Oil Leak Fix – Alternator Cover Gasket Replacement

This is probably the most boring and least relevant post of the entire build process as I doubt anyone else will have to do the same thing. But what the Hell, I have nothing else to write about!

Throughout the car build, the engine has something that I have largely ignored. An aluminium lump that first worked, then didn’t and eventually was fixed by MAC#1 prior to SVA.

Sure, I know where the water goes in and where the sparks connect etc but inside the actual engine has remained a mystery to me.

This has been 100% my choice as I have felt that I was taking on enough building the rest of the car, and didn’t (and still don’t) feel confident to disturb the inner workings of the actual engine.

But on the other hand, the puddle of oil on the garage floor demanded some attention and I can’t go running to MAC#1 every time the engine needs a tweak so it was time to get stuck in.

 

The oil leak appeared to be at the bottom of this black part of the engine. This is the part that MAC#1 had to fix so it makes sense that if there is a leak, it may have been caused by the removal and refit of this cover. But before I could find out what the problem was, I needed to know what the part was called.

Luckily, ‘the black cover bit near the passengers footwell’ was an adequate enough description for fellow MAC#1 owner Big Rich to tell me that the black bits more technical name is the alternator cover. A quick flick through the Haynes manual (and an confirmation call to MAC#1) and I decided that the most likely culprit was the gasket on the cases. So I ordered one from my local motorbike shop.

This little piece of effectively cardboard cost £9!

Mark at MAC#1 advised me that all I needed to do was to take off the old cover. Use a stanley knife blade to clean all the old gasket off the casing, then fit the new gasket and bolt it back together. Easy!

Nine M8 bolts hold the casing on so once they are undone, you can remove the alternator cover, but, the alternator coils are mounted in to the casing so the cover is held to the engine with a strong magnetic force. So strong in fact that I had to use a screwdriver blade to prize it off.

You can just about see the old gasket around the outside of the alternator cover. There was a section mission which was probably the cause of the leak.

Problem was once the bulk of the gasket was removed, lots of it remained stuck to the edge.

It took a good thirty of work with a blade to scrape all this off.

I also had to refit the cog that connects the starter to the main crank shaft as it came out when the cover was removed.

 

If you have read some of the previous posts, you may recall that this is the offending cog that prevented the engine from working for all those months.

It just pops back in to position prior to refitting the gasket and cover.

So with all the hard work done, all I needed to do was place the gasket on the engine and then fit the alternator cover back into place.

To do this, I tried to use a little copper slip to ‘glue’ the gasket in place and then fit the alternator cover.

This proved to be a total pig!

I could put the gasket in place but every time I tried to replace the cover, the magnetism pulled the alternator cover in to the wrong position or the gasket would slip just at the wrong moment. I tried for a good 45 minutes in vain so decided to take a break and get some expert advice from MAC#1.

Revitalised with a cup of coffee and some good advice, I took the following measures.

• Went to the local garage and got some instant gasket (sort of silicone goo) to glue the gasket to the engine.
• Transferred a positioning dowel from the alternator cover to the engine side (as this would help guide it in).

 

The it was time to use some brute finger strength to try and slowly position the cover without disturbing the gasket.

And with this new approach, it worked first time!

Just goes to show the benefit of the experience that MAC#1 has supported me with throughout the build.

With all the bolts nicely tightened and the oil level checked, I ran the engine for around 20 minutes at various rev ranges with no more oil leaks.

So I took my first peak inside the Honda engine and it all worked out ok so next time, I will approach it with a bit more confidence.

Just need to fix the leaky brake ‘T’ piece and then the car will be road ready (if not road legal yet). 

Police Inspection Compete

Maybe the police read my blog?

No sooner had I uploaded my rant about the delay in getting a policeman to check my car, a nice man from the vehicle investigation unit gave me a call (well it was actually the next day but who is counting!).

They guy called me up and asked whether he could meet me at my house at lunch time. When he arrived, it really was a policeman although he was not in a ‘bobby’ uniform or squad car.

The inspection itself was painless, he checked the engine number and chassis number against the numbers I put on my paperwork, offered some advice about stamping a hidden second chassis number in case the car is stolen and that was just about that.

We chatted for 10 minutes about kit cars and why the police are involved at all. Turns out the DVLA inspectors do not no much about cars so kept writing down the wrong details for engine number etc, plus they were not good at spotting suspicious things (like engines with re-stamped numbers) so the police offered to help. The only down side is that it has to fit around there more serious job of attending road accidents so it looks like my 10 day wait was actually a really short one.

In a final twist, he mentioned that he had just come from a village called Burstwick and after a bit of digging, it turns out the cobra he had just been to see had been built in my old house by the guy that brought it from us. When he purchased it, he told me he was going to build a cobra and as it turns out, he has!

It is a small world full of coincidences.

What Is The Friggin Holdup?

Well the weather is still holding, SVA is passed and car is back at home with all essential parts finished.

So am I enjoying the unseasonable October whether? No because it is taking friggin ages to get the car registered!

I filled in all the forms and paid my money over 10 days ago. At the time I was told that the car needed a police inspection but that would be done in around 72 hours, then a couple more days to get the paperwork through and I would be legal.

That was getting on for two weeks ago and I have heard nothing!

I thought the term ‘police inspection’ was an odd one as my understanding of the procedure was a DVLA man (or woman) would wander along to my house, check the chassis and engine number and that would be that. MAC#1 though the same.

But no. In the Beverley DVLA office (at least), police inspection means a real inspection by a policeman (again or women). Why?

What are they looking for, illegal immigrants? Call me old fashioned but I live a little near the great city of Hull and I think it would be fair to say that Hull has it’s own fair share of problems so I would have thought that the police would have far more important things to do than look at kit cars.

Evidently, the police agree as despite me being promised a call within 72 hours, nearly two weeks later and I still have not heard anything! I am all for getting it right but I don’t understand why registering a kit car is so difficult. I can’t believe that a local bobby has to check every new Ford that rolls out of a showroom. Granted, Ford may be better at making cars then me but surely registering a car is a job for the DVLA, not the over stretched police force!

Rant over.

Mark From MAC#1 Is A Daddy!

Heard from Mark at MAC#1 today that his wife (Sam) gave birth to a little girl yesterday.

Named Evelyn Rose, she arrived into the world at 10am on the 2nd Oct 2008 weighing in at 8lb6oz.

Congratulations to both Mark and Sam.

She Is Finished!

The car is now finished. Not virtually finished or just about there, no, it is honest to god finished!

And by that, I mean that there are no more small but vital bits missing (fuel filler), no gapping holes in the bodywork and no last hurdle to overcome, it is all done.

But…

That does not mean that I do not have stuff to do, in fact there is currently a brake line leak and a fuel leak which need fixing before it can be driven but these are fixes (and probably the first of many!)

But it feels really good every time I go into the garage and see it sitting there just crying to be driven, and driven it will be soon as all the paperwork is lodged with the DVLA and I am just waiting for a ‘police inspection’ to give it the official stamp of approval and get a license plate number issued. So by next weekend, I could be on the road 🙂

Of course, to get to this finished state, I still had a bit to do over weekend, so here is what I did.

Engine Re-map

The first job of the day was to re-map the engine to make it run a little richer. The engine map used for SVA was running a lean fuel mixture to help the emissions test but now that is out of the way (and will not be tested again until the first MOT is due in 3 years), I can richen up the mixture to let the engine run at maximum power.

This procedure is really easy if you have a Power Commander and a handily supplied engine map file from MAC#1. With the engine running, you connect up the Power Commander to your PC (via USB), run up the Power Commander software and click on the ‘send map’ button.

The engine map consists of a range of different values across the ‘rev’ range which the Power Commander uses to adjust the fuel mixture as revs rise. Don’t really know what it all means but MAC#1 provided two maps for me, and SVA friendly map and a serious power map. When the engine was running the SVA map, the engine was not too smooth going through the rev range but with the full power map in place, the engine sound much sweeter.

Here is a video in which you can hear the engine.

Fuel Filler

Next up was the fuel filler. This was another area where the equipment fitted for the SVA is not exactly what will be on the final car. I ordered a nice black aluminium fuel filler and a bit of flexible fuel pipe from Europa Spares (https://www.europaspares.com/).

So first thing to do was to gauge where the filler needs to be and mark it on the bodywork.

Next I cut the hole. I used a 60mm hole cutter and then used the Dremel to eat out to a 63mm diameter.

Next I drilled out the holes for the bolts.

With that done, it was time to offer in the flexible fuel pipe and mark what needed to be trimmed from the pipe. The fuel pipe is fairly tough stuff, so you need to use a hacksaw to cut it.

Once the pipe was trimmed, it was time to bolt it all together. A couple of jubilee clips were used to fix the flexible pipe to the back of the fuel filler and the top of the petrol tank.      

   

And here is the finished article.

Fixed Oil Leak

Next up I tackled a small oil leak in the oil pressure extender. The stock Fireblade engine only measures oil temperature but MAC#1 prefer to measure both oil temperature and oil pressure.

To do this, there is a flexible pipe which goes to a ‘Y’ splitter for the oil temp and pressure sensors. It was this ‘Y’ splitter that was leaking but a bit of PTFE tape soon fixed it.

Rear Boot Cover

You may notice that there is a small hole in the top of the car!

This was originally covered by a sheet of plastic which Colin from MAC#1 cut to size. Unlike some of the other things, this was not just for SVA but was intended to be my final solution. It was on the car when it left MAC#1 but was not when it arrived here so I assume it must have blown off somewhere on the M62!

I will need to get another one done but in the mean time, I needed a stop-gap solution to satisfy the DVLA inspector and also to cover the unsightly hole.

My temporary solution involved a bit of hardboard and some black paint.

I carefully measured out the dimensions and cut the hardboard to shape.

It fits fairly well, but looks a little crap so I gave it a coat of paint.

Hopefully Heidi won’t notice the grass!

Fitted to the car it looks OK.

The problem is that being hardboard, the first time it gets wet, it will dissolve so I need to make a plastic replacement ASAP but this will do for the DVLA inspection and should make a good template when I come to do the real thing.

So that was that, I am officially declaring the car finished. Sure there are lots of things that need fixing but that is half of the fun of building and running a kit car.

Back Where She Belongs

Finally, after nearly 3 months the car is finally back where it belongs, in the garage.

I arranged for the car to be picked up this morning and expected it to be delivered around lunch time but it finally arrived at around 8:30 tonight! Still, the guy only charged me £70 to haul it over her from Sheffield.

So, it has been a few week since I have seen the car and in that time, MAC#1 have fitted the aero screen, reset the geometry and fitted my final exhaust, but they did leave a few jobs for me to finish. The brakes have a small leak that needs addressing urgently, I need to apply an updated engine map and also fit a fuel filler as the one we used for SVA belongs to MAC#1.

That can all wait until Saturday, back to tonight’s exciting events.

Hannah was in bed when the car arrived, but she was soon back downstairs supervising.

  

We blocked the road for quite a while, so I thought it would be best to switch on the lights.

Then the big moment. In the car, start the engine and drive the car up the drive way (very carefully). You can tell how excited Heidi is, her hands were shaking when she took the photo!!!

Once he car was in the garage, Hannah (and teddy Hamley) wasted no time in jumping in the driver seat.

Then it was off to bed with Heidi and Hannah to leave me alone to spend some quality time with my little blue baby.

So lets take a closer look at that aero screen.

    

The aero screen is not fitted for the SVA test as the car would not pass with it fitted (don’t know why).

As you can see, the MAC#1 aero screen consists of a base that is bonded and bolted to the main scuttle.

The ‘bubble’ screens are then riveted to the aero screen base.

I think it looks really nice and completes the car. Should also be fairly effective at directing the airflow over my head when driving, but visibility isn’t a strong point of the design, from the drivers seat, you can barely see the near side front of the car!

So I finally have driven the car. After all this time and hard work, the short 10m drive up to the garage was amazing. I can’t wait to get it registered, get it legal and get it on the road.

Next stop, DVLA. 

5000th Visitor Views Kit Car Build Blog!

Believe it or not, this weekend saw the 5000th visitor to the kit car build blog site.

It seems only a short while ago that we broke 4000 so I am delighted with the continued interest and support the blog is getting.

I hope visitors to the site enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed writing it!

Car returns from MAC#1 on Thursday at which point it should be just about finished, just a fuel filler to be fitted.

So stand by for lots of pictures and maybe a video or two.

Pre SVA Postmortem – What Mac#1 Had To Fix!

Finally back from a crazy 10 day trip to Amsterdam (business not pleasure!) and finally have time to reflect on the SVA pass last week and where exactly I am in the project.

The answer is tantalisingly close! Indeed, had I not had a trip to Holland, the car might have been road legal in time for the sunshine this weekend.

As it stands, the car is still over at MAC#1 with a few outstanding jobs to be done such as fit the final exhaust, re-map the engine, re-jig the geometry and fit the aero screens. These are mainly fixing or fitting bits that were setup for the SVA or (as in the case with the aero screens) would not pass the SVA test.

So the car is due back late next week and in the mean time, I have to complete the necessary paperwork with the DVLA to get the car registered and a reg number issued. This involves completing a form (more on this when I have the detail) and presenting it to the local DVLA office along with receipts and the SVA pass certificate (and about £175). Then the final hurdle is a quick inspection at by an DVLA officer and then I should be given a tax disk and license plate number. Then I can finally hit the road!!!

Hope the weather holds for just another week.

What MAC#1 Had To Fix

I had a call from a guy called Steve today who is building a similar spec car to mine and who has used this blog as a reference resource from time to time. Fortuitously, I met with Steve at MAC#1 when he picked up his kit and I gave him my number incase I could help out with anything.

He called me today to ask whether I had problems fitting the lower front wishbones as his were very very tight. I did indeed have a similar issue and was able to tell him how I did it in the end (used grease on the bush and then a large flat headed screw driver head to act as a sort of ramp to guide the bush in to the chassis – and then applied a lot of pressure).

I was very happy to hear that Steve’s build is progressing well and that he is enjoying it as much as I did but it also got me thinking about some of the areas of my build that did not go according to plan, and more specifically, what areas MAC#1 had to fix when the car arrived with them.

Overall I was fairly happy with the quality of the work that I had done when the car went to MAC#1 but I always expected that there would be a few areas where additional work or fixes would be required. I think in general, I am still very happy with what I achieved as most of the issues MAC#1 addressed are fairly minor.

But here they are, warts and all!

Firstly, and crucially, MAC#1 did not (that I know) have to do anything with the electrics other than add a little cable trim to the central tunnel. I am really pleased about this because I know this is an area that often causes problems.

The same could not be said for the fluid systems in the car. Firstly, the cooling system leaked like a sieve when they first put water in. Nothing serious, I just forgot to tighten all the jubilee clips so as soon as the water was under pressure, fountains appeared all over the car.

It was the same case with the brake systems. Again, I had largely not tightened the brake joints enough. The exception was that I had also put one of the rear brake pipe adaptors (that go in to the callipers) in backwards so try as he might, Mark could not bleed the system until he found my error.

So brakes and cooling both had leaks, combine this with the fact that I had previously had to fix leaks in the oil extender and the fuel system and it is clear that I am no plumber!

Other than that, there was not a great deal of other things MAC#1 had to fix. They did re-route the return fuel line as it was too close to the exhaust but in my defence, the exhaust was not there when I ran it. They also recommended that I re-route the accelerator and clutch cables to reduce the amount of ‘corners’ the cables have to turn, but that was not necessary for SVA.

They also spent some time working on the rear brakes as Mark felt that the discs fitted were over-hanging the callipers by too much. This was (I believe) nothing to do with my fitment and just a quirk of the calliper, mount and disc combination. I am not sure how it was resolved, I think they had the hub machined to make it all line up better.

Oh and the of course fixed the engine!

As previously discussed, the engine failure was caused by a broken starter motor gear. The theory is that it was damaged in the crash that generously resulted in my engine donation, in the engines previous life attached to a Fireblade. The only question is how the hell did I start it up, not once but twice, all those months ago? I guess I was just lucky but we will never know!

So all in all, not too bad.

Sorry about such a dull post, but nothing exciting has really happened since the SVA pass.

Still, Amsterdam was was good!

SVA Pass!!!

Some 315 days ago, I picked up my kit from MAC#1 and today, the car that I have built, passed the SVA test which means that it can now be registered for legal use on the road.

The SVA test represents the final major step in building the car and I am absolutely delighted that the car passed on the first attempt.

If you have read my previous posts you will know that the car has been at MAC#1 for several weeks so that they could finish the car and prepare it for the SVA.

It is thanks to the fantastic job that Mark and Colin did on getting the car ready that it passed the test with very little problems, in fact, the whole process took only a little over an hour from start to finish.

The SVA tester (Martin) was very friendly and helpful and on the one area where a problem was found, allowed us to quickly fix the problem before he continued with the test. To be honest, the test was over so quickly that it is difficult to really believe that the car passed and now just requires some paperwork to make it road legal.

The day did not start well! The weather started out dry but as I got closer to Sheffield, the heavens opened and it soon became clear that I was likely to be in for a wet day. The car would be trailered from MAC#1 to the SVA centre (in Nottingham) which meant that it would be soaked by the time it got there. Also, portions of the SVA test are done outside so I fully expected a good soaking but as it happened, it all worked out OK.

Upon arriving at MAC#1, it was clear that Mark and Colin had pulled out all the stops to try and get my car through the test. Their vast experience with SVA meant that they knew exactly what areas of the car needed attention, where trim needed to be added and what the testers would be looking for. If you are doing something similar, I would definitely recommend paying MAC#1 (or someone similar) to help with this final preparation as it could mean the difference between a pass and fail.

I can not list all the little finishing touches that the guys had done to the car but here are a few of the more obvious ones.

The front wishbones are an obvious area for SVA inspectors to look so all of the sharp parts are covered in trim and all nuts have plastic covers on them. You will also notice the grill has some trim in front of it. This is because the grill is not rounded enough but the trim stops the testing from being able to get the test ball in so therefore it is exempt.

The same treatment inside the cockpit with all the edges being covered with trim (even under the dash).

Here you can also see the top of the transmission tunnel which was not fitted last time I saw the car.

The gear lever looks cool. It is of course a sequential gearbox so forward and backward are all that is needed.

The handbrake is another thing finished since I last saw the car. Again, it is finished with ‘u’ trim. Colin also made a handy metal guard which goes underneath the handbrake to stop you mashing your hand in to the prop-shaft when you go to operate the handbrake (I never thought of that!).

The passenger footwell had some bolt heads in it which may of caused an SVA problem but luckily, I purchased this foot rest ages ago which covered them nicely.

The black powered coated ‘hockey trim’ finished the transmission tunnel nicely. 

Some of the SVA requirements are just plain bizarre! The exhaust is attached to the car via a big rubber block but despite it being made of rubber, because it has a square edge it would fail. Cover it in a bit of bent metal and all is fine. BTW, the scalding hot exhaust fully exposed beside it is also not a problem, as long as it has a rounded edge!

The rear top if the car is finished with a carbon effect plastic sheet. Note that there is no petrol filler cap. That is under the carbon sheet but will be replaced with a more handy filler cap on the outside of the car post SVA.

The chassis number mush also be stamped on the car. We had a problem with this as I could not remember the number I supplied to the VOSA on my application form. Luckily, I took a picture of the application for and posted it in an earlier blog entry so once we had downloaded it and blown it up in ‘paint’ we were able to make out the number. Isn’t the web great!

There were just a few more finishing touches like this battery terminal cover,

the seatbelt mounts and of course some wing mirrors.

The very last thing on the car was a stick-on rear view mirror.

Then the car was loaded on to the trailer and it was off to the SVA centre.

Little under an hour later and we arrived at the SVA test centre in Nottingham. Luckily, the rain had stayed light so the car was not too wet by the time we got there.

We rolled the car off the trailer and then Colin drove it round to the test bay where SVA’s are carried out. At this stage, no one had ever driven the car but Colin did not seem phased.

          

After a few minutes wait (we were early!), Martin (the tester) turned up and started the SVA test. The first thing he did was have a really good look around the car and check for any sharp edges that could cause a problem to a pedestrian or passenger. The rule is that anything that can be contacted by the test tool (a sort of half sphere on a stick) needs to have a radius on it. He checked a few things but in general, all the normal areas of concern for this type of car were covered by MAC#1’s prep work so he didn’t find anything that needed additional work. So far so good.

(Mark, not Martin by the car).

The car was next put on some rollers and the engine revved to different speeds. The speed indicated on the Digidash was recorded and compared with the actual speed at the wheels (as measured by the rollers). You can (and must) read under on your dash but too far under or even 1mph over is an instant fail. Once again, MAC#1 had set this up just right and it passed with flying colours.

The next phase in the test was a quick drive around by the tester. He was gone a good five minutes and I do not know what he was doing while he was gone but he seemed happy when he returned.

 

(I expected the tested to re-appear in this video but he didn’t so sorry about the quality).

Next was the dreaded emissions test. I say dreaded because this seems an area of concern for a lot of builders but I know that MAC#1 had already tested emissions and did not expect any problems. The car is allowed to warm for a short time and then an emissions tester is placed in the exhaust and the engine is revved.

There is even a short video of this (although it is a little boring).

 

I asked whether the fan was in front of the car to simulate road conditions or something technical but it turns out that they just had a lot of kit cars over heat so the put a fan there to keep them cool. That is how nice they are.

The car passed this stage of the test as well. It was looking good at this stage.

Next it was up on a ramp for a full inspection underneath. The tester was looking for fluid leaks, build quality and loose wires etc. This phase of the test produced the first problem with the car. There was a small leak on one of the brake lines but Martin was kind enough to give us five minutes to see if we could fix it before continuing. A quick tighten with a spanner and the problem was solved. No other problems were found.

While the car was there, they also tested all the lights and the throw of the front headlights. They all worked as expected and it was on to the next phase of the test.

The next section to be tested was brakes. The car was driven on to some heavy looking rollers and the tester got in the car with a pressure pad attached to his foot so that he could measure the pressure required to apply a certain degree of braking force to each wheel.

The rollers spun the wheels up to a certain speed and the tester applied the brakes. This test took a good ten minutes to complete fully as front and rear brakes had to be tested.

The same equipment was used to test the handbrake and this needed a little adjusting in order to get it right. This is normal as the handbrake cable stretches when it is brand new but Colin was on hand to make the necessary adjustments.

Once the car had successfully completed the brake section, it was on to the very last test. The noise test.

This involved driving the car outside, revving the engine to around 8500 rpm and measuring the volume of noise coming from the exhaust. Again, I was not too worried about this as I have been surprised just how quiet my car is compared to other BEC (bike engine cars) I have heard. This confidence was well placed as it was comfortably inside the accepted levels.

And that was that. I had thought that there was going to be more of the test or that we were going on to another area of the test centre but Colin invited me in to the passenger seat of the car and before I knew it we were back at the trailer. No fanfare, just a simple acknowledgement that the car had passed the SVA test and that a MAC (Ministers Approval Certificate) would be issued.

One cup of coffee later and the paperwork was complete and I had the MAC certificate was safely in my hands.

  

Then the car was loaded back on the trailer and driven away, back to it’s temporary home at MAC#1.

As I understand it, all I need to do now is fill in some paperwork at my local DVLA office (in Beverley) and wait for an inspection. Once a DVLA rep has looked at the car, a registration number will be issued and I will be legal to drive it on the road….but that will all have to wait as I am off to Amsterdam on business for 10 days.

What a great day…scratch that, what a great 315 days. And the fun is only just getting started.

SVA Tomorrow

This is just about it, SVA test tomorrow!

No more waiting, no more wondering whether it will all come together. It will either satisfy the tester or not.

Either way I am not too worried. I think it will pass as MAC#1 have a lot of experience and know the areas that need to be addressed. Similarly, MAC#1 and several other builders have now looked over my car and pointed out a couple of areas then could be improved but nothing too serious.

The emissions are sorted (we think) and noise should not be an issue (although it will be borderline) so I think if it does fail then it will be on something minor.

Of course I will be delighted with a pass but if it does fail on some minor points, I will not be too down heartened as I will then know exactly what needs to be done to get a pass.

Possibly even more exciting for me than the SVA test, I should also get to drive the car tomorrow for the first time. Not on the road but certainly at the test centre.

As with all aspects of the build, I will try and take as many photos as possible (if allowed) and post a full report on how I get on some time tomorrow night.

Wish me luck!