The track day GSi - going back to black!!

[Scatmancraig]

Little bit more done today.

After blowing yet another mid box on the way back from the rolling road, i've managed to pick up another Scorpion stainless system.  This is now my 3rd, & i'm not selling this one!!

Today i fitted the Scorpion, fairly easy once you've lined everything up.  The system is a good deal lighter than the standard one too, being a single pipe system helps & isn't stainless lighter than mild steel anyway? 

System fitted, but tailpipes look a bit lost, wish Scorpion had copied the original style ones, would have looked much better...



The car now sounds a little more fruity, although it is still fairly quiet, probably a little louder than standard but not much.

Next job was to get a bit more induction roar going as the engine in this car is very quiet, even without any sound proofing!  So i "borrowed" a large K&N filter which used to be fitted to a certain Opel Monza, and set about fitting it to the Carlton.  I almost gave up as there really isn't room, the filter is huge!!!  But after chopping up 2 airboxes i managed to get close to being where i wanted to be.  I still need to seal off any possibility of warm air getting to the filter.  My cold air feed is using the standard air box feed, but extending the feed pipe so that it comes out behind where the offside foglamp used to be.  I still need to finish this off, but surely it must be better than standard, the normal air feed pipe sucks air from behind the bumper iron!!!

You can see the new und of the airbox feed pipe here, I have recycled a pair of old airbox to plenum champer pipes off another 12v engine!!

Eventually i will try & modify this further & see if it is possible to use an old fog lamp reflector to channel the air into the pipe.

Driving the car is a little more fun now, the sound of the air filter is awesome!!  I know there is a lot of debate as to whether these cone filters actually make any difference, the only way i'm going to find that out is to take the car back to the same rolling road i went to last weekend!!  It certainly feels very responsive, and the noise is so addictive, possibly not the best thing for me with my recent events but you only live once!!

[chrismec]

Looking good matey, I always thought that hotter was better not cold cus in the old days you used to have a leaver on the air box which moved the flap inside to take hot air off the manifold
Also if the pick up pipe is too low there's the danger of sucking up water instead of air

[bstardchild]

Looking good matey, I always thought that hotter was better not cold cus in the old days you used to have a leaver on the air box which moved the flap inside to take hot air off the manifold

Cold air best - older cars with carbs have warm air diverter to stop carbs icing up

Also if the pick up pipe is too low there's the danger of sucking up water instead of air

If the airbox was sealed - you stick a bit of household drain pipe in the inlet under the car and perforate it that should stop that

As it is it's unlikely to happen if Craig has done what I suggested

Pics of the top please

[Scatmancraig]

If the airbox was sealed - you stick a bit of household drain pipe in the inlet under the car and perforate it that should stop that

As it is it's unlikely to happen if Craig has done what I suggested

Pics of the top please

I can't remember what you suggested!! 


It's not a very clear photo, hence not putting it on in the first place.

Basically, i have cut away the bottom left hand side of the airbox, and also most of the top of it.  The air filter physically won't fit, it's about 2 inches too long.  I've already slightly kinked it trying so it might be best if i bought you a new identical one!  Remember that a Monza has a longer narrower airbox than the Carlton or Senator B!!  What's left of the top of the airbox still slides into whats left of the bottom, but because of the length of the filter the 2 are now offset, i.e. the top is now about 2 inches further to the right than the bottom.  The original airbox air feed pipe is used, but with the pipe extended so it is picking up air from the foglight aperture.  The turret side the airbox is still present, to prevent heat from the header tanked being sucked in.  I still need to finish off sealing the airbox so that only the cold air from the feed pipe is being sucked in.  The best way of doing this would be to drill a large hole directly underneath the airbox, and run some ducting to the foglight aperture, i think Matt Allcock did this to his GSi.  I'm not sure about drilling holes in inner wings though, & neither do i have anything to drill a hole large enough! 

There should be no problems draining water away, but i'd need to drive through a seriously large puddle for that to happen!!!

The problem at the moment is that the top of the airbox, with the airbox attached to it, is not attached to the bottom.  It can't really go anywhere at the moment, as there isn't room for anything to move more than a couple of millimetres.

[bstardchild]

If the airbox was sealed - you stick a bit of household drain pipe in the inlet under the car and perforate it that should stop that

As it is it's unlikely to happen if Craig has done what I suggested

Pics of the top please

I can't remember what you suggested!! 


It's not a very clear photo, hence not putting it on in the first place.

Basically, i have cut away the bottom left hand side of the airbox, and also most of the top of it.  The air filter physically won't fit, it's about 2 inches too long.  I've already slightly kinked it trying so it might be best if i bought you a new identical one!  Remember that a Monza has a longer narrower airbox than the Carlton or Senator B!!  What's left of the top of the airbox still slides into whats left of the bottom, but because of the length of the filter the 2 are now offset, i.e. the top is now about 2 inches further to the right than the bottom.  The original airbox air feed pipe is used, but with the pipe extended so it is picking up air from the foglight aperture.  The turret side the airbox is still present, to prevent heat from the header tanked being sucked in.  I still need to finish off sealing the airbox so that only the cold air from the feed pipe is being sucked in.  The best way of doing this would be to drill a large hole directly underneath the airbox, and run some ducting to the foglight aperture, i think Matt Allcock did this to his GSi.  I'm not sure about drilling holes in inner wings though, & neither do i have anything to drill a hole large enough! 

There should be no problems draining water away, but i'd need to drive through a seriously large puddle for that to happen!!!

The problem at the moment is that the top of the airbox, with the airbox attached to it, is not attached to the bottom.  It can't really go anywhere at the moment, as there isn't room for anything to move more than a couple of millimetres.

Exactly what I suggested - don't worry about the kinks - they were already there 

[Pedro]

isn't stainless lighter than mild steel anyway? 

Size for size, SS is heavier.

Next job was to get a bit more induction roar going as the engine in this car is very quiet, even without any sound proofing!  So i "borrowed" a large K&N filter which used to be fitted to a certain Opel Monza, and set about fitting it to the Carlton.  I almost gave up as there really isn't room, the filter is huge!!!  But after chopping up 2 airboxes i managed to get close to being where i wanted to be.  I still need to seal off any possibility of warm air getting to the filter.  My cold air feed is using the standard air box feed, but extending the feed pipe so that it comes out behind where the offside foglamp used to be.  I still need to finish this off, but surely it must be better than standard, the normal air feed pipe sucks air from behind the bumper iron!!!

You can see the new und of the airbox feed pipe here, I have recycled a pair of old airbox to plenum champer pipes off another 12v engine!!

Eventually i will try & modify this further & see if it is possible to use an old fog lamp reflector to channel the air into the pipe.

Driving the car is a little more fun now, the sound of the air filter is awesome!!  I know there is a lot of debate as to whether these cone filters actually make any difference, the only way i'm going to find that out is to take the car back to the same rolling road i went to last weekend!!  It certainly feels very responsive, and the noise is so addictive, possibly not the best thing for me with my recent events but you only live once!!

Heater/dryer trunking from B&Q will bend wherever you want it and much cheapness!
Might need to open the hole up, but the standard inlet trumpet looks very restrictive to me. More cold air the better. Right idea extending the standard one though.
You're dead right about sealing off from the engine bay aswell - cold air is good!!!

If you fitted the cone without trying to get rid of any engine heat into it, then bloody waste of time and money IMHO.
Matt Allcock had a great answer - It's got over 200 bhp, I can afford to lose a couple!
Smashin'!!!!

I would also think that a good compromise would be to use the bottom half of the airbox c/w inlet trumpet.

[Scatmancraig]

Heater/dryer trunking from B&Q will bend wherever you want it and much cheapness!
Might need to open the hole up, but the standard inlet trumpet looks very restrictive to me. More cold air the better. Right idea extending the standard one though.
You're dead right about sealing off from the engine bay aswell - cold air is good!!!

If you fitted the cone without trying to get rid of any engine heat into it, then bloody waste of time and money IMHO.
Matt Allcock had a great answer - It's got over 200 bhp, I can afford to lose a couple!
Smashin'!!!!

I would also think that a good compromise would be to use the bottom half of the airbox c/w inlet trumpet.

I have to pop out later so i may well take a look at B&Q. 

The original airbox feed is fairly narrow, but i don't think that would be too much of a problem.  It's where it sits that causes problems.  If you take the front bumper off, it sucks directly behind the bumper iron.  Surely GM would have been better placing a small grille behind it so it automatically gets a decent cold air feed?  Anyway, there is just enough room to slide an old elbow hose off a 12v (the one between the airbox & throttle body) ove the op of the original airbox pipe, this then runs at a right angle below the headlamp.  A 2nd elbow hose is then at a right angle from the 1st hose, it's the end of the 2nd one you can see in the pic.  What i will probably do is remove the 2nd hose and run some heater trunking to the fog light aperture. 

Anpther way of getting more cold air to the filter is to put a bonnet vent in.  Anyone got one lying around they don't need?

[Scatmancraig]

More progress...

Time for the Carlton to lose the sunroof and a few more kilo's.  The sunroof is a bit redundant anyway as there hasn't been any sort of winding mechanism since i've had the car.  I'm going to do exactly the same as i did to my old Hybrid Carlton a couple of years ago, i.e remove the cartridge & rivet a flat panel over the hole!

The sunroof cartridge is really easy to remove, lots of 8mm bolts & out it comes!!

So now i have a big hole in my roof which needs filling in...


Step 1 - get a piece of cardboard big enough to cover the hole and weight it down on the roof...


Then trace around the inside of the sunroof hole and add about an inch or so around the edge for the overlap...


I had a bit of trouble finding some metal big enough to cover the hole, so ended up sacrificing a Monza GSE bonnet  :oops:  A bit of cutting with an angle grinder later and hey presto...


I broke my only 5mm drill bit so only managed to drill a couple of holes, but enough to get the panel in position.  Need to put a load of seam sealer on before i rivet it in place, i don't want any leaks!

Also found time to change the gearbox oil.  I have some synthetic ATF in mine, apparently equivelant to Dexron III.  But i've read somewhere on here that Dexron II is better for these gearboxes.  Glad i did decide to change the fluid as what came out was the consistency of a cup of tea!!  I'm sure that can't have been doing the box any good.  Haven't had chance to drive it since i changed the oil, probably ton make a blind bit of difference as the transmission on this car is very slack, probably not helped by using a diff with over 20ok under its belt!!

[Scatmancraig]

Sunroof plate is now finished & roof i painted with Hammerite smooth satin black!  Made a bit of a balls up with the painint side of things, but at least the roof is all the same colour now.  Probably going to do the bootlid & bonnet the same colour as well.







Next on the jobs to do list are to replace both front wishbones, track control arms & front anti-roll bar bushes.  Just collected the last of the parts required to do this so might get on with that at the weekend.

[Scatmancraig]

Today i have been renewing the front wishbones & steering arms.  I now have 2 genuine GM wishbones, one brand new item and one with less than 1000 miles on.  The ones that came off weren't GM, and one was fairly badly cracked so pleased i've done them.  The car has had an annoying fault lately where it likes to try & change lanes when i'm changing gear at high speed, i'm hoping the replacement wishbones will sort this problem out.

The track control arms were both aftermarket Quinton Hazell ones.  The nearside arm did seem very loose when i took it off, so best to be sure.  I need to get the tracking sorted fairly sharpish, when i turn now there isn't a lot of self-centering action in either direction & the car does feel slightly unstable.  I only set the arms by sight comparing them to the arms that i took off.  Last time i did this i managed to get the tracking about 7mm out so god knows how far out it is now!!

[Scatmancraig]

Not much to report lately, mainly because i have actually been driving the car rather than fixing it for a change!!!

My BMW has been off the road for a week or so waiting for me to get round to changing the wheel bearing.  So the Carlton has been rpessed into use as an everyday car.

With new lower arms & track control arms, i really ought to get the tracking reset.  Especially given that the car has some very strange steering habits like not self centering, and steering itself on to full lock if i let go around a corner!!

So i took the car to my local back street garage to get it done.  Never used them for tracking before, but anything had to be better than how it was driving.  At least the arms were nice and free so shouldn't have any problems.


You can just make out the alignment device hanging off the rear wheel.

The tracking only cost me £20 which didn't seem too bad.  Apparently when i set the new arms by sight i was about 14mm out!!  Oops! :oops: It drives so much better now, which is a relief with Marham less than a fortnight away!

The only other job i've done is put a different pair of back tyres on.  Only by chance i noticed that the offside rear was bald on the inside edge, but only part way round the tyre???  When i took it off, i realised why.  The crack in the tyre that the MOT man gave me and advisory on must have expanded a bit causing the tyre to wear unevenly.  I really need some more proper size tyres now, most of my spares are 205/60's!!

Not long to go now, just trying not to break the car before the big day!!!

[Scatmancraig]

Wow, it's been a long time since i've updated this!!

Basically, not much to report!  Did Marham in October 08, killed the car with yet more fuel problems.  Ended up being towed home, removed & cleaned the tank, refitted & all was well again.  Well until Marham in April this year where it proceeded to break down on the way to the track day!  Finally realised that the filter was partly blocked and it was making the pump overheat. I only discovered this when i took the old filter off, & shook loads of crap out of it!  When it was re-fitted, the car started and it ran perfectly all day.  Managed 155 miles on track & it never missed a beat!

Roll forward a couple of months and it's nearly time for Marham again!  The MOT also ran out a couple of weeks ago.  So i took last week off work to get it ready, and to do some work on my BMW.  The Carlton needed precious little, i changed the front disks as a precaution, and re-fitted some of the clips that hold the fuel & brake lines on.  Took it for an MOT yesterday (i recommend MOT Max if there's one near you - all they do is MOT's so they are not encouraged to fail your car on stupid things, plus you only pay when it passes!!).  It went straight through the MOT with only one advisory - rear seats missing - and a comment from the tester about how good it is underneath!!!

Roll on October!!!

[Scatmancraig]

Not much to report lately, until i had a poke around under the bonnet this afternoon. 

Oh dear.....





If you look closely, you can see that the nearside suspension turret is coming away from the inner wing.  This is quite likely to be stress related rather than rust, as the car has been nailed to within an inch of it's life in recent months.  There is also a horizontal crack across the nearside edge of the windscreen, so there's definately some shell movement somewhere.

The problem is, what can be done to a) fix this problem, and b) stop it from happening again??  I haven't got a welder, so would be relying on the help of others to get it fixed!!

[doz]

Well first off you've got to get it all re-alined then Your gonna have to stitch weld the shell. So I guess your be stripping it to bits again. 

[Scatmancraig]

Why do i leave it so long between updates...!!

Anyway, not much to report lately.  The inner wing is still split, but i have a couple of offers of welding it up for me!  Just hope i can organise it before i need to take it to Marham again on April 24th!!

The latest problem is the same old story i'm afraid, fuel delivery problems.  I took the car to the ABS Midlands meet about a month ago, and the car disgraced itself twice on the way there by cutting out completely, then it refused to start for the journey home!!  So out came the trust RAC card for some help....




Same old story, power at the fuel pump connector, but fuel pump not working!!  I therefore decided that i'd strip the wiring back, and thus discovered that the connector that plugs into the pump was faulty!!  So a new piece of wiring was needed, and a new pump just to be on the safe side!

A few days later i got sent a spare pump that still had an undisturbed connector and some wiring in place.  I think half the problem with my car is that i've disconnected the pump so many times that the connectors have become a little loose, so sometimes the pump gets power, sometimes it doesn't!

So, i now have a replacement pump and a slight bodge to the wiring...


Ok, i know that my fuel pump plate seal is leaking, either that or i haven't done the bolts up tight enough!  I also know that i need to insulate my bullet connectors, as they look a bit vunerable.

While i was at it, i thought that i'd replace the brake pads.  Just in time it seems....


these are the redstuff pads i put in around August 2008.  Not bad for 3 track days and 18 months of abuse in between, i'd say i got value for money!! 

Needless to say i replaced them with more of the same, why change a winning formula!!



As well as replacing my brakes, i also gave the car a much needed oil change.  More Valvoline Racing VR1 20w50 going in, the last lot lasted well only needing one top in the 18 months it was in the car!!  I swear this is the best oil ever for these cars!

So now i still need to get my inner wing welded.... 

[Scatmancraig]

Update time!!

After replacing the fuel pump, the car has been running faultlessly.  So a few weeks ago, i paid a visit to that nice Me Pdro to have a look at my supposedly detaching suspension turret!

Once i arrived, first job was to remove the outer wing.  Nice to see a complete lack of rust underneath....


On closer inspection, it appears that my turret was fine!  After i hit the wall at morrisons a while ago, i may have bent something ever so slightly.  But all this really did was to make the seam sealer split, and some fell out.  There is actually a natural hole on the bulkhead side of the turret where the two sides are foled in manufacture.  Normally you can't see the hole as its filled with seam sealer! 

It's difficult to describe what i'm on about, you can sort of tell in this pic...

what looks like a hole on the right hand side of the turret is normally full of sealer, but my sealer has fallen out!!  So, all we did was strip back the remains of the sealer, and put a couple of stitch welds in the gap where the turret meets the inner wing!  A dob of new sealer and jobs a good un!!  Many thanks to Pedro for helping out with this!!

Next job was to fix the cracked strut brace mount on the same turret.  No picks of this unfortunately, but basically the welded mount had cracked.  So we cleaned it up and re-welded it.  There is still a bit of flexing in my shell, as the hole for the brace moved by about 10mm when we tried to take the old brace off!!  Ooops!!  still, we managed to put it back with a bit of levering!!  I think i really ought to be saving up for a roll cage soon!!

So panic over for now, next job is to freshen the appearance up a bit.  Although the car is sold, it was starting to look very shabby.  So, in preperation for the forthcoming marham track day, i have decided to paint it using my old favourite - Hammerite Satin Black!!  I did the roof this colour when i removed the sunroof, but i used rattle cans that time.  This time i was going to brush it on to save time and cost. 

Here's some pics...

Bootlid (paint still wet)..


Bonnet...


1st coat on offside (paint is a bit see-through!!)...


Starting to look a bit better...




Nearly there!!


Looking a bit meaner now...


The paint finish isn't brilliant, some panels are better than others.  The paint needed thinning down quite a lot to get it to brush out properly, so some panels have had 3 coats of paint now!!  Just need to put the bonnet & bootlid badges back on & it's done!!   

[Pedro]

Absolutely nowt wrong with that seam - just the sealer coming off is all!
I stitched it up anyway - I know how hard Mr. Scatman is in his cars at Marham.............

Must admit to being rather shocked to see the lack of tin worm when the wing came off!
I mean, how clean is that???

[Dave the Builder]

Looking good 
me likes the satin black

[Scatmancraig]

Looking good 
me likes the satin black

Why thank you!  Even the bloke 3 doors up shouted a positive comment when i was turning it round in the street!!  Looks a lot better from a distance though!

Well, with the Marham track day tomorrow, all i've had to do today is load the car:

Tools loaded...


Tyres loaded...

(11 where the back seats used to be + 3 in the boot)

Suspension (nearly) on the bump stops...


Marham here i come...!

[Land-Barge]

Looking alot better now it's all one colour

good to know the strut top is not as bad as it looks, my estate has similar damage in that area so i decided to get both sides welded up for extra strength

[Scatmancraig]

Well, Marham April 2010 has been and gone, and the Carlton definitely performed admirably!!

A couple of pics (courtesy of Ian Marsh..)




There are a lot more, but you get the picture!!!

Can't believe how well this car drove, although i discovered how having decent quality tyres does make a difference to handling!  Last time i had 225's on the front, with Continental tyres on, and it stuck to the road like it was on rails.  This time, same size tyres but with cheapo brands on the front, and it handled a LOT worse!!  I could even tell the difference between the handling on left & right turns (different tyres on each side!)!!  Even my horizontal windscreen crack didn't get any bigger, so my body flexing problems obviously aren't as bad as i originally thought!!

The only real problem that i have noticed since Marham is that my brakes seem to be lacking somewhat.  The pads are fine, the discs are fine, but a lack of fresh fluid in the last few years may have taken its toll.  Time for some fresh dot 5.1 when i get a chance!!

[Scatmancraig]

Well, today i went to a drifting practice session at Birmingham wheels banger racing track.  Never been to one before, and now i'm wishing i hadn't.  I'll let the pictures do the talking....









Yep, i spanked backwards into the metal barrier that surrounds the whole track!!  Not at any great speed, but fast enough to bend it badly in the nearside rear corner.  The boot floor is bent, and the rear door shut gap has closed up a little, but the door can be opened & closed ok.  The roof is also ok. 

Not sure what to do now, the organiser of the event also owns several GSi's, and is a panel beater.  He reckons it might be able to be pulled out, but it will take a lot of work to make it right.  The car still drives ok, i carried on using it afterwards and was a lot more aggressive with it, which resulted in me drifting a lot better!!  I simply removedthe damaged light cluster & rear bumper & carried on...



But i do take my hat off to some of the others, as they were so close to the limit without actually losing control, it was a pretty awesome day!!  There was only 8 of us (5 x BMW 3-series, 1 x Omega 2.5, 1 x Volvo 340, & me), and we had the track to ourselves from 9am till 5pm at only £20 per driver!!  Bargain!!

Needless to say i wrecked a few tyres...


But managed to cobble it back together for the journey home...


And put it back to bed in my container...


A few short videos of my weak efforts (pre-crash)...






If i cant fix the car properly, i'll cobble together the rear lights and take it drifting again as it is till the MOT runs out in August.  The plans are to have a monthly practice meet at this track, & it is such good value, i didn't even burn that much petrol!!

So, hopefully in the coming weeks i will have the damage properly looked at & see what can be done.  I'll never get another shell as good as this one, so to me its still worth saving!!  Not sure if everyone will agree but i'm not giving up hope just yet!!

[flash911]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSSS

[Ferret]

dont give up on that car mate u done to much to it and like you said its a good shell. If it helps my father in law has a jig.

[Scatmancraig]

dont give up on that car mate u done to much to it and like you said its a good shell. If it helps my father in law has a jig.

One way or another, this car will survive!!  The rest of the body is totally rot free, i'm fucked if i'm going to give up on it now!!  I've owned it 2 and a half years, its caused me no end of problems, but when it works, it drives better than any Carlton or Senator i've owned before.  This car owes me & i'm getting my money's worth!!