Don't Try This At Home

So, The low pressure pump had failed in France & had to go. I ordered a new Facet solid state pump fro Rally Design - which arrived less that 24 hours later, so credit to them, I did the plumbing for it that evening, but notice a couple of things, the hose out of the tank seemed "squidgy" & the fitting on the tank seemed to move too easily - but all seemed good as I went indoors. This PM I decided to finish the job by wiring it up and that went perfectly OK as well (you just know there's a "but" coming don't you). BUT, When I returned from MoTing Mrs Blatter's car, there was a tell-tale drip on the hose. I changes the hose & the clips - not without difficulty & noted that the old hose was well on the way to turning to jelly, so that must've been the problem then. No, it was now leaking properly & the only suspect left was the tank fitting. I reversed the car onto ramps to give myself a little more elbow room. The only option was to drain the tank. Pity then that it was full.

A quick mental sum showed that a full Fury tank should fit into a 1/2 full Zafira - so I'd do that then, Easy - I was walking across the drive with the first can of fuel when I remembered that Mrs Blatter had taken the Zaf. Here car was on the drive - it's a diesel. The inlaws car was also on the drive, so I thought I'd put it in there. They're away for a while, so I'll be using the car anyway. Half way through the first can, it overflowed - he'd filled it before they'd left.

So I took my wife's car & swapped it for the Zafira & decanted the contents of the Fury into it, took out the suspect fittings & re-made them. It was around now that I realised that there was probably 1/2 gallon of unleaded spilled on the garage floor, I was soldering copper fittings with a blow-torch & the only escape route was past the car & it's pool of petrol. Anyway I survived the experience, the car is back together, I put the last can of fuel out of it, back in & so far it hasn't leaked - the new fittings are much better made than the old ones, but I won't know for certain until I fill it with fuel tomorrow - goodness knows what I do it it does leak, all three cars will be full.

Rally Ho

Yes dear reader I have been remiss in updating this missive, but I've been busy you see.......

 David (the navigator) turned up dead on time, & as there were a few spots of rain we put the roof up, wisely as it turned out because the rain started properly as we were leaving, but we drove through it & the skies were blue by the time we got to the meet point near the tunnel.

Getting on the ferry was relatively smooth in spite of the last minute change of car & it turned out the couple we stopped behind live only 500 yds from where I work, & his car had only been on the road for a month too - though his was all new, not just the engine. Rolling out of the tunnel we assembled into three groups of four & set off, we were not going straight to the destination, but heading south west along the coast (ish) to take in some scenery & have lunch. I made the first faux-pas at a tee junction when I was about to pull out to turn left when David shouted "HOLD ON, HOLD ON" I hit the brakes just as a small white van slid past the front of the car with it's wheels firmly locked & the passenger GLARING at - well - David actually as he was on the "driver's" side of the car. Lesson learned - from then on we said "left clear & right clear" at every junction.

The roads were quiet to the point of being post-apocalyptic, where DO the French go at the weekend? We made good progress, but lost our group when my car lost power just after a short stop to "commune with nature" (the women in the party chose to wait). All it needed was a sharp tap on the low pressure fuel pump, but by the time I was out of the car & strapped back in, the others were beyond catching. Strangely though, we arrived at the lunch stop first, a pretty village on a wide estuary, think of it as a very French Padstow. The other cars rumbled in & we sat outside to eat. The majority ordered the only thing we could confidently say in French - cheeseburger, & they duly arrived covered in something that looked suspiciously like custard, but was in fact some form of "cheese-in-a-can", it was pointed out that the menu stated "cheese" not "fromage" so that might explain it. A few of the crew were more ambitious & went for mussels & were rewarded with an entire saucepan full each. You could've re-cobbled the high street with the empty shells. After another thirty-odd miles of wonderfully winding roads we reached the hotel & parked up for the night.

A taxi was ordered to take the thirty of us into Bethune, & sure enough it arrived, I say it, presumably Bethune has only one taxi as he shuttled us into town six at a time. The town square was again very French & we sat around drinking beer & eating pizza before calling the now very grumpy taxi driver to shuttle us all back. At some point in the wee small hours I was woken by people shouting English, then later by wedding party stragglers shouting in French, then at 05:00 (04:00 UK time) I woke & couldn't get back to sleep. So it was a fairly jaded Tony that was taking the roof & side windows off the car & re-fitting the luggage rack at 06:00. Breakfast in the hotel was a buffet continental affair, but very nice all the same, though the non-English speaking girl on reception didn't think we'd pre-paid for breakfast & we had trouble insisting in French that we had.

So we set off for Hazebrouk, another old town based around a square, where we were given another breakfast, in the very posh town hall before setting off. There were about 150 cars on the rally, all parked up in rows in the town square, so we were called in car number? One row at a time? No, it was all very European, there was a total (but good natured) melee, & whichever car fought their way to one of three exit points first, got to leave first.

The rally itself was based on a "roadbook" of some 50 sides of A4, with five or six pictorial instructions per page, with an additional twist of cards laid by the roadside with letters & numbers on, which had to be written on a sheet. At one point I was following another of the club's cars when I saw this small card just as the other car's brake lights came on:-

"was that a card Tony"

"yes"

"what was the letter?" I'm thinking, this is a competition - you're going to take my word for it??

After quite a lot of miles & many three point turns, we reached the first refreshment stop, where tokens could be exchanged in a hostelry for coffee, hot chocolate, lemonade, beer or wine - imagine that on a motoring event in the UK. Another picturesque town awash with keen photo-taking locals.

After this stop, more of the same, but instead of numbered cards, we were looking for something that wasn't there. At the drinks stop we had been handed a sealed envelope with six photos, the task was to write your car number on the back of the one view you DIDN'T see on stage two. Tricky that. We only saw two of the views so guessed.On this stage the sky was getting heavier & heavier, eventually the sky opened & rather too late we made the decision to put the roof up. David volunteered to assemble the front of the roof while I did the back. This meant I was outside while the worst of the rain fell & David fumbled with the bolts. This was "refreshing", but we were soon under way again in a rapidly steaming-up car. This stage ended at a lunch stop, all the cars were stacked into a carpark in such a way that they could only leave in the same order they arrived. Lunch was a splendid affair, with each of us being handed a glass of wine on arrival, & sitting down on a decorated table for a proper three course lunch with a bottle of wine between every four people.

The final stage took us back to Hazebrouk, no games this time, just follow the route through more countryside, still with very little sign of any French except for occasional groups of waving small boys. There were a couple of "walking wounded" among the car club, one arrived with his exhaust strapped to the back of the car, another who had earlier worried one of the other drivers by asking for a spare clutch cable because his had snapped as a joke, had his clutch cable snap - that'll teach him. But we all made the Eurotunnel station on time & under our own steam. In my car we even had time for some tea.

Of course the worst part of the whole trip was the run for home, the blue skies through the train window on arrival tempted me to take the roof down, but my co-pilot cautioned against it & by then we were cold, very very tired & really couldn't be bothered wrestling with it. This was a good thing, because 20odd miles along the M20 the heavens opened in truly biblical style (out thoughts went out to those with no windscreens - & we laughed), we had a screen, we had a roof, but we hadn't bothered with the full side windows, & all the water off the front of the car was making a determined effort to get in along the rear edge of the deflectors. The rain soon passed though & we were slowed by recovery truck winching tin-tops which had had a coming together at the side of the road. So we made it home. The car had a problem or two - the starter had been iffy & there's a small oil leak at the front of the engine to deal with, but quite an adventure all in all. David the navigator then had another 45 min drive to get home, before getting up early the next day to fly - to Milan for work. I had booked the day off, just as well as I was completely "mind-blown", couldn't concentrate on anything at all.

So will I do it again? I think so, It'd depend on finding a navigator - ideally fluent in French. I have a great deal of video from the car mounted cameras which I'll be editing down & putting on youtube, so I'll post the link out when I've done it.

What A Week That Was

No sooner had I got back from Detling (OK, about 36 hours after I got back from Detling) I got a text from Mr Mango http://www.mangofury.co.uk/. He'd had the unfortunate news that his car wouldn't be back from the menders in time for him to take up his place on the Rallye Des Jonquilles (Dafodill Rally), so, would I care to take my Fury & he'd navigate. A little research into what the family had planned & what I'd need suggested it was possible, but there was a problem. I'd finished the cold air duct for the bonnet & it was "attached" by a goodly blob of araldite, 2 planks & several clamps. It couldn't be removed, So I had to go on. I glassed it to the underside of the bonnet & for once got the mix about right & decided to leave it there as it was secure & the car was drivable. I got on with other jobs - finding enough bulbs to make a plausible bulb kit, loading the sub-boot with warning triangle, tools etc, but I kept going back to do "just a little more" to the intake.
 I even re-designed the duct bracket to be made from two pieces instead of one, Then I found myself making up those peices, then, well, I may as well fit them & as the bracket's there I may as well cut & fit the duct.

Then this PM when I should've been doing a nut & bolt check I finished it off. So it's finished. the last of the Zetec mod it done. Over.

Now, where was that passport??

Show Time.

So, what’s been happening? The Fury’s been out on it’s 1^st club run of the season, this wasn’t a real blatt, just a pootle round the motorway to the kit car show at Detling, not a show I’ve ever attended before. The plan had been for the club to assemble at Mickey’s Diner for breakfast before rolling up en masse. I had all sorts of trouble finding the place with the satnav & eventually rolled up at 08:45 in company with another clubster who I failed to recognise because his car was so different from last time I saw it (better I thought, the off-set scoop over bike carbs giving it a most purposeful look).

Slowly (well, with long spaces between arrivals) more of the SKCC turned up until we had completely filled the carpark. Breakfast was good & we attempted a convoy to the showground, but inevitably that fragmented into two or three chunks before we’d even left Mickeys.

The showground itself is an ex airfield, so is inevitably cold, windy & wet, but the cars were arranged in a carefully considered “random” fashion & the banter began. Lots of people were interested in the Fury's latest incarnation having read about my trials & tribulations in this very organ, & the bonnet was up & down like the proverbial whore's drawers. The comments thus garnered were more favourable than at the rolling road - which was nice.

The show was small, all being contained within one largeish hanger, the usual suspects were all arrayed, but for me the greatest interest was on the club stands – here the standout cars for me were the home-built ‘30s racer looking car that I’ve seen at Stoneliegh, the twin engine Tiger, & the heavily modified Ranger in the main hall, with a Zetec & a 4” suspension drop – only because I know how much work must’ve gone into it.

Then after a cheeseburger & coke it was time to head for home – with the roof up & sidescreens on unfortunately. Not an exciting first outing, but the car was reliable & achieved 35mpg, which at this stage of the game I’m pretty pleased with.

In other news, I’ve made great strides with the cold air intake. The duct is just about complete & ready to bond to the bonnet – so wish me luck, this could get messy.

There's Something About Fury

The Fury project seems to attract nice people. (OK I would say that) but the two previous owners were always keen to ensure that Fury building & ownership was enjoyable & I've just spoken to the latest owner for the first time. The car failed it's first MoT on the lower front suspension joints, I bought replacements but found that the lock nuts had seeming been tightened up by a troll & were corroded on. I heaved at them with a very large spanner & succeded only in rounding off some of the corners, so I resorted to the dremel & cut them off the car, then found they are an obscure imperial thread & could find no more - even Margnor (http://www.margnor-online.co.uk/) who are usually brilliant failed me on this occasion.

I called Steve at Fury Sportscars (http://www.furysportscars.co.uk/) & he's put a couple in the post for me, FoC. What a nice man, I shall book the car in for a geometry check & corner weighting session later in the year.

Testing Times

The thing with fitting a modern engine with an ECU, is that they need programming or “mapping”. The ECU comes with a “base map” which will get the engine running, but not very well, it needs tuning - messing with & for that you need to go to a rolling road.

Good establishments take on the aura of a wizard’s cave & the denizens that reside within are clever blokes – don’t get me wrong – but dealing with us mere mortals seems to make them believe their own powers are somewhat god-like rather than those of a geek with oily fingernails & a need to insert the “f-word” into each & every sentence.

 But I’m getting ahead of myself, this saga is a long one, so get comfy.

I'd been driving the Fury for a week & a half, to make sure it was reliable, not prone to overheating, battery was charging, all those basic things. At last the day of the rolling road arrived & at 12:00 I left work & set off. Things did not go well. I hadn't even got to the M25 when the car lost power & stopped. It did exactly what it did when I first had it on the road with the crossflow, but that was a distributer problem, the new engine hasn’t got one of those. After a few minutes rest it started & seemed OK, but stopped again after about three miles - and so it went on. I'd decided to abort the mission & go home, so pulled up off of the motorway where at least I could think without the trucks hurtling past, but in the event decided I'd carry on, what ever the car’s ill was would be best fixed when I got there. I wondered if at constant high speed, exhaust heat was being drawn into the unfinished air intake & sending the inlet air temp sender out of range, so I took off the duct & it seemed much better - lasted ten minutes this time.

I managed to limp through the inevitable road works without stopping (just) & gave it a long rest at some services. Then (with only two more stops) got into some traffic. Dilemma:- do I sit in the inside lane which is near stationary but has easy access to the hard shoulder, or move to one of the outer lanes in the hope of moving faster & so keeping the engine cooler. I decided to try the latter (I was an hour late by now) & shortly afterwards had to push the car across the slow moving juggernaut lane to get onto the last four feet of hard shoulder before two motorways joined! Eek!

It stopped again just as I was passing a pull-in for an electrical sub-station, so knowing the guys at the rolling road would need the side pod off for access to the lambda, I took it off there & then in the hope that maybe the lambda was going out of range in the heat of the enclosed pod. That took 15 mins or so & I managed to get through a tunnel (phew) & the last couple of miles in one hop.

Then the problems started. As I mentioned at the top the guys surely know there stuff, but one of them is either the most arrogant bloke I've ever come across, was having a REALLY bad day, or took an instant dislike to me & my car. NOTHING it seemed was right about it, from the low pressure pump fuel pump (wrong way up) to the swirl pot ("that's just an old catch tank, tch"), to the high pressure fuel pump (should be at the back) to the throttle bodies (not designed for this application - just all wrong) to the vacuum pipes for the pressure reg (don't need those) to the exhaust (for the road, that should be 4-2-1). If I hadn't been so exhausted from my journey, I'd have shoved his rollers AND his tie down straps where the sun don’t shine & left for home. Apparently he's "used to working on LMP cars", yes well, I’m sure we’d all like those facilities & budget. As I said, don’t get me wrong, they certainly knew their stuff, & a lot of the points they made had merit – but there are ways of bringing these things to the attention of a customer & then there’s being just plain insulting, yes?

Anyway, they loaded a map, then the car wouldn't start at all. They re-loaded the map I'd arrived with, & it started but there were obvious problems. A fuel pressure gauge was fitted & showed low & fluctuating pressure. After a while’s head scratching I realised the low pressure pump wasn't ticking. I thumped it in the time honoured fashion, & it stayed not ticking. There were dark mutterings from the gurus at the front of the car about unreliability & wasted time. Then I realised that this had been the problem all the way there. With the low pressure pump dead, the high pressure pump would operate gravity fed until there was a partial vacuum in the tank, but high pressure pumps don't suck, so it was unable to open the vent valve, so was starved of fuel. Just opening the lever on the top of the petrol cap would've done the trick if I hadn't been so fixated on heat.

There was talk of finding another LP pump to enable the session to go ahead, but they didn't have one, then just as all seemed lost, I hit the errant pump once more (well, you would wouldn't you) & it went tick tick ........... tick ............ tick tick tick ........... tickatickatickaticka. We were away. Another three hours (& a great deal more moaning) later the car was mapped & had a graph showing 160bhp at 7000 RPM, & 135ft/lb torque. A nice flat torque curve ("would've been better with a 4-2-1") & to their credit the guys refused to take any money until I'd driven it up the road & was happy with it. The journey home was wonderfully uneventful, seldom have I enjoyed a dull motorway drive so much.

The car now feels good, though there is sometimes still a little hesitation when the throttle is pressed & I’ve got a little tidying still to do, but it should be OK for the road trip next month.

Live & Learn

So dear reader, what have I been doing?

The Fury is taxed – goes for it’s first MoT this Friday, & a rolling road / map set-up next Weds.

There have been “issues”, the nice man at the rolling road asked what size the injectors were, I had no idea, but a quick google said that were either 190cc / min, or 240, or 270. The nice man said that 190 was too small, 240 would be OK, 270 would be better. Further research discounted the 270 possibility, but everything else I found said either 190 or 240, none of it was trustworthy as it was obviously just cut & pasted from other forums.

So now I was in a quandary, spend the money & have the car tested only to find they were 190s & no good? Buy more injectors on the off chance – but they come in all shapes & sizes, how would I make sure they’d physically fit?

I spent an entire evening trying to google a definitive answer to no avail. In desperation I posted a message on the SKCC forum, & one of the members – a garage owner, ex-bike racer, compulsive tinkerer & all round good egg offered to help & within a couple of hours had received confirmation from a contact that the injectors in the car were indeed the 240s I craved.

The other main problem was getting the engine off idle. It would idle beautifully, humming away all day, it would also rev very nicely, but getting from one to the other required several gentle stabs on the throttle – not easy when you’re doing a lot of other driving. I enquired of Omex if there was anything I could adjust to make it more drivable before the rolling road, as usual the reply came back promptly, but it wasn’t hopeful. In the mean time the problem was getting slightly worse. Then I was struck by a flash of the bleedin’ obvious – as often happens - to me at least.

The trouble with fitting a computer to run the engine is that I assume it is both the cause & the cure of all the engine’s ills. But the laws of physics still apply & when the inlet manifold isn’t bolted up tight enough it will still leak, causing problems. With the bolts tightened it ran much better, & I have now ordered a new gasket – or in fact a gasket, as the one on the car is home made cardboard – in the excitement of getting it running I’d forgotten all about that.

So baby step by baby step the Fury approaches a useable state, but the learning process it what it’s about & the Fury is the end product of a very long process which started with converting the ranger from carb to injection Pinto (electro-mechanical to EFi controlled fuelling using OEM parts, then to 1800 Zetec (computer controlled sparks & fuelling using mostly OEM parts), now onto the Fury with full aftermarket electronic programmable control.

I suspect it will fail the MoT, if on nothing else then because one of the front wheels just catches the wheel arch when turning left & going backwards. We’ll see.