KS's hillclimbing odyssey

[KS]

Tregrehan in two weeks.

[911hillclimber]

If it is the place I remember, very very short but great?
And if so, that was around 1989...
Good luck!

[KS]

That's the one - and only 15 minutes from home...

[KS]

Sorry for the six week lapse (well, maybe you'd prefer the lapse to be longer!)... Tregrehan is a short hill, starting out under trees (trees = slippery when wet, or dry...) and then taking in a gentle-ish left hander before s long right-hander onto the final straight, which then kicks hard left over the finish line. Yes, it really is that short.

This was to be my first outing with the new engine (185bhp instead of just under 130bhp) and rebuilt transmission (Quaife ATB diff, lower third gear, etc). Also less weight thanks to 'GT' panels etc. Oh, and CL RC6 brake pads all round. I'd hoped to be able to drive the car in its new guise at Wiscombe for the first time, so I'd have a back-to-back comparison, but that didn't work out. I'd never driven Tregrehan before but knew it well from spectating, as it's only 15 minutes from home.

I still didn't (and still don't) have a functioning tachometer, but did get a shift light set up to come on at 5600rpm, which equates to peak power. On a slightly damp track, on the first run I nailed it and the shift light came on almost immediately. Into second and it came on again as the tyres gave up the unequal struggle on the damp surface. Got out of shape on the last left-hander but was happy overall with the time of 29.00 secs. Launch time was a laughable 3.53 secs, thanks to the wheelspin.

Taking things more easily off the line saw the launch time drop to 2.54 secs, while the three 'event' runs dropped from 25.65, to 24.84 and finally 24.49 secs. For the first time, I managed to finish midfield, 7th out of 14 cars in class. Considering I'd never finished higher than second or third to last in class before, I was elated!



That was it, and now I have entries in for Wiscombe on 30th July, Castle the following weekend (both days) and need to get an entry in this week for the week after that. It's all go...

Here's one of the Tregrehan runs (the final one, I think). Next time I'll take that first left-hander flat and get the power on sooner coming out of the right-hander...

https://youtu.be/8AamEfYsrQU

[911hillclimber]

Getting good starts is always hard, Jonathan has it nailed mind.
I struggle to do 2.1's in the dry on slicks.
You can make good easy time ata start!

Look forward to your next Wiscomb

[KS]

Well, this weekend was to be the big one and the first chance to compete in the revamped car at Wiscombe in a round of the BHCC, where I'd be able to get an accurate comparison of old (2056 on carbs) and new (2258 on throttle bodies, Quaife ATB, etc). But life had other ideas.

Drove the car last week on a 110-mile round trip and it ran perfectly. On Wednesday this week hooked up the Accusump oil lines and went to start the engine before going on a brief test drive to check it all out ahead of this morning's early (5.30am) start. Engine turned over, coughed and reluctantly started with a cloud of black smoke out the back. Figured that as the ignition had been on and off several times, each meaning the fuel pump had primed the system, it had flooded and now cleared. The car was undrivable, hardly responding to throttle, coughing and emitting black smoke and then, if I kept at it, taking off like a scalded cat when on wide open throttle.

Managed to nurse the car back home - tailpipes jet black, every plug sooted up. First thought was that the TPS (throttle position sensor) had failed, kidding the ECU that the throttle was permanently wide open and therefore demanding that as much fuel as possible be thrown at the engine, hence why it would take wide open throttle but nothing else. Testing the TPS showed it to be erratic in operation, so with two days to go, let's buy another and swap it out. Problem: the throttle bodies were originally from CB Performance in the USA and the website gave no indication of the TPS's origins. It wasn't like any that I could see on Google, so put an appeal on Facebook and also sent off an email to CB Performance. I must admit, I didn't expect them to divulge their sources but I was wrong and they replied within hours – it's from a 1980s US Ford Tempo, Topaz, Bronco or Mustang! Oh great. This was confirmed by Facebook friends, too.

After spending most of Friday at Graham Rawlings' workshop, trying to modify a modern UK Ford TPS to fit (the problem is that the throttle shaft of the ITBs is smaller in diameter than most others), finally had to call it a day as simply ran out of time. Found a replacement on eBay, so ordered two (China...), had the offer of one from a VW drag racer who uses one on his turbo engine, and then found that a UK Mustang specialist has one left in stock. But sadly all this was a case of too little, too late.

My biggest fear now is that the TPS wasn't the cause and that there's a software problem with the ECU, but I'll have to wait until I can fire the engine up again to find out. Castle hillclimb is next weekend, so fingers crossed. I hate cars.

[DustyM]

Bad luck Keith. The joys of modifying cars! Hopefully a simple fix and you’ll be back at it.


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[911hillclimber]

That all sounds so irritating!
Hope it all straightens out over next week and you are off again. Bloody cars!!!

[KS]

Well, I spent time refitting everything and got the original TPS to work. The car drove OK but I will replace the TPS as soon as a new one arrives... Bloody cars, indeed.

[KS]

Next stage in the saga/odyssey/whatever...

So, I receive the new 1980s Ford throttle position sensor from the Ford Mustang specialist in the UK. Fast service, ordered Sunday night, arrives Tuesday post. Great! Looks spot on, even though the part number on the box is slightly different (alarm bells should ring at this point), so go ahead fitting new TPS only to discover that it sweeps in the opposite direction to the 'original'. OK, not a problem as can run it in what would be the wide-open position at idle and adjust software accordingly. Go ahead and modify wiring to suit, bolt it all on, hook up the laptop and...the range of operation (sweep) of the new TPS is such that the it will need to be mounted at approximately 45 degrees round from the available mounting points. Something for the future. Refit the original TPS and that all reads fine now (WTF?). All good? No, sadly not.

The car was becoming sluggish on start-up and I began to wonder if the Optima battery fitted to the car when I bought it three years ago had given up the ghost. I'd read mixed reviews of Optimas, but testing output across the terminals showed a healthy 12.5 volts despite lots of ignition on/ignition off, back on, back off while sorting the TPS. I jump started the car and ran it up the road - all good, but when I got back, the regulator was warm and the voltmeter was reading rather high with the engine running (like 16v...). Try new regulator but no difference. I started to sweat thinking the alternator was U/S, but I still couldn't get my head round the sluggish starting and general poor running. I hoped above hope that I hadn't damaged the ECU, so began a more methodical process of checking the electrics (which I hate, and is why I installed a whole new 'street rod' loom in El Chucho, rather than mess around with 50 year old electrics). If I turned on the ignition, the dash lights would light up but as soon as I turned the key, they'd go out and wouldn't respond to switching off and back on again unless I left it for a few minutes. That's what made me think the battery was on its way out.

Checking the wiring under the dash, I discovered that there was just 3.5 volts at the fusebox. Check the battery: 12.4 volts. Hmmm. Jack up the back end, with multimeter in hand, check the voltage at the terminal on starter motor: 3.5 volts. WTF? Remove the main battery cable and check it for continuity, which proved all good. Check voltage at the end of the cable: 12.4 volts. WTF again! Refit and check voltage by connecting multimeter to the end of the terminal on the starter motor. 3.5 volts. Check it again, using the probe against the cable itself: 12.4 volts. Remove the cable, look at the terminals on both the main battery cable and the feed to the alternator/regulator and they're all grubby looking. In fact, the only place you could see shiny metal was on the inside of the ring terminals. Surely can't be that simple? Clean battery cable and starter motor terminals until they shine like new pins and check: 12.4 volts! Try engine – spins over and fires right up!

Could it be that all my recent problems have been down to a massive 9v voltage drop? I can only presume that the progressive degradation of the terminals had reached a point where enough was enough. As for the warm regulator and high voltmeter readings, I can only assume that's why they always say never to disconnect the battery on a car with an alternator when it's running, which was in effect what was happening with such poor continuity.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post but hopefully it might prompt others to check simple things like the state of terminals and earth points... Here's to two days of fun at Castle hillclimb this weekend. (And if all else fails, Adrian Crawford has offered me his 911 rally car to use. Hope I don't have to use it but a great offer!)

[Lightweight_911]

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Excellent news !!

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[911hillclimber]

An interesting post Keith.
I too hate electrics, but you can't avoid them unless you write a big cheque...

During my torture with the Clewett system all along there was that the volts to the 'ecu' must not drop to less than 9 volts at cranking, very easy to come close to this threshold esp with a high compression flat 6 to churn over.

Like with painting a car, cleanliness is godliness, it all has to be clean and then some.

Good it is all running and good to read the problems and how you sorted them.

All too easy to 'change the power station' when it is 'only the fuse'.
Good luck with you next event.

[KS]

Well, that was interesting... All set for Castle hillclimb and although I didn't have far to drive to get there (about a mile!) I set the alarm for six o'clock with the aim of heading out at about 6.30 so I could drive the car for 10 miles or so to get some heat into the gearbox and engine. The day before, I'd run the car without problem, so was completely floored when it refused to start - not even a cough. I tried and tried, but to no avail, so decided to jump it off my Golf. The engine spun over far quicker and eventually coughed once before finally firing. Not the best of starts (no pun intended) to the weekend. For the rest of the day, the car fired right up, although it seemed a little lazy when turning over, and there was often a slight 'pop' before it fired. That, I am told, is because the engine wasn't spinning over fast enough for the crank sensor to synch properly...

Anyway, I made it to the line and for the first time on a dry course, nailed the 914 off the line. It went everywhere but straight, the Quaife ATB giving the car a totally different feel as both tyres fought for traction! My previous best in the dry had been 38.94, so I was happy when I ran a 36.10 first time. This was followed by a 35.11, and then 34.41. But on that last run, as I was climbing up the straight, there was a slight 'thud' from behind and when I came to a halt at the top, I noticed the alternator light was on – and neither the oil light nor the oil pressure gauge worked. It turns out the alternator belt had flipped off, and in the process ripped out the wiring to the oil pressure sensor! As I lived locally (and as the 914 engine doesn't rely on a belt to drive the cooling fan) I got the OK to leave the venue early so I could drive home and fit another belt. And repair the wiring...



The next morning, I started with a 34.543, followed by a 35.05 (boo!), and then a 34.17 and finally a 34.18. So, I ended the weekend 13th in class out of 19 (pipped by 1/100th to 12th place) and a relatively happy man. An improvement over last year of 4.77 seconds was OK by me. And the in car video recording showed oil pressure of around 50-60psi all the way up the hill – a far cry from the butt-clenching oil light-flickering runs of last year. Thank you Accusump and also a change of oil – I'm now running 20/50 Millers competition fully-synthetic, as opposed to 10-40 Valvoline mineral.

Here's my PB run – still loads of room for improvement, as I'm sure you'll agree.
https://youtu.be/oqba3dcxp5k

BTW, I began experimenting with tyre pressures, having read a tech sheet from Toyo about the R888Rs I'm using. Seems like on a relatively light car like mine, I was running around 5psi more than they'd recommend. I always used to run 29-30psi back and front, but settled on 24 front and 27 rear. It made a huge difference to the feel.

I've now just ordered a new high-torque starter and an Odyssey 925 battery, to help starting and running under load... It's only money.

[neilbardsley]

I'm surprised by the 7psi lower rear. That is interesting. Why did the tech sheet suggest that?

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[KS]

I'm surprised by the 7psi lower rear. That is interesting. Why did the tech sheet suggest that?

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Oops, corrected it to 27 rear...

https://www.toyo.co.uk/page/index/ident ... -up-advice