It is alive!

As many have proclaimed before, it's alive.

I got to this point much sooner than I originally thought possible...

Crimpage

Got a new toy recently - a hydraulic crimper. All the instructions are in Chinese so possible it might not last long as it wasn't expensive however it's very very satisfying to use.

I'm crimping my own battery cables (50mm squared for the starter/positive run from battery at rear and negative to chassis) which means standard spade terminal crumpets aren't big enough.

Enter the big one - can't remember how much force it can exert but it's in the tonnes. Crimps anything from 2.5mm squared to 70mm squared.

The result is beautiful hexagonal crimps.

And if made my first battery cable.

Fuel sender and gasket

Take one of these

Fuel sender. Measures something like 33 ohms empty and 240ohms full. 

Measure depth of tank and then draw out profile on a piece of paper. Then I used some masking tape on the wire to show approximate level of where the float needed to be. It's secured to the wire by just circling around a narrow bar to make a spring loop which then slots into the recess on the float.

Deliberately I left the float position so that it would be more accurate measuring the low point than the high - whilst the tank will register full for a bit after filling I don't mind the optimistic feeling that will give me that I'm driving economically. Ho ho.

Further more, the arm is angled to deliberately sit about an inch off the bottom of the tank. This means with a bit of maths I should be able to work out exactly the remaining volume when the needle is on "E" and therefore how many miles I have left if petrol stations are hard to come by. Nifty eh?

So above is the inch safety margin on empty.

Then using some of this stuff - special gasket paper a set of compasses and a leather hole punch device kindly lent by a neighbour 

And we have a gasket made. I won't bolt it in to the tank yet but just a case of some blue hylomar gasket seal on either side and around the holes and we have a sealed sender.

Amazingly all the holes line up!

Waterworks

Having successfully created a cosmic (according to some) cooling system route to navigate around the steering column clearance needed I have made the following decisions:

1. Remove anti-roll bar on he front suspension. Will refit at a later date once I've finished getting the cooling sorted. The cooling is more important.

2. Bite the bullet on the transmission cooler. It needs to go in front of the radiator although I don't like the idea of what it will look like. I have some aluminium paint to help it blend into the radiator.

3. Stick with the 17" fan. Whilst there's a bit if a gap round the edge of it I can always make a shroud in the future if overheating is an issue, it shifts a lot of air. All the dust that was under the car is now at the back of the garage courtesy of the first trial run - and that wasn't on the high speed!

So. The below shows where I am up to. The two things left here are the open pipe on the air intake for the crankcase ventilation tube and and the mass airflow sensor which needs to go into the air intake.

Big update

Where to start? I've been acquiring parts left right and centre; fuel tank, header tank, shiny air intake, engine bay cladding (shiny), hoses, radiator, cooling fan (large) and wheels. Yes, wheels, not so shiny to start with but they are improved alread. Some chap had to sell his part built kit with additional spare wheels so I helpfully took his 16" rims with black centres off his hands.

16s were always my plan as surrey council don't seem to think pothole repair  is their responsibility so a rough ride should be tempered by these.

I'm very taken with the look though. Oh, and they came with my choice of tyres too.

Fuel line connecting to tank taking place here - Jon welded the AN bungs onto the inbuilt swirl pot for me. Just the cover plate to go over the hoses under the diff for additional protection from bumps.

Happy with exhaust position now so have fully tightened the brackets. I won't seal the joints until I've test ran engine in case I have to pop it out for any reason.

 Above view from tank. Held in place with 5 M8 bolts that are in threaded holes directly on the chassis. I will probably loctite these once I'm happy with everything so I don't lose tank when out and about.

 

Bit of tweaking required for water header tank position. I will use a couple of pieces of 1/8 aluminium flat to raise it up under the brackets to help along to radiator position.

The water thermostat position is a bit of a challenge with the L99 engine as it's further out in front of the engine meaning the hose can't take the usual LS3 route without fouling the serpentine belt or steering column shaft. However a bit of work with a protractor and a 180 degree bend trimmed from Viper Performance and the convoluted result can be seen. 

The white tie is supporting the stainless lower tube in position to help with alignment before fixing down. Or up.

I think there's a certain Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells album cover look to these bends... Jon at AK described the look as 'cosmic' but think he added an s with a typo by accident. If it works then I don't have to either make a spacer flange or order a different thermostat takeoff from the US so it's all good. Might be a nightmare for an airlock but will see how that goes when I fill it all up.

One big fan. A Kenlowe 17" dual speed. Can operate as a push or pull. I wanted as big as possible to ensure the transmission cooler is taken into account. The engine computer has dual speed fan output based on temperature parameters that I can control so also wanted to take advantage of that too - efficiency, lower noise etc. 

One small bit of tweaking to do before installing pipe work properly is to just file out a bit more on the steering spline lock bolt position as the bolt won't go through as it is at the moment.

Exhausts 1

Rear exhaust pipes cause more of a challenge underneath the Cobra than side pipes as room is limited.

There was a sligh snag issue with getting the rear section in correct position as the rear diff bracket was just catching on the pipes preventing them from being high enough.

So a combination of dropping the mid section down 10mm to allow for the fuel hose cover under diff (stops it being damaged and spraying fuel everywhere if there's a grounding) plus putting an agled  edge at the outermost ends of the bracket using a hacksaw plus my new (old) bench grinder made pretty light work of this.

Propshaft 1

AK recommend Bailey Morris in St Neots and I have to say their service so far has been outstanding. An exchange of emails from my original enquiry has lead to the following:

I have to remove the big black rubber donut from the transmission output flange. Not needed.

I need to measure the PCD of the flange fixing holes.

Measure the internal flange location pin depth and diameter.

Finally measure the length of shaft required.

Here's the set up as it stands. 

They will make a slip propshaft as my transmission yoke is fixed with 50mm play in it.

I've measured the PCD three times and it's not a standard size 96.7mm - by physical measurement, scale drawing and also trigonometry all say the same. Given that this is a really important measurement I'm going to send the black donut along with the driveshaft flange to them and they can ensure we get it spot on.

Oil cooling pt 2

And here is the oil thermostatic take off fitted. Pretty straight forward, the test being to run the engine up to operating temperature and check for leaks and that the oil cooler itself warms up showing the oil is flowing. 

I haven't decided on final run for lines yet till I get radiator in and trans cooler in to check where they are all best led. Then I must remember to fill the oil cooler with oil, plus once it's all up to temp the main oil sump will need topping up to cover pipe volumes. Should be self bleeding so air gaps shouldn't be an issue.

Liquid rubber

Yes, you read that correctly. I've read that a few people have had a challenge when a stone gets trapped in wheel tread and then ejects itself upwards at a rate of knots into the underside of the wheel arches. With unpleasant consequences as the stone hits the glass fibre and can cause an impact star in the fibreglass or pushes up enough to cause paint to crack.

AK put in a very thick cloth in the undersides as shown in these photos to negate this but it needs painting to get it looking uniform and professional. 

At the same time the engine bay needs a good coating too to stop any reflections in the stainless cladding being anything other than black! It's a pain but better to do now than later as it's more of a pain once the body is on and engine in. (Thanks for that tip Tommy)

Front wheel arch view to headlamp hole.

Using a roller will get a good finish as I'm not worried about going the whole hog with a schutz gun on an air line.

So using this stuff, liquid rubber which is used for sealing flat roofs is a good option.

It creates a waterproof seal with rubber, so two coats will hopefully add some additional shock resistance too.

It's what I imagine trying to paint with bitumen must feel like - hard work.

Photos of finished result to follow.