors. I used this to lift the car a lot as well when fitting the engine
• Engine stand - for dressing the engine before it goes in the car
• Trolley jack - spend as much as you can and get one with as much lift as possible
• Chassis stands - height adjustable with fine screw adjustment.
• Digital vernier calipers
• Hex head sockets - better than Allen keys!
• Torque wrenches - I have two, one with a smaller range and one with a much larger range for big jobs like flywheel bolts
• Sharp set of side cutters
• T-bar - with connectors for sockets or hex bits
• Stepper drill bits - for carefully enlarging holes out to as big as 22mm
• Quality soldering iron
• Electrical wiring crimper (good quality)
• Auto electrical specific multi-meter
• 1mm metal cutting wheel for the grinder
• Fine tip paint pen in a bright colour - for marking position or marking torqued nuts/bolts
• Good files for rough shaping of aluminum or steel brackets
• Dremel - used for everything! From cutting, finishing, sanding, grinding
• Rivnut gun - an expensive luxury best shared with a friend!

On top of this I had the usual set of ring and open ended spanners, sockets and screw drivers. I added quite a few larger spanners and sockets for jobs like fixing the upright ball joints, or tightening hub nuts. Most of these can be added as needed, but I can't emphasise enough the importance of using the right tool for the job. A vice and bench grinder is also handy.


One of the things I thought I would use a lot more was my compressor. I already had a rattle gun and I also got an air powered socket wrench. I guess the capacity and duty cycle was a little low on my compressor as it was more of a pain to use than being of any great benefit. I ended up using a cordless driver with socket attachments a lot more than anything else.

Lessons learnt

I have been meaning for a while to create a list of things I have learnt along the way. The aim of this is to warn new builders of some of the traps I fell into, and show some of the tricks I learnt along the way. Some of this is common sense, some of it is the result of hours of rework. I was never able to find a list like this, although many of these answers are scattered across countless forums and build diaries on the Internet. 

• Check every package and delivery the moment you receive it to make sure its all there, and its what you ordered.
• Understand the order of all tasks and the priorities they have to be done in.
• Never put a task off until later because it's to hard. Do it in the right order.
• Avoid putting all the body panels on as soon as you get it "just to see what it looks like"......huge waste of time (I never did this ;)
• Where possible test fit each part for alignment before fixing or tightening.
• Use copper grease on all splines
• Use Loctite on all bolts
• Check and replace spigot bearing ($5 bearing at the back of the motor that supports the gearbox input shaft)
• Don't use rubber hoses for hydraulics
• Don't activate master cylinder pistons with no fluid in them, the pistons will jam.
• Do the wiring as early as possible.
• Test every wire as soon as possible for continuity.
• Don't put the scuttle on until EVERYTHING underneath it is done
• Don't put the nose cone on until the cooling system has been tested
• Test fluid systems for leaks as early as possible when they are easy to fix.
• Don't leave fluids idle for long periods.
• Get everything you can on the motor before you fit it (alternator, starter, induction, belts) - make sure it will fit though
• Test thermostat or replace on older motors, before you fit the motor.
• Don't fit something if you don't understand how it functions first.
• Use the right clamps for the job (i.e specific fuel line clamps)
• Position clamp bolts where you can reach them after the car is finished.
• Make sure the steering rack is perfectly aligned when you fit the steering wheel.
• Use the best fluids.
• Always replace Nyloc nuts when you remove them.
• If something is subject to engineering, check and understand the requirements before you start it.
• Don't be afraid to ask or get help!
• If something is proving difficult or not working, walk away and come back later or the next day....I guarantee you will have solved it in your head and the fix will take 5 minutes to implement!

I am sure I will add to this list as I remember other aspects of the build that have been challenging.

Thermostat

This is the thermostat  ----------------->

Its integrated with the housing. The smaller pipe on the right is the bypass. The larger pipe on the left connects to lower radiator pipe. It's currently stuck closed. This means that water circulates through the engine block and back to the bypass avoiding the radiator until the water has reached temperature. Once the water is at 89 degrees, the thermostat opens and lets water flow from the back of the engine and through the radiator, back to the thermostat. However this is not opening, so water never passes through the radiator for cooling. Best test for this is to check the bottom radiator pipe which is cold when the gauge is showing 100 degrees which is to hot.

It's a nightmare to remove (only 3 bolts) with the car completed, and it took nearly 3 hours to get it out.  I have tested it using boiling water and it failed 3 tests, then only barely worked on the last test. I will source a replacement, and test it before it goes in. Hopefully I can get it sorted and do another test run next week.