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Post by skyquake on Sept 14, 2020 12:25:52 GMT
I have to say, that radiator mount is downright sexy!
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Post by buildityourself on Oct 17, 2020 20:24:35 GMT
Radiator and horns
We could n't use the donor car radiator as it had aircon with a larger radiator. Therefore the radiator we are using is a VW Polo 1.0 one, these are common on westfield kits that use the zetec engines so should be ok for the Sonic7. It comes with an inlet/outlet, blanking for a temp sensor, and also a air bleed outlet. First task was to mount an electric fan to the core. The fan we bought was suitable for mounting in front or behind the radiator. After much consideration I decided we should mount to the front of the rad. There is a view that behind is more effective but I could n't find any actual evidence of this, and i had some other plans that this would help with. Centred on the core. Retaining rods and clips held through the core. Mounted to the radiator frame using the fabricated alloy brackets. Using the original bracket, but reversed the horns were mounted to the radiator frame.
In place using the original loom wiring. A new connector was used for the fan as the original was sold with the focus radiator, and had 6 pins as the aircon version had 2 fans. The radiator was connected to the side pod coolant pipes using 1m straight silicone hose. We then slowly filled up the system with coolant. The focus uses 7.5 litres of coolant, so we had assumed that the Sonic7 would use much more, but 8 litres was added to fill the reservoir to the max line. The hoses were squeezed to push the coolant round, and after a few days topped up with another 0.5 litre as the level had gone down. The left most hose from the reservoir goes to the top of the raditor bleed outlet. In theory the engine is ready for its first start now , but might wait until an exhaust is fitted before attempting this.
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phaeton
Full
Thinking of Supercharging
Posts: 138
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Post by phaeton on Oct 17, 2020 20:58:45 GMT
The reason most go for behind the radiator is because the most efficient way to to put the fan in a shroud so that it pulls through the full radiator then out through the fan, the way you have done it could cause hot spots in the corners outside of the fan sweep. However whether it causes you an issues will only be seen once you are on the road.
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Post by familyguy on Nov 1, 2020 20:40:50 GMT
I have the same radiator/ fan setup on my st170 engine and it seems to work fine under test conditions but yet to fully road test it.
Edit - 150 mile round trip to IVA retest and temps were fine, didn't get above 96C
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Post by buildityourself on Nov 16, 2020 20:07:14 GMT
familyguy Great to hear rad/fan works ok. Suspension HolesThe next stage was to check/finalise the suspension holes. On initial inspection the passenger front shock hole looked to be in the wrong place compared to the drivers side. This was marked out to equal up, and chain drilled to remove the bulk of the material. Then a cylindrical sanding attachment in a drill for final trimming. Steering rack hole trimming. Wishbone holes trimming. Suspension test fitted to check clearances. Repeated for drivers side The same process was repeated for the rear drivers side and the rear passenger side In general the holes were far to big as starting points as they only need to be the size of a wishbone bush and then cut out for the suspension travel. In particular i don't like the rear upper wishbone holes on the drivers side as they show too much of the chassis, when they don't need to. This area could be improved on the kit. The next step was to fit edge trim to the openings. Of course this required further triming for the thickness of the trim, but won't bore you with that... These were bonded in to hold them in place because of the curvature of the holes, this meant that it was a very slow process as I could only steal a handful of pegs from indoors ;-) and wait for one by one to dry overnight. Sorry for blurred photo despite all the time i had to take these, this seems to be the only one I took. It was nice at the end to try on the suspension with a wheel for the first time. Now it really gives a true impression of how low the Sonic 7 is. Working on tressels is very misleading....Should I starting thinking how are we going to get it down yet?
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Post by buildityourself on Dec 3, 2020 20:58:37 GMT
As not in the garage, time for a build thread update. Fuel filler and hoseNext task on a virtual list, was to fit the fuel filler. First step after working out the desired? (best fit) location was to mark and drill the screw and filler holes using the gasket as a template. Cap secured. M5 nuts are very fiddly and easy to lose in the side pods if you are not careful! Lock for security and remove the IVA need for a cap tether. I bought flexible 2" filler hose from carbuildersolutions ebay site, as its easier than creating an account adding postage costs on their website. Afterwards I found that their website offers available offcuts that would have been cheaper and avoided waste. :-( This was secured to the filler and the tank with clamps. Make sure you only use this ribbed flexible hose, any other rubber walled hose will not curve to the bend radius required. Front Grill MeshFor the front grill, to give some protection from larger stones etc, a piece of mesh was cut out and formed over the slot returns. The mesh was powder coated and bonded on with PU adhesive and held in place until dry. Rear CamberWhilst trying on the rear suspension when enlarging the holes in the body for suspension travel, attempted to get a rough baseline 0 deg camber. This was right on the full adjustment on one of the upper wishbones, but the other was still positive. After a bit of checking it was found that this was caused by welding heat distortion in the rear upright plates. This was straighened out as best as possible by a local fabricator. To ensure that a bit of tolerance was available to allow any negative camber if required, the ends of the upper wishbones were modified to allow more adjustment on the so called "infinite" camber adjusters ;-). This was quite soul destroying as the wishbones had already been powered coated twice already.
However, pleased to report that the powdercoating kit did a great job at recoating it. Now test fitted its a lot better, but the proof will only be known when a proper alignment is done.
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Post by buildityourself on Dec 17, 2020 20:58:43 GMT
ExhaustClearly we would need a custom exhaust for the Sonic7. With the Zetec SE the exhaust manifold is on the rear of the engine and this does n't leave much room for a silencer between the CAT and the chassis. Started mocking up some ideas with plumbing waste pipes and cardboard. This was refined into a mk2 based on an oval box with offset ports to help with clearance and deal with the height differences. As we don't have a trailer taking the kit to a specialist isn't really an option and not a desired one, so are looking to buy the various components and mark them up and see if a local fabricator will tack them in place and then later weld once fitment proved ok. So far the choice of online suppliers has seemed to be limited and is stalling any further progress, as we haven't found somewhere that has all the required components or enough information to know lengths etc of the various pieces.
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Post by buildityourself on Jan 13, 2021 20:51:34 GMT
Exhaust is paused as one part outstanding, however sourced all the others in the end. Also everything has been pretty much paused due to health issues, and cold winter. Stuck at home due to covid so an update is the one productive thing to do. One thing that has been bugging me since early on is the weight of the Cortina M16 calipers (5kg) that had been bought new as a budget option compared to wilwoods. Its a lot of unsprung weight for a light weight car. Anyway as the original budget has been already blown decided to splash out on a pair of Hispec M16 replacement calipers as these were cheaper than generic ones with an adapter. These are 1kg. Nice set of matching stainless hoses to fit also purchased. These were all to Ford Focus front spec. After a bit of research on the forum, found that the brake pads for a Lotus Elise fit the calipers rather than getting hispec versions. Headlight bracketsHave bought the dominator headlights even though seen so many mixed posts about these and IVA. Got direct from Furore Cars a higher cost but at least I know they are not fakes from ebay. Decided that didn't want them mounted to the GRP as was too worried about the long term loads on the GRP, so needed to fabricate some brackets. Purchased 500mm of 3mm 45mm equal angle aluminum for this. Cut it into two, one for each side. Holes drilled, and the sharp angle mid way being radiused to avoid IVA issues. One done. Then there were two. Slot cut out carefully into the body to pass the bracket through to the chassis. The end of the bracket was then curved off. Final fitted brackets. Possibly may reprofile them later as they look a bit big still, but they are nice and strong. The lights will need to be raised up on the brackets to meet the minimum height IVA requirements, this can't accurately be done until the car is on the ground so this part is paused now. Also need to make sure that the wheel arches won't hit the lights through the suspension travel. May yet end up regretting drilling the light mounting hole in the bracket at this stage. As a review on the headlights, what is slightly annoying is that the threads on the headlights are imperial not metric. Also the length of wire is a little mean, meaning that depending on mounting position the joins could be visible or require extending. Also the surround may need modifying to get the required beam pattern. I've read that a better set of bulbs can also help with this.
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Post by buildityourself on Jan 25, 2021 20:44:58 GMT
Custom Radiator Divert-ersAt this point in the build, is where we invest some time into solving problems that may or may not be future problems. The air flowing through the grill can either bypass the radiator or go through the core. The air that goes through the core, now nice and hot will either hit the front of the fuel tank and spill off to the sides down the side pods towards the engine at the back or over the top of the tank. Either of these options don't seem ideal, although productions cars seem to be quite happy to heat the engine behind the radiator quite happily. Anyway the plan was to encourage all the air to go through the radiator and get it away quickly after. First for getting the air in some cardboard templates were made. While our DIY fabrication skills have improved it was decided in the interest of time and complex angles to get these folded professsionally slightly oversized. A piece of composite sheet with 3 rivnuts was made. This placed behind the grill mounting holes and riveted in place to provide captive fixings to overcome the fact that the diverter plates would block access to the retaining nuts behind. Heres one side fitted. And the view from the top. So that dealt with ensuring the air through the grill goes through the radiator. This is the default setup the other side of the radiator. As can be seen as a minimum the cool water hose from the bottom of the radiator and the fuel tank could be reheated from the air coming out of the core?? Although without a rolling road and a infrared thermometer it would be very hard to prove at this point. The plan was to encourage the air flow up and over the tank or out below the chassis. A complex cardboard template was made. This was also professionally folded, but I appear not to have taken any pictures how it initially looked to show the single complex 3d shape. I waited whilst this was folded, and the fabricator had to concentrate working out the correct order to fold it! Once the excess material had been trimmed off this was fitted into place. To get this to fit in, the 90deg elbow on the coolant hose had to be reversed to push the hose further away from the radiator. To hold this in place securely some fixings would be needed. 4 alloy brackets were made from the offcuts removed from the panel. Folded into shape. Fitted to the chassis. (here the reversed hose elbow can be seen) After folding the bottom edge at home to follow the profile of the chassis, the panel didn't fit in any longer as it would catch the lower brackets. Slots were cut out to allow fitting/removal. The panel secured to the brackets with countersunk bolts and also to the lower chassis rail. Both panels fitted showing the overall attempt. Had to add a slot to allow the bonnet to be fitted to check clearances etc. Approximately 2/3 of the radiator flows out above, and 1/3 below. When the panel is next removed I'll try to take a side on photo to show how the lower hose is routed behind. Unfortunately between the time the template was made and getting it made, I'd forgotten that the template should have been extended at the sides so at the moment the air is likely to spill out to the sides at the top. Separate panels either side of the tank may be need to force the air out through the dash duct to avoid this. Interested from existing owners if this overall project is likely to help or not?
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Post by wishful4444 on Jan 26, 2021 18:04:45 GMT
What problems were you thinking you might have without the diverters?
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Post by buildityourself on Jan 26, 2021 19:49:22 GMT
Some owners have had engine cooling issues, so to avoid channeling hot air down the side pods into the engine bay I guess was the main one, secondary, hot fuel is not ideal, so anything to avoid heat soak on the tank seems sensible. Easier to do at this stage rather than later when finished. I've used a small polo rad so needed to make sure that its as efficient as i can make it to avoid having to fit a larger one.
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Post by wishful4444 on Jan 27, 2021 17:03:04 GMT
I didn't build my Sonic but have had discussions with the builder and also have a lot of paperwork about the build. The radiator is fitted ahead of the steering rack. It's a VW Golf 1.8 Mk3 radiator which has a wide core 525mm wide and 322mm high. Plus a Kenlowe High Performance 12" fan. The fuel tank is fitted in the stock location with a strong plate underneath and a heat shield box all around to keep it cool and for added protection.
It also uses Evans Coolant not water.
I've not had any overheating problems.
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Post by buildityourself on Mar 6, 2021 19:51:19 GMT
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Post by daydreamer on Mar 7, 2021 17:47:45 GMT
Loving the exhaust, but, I don't think the bobbins will give enough movement. I'd expect the engine to rock on the axis set by the engine and gearbox upper mount and that the exhaust tail pipes will move up and down from the normal rest position. In my Sonic with standard engine mounts this movement is approx 2 cm in each direction ( approx 4cm movement from top to bottom ) .
In my Sonic I've bracketed the exhaust to the engine with solid brackets holding the heavy muffler sections firmly so there is absolutely no movement relative to the engine , not even a fraction of a mm. I'd expect that any movement not allowed for in a flexi section will cause fatigue and quickly fail. Plenty of Sonic exhausts have succumbed to this. This does mean opening up the bodywork to allow for tailpipe movement.
You might be able to adjust your design to fit a flexi section in one of the sections of your exhaust.
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Post by buildityourself on Mar 7, 2021 20:38:06 GMT
Thanks, you've confirmed what I thought. I did want to mount to the engine, but the bracket would have had to be even more complicated, beyond our skills. Another job we might have to do a second time! I'm expecting to have to open up the body work hole more too as I've seen your car.
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