dewismotorsport's Astra coupe

[dewismotorsport]

Brands hatch indy circuit was up next, qualified P2 1st in class, had a terrible start and ended up finishing 4th in race 1 then race 2 similar to race 1 but ended up not being able to shift gears and stuck in 3rd gear, which meant me bouncing it off the limiter for main straight.

Race 1

Race 2

 

[dewismotorsport]

Post Brands hatch maintenance, when removing the wheels and inner arch liner I found about 1kg of rubber hiding inside.



Ordered a CAE shifter as I'm sick of having issues with cables or gearstick. Went for the black anodised with white knob as it suits the interior better than the silver.
Modified the selector on the box and re made the turret so it sat higher next to the wheel how I like it.





Next Race was Donigton, new shifter was awesome, very precise shifts and a loverly short throw.



Qualify was going well until it wasn't as I developed a misfire and running on 3 cylinders, brought it in and started pulling plugs out and found this


New plugs in and it ran fine in the pits, but on the green flag warm up lap it started misfiring again so decided to start from the pits as didn't fancy a issue at the front of the grid with lots of cars behind me.

Managed about a lap and it spat all its oil out the oil catch tank breather and onto the exhaust and tyres causing me to spin out.


Did a compression test and it was low.


Back at the workshop and stripped down and it was properly dead, cracked ring lands and detonated to the death

 

[dewismotorsport]

Over the past few years I've been stock piling engine parts for the new 2.0 litre engine build.

I'll be using a Z20NET/B207R block, sump, crank and head.
New diamond pistons, eagle rods, race bearings, balanced crank and flywheel, new oil squirters, gaskets, ARP head studs, a ATI super damper, Comp cams stage 2 blower cams, 860cc injectors.





The reason to down size to a 2.0 from a 2.2 is better rod ratio and the ability to be able to rev the engine harder, old rev limit was 7800rpm where as the new limit will be 8500rpm, this is down to the rod size, below on the left is 2.2 rod and the right is a 2.0 rod, the 2.0 has a 3mm larger small end.

 

[dewismotorsport]

Started up by measuring all the rods, pistons, pin's and matching them to closest weight before fine tuning them reducing weight until they all matched within 0.01g.

 

[dewismotorsport]

Engine all built up

 

[dewismotorsport]

Smoke tested the rocker cover so that I could work out where the crank breathed from and where the head breathed, blanked off the standard breather tube and welded two AN12 fittings.







Made some blanks for the original turbo oil return feed and supercharger map sensor.




Decided to add some weld some strengthening tabs onto the inlet to help prevent seams cracking.


Engine all assembled and rocker painted.




With the engine out I decided to finally get round to thinning out the main engine bay loom, deleted everything non essential and the ABS pump.



What I got rid of

 

[dewismotorsport]

Made a start tidying the bay up and repainting bits, removed all the old brake and clutch lines.
Finished off tidying the bay loom up, loads of wires were shortened and others lengthened to make it look as neat as possible.






Blanked off all the holes in the bulk head and in the brake servo plate, quick paint as well.




Removed the brake and clutch pedal so had to make some brackets to hold up the window de mister as it used to be bolted to the clutch and brake pedals.



Treated the car to a Tilton 600 pedal box as I never really liked the brake feel of the servo assisted pedal by the end of the races.
Had to cut the floor to allow me to move it as far back as possible, made a plate out of 3mm steel and welded some captive nuts on.
Modified the standard astra accelerator pedal to allow it to sit upright, cut and shut the bar so it sits level with the brake and clutch pedals.

 

[dewismotorsport]

Started making new brake lines and plumbing in the new hydraulic handbrake which will be handy for race starts.






Made a foot plate and covered it in skateboard grip tape



The handbrake had a bit of play in it which I wasn't happy about, you can see in the first picture the pin is loose in the hole so I turned down some bronze to make a bush to eliminate that.
Also wasn't happy with the angle of the upright as it didn't sit vertical like the gearstick so modified that.




Got a nylon bush for the gear selector as I'd upgraded everything else.


Ground back the lip on the old AC opening and welded up the hole I made for cold air feed to the cabin.



Huge thanks to my sponsor Hel for supplying me new brake and clutch lines.


Got the engine off the stand and got the clutch on


Got the ATI damper out and made a new timing ring to suit the holes on the damper, then pressed it on and set up the mount for the crank sensor and gapped it to 1mm.

 

[dewismotorsport]

Got the new engine in the car and started making new breather lines and modified the catch tank to add the gearbox its own tank.




Had to grind down the bracket for the crank sensor as its very tight to the chassis leg, next time the engine is out I will recess the chassis leg to give it a bit more space.


Got the front brake lines all plumbed in



Modified the coolant pipes to take AN fittings and made some new lines



I'd been pushing hard to get the car finished before xmas 2022 as I was due to be on the AFRC stand at the Autosport show at the NEC this was how it looked 2 days before


Had a thicker 4mm trigger wheel made so it sat better between the sensor


Filled her up with some running in oil


Got everything finshed and started the car for the first time the night before the show

 

[dewismotorsport]

Boxed up and weighed all the metal work, abs pump, wiring and handbrake cables, amazing how much weight it adds up to, I'm yet to weigh the car again to see if I've offset what I've put in





Did some service jobs, fitted new rear discs and fitted a Bosch 200 pump to replace the old 044



Fitted a new radiator, can see I've chopped all the un needed tabs off



Treated the workshop to a quick jack lift as I'm sick of jacking it up onto axle stands


New harness as the old one had gone out of race date



I've also upgraded the ecu to the pro version of the OBD tuner which allows a load of extra options for the future.

 

[dewismotorsport]

Treated the car to a 3rd generation BTCC lattice rear beam, kit included billet alloy knuckles that accept a standard hub, also comes with various mounts which effect dive under braking, I just need to get some mounting adapters made and I'll attempt to fit this, I will need different rear suspension and re make the exhaust so its not a quick job.
Did some research and found out that lotus Elise S2 front brakes are the same AP calliper the btcc cars ran and obviously a fraction of the cost. orders some new pins, clips and yellow stuff rear pads. I need to make some rear bells and try and buy the AP discs if they still make them.








Finally got chance to get on the test track to do some mapping and run the car in, all went well apart from the middle silencer has died making it stupidly loud so will have to sort that before I can drive it again.