Steve's MK2 Sports Sedan

[SportsSedanSteve]

That's the one's. I was under the impression they were just a smaller hole, not completely blocked.

[Danny M]

Steve with a YB head they need to be totally blocked

[SportsSedanSteve]

Going for a final clean, fit the restrictors, fit the real head gasket and button up on Saturday.
On the side I have re-jigged the fuel tank with some new fittings including a roll-over breather and a new setup for re-fuelling. I can now re-fuel through a -6 fitting on the side of the car using a drum pump rigged with matching fittings, Many thanks to Outlaw Speed Shop in Blair Athol for sorting it all out for me, really excellent sevice.

[SportsSedanSteve]

Sunday morning ponderings.....

Engines are different critters. The original block without the spark plugs fitted was quite "firm"...read tight, to turn over by hand with a 3/4 socket and breaker bar at the front pulley. Now I don't know for sure if that was because of close tolerances in the crank, ring tension on the cast pistons or something to do with the hydraulic followers.....I dunno, it was what it was. What I do know is the flexi-drive adaptor I made to spin up and prime the oil pump pre-starting did the job and could sustain 30-40 psi on the gauge.
Having said that, the new block, with or without the head fitted, is very easy to turn by hand to the point it's simpler to hold the pulley and turn than get the socket and bar. So I filled the oil and primed the oil pump and when it primed the flexi drive couldn't do the deal, end of story. I modified the tool, removing the flexi, and used an old allen key banged into the 1/4 drive socket and the drill chuck gripping on that. That worked ok until the the pressure came up and the allen key pretty much stripped.
Realising that the jobs done, oil pumps primed, has anyone experienced that kind of resistance with this step in the process. I accept that two galley feeds are blocked off, it's a genuine high volume pump(cast iron job) and the oil's cold!

Maybe I just answered my own question....I do that, one of the first signs of insanity.

[SportsSedanSteve]

Moving right along, also discovered the hard way that standard Aussie starter motors will not fit up to the RS2000 alloy sump. Had to trim off a little bit of the casting near the lower bolt hole but the main body of the starter motor still fouls on the side of the sump by at least 5mm. Simple solution was get a gear reduction starter ex Melbourne....$385 + freight. I believe there are rare as rocking horse @#$% small body starter motors around but asking around the right people in Adelaide came up nix. Mike Dale has offered an English gear reduction job to try on so will see how that goes Monday.

[SportsSedanSteve]

While I'm thinking about it, with the Quaife top cover on the gearbox, does anyone no for sure what the thread for the breather fitting is? I make it 3/8" BSP but it could be NPT or Metric. It measures just under 15mm with the verniers.

[Danny M]

Yeah the top cover is definitely BSP which is a pain in the arse to get decent fittings for and the pommie gear reduction starters are good but they're only 1.3-16kw where as the Castlemaine guys can supply a 1.9kw

[SportsSedanSteve]

Plenty of options for the breather really. I would expect a 1/8 fitting or maybe 1/4 would breathe enough. Have to see the gearbox in back in the car before I choose a remote or breather directly on the cover. Either way can convert the bsp back to NPT or drill out and re-tap.
The guy at Castlemaine was more than helpful and said by all means look around. They can make them up and freight them in 3-4 working days depending on how much freight charge you wanna pay. Not sure if Mike's one will fit or what the KW are as yet. The old starter motor was a 0.9HP(0.67KW) and it used to start fine. I know it was working hard as the battery would lose it's oomph fairly quick. So any advance over that should be fine I hope.

[SportsSedanSteve]

Engine and gearbox back in the car after 3 years, 3months and 6 days. Busy weekend ahead getting it ready to fire up.

[SportsSedanSteve]

Very productive weekend but still a ways from firing up. Thought I would tidy up the wiring before fitting the carbs up. Speaking of which, what's everyone's thoughts on air filters and twin carbs. I can go plain trumpets, trumpets with a Pipercross backing plate and foam filter, or Pipercross PX600 airbox and cone filter(either with cold air intake or not) I like plain trumpets, no fuss, no extra weight. However Collingrove can be really dusty and the cars bodywork acts as a funnel for dust. I'm a bit confused about what's good or bad when it comes to putting air filters over trumpets. I have limited space at No 1 although I can enlarge it with a lot of messing around. At least I dont have to worry about inner guards as such.

What's the best approach here?

[Danny M]

The Pipercross filters flow well but as a filter there a bit ordinary as mine always has crap on the backs of the throttle blades
If you're not restricted by room like I am I'd fit a large 100mm K&N filter with the grey plastic plates. Flow great with the flow bench not even knowing it's there and inlet tracks and bores were always clean.
As far as running straight trumpets don't be crazy if you can fit a cleaner

[SportsSedanSteve]

Is this the one you meant:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/K-N-Air-Filt ... 565931994c

Looks as though you cut your own holes to mount the carbs?

[Danny M]

That ones even better grab it!

[Danny M]

Get them to send you extra clips

[Scott Morton]

thats a great bit of kit.....never knew that was available from K & N

thanks guys will keep that in the memory banks when replacing the current k & N's

[SportsSedanSteve]

I think I will hand it over to an expert if the backing plate is carbon fibre. I believe it's not that different to fibreglass but at $300 there's no room for errors.

Does look the goods as far as airflow goes. Having the filter panel in front of the trumpets as well is a neat touch.

[Danny M]

If I could I'd be using that instead of the Pipercross junk I'm using

[SportsSedanSteve]

When mine gets here what say I pull it down to bits(if possible), make a mould and make you up a custom carbon fibre job that will suit your engine bay. Shouldn't be too tough for a couple of smart blokes to nut out. I have access to the the CF materials the only hurdle I see is getting the pleated cotton panels right for the smaller box?

[Danny M]

It can't be made to fit mine with out cutting the bodywork which I'm not allowed to do

[gen mk 1rs2000]