74. And so it starts again......

Bloody typical I get diagnosed as a diabetic which means I am now entitled to the flu jab which I have an appointment for in a couple of weeks time, but what happens in the meantime..yep! I have got the flu grrr!!

Anyway this weekend Steve came over to Bedfordshire to help his mate out by changing a clutch on his Audi and on Sunday he went over to the truck and started work on the engine. And as usual he managed to get a lot done but! we do have a problem or two to overcome and it is not a case of just a straight swap from one injection system to another.

First problem is, the throttle linkage is on the wrong side of the bug catcher ie. it is on the left but of course the throttle cable etc runs down the right side of the car this I am told by Mike at Alkydigger is not a problem and can be reversed easily. The second problem will take a little longer to sort out...

... the bracket and linkage that are within the red circle fouls on the rocker boxes, this is because we have the tall rocker boxes on the car so this will have to be modified/moved to accommodate our equipment.

Another problem we have is the torque converter it has to spaced accurately and it looks like we might need longer bolts to achieve this and maybe even some more shims?? we will see.

Steve also had a bit of a problem when looking at the fuel pump shut off valve, we now have a different plumbing system and it looked like our shut off valve wont fit but another quick mail to Alkydigger and they sent us a picture of the valves they use and then we could see what the difference is.

Our previous set up on the left and the picture that we got sent on the right and as you can see the only difference is an adapter and a leak off pipe so hopefully that wont be too difficult to sort out. The front timing cover will need some material shaving off to fit properly again this was expected.....

All in all a lot of work was done but! a lot more to do to get it all sorted and up and running but we do have a long winter ahead of us to do all of that and one or two other little projects?????.

I was a bit sceptical about changing the stack system over to a tunnel ram not because of the intricacies of how it all works but aesthetically, I loved the look of the stacks I think they looked period correct but tuning simplicity aside this new look is growing on me and both my brothers both said the same thing, it looks like a dragster now!!! brumm brummm...

73. A long long season, Hot Rod Drags 2015 and bits..

We have had to sit out of the last meeting of the year due tot he damage we sustained to the engine over the season thanks to fuelling problems, spectating is not what it used to be. There was a time when I could spend four days in a row sat on the banking at the Pod watching racing but not now, driving has spoiled that completely. I spent a day at he Pod during the finals and again a day at Shaky at the Hot Rod Drags and while it was great to catch up with everyone...it's no fun.

Let me tell you the saga of the fuel injection parts I have been waiting for, with a lot of help from Mike at Alkydigger we sourced and paid for a new tunnel ram system which once the new pump had arrived at their depot Mike packed up and sent it all over to me on a 24 hour express postage run. Well the package arrived in the UK on the 5th, which if things had gone according to plan we would have had time to fit everything and get the car tot he HRD's but no it sat there day after day, I kept checking on the tracking system, it eventually came up with recipient informed of customs charges..not long now then....wrong! so the day before yesterday on the 16th I tracked down a phone number and managed to speak to a human who told me that they had sent letters out to me..two in fact and that they just waiting for the duty payment. I had a sudden thought and got them to check the address....the address on the system was 25 instead of 35 so that explains why I never received the letters.

So all sorted..no!!! the dam thing still didn't turn up yesterday as promised after I stayed in all day waiting no it turned up this morning..yaaaa!!!!! The strange thing is the address on the packing label was correct it was our own Parcel Force that had screwed up the house numbers..!!

So we have a new tunnel ram system complete, new front timing cover, fuel filter, fuel pump pills and some fuel pipe and fittings,and this time...........

...we got the lot flowed first.........so finger crossed she will fire up first time, now we have all the bits I can see one or two problems LOL first the "ears"  will have to come off the timing cover or they will foul our engine mounts,

and we now have to find a blanking plate of some description for where the thermostat housing used to go and we will need some "P" clips, a lot of this will be fitted this weekend but we have time to sort out the rest. We need a new TCI solenoid for the trans brake and then some new harness's and a pair of front runner tyres then we can get the car MSA legal again Oh will need a new chute as well. Something else I would love to get done is to have the roll cage lifted up a couple of inches, this is something else to look at over the winter period,

With a bit of luck and a following wind we might even get her running well enough to take a trip just up the road to the Pod on a RWYB before we put her away for the Winter!!!!!!

ROLL ON 2016 !!!

72. Still at it..!

Last weekend was a very busy weekend for the crew of Tight Fit, lot of "bits" that turned up had to be fitted if we were ever going to even think about making the Hot Rod Drags.....

First things first with the engine already stripped he bores needed re-honing this took a wee bit longer than expected due to a lip at the bottom of the bores but Steve managed to get it doen in the end and the result is..shiney as new bores.

Just as Steve was finishing off the honing tool decided to just disintegrate on him..good job he had finished. Steve had of course marked everything so that all went back in the same place they all came from so the next job was to fit the new sealed for life rings...

For the more savvy of you readers you will notice in the second picture that the rings are marked Cut Napier these are the top rings that are designed to cope with...."Nitro" yes drag racings special ingredient, well we have to future proof ourselves???

The thing is the rings have to be hand cut to size and fitted and then checked and adjusted as required and as you can imagine it takes some time but with the help of Dave Steve managed to do all of them.

All of this had taken a lot of time and we were now on day two so now it was time to start buttoning everything up, put the heads back on etc etc

And while Steve was adjusting everything up Dave got to work fitting the new flex plate and torque converter,

All in all a lot was accomplished but the fitting of the rings took a bit longer than expected so it was probably a bit optimistic for me to think we might make the Hot Rod Drags, this wont happen the new injection system hasn't even arrived yet? so it looks like we will be spectators instead, but it wasn't for the want for trying. so good luck to all racers we hope to be back up and running for next season stranger and faster than ever.