keltik

16 hours ago, MRWEST said:

should really get myself to one of these given im only 40 mins north of tauranga haha. busy this weekend with work do but will try for the new year.

I'll come when you do.

Double dutch rudder styles 

5 minutes ago, cletus said:

What sort of car?

 

If it's just making a top mount to bolt in a strut that's the same sort of configuration , should be straight forward 

If I was to swap the jag to S-Type coilover shocks.  Changing from air struts to coil spring. The knuckle end of the shock is the same but pcd on the top hat is different.

Today's run up the Tarawera river was rather boring. Lots of reeds, floating debris, overhanging trees full of spiders and one big angry weir that was a bit too grunty for me to attempt.

Managed to block the grate, lose steering going downstream and slam the back of the boat sideways into a stump.

The steering cable pulleys mount right behind that dent so for the rest of the trip - the boat handled like a fucked old tractor as the cables went loose.

Dunked the boat in at Matahina on the way home to wash the mud and salt out of it.  Showed the misses the lovely waterfall that's appeared.

Oil temps got up to 120 with a thrashing but would cool off much quicker than before.  Good enough.  That will do.  I'm not changing it.  I'm also not fixing that dent.

Test run this morning gave some good data. At 3600rpm cruise, oil temp rose to a steady 120c.  I originally placed the cooler on the manual temp control line so it only saw a medium amount of water flow at whatever temperature the engine block was at.  This wasn't ideal.

I did another run with the manual temp control valve wide open so the oil cooler would see max water flow with a lower water inlet temp.  The engine chilled down to 30c and the oil temp settled at 95c.  So its clear I would need the oil cooler getting its water from somewhere else.

Moved the cooler in line with one of the exhaust manifold cooling feeds.  So now it gets feed water straight from the jet pump and sends its outlet into the drivers side exhaust manifold which has enough flow it shouldn't mind being fed warmer water.

Final test will be a JBNZ run up the Tarawera river tomorrow.

I did also find a new water leak from where the battery box plywood base rubs against the hull - its worn through the steel.  The bottom is also looking very second hand so there's only 2 years left before it falls to bits I reckon.

Had everything set for my oil cooler. A long ass M18 bolt with the hex parted off. A 12mm hole bored down the center and a nut lathed down to half width, Subaru oil cooler with a new seal.

Began assembly and hit the first snag...I never measured the diameter of the sealing surface on the block side of the Subaru oil cooler housing.  I just assumed it would be the same as the filter side... It isn't.

So the inner recess is where the seal should sit and the outer protruding bit is the diameter of the oil filter housing sealing surface on the Holden block.

Couldn't think of a better solution than to cut a new gasket to fit over the raised section and see if it will work.

Bit of sealer on the jointing paper, fingers crossed and bolt it together eyeballing everything concentric.

Fired it up, no leaks so far and about a 10psi drop across the cooler with thick cold oil.  Im no fluid dynamicist but my intuition says this pressure drop will reduce with thinner hot oil?  But then the flow rate would be increased through the bearings so I really don't know.

Going to take it for a blast and see what happens.  I would've been happier if the cooler fitted properly... But I'm also going to be happier if the oil temperaturev needle stays on the gauge.

13 minutes ago, GARDRB said:

A couple of Prius engines would fetch a premium 10 days out from OS Drags

Worthless without the Dave and wreckers never include that

Got a small oil cooler off a Subaru and all the gaskets to fit it. Should be able to put that together tomorrow.

Tonight's job was to verify my oil pressure issue.  The last couple trips I've been seeing 100+psi cold and 80 hot.... Which seems excessive, especially with my high oil temps.  Oil temp bottom left, water temp bottom right and pressure top right:

Grabbed a pressure gauge from work, replaced the factory pressure switch and took some readings:

Meanwhile the dash gauge was showing 85.  So I put another mechanical gauge in the same port the oil pressure sender was in:

That seems rather conclusive.  Gave it some big revs but still only saw a max of 75psi on the mechanical gauges.

So hopefully tomorrow night I can install the oil cooler then see what difference it makes on Sundays river run.

Custom strut top mounts for a vehicle with double wishbone suspension - how hard to get that certified?

Life in a new age indeed 

2 hours ago, VitesseEFI said:

Struts not rebuildable? I mean I’m sure they’re not intended to be but maybe can be done?

Nick

All the gubbins is glued and bead rolled / crimped together like a coke can.  There is a crowd who do rebuilt ones for $1500 each but their reputation is shithouse in the Jag community - lots of early failures and dead ones out of the box.

Pulled the valve block and reservoir this morning.  It sits under the spare tyre in a little foam igloo so it's pretty easy to get at.

Of course everything was dry, free from corrosion and looked fine.  I put some pressure into each port and nothing leaked noticeably.

So I had another go at a ride height calibration.... Which failed as usual. Unable to complete the air up procedure.  The car looked pretty level to me!  Used the scan tool to get it to air all the struts to maximum height and then I found it.

At normal ride height, it doesn't leak.  But as soon as you get any droop on that corner - whoosh.  The system doesn't have a ride height sensor on the driver's front, it just uses the passenger side and looks at the pressure difference between them.

Anyways, its decision time.  The passengers front strut started leaking a few months ago so I threw in a second hand one which ended up having a good air section but the shock is mega soggy.  Do I;

A) Replace both front air struts with new Jaguar/Bilstein ones.  Everything will work, probably won't get change from $4k.

B ) Replace both fronts with Arnott ones, they delete the active damping (which I quite like). Closer to $2.5k.

C) Convert to Jaguar S-Type R coilover struts. Maybe $3k with some modified or custom front strut tops....assuming I can still find the parts 

D) Use the Arnott Eibach coilover conversion kit. Worse ride, no adjustable height or damping, higher ride height than I'd like. It's the simplest conversion to do where everything will bolt in and play nicely. Probably $2.5k

E) Roll the dice on a pair of second hand struts and see how far they go.

Most people online seem to think the adaptive damping isnt worth saving but I think they've never driven the car in a way to make it work - its pretty noticeable when you start throwing the steering wheel around.

More diagnosing and I was pretty sure the exhaust valve or compressor was the fault.

Managed to remove the compressor in half hour, easier than expected.

Dismantled it on the bench and found absolutely nothing wrong with any of it.  Piston rings looked good, the exhaust valve assembly was clean with the right resistance on the solenoid. All the check valves work.

Stuck it all back together and commanded all struts and the reservoir to air down. Starting from there, it pumped everything up to pressure in a normal amount of time.  About 3 minutes to get the car leveled and fill the reservoir to 200psi. 

Watched the live ecu data as it was doing it's thing and everything appeared to make sense.

Then it threw the suspension fault light again. So now I have absolutely no fucking clue what could be wrong.

Tomorrow I'll try recalibrate the ride height sensors and have a play with the valve block.

Done some diagnosing today. I'm putting my money on either the compressor exhaust valve sticking or the main valve block.

All ride height sensors read normal and the only pressure sensor is showing sensible numbers.  Couldn't find any air leaks.

The only way for air to leave the system is through the exhaust valve at the compressor. If it sticks open, the compressor can't air up the reservoir tank and whenever a strut valve is open, the ride height decreases as the air goes out the open exhaust valve - even with the reservoir valve open. So the system gets confused, throws a plausibility error and shuts everything down.

Looking at the live pressure data while driving, this all seems to add up. Next problem is the exhaust valve is part of the compressor assembly. So I might spring for a new one.

Hmmm "air suspension fault" on the dash, all shocks on full hard and no ride height corrections happening.

"Leveling plausibility error" isn't very descriptive but usually seems to mean an air leak between the compressor and reservoir or a tired compressor.  Couldn't see any leaks at the reservoir or valve block so time to remove the front guard liner and have a look at the compressor, if I can't see any leaks I'll throw a piston seal kit at it.

And will continue to ignore the cat efficiency faults

And here's where I'll list the problems I'm currently trying to solve.

1) Depth sounder and speed log don't work.  Tempted to bin them both and install a fishfinder chartplotter combo.

2) The previous owner has been a little liberal with his painting so I need to figure out the best way to remove epoxy paint from stainless steel hardware.

3) The trailer leaf spring rocker can rotate too far as the mounting bracket used isn't right for it. This causes the rear leaf spring to fall out of the slipper at high amounts of articulation like when going into my driveway 

4) The tyres are perished to hell and the rims ain't looking very roadworthy.  So I'm tossing up whether to swap hubs and convert to 4x100 which I have lots of spare wheels for (and all my other trailers use) or do I just buy new tires and rims to suit the 5x4-1/2 pcd.

5) The outboard gear case is leaking oil through the propshaft seal.  Should be an easy fix... But the tilt mechanism is seized solid and looks like it's going to be a mission to free it up. 

6) The on board electrics are shit, need some deep cycle batteries and a small solar charging setup.  Not sure about how to properly vent the batteries when they will be under the seats in the cabin.

Wouldn't the smaller valves do less damage to your piston? 

Would anyone like to purchase my accommodations with j5 in gizzy and te araroa? I think I just sold my last motorcycle

That's a tiida?

Edit: and a BM Mazda 3 and a BL Mazda 3 and a Prius and a Corolla hatch.  Genius idea for a who wants to be a millionaire gameshow - how many shitboxes can you name from obscure angles

2 hours ago, Vintage Grumble said:

Have you tried yet? I'm too scared. I'm 99% sure they are going to be fucking horrible.

I haven't. I'd rather be unpleasantly surprised on the day

If the Bergman is a complete cunt on the gravel, I might join you.

I'm almost certain I've seen a kid named beams

1 hour ago, GARDRB said:

Manual?? Just ask @Roman I have a couple of these on my watchlist for nefarious reasons

If it was manual, it wouldn't have front tires for long.  Shame it's not great on fuel or I'd daily it.

Can I join in? GHFWII