Mr Simmonds 3B lite project.

[Cottis]

Yeah Coupe seats have never been great to be honest. The lumbar bit that sits in the small of your back is too pronounced, hence the bad backs. It is a bizarre design.

I'm losing the Movit brakes and waiting on some parts for an AP set up with new braided hoses etc. The Movit kit is good but parts are a pain in the ****, so want to future proof it and get even more stopping power in the process. Literally cannot wait until I can drive it in anger again. They fit under my 17's fine.

Will stick the Movit kit up for sale on here when done. Rotors are shot really but could be skimmed and go for a while longer but very small cracks appearing in the cross drills. One of the pads is cracking and one of the calipers (I am told) might need some reworking. All in all, just better to get something new that I can have total faith in but I am sure someone will be able to make some use of them.

[K Simmonds]

Parts are also a pain for the Alcon set up I have but as it was part of the Nothelle conversion I'm keen to retain it, Jamil (VolcanoRS) very kindly sorted me out with a set of stainless steel pistons and new seals so the calipers themselves are good to go bar paint. Still need to source pads suitable for the road, can get track compound one cheaply and easily but their no good for regular driving. Rotors aren't a problem as their the same dimensions as AP, think I'm going to go for 330 x 30 mm as opposed to the original 330 x 32 mm to save a little more unsprung weight and so they heat up quicker on the road as well being cheaper. I don't like using drilled rotors on road cars as they always start to crack so will be ordering grooved as per original.

And yep I agree the Coupe seat are a rubbish design, it was the lumbar support that gave me a bad back, thankfully the pleated cushions seem to alleviate this greatly.

[Cottis]

Same, I am going 330mm discs and now going grooved instead of drilled. Possibly better braking also but I think they might eat pads quicker. We shall see but as long as it stops on a penny, I will be happy.

[AndyD]

Damn those seats look good, I knew I should have charged you more.....

[K Simmonds]

Damn those seats look good, I knew I should have charged you more.....

Yeah they've cleaned up a treat, I've almost got rid of the slight bobbling on the passenger seat using Furniture Clinic conditioner.

[K Simmonds]

Took these pic's the other day and then forgot about them, for me their quite good so I thought I'd add them to the thread. The car is still one the old mismatched springs, I also much prefer the look of the Compomotives with 225's but the 215 Toyo R1R's on the multi spokes feel nicer.

Please excuse the holes where the head lamp washers were, haven't got around to sorting them as I removed them and thought the bumper was going to have to come off again to sort the tappets

[s2driveruk]

Thats looking really really tidy - am envious WHich H&R's were you running on the front and rears before the swap...apologies, I lost track

[K Simmonds]

Cheers The light was good in the pic's above, hide's the slightly different colour panels, she doesn't look so good one close inspection.

Initially I was running the H&R Coupe spring set but found it way too harsh, in the pic's above with multi spokes the cars back on the springs it came with with consisted of stock aircoc spec fronts with some unknown progressively coiled rears, supposedly those springs were as per the Nothelle conversion but somehow I doubt that. She's now running on set of ABY non aircon springs and is much the better for it.

[s2driveruk]

am with you on the multi-colour panels have my own challenges on that one...

I ran coupe H&Rs front and back until a front snapped, now running on avant fronts and avant fronts on the rears and it rides just fine (even if it actually sat better on the coupe setup. If i could find a pair of fronts I could be tempted to return to that again as I didn't find it that harsh but interesting that yours is running nicely on stock coils...it doesnt look like it sits high on them either

[K Simmonds]

Yeah it's not too high by any means and my car is 100 kg's shy of stock, would like some coilovers but to be honest I'm pretty happy with the handling now on the OE spring set.

[K Simmonds]

I've improved my catch tank design by incorporating the original fire trap into the outlet too inlet boot on the top of the tank, it's held securely in place with a couple of split pins, figured this was the most vibration proof way of making sure it's not sucked into the turbo. The 90 degree bend was part of the original air-con cylinder guts, I filed down the tapered 20 mm stub on the end until it was an interference fit into the AN fitting welded to the outside, I was going to get it spot welded but there's no need at all as it's very secure. Combined with the 180 degree bend on the outside it further convolute's the path of the gases slowing them and allowing any vapors to condense, well that's the idea.

I also added a drilled baffle plate to the lower half, this just an experiment to see what happens so I didn't do a particularly tidy or permanent job of it. My thinking is this will prevent liquid splashing up into the top section and being sucked into the inlet as well as perhaps stopping the top getting so gacked up

The two half's slide together tightly and are then sealed up with some tape around the join to ensure it's airtight, somewhat Heath Robbinson but it works, I've pressure tested it to 1.5 bar and it's fine so there's no going to any problems with a bit of vacuum.

Be interesting to see how well it works next time I open it up.

[quattrostyle]

Looks very good, nice and clean install

[K Simmonds]

Looks very good, nice and clean install

Missed that post thanks.

This is just a very quick lunch time update to say a massive thanks to Kibby who sold me an ECU with some cracking software installed which I'm now running. Initially I inquired about the ECU as it was reasonable price considering it had a 3 Bar MAP sensor fitted and it's always good to have another spare. Anyway Kibby then tell's me there's also a 3B RS2+ chip set installed as well the MAP sensor which made it something of a bargain.

So yesterday I fitted my 7A FPR and installed the ECU, took it for a drive and gradually increased the amount of throttle while trying to keep an eye on Zeitronix for AFR and EGT readings, easier said than done. Anyway everything seemed to be within safe parameters the only issue being a little wastegate creep on medium loads. So I unplugged the N75 and found that I was actually only getting .34 bar on the spring which is adjustable on my car. So this morning I spent some time setting the spring to .41 and then plugged the N75 back in and cleared the fault code, oh my word does the car fly now.

AFR's and EGT's seem fine 10.5 AFR on WOT, it's in the 11's on anything over 3/4 throttle and perfectly happy on 14.7 off boost and light load. EGT's do not exceed 720 C post turbo even after a few runs but I expect they would do given sustained WOT. Boost is peaking at 1.8/9 bar and tappers to 1.5/6 at the red line.

I'm going to have to borrow a computer with window XP so I can take some logs with Zeitronix and closely analyze them and I'm proceeding with caution.

It's insanely fast! Thanks again Kibby!!!

Major update regarding everything else coming soon, going to have a couple of weeks off as soon as I get the job I'm on finished ready for the plasterers and will find some time to write stuff up properly with pic's etc then

[andy10v]

Sounds awesome

[K Simmonds]

Wait till you get your's going, I was quite shocked by how quick it feels, the brake's are now my next priority. I guess having a 1300 kg car helps a lot.