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[Webby the Bear]

Loz, read this thread - 1-25 - this is awesome. big well done so far 

[lozzzzzz]

 

I've been using big orange ear defenders for the longer journeys    I see your point with the camber gauge, I might try measuring the camber again with plumb bob set up.  In its defence I have calibrated it every time and its given very repeatable results, I think the major let down is the precision, i.e. the bubble always returns to the same place but its hard to read what the actual camber figure is!

Thank Webby, and others, I'm glad people enjoy reading the progress

[Kevin Wood]

With you on the ear defenders. Long journeys in the Westfield can be a bit hard on the ears. I have an Autocom and a couple of pairs of ear defender headsets for that. Listen to music, make phone calls, talk to Mrs. KW. Even have car to car PMR radio. All stuff you wouldn't have a prayer of doing otherwise.

Glad to hear it's on the road in time for summer. I bet it's a good feeling after all that toil!

[aaronjb]

I see your point with the camber gauge, I might try measuring the camber again with plumb bob set up.  In its defence I have calibrated it every time and its given very repeatable results, I think the major let down is the precision, i.e. the bubble always returns to the same place but its hard to read what the actual camber figure is!

Yeah - I looked at mine and thought 'hmm.. that has a wide range!'.. anyway, I like the handy print-outable tool here: http://www.crendonreplicas.com/tools.html

(As it goes, JK's bead former is also an awesome tool - very handy and a damn sight easier to use than a bead roller IMHO!)

[omega3000]

Aye ear plugs are very good at stopping the drone on a long journey ,the ones that look like marsh mallow  I use to use them when i did the long haul to scotland on the bike 

[lozzzzzz]

I've saved the camber gauge sheet, thanks for that

Which autocom do you have Kevin? how much was it and will if fit under a helmet?

[Kevin Wood]

I have an "Active 7 Smart", I believe, and a pair of the "ear defender pit headsets". It wasn't cheap - £300+ IIRC.

It may not be a current product any more but they come up on ebay pretty regularly. They are designed for bikers, so yes, helmets no problem at all. You get speakers and a mic that velcro into the helmet, IIRC. In fact, mine would have been a lot cheaper if I'd gone that route. The ear defenders were not cheap, and they are simply Peltor ear defenders with the speaker inserts and a mic boom added. Could have knocked a pair up pretty cheap if I'd put my mind to it. 

The control unit has the following connections:

2 headsets
Mobile phone for hands-free (connect to phone or a bluetooth hands-free kit)
PMR / CB etc. Transceiver (provides audio in/out plus signal to key the transmitter when the VOX is activated).
Music input (iPod, radio, etc)

It gives you volume and VOX sensitivity control. When sound into the mic exceeds the VOX threshold, the background music is faded down and you can hear each other and communicate via phone / radio. After a couple of seconds of no activity, the music fades back up and the mics are muted. Sound quality is excellent and it works like a charm, although in a windy environment like a Seven you need to adjust the vox to suit your cruising speed. Shouldn't be so bad in a car without as much wind noise.

I wouldn't be without it on a long journey any more. Really superb bit of kit.

Only trouble I've had is one of the mics got a bit crackly after a rather wet tour. Just prised it apart and replaced the condenser mic element for one from an old mobile phone and bob's your uncle.

[lozzzzzz]

Thanks Kevin, I've had a look at some and they do seem to go cheaply second hand, I'm  going to try some panel sound deadening, then I'll give the intercoms a go if its still too loud.  It means I can bin the the extra mass of speakers in the back if I went with the intercom. 




Thanks guys, it is awesome fun


Thanks folks

I had a little look over the car last night after its first 150 miles, Everything seems good on the suspension front, but the gearbox seems to have sprung a leak at the rear seal, so I've got the parts coming, and I'll try and change the seal without anything drastic like taking the back cone of the gearbox off (fingers crossed the flange comes off). 

There is a bit of vibration over 90mph, the prop shaft looks god with all the balance weights still in place, I think this might be the re-drilled hubs coming back to haunt me, I'll see what the vibration is like on the rolling road when the time comes.  Hopefully that be at the end of this month some time. 

It turns out my exhaust pipes are noisy in more ways than one, they like to hit the road and make a loud noise as they do.  I've never been completely happy with how low they were at the back of the car, just the look of them really, but thought there was little I could do about it.  After having another look, there was room to raise them up by nearly 2cm, heling the look and hopefully the clearance too. 

Before and after:



And lastly I'll be reconnecting the PAS pump to the engine and rack shortly, and am now in need of a full set of pipes as I cut mine to bits

More to come

[omega3000]

That looks better  You could always cut them back and have slash cuts coming out the side of the sill 

[lozzzzzz]

I certainly could but then it would be even louder, there would definitely be ear blood then

[lozzzzzz]

Got it back on its wheel last night after changing the gearbox rear seal, changing the diff oil and checking it all over. 

I found quite a bit of metal in the diff oi, well you know some fine stuff stuck to the magnet, not exactly loads, but I'm not sure if this was from the dust in the garage or from the Quaife diff wearing in, I'm not sure if I've done it too early but I guess I'm happy that that metal is out. 

Did some more mapping on the way to work this morning, if you're not too interested stop reading here. 

I had tried changing the load sites so there were some really low values of MAP, then I set the fueling to zero, so that it would not fuel on the overrun.  I had a suspicion that this was making the car really loud at traffic speeds, so I changed it this morning so it fueled everywhere in the map and now it seems a lot quieter.  Result. 

I've found with the BMW LPG system, in its history of playing up, it mostly does so just after the overrun (i.e. after zero fueling), so perhaps having the scimitar not do 'overrun fuel cut off' right help the LPG to run better when I get that set up. 

I really must upload a video soon, perhaps I'll take one tomorrow morning, or this evening after work if its still light. 

More to come. 

[Kevin Wood]

I would aim for stoichiometric fuelling everywhere in the light-load areas of the map, including overrun. That should stop any popping and banging, and give better throttle response when you get back on the power.

The problem with trying to achieve overrun fuel-cut in the map is that the ECU interpolates between adjacent cells, so you can't get a clean cutoff. What ECU are running? Does it not have overrun fuel cut feature you can enable?

I run overrun fuel cut on the Westfield (it's running a Megasquirt'n'Spark). I think it cuts in above 1700 RPM with closed throttle for 1 second. It makes absolutely no difference to fuel consumption*, IME, but does add a little bit of engine braking which I find useful. It was quite eery at first with a loudish exhaust because the engine burbles for a second on overrun then goes completely dead.

* - Then again, with 650kg and rubbish aerodynamics, it doesn't spend long on the overrun anyway.

[lozzzzzz]

Its a Canems ECU, small company, but excellent value, I'm not sure if it has the feature actually, I need to look, I just didn't remember reading about it when I'd read the manual so I just went ahead and try to map for it.  I put two very low load points in to get round the interpolating thing, so at 7kPa it would be interpolating between zero fuel and zero fuel.  But like you said I wouldn't imagine the car will be spending too long on the overrun. 

[Kevin Wood]

Its a Canems ECU, small company, but excellent value

Looked up their web site, then dealer list and blow me if there isn't a rolling road about 2 miles from my house that I didn't know was there!

[lozzzzzz]

Folks, A request for an MV6 owner.  It was mentioned a while ago, that the good folk on this forum might like to know what power increase the X30XE has made over a standard car.  Well my rolling road session is booked for a week today at a place near Gloucester.  It was also suggested that it would be a good idea to take along a standard MV6 as a calibration to gauge my car against. 

Is there anyone nearby that could pop along and put their standard MV6 o the rollers?

Please understand, I'm just getting an idea if there is anyone up for this BEFORE I phone and ask about it.  I'm starting at 3pm and going into the evening, so there is a chance that the chap might not be too keen on doing a power run on another car?


I'm not sure how many members are reading this thread so if anyone knows of anyone else perhaps you could give them a poke.