More on engine

Wednesday evening was spent chaufeurring Phil from ExtraEfi around the local roads with the laptop connected to the Megasquirt. After a good few hours driving at various speeds and loads with a few ECU tweaks along the way, the engine now sounds and revs miles better and the car now pulls like a train. I feel like a kid with a new toy again!

One minor annoyance is the rear suspension which, reading up on the subject on the LCB forums, is a fairly common occurrence on Indys and comes from the polybushes. I've raised the rear of the car this evening and have removed, cleaned up and lubed the bushes on one side of the car. I originally used copper slip for the crush tube/bush fittings but have now changed this for some Castrol red rubber grease. I should have the other side finished tomorrow.

I've been in contact with Darren from Pistonheads East Anglia to be kept up to date with regional meet ups and run outs. I've also added some of the Pistonheads livery to the Indy :)

Currently keeping an eye on the weather reports for Newark in anticipation for taking the drive over to the kit car show this sunday....

Engine issue solved

Some lambda sensor friendly sealant has been sandwiched either side of the exhaust manifold gasket to cure an air leak. However, this didn't improve the pops and bangs through the exhaust.

With the engine idling, I sprayed some WD40 along the inlet manifold gasket area and the rpms rose briefly. Suggesting an air leak on the inlet manifold, I used some more sealant to cure the leak. Unfortunately, this didn't solve the problem either!
A compression test was carried out on the engine with all cylinders giving a reading close to 200psi.

Using a vaccum balancer on the inlet trumpets, the throttle body on cylinder four was drawing in far too much air and any attempts to adjust made little difference. Looking at this particular TB more closely, the source of the issue finally revealed itself as a bent butterfly.

As shown in the image below, both bolts should be parallel. How it got bent, I've no idea! Fortunately, I had a spare TB and this was swapped over. With the spare fitted, the TB on cylinder four balanced up in line with the other three.


I've also started looking at the polybush and crush tubes to try and eliminate the creaking suspension. So far, I've had the near side front apart and lubed the faces with some red rubber grease. With the car raised and the shock removed, this seems to have cured this particular corner of the car. I'm planning to do the other three corners before the weekend.

Hoping for good weather over the weekend so I can take the car to the Newark Kit Car Show.