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hilly

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About hilly

  • Birthday 12/08/1967

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  • Name
    Hilly
  • Car
    1981 S3 with added goodness

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  1. Yeah, have a look at the build thread ( the link is in my footer) as this covers most if your questions. When I got the car ( 20 years ago, Yikes !!!!) the car was in a pretty poor state including the interior. At the time Esprits we not worth much especially as a basket case, the interior was pretty bad and the seats had be vandalised, so it was easier to just changed them at the time for some after-market Corbeau RS2 seats which were the only thing I could find that would fit. However these are not very good and not particularly comfy either so I had been looking for a set of Recaro to go in instead. Mid last year a set of Recaro CS seats from an Evora became available so I snapped them up, only problem is they won’t fit an Esprit. So over the winter I started making some adjustments, the internal sill cover, handbrake lever and cable brackets need to be moved. While doing this I thought is was a good time to make some adjustments to the power steering column requiring removal of the dashboard. While the dash was out I decided to repair the wiring loom which was a bit of a mess ( the car had 14 previous keepers) so the job kind of spiralled out of control. The wiring is now pretty much done, handbrake modified, steering column done and the interior is now going back (including nice new carpets from Steve) so hopefully the car will be mobile again in about a month. I will add some updates to the build thread once done which will include the seats fitted. Hilly
  2. Gcar turbo body with Stephen’s chassis (no naff trunnions). Modern tyre size wheels and 4 pot callipers. 32 valve V8 with 6 speed gearbox Gcar interior with better seats (Recaro CS) and boomerang dash pod with nice instruments. Hang on, I already have it (except the turbo body)
  3. Oooooooh cool, another engine conversion ☺ Looking good so far. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out given it is 10 years since Punky did his. You are not wrong with that statement......... Hilly
  4. Hi Bibs, Danny Yeah, still here, just too busy with other stuff. The mutant has been off the road of 18 months, not because it is broken, just not had time to get it MOTed after one of the front springs snapped causing a fail in September 2013. Had to get another set of custom springs fabbed up (which took a couple of months) and that then put it back into winter and too cold to work on it. By the time the spring went on it was march so figured i would wait until spring for the MOT and not had time to do it since. How are thing going round here ??? Hilly
  5. Still around, just don't get to drop in anywhere near as much as I would like due to work commitments and house DIY (ironically moved house to get a garage to work on the Mutant and haven't had time since ) The Audi 01E is very similar to the 01X I used on the Mutant except the 01E has a cast iron center section instead of alloy, which in theory make for a stronger unit. Of the 2 links posted only the first one is of use as it is a 2wd unit, the second unit is a 4wd box and this is not only a fair bit longer but also no use as it torque splits between the front diff and the rear output shaft. you can weld up the center diff, but this makes it inherently weaker and prone to breaking. Hilly
  6. Fitting the fans behind the radiator and pulling air through is more efficent. The pressure drop caused by the fans pulling a slight vaccum will actually cool the air. Having the fans in front will cause a slight pressure increase as the air is pushed through the core and this increases air temperature slightly. The reason why these fans should be mounted in front of the rad is due to the curvature of the blades, the fan in the picture is designed to push air. You could mount them on the rear and reverse the power connections, but it wouldn't move as much air. Hilly
  7. Seeing as your ECU uses speed density to work out the fuelling requirement you really need to get a representative sample of the MAP level. It can prove to be difficult on an engine which is fitted with individual runners and throttle bodies. This because unlike on an engine with a plenum (which always has one cylinder pulling a vacuum on the chamber) each runner only has vacuum during the inlet stroke. This means that 75% of the time the vacuum is leaking away. If you were to use just one inlet for the ECU MAP connection you would end up with with a lumpy map signal at low RPM,which you have observed. If the ECU MAP connection is linked across all the inlets what happen then is you still get the lumpy signal (all be it lower), but it is averaged across the 4 cylinders hence ending up with a much lower signal (remember each port is under vacuum for only 25% for each complete engine cycle) again which is what you are seeing. The way I got around this was to use a MAP connection for each port, but to keep each pipe as long as possible before link together near the ECU via a manifold joint and then onto a small chamber, see picture below. You may find this gets the signal good enough, if not adding a check valve (as you originally thought) and an adjustable bleed valve in parallel into the line between the chamber and the manifold joint may improve things further. Arrange the check valve so that it prevents flow out of the chamber, then use the adjustable bleed valve to control the rate at which the vacuum leaks back. Fiddle with the adjustable bleed valve until the vacuum recovery is fast enough to keep the MAP signal steady whilst still following the real vacuum level. Sounds like a lot, but it isn't in reality. If you need more details let me know. Hilly
  8. I have got a fan on both exit ducts on the Mutant which come on as soon as the engine starts and continue to run for 15 minutes after switching off the engine. This was done the help improve hot starting and to reduce engine temps when stuck in traffic, this was when the car had carbs (which was quite some time ago), but it is suprising how much heat is pulled out by the fans. Probably been on the car for 8 years now with no issues. For the amount of effort involved fitting fans it is well worth doing. Hilly
  9. Well........................ It hasn't been plain sailing, but over all pretty good. These units are designed for Herald/Spitfire and a a consequence don't transfer over to the Esprit without a bit of adjustment. Nothing major, just a couple of minor tweaks which relate to the bottom bearing carrier. 1) the 1/2" nut which holds the upright to the ball joint can clobber the bottom carrier at extremes of suspension travel, this caused the ball joint to wear prematurely, this was fix by the simple addition of a 5mm sleeve to move the nut away from the carrier. You could get the same effect by necking down the back of the nylock nut, but my solution is re-useable 2) the bottom ball joint carrier fits onto the bottom suspension arm using the same single bolt as the trunnion. However seeing as there is also a ball joint with this new upright means that the carrier can pivot about on the arm, further increasing problem 1) The trunnion doesn't suffer from this as the long thread in the bottom of the upright doesn't move about like a ball joint, the single bolt can't be tightened up enough to prevent movement. So to get around this I just welded the carrier to the arm with a couple of small tack welds (nothing to big so that if ever needed the carrier could easily be replaced) and the problem is fixed. Other than that it has been fit and forget. Hilly
  10. hilly

    Spotted

    Spotted this morning through the misty frost on the A30 heading towards Egham at Vaginia Waters (passing Piccolino in fact), anyone want to own up ???
  11. Yup, I have added electric power steering column to my S3, it works a treat. The Unit was sourced from an Vauxhall /Open Corsa C (2000-2005), but there are a number of similar units which would work. If you Click Here it is where the power steering bit of my conversion thread starts. Hilly
  12. For Automotive blade fuses (ie one of these ) then they do have an in-rush spec. From the graph below you can see that a 7.5A fuse will be able to carry 20A for about 200milliseconds before failure, so most likely OK For reference I have individually fused my 3 Spal fans with a 10A fuse for each, howeverI have used an illuminated version of the blade fuse so that you can instantly see which one has gone if a problem arises. Hilly
  13. Hi Spin I would be interested to hear why you think there will be less engineering effort required to fit a G50 into an S3 over an Audi box???? Agreed the G50 has a higher torque rating, but as far as I can figure out you still need to tackle : 1) gear linkage 2) inboard brakes 3) exhaust mounting 4) gearbox/engine mounts 5) clutch/flywheel 6) drive shafts 7) speedo drive You also have the issue of having to run the G50 inverted, this will drop the engine crank centre line in relation to the gearbox input shaft, you then have to deal with the engine cradle cross brace getting in the way which could mean a new sump. Then on top of that lot you need to sort out the engine/gearbox adaptor plate (which the Audi engien/gearbox combo doesn't need), so I make that more effort, of have I missed something ?? Hilly
  14. And there was me thinking the mist would keep me camouflaged Just as well it was misty as the paint looks decidedly ropey close up. I have just moved offices to Bracknell so going through Ascot is my new route into work so maybe we will bump into each other again, I'll keep an eye out for your car..................... Hilly
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