After much deliberation over the weekend, I have decided to withdraw from Curborough this weekend because of the ongoing problems with power loss.
There was no point going with an underpowered car, I would only moan about it not being quick enough.
So this now gives me a 7 week window before the next event I was going to enter, which is Wiscombe hill climb on 19th May, hopefully this will be with a car that is running to it's full capacity.
Monday 26 March 2012
Saturday 24 March 2012
MOT
Arrived at My Garage in Emersons Green to find that the MOT chap that I normally see was away on holiday but no problem as another technician was doing the MOT's that day.
As the car was driven into the workshop I hung around outside waiting and watching. After about 20 mins I couldn't resist going in to see how it going.
Not good as the car was failing on the emissions test, he tried a couple of times and called a colleague over for verification, "sorry but your cats knackered".
I found this very hard to believe because the cat was less than a year old and supplied by Brown and Gammons, who are a well respected MG specialist.
The MOT continued and the car passed on everything about from the emission test. Armed with this information I called B&G to ask for their advice. They were very helpful and asked when I could bring the car back to them for them to inspect for themselves, so I wanted to get it sorted ASAP, so agreed to drive the 2.5 hours on Saturday morning.
Got to B&G this morning before they opened, I was impressed to get there that early, and duly waited for them to open. They quickly diagnosed that the cat had failed and offered to replace then and there. Interestingly the sound from the exhaust on the drive home was one that I was familiar with but hadn't heard from my car for a little while now. So I'm confident that the retest of the MOT next Friday should be a formality but there still remains the issue of lost horsepower and why the cat had failed.
After a few searches on Internet, it seems that most cats fail because of either over fuelling and petrol contaminating the cat or compression loss, this comes back to the earlier problem experienced at the rolling road session.
So the next sprint at Curborough next weekend will still be with a car that I'm not sure exactly is going on with the engine but hopefully the following week when the compression tests are done, should be sorted and we can find those missing horses!!
As the car was driven into the workshop I hung around outside waiting and watching. After about 20 mins I couldn't resist going in to see how it going.
Not good as the car was failing on the emissions test, he tried a couple of times and called a colleague over for verification, "sorry but your cats knackered".
I found this very hard to believe because the cat was less than a year old and supplied by Brown and Gammons, who are a well respected MG specialist.
The MOT continued and the car passed on everything about from the emission test. Armed with this information I called B&G to ask for their advice. They were very helpful and asked when I could bring the car back to them for them to inspect for themselves, so I wanted to get it sorted ASAP, so agreed to drive the 2.5 hours on Saturday morning.
Got to B&G this morning before they opened, I was impressed to get there that early, and duly waited for them to open. They quickly diagnosed that the cat had failed and offered to replace then and there. Interestingly the sound from the exhaust on the drive home was one that I was familiar with but hadn't heard from my car for a little while now. So I'm confident that the retest of the MOT next Friday should be a formality but there still remains the issue of lost horsepower and why the cat had failed.
After a few searches on Internet, it seems that most cats fail because of either over fuelling and petrol contaminating the cat or compression loss, this comes back to the earlier problem experienced at the rolling road session.
So the next sprint at Curborough next weekend will still be with a car that I'm not sure exactly is going on with the engine but hopefully the following week when the compression tests are done, should be sorted and we can find those missing horses!!
Rolling Road Results
I decided after the Mallory Park sprint that I should get the car on a rolling road and checked out to make sure that it is running as well as it could do. So yesterday I took it to South West In Car Tech at Dodington near Bristol.
Well the results from 3 power runs can only be described as disappointing. I was expecting somewhere between 140 and 150 bhp, but the car could only manage 115 bhp. Big disappointment and then the question of WHY? The chap at SWICT seemed to think that the engine was fuelling correctly but was losing compression, so either 1 or 2 cylinders are not as they should be or the dreaded head gasket was beginning to fail.
Took a trip to see mark at MJN motors in Brislington to book it in for a compression check. Mark has seen the car a few times now and was confident it wasn't the head gasket but unfortunately couldn't get my car in for a couple of weeks to check the full compression. With the next sprint at Curborough only a week away, this wasn't good but maybe i would have better luck with the MOT which was booked for later in the afternoon!
Well the results from 3 power runs can only be described as disappointing. I was expecting somewhere between 140 and 150 bhp, but the car could only manage 115 bhp. Big disappointment and then the question of WHY? The chap at SWICT seemed to think that the engine was fuelling correctly but was losing compression, so either 1 or 2 cylinders are not as they should be or the dreaded head gasket was beginning to fail.
Took a trip to see mark at MJN motors in Brislington to book it in for a compression check. Mark has seen the car a few times now and was confident it wasn't the head gasket but unfortunately couldn't get my car in for a couple of weeks to check the full compression. With the next sprint at Curborough only a week away, this wasn't good but maybe i would have better luck with the MOT which was booked for later in the afternoon!
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Mallory Park Sprint 11th March 2012
Waiting to go out on practice run.
Extra guests at lunchtime
Team Chequers pit crew hard at work!
An audience with Lawrie Brown
Darren's MGF Trophy, looks good and went very well
More MG's in paddock
Team Chequers still working hard
Helen and DC enjoying the sunshine
First of all the welding on Saturday all went to plan and I'll post pictures of how we got round the problem of fitting the race harness as soon as I can.
First bit of luck was pulling into Mallory on Sunday morning at 7.30 and arriving right next to DC and Helen. Singing on was fine but scrutineering was very slow and the bit that I had been dreading! The harnesses which I was worried about turned out to be all OK but there was a problem with the passenger door not opening from the outside that I was told to fix, thanks to DC who came back after getting his car scruteneered, to make sure I was OK.
Didn't have time to walk the course but did the convoy run and before I had time to think it was out for the first practice run. Didn't get a great time but hopefully now knew more about the track and gear changes, braking points etc
After a crafty pick of DC's brains regarding tyre pressures, I realised I was running way too low, so a quick round of the foot pump before the next practice run, which took 1.5 seconds off my time.
Lunch came and went and then the real timed runs, first run was disappointing with a slower time than the previous practice run by 0.5 seconds, this followed the final timed run being slower again by only one hundredths of a second.
As DC said when we were packing up, 'that's the worst day, when your times get slower', and yes he was right.
By the time we got home, the results had already been emailed through, and I found that I was the slowest MG in the class but had beaten the only MX5 in our class!
Looks like this is going to be harder than I had thought it would be, but can already see the addiction in trying to go quicker and beat your time.
Best of all though is that it seems like a very friendly championship and look forward to meeting more competitors as the season progresses during the year.
The next meeting at Curborough is on 1st April can't come soon enough!!
Thursday 1 March 2012
Seat Belt Harness
After consultation with Dan from CMC Motorsport and thanks to DC for getting me in touch with him, the way I was going to fit or rather the way I had fitted the 4 point harness wasn't correct. So I've now gone for a full harness bar which will be fitted in place where the original seat belts would have been fitted on top of the engine bay cover, in addition to plates welded into the sides of the car behind the seats for the lap sections.
Only slight problem is that the chap I was going to use to get everything welded in place is away and not back until Saturday 10th March, which all being well should be OK because the first meeting at Mallory Park is on Sunday 11th, just hope I've got it all correct because I've left no time for errors!
On a positive note I've now sent off entry forms for both Wiscombe on 19th May and Gurston Down on 24th June, so the season is starting to come together.
Only slight problem is that the chap I was going to use to get everything welded in place is away and not back until Saturday 10th March, which all being well should be OK because the first meeting at Mallory Park is on Sunday 11th, just hope I've got it all correct because I've left no time for errors!
On a positive note I've now sent off entry forms for both Wiscombe on 19th May and Gurston Down on 24th June, so the season is starting to come together.
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