Northam Round-the-houses scrutineering

Pre-event scrutineering for the VSCC Round the houses regularity event at Northam WA always has some interesting metal. This morning was no exception. A lovely ex Targa Tasmania Series 1 XJ6 on EFI , nice bespoke 6-3-1 exhaust , D type cams etc pushing 300+ bhp








How rare is this? Bolwell Nagari 302 Windsor V8 Bespoke Ozzy sportscar from the seventies. Those alloy were factory by Bolwell. Nice touch



Shades of Ozzy GT6?

EFI progress - economy

After a few months of tweaking and one laptop being stolen from my passenger seat I finally am getting to where I originally envisaged as far as fuel economy using Megasquirt on my 2500 daily hack.

The theft of the laptop had one silver lining, I had to recalibate the Wideband sensor to get the correct file onto the new laptop and found that I had incorrectly calibrated it first time round which was causing richer than desirable mixtures.

Using Autotune I quickly got most map points about 15% leaner and instantly the engine felt crisper and torquier. Economy has markedly improved too from 25-26 to 28-29mpg on my daily commute

Not sure what it will do on a run but I worked out this 28.5mpg is from ~ 250miles commuting a week averaging ~30mph and at least 240 sets of traffic light per tankful - at least half of them red!! I would expect +35mpg easy on a long run.

Just need to get to a dyno now for a final tweak and torque curve - probably early April

PI Estate progress

Very brief update on my poor mans Mk1 PI estate... a 1970 Mk2 Pi estate. This has been ongoing for several years!!!!!



During the strip down - bye bye valencia blue



Re-assembly , now wedgewood blue, interior and door shuts painted






Engine out for underbonnet paint job and aircon installed with battery tray modifications

High gears and hillclimbing

Finally got the white PI back on the road after a few months hiatus... about 4 actually which is a bit embarassing but fixing my 2500 up with megasquirt EFI and Herald clutch fixing has taken precedent. Its not as if parts of the car haven't done some work as the new rebuilt LSD did about 1500 miles in the back of my everyday 2500 to run it in.

Back on the road the white PI was showing some worrying rear end steering issues which I had noticed at Collie before my diff broke but had put down to wierd diff things. Anyway it was still there and turned out to be loose and/or stripped 3/8 unf nut and bolts holding the rear outer shackles on ... OOOP's.

Soon fixed, but it shows the need for aviligance on a 45 year old car with more than twice the designed power and torque.

One side effect of the new 3.45 ratio diff, STR053 Sprint CR gearset and 225/50 x 15 tyres is I have a 1st gear good for 60+mph and second good for 85mph.
This feels pretty good for the open road but on a tight hillclimb with 1st gear hairpins and lots of tight area needing throttle steering it was not really much fun.

Anyway I decided to have a go at the TSOA Jack Hills hillclimb today and did OK with a 69.5 second run (fastest times were in the 66-67 range with a 5.2 TR7 V8 leading) but everyone was using (proper) first gear and I was lugging away in what was a higher gear than most peoples 2nd gear. It's a testament to the torque of engine that I did as well as I did really but it was a bit of a struggle

No excuse really though and I am intending on solving the issue with Stag ratios and 205/50 tyres. This will give me gear speeds of 43,61 and 93 rather than 61,85 and 108, at 6500rpm

Diff run in + stuff

Herald with newly rebuilt radiator. New core fitted and new Mitsubishi temp sensor - 92deg rising and 87 deg falling. Didn't overheat before but core was becoming a bit incontinent so it was time. I love my Dellorto's :-) :-)


Herald ready for commuting in the shade of our carport


Spent Friday afternoon in 40 deg heat swapping out a very hot (LSD) diff for a nice cool standard one. Then quickly swapped back plates and hey presto one 1000mile Quaife 3.45 LSD ready for the white PI. This assembly is probably worth more than the car it is sitting in :-/



I thought I better finish off my EFI conversion with a nicely painted rocker cover.. I used high temp silver which is not too in your face and old Bosch injector o-rings to prevent leaks... seem to work :-)