RGB Racer

Pace have today finally delivered my dry sump kit, it consists of a 3 stage pump (2 scavenge & 1 pressure) and a very nicely machined billet sump. They have also supplied a dry sump tank. The output from the pressure stage feeds the engine through it’s existing oil pick up tube in the sump, so the number of external connections are kept to a minimum. I’ll post some more details when I’ve had a chance to look at it in detail, and of course I’ll post a full step by step process of actually fitting it. But for now here are some pictures and it is a shiny shiny thing of beauty

This is the pump, the drive shaft on the left connects with the existing oil pump drive inside the block. The whole assembly is a bolt on replacement for the the standard oil and water pumps, a result of which is the need to fit and electric water pump.

Also the billet sump is much much narrower than the existing sump on the ZX12R so I’m currently wondering if the engine can be mounted lower in the chassis.

I spent a fair bit of time today fitting the battery, starter solenoid, FIA switch and wiring. These were all removed when the old loom was taken out and it was now time to reuse what I could of the old installation, and P clip it all neatly in place. Pictures will follow.
The other thing that I did was to move the main 30 and 40 amp loom fuses to a much more accessible location. They were previously located behind the coolant header tank in the engine bay, but are now neatly placed near the FIA switch in the cockpit. With the fuses in place I have now run the main power feeds from here up to the Digidash and fuse box on the dash. At last I can turn on the car’s systems with the ignition and FIA switches, rather than temporarily jump leading a battery into the car which I had been doing for testing purposes.

Well after the conclusion of the “The Big Tidy” and having been given firm “promises” by both Pace and Hi-Spec that both the dry sump and clappers will be delivered in the next 10 days, it’s time to crack on with the car again!
So with my tools easily locatable and some extra space in the Garage as the Blue Genesis is still away, I set off to try and get all the outstanding jobs on the offside of the car sorted out.
First up on the list was replacing the front upright with the new one from Tim Pell. So here’s a shot of the front suspension before the work started. The upright is mounted using 1\2 inch bolts, which pass through a spherical bearing at the top and bottom of the upright. The top bolt passes right through to the centre of the upright and is secured by a Nyloc nut. The lower threaded mounting is secured in the aluminium casting and is retained by a Nyloc. Both ends have conical spacers and I needed to take care not to mix these up.
The pipe work in the background is a trial fitting of the front coolant pipes.
Removal was fairly straightforward even though the top bolt had had all it’s corners rounded off, and then the old upright was on the bench. The picture shows the old upright on the left and the new one on the right with the hub already swapped over.

This picture illustrates one of the main reasons why I wasn’t too bothered about having to replace the uprights. If you double click the pic and look at the lower calliper mounting point on the old upright, you’ll see that the brake calliper bolt hole has virtually no material around it. I’m not sure that I’d want to bet my life on that thin sliver of material…. for the want of a nail etc.
You can also see that the new uprights have radial mountings for the brake callipers which should, if I’ve measured them correctly fit the Hi-Spec Ultralight 4s (if and when they arrive.)

Transferring the hub over was a very simple operation although the main hub bolt was tighter than a very tight thing. Good job my workbench weighs about 1\2 a ton or I would have pulled it over trying to shift this bolt. While the hub was out of the uprights I MIG welded the back of the conversion studs to help ensure that they didn’t work loose. The only other modification required for the upright was to drill out the top mounting hole to 1\2 inch. Tim’s new racers must use an M10 bolt\rose joint assembly as the new upright and steering arm had a 10mm hole in the top. I was a little concerned about getting the right alignment for this new hole so I mounted the upright in a vice and set it up in the drill press with a 10mm drill in the chuck. I adjusted the upright until the 10mm drill ran smoothly through the existing hole and then swapped in a 1\2 inch drill and enlarged the hole.
Reassembling the upright to the suspension was a quick operation, and all in all from start to finish the job only took about an 90 mins. A process that was certainly helped by the fact that I could lay my hand on every tool the moment it was required. I really must keep this tidyness thing up. Three jobs are outstanding on this upright
The upper rose joint 1\2 inch bolt needs replacing
The hub nut needs re tightening when the car is on it’s wheels, and I might even consider fitting a lock tab
The hub nut requires a sleeve to help ensure it’s in the centre of the hub.

The second job on this side of the car was to complete the coolant installation. This took a fair bit longer, to do as there is much trial fitting and faffing around to be done. I also had to fabricate and weld a mounting tag on the front subframe to hold a P clip for mounting the aluminium cooling tube that I had previously made.
I had to drill and tap the air bleed reservoir on the top of the tube and mount some P clips on the front chassis with self tapping screws, but after a couple of hours work the installation looks like this.

The coolant tube needs to connect with the a straight run of pipe at the side of the car. I elected to do this with rubber hose as the angles and bends are quite complex. Unfortunately at this stage my camera batteries went flat so I don’t have any pictures. I’ll update the site when I’ve had a chance to take some snaps of my handiwork.

There’s not been an update to the website for 10 days or so, mainly because there has not been very much going on on the car, I’ve been away quite a lot working and neither Pace nor HI-Spec have delivered the parts that are really beginning to get very urgent now.

However, what has happened is that my Blue Genesis has been away for a week getting some minor respray work done on the front so that she is nice and shiny and I can advertise her for sale. This has left a nice big hole in the garage.

Now as many of my friends will testify I am a horrendously untidy person it’s one of my many faults, I’m aware of it and I try to combat it…… but nonetheless I AM untidy and this extends to my Garage. So since the racer arrived I’ve been tearing old parts off it and working on it… these parts along with the tools currently in use have become scattered all around the garage and you can’t walk across it without tripping over something. I was now spending 40% of my time just looking for the tools before I could start any job and this was beginning to annoy even me

Additionally I have a couple of other issues. I have a very large, very quiet compressor which I bought from Machine Mart and which I currently cannot even fit in the garage, so it’s residing in a mate’s hallway some 30 miles away and I can’t use my airtools without using my backup compressor thatis bl**dy noisy. Secondly my pillar drill is perched somewhat precariously on the beer fridge in the corner of the garage and rubbing the ali swarf off your beer cans is not a fun experience. So a mammoth tidy is required and the extra space afforded by the Blue beastie being away is an ideal time to do it.

First job was to put a new worktop on my bench. the 6×3 inch timber that it’s made of has shrunk over time and now small parts and drills often fall through the gaps This took most of last Saturday to do but with Duncan’s help, and a 8×4 sheet of chipboard it now looks like this. The pillar drill is in it’s correct home and there should be space below for the compressor monster.

Over the last five days I have been collecting, tools, organising cabinets, making trips to the dump and generally sorting the place out. Now I can say for the first time that all my tools are in their correct places and not scattered all over the garage, house and car.
This has not been the most interesting of diary entries I’m afraid, but I have been asked by several people why there has been no recent updates. Still it does prove that my site gets some attention

*****STOP Press*****
Hi-Spec have promised me the outstanding parts next week. Oh hang on that’s April Fools week isn’t it?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHa Oh how I laughed

Well I had a very interesting day at Donnington today, I had a good chat with several of the RGB boys and the racing was very entertaining…. these things are so fast!
Tim Harmer won the RGB race yesterday by a country mile in his Genesis EVO Mk II, after qualifying in pole position with a time 2.4 secs clear of the field and an AVERAGE speed of 90+ Mph, Blimey! The start was quite interesting as Tim put Andy Charlesly on the grass as Andy tried to sneak up the inside from the second row to steal the line for the first corner. By contrast the other Genesis driven by Doug, a novice driver who didn’t know the track came dead last (I think, I apologise If I’ve got that wrong) so they book-ended the field. There was one fab moment when Harmer lapped the second Genesis right in front of the main grandstand with not another car in sight, they could have been first and second! It had to be the one lap when I was chatting to Duncan and hadn’t got the camera ready so I didn’t get a pic Still it was an interesting day with sleet, hail, torrential rain, lightning andthe RGB boys went out 2 hrs late, having been sat in the holding area for anhour. They must have been frozen. The RGB boys stayed on the track very nicely given the poor conditions. The new A048rs were described by Harmer as “Erm very interesting” in the wet. A top day and it was nice to meet some of the other drivers in RGB

Today In the couple of hours I had spare before going to fit some new taps in my Mum’s kitchen I welded up this bit of ali pipework. It’s the top hose connector that links the coolant pipes at the side of the car to the radiator at the front, all I need to do now is too drill and tap the bleed boss on the top and then it can be fitted. My ali welding seems to be improving
Although I am a little concerned the the joints may stress fracture, but I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.
I’m off to Donnington Park tomorrow to watch the first race of the RGB series.

Today I talked to both Hi-Spec and Pace and basically the delays continue. Pace apparently are working all the hours god sends to try and catch up and I might get my dry sump next week, but the promised 3 week lead time for their dry sump system is now approaching 7 weeks. And in the wonderful make believe world of Hi-Spec “We’ll call you back” actually translates as “We’ll ignore you indefinitely!” If only both companies products weren’t so good I’d be taking my business elsewhere by now.

Today was a very good day, I completed several jobs that have been hanging around for a while. I didn’t get every thing done that I had planned, but then I never do…. still it was a very productive day.
First up was to complete the handbrake installation. I connected the calliper to the pull cable using an M6 bolt and a nylock nut, and then repositioned and adjusted the cable in it’s mounting bracket near the handbrake lever. Ok it’s time to pull the brake on. A quick test shows that it’s having no effect at all…. hmmm. Ok, I’ll adjust the pinch lever and have another go…Hmmm, I can still move the car but the brake disk next to the diff does appear to be locked solid… what’s going on?
A quick inspection shows that the OS drive shaft hadn’t been inserted fully into the diff, and wasn’t engaging with the splines, therefore without both wheels attempting to turn at the same time , the diff was allowing the connected NS wheel to rotate freely even though the diff itself was immobilised by the handbrake. Of course the disconnected OS wheel was rotating freely anyway. Unfortunately despite my best efforts the OS drive shaft refused to inset correctly into the diff. As is usual with drive shafts the CV joints were simply “plunging” rather than transmitting any force to insert the inner joint into the diff. In order to get the joint inserted I had to remove the wheel and disassemble the OS suspension, whereupon the CV joint went in very quickly with a nice satisfying click. The hand brake should now work, but I’ll test it when I’ve finished the next job.
While the car was on the quick lift jack, I thought I’d complete the installation of the rear rear studs to convert from wheel bolts to wheel nuts. This I did without incident and half an hour later the car was on it’s wheels. Time to test the handbrake. Whoo Hoo the wheels move about 3 degrees and then the diff locks up and the car is held on the handbrake. Wonderful a completed system!
No doubt it will need some further adjustment, and the bracket near the handbrake lever is a bit rusty so that’ll need some paint but for all intents and purposes the handbrake mechanism is done. . Oh it’ll need a return spring too, but these are just details.
S
o I bolt up all the Diff mounting bolts and make sure it’s in it’s final position, and nice and solid.
Before I can leave the diff and drive train I need to make a mounting bracket for the Digidash’s speedo sensor. The sensor works by sensing two magnets that are epoxied to a rotating part of the drive train, I elect to fix the magnets to the NS inner CV joint, as this will allow me to fit a mounting bracket to the NS chain tension adjustment plate. As the CV joint and mounting plate are effectively fixed together by the diff this should mean that I shouldn’t have to adjust the speedo sensor when I change the chain tension or alter the final drive ratio by opting for a different chain wheel. The sensor is a threaded nylon rod supported by two nylon nuts and fits an 12mm hole.

So I set about for some sparky fun with Mr Angle grinder and Mr MIG welder and a while later I had fabricated the the required bracket. Here you can see it positioned on the NS diff adjuster. I had to be careful with the positioning to ensure that there is enough room for the both the securing nut, and the sensor magnets between the bracket’s inner face and the CV joint.

I also had to make sure that the sensor will point correctly at the CV joint surface and be in the correct radial orientation.
So here’s a pic of the completed unit, the bracket is now trimmed and welded to the NS diff adjuster plate. The whole unit has been repainted and I’ll fit it to the car tomorrow. Once it’s on the car I can also epoxy the trigger magnets onto the CV Joint.

I actually found making this little bracket very satisfying…. at last I’m starting to actually “build” this car.

So now I turn my attention to coolant pipes. The old pipes had included some steel sections, these had corroded and I had removed them. I had also decided that all my coolant pipes were going to be aluminium just like on the original bike, that way the engine should be protected from corroded steel in the coolant.
So I set about cutting 32mm OD Ali pipe to run from the engine bay to the front of the car, it’s only when I come to start fitting it that I realise that the mounting P Clips I’ve bought for this purpose will not hold the pipe snugly and it will rattle around, despite the fact that I’ve bought 32mm P clips. Hmmm I need to think about this for a while.
While I’m pondering the coolant pipe runs I remember Tim Pell warning me to put air bleed points in all the coolant hoses as he had real problems bleeding the air from the system. What Tim has done on the MK2 Evo is to weld M6 nuts to his steel pipes, drill a hole in the centre and fit a blanking bolt. With aluminium pipes I don’t have this option (as you can’t weld steel nuts to aluminium) but I do have a TIG welder…. so time for some more sparky fun.

By the end of the afternoon I’ve fabricated a couple of Ali pipe runs for the front of the car. The pipes are made from 32mm OD tube for the main pipe and 18mm OD tube for the bleed reservoir. The end of the bleed reservoir is capped with some 4mm Ali plate, this I will drill and tap to take a blanking bolt to act as a bleed valve. The short section of narrow bore pipe will be positioned vertically above the main pipe run. It’s function is to act as a reservoir and catch any bubbles that are circulating with the coolant. Any bubbles should be moving along the roof of the main pipe and should therefore rise up and be caught by the reservoir, where they can be easily bled away.
I’m quite proud of the welding on these, TIG welding is hard, and TIG welding Ali is harder than a very hard thing. So by my standards these are very presentable, and have given me a lot of confidence that I can fabricate the more complex plumbing required in the engine bay. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the plumbing completed at the front and sides of the car.
Actually I think Citroen BXs are fitted with some nice brass bleed bolts, I might just have to use these in my quest to remove any steel from the system.
So there we are quite a successful day, now if only I had some brake callipers, and a dry sump system……….