Lithium Ion Battery

I invested a new LIP012C Lithium Ion motorcycle battery. The weight difference between the battery it had in and it's hi tech replacement is 9Kgs. I have no idea of the down side, it appears to start the engine immediately from stone cold. I have not had an attempt at using the electric reverse yet.

I look forward to the weight saving in my new bonnet when it eventually comes.

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Heat shield

One of winters outstanding jobs on the car is reducing the heat induced into the GRP bodywork with the Hayabusa exhaust. I am hoping to get a new bonnet some time and I don't want to stress it with heat. The Hayabusa exhaust gets mega hot and I don't think this is unique to my car.



Shield attached to the EGR blanking plates

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Oil cooler air duct

The oil temperature on my Hayabusa is a bit high on prolonged sessions on track days especially at Knockhill. I was either going to shift the oil cooler from behind the radiator to the front or duct some cooler air directly to the oil cooler. I decided to do the latter. It will still get some air from the front via the electric fan and water radiator.


New air duct

New air duct in place

From above

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Concentric clutch slave cylinder

When I described my lack of clutch control precision with Andy from AB Racing he directed me immediately to a SBD part CLT-HCA-BUSA-01K. It is a custom billeted concentric slave cylinder for the Megabusa engine. The fitting of the part is fairly straight forward only having only to change the bleed pipe outlet from the water pump (as the rubber pipe was in the way). The pump housing bleed uniion was easily modified by cutting it off and tapping out the remaining steel tube stub to  a 7mm metric thread and making a brass union and installing a remote external 8mm brass elbow. The standard SBD fitting kit for the cylinder was perfect despite warnings from them that this part was designed to mount on top of their billeted oil pump.

Water pump modification



SBD part from top




Hewland part in same location

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Fuel overflow management

I have been hauled up on several occasions about fuel discharge during track days and sprint/hill climb events. This only happens when the tank is above half full. I fitted a Mocal valve which I thought would cure the problem as it has a dual function a) When the vacuum in the tank exceeds 0.5bar it will ingest air from outside. b) If however the tank pressure increases due to temperature effects (or sloshing) then the valve release in the other direction if that pressure exceeds 0.75bar. By this method the valve can act as a roll over valve and hopefully keep the fuel in the tank.

The problem occurs on track days when the fuel is warming up (so positive pressure) and the corners pull some g, if now the pressure release happens on a right hander then fuel is emitted momentarily till threshold of the valve closing is reached.

I have tried fitting a catch tank (jam jar) but this only delays the problem till the catch tank is overflowed. This results in dumping fuel from the catch tank between sessions.

The answer may be quite simple, let the main tank overflow when positive pressure exists, collect the fuel and suck it back in when the fuel is used up and the pressure becomes negative.

principle

catch tank mounted under chassis

I will let you know if it works.

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New brakes and oil pres warning lamp

  The brakes have been a problem from day one in that they were causing lost time at the hairpin and fading two up. They looked the part being single x drilled discs and early billeted 4 pot Dynalite's  from Wilwood.

I changed the discs to vented x drilled and grooved parts and as a consequence had to upgrade the callipers as well to the latest Dynalite forged part from Wilwood supplied by RD.

Dynalites with vented discs

The results were a dramatic improvement in both hill climbs and circuits.

Oil pressure warning

I have been advised by several hill climb veterans that a very bright visible oil pressure lost lamp is essential equipment for racing. This lamp BL0102-14-34 is the bees knees. Thanks to Matt as he had a spare in his garage.

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Seats crotch and Hans

I have been considering a safety upgrade to the Megabusa. I decided to invest in a set of seats that were more substantial than the GRP shells fitted and fit an additional crotch strap to the seat belts and Hans device for my neck.

If you want to know what a Hans device is then there is a very good explanation on Wiki (*).

The crotch strap is a simple addition to the existing Willans seat belts. It stops you sliding under the harness in extreme conditions.

The seats were ordered while at Stonleigh and are made by a company called Intatrim (*) and the product is called Endeavour. Although still a GRP seat it is a much more substantial product than the basic shell seats and they have thought about the crotch strap void in the design.

Hans adapter

A Hans device was purchased from JJC earlier in the year at significant cost. However I was never able to use it in the Westfield as the seat belt straps need to be precisely aligned with the seat apertures and the Hans device. This requires the attachment points in the Westfield to be radically altered. After some discussions with various scrutinisers at the track and after even more thought I designed and fabricated  a Hans adapter using the existing Westfield seat belt attachment points. You can see not only have the attachments been aligned horizontally with the Hans device but a 50mm elevation to the attachment has been applied because of the Hans thickness resting on your shoulders.

The adapter was fabricated out of 4mm sheet steel and bright steel studs taped and welded in place on both sides of the plate.

I propose to submit this for scrutinising soon at Kames.




Hans adapter

Hans device

Drivers seat with new belt attachments

Comparing drivers and passenger seat belts

Passenger seat belt points

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References (*)
Hans explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HANS_device

Seat manufacturer: http://www.intatrimtelford.co.uk/index.php

Engine prop shaft adapter

The Hayabusa engine normally has a toothed gear to transmit the power from the gearbox to the rear wheel of a motorbike. Wesfield in their cars mount a special adapter on the gearbox output shaft that adapts it to a split Sierra drive shaft. The adapter is normally made of mild steel and is rigidly attached to the gearbox shaft via a large M20 lock nut and a large washer. If you trawl the forums this nut comes undone with amazing regularity. Mine unwound at Croft on 7th June 2014. It was trailered back home as I had no chance of repairing it at the trackside. The mild steel adapter was badly damaged and I did not want the gearbox shaft to go the same way.

I took the advice of Andy at AB Racing. He has a special adapter made to his exacting requirements which is reported to solve the problem. It is designed to be loose fit on the gearbox shaft unlike the Westfield part and is made of hardened steel.

It is unfortunately about 10mm shorter than the original Westfield part so I had to make an alloy spacer in the lathe to make it all fit back together.

The M20 nut was also modified to make the adapter a loose fit on the shaft and I tightened it up such that it will not come off again. I used the permanent nut thread fluid to bond it up tight.

I have no idea if this will permanently solve the problem but is seams like a good approach. Time will tell.




Westfield adapter after failure

Gearbox splines

10mm custom spacer



Nut modified on right to remove some of the step



Reassembled

Update 11th Sept 2014

Kept a regular eye on this part of the car and it regularly gives an 1/8-1/2 turn between race events on the cap head screws no evidence of the 32mm nut loosening again. I decided to wire the bolts to ensure they don't come loose again. I drilled the cap heads in place using some carbide burrs (long job).

Wide carbon wings

I was having difficulty changing the tyres at the trackside with the standard Westfield wings. I was also having difficulty sourcing wider wings. Carbon Copies (Warren Sheridan) made me new ones in carbon. Unfortunately due to ill health he has had to give up his business. It took a long time to get these parts but he came good in the end with the help of his son. Top marks for commitment right to the end. The wings now match the headlights, see bottom image.



From front

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Dynamometer Test

The last open pit lane session at Knockhill with the Westfield club revealed some performance issues on the straight from Taylors up to Duffus. Every time I changed up the power was taking too long to build up again. I took the car to Sitech to find out what was going on. Simon revealed that in the lower (throttle openings) and high engine revs it was being over fuelled. The theory is that this was throttling the engine when lifting off to change gear. Simon completely remapped the Power Commander such that at all throttle openings and rev ranges the correct fuelling was being delivered. All I need now is a track day coming up soon to try it out. Simon did say tht the power sensor on his Dyno is playing up and could be 10-20% down in absolute numbers. I have pencilled in another session after Croft.

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Carbon effect headlights

After a moment of weakness I purchased these new headlight units at Stoneleigh this year, what more can I say!

 

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Shift advisory lights

Decided to fit another box of electronics made by a company called DRE (Digital Race Electronics). It is a computer that works out when to change up gears called an SDL5 Sequential Shift Light. The box measures 58mm x 16mm x 35mm and the idea is you are to mount it in your direct line of sight. This should avoid the potentially detrimental dependence of the rev limiter. It also wastes track seconds going into the rev limiter. I spotted this shift light box on a car at Doune this year.

The box worked well when directly connected to the Hayabusa ECU rev counter drive cct but refused to work with ETB rev counter connected to the same wire. I scratched my head and went back to basics with my electronics knowledge and made a cct that allows both to co-reside. The ETB rev counter appears to put a 5V offset in the ECU circuit when connected. I basically removed that offset with a capacitor resistor and diode to protect the DRE unit. The values of the capacitor and resistor are not that critical being 33uF and 2.2Kohm. If you require more details mail me, I doubt this is a common problem.

10/06/14: The signal to the unit was correct as designed above, however the setting for "Cylinders" should have been 2 to match the ECU signal of one pulse per rev. Now working fine.

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Tonneau

There are no dependable people around central Scotland to get a Tonneau made. I pondered the issue for some time and came across some favourable references to a company called Soft Bits for Sevens. As they reside in West Sussex then a template was the obvious answer. I made an accurate template from Toolstation tarpaulin. After several months the finished product arrived from Softbits. I made some time ago a special tool for riveting the buttons in place while the tonneau is in process of being fitted. This is a much more accurate way of fitting a tonneau as you can drill each stud position one at a time and fit both half's of the stud fastener without removing the Tonneau from the car. The tool is made in part by a Rolson crimping tool with alternative stakes and anvil on each side.

I used the spare seat belt attachments to locate the Tonneau with brass eyelets.

I also took the opportunity of fitting a Longacre racing (rear view) mirror saved me thinking too much about the mounting brackets. It gives a 14" panoramic view a good safety feature for the track.

 

Soft bits logo and attachment eyes

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Summary spring 2014

Recent trip round Dukes Pass, Trossachs, Scotland

The car was a good one when bought in September 2013 it is an even better car now. I have driven it recently and it performs well and may of the niggles in the driving experience have now gone. Here is a list of improvements over the last 6 months.

* Front mud flaps
* Bodywork repairs (paint and GRP)
* Extra front wing stays
* New shock absorbers
* Improved aero screen
* Front and rear lighting improvements
* Moved battery to better position and plugged up holes in bulkhead
* Rear wing stone guards
* Paddle shift gear change
* Improved exhaust and fitted CAT
* MSA towing hoops
* Boot box for tool storage
* Improved oil catch tank
* Full roll cage
* Half doors
* Gear selected indicator
* ARB's front and back
* Uprated cooling fan

Total cost...... don't ask the wife might be listening!

The plan is to enter a few hill climb events and a few track days, hopefully not making too big an idiot of myself.

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Cooling fan

I was going to update the cooling fan, possibly next year but the purchase of the Playskool ARB made that upgrade a necessity. The ARB install wanted to share the same space as the Sierra cooling fan location. The Ford cooling fan is big and heavy beast by modern standards at I doubt it is very efficient.

I purchased a 10" low profile suck part from Rally Design. It is spec'd at only 52mm in height. I had to make a new mounting plate and brackets. The brackets are the originals Westfield chassis bits elongated by 30mm.

Bolted it up, connected wiring and pipes all works well, job done. Water temperature gauge is reading wrong, needs investigating (sensor faulty?).

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New alloy mounting bracket

Clearance to ARB now adequate

Old Ford part

ARB (Anti Roll Bar)

I was happy enough with the road holding on my Megabusa but when I spoke to Simon at Sitec Racing he advised me to get some ARB(s). Simon's advice is that the roadholding can be made even better on the track with ARB's. As he is going to be employed to set up my suspension soon, then I guess, I need to take his advice.

I thought about purchasing s/h parts but decided a new set would have all the bits and pieces supplied and be a straightforward fit (wrong!).

I purchased the front and rear ARB kit for a Westfield from Playskool Motorsport. Like all aftermarket products for my model of Westfield (apparently) it did not fit out of the box. The main problem was at the rear bar:

1) The instructions were unclear about the position of the plates to attach the drop arms at the rear to the lower wishbones.

2) The rear upper pivot points requires removing the fuel tank as the bolts cannot be removed and inserted otherwise.

The first problem was easy enough I just posted a thread on the Westfield technical forum and that matter was put to bed almost instantly. There are lots and lots of people who have fitted that kit.

The second problem resulted in me refabricating the rear pivot point brackets by putting an offset into the pivot point. I then mounted them on the rear wishbone mounts instead of the front. I did not want to remove the tank at this stage as the roll cage would have to be removed. I cannot see why this will affect the roll bar performance in any way.

The biggest problem with the front ARB was that the site for the front ARB was obstructed by the radiator,  the bottom hose and the cooling fan.

Nearside front

Offside front

Offside rear

Welded plate

Mod to rear pivot

It is now essential to upgrade the cooling fan as the front ARB occupies the space for the existing one.

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Decals, competition number, the prisioner

Time has come to fit a place to put a competition number (assuming I am to hill climb/sprint this car).  The requirement is for three sites one viewable from the front and one either side below the aero screen. The numbers have to be 9" high so that more or less dictates the size of the white background. You are not allowed to display the numbers on the public highway. I took the view that driving around with blank number sites was a bit bland so I added my own decal design of "the prisoner".

 I can always cover the logo with white background when needed or rip of the decal by applying a little heat.

For those viewing this and don't understand the decal. The prisoner was a cult 60's TV series staring Patrick McGoohan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhnTMxHOWlY

I designed the logo using Painshop pro:

* He drives a Lotus 7 , I drive a 7esk Westfield
* His prisoner number is 6, I do have a 6 in my Q plate (stretching the theme a bit far I guess!)
* The organisation's logo that keeps him detained is a penny farthing with a surrey top. And the Westfield symbol looks something like the spokes of a wheel.
* And my identity on to the forums is "the prisoner".

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Gear indicator

Strange as it may seam to those not familiar with Bike Engine'd Car's (BEC), the car currently does not have a gear indicator other than neutral. That is because in YR2000 they don't fit such things as standard to the Hayabusa engine. Possibly newer bike engines provide such features but not this one.

I purchased an electronic indicator (from ebay) driven off the gearbox selector leaver, a device that claims to be the ultimate fault free solution of course (at least they don't admit to any problems = same thing). If you read the forums they are not perfect esp if you have two attempts at a gear selection. However it does correct the reading when  passing thru neutral.  The company is called SBSMOTO Racing Beijing located in China of course.

Alternative devices exist which compute the gear you are in by measuring the revs produced and the speed you are doing and looking up a table of values. These devices are quite expensive if bought separately from the ecu.

This device works by having two hall sensors one for up and one for down and a signal picked up from the Hayabusa wiring loom which indicates Neutral . A magnet is attached to the gearbox leaver to stimulate the hall sensors. The  neutral feed signal from the gearbox must be some sort of electronic source that does not go all the way to 0V when active. It goes to about 0.7V,  I added a relay to create a proper 0V for the SBS device which it apparently needs.

The magnet is attached to the gear selector leaver fabrication with araldite.

If anyone tells you these things are easy to install they are either lying or they have done it before. I created two parts fabricated in stainless steel (they need to be non magnetic). A plate to mount the hall effect sensors and a bracket to mount the magnet. The plate is mounted on the same bolts as the clutch master cylinder. The magnet bracket is mounted on the rose joint hole for the cable/paddle shift.  There is not a lot of room around in that part of the engine bay. The wiring is poorly documented in my case so sorting that out was time consuming also. I tried to avoid modifying the clutch master cylinder bracket but that turned out to be not possible. Mounting the sensors behind the dashboard was a non starter of an idea. I hate working behind dashboards.

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Gear displayed just above paddles in middle

Gearbox fabrications

Lid for the boot box

After fitting the boot box around the roll cage I was not entirely happy with the overall appearance. I decided to either fit a cover from Softbits or make an alloy cover plate. The need for a boot box is fairly obvious in that you need somewhere tidy to put some tools when road trips are needed to try out development work. Enough room has now been created for a tool kit including some tyre repair stuff. The cover was made out of 1mm thick alloy sheet painted with two pack to match the rest of the car. I also made some closing panels for the cage. I will fix it with rivnuts and dome headed screws. Still need to put a sealing rubber on. Yes you will need an alan key to get at my tools.

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Alloy stage

Painted

In use

Half door attachment method

One minor miracle was that the half doors fitted my old style Westfield bodywork but the rest of the miracle is that they also fit with the Cage. Top marks for Aerodynamix and they look terrific, I cannot wait to try them out. The main reason for fitting them was to reduce buffeting.

Before fitting them I first attached some 15mm U channel around the perimeter using tiger seal. The textured finish on the inside of the Aerodynamix part started to abrade the bodywork especially at the forward most edge.

I first attached the front with some heavy duty Velcro tape ensuring the spikes were attached to the bulge in the bodywork. This also had the beneficial effect of stopping the bodywork becoming abraded.

The rear was attached with an elastic Velcro strap. The Velcro was held in place by an alloy bracket and 5mm rivets.

I also attached some self adhesive hard rubber U channel to the top edge for safety reasons.

The attachments are both simple and can be done from inside the car.

I am sure there are many ways of doing this but I found this minimal effort to implement.

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Velcro front

Rubber edging



Velcro strap