Skoda Rally Blog

OK, the engine’s in, but there’s plenty more to do.  The first is something that has needed doing since the last time the car moved, and that’s replacement of the fuel lines.  They were new when the car was built in 2007, but they had degraded somewhat, and the fuel tank end had started leaking – hardly a good show.  So after looking at various other solutions I have decided to replace them with solid fuel lines instead of the braided hoses, with short (easily changed) lengths of braided hose at the engine bay and fuel tank ends for the connections to the standard fuel rail and pump.  The other option of replacing the whole lot with high-quality braided hose wasn’t an option as the PTFE liner wouldn’t work reliably with push-on (jubilee-clipped) fittings.

So, the first thing was ripping the old lines out, easy enough as I bolted them in place, and they run inside the car (for obvious reasons on a rally car).  But getting the new ones in….well, let’s just say there are some times that you do a job and then remember what a huge pain in the backside it was when you originally did it.  Trying to make a neat job of getting an inflexible pipe into the car is bad enough, but then getting it so that the end where the fuel tank is is in a good place to connect the hoses where there’s minimal room and very little access was best done with lunch in between one pipe and the second.  It’s not the neatest job on earth, but it is very solid, and the pipes will run to 120bar safely, 40x the fuel pump pressure.  So that’ll do.  Biggest bonus?  The braided pipes ‘sweat’ fuel, and the solid ones don’t, so there will no longer be the smell of petrol inside the car.

Then there were lots of things to reconnect.  And a decision to make about the inlet manifold.  Given that we will be doing Rally GB this year if I have anything whatsoever to do with it, and with that in mind, using the GpA-legal manifold is the way to go.  So with that in mind, the exhaust got bolted into place, and then the inlet manifold as well.  Which took an age as the studs needed either removing (in the case of 2), or the threads needed a die running down them, which involves removing the stud and then doing that on the bench, and putting it back.  Which takes a lot longer than just “put on manifold, do up bolts”.  And then the two studs that came out… had to go back in to hold the thermostat housing!  Then connecting various things up, putting the starter motor on, fitting the crank sensor and making a list of broken things to replace – all minor, but all of them need to be done.  And that was that, Sunday done; while it seems that the epidural may be finally having some positive effect, I’m certainly not out of the woods, and my body was saying it was time to stop.  So I did.  No more progress until Saturday, alas, as I have a full week of work, but it’s going in the right direction.  Slowly, but the right way.

There’s an old proverb about the longest journeys being started with a single step.  And at the moment, getting to do anything again seems like a very long way away, let alone getting the car done and ready for the Sunseeker, and getting me ready for the same.  But today a first step has been taken.  Kev came over around lunchtime to get the engine into the car.  First up a precautionary clutch change was done (revealing a lightened flywheel into the bargain), and then the front pulley needed to be changed for one with a toothed wheel welded to it, to allow the DTA management to run off it.  I took the one off the engine that had just come out and…. it’s the wrong size!  there are two sizes of crankshaft nose on the 136 engine, and this was the wrong one.  Fortunately, many moons ago, I didn’t know this and I’d had a different one made up which handily was the WRONG size until today.  So that error 18 months ago made things a piece of cake today.

Taking the engine out of the crate took a bit of effort as Ady had made a very sturdy job of the crate and the mountings, but once it was out, it was fairly simple to get the gearbox onto the engine (I say simple, it was for me as I was just rocking the crank back and forth, while Kev did all the hard work), and once it was bolted up, it was time to put it in.  We even managed to get it under the car on the “giant skateboard” I made years ago for such jobs, and getting it into place was really simple; obviously I’ve done this a few times and with a strong helper it’s a piece of cake.  The only trick is getting the exhaust to engage on the way up, but this was done and the engine was bolted in quickly enough.  Kev even put the gear linkage back on, and next it was time for the driveshafts.

Previously these have been tough because of the lack of the chamfer on the Gripper LSD, but greasing the circlips to keep them central (something I came up with after an hour of struggling before) had them in easily – long shaft at first attempt, short one at the second.  Hubs all bolted up, and that’s a good effort for today; I was supposed to be going to France for a snowboarding holiday this week, but that obviously hasn’t happened, so Paul is off there at the moment.  Kev needed to go as he, too, is off on a similar holiday tomorrow morning, so it was grand that he’d helped (OK, done!) all the heavy work needed to get the engine back in place.  Everything else is easy to do in a piecemeal fashion, and the most awkward job will be changing the fuel lines throughout the car due to the old ones failing.

There is a choice now – either try to get the Weber Alpha inlet setup sorted out, which will involve getting new parts and probably making up an airbox; this would be legal for the Sunseeker, but not for Rally GB, but give a LOT more power.  The MPi inlet setup is obviously legal for both, but won’t be as quick.  Either way, the engine will need to be mapped, which will take some time and cost money as well, so I have to weigh all these things up.  But that’s in the distant future (in terms of effort), although obviously not far away now as there isn’t much time left if I am going to enter the Sunseeker.  I’ll have to sleep on it.

Engine - in place!

Today, while I was at work, a box was delivered.

What's in the box?

But what could be in such a large, heavy box?

Oh, it's an engine!

Yes, of course.  It’s an engine.  Let’s just say that time is a little shorter than I’d like.  In fact, obviously, a lot shorter than I’d like.  Particularly given the medical issues, and the fact that the epidural I had on Wednesday doesn’t seem to have done much other than cost me a day’s wages. However, that aside, getting another engine rather than messing about for ages with the other one seemed the expedient thing to do, and one turned up; hopefully it’ll turn out to be a good’un, only time will tell!

Problem is that it needs to go into the car.  The jury’s out on when this will happen, due to various issues, so it could be that it will be too little, too late as aside from just putting the engine in, it would also need to be mapped, a few other things done on the car, and then getting it MOTd.  And time is very short.  So, we’ll see, but I’m guessing this could be yet another thing that I’ll be missing out on.

Those of you who know me (and indeed those who have read this blog for a while) will know that I’ve suffered with a dodgy back for years (about 20 years), since someone nearly broke my back in a fight.  Well, I say ‘fight’, he attacked me from behind (coward), and since then I’ve suffered nearly annually with back problems, despite having spent a lot of time doing exercises that I’ve been told to and so on.  However, this time has been different.  Usually after a couple of weeks of intense pain, and about 6 weeks overall, I’m back to normal.  However, 4 weeks in (this started in early October) I started to feel numb feet, and it turns out that this is a sign of a ‘slipped’ disc.  Not good.  And usually takes about 6-8 weeks before it heals.  However, as you can probably imagine, that hasn’t been how it’s gone.  The back pain has been constant every day, and the numbness has developed into pain.  Long story short, I’ve had an MRI scan, which has shown this:

My dodgy back.

The light grey line down the middle is my spinal cord, and you can see that near the bottom there’s a black bit sticking into it; that’s my disc, and the squeezing is why my feet feel funny and it hurts there.   I don’t want this to turn into some long medical thing, just an explanation of the lack of progress or activity recently.  I’m having an injection into it on Wednesday which should help, but the outcome is uncertain.  I’ve not been able to do much of anything since October 4th, which is getting very tedious, and I can’t sit down for any length of time.  Driving is the worst activity of all, so if the injection doesn’t help, I won’t be driving anyway.

But there has been progress!  A desperate plea on Facebook saw a reply from Kev Jackson, who has been round this morning with his friend Cassie and between them (with a bit of direction from me), the engine and gearbox are OUT of the car – more progress than has happened in 4 months.  I have bought a replacement engine for the car, and it’s being delivered some time this week, so with any luck in a couple of weeks’ time the car will have a new engine in place in it, and hopefully it’ll be done in time for the Sunseeker, and I will also be in a position to drive the damn thing.

It’s all very up in the air, and it seems a very remote possibility, but if there’s any way it’s humanly possible, I will be doing it in the Skoda; this episode has already been a bit of a nightmare meaning a withdrawn entry on the Exeter Trial (which eventually was cancelled anyway because of the snow), a miserable time at Christmas (as I can either lie down or stand up, nothing else really), and also missing out on a snowboarding holiday.  Hopefully the Sunseeker won’t be added to the list.

…. and unlike normal people I ask for money to go towards something for the rally car.  As you may know, for any International-status events from the beginning of 2009, it became compulsory to use a HANS device; if you’ve seen Formula 1 in the last few years you’ll have seen the drivers with these on, a thing that sits on their shoulders and stops the helmet and head from over-flexing the neck and damaging the skull in the case of a head-on accident.  An admirable safety device, but there are a couple of problems.

Firstly, the cost.  The original carbon fibre device is about £800.  The “cheap” device is still nearly £500, despite being injection moulded; due to the way the FIA works, there is no choice, and a captive market, so there is little chance of the device being made cheaply.  So that’s the first issue, although one that we hope to get around by hiring them if we do any more International events.

The second one is also cost-based.  While the inventors of the HANS device are happy for people to add the anchors to their own helmets (and it only involves drilling two holes; while the loads involved may be a lot for our necks, they are not for a mechanical device), the FIA do not allow this.  Which means buying a new helmet, having to replace a perfectly good one with a new one.  Once you see the price of HANS-equipped helmets, it becomes clear that for the extra money you’d need to spend, you may as well get the best, and get a Peltor HANS helmet, such as the G78 I bought back in September.  I’ve worn it twice; once at Rallyday and once while in Tony Hawkins’ Audi.

Peltor G78

This was £385, but it is a fantastic helmet.  I had to send the first one back (a size 60) to Peter Lloyd Rallying, and they changed it for a 62 by return (fantastic service as ever from PLR, while still being massively cheaper than places like Demon Tweeks), and it fits like a glove.   The problem was that this isn’t the end of the story; the intercom system used in this helmet is different to the low-spec OMP system that I have.  I was considering making up an adapter and using my intercom until I navigated in Tony’s car; the difference was night and day.  So, time to buy a Peltor amplifier.

Despite being a fairly simple device, these are not cheap.  The old model just had a single control on it for volume, but a new model (the FMT120) has just been released, and offers individual volume controls and a lovely LED.  Most importantly, it is well built and offers the same noise-free performance.  The downside?  It’s £170, even from Peter Lloyd.  So I bought one and asked for money for Christmas to go towards it.

Peltor FMT120 Intercom

Oh, but of course we’re not finished there.  Paul’s not in a position to splurge £400 on a new helmet at the moment, so instead I decided to convert his helmet to use a Peltor headset.  The downside is that is was £90 for the mic, earpieces and cabling.  The upside is that it was fairly easy to fit; obviously I can’t drill the helmet to suit the new intercom, so I’ve spent this morning making up a plate to mate the helmet and headset together.  The end result is this:

Peltor headset fitted neatly to OMP helmet

Are we done?

No.  Because of the placement in the car (in front of us instead of on the rollcage which is not reachable when strapped in), the cables need to be extended, and I don’t want to butcher my lovely new intercom.  Unlike everyone else’s intercoms, Peltor use military-spec connectors, made by a company called Nexus.  Who only sell in quantities of 500+!  On the upside, they have a European distributor who are a little more friendly to normal people.  Even more of an upside was that they were in Upton, about 6 miles from my house.  It got better – I phoned them, spoke to a helpful woman called Ellie who said they only had 2 in stock (a rarity), but actually went to check that they really did have them.  Half an hour later, I picked them up.  But of course, there’s a punchline, and anyone who’s bought anything that’s military spec will know what it is:

Nexus Plugs, for Peltor Intercom

Two of each of those cost me £33 in total!

So, all I need to do now is make up the cables, and a full £300 later I’ll have an intercom which will work…..

This week sees Rally GB, the final round of the WRC, and of course an event we dearly wanted to take part in, but it wasn’t to be.  However, now I’ve got over the disappointment of that and had time to reflect (and indeed study the rules more carefully!), I’m still thinking there is a long-term plan.  If anyone is reading this this year hoping we’d be entering Rally GB and hoping for another blog, then I’m sorry to disappoint you, but given that we had so many hits this year, I think there may be some who will read the blog this week as clearly for the 51 weeks between each Rally GB far fewer people read the blog!

So, right now is where I am starting the drive to enter Rally GB 2010; this may seem like a very long time away, but at least it’ll mean we should be prepared!

And where do you fit in?

If you’re a keen reader, then please bookmark us, and come back regularly.  Obviously we don’t have something to report all the time (this is a part-time effort by someone with a full-time job, and although it’s my hobby and I love it, I often have other things going on, and can’t afford to enter a rally every other week, much as I’d love to).

If, like me, you’re disappointed that this week we won’t be taking part in Rally GB, you can help! If you’ve read the blogs in previous years, or enjoyed seeing us on the stages, then please consider making a donation to the team for next year.  There is no fixed amount, if you read the blog you can donate whatever you think is appropriate, from £1 (which will pay for us to do around 1/20th of a mile on Rally GB) right up to, well, whatever you want!  The only thing we can say is that all money received will ONLY be used for Rally GB, and if we don’t enter in 2010, you’ll get your money back.

Secondly, if you have a business and would like to sponsor us, then you can do so; our entry is somewhat unusual (for obvious reasons), so generates a disproportionately large amount of publicity and public attention; sponsoring will achieve exposure to around 200,000 spectators over the course of the event.  See the “sponsorship” page for details of the different areas that are available on the car, and their cost.   If you are a private individual and want your message to get to rally fans, you can, of course, do that too!

Finally, car progress:

The car is actually ready to do an event, right now, aside from needing to be mapped (as the engine has a new head on it) – however, for several years I have had some rather tired Proflex suspension which I got as a part of a large “job lot” of Skoda parts (including a brand new bodyshell).  And this has been sent off to Proflex UK for an estimate for rebuilding; the rears look to only need a minor refurb, but the fronts are far sorrier, so they may well break the bank.  Time (and a letter from Proflex) will tell.

First up is that today this site and our exploits have finally made their way into the Bournemouth Echo – with a full-page write-up and some video on the Echo Website of SS3 of the Sunseeker (you can see the full video here), so if anyone who’s reading this is doing so as a result of reading the Echo, a big “Hello”, and please have a good look around.

Echo Article, Sep 26 2009

Secondly, I’ve made a huge amount of progress since Thursday.  Having asked around and done some research, it looks as if there was a problem with the head which led to the head gasket failure, including oil getting into the cylinders and leading to detonation (the fuel mixture spontaneously combusting before it should do).  This has led to me putting my “spare” head onto the car, which I handily had bought a set of brand new valves for, so an hour was spent grinding them in and getting the head built up.

'Spare' head, built and ready.

Next, putting the head onto the engine, although it couldn’t be easily fully tightened until the engine was in the car (much easier to do as the engine isn’t falling about on the garage floor that way).

The other problem was the gearbox.  Regular readers will know this is my least favourite part of the car, but as I’ve had to do it so many times recently, I’m actually getting reasonably good at it – splitting the cases is getting much quicker, and taking it apart showed that I’d made a mistake building it before – there is a gear which presses into place on the shaft which was loose, and it had moved, leading to an extra 1mm of clearance, explaining the huge amount of noise and also the oil loss as the shaft could move around.  Handily I’ve taken apart so many Skoda gearboxes that I had exactly the right shims to get this all sorted; I replaced the two bearings anyway (as I don’t fancy taking it apart in a hurry, and it’s ‘only’ another £20), and once it was all shimmed up correctly, it span like a dream.

However, like many things when you were a kid, putting it back together is much more difficult than taking it apart; this is partly because getting the gears in place is a bit of a juggling act; the gears have to be in the right gear, as does the casing, and even then it’s a bit of a knack.  Once they are in place, there’s reverse gear to go into place, and then the shaft that activates it, along with 5th gear.  Although I didn’t forget how it went back together, pictures were taken as I took it apart anyway, just in case…

Pointing to the bit that needed moving...

When all of that is in place, you can finally put the casing back on, and this used to be the most difficult bit, but now I have a knack of doing it, plus it’s much easier if you ask someone (OK, my Mum!) to hold a pair of cirlip pliers in place to allow the bearing to slide into place.  Once that’s there, it’s just time to put all the bolts back in place, and then finally 5th gear, which goes on the outside, and one more little casing.

What used to be a horror of a job was complete by 12:30.  And the sun was still out, without a cloud in the sky.

Next up, getting the engine and gearbox back together, which is much easier to do when it’s out of the car, and took about 2 minutes; the knack with this is to get someone to wiggle the crank of the engine while you push the gearbox into place, which allows the shaft to engage.  Easy.

And then, putting it back in the car.  Again, I’ve done this quite a few times recently, and it all went really smoothly; before lunch it was bolted in place.  Then there’s just a case of putting all the other things back in place – exhaust, inlet manifold, gear lever, driveshafts (one of which needed a new boot, taking another 15 minutes or so) – even these have become easy with the ‘greasing the circlip’ trick.  Water pipes all needed to go in place, and then time to do the head bolts up – they need to be done by an angle (90 degrees), and then the same again; crucial given the problems with the last head gasket, so this was done with great care.  Then adjusting the valve clearances (a tedious job involving a screwdriver, spanner and feeler gauges), and connecting everything up – fortunately I made the engine loom very neat, so it nearly falls into place.

While this didn’t take long to type (and admittedly I did take a break to watch the rather tedious F1 qualifying), it took a few hours to do, and by 5pm, it was all done – oil and water all filled up, and everything connected.

The moment of truth – would it work?

YES!  As soon as it had oil pressure I connected the coils up, and it fired instantly.  Sounded a bit lumpy, but then it’d just been fired up, and soon sounded fine, and didn’t smoke at all (unlike the other head).  No leaks, no mess, no fuss.  Checked the gearbox, and had all 5 gears plus reverse, and it sounded a lot quieter than before, so hopefully I’ve got that spot on this time.

This was a lot more progres than I expected – I was planning on only getting the two problems fixed and having the engine and box bolted in place, with nothing connected.  As it is, everything is done, and ready to go.  Obviously the mapping will need re-doing as the head is different, but that’s no problem really.

However, today is just 4 days before the closing of entries for Rally GB, and at present we will not be entering.  Obviously I’m more than a little disappointed by this, and typically it looks like we are more prepared than ever before, but given the problems we’ve had getting any kind of coverage for what we’re doing, combined with the current economic situation, I guess it’s not surprising.  The sad thing is that I’ve had a lot of interest from publicity-generating sources behind the scenes, and I really do think we’d get a lot of coverage this year if we were entering, but at present it’s a vanishingly small chance of that happening – we’d need another 170 people to sign up to make it financially viable to enter the rally and provide everything as promised for each sponsor – and this will still leave me footing a £2500 bill to do the event!   If you’re thinking about signing up and just haven’t done so, please do so – you have nothing to lose as if we don’t enter, you will get a full refund.  If you have already signed up, then thanks for your support, it’s hugely appreciated.

not with Eddie Mair, but Post Mortem, with me.

After Rallyday’s little issues, it was time to fix the car.  There were two things – firstly I was fairly sure the input shaft on the gearbox needed re-shimming (for whatever reason), and secondly… the rough running.  Last night I did a compression test and found that No.1 cylinder was only 6 bar, while the others were up around 13!  This explained the 3½ cylinder feel to the engine, but obviously didn’t make for comforting knowledge.  Still, it had to come out anyway to get the gearbox out, so I may as well get the head off, right?

I’m clearly in good practice at this at the moment, and in addition every nut and bolt is fresh, so it only took 2 hours to get the engine and gearbox out, split them, find out that the input shaft on the gearbox is indeed in need of being shimmed properly, AND get the head off the engine.  Not bad, really, on my own, but then it’s not the first time I’ve done this, is it?

So, the engine….. I had two ideas – either the shimming of the liners (the tubes the pistons run in) was wrong, or the head gasket had failed for another reason.  Once I got it off, I saw something I’ve not seen before – what looked like a burnt, crumpled gasket.  At the moment I have no idea why this has happened, particularly because it’s only happened on one side of the cylinder; I’m not sure if this is down to a mechanical fault (i.e. the combustion chamber shape), manufacturing (head gasket), assembly (i.e. me messing it up) or fuelling/ignition.  The upside is that the cylinder protrusions seem fine, and despite what I will only refer to as the “RallyDay water incident” the head is NOT warped, which is a massive relief.

Odd pattern on head from gasket

Crumply, burnt-looking gasket.

So, I’m currently with a car with no engine or box in it, both those in bits in the garage, and at present still needing more sponsorship to make Rally GB a reality.  Come what may, I’ll get the car running.  The rest is now out of my hands; hopefully this weekend should see some coverage in the Bournemouth Echo, but as to whether that makes the difference, only time will tell.  Oh, and money.

… if not for the ladies, then for RallyDay.  I’m off there on Saturday, and thought it’d be a good opportunity for a bit of shameless self-promotion.  So I ordered some stickers, and handily this afternoon got the afternoon off, and paid!  It must be a sign, so on went new mudflaps (the old ones were rather tatty), and the stickers.  So the car now looks like this:

Stickered Up!

And from behind, this is what you see:

From Behind

Just a few things to do before RallyDay, and then Sunday I’m navigating in a Quattro at Longcross!  Nice!

Alas I am back to work this week, so the work on the car can only happen in the evenings.  However, the upside is that (at present) the main work needed is to sort out the mapping, which doesn’t involve being under the car or anywhere else, it involves driving it and running it in.

The last drive resulted in a fair bit of data which with some more led to a few changes to the map table.  I put these into the ECU and then went for a 40 minute drive, taking care not to rev the engine too much and also not to apply too much throttle early on until the engine was thoroughly warmed up, and even then not using too much, just a few brief moments here and there.

Altogether, it went well – the engine feels OK, and although it’s not been over 4500 rpm for any length of time, it seems to go OK.  I can’t risk giving it too many revs or too much load for another few hundred miles, but I’ve gathered a fair bit of data and it shows that the mapping isn’t a million miles out for the areas that I have been using.  When I get back, I disconnect the LM-1, connect it to my old laptop (as it has a serial port, no new ones do), and then get this sort of thing out of it:

logging graph from a drive

This shows the RPM, throttle opening and air/fuel ratio, which are the three things needed to get the fuelling right on the engine.  Now, working out what is what from just a graph would be…. painful.  But thankfully the software can do analysis of all the points of data, and then present it in an easy-to-understand chart; some areas show more variation than others, and that’s to be expected as they are quite ‘wide’ rpm ranges (400rpm), so there is some averaging needed, but it’s way better than guesswork.  You get a table like this:

As you can see, I’ve been on full throttle, albeit briefly (there is another view that shows how many samples were taken – I was only on full throttle (and indeed anything above about 75%) for a few seconds.  These figures are mostly reasonable, but will need some fine tuning.  Once it’s run in I can use more revs and more throttle to get most of the rest of the map sorted; not all of it needs to be at the “maximum power” ratio; when you’re cruising on light throttle you can run a leaner mixture, saving quite a lot of fuel (especially as we will be spending a fair bit of time on motorways and A-roads).

All of this is good news, but it’ll still need some fine-tuning, which is now a fairly easy process as it really involves putting the current log and current map the logging software, turning a handle, and then a new map setting pops out – and again it’s a case of some deft Excel and Notepad++ work to get that back into the ECU without any chance of errors on my part!

On a slightly different note, my tickets arrived for Rallyday today, which is a week on Saturday – having the car ready for that is important as it’s the only “public appearance” I’ll be making before the closing date for Rally GB, so I want to try to get as many people as possible signed up on the day – I’m going to get the car stickered up and see what other promotional ideas I can come up with…