Fuel Injected VX Beta Spyder

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

I would be interested to know the measurement between the two rivets on the straps if you find a minute.

Thanks

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter will do. But please be aware I copied the dimension from a hood that came off the car and have a lingering concern over if it is right that I will not put to bed until I fit the hood to the car and it goes on neatly or has to be stripped down again.

Eric

[WestonE]

Today I mostly fitted the new undercar exhaust heat shield. It will have an additional front section going up over the rack but I want the wiring in place before I make that one.

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Now where is that Christmas Beer!

[peteracs]

Hi Peter will do. But please be aware I copied the dimension from a hood that came off the car and have a lingering concern over if it is right that I will not put to bed until I fit the hood to the car and it goes on neatly or has to be stripped down again.

Eric

Hi Eric

That is ok, my straps are part of the hood and I was thinking of wrapping the strap around the middle bar with some sort of adjustment rather than fixing in place. Maybe a silly idea, but will give it a try.

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter 5.5cm rivet center to rivet center on the straps. I could drill them out later if needed. I have clamps on my hold down bar not buckles so I can adjust the tension without buckle holes.

Eric

[peteracs]

Hi Eric

Thanks. I have a strap top and bottom and was going to use a buckle I saw on one of the NEC cars a couple of years ago which had a simple snap together arrangement, but you need to secure the strap using a wrap back method rather than with a pin arrangement as original, hard to describe, but will post a photo when I get around to it assuming it is successful.

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter I deleted the Buckle because it has no adjustment and makes an ugly mess of the strap. Pictures to explain.

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[peteracs]

Hi Eric

So you still have a strap top and bottom and it is adjusted via the plastic clip?

Neat and stealthy solution, I may look to go that way as nothing yet fitted.

Peter

[WestonE]

Hi Peter Yes from Webbing Buckles & Straps online cheap and easy. I just hope I have the length right from copying the battered remains of the 3 hoods I stripped. I use stainless pop rivets to try to reduce corrosion. 

[WestonE]

I have used 2 sets of Land Rover Discovery Door switches keeping the interior light and alarm wiring separate so there is no possible interference for the alarm.
I have also modified the Battery Tray with 2 steel strips to mount the custom oil catch tank currently being made by Alloy Racing Fabrications. The battery tray is sandblasted but not yet painted with Eastwood Extreme Satin Black paint. Minor victories on the way to one day driving the car!
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[mangocrazy]

Another vote here for replacing the rusty old cross head door mounting countersunk screws with stainless cap head items (and plenty of Copaslip). I must admit my heart was in my mouth when removing the old ones with a windy gun and Philips bit, but they all came out OK...

[WestonE]

Hi Graham Thanks for the vote I forgot about the screws!

I have the oil catch tank back from being cereal box to alloy. This goes in place of the screen wash plastic tank alongside the battery. I have worked hard to get enough capacity to pass tank rules whilst making it fit the space. Now to carefully fit it to the battery tray!

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[squiglyzigly]

Eric,
Never seen a catch tank in the place of the battery tray washer bottle. Why hasn’t it been done before? Perfect position.
Curious about the tank rules for capacity. Is that a track day requirement or a calculation based on engine capacity/oil sump capacity?

Another nice piece of work

Ian

[WestonE]

Hi Ian

A lot of head scratching has gone into where to put things and I needed to use every space with the strut brace, brake bias valve, Accusump extra fuse boxes, FI regulator etc. 1L is the typical minimum for track day scrutineers. I think I have 1.17L but will actually measure it with some water later today.

Using an old beer or coke tin is no longer well thought of. I have used old gear oil plastic bottles and cycle drink bottles with plumbing fittings before, but decided doing it neatly might be better all round. Lots of oil catch tanks for sale, but they are sized too small for the VX. The VX has a BIG breather needing 22mm ID pipe where as the 2000 Carb only needs 19mm. With 19mm I would have used A/N 12 fittings and could buy a cheap round catch tank that would not fit very neatly next to the battery.

I would have gone with 2x 45% outlets, but wanted to be sure to clear the Accusump.

NB Oil catch Tanks need to be higher than the breather so oil vapour condensates and drain back as much as possible. Inside my tank it is not straight through. The pipes cross so the vapour does not just blow straight through.

Eric 

   

[WestonE]

I just tested this with 1 Litre of water and there is room to spare with no overflow. So even though it looks small it does the job.

Eric

[squiglyzigly]

Are catch tanks mandatory for track days now?

It’s been a while

[WestonE]

Yes if the oil breather is not going back to the airbox on OE fashion. They just do not want oil on the track. For road purposes I could have just used a long curved pipe, but then the oil vapour and condensate would get blown over the underside of the car. As it is I will keep the outlet any from the brake discs and exhaust.

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[mangocrazy]

That looks great, Eric. Very nicely thought out and executed piece of work. For non track day (i.e. road) use would the OE solution suffice? Although how I'm going to make that work with twin DCOE 45's and non-OE air filtration will be interesting. Perhaps a catch tank is a better idea for me as well. As usual, change one thing upstream and downstream at least three more things will require modificaion.

[WestonE]

Hi Graham

You could hook a breather pipe to the back plate of the air box for the twin DCOEs, but the oil vapor pollutes the fuel air mixture and creates a brown varnish deposit on your carbs so a catch tank is best IMHO. Let me know if the breather OD on your engine is 19mm? If so I have a ready solution for you I was going to use before realizing the VX breather is bigger so I would need a custom solution.

Eric

[mangocrazy]

Hi Eric, many thanks for the offer. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to do it properly and use a catch tank. Recirculating oil blowby through the carbs doesn't sound a great idea to me. I've no desire to clog up my nice new DCOEs with oil vapour. Not sure what I should be measuring, but I have the OE oil breather to hand and the spigots on that are 25mm o.d. and 18mm i.d. I can't measure the crankcase outlet on the engine as it's in Stafford and I'm in Sheffield.