Page 13 of 17 FirstFirst ... 31112131415 ... LastLast
Results 241 to 260 of 335

Thread: Confused's Long-Term Anglia Project

  1. #241
    Confused's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Garry
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Membership ID
    714
    Posts
    3,537
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Notts
    Car
    Legnum VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    This update comes courtesy of my step-mum, who suggested that my dad booked a week off work to spend purely on the car! Thankfully, my girlfriend also thought it was a good idea, and so this is the culmination of a week's work! The last full week I had on the car (back in November 2011!), we made loads of progress - would this week be as productive? Read on to find out!


    As the suspension mounts have been moved onto the diff carrier, the mounting points needed reinforcement. The rear mounts had already been reinforced, so we did the fronts, they now bolt through some nice heavy box section.



    Where we had to cut away the bulkhead for the water pipes off the back of the engine, this needed replacing, so a new panel was made up. Originally we planned for this to be removable to gain access to the water pipes - but with the engine so simple to take out (less than an hour), there's really no point, so it's welded in for no loss in strength.



    It was always to plan, once we'd proved that the brakes/clutch worked OK to replace the temporarily made push-rods with new ones, made from a single piece of metal, rather than the extended temporary ones.



    Being a 1967 (and, of course, for safety), it needs seat belts in the front. A pair of inertia-reel seatbelts have been fitted, which are much better than the original fixed belts!



    Having had the car running and driving for a while (only as far as in/out of the garage, and on/off the trailer), we noticed that the coolant level was dropping, and the oil level was increasing... so, the engine/gearbox came out, and it had a pair of new head gaskets, a set of 24 valve stem seals, new lower inlet manifold gaskets, and new injector seals/filters.



    Whilst the engine was out (hopefully for the last time for a while!), the bare metal and welds were given some protection.



    Not having enough of a single colour in the cupboard, we mixed together 4 different colours: Mitsubishi Fiji Blue pearlescent, Mitsubishi Twilight Blue metallic, Ford Java Blue metallic and Vauxhall Lagoon Blue metallic. So even the paint is a hybrid of various makes! (The flash makes it look a little lighter than it is in daylight - that's all the metallic/pearl bits catching the extra light from the flash)

    Meep meep! A pair of horns scavenged from a scrap BMW.


    I mentioned before the new connectors for the engine - there's one of these on each side of the engine bay. So to remove the engine, we simply needed to unclip these two.



    All the wiring inside, now completed, has been tidied up, tucked properly under the dash, and a panel was made up to house the boost gauge & various switches (hazard warning, heated front screen, clutch servo solenoid and launch control)



    Then came the moment of truth - an MOT test! With everything put together, checked and double-checked, we took it for a fresh pair of eyes to give it a thorough check over. A nervous wait followed whilst the tester looked, prodded, pulled and poked at everything they usually look at, prod, tug and poke during an MOT test.

    He then wandered through into the testing area, and presented a piece of white paper (I miss the days of coloured paper, where you at knew what the result was from across the room without having to read it!) - "Refusal of an MOT Test Certificate" was what this one was not titled! Instead, it said proudly at the top of the sheet "MOT Test Certificate"

    Having sorted insurance a couple of hours earlier, I fired up the vehicle licencing page on my phone, and promptly taxed it and drove it back home!


    So - how far has it now been driven? Well... back home... where we then proceeded to start on tidying up the bodywork! Having seen the blue in the engine bay, we decided that, as there was some bare metal that still needed protection, to give the whole car a blow over with our newly created colour. All the bits of surface rust have been ground back and treated, the holes for the side trim (which isn't going back on) welded, ground back and filled over.



    Next is to smooth back this filler, and give it a quick coat of primer & paint so it's all a single colour, and protected for now - until it comes off the road again in a few months to be stripped back to a bare shell to have a full, proper fix of bodywork and paint.

  2. #242
    Nick Mann's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Nick
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Last Online
    17-03-2024
    Membership ID
    17
    Posts
    24,895
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Redditch
    Car
    Legnum type-S
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    Awesome!

  3. #243
    MarkSanne's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Mark
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Last Online
    09-12-2022
    Posts
    2,670
    Country
    Other
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Car
    VR2,VR4+Mazda6
     
    Great job guys! Congrats on the MOT, shows the workmanship put in!

  4. #244
    elnevio's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Nev
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Last Online
    01-03-2024
    Membership ID
    510
    Posts
    17,953
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Gloucester
    Car
    VR-4+Panda+shed
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    /Drool


    Great work!
    October 2023 fleet status: 100% operational


    | Legnum VR-4S | Fiat Panda 100HP !! | a blue one! | Avensis T-180 | VR-4 parts van! |

    Why not become a full member of CVR4 and enjoy the additional benefits membership brings?! Information here.

  5. #245
    Confused's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Garry
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Membership ID
    714
    Posts
    3,537
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Notts
    Car
    Legnum VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    Prior to this weekend, it had been driven about 20 miles by my dad, and I was able to get down for a day, and in that time we have found, and had to sort the following teething issues:

    Replace injectors - I fitted new filters to them, but in doing so, managed to get some dirt into some of them, which left them stuck open, pouring fuel into the engine!

    Tweak the ECUs - the MAP-ECU appeared to lose some of its configuration, meaning that it was not actually giving a signal to the standard engine ECU for air flow! So the first 5 miles or so, it was running only on the "fail safe" fueling!

    Replaced all the spark plugs, as it was missing under load.

    Discovered that the tyres on the back are awful, as under power, it was pulling quite hard to the left, and to the right under deceleration. Swapping the rear tyres side to side improved it, so a new pair of tyres had been ordered and been fitted.

    The PLX wideband O2 sensor control unit has failed, so it's not putting out the correct voltages on either the wideband output, nor the simulated narrowband output. This has been removed, and replaced with the stock narrowband sensor until I can afford a new wideband controller.


    With the annual "Anglias At The Ace" happening the weekend just gone, and determined to get there, I went down and spent last Thursday night and Friday doing some more to make it ready. My dad had done some more filling & sanding, getting the car ready for paint. However, with life getting in the way, by Thursday it was only nearly ready for priming - so Thursday evening was spent finishing off the sanding back, and giving it a blow over with primer - which was finished at 12:15 on Friday morning!




    Friday morning I got up early, and spent the morning undersealing the car - if we were taking it on the road, the bits we'd previously welded and primed needed some better protection. So, after masking up all the bits I didn't want to get covered in underseal:



    I covered both myself and the underneath of the car with underseal:




    During the small amount of driving it had done, we noticed that the bonnet got VERY hot right above the turbos - so something was needed to reduce the heat transfer into the fibreglass. With a sheet of nice thick stainless steel, I made up some heat shields to cover the turbos, bolted onto the strut tops, so that the heat is transferred into the rest of the body.



    With all that done, and just 25 miles on the odometer, it was time to firstly give the interior a good hoover out as it was covered in filler dust, and then take it out for a bit of a longer drive - firstly to see if the new tyres made a difference to the handling, secondly to see if the heatshields had made a difference before the "long" drive to the Ace Cafe, as well as to shake down anything else that we'd not picked up yet.


    Given that I'd only driven it about a mile so far, I went out onto the road tentatively, and all felt good. As I started to become a little more confident, and the engine came up to temperature, I pushed it a little harder, until I was trying out some full-throttle runs. However, here is where I found an issue - it pulled great in 1st and 2nd all the way to the red line (no pulling to the left now the new tyres are on), but in 3rd and 4th, it got to just over 4000rpm and hit a rev limiter.

    Came back, and got the laptop out and hooked it up to the ECUs to check the configuration. Nothing jumped out at me, so went out for another drive to save some log files for looking at later. There was also a small "chirping" coming from the back, which was related to road speed, that disappeared when lifting the handbrake slightly. Got it back home with the odometer now on a huge 49 miles!

    I did find when looking through the logs that the original Mitsubishi ECU thought that I was doing over 400km/h - I certainly wasn't doing that!! I then remembered that the speed limiter on the ECU can't be removed, but it can be increased to 255 MPH - which is 410km/h!

    So, with it being late on Friday, on Saturday morning got out early, cut the speed sensor signal to the ECU, and removed the rear wheels to back off the handbrake slightly.

    With that done and back on the ground, we set off for our drive to the Ace. As this was the furthest from my dad's post code it has yet to be driven, we decided it safe for my dad to follow me in his Shogun with a trailer and a boot full of tools - just in case anything was to go wrong or not feel right, we could simply load it up, and deal with it later.

    Heading off down the road, first I noticed that there was no more chirping from the back end. Getting onto the dual carriageway, I gave it full throttle in 3rd, and it revved straight past 4000rpm and to the redline - so it obviously was the engine ECU engaging the speed limiter at 4000rpm.

    I had to pull over about half an hour and 25 miles after leaving home, however. As dad pulled over behind me, he gets out the Shogun with a worried look on his face as I walk towards him. "Can I have the duct tape, please?" I ask. "The chrome surrounds for the heater controls, and the ashtray are rattling, and it's annoying me", I add.

    After taping up the rattling trim, the rest of the journey to the Ace was completely uneventful.



    Another great day, met and chatted to plenty of lovely people, and saw 49 other lovely Anglias!

    Then I drove it back home without any more issues, pulling up back at my dads with 210 miles on the clock. On a run, the engine coolant temperature gets a little higher than I'd like it to be, so (as was always expected) a better radiator is required for more serious running - but it'll sit happily at 70mph without overheating as it currently is.


    It's only running at about 6psi of boost at the moment (I'm hoping I can get around 14psi out of it), so it's not quite as quick as it could be, but... even with that, it's rather quick! Using the timers built into the gauges, and still not *really* pushing it too hard yet, it's given so far a <7 second 0-60, and under 17s quarter mile. Just need to get it tuned right, get the launch control set up, and get it to a drag strip to see what it can really do!



  6. #246
    MarkSanne's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Mark
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Last Online
    09-12-2022
    Posts
    2,670
    Country
    Other
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Car
    VR2,VR4+Mazda6
     
    Great results and progress and a great read. Keep up the good work, I absolutely love it!

  7. #247
    Nick Mann's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Nick
    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Last Online
    17-03-2024
    Membership ID
    17
    Posts
    24,895
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Redditch
    Car
    Legnum type-S
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    Nice one Garry. I'm looking forward to seeing it and hopefully having a quick spin round the block in it!

  8. #248
    Confused's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Garry
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Membership ID
    714
    Posts
    3,537
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Notts
    Car
    Legnum VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    So, err, how does a 5.9 second 0-60 sound?


    That's the best my dad's got so far, and that's without getting it tuned properly, upping the boost or setting up the launch control!


    While he has been busy having fun with it (rather than painting it), I have been doing a quick refurb on a spare set of wheels.


  9. #249
    Humpty's Revenge's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Steve
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Last Online
    Membership ID
    465
    Posts
    9,594
    Country
    Other
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    Quote Originally Posted by Confused View Post
    So, err, how does a 5.9 second 0-60 sound?

    That's very impressive for a ford Anglia Garry

    Your not far of my time bud

  10. #250
    Atik's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Atik
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Last Online
    04-03-2024
    Posts
    7,231
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Birmingham, UK
    Car
    RVR HSGR
     
    There are VR4s out there that will struggle to break 6 seconds! Not bad at all
    1997 Mitsubishi RVR HSGR : 2.0 4G63T, 4 seats and the seating position from a truck
    2009 Ford Mondeo : 2.2TDCi, 4 wheels, some plastics, some metal and some seats
    Former owner of The Mongrel (RIP 2011) and The Rednum (RIP 2014)

  11. #251
    MarkSanne's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Mark
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Last Online
    09-12-2022
    Posts
    2,670
    Country
    Other
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Car
    VR2,VR4+Mazda6
     
    Well done!!! And that time can probably be improved when tuned, upped boost and that launch control! Is it the fastest Anglia around or are there other 'maniacs' who did similar projects?

  12. #252

    Offline
     
    Name
    Gareth
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Last Online
    04-06-2017
    Posts
    236
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Car
    2001 Galant VR4
     
    This is awesome. 12 years in the making. Nice job.

  13. #253
    Confused's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Garry
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Membership ID
    714
    Posts
    3,537
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Notts
    Car
    Legnum VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    With the car successfully back at my dad's, I left him the fun task of playing with the bodywork.

    The initial coat of primer was put on before the trip to the Ace Cafe so that it was mostly one colour, and to cover the remaining bare metal.

    My dad then continued to prepare the primer for paint for a few days, with lots of late nights - I did have to remind him at one point that the colour was only supposed to be temporary (and that I was taking it home soon!), he stopped with the preparation of the primer, and started laying down some colour.



    With that done, next was to add a bit of detail:



    And after yet another very late night, a few coats of lacquer were added:




    While this was taking place, I was busy at home giving a spare set of wheels a quick refurbishment:





    With it all together, I was finally, after many years, able to take it back home with me.

    The radiator still needs to be replaced with something better, but I have now been able to begin sorting some of the small niggles, and do little bits and pieces that weren't suitable to do during the limited time when visiting my dad.

    The fuel gauge was being intermittent, so I have now investigated that, and found that the earth to the sender unit was not making full contact, so I have created a better earthing point on the sender body.

    The Check Engine light had been on whilst driving, and when I had previously retrieved the error codes, it pointed towards the Crank Position sensor. Upon spending a little more time reading the codes, I had actually mis-counted the flashes, and it was the Barometric Pressure sensor. Upon investigation, I noticed that the MAP-ECU was not configured to output the Baro signal (on the original car, it was an additional sensor in the MAF, but that has been removed, so the MAP-ECU steps in again to perform this duty) - simply ticking a box in the setup for the MAP-ECU has switched off the Check Engine light!


    I have also finally got rid of the remainder of the red paint from the inlet manifold - something I hated from the day I picked up the donor car!




    My tinkering will continue - I plan to tidy up the interior - painting the dash/doors, fitting carpet, door cards, rear seats etc, as well of course as replacing the radiator.

  14. #254
    Atik's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Atik
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Last Online
    04-03-2024
    Posts
    7,231
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Birmingham, UK
    Car
    RVR HSGR
     
    Wow! No other words.

  15. #255
    giblet's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Gib
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Posts
    2,384
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Leeds
    Car
    Evo X FQ480
     
    Superb. One hell of an effort from you and your old man. Hope you get to enjoy the fruits of your labour in good health. Looking forward to hopefully seeing it at a meet or two in the future.

  16. #256
    Davezj's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Dave
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    09-01-2024
    Membership ID
    255
    Posts
    16,245
    Country
    England
    Location
    Manchester
    Car
    VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    garry it looks fantastic, it does you and your dad proud.
    i remember seeing when i was a lot younger this type of wheel would have painted insert in the spoke, have you thought about incorporating the wheels into the body colour. i always loved those wheels and wanted a set of those on my MkII escort when i was younger. if you paint the inserts in the spokes body colour it might give you a more integrated look.
    just a thought.
    i can see you have picked out the wheel colour in the stripe down the side but it might be nice to to do the same on the wheel with the body colour. but it might be too much.

    it still looks fabulous and it will go like all stink. i really love the time and effort you have put into the project.

    Bye for Now!

  17. #257
    MarkSanne's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Mark
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Last Online
    09-12-2022
    Posts
    2,670
    Country
    Other
    Location
    The Netherlands
    Car
    VR2,VR4+Mazda6
     
    Awesome! All that time is very well spent, it shows. And I'm so glad to see the red inlet manifold being freshed up to a nice silver shine!

  18. #258
    Confused's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Garry
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Membership ID
    714
    Posts
    3,537
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Notts
    Car
    Legnum VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    Quote Originally Posted by Davezj View Post
    garry it looks fantastic, it does you and your dad proud.
    i remember seeing when i was a lot younger this type of wheel would have painted insert in the spoke, have you thought about incorporating the wheels into the body colour. i always loved those wheels and wanted a set of those on my MkII escort when i was younger. if you paint the inserts in the spokes body colour it might give you a more integrated look.
    just a thought.
    i can see you have picked out the wheel colour in the stripe down the side but it might be nice to to do the same on the wheel with the body colour. but it might be too much.

    it still looks fabulous and it will go like all stink. i really love the time and effort you have put into the project.
    I actually quite like the plain silver right at the moment - but it's not something I have discounted!! It was done in plain silver, mostly because I was painting the wheels at home, and the car (and the tin of blue) were at my dad's!!!

  19. #259
    Davezj's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Dave
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    09-01-2024
    Membership ID
    255
    Posts
    16,245
    Country
    England
    Location
    Manchester
    Car
    VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    Don't get me wrong I think it is a great looking car and love to see it in the flesh at one of the meets maybe go for a little drive with you to see how good the 6a13tt lump really is when it is put in a car of the correct weight.
    Maybe you are going to go to the euro spec meet later in the year.
    Oh and looking forward to your views on the air to water cooler you have fitted. I am thinking of doing something with one of those as an extra cooler. As there is much more load on the engine in the vr4 as opposed to a fly weight anglia.

    I have followed your thread with great interest just to see what's possible when you put your mind to it.

    I just love the bespoke suspension arms.

    If you got in contact with practical performance magazine they would probably do a feature on it if not a cover story.

  20. #260
    Confused's Avatar

    Offline
     
    Name
    Garry
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Last Online
    Yesterday
    Membership ID
    714
    Posts
    3,537
    Country
    United Kingdom
    Location
    Notts
    Car
    Legnum VR-4
    My Garage
    Visit
     
    It's been a while since I've had a chance to sit down and write an update, but here it is!


    After a few more drives to get to know the car a bit better and taking it to some local meets, the first thing I did was to get a new radiator. This is much bigger, and thicker, and is bright and shiny and alloy.



    After fitting it, I took it for a pootle around town to get it up to temperature, and to check that there were no major leaks. With that trial run all good, and the temperature not going much above 90, degrees C, I took it out on a run on the motorway, to see what a period of sustained motorway speeds would do to the coolant temperature.

    The coolant temperature remained somewhere between 90 and 95 degrees C at a sustained 70mph, and it actually drives better at 70mph than at 50mph! This was a triumph! I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS! It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

    However, all was not right - and about 20 miles down the road, a misfire started. Knowing I was only about 4 miles from a services, I thought I'd try to limp it there, so as to not end up broken down on the side of the motorway.



    Yeah... that plan didn't work. Another mile down the road after the misfire started, I lost all power, and the engine just wouldn't restart.



    My guess is that with the extra heat, not only the output from the better radiator, but the heat from the turbo/exhaust due to running at a higher sustained speed, one of the coil packs overheated, and therefore exploded.

    When it expired, it also took out the Ignition Failure Sensor (which provides power to the ignition coils, and provides the rev counter output based on actual ignition pulses rather than "requested" ignition pulses) - so with no power feed through the IFS, that's why the engine wouldn't run, even on 4 cylinders.

    I have replaced all 3 coils with new ones, a new IFS, and also fitted a "turbo blanket", which has reduced the radiant heat given off by the turbo on that side.



    As well as resolving this minor electrical/heat issue, I have also been tidying up the interior, and making it more civilised.

    First off was to paint both the dash, and inside of the doors, around the rear windows, and fit some carpet:



    The carpet has made a huge difference to the sound levels, removing a lot of the road noise.

    I also tidied up the glove box lid and dial surround with a coat of the same silver used on the outside.





    I am now finishing up the remaining bits of painting in/around the bonnet - those being the master cylinder cover, central bonnet catch bracket, and a bonnet grill.




    The next thing on the list will be to make up some panels for next to where the rear seats would be, and either paint or cover them, along with the front door cards.

    That will then make the interior look a lot nicer, as well as being more sound deadened. Short term, I'll put some carpet in the back where the rear seats would be, but I do also have a couple of options for rear seats which I'll investigate to better tie in with the rest.

Page 13 of 17 FirstFirst ... 31112131415 ... LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. long term trim
    By sightless in forum Engine
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 13-04-2009, 10:15 PM
  2. Long term storage of VR-4
    By Ryan in forum General / Questions
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 10-01-2008, 03:51 AM
  3. Short-term insurance
    By dcuk in forum UK Chat
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 05-12-2003, 09:38 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •