JANUARY 2019 UPDATEEven though I had anticipated issues caused by radiant heat from the exhaust manifold, turbo and dump pipe and had fabricated lots of heat shields, they weren't enough.
I have driven it twice since the turbo upgrade, and it caught on fire both times. This was due to the top of the dipstick being too close to the dump pipe, which burnt the rubber seal and allowed oil to push out and then burn on the hot stuff. Thankfully there was no damage other than the mess from the fire extinguisher. Trust me - it's hard to get it off!
Another reason why oil pushed out of the dipstick was because of crankcase pressure.
Here is a list of changes that I made to help with heat management -
- New home made custom dipstick with heat shield and retainer spring. I spent a LOT of time making this and ensuring that all of the clearances were good. There wasn't a lot of room to play with.
- Replaced braided turbo oil drain hose (that is super close to a manifold runner) with a hard line modified from a FG turbo Ford Falcon.
- Installed an additional heat shield to protect the rubber hose at the bottom of the turbo oil drain hard line. This is probably overkill, though I thought that it would be a good idea to make it seeing how it was all apart.
- Replace the turbo bag with a home made aluminium shield. This was primarily done to protect things in the engine bay from radiant heat.
- Added a heat shield to the wastegate. The wastegate is very close to the dump pipe, and although it is designed to operate in extreme heat, I was worried that heat conducted by the wastegate body from the dump pipe may damage it.
- Replaced all of the red fire sleeve with aluminium coated fire sleeve.
- Replaced the oil drain system from the turbo and catch can with an upgraded and simpler design.
- Installed a modified cam cover that has two large breather holes - see previous post.
- Removed the aluminium cloth sheet that was glued with polyurethane to the block. This had soaked up the leaking oil and contributed to the fire once it started. Although there is value in keeping radiant heat away from the block, I thought that simplicity would be better in this case.
I have entered the CAMS NSW Supersprint series this year, and the first event will be at the Sydney Motorsport Park Gardner circuit in late March. I'm hoping to beat the MR2 lap record there which was set by John Boston. Fingers crossed!
My next upgrade will be to the rear wing. I bought a new wing from Canada, though the deal fell through and I'm still trying to get all of my money back. I've now decided to keep my current wing, though modify it as follows -
- Change to a chassis mount
- Change the angle of the whole wing assembly. I think that it is tilting back too much.
- Raise the height by 30cms
- Add large end plates
I have all of the metal to do it. I just need to find the time to get it done. All of these super hot days don't help to motivate me...
