Skoda Rally Blog

With a rather long layoff since Rally GB, it’s time to get going on getting the car ready for Rallye Sunseeker, and that meant getting the rear suspension fixed.  This has actually been at Proflex since the beginning of December, but a busy workload and the Christmas holidays meant I didn’t get them back until Friday.  However, they needed more than just a new hose and a rebuild; the damage on Rally GB meant the bottom of one of the rear units meant that it needed to be replaced (the threads had stripped), so when I was told this I was expecting a huge bill, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this housing only cost £64, so the total was a very reasonable £225 or so, and I got them back next day.  Needless to say, Proflex UK’s work has been excellent once more, and it’s really fantastic to find such a good product (i.e. Proflex) with such excellent service and support; I have heard that some other makes of rally suspension cost a massive amount to be serviced.  I’ve not been able to get them on the car this weekend, but they will be going back on next weekend, so in the meantime, here’s a picture of some lovely suspension!

Lovely Proflex.

Yesterday I was navigating for Tony in his 205 on the Tempest, and usually I’d have made a full entry on it, but I have been way too busy, so that will happen another day. However, today was all about getting the last things done on the car and equipment to get everything ready to go to Wales tomorrow.

First up, some mapping – while the full power/throttle mapping was all done, the last-minute change of fuel pressure amplified a problem that was already there – there were a few “holes” in the fuelling, where the car would run really lean, and one of them was at light throttle and about 2-3000rpm, meaning it was difficult (if not impossible) to pull away “nicely”. While this won’t be a problem on the stages, it will on the road sections, and pulling away from controls, etc., so it was time to sort that out. Running with the laptop (rather than logging and remapping from that) pinpointed the areas that needed adjustment, and 4 sets of changes saw the problems largely eradicated – not perfect (with slightly lean or slightly rich in places), but driveable, and a relief that the car started up so cleanly from cold. Took over an hour to sort this out though.

Next up, collecting the van (thanks again Mark), getting a few supplies, and then buying some new mains extension leads. H&S is apparently going to be stricly enforced courtesy of Cardiff Council, and I needed therefore to replace my perfectly good mains leads (which I don’t have PAT test certificates for, and couldn’t arrange at short notice, funnily enough), which will then be OK. I now have new lights and mains leads; I don’t have the money for a generator or mains hookup, so there is no welding or grinding option – I hope I don’t need it!

Then, sorting out a couple of things for the car – the fuel pipes (which are solid metal, and have a SWP of over 2000psi) apparently need to be protected, so they have been plastic covered. In addition, the FIA rules say they should be grounded to the car body (which makes sense), so I’ve done that. I’ve also removed the camera box as a) we’re not running one this year b) it’s a pain as it bangs on the helmets and c) even if we were running a camera I have the nice little GoPro camera now. So, that’s out the way, along with a LOT of wiring for it. Much tidier.

Next, removal of stickers and goo – thankfully Mum did this, saving me a fair bit of effort!

Then, removing all the “mapping” electronics – LM-1 and LMA-3 logging units and the ECU control box/wiring. They have been in the car for a LONG time – in fact I had a bit of a “Ripley” moment (where she says to the Alien ‘You’ve been in my life so long I can’t remember anything else’) when I took it all out. I was a bit worried that the O2 sensor wouldn’t come out, but thankfully it did. Even better, I’d not lost the plug to fill the hole. Result.

Next up, change of wheels – putting the rally wheels on (with new R700s), using my nice new Clarke wheel nut gun (again bought as a result of H&S as I can’t run my compressor!), and then putting the wheels from the rally car onto the recce car.

Now, sumpguards. Fortunately this went smoothly too – the recce car one hasn’t been on in 2 years, but went on with little trouble – I’d even kept the washers and nuts with it, so no searching was needed. The rally car one was straightforward too.

Then collecting the trailer, changing a couple of wheels as the tyres were dodgy, and then loading the van – this took a LONG time as there’s a lot of stuff to pack, including a couple of gazebos, tools, lighting, etc. This took a couple of hours, and by now it was already dark. Hooked the trailer up, got the rally car on, re-fixed the indicator on the trailer that was playing up, and found that the recce car now wouldn’t start (flat battery). And that’s how it stands right now, as I’ve just had dinner. Nearly done, but not quite. Just need to do a few bits and pieces, drop the recce car off at Paul’s and then pack. Unfortunately I need to go to work tomorrow (as I need the money to pay for the new helmet aside from anything else), and as it’s dark I can’t take a “ready to go” pic, but I will do tomorrow morning, with any luck.

In the meantime, this picture will have to do, drawn for me by Sennen, Tammie’s son.  Loving the look on Paul’s face!

Hopefully we'll go fast enough to scare Paul!

So, I made a last-minute effort to gain some more sponsors, and they have come up trumps!  The stickers arrived today (once more thanks to the ever-brilliant Andy for them), and I’ve just put them on, having finished work, in the breaks in the rain!

Valeting.co - car care products.

Nic Nottingham's Nailart Colour!

Sabden Motor Bodies

Sapphire Yachting - for an excellent experience in Skiathos, Greece

The lovely Tammie Barnes wanted this one. 🙂

Steven Tilley

Mark "The Legend" Hawkins, for saving the day!

Helen Phillips' favourite website!

So, huge thanks to everyone.  There are a few little things to do before Monday morning, but most of everything is in place.  Which is handy as I’m navigating for Tony on the Tempest tomorrow, and you can check out my location in real time using the “Live Tracking” link above.  Well, hopefully, if Google Latitude holds up as it should do….

… well, I’ll leave you to fill in a word of your choice.

Last time up, I was waiting for Tyres and still no news on the helmet.

So it’s been a day of dealing with other people’s BS and screw-ups.  Firstly the tyres – they arrived yesterday, and I didn’t get a chance to look at them other than the tread (I didn’t get in until after 11), noticing that 2 of the tyres were way more worn than I’d been told or sent pictures off.  Packed the others off to Kinson Tyres for fitting, only to be told that the beads on several of them were knackered, and they wouldn’t inflate.  And looking at the bead (which should be a smooth bit of rubber, as it seals against the rim and holds the air in), it’s not surprising to see why:

So that's the bit that seals the air in...

Needless to say, this isn’t good, according to the tyre fitter, nor anyone else I’ve asked.  The seller says he’ll have them back and use them himself, which is fair enough, but it’s been a pain in the backside dealing with all this, and means that I’ve spent more on postage than I should have, have to mess about sorting them going back out, and of course don’t have as many tyres as I wanted.

Secondly, the helmet.  As I’d paid the guy THREE WEEKS ago and heard nothing, I started a Paypal dispute on Monday, having emailed and phoned the guy several times with no response.  I then put a post on the forum where I’d seen the helmet, saying that I’d paid out 250 Euros and got nothing in return.  And amazingly, I get a phone call from said seller, who wants me to “take my comments back”.  So after a protracted discussion in which he finally admits that he should have sent it a while ago (after I had to turn into a prosecution lawyer), and that he said he’d already sent it yesterday and could give me a tracking number for it, I agreed I’d remove my message as soon as I could track it.  And of course, the punchline?  The tracking number he sent me doesn’t work, but he’s still had the cheek to ask me again to remove my comment!  Just as soon as the helmet arrives, dear, just as soon as.

In the meantime I’ve had to shell out £400 on a new G78 HANS helmet from EARS.  It should be arriving tomorrow, providing they aren’t from the same fantasy island that the seller of the other helmet was!  No of course, this is a joke, they were very helpful on the phone, so I’m sure I’ll at least get that in time.

Stickers are in the post, mind..

… and I’m not sure about the rest!

But a quick update anyway…

HANS Device: After being let down in the loan department (odd as I was offered the loan rather than asking for it), I’ve hired one from Evo Rally Parts. One less thing to worry about.

Helmet: Well, it looks like the person I bought the helmet from for Paul has at best been slack, and at worst has ripped me off.  Odd given that he advertises a lot, has a company as well as his Motorsport shop – Paypal claim has been initiated, but it’s left me £233 out of pocket, and more to the point, without a HANS-equipped helmet for Paul.  So it looks like I will have to buy a new one, which is a) expensive and b) not ideal.  Grr!

Tyres: These should be with me tomorrow – providing the seller hasn’t been ‘economical with the truth’ I should have enough tyres for the event, just got to get them swapped over which is easy enough.

Stickers: The final ones should hopefully be with me by the weekend – if not then I’ll have to give a number of people some money back!

Other than that, there are just a few little bits and pieces to do – the “To do” list is pretty short, with only one job actually being more complex than a simple bolt/screw/clip on (which is just a small alteration to the mapping, should be easy enough to do in about half an hour).

And that’s good news because on Saturday… I shall mostly be navigating on the Tempest rally, with Tony in the 205!  Nothing like a busy week’s rallying!

Day off?  As if!  Still things to do, but I’ve made it a nice light one – partly because I really do need a day off, and partly because the weather is alternating between rain and shine.  So, a bit of cleaning off (after Burley came over and sat in the car just to check he’s OK), read the 7-page Health And Safety Instructions for the service park (make of that what you will, never seen anything like that before), and put some stickers on the car!

www.briskoda.net

Bardahl - the oil we are running thanks to www.top-oils.co.uk

Forum member Alex Lake and www.sumoshoes.co.uk (rjbriggsy)

eBayer A Henderson and forum member willskoda

Peter Garforth has a RWD Skoda....

Laura does some amazing therapies!

www.dontbuyitrentit.com - Car Leasing

RTGW, sticker suppliers

So, if you want to join these people, you have until Sunday night to BID ON EBAY!

Today was the day I’d booked the car in for a run on the dyno at Veysport – Andy who was at Triton (who mapped the car in 2008) now has his own business in Verwood, so I booked time at 3pm.  In the morning, I did a few things on the car including changing the brake fluid and bleeding them, and then started up and went for a drive.  And yet again, problems.  The car was running as rich as hell – about 10:1, instead of the ideal 13.5:1.  I limped back home, and started checking, and found that I’d made a mistake before – the standard fuel pressure regulator actually ran at about 3.75 bar, not the 3bar I’d seen at rest.  This explained the “rich as hell everywhere” I was experiencing.  But didn’t change the fact that I had a car which needed to be finally mapped at 3pm, only 4.5 hours in the future.  A quick bit of research and it looked as if a 10% cut in fuel would return things to normal, so I put this into the map, and the car still wouldn’t start – I’d spent too much time turning it over before realising that the ECU connector (whose design I have always hated, Mr DTA!) was half off, explaining the total lack of firing, and now the battery was flat.  G-reat.  Put it on charge, walked away for a bit.

Half an hour later I put another battery on via jump leads as well, and gave it a go.  10% was clearly too lean, the car started, but spluttered a lot, so I re-set it to 5%, and the mix looked a lot better.  Went to drive down the road, but it was spluttering and backfiring in the exhaust.  Really odd, given that the mix looked spot on from the O2 meter, so I persevered with it, and it cleaned up after a mile or two – it seemed that the plugs had got fouled and needed a bit of time to clear.  By 5 miles it was running sweetly, even ticking over.  I then realised that the brakes were much better after someone did a stupid move in a traffic queue right in front of me!

But would it last?  A couple of starts later on seemed to indicate that it would – so hopefully this is a case of oversight rather than an odd problem rearing its head again.  Tammie came over (originally we’d planned to go out), but given the lack of time we settled for Pasta, as I had to go to work before going to Veysport.  This gave me the opportunity to let the car cool down again (it restarted fine after 90 minutes), and also drive a bit on dual carriageway and do some overtaking on the way there – it seemed to be going OK, and unlike the last engine seems quite willing in top gear to overtake.

Once I got to Veysport we hatched a plan – last time showed that a lack of cooling on the dyno wasn’t great for the engine (and particularly the oil pressure) so we decided to do a power run, check the fuelling with a run or two more, and then see if there was anything to come from advancing the timing.  However, given what happened the first time on the dyno (with a dodgy engine, but you still feel nervous) I was not particularly calm at this point; a disaster now would mean game over, realistically.  Andy got the car on the rollers, had a good look about, and then did a power run.

In between runs...

I was pleased to see bigger numbers than last time, already.  The fuelling was a bit off (slightly lean), so we put more in and did another run, getting slightly more power and ironing out a bit of a flat spot, but with a spot on mixture throughout – so my preliminary work with the LM-1 had really paid off (not only in terms of money but more importantly giving the engine an easier time).  So it was time to adjust the ignition timing; I didn’t realise just how critical it was; Andy explained that half a degree can make or break the power an engine makes (perhaps seeing an extra 5 bhp), so we dialled in extra advance and did another run; there was no difference at all in the power, so clearly things were set correctly already (no detonation, but there’s no benefit in having more advance than you need), so we dropped it back and did a final run.  The end result:

OOh, nearly there...

Not quite the 100bhp I’d wanted, but damn near it.  The shape of the curve is interesting – the drop at the end is the rev limiter cutting in; and rightly so – 7000rpm is the safe limit for the engine components I have, but there’s clearly a LOT more to come if the engine could rev higher, as you can see from the line the curve is following at that point – the head and manifold clearly can flow a LOT more gas than the previous engine; unfortunately steel rods and forged pistons would massively increase the budget, and also steel rods wouldn’t be legal in Group A, alas.  But the engine feels good to drive, and is making more power than the previous engine did at peak for over 1000rpm, which is good. I’m sure there are people reading this who think that 100bhp is a joke, and maybe it is, but it’s going to be a big improvement on the stages; I’d love to have 130bhp or so, but it’s going to be good enough (hopefully) to go quicker than before.

So, with that done, it was… done!

After the work, time for a rest.

The drive home was thankfully uneventful – there are a couple of flat spots I need to address (which are best done on the road, as they’re dynamic things), which I can do tomorrow or on Sunday.  I need a break, but it finally looks as if nearly everything is done.  Nearly.  Still to do:

• HANS device – I’m still waiting to hear back about the one I am borrowing for Paul
• Helmet for Paul – despite paying for it over 2 weeks ago, it’s still not arrived.  Yes, I’ve chased the seller.
• Tyres – these look to have been sorted, I just need to arrange collection for them, but they should do the trick.
• Stickers – these should be coming tomorrow – the eagle eyed will notice I’ve taken the “Sponsor this car…” off, as it’s too late now (aside from a late eBay auction frenzy, with 4 spaces up for grabs on the car)

I think that’s it.  And I know I need a day off!

This week I’ve been off work, and for some crazy reason I actually thought I’d got my act together and wouldn’t have much to do.  Given the mad panic that I had getting the car ready (ish) for 2007, and even looking back at what I’d done in 2008, I was thinking I was well ahead.  However, my list of jobs missed out a couple of things:  Firstly that I’d really knackered my left hand up in terms of being useful for work (by the cut I did when doing the trailer), and secondly that one of the jobs was my least favourite, seat mountings; Paul had sat in the new seat, and it was clearly not in the right place, so this meant re-doing all the seat mountings.  My least favourite fabrication job, because it’s awkward and tight in the Felicia (it would be quite easy in a larger car), and also because it’s quite difficult as a result of this to get everything in place, meaning that the seat needs to be in and out of the car several times (10, I think!), to make sure each mounting is right – it’s easy to assume that you’ve got it all right and then find out you can’t get the seat in (I did this in the Favorit!).  However, that wasn’t the case here, but it still took all of Wednesday and some of Thursday morning to get it done.  It’s now as low as possible in the car, and as far back as possible too – when I get in, it feels like being a “real” navigator as you can’t see the end of the bonnet.  This pleases me, and I celebrated by repainting the floor (as it looked horrendous).  Hopefully Burley’s frame will fit in too.

So, a day and a half down to a single line on the list of things to do.  But this left only a few mechanical things, first of which was sorting out the leak in the left front strut.  This isn’t a “service” item, it’s a user-item; when you put the leg together (with the spring) it needs to have a small amount of oil put inside the strut leg, which is then sealed in place with the bottom nut and a copper washer; last time it hadn’t sealed properly, leaving a pool of oil on the floor.  Replacing it meant taking the strut off (which involves a few other steps), and then sorting out the leak, which was done once it was all cleaned up and bolted up properly.  And next was another leak, or rather a pair of them – the right-hand driveshaft seal on the gearbox was leaking (which I didn’t think would be too difficult to do), and the gearshift shaft seal (which I did) – they are B and A respectively on the picture below.

Oil seals that need doing....

At this point, Peter turned up, from Top Oils, who are my biggest sponsor!  He had brought down the oil for the engine and gearbox, which is made by Bardahl and provides excellent protection for the components of engine and gearbox – they contain Fullerene, carbon ‘balls’ which have impressive mechanical properties, and should help protect the Skoda’s engine which regular readers will know gives the centre bearing a hard time.  We chatted a while about the event and so on, but then it was lunchtime and then back to work.  I decided to attempt the gear shift seal first, and was really surprised that it came out very easily (Thanks Jim for the tip!) – as it had a lip on it outside the gearbox it was straightforward and my nightmares of breaking the seal and not being able to get it out were unfounded – 5 minutes later after draining the oil, it was changed.  To do the shaft seal, the shaft needed to come out, which was fairly straightforward, and then levering the seal out and tapping a new one in; getting the shaft back in without damaging it was done, albeit twice as the gripper diff’s lack of a chamfer always makes fitting the shafts a bit of a lottery, even with my ‘grease the circlip to keep it in the centre’ trick.

Then a few bits an pieces, tightening things, replacing missing fasteners and so on, and then some items arrived;  I have spent some of the sponsorship money I got on new equipment, in this case a pair of Fluorescent “Task Lights”, which are low-energy (38W), but give out LOADS of light – a great bit of advice from British Rally Forum, especially at £35 for two, delivered.  They are low power enough to be runnable from an inverter from a car or van, but of course I want to run them off my generator, so I got that up and running, and worked a treat.

Time for an engine and gearbox oil change, with the new Bardahl oil being put into the engine…

Engine Oil from Bardahl.

… and gearbox…

Bardahl gearbox oil

Ran it up, plenty of pressure, which is good, and a nice quiet gearbox too.  Lovely.  Another thing which may help a bit is a total bit of boy racerism, but was a cheap (£7) and easy fit – an oil filter cooler – essentially a slip-on heat sink for the filter:

Max Power Central.

Hopefully this will help keep the oil a bit cooler, and it certainly won’t hurt; while there is provision in the regs for me to add an oil cooler, it’s difficult to find somewhere for the cooler radiator to go that is both cool and not vulnerable, and obviously damage to it would mean no oil and game over – this isn’t anywhere near as efficient, but has no reliability issues.  Image issues, yes!

Next it was time to change the front brake discs – they weren’t too warn, but they were rusty, so time for a new pair, by which time it was getting dark and the work lights were really useful:

New brakes! Shiny!

And that was about it – not a lot I could do as next job was to bleed the brakes (to change the fluid really), and I didn’t have any fluid, so that was it…  As it stands, the car is nearly ready.  Tomorrow is time for mapping on the ignition, so hopefully it will go better than previous visits; I’m rather worried about it!

Hovering in the light.

Hopefully all will be well…. see you tomorrow!

For once, the car is mostly done, a couple of weeks ahead of when it needs to be. The list of jobs to do is fairly short, mostly chasing a small oil leak on the gearbox (which I think should be fairly easy to sort out, being 2 oil seals), re-filling the lubrication on the front left strut (when you assemble the proflex legs they need 80cc of oil in them, and the left one leaked because the sealing washer, er, didn’t!).

Yesterday Paul came over, and we checked a few things on the car, which all seemed OK. There were a couple of things that need doing, but nothing major and no surprises. However, I started the car up then and it didn’t seem too happy. I did the same again today, and it was also rough. And lo and behold, the same problem had resurfaced – a lack of fuel pressure. I thought it may be the pump, but replacing that would be an awkward job, so I tried changing the pressure regulator instead, by replacing the fuel rail (which I’d removed the regulator from and used a remote one) with a standard one. It took a bit of time to do as it’s awkward, but it led to a rock-steady 3 bar fuel pressure, and once the plugs had been cleaned it ran spot on again. Hopefully that’s the back of that problem, and the car will run properly – certainly I felt rather differently about it playing up knowing that in 3 weeks time it’ll be in the Welsh forests (all things having gone to plan).

But to get to those forests, I need a trailer, and again hiring one for the week is something I don’t have money for. So it was time to fix the problems with my trailer – the plastic mudguards had been broken since I bought it and patched up here and there, so I bought some new ones. In addition the “tailgate” was rusty and rubbish, so that needed to be replaced. While these sound like simple things, it was pretty much a day’s work to get all that sorted, although it now works a lot better than before. But there was a problem – while cleaning the tailgate up ready for painting, a sharp edge caught my left hand and cut a 3″ long gash in it at the base of my thumb – the kind of thing you do where you know it’ll be messy and you don’t want to look at it! It bled a lot, and put paid to doing anything much for the rest of the afternoon. Not ideal as I need to be doing stuff, so I’m taking it easy again! Tomorrow should see the wiring finished on the trailer, and then some work on the car, hopefully getting everything finished off.. well, by Tuesday anyway.

Just a quick update for a few things:

Firstly, I’ve had confirmation that our entry has been accepted into Rally GB.  So we’re in!

Secondly, the car has taken on the first sponsor’s sticker; the rest should be coming next week, so some pictures will follow next week (when everything should be finished, really)

Thirdly, pretty much everything is in place – cottage hired for the week, service crew, van, etc.  There are a few things to get sorted – waiting for Paul’s HANS and also the new helmet I’ve bought for him (yes, really!), and also tyres – I was really hoping to get some discount from Kumho in return for space on the car, but alas it looks like I’ll have to pay full price for the tyres, which is not cheap, and I’m basically out of money!  Oh dear!

Finally, it is looking like we will have a form of “satellite tracking” during the event for you to see where we are at any point; I’m spending this evening and some time this weekend trying to get the site working better on mobile browsers (with a theme which suits small screens better), and in addition adding a page which will show our latest tweet and map position, so you can follow us easily during the event, and I’m hoping it’ll be possible to tweet at the beginning and end of each stage.  I’m navigating on the Tempest the weekend before Rally GB with Tony, so I should be able to give that a dry run as well.  Anyway, plans and so on.  I have next week off, so there should be lots of progress.  Hopefully!