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Post by swissdave on May 5, 2022 19:58:48 GMT
So the rolling road session was delayed a few weeks but eventually we managed to get it on there. The power spread was great, lots of mid range and plenty of power. A lot of the time on the rollers was spent tidying up the low end and small throttle opening settings. The result being that the car is silky smooth and flexible to drive on the road, I'm really pleased with it. A few photos The genius at work A video of a run up to 6000 rpm at full throttle I've fitted an air box instead of the foam filter to reduce the intake roar, it gets a bit wearing on longer journeys And some sound proofing made from recycled packing material for the boot
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Post by newwy66 on May 9, 2022 22:39:07 GMT
Amazing work. That is a real hot DAF.
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Post by swissdave on May 31, 2022 20:22:38 GMT
Gordon is running very nicely, the latest improvements, a little less ride height at the front and a little more toe in have improved the steering somewhat. I still think a metal UJ somehow fitted in place of the normal flexible rubber coupling would make a huge difference to the responsiveness of the steering, I may have a try at that next winter, alongside a rear anti roll bar. The exhaust broke and caused an AA call out a couple of weeks ago. The link pipe from the Dafhobby 4-1 exhaust manifold to the Classic Swede system had been altered when the turbo was fitted. I managed to reuse this part but in the end a weld failed and the link pipe broke as it had probably already been damaged when the engine mount failed and broke the turbo manifold. The AA guy was awesome, made the car driveable so that I could get home and knew exactly what the car was, accused my Daf of pretending to be a Volvo! 😄 Fortunately I have friends with things like 4 post ramps and welders and I've managed to get the broken piece replaced and have included a flexi section to help everything survive. A few photos
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Post by starider on Jun 1, 2022 19:10:20 GMT
Not sure about fitting a normal U/J, I think a normal all metal U/J would give a very harsh take up of power and be noisey. The rubber "U/J" gives a degree of insulation giving smoother take up of power and balances out some of the transmission vibration. Having been involved with the transmission of power in marine applications,the rubber doughnut method of joining engine to propellor shaft is widely used to reduce vibration. It may be worth investigating marine applications.There is also front hub constant velocity joints such as used on the Mini.
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Post by swissdave on Jun 1, 2022 20:01:15 GMT
Not sure about fitting a normal U/J, I think a normal all metal U/J would give a very harsh take up of power and be noisey. The rubber "U/J" gives a degree of insulation giving smoother take up of power and balances out some of the transmission vibration. Having been involved with the transmission of power in marine applications,the rubber doughnut method of joining engine to propellor shaft is widely used to reduce vibration. It may be worth investigating marine applications.There is also front hub constant velocity joints such as used on the Mini. You're the second Daffer to mention the harshness of a metal UJ. I will look into marine rubber couplings, that's a great idea, something a little stiffer than standard may be the answer and I'd imagine certainly easier to fit into the existing steering column.
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Post by swissdave on Jul 14, 2022 11:48:16 GMT
After a really busy June for the car, covering nearly 1000 miles on various trips it's time for some more maintenance. I had noticed a strange sort of rustling/whooshing noise which although barely noticeable to start with, got progressively louder once the car was really hot after a long fast motorway run. I thought it might be the bearing in the clutch housing, fortunately Graham has these in stock as well as an uprated flywheel bearing so I have changed both while the engine is out. I also found that the bearing in the fan belt tensioner I use was a bit rough so changed three bearings in total. An unusual view of the engine Uprated flywheel bearing
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Post by swissdave on Sept 20, 2022 14:55:45 GMT
The engine is now back in the car with the new bearings fitted as well as some uprated PU rear engine mounts from ClassicSwede. These are the third set of rear mounts I have tried to help counter twisting from the extra power of the new engine which can damage driveshafts. I originally used DafHobby competition rear mounts which were absolutely rock hard, the engine did not move but there was an awful lot of vibration transmitted through the car's body. Next were some used V340 ones from Graham which stopped all vibration but allowed the engine to rock slightly. I'm hoping these new ones will be a better compromise, so far so good. I've also been busy fitting a new toy, a used direct port nitrous kit I found on eBay. A friend helped make some adaptors to fit the tiny nitrous injectors to each inlet The 4 way distribution block feeds nitrous via black nylon pipes to the four injectors I've mounted the bottle in the boot and run two braided hoses through the car to feed the switching solenoid for the nitrous in the engine bay and the bottle pressure gauge in the dashboard Next is wiring the solenoid to be controlled by the engine ECU, only being allowed to operate under certain conditions, only at higher revs and only full throttle when the system is switched on, the ECU will also supply the extra fuel required when spraying gas.
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andrew
Likes DAFs
Posts: 1,104
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Post by andrew on Sept 20, 2022 16:23:40 GMT
May I ask a stupid question? Well, I'm going to ask it anyway! What does the nitrous oxide do to the fuel and is it this gas that causes the drivers of Subaru cars to sound like they're back-firing on the over-run?
Edited: Sorry, it's the cars that appear to be back-firing, not the drivers!
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Post by swissdave on Sept 20, 2022 16:57:02 GMT
May I ask a stupid question? Well, I'm going to ask it anyway! What does the nitrous oxide do to the fuel and is it this gas that causes the drivers of Subaru cars to sound like they're back-firing on the over-run? Edited: Sorry, it's the cars that appear to be back-firing, not the drivers!No such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers! Nitrous Oxide is a gas that is 33% oxygen, normal air that we breathe is 21% oxygen. If you inject it into an engine in place of air you can burn more petrol and therefore make more power. The gas itself isn't flammable nor does it make the extra power, it just enables it. As for pop and bang maps on modern turbo cars I think they are a bit daft, wasting petrol just for sound effects on the over-run but not actually a proper anti-lag system like the old group B rally cars of the '80s but each to their own. 😄
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Post by swissdave on Oct 7, 2022 12:23:40 GMT
Regular readers will know that I want to improve the steering response of my 66, a few years ago I changed the rubber steering coupling at the bottom of the steering column for a solid alloy block that I had machined to fit. As there is a little misalignment in the steering column to steering rack shafts the solid block bound up and created stiff spots in the steering so I went back to a standard rubber coupling. I have now had a polyurethane coupling made up from a 80mm diameter polyurethane rod of 90a shore hardness. I'm hoping this will be flexible enough to not bind like the alloy block I tried but will be a lot less flexible than the standard rubber coupling. I will fit it tonight and will report back after a good trial session over the weekend 🤞
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Post by mtjm on Oct 7, 2022 18:32:58 GMT
Did you mill the polyurethane yourself or have someone else do it? I'm curious as to how easy it is to work with as I've got another car project that could do with some similar parts...
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Post by swissdave on Oct 9, 2022 13:20:29 GMT
Did you mill the polyurethane yourself or have someone else do it? I'm curious as to how easy it is to work with as I've got another car project that could do with some similar parts... I had a local engineering place machine it, the guy said it was a pain to machine as it tries to move away from the cutting tool as it's slightly flexible. Having driven the car a fair bit today with the new coupling I am happy to report that it works perfectly, the steering is now so much sharper than it was before 👍 Next project is a rear anti roll bar
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Post by mtjm on Oct 10, 2022 16:01:21 GMT
I can see that it would be a pain to work with. Definitely one to outsource then! I'm really enjoying this project, keep the updates coming. Did you mill the polyurethane yourself or have someone else do it? I'm curious as to how easy it is to work with as I've got another car project that could do with some similar parts... I had a local engineering place machine it, the guy said it was a pain to machine as it tries to move away from the cutting tool as it's slightly flexible. Having driven the car a fair bit today with the new coupling I am happy to report that it works perfectly, the steering is now so much sharper than it was before 👍 Next project is a rear anti roll bar
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Post by rhysnolan on Oct 10, 2022 16:37:35 GMT
I have previously machined polyurethane, I stuck it in the freezer for a while, then it cuts really nicely!
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Post by swissdave on Oct 10, 2022 19:10:09 GMT
I have previously machined polyurethane, I stuck it in the freezer for a while, then it cuts really nicely! Excellent idea!
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Post by swissdave on Oct 10, 2022 19:19:05 GMT
The next project (the Nitrous system still needs wiring but will be ready soon) is a rear anti roll bar. I had already tried fitting a second front anti roll bar a few years ago but ended up removing it as it made the car tend to understeer more although it did help keep it from rolling so much when cornering. I am going to fit a standard 17mm front anti roll bar to the back of my 66 and see how that works, hopefully if it makes the rear a bit too stiff I can balance that by refitting my second front bar and see a lot less body roll in fast corners. A poor dead V66 gave up its ARB yesterday at Essex Dafs 😢 It's going to go sort of here, drop links will be attached to the rear spring hangers with thick mild steel angle brackets
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Post by swissdave on Oct 15, 2022 20:49:11 GMT
The axle mounting for the new anti roll bar was so simple, a pair of 58mm exhaust clamps are the correct diameter for the rear axle and luckily fit the standard mounting brackets that came with the anti roll bar. A friend has a spare diy adjustable drop link kit that I'm collecting tomorrow, these will attach to the ends of the anti roll bar with small brackets and the other end of the links will attach to mild steel brackets bolted to the rear spring hangers More pics soon
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Post by swissdave on Oct 21, 2022 20:39:41 GMT
The mounts are done, I can't wait to try it over the weekend! I used a cheap eBay drop link kit for a Reliant Robin and made a couple of brackets from 6mm thick angle iron
03/IMG_9494.HEIC[/IMG][/URL] I'm going to put the double front anti roll bar back on tomorrow and will take the car out and try it on some of my favourite corners.
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Post by swissdave on Oct 22, 2022 16:21:57 GMT
I went out for a long drive around today to test the new setup and I'm really pleased. The car is much more "pointy' into turns than before and there is much less body roll on all types of bends. If you power on out of a corner it tightens it's line rather than rolling and trying to push on and understeer as it used to. The only negative is that the ends of the rear anti roll bar can just touch and bang on the leaf springs over large bumps, I'm going to modify the brackets slightly to stop this. The front double setup
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Post by swissdave on Nov 6, 2022 13:40:44 GMT
I've changed the rear ARB brackets slightly to give more clearance to the leaf springs and this has solved the occasional tapping noise when the arb touched the springs over big bumps. I've also changed the wheels (again!) I've had another set of banded Marathon steels made, 30mm extra width on these ones. The last set of steels I had made were +38mm and with 175/60 tyres I had to "roll" the rear arches to fit them and still had clearance issues These slightly narrower ones have got 165/70 tyres and they fit perfectly, filling the arches and no rubbing anywhere. The other change was to make the torque rod on the rear axle adjustable with a kit from ClassicSwede. This allows the axle to sit properly when the car has been lowered. I think running the standard rod with my 1" lowering blocks fitted was the thing making the car so twitchy when coming on and off power. I'm now happy with how the car is handling, the recent few jobs have made a huge improvement. No excuses for not getting the nitrous system finished! Today at Essex Dafs, I actually took it out in the rain!
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Post by swissdave on Mar 12, 2023 20:15:15 GMT
A long winter of mucking about in the garage is finally over and I'm hoping to get the car out for a proper test run up North next weekend. The nitrous system is all working as it should, it is being controlled by the Emeraldecu when switched on with a dash switch and the ECU is switched as well. Basically when the ecu is switched to "map 2" it will fire the nitrous at high rpm and full throttle only. Whenever the nitrous is on there will be a bright red LED illuminated on the dash. At the same time the ECU is giving the engine more fuel through the injection system. As I've started with a 25 horse power nitrous jet I've increased fuelling by 25% as the engine is about 100hp at the wheels now without the gas. I've also used the shift light output from the ECU to control a 5 pin relay connected to the Vacuum control valve. This means that whenever I want maximum acceleration I can switch on the hill descent switch to keep the gearing as low as possible and it will be over/ridden by the ECU at whatever revs I choose. I've used this hill descent button up to now without the ECU to make the engine Rev harder but it's easy to miss turning it off in time and hitting the Rev limiter. I hope this makes sense, I know this project is becoming excessively nerdy but I'm learning loads. 😄
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Post by swissdave on Mar 24, 2023 22:18:03 GMT
The testing went extremely well last weekend, my guess of 25% extra fuelling for the 25hp nitrous jet worked perfectly. AFR was in the high 11:1 range most of the time which is safe and makes good power. I'm keen to try the new setup on the drag strip as I'm sure it's already faster than even with the turbo turned up like last time. I need the car reliable for the next few months so I will keep it as is, a bit later this summer I'm going to try some bigger jets and run the car at Santa Pod again. 😄 My Northern tuning buddy Dave's new hobby is detailing so Gordon received a 7 stage cleaning process finished off with a ceramic coating. I doubt he's ever been cleaner!
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Post by swissdave on May 31, 2023 19:07:19 GMT
The last few weeks have been quite exciting, I decided to try the next size Nitrous jet which is twice the size of the first one I'd used and adds 50 hp worth of gas. I altered the fuelling to suit (or so I thought) and took it for a run. Once the engine oil was up to temperature I switched everything on and tried a pull with the gas on. After an initial surge of power for a second or two it started misfiring badly so I eased off. The car ran fine under normal conditions so I tried it again with the gas, no power increase at all this time and more misfiring. I took it home and pulled the spark plugs, cylinders 3 and 4 had melted most of the electrodes off as they had got far too hot. After some investigation I think a combination of not enough extra fuel and an oil breather mishap that allowed some oil to be drawn into the affected cylinders caused the problem. Unfortunately after removing the cylinder head I found that the damage wasn't limited to the plugs, I had specks of molten electrode on my exhaust valves and valve seats which needed repair work. As I needed the car for a trip to Holland within 2 weeks of this disaster it was a bit of a rush to get the car back up and running. Fortunately I had a spare Gordini head supplied by Graham Dafclassics a while ago which would give more compression, had some larger inlet valves and some tasty porting already done to it. It originally came from a chap that rallied a Gordini powered Daf in the '80s. I had a local engineering firm cut multi angle valve seats and give the head a mild skim before fitting it. Once fitted this new head which gives a compression ratio of about 11.5:1 has given the performance a nice increase and I've used the car since the engine rebuild without trying the nitrous again so far. I'm going to start testing again having been given some great new tips from Trevor, THE Wizards of Nos main man and will take things very carefully. I'm using a different type of spark plug and have a new oil breather system fitted, I'm also going to run it super rich on fuel to start with and work back down to a leaner setting once all is working as it should
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Post by swissdave on Jun 11, 2023 14:33:41 GMT
New wheels! Ive had a few sets on the car over the years but I've never been 100% satisfied with the results. I think wheels make the car and as I've always fancied a set of Image alloys www.imagewheels.co.uk/ I've had a set made. I've gone for 5.5 x 13" size, the front ones have a slightly narrower offset to the rears. The wheels are made in 3 pieces, a cast alloy inner machined to suit the stud pattern, a polished spun alloy outer rim and spun anodised inner rim. The wheels are very light at only 4.5kg each and I'm really pleased with how they suit the car.
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Post by roymck on Dec 20, 2023 20:05:38 GMT
No posts since June ? Is it going ok ? You could always sell it to me if your fed up with it ?
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Post by swissdave on Dec 24, 2023 18:37:28 GMT
No posts since June ? Is it going ok ? You could always sell it to me if you're fed up with it ? Thank you for the offer, but it's not for sale.😄 😄👍 All going well, I'm just a bit short on time for posting about it.
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Post by swissdave on Feb 29, 2024 13:41:52 GMT
This winter the engine has been out again and subjected to some more "improvements" I have fitted a supercharger, a Rotrex C30-74 to it, I've bought a new one this time after the disater with the used one I tried a few years ago. These centrifugal superchargers are very efficient and small, one about the size of a grapefruit like mine can support over 300 horsepower! The plan is that the supercharger blows through a large alloy inter cooler hidden in the front bumper and then into the airbox to feed the 4 throttle bodies. Target horsepower is in the 230hp range at 7000 rpm. Although the Variomatic gearbox has coped well so far with the increased power these last few years I have just had it fully rebuilt, uprated with more and stronger springs and balanced in Holland to help it manage this year's further increased power target. I've also fitted a larger diameter "Rally" clutch fron DCN and some Kevlar reinforced belts from Dafhobby. The engine is now back in and isn't far off running, fingers crossed.
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Post by swissdave on Feb 29, 2024 13:44:09 GMT
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Post by mtjm on Mar 2, 2024 12:26:01 GMT
Wow! Looking forward to seeing how this goes.
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andrew
Likes DAFs
Posts: 1,104
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Post by andrew on Mar 3, 2024 13:01:45 GMT
Bloomin' hell, 230 BHP in a Volvo 66! You've redefined the "wolf in a sheep's clothing" phrase!
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