Over the last 2 nights (working after baby  has gone to bed till around 10pm) I have got the new clutch installed and the engine back in and fully hooked up with water and electrics again. Last night was spent re-making electrical connections that got broke on engine removal, and re-installing the exhausts.

I didn't actually start the engine and tets the clutch as it was 10pm at the time and I would have woken the baby, and annoyed the neighbours. I'll see this evening after work if all the hard work has been worth it and the clutch operates again.

It had better do, I have a track day on Saturday!!!

Well, I broke it again, and this time I had to get the engine out to fix it. On my last track day the clutch gave up and I couldn't get any gears. I suspected hydraulic failure, but after changing the whole system, there was no improvement.

So I proceeded to remove the engine to get at the clutch and find out what was wrong with it.

My wife and daughter lending a hand.

A hole I had to cut in the passenger footwell to get at the clutch slave cylinder.

Front bodywork and radiator removed in preparation for engine removal

Lifting the engine out (yes, by the exhaust manifolds)

Bits of friction material sticking out of the clutch assembly:

More friction material in the bellhousing and on the floor

Here you can clearly see that it's a dual mass flywheel :(

And at last the answer, all friction material missing from the flywheel side of the friction plate.

Looking at the side of the friction plate, plenty of friction material on one side, all missing from the other!

Hello everyone! Well I haven't postsed since May, and the reason for that is that this is the build diary for the car, and, well, it's built!

As you may have already read, the car did it's first track day a couple of months ago, and came through it with some minor issues, all have now been fixed. The next track day is in a couple of weeks time, but this time It has a full set of track day tyres, which should hopefully provide much more grip. I also intend to tweak the brakes to get more power out of them.

I won't be posting here very frequently any more, as like i said, the car is built. I am planning on some big upgrades over the winter, and will post as I'm doing them. I intend to replace the BMW master cylinder with a servo assisted one for a sierra XR4i I have. And that will require removing the engine and gearbox to re-route brake lines. At that time i will also repair the leaking oil seal on the gearbox.

I will post pics up as they come, but for now - thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.

Sam.

I've sneaked in some garage time this week.

I've fitted a new circlip to the gear selector mechanism to stop it separating again, hopefully.

I looked at the cooling system and found that the rad bottom hose was leaking as the hose clip simply wasn't done up tight enough - doh! The thermostat housing was indeed cracked and has been removed. I've ordered a replacement housing and am awaiting it's arrival in the post.

Apart from the repairs, I've been making new camera mounts. I did use my on board video camera last week but unfortunately it's location meant it couldn't see much and the videos were crap. So my small camera is now mounted on the steering rack extension just inside the drivers side front wheel. It should have a great view from down there. I've also made a roll bar mount for my ordinary camcorder.

Will do some more work on it tomorrow.

Should have mentioned that the pics below were taken by Ian Stent of Complete Kit Car magazine, many thanks Ian!

Ok here's a couple of pics from the track day:

The rear squats down low under hard acceleration!


Being chased down by a Westfield ZEi