Lancia Beta HPE 2.0 IE Track Car Blog

[hongkongphooey]

Those tb's look fantastic! *jealouses* 

Realy nice project!
Do you know this one:

Oh dear....those arch extensions gives me unclean and evil thought's about my Spyder....

[lanciamad]

Oh dear....those arch extensions gives me unclean and evil thought's about my Spyder....

Do it! 

[lanciamad]

Few smallish jobs to update on.
The other day I charged the battery up, because of it going off to the garage I thought it better at least have some decent amount of charge, fitted it, started the car and the car instantly started behaving itself! Drove it to the garage and it didn't miss a beat. The timing definately needed doing as it was 30 degrees out , but still drove fine. While it was there I collected a new alternator belt for him to fit while it was there, to come back and find he'd cut the bracket and welded a section in! He said the belt condition was fine so he'd modified the bracket, with my reaction of, oh ok then
So all seems well again for all of 2 miles of driving! The dreaded MOT is on tuesday so will have to see how it goes, sunstrips been taken out and original wheel back on for the horn (havn't got round to modding the racing wheel), so its all set.
Got around to fitting those adjustable transverse bushes, so thats ready to go on sometime...

The intake manifold is done, got a local company to weld the tubes on as there be visible for a cost of £15. As you can see from the picture, all the tubes are angled at roughly 80 degrees to the base (10 degrees off being flat) so that hopefully when mounted to the engine the throttle bodies will be roughly horizontal, thats the idea...

Bit more work on the bodies themselves, as I removed the choke flaps, obviously there were holes left in the bodies where the mechanism went through, to plug these up, I was recommended to use JB Weld, never heard or used the stuff but delighted with the end result, simple to use and hardens in a matter of minutes...

[lanciamad]

A quick search on fleebay and I ended up winning some trumpets on the cheap, the right length I was after (100mm, should sound awesome) and when they arrived fit absolutely perfect inside the bodies, so if i'm feeling tight I can give them a good old wack into the bodies, or do the same and weld them in which is what I'll more likely do.

I attempted to modify the fuel rail but with it being plastic and trying to fit a brass fitting to it, i think i've scrapped that idea and am going to look at whether I can modify a beta rail, or i'll be on the look out for something else. Roughly £100 has got me this so far...

As I expected, the difference from bodies to manifold is a problem. I've managed to fit the two central hoses which easily supports the weight of the bodies, so for the outside one's i'll have to use some flexible ally hose, as the hoses won't stretch as much as required. Only concern will be whether they collapse when I get around to it all running on the bodies, some reinforcement to them may be required.
Next update, MOT time

[lbcoupe76]

Looking good. Just looking at the photo's and thinking for the outside tubes you could get some tube mandrel bent with a wide angle and cutting that in half and using both ends on each end of the manifold, it would allow you to have the throttle bodies solidly mounted straight onto the manifold rather than using flexi pipe on the ends and relying on the middle to hold it on. This is what i mean

[lbcoupe76]

Please excuse the crude drawing i am neither an artist nor a computer wizz, i also don't know how you guys seem to be able to post pics in your post between text and not just as an attachment at the end. 

[lanciamad]

Yeh there's quite a few ways I could do it, its just what's easiest, cheapest and works I know what I could do, very similar to your suggestion, but i'm restricted by the length of the whole intake tract, as it is now it's at optimum length for the rpm and will just clear the original rad fan. The issue of mounting them should be fine, as there well supported by the two central hoses, and if my plan works i'll be using an IE fuel rail which I can attach the bodies to and mounts to the engine as originally for extra support.
There's probably many ways of attaching pics. into the text, the way I do it, is to upload the pics. into photobucket.com, once uploaded each pic. is given an IMG Code, if you copy this onto the forum, the picture should show wherever you put the code in. But this means it's not permanent on the forum, in other words if I deleted it from photobucket the image would not show as it doesn't exist. (Badly explained)
Had a nightmare day so far yesterday the car was running fine and suprised me again with it's performance (i've been driving my 80bhp delta for 3 weeks solid), all the lights checked etc all the obvious items for the MOT, I bought two new firestone 185/65/14 tyre's for it, one needed doing another was old and on the limit, roll on to this morning and it's all gone wrong. TYPICAL!!!!!!
Thinking oh i'll just get in the car and drive it to the garage now, I get outside to find one of the new tyres flat as a pancake, pumped it up again left it for 10 mins and it started loseing pressure; It's done all of 3 miles so far, great! So this will probably fail the MOT as it'll be flat by the time they MOT it, I go to start the car and will it start, NO! Battery starts to drain so the jump leads came out and started at the second attempt, running very roughly so adjustments had to be made to the linkage and idle to get it running better, and yes the mis-firing/poor running has returned again missing around 2-3k rpm as usual, so yes it'll fail on the emissions as well now, so there's two things before the MOT even happens.
Why do we do it

[lanciamad]

After a disasterous morning things turned out as good as they possibly could. The car passed the MOT, and wasn't even given any advisories Result!
After explaining about the tyre, that it has done 3 miles and seems to be loseing air they kindly topped it up with air and it hasn't lost any air since, i'll know by the morning if all is well. Only things that were mentioned was the wear on the nearside tyre which was previously on the rear offside and very slight movement in one of the rear struts, which may just be down to the top shock nut needing a slight tighten.
It's running even worse now, running on 3 cylinder about 75% of the time but he said for the MOT test by moving the ht lead up on the 3rd cylinder seemed to get it running on 4 and removing a vacuum hose seemed to improve things; anyway it passed the emissions test fine, so another years motoring (when it works)

[lanciamad]

Time for an update...
I've got it running much better now, but not absolutely perfect. Put a new set of NGK plugs in (after adjusting the gap on them) and it went straight back onto four cylinders and running much better now i've adjusted the linkage again. The exhaust is rattling against the handbrake linkage/underside at idle, i've got rear adjustable transverse arms to fit, front adjustable camber bodies to fit, front poly top mounts and gear linkage bushes to fit as well as changing one of the switches for the electric windows (thanks to Geoff for them), so the cars going to be sat on the drive for a month or two while I do all that lot, at which time i'll be able to afford to tax and insure it by then hopefully. I've also got to get my LX through the MOT this month, as well as various jobs the turbo will need before its ready for the MOT also sometime this month; looks like i'll be out on the drive day and night whatever the weather .
Back to the throttle bodies set up, i've ordered a built-in trigger wheel to an ally crank pulley which will take 6-8 weeks to arrive , so i'm going to try my best to have everything ready to bolt on and layed out by the time that arrives. The plan is to have it all setup, running and reliably! by june/july. Failing that, deffinately for beta meet/retro rides. I was asked several times last year whether I was going to take to the track at Sparkford, so this year I think I might have to , in the meantime keeping its standard 108bhp useable for events until then.
Anyway, I have done some work towards this, although not that much, look familiar?...

and painted...

some fancy 10mm braided fuel pipe...

I then had one of those moments..."hang on these bodies split apart from each other"...

Two bolts undone and the linkage removed in the middle, and bingo ; all four hoses fit the manifold...

This left me with a gap to make up...

Bit of welding and some longer bolts, and the bodies are connected to each other again as well as the linkage for both...

Sprayed up the manifold with high temperature paint which is silver although looks more grey to me...

and finally, back to the fuel rail, instead of the standard beta regulator i've removed this and fitted an adjustable regulator "suppose" to be for an MR2, simply welding a bracket to the rail to hold it, looks reasonably smart and hopefully will be functional...

Using a spare beta rail seems to be the ideal solution, as not a big problem but allows me to use the original fuel rail for both input and output and already mounts to the engine in one place. Only issues are that i'll only be using the four injectors instead of eight, the cold start will need blocking up as its not required and the main issue of how to keep the injectors firmly mounted to the bodies that's all for now

[lanciamad]

Unfortunately i've been extremely busy working on delta's so the HPE has been sat on the drive. My LX had it's MOT which it passed without any advisories I did have to replace the front discs and ball joints beforehand though! My latest car i've got my teeth into has been my long term project HF Turbo, http://www.lanciasport.com/forum/index.php?topic=2585.0 http://www.lanciasport.com/forum/index.php?topic=2585.15, after getting it back from having a lot of welding completed, I changed the clutch which had it's usual complications, to then have the clutch release bearing explode in my LX, so decided to replace the whole clutch while I was at it in that and as a result havn't had any time other than changing delta clutches!
I did start the HPE up the other day which it fired up first time (cant ask for anymore), and with the cut-off switch fitted, the clock doesn't slowly drain the battery which is a bonus. The turbo has had its MOT which it failed on a few issues, so there going to be sorted by the garage as I have other commitments, so I should have some free time during evenings for the HPE, and with watching the racing at combe today it's got me into the mood to want to work on and drive the car again. So if possible, she'll be on the roads from may.
List for me to work on:
Adjust exhaust away from underside/handbrake
Fit adjustable transverse arms
Cut adjustable spax units out of current bodies
Fit adjustable spax units into replaceable type bodies
Fit front polyurethane top mounts
Set and mark negative camber on front bodies for road and track
Replace gear linkage bushes
Replace electric window switch
Strip some more weight out of it, (do i remove the front door cards and trim )
USE IT !!! 
Remove injectors from donor MGF manifold
Fit and secure injectors and fuel rail to bodies

I'll think of something else in a minute, so i'll stop there. Anyone got any suggestions of things I could do to/with it, feel free to shout. I'd love to start on a cage but then there's the weight/strength argument and insurance complications.

[lanciamad]

Well I thought that it was the exhaust needing adjustment away from the body, but I soon found out that it was actually the central heatshield deciding it didn't like being attached to the body anymore. It was only being held on by the nut furthest towards the back while the other two are no where to be seen, causing it to rattle on the ansa/middle section. Worryingly thats one of the things i've never had to remove so I don't know whats happened there.
I've removed the heat shield for now, so will more than likely make a new one as the originals holes have been enlarged. To get the nut off I needed to drop the exhaust system; so why I was at it I've now fitted a secondary pair of adjustable transverse arms with betaboyz poly bushes, so I can adjust toe and camber now on the back. For now, I adjusted the arms to the same length as the original fixed arms, so geometry should still be the same.
I probably would have had enough time this week to fit all my new front stuff, but didn't fancy setting it up roughly, and changing to negative camber is probably guna put the tracking way out = shredding my tyres if I take it to Brooklands. The cars, all MOT'd and insured, so see if I can sort some tax out tomorrow, and as long as it's running fine i'll take it on saturday; be nice to compare to the laggy turbo.

[lanciamad]

Well I had a good drive down and back from brooklands the other week, really nice venue, the weather turned out to be better than expected and some great cars on show. First time i've had a chance to drive the car a decent distance this year and it didn't dis-appoint, nice to have some instant throttle response than waiting for a turbo to kick in and dump 140bhp in one lump. I remembered to set all the suspension to fully soft before we left, so had a nice smooth ride and saved my back in the process, but did mean I had torque steer whenever I wanted  Also on the way back home I joined the motorway, what was the car in front of me? Tony in is coupe.

Shock horror, I actually did some work on the car today, I wasn't in the mood with the damp weather today, but got some motivation and got to work with my new front setup.
One of my latest purchases from Mark, although i've had it for months Front polyurethane top mounts...

Bit of paint...

Firstly I un-did the strut top nut while it was on the car, leaving it threaded a few turns, for removing easily later on...

Both removed from the car, and then dis-mantled...

Then the real work started, my front spax are fitted in sealed type bodies which I cut then welded up, so I needed to cut the bodies once again to get the spax inserts out...

Then I had to fit the spax units into my replaceable strut body type, which already has the holes enlarged for the eccentric bushes to adjust camber. They did fit with some force (some metal tube, piece of wood and a hammer) and won't be coming back out of there in a hurry.

Both done and dusted...

So by tomorrow the top mounts paint will be fully dry and hard and I can build the front suspension again, fit to the car and get playing Have no idea how much the eccentric bushes are going to adjust the camber nor how the suspension will be like with the top mounts, so should be quite interesting.
Another job on the list, replacing the gear linkage bushes...

[lanciamad]

Still not really progressed with the car lately but it is back on it's wheels again. Most urgent job is deciding on the camber I want and then have the tracking adjusted accordingly. Few more bits turned up for the throttle bodies setup last week, cost me an arm and a leg but it was worth it.
Ally crank pulley with built in 36-1 trigger wheel...

Crank position sensor with attached loom...

Crank position sensor bracket...

[andybeta]

A very nice blog Marcus. What is the progress on your HPE? Will it be going with you to the AGM on sunday?

Have just read your update on the thread in Steering where you write the front wheels are now at -2 degs camber. It will be very interesting to hear your comments on how the car now steers and handles. So will see you in it on sunday at the AGM?

Regards,

Andrew

[lanciamad]

Hi Andrew, thanks for the comment about the blog always nice to hear something positive. It's a great record for myself and hopefully interests others. Latest progress with the car hasn't been much really, i've done some testing for a few new projects for Mark W, which delayed things but looks like there almost fully tested and should be ready to sell soonish.
As you've seen, the work that's been done recently is the suspension set-up of the whole car really. I've had the front and rear camber and toe adjusted to factory figures apart from the different camber i'm running on the front. I've only driven it back from the garage 10 miles set-up as it is, and it certainly feels strange. Keeping it straight feels like it's on a knife edge and it almost feels like the ground determines at what angle the steering wheel is to keep it in the straight position. (I have a smaller wheel with a central yellow band to make things worse) Turn in seems a little vague but it's unfair to criticise at this early time, I also have a plasticy old nearside tyre i'm desperate to wear out that gives no grip, was originally on the rear offside and has a few marks left on it where I spun the car at combe! I think I need to start chucking it about and getting some body roll going before I can comment fully.
All being well i'll be going to the AGM in it, i've only been to brooklands with it this year (and I cleared off looking at other cars for the whole day), so I plan to use it for most of the rest of the year. It's got a VERY busy month coming up, Lancia AGM, Llandow track day, Kilver Court - Beta Meeta, Retro Rides.
What car will you be in Andrew? Have we met? or probably seen each other at other events? Give us a shout if you or anyone wants to look at anything, it is effectively an advertisement for http://lanciabetaparts.co.uk/ with so many things fitted that Marks come up with.

[andybeta]

Marcus,
Yep, we've met. Briefly at the Autumn AutoItalia Gaydon meet either last year or the year before.
Sadly I won't be arriving at the AGM in a Beta or even a Lancia, but another Italian marque.
Hopefully see you again on sunday.
Regards,
Andrew

[lanciamad]

Before I start, just like to say it was nice to catch up with Andrew, Eric, Jonathon (Congratulations), others and those that were a bit busy during the day I left alone. at the AGM last sunday. Car went absolutely fine there and back and gave me some miles to get used to a some-what more balanced handling car, which i'm very pleased with.
Llandow

An eventful day unfortunately. Car ran perfect there, perfect back but only for 2 hours while at Llandow. From 12 til 4 I ended up chasing an electrical gremlin. Car was running fine, perfect even, for the sighting laps, session 1, 2 and 2 laps of the 3rd session then this happened...

This is getting a too regular sight on tracks around the west It seemed to be exactly the same problem I had at Combe. As I came out of the corner, engine just cut out and I drifted onto the outside of the circuit. Tried re-starting and it was really struggling to turn over, giving signs of a flat battery, even though the battery was fine. Thanks go to the llandow marshalls that quickly towed me back into the paddock.
After the initial check, that both belts were still attached to relevant pulleys (they were!) I checked the fuel pump was pumping and pressure was getting to the injectors; it was. So attention went straight onto “spark” or the lack of it. Turned it over and no spark, there was no output from the coil even though there was a supply to the coil which was very hot may I add at this point. After hours of changing relevant parts, coil, amplifier and distributor still no luck.
As soon as the ignition was turned on the coil (which ever fitted) would start to get hot suggesting there was a short of some nature in the wiring which explained the poor turning over speed of the starter and I later noticed the voltage gauge was reading well below than where it normally does before you start cranking.
I started tracing and checking connections and wiring, pulled a connector apart which is the complete opposite side of the coil in the engine bay, put it back together and suddenly the voltage gauge on the dash read where it should. Connected all the original parts and wiring back together, and it sparked, everything back together, fired up 1st time! I can only presume either the wires lost connection or were corroded in some way causing either a short or a large amount of resistance. Luckily the connector in question is not one i’ve replaced yet so wasn’t down to anything i’ve done, but I will certainly be giving that connector a chop, investigation and replacing with a fresh locking one. Maybe it’s only coincidence but both times it’s happened while on track, after a while, so whether the coil is being able to cope with consistent high revs is still a ‘dno’.
Of course by the time I had it fixed and running, i’d replaced the wheels/tyres for the road one’s and packed everything away into the car so it was pointless going out onto the wet track. Did I mention it tipped down with rain from 1pm till we left?! Left the circuit forgetting I hadn’t softened the spax dampers and realised after the first bump in the road! Pulled over in the nearest layby, softened them all within a minute and drove perfectly all the way home with my back still in one piece.
Enough of talking about what went wrong, and onto what went right. What a circuit!!!! Only roughly a mile in length and it has all you want, two straights long enough to get your foot down, I managed 93mph in fourth i’m told. A chicane which people were extremely surprised how quickly I was going through (about 60/65mph) a long sweeping right and some very slow 2nd gear twisty left and rights leading to the back straight, looks simple on a track layout picture, and slightly different behind the wheel. It’s a fantastic circuit for testing brakes and suspension as power is almost irrelevant if you cant stop or get round the twisty bits.
After the sighting laps, I went out for the 1st session getting used to the car and track, and it only got better, came in, checked tyre pressures and the nearside front and rear had rocketed up 7 psi each in 10 laps! Let the pressure back down to equal all round and then 4psi lower for the nearside’s to compensate which seemed to do the job.
Session 2, especially towards the end I was at the limit of the cars and my ability I would say. I passed an AC Cobra replica and was slowly catching a 1.9 205 GTI given another lap or two I would have been looking for an overtake.
Session 3 I went out by myself, very much the same as session 2 but slightly lighter this time without a passenger which could only help, unfortunately I then had the problem which ended my track time, but while I was out there I was having great fun and had more people admiring and asking questions about the car and what was under the bonnet, than didn’t these just rust away which was nice.
Me and a Zetec Turbo’d Morris traveller!....

I think I can quite comfortably say it’s the best handling HPE in the UK at the moment, it was such great fun, predictable and very grippy in the sweeping bends; it was a joy! What impressed me the most was how it coped with the single car wide slight off centre of the chicane. Slight right, left and very right, with the steering wheel! While at pushing 65mph it just gripped and held on for dear life, this is where I was gaining the most on others and keeping up with faster stuff in the bends. The 205 I was chasing for example was using some of the run off to widen the angle of the sweeping right hander while I didn’t need to. I did miss having an LSD round the very tight twisty corners (2nd gear), understeery and full throttle in 3rd leaving the corner was basically a drift of understeer across the track, but we cant have everything.
After 3 sessions I have officially shredded one of the front track tyres, the others on the limit and the backs will last a couple more events yet. I’ve turned all my discs a nice shade of blue and funnily found the brakes a bit fadey on the journey back once they were stone cold, once I started using them (when I got off the M4) they came back to life.
Like everything, you can always improve something or everything! But she still lives on as a working progress and did me proud for the time I was on track. Now I just need a LSD, bigger brakes and more uprated springs!
Some video’s to recover from the mass of writing...
Llandow Charity Track Day 21/7/10 Lancia Beta HPE Track Car
Llandow Charity Track Day 21/7/10 Lancia Beta HPE Track Car 2
Llandow Charity Track Day 21/7/10 Morris Traveller
See you guys in a couple of weeks at BETA MEETA 10 (Kilver Court) and Retro Rides! Still ummin and rrrin whether to take to the twisty sparkford track.

[lanciamad]

Progress is slow, and steadily getting slower at the moment but this is the latest anyway...
With the manifold for the throttle bodies set up, I was really struggling for an easy answer of attaching the injectors and fuel rail securely, so am in the process of trying something a bit different. My answer, using the IE intake manifold with some modifications. It's a perfect fit, already has everything in place for attaching the injectors and fuel rail, of course i've got a spare! and just requires a take off for the brake servo as far as I can work out, as i'll be running a fixed fuel pressure and problem fixed.
I got the hacksaw out....

A few hours later....

Now i'm just in the process of cutting and smoothing everything to take some silicone hoses to join the manifold and bodies together...

I have been using the car again more recently, last sunday visiting the village of imber thats only open a couple of weekends a year suprising some more modern machinery as I went, and managing to spin both wheels as I went off down the road to the suprise of my passenger, that would be the light drizzle and rubbish tyre combo

[lanciamad]

I've made the decision which I will probably regret, to take the car off the road til march (MOT time), the only event I would do is a charity track day at castle combe (which i've done for the last 2 years) in November, and the tax runs out at the end of this month so it's going to sit on the drive and hope it tips it down when it comes to the day it would be going round the track.
With it off the road, i'm going to try and work on some projects i've started and frankly given up with. Also start saving up for various parts for the car and also a seperate engine build, to be fitted next winter; the idea being I get my budget throttle bodies conversion all up and running next year, give a good testing before the winter, have my uprated engine ready to go in, and then do a full front end rebuild with the uprated engine on bodies.
I was going to do a seperate post about my proposed engine build, but as it's going to be fitted to this car anyway I might as well mention it here, please feel free to speak your mind. As with many things, cost has been the biggest consideration, so bare that in mind; i'm going to do as much work as possible, but will have to get a local company to do the machining for me.

Bottom end:

Recently bored out block to take 84.6mm pistons
New 84.6mm High Compression pistons
Crack tested Lightened flywheel with balanced crank
20% uprated SPEC racing clutch
Aluminium Crank Pulley with built in trigger wheel
Baffled sump with Accusump system and VX oil cooler

Head:

Oversize stainless 43mm intake valves, and 37mm exhaust valves.
3 angle valve seats
Port and polished
Iskenderian racing valve springs
Fiat Strada 130TC camshafts
Adjustable cam pulleys
Racing spark Plugs

Induction/Fuel:

Custom manifold fitted with GSXR750 throttle bodies, remanufactured IE Injectors, IE fuel rail fitted with an adjustable fuel pressure regulator.

Ignition:

Wasted spark ignition from a Ford, megasuirt ECU and wiring loom

Exhaust:

4:2:1 mild steel ANSA manifold, leading into a straight through pipe to a rear single silencer.

Some parts I have already purchased which helps, but some of the new and as a result, expensive parts are still to buy, somehow it doesn't look so bad when it's individual costs. I wouldn't like to work out the total bill. 

[Radical Racing]

I have also moved my battery to the trunk on my 1981 Beta Coupe.   I am having electrical problems most probably due to not enough ground.    I looked at your photos showing the battery box and the one showing the front left corner of the engine compartment but cannot see exactly where you attached the gournd (earthing leads).   Could you take another photo(s) to give me a better view of what you did please?

Also did you run a ground wire off the - battery post to the chassis in the rear and another to the gear box?


Thank you - Todd