The first run on the open road

So out on the real road where there are bumps, lorry tracks, pot holes, cambers and pot holes the beast must be civilised.

The first problem encountered is what seems like lack of fuel. The tank has been filled and all of a sudden the engine splutters after 2-5 miles of running. With just 10 litres of fuel on board the engine performs perfectly over many many miles.

The next problem is the handling has gone to pot since the set up for the IVA. Tram lining in lorry tracks, twitchy high speed steering and scary high speed hard braking all need to be fixed.

Heavily clogged filters were the first thing found. Unfortunately living deep in the country side near a forest means insects. They have crawled in through the pipe work and vents and have now flooded out as the car crashes around the road surface. Two fuel filter clean ups later and that problem has gone, so new Pre and Main filters are on order to replace the originals. This should keep the fuel supply clean.

A new pump has also been ordered. This is an upgrade to the original and would have been needed as the power upgrades are performed. So the advancement of this upgrade has been scheduled just to make sure the fuel level issue is not being caused by an insect damaged pump.

The new pump and filters have been fitted and the performance is vastly improved but the amount of fuel in the tank still causes issues. 20 Litres all is well 25 Litres and above and problems begin become worse the more fuel is poured into the tank. Head scratching and forum searching and quizzing goes on and on but all the answers fail to solve the problem.

Le Man is approaching and this problem has to go away. So an adjustable fuel regulator and and fuel vent non-return valve are ordered. The former being expensive and the later being cheap it was always going to be the case that the later will solve the problem. But to be fair the former is going to be needed once the upgraded fuel pump is asked to do it’s full job. So yet again the upgrades are at the ready long before they are needed. Next run will be with a full tank to see if the Vent valve is the complete answer to the problem

Fuel issues explored.

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Further testing in winter of 2013 has proved the cooling system is very nicely balanced. With temps of -5 the car warms up and drives very contently. Which is more than can be said for the frozen driver within. Next time its a hard top or at the very least a rag top build brrrrrr tiz freezzzzzzing behind the wheel.

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