My new project R26

I think some are drinking and then going out for a drive, as the standard of driving has gone down hill so much in the last year

 

Update

A day at EFI yesterday and the results are in

So a
265 turbo (110k miles)
250 injectors
Mk3 fuel rail
DW65c fuel pump
5bar pressure relief valve
Decat pipe

 

Very happy with this

My R26 result by Ian Austin, on Flickr

 

It feels very quick, dare i say it feels as quick as my 265 was, that was also at EFI and made 400hp and i think it was 486ftlb of torque

At Castle Combe on the 10th April to give it a good test, the 265 is also going

 

I ran up from Plymouth to EFI without a problem, swapped over the injectors while wanting for the 265 to get tweaked, replaced the "O" ring on the fuel rail PRV and the connected the pipe from the manifold to the FPR valve, ran a bit strange but Chris had a play with the ecu map before putting it on the rollers.

Well to be honest there was a guy waiting to just have a power run on a Golf GTi, apparently it had a map on it, was so bad, only made 230hp, sounded so dull under load, know wonder there so slow on track
.

 

70mm Airtec
same as the one on the 265 and that is running 400hp now and now heat issues.

 

Castle Combe today and no track miles in the R26

The clutch slave cylinder decided to die last night when i was on the way to the chippy.
Came off of a roundabout went to change gear and the peddle just hit the floor.
This morning checked the clutch/brake fluid and it was down, topped it up and got some sort of peddle, started the engine and it went straight to the floor again, loads of fluid on the floor.

Managed to get out of the hotel carpark by putting it in first and pushing the start button.
Changing gear without using the clutch i got the the track okay.

Had a great day, took my old 265 out for a good couple of sessions and a mates Toyota GT86 turbo, quite surprised how well it went.

So time to leave, got out of the track and to the motorway without to much fuss and the managed to drive the 130 miles home, well to the workshop.

So preparing to pull the engine out tomorrow and fit the new smf and R26r clutch.

Going to have to crack on as i have Bedford on the 22nd

 

Sure its the metal one, its a Helix clutch, was in the car when i bought it, knew it was on the way out, the plate had less than half a millimetre of useable material left.
.
Bought a SMF kit from a guy i know, brand new he bought it for his Espace but it wouldn't fit apparently.

He sent it, but forgot to include the slave cylinder, took 5 weeks for it to turn up, but in the mean time i refitted the Helix setup so i could drive and run the car in and also get it mapped.

 

Was quite busy around Bristol on the motorway, but once i got it into 6th it was fine till i got to Plymouth but by that time it was quite quite.

 

Put it into 1st handbrake off, clutch peddle down and push the start button, okay on the flat, better if its down hill, up hill is a hope and pray

 

ohhhh i had a real blast in it , the guy that owns it won't sit in the passenger seat, so he doesn't know how hard it was driven

 

Well the engine is out again, was just going to pull the gearbox out but half way through the job the decision was made, so much easier to do it sat on the floor.

Found a slight oil leak on the turbo oil return so that has now been sorted.

Just got to get it all back together by the 20th as i'm at Bedford on the 22nd and Combe on the 23rd going to be one hell of a shake down

 

I like an easy life, getting the engine out on the floor makes it so much easier to work on.

After trying to get the gearbox out with all the cabling and pipework stuffed in and around the gearbox, it was really a no brainer, also gave me access to the whole engine to find other bits that needed sorting

I did just your gearbox, at the time i thought it would have been easier to pull the whole lot

 

Well its back together and up and running

Just need to sort the rear suspension height, fitted the suspension straight out of the box, ass end is too low 545mm and the front is too high 565mm, lowered the front while its accessible with the wheels etc off, just need to get on the rear now

 

Update

Well i thought i got the clutch problem sorted in time for the double trackday jaunt, fitted a paddle clutch kit complete with smf, didn't take it for a test drive after, (why would you), well on the way to Bedford the clutch started slipping

Mainly in 6th, but then got worse till in the end it would start slipping in second when getting a move on.

took it out for the sighting laps, seemed okay till i tried to pull hard out of a corner.

The peddle was always lower than the brake peddle, but was told it had a different master cylinder due to the Helix clutch.

So had a quick look under and could lift the peddle up, but it sprung back down again.
Decided to give it another go but on the open track, had a go at lifting the peddle up after a gear change and low and behold no slipping, changed gear and didn't lift the peddle and it slipped, tried again lifting the peddle, well thats the way around the problem.

Came back in and had another look at the peddle and master cylinder, closely looking at the spring it looks cocked eyed, pulled it out and found this.

R26 clutch sprong by Ian Austin, on Flickr

 

Tried to repair it by using a tie wrap but i couldn't get it back in, i tried and tried, so left it out and it worked perfectly.

Carried on for the rest of the days without any issues at all with slipping.

At the end of the day drove down to Castle Combe all still great, was fine all day at combe.

I think this is what took out the slave cylinder 2 weeks before, the Helix clutch was really heavy and that was slipping a bit, so there must have been a lot of pressure on the slave and it gave up.

Had a issue with it misfiring late in the afternoon, plugged in my icarsort unit and cleared the fault, did another load of laps all good.

there was a RED flag late in the afternoon didn't think i would end getting back out, so packed up the car.

Drove about 5 miles home and the misfire came back, had to drive another few miles to find somewhere to park and have a look.
Tried to clear the fault but it wouldn't, replaced a couple of coils and the crankshaft sensor still couldn't get it to run on all 4.

So at 19.36 i phoned the recovery company, they turned up at 21.00, the driver took me to Strenshem services and said that another truck would collect me and take me all the way home.

Nobody had arrived by 23.30, so gave the company a call again, the truck arrived at Midnight i got home at 3am

 

Leaving it as it is, it's working fine

 

So yesterday and tonight i have been trying to find the problem, Fault is no spark on number 2 and 3 cylinders.

It has power from the fuse box, the wire buzz out fine, but just in case they have rubbed through or something

this is how it looks at the moment, no broken or damaged wires

Engine loom by Ian Austin, on Flickr

 

I'm not getting into bowls yet, i have more patience with this stuff than say the wife's kids or the wife

 

Sure i can get it sorted

 

Split the loom to see if there was a break or if it had rubbed through somewhere, the wire concerned had no issues, but cut it out anyway and replaced it with another wire and it's still the same

 

It's an electrical issue, no spark on number 2 and 3, fuel isn't a problem, its stinking at the exhaust with fuel.

I'm thinking its a ECU fault, the injectors are in series, there is power from fuse box to the injectors, but i'm thinking it's not switching in the ecu.