First off was the propshaft. Obviously as I am running the Tremec gearbox the output shaft is much larger than that of a Cossie T5, and with the ‘box mounted the tail housing actually sits quite a bit further back than the T5 would, so just using a Saph Cossie prop was always going to be out of the question. Instead I spoke to the guys at Dave Mac Propshafts and explained the dilemma I faced.
Well, what I though was going to be a major drama was actually probably one of the easiest jobs they’ve been asked to do. All I had to do was measure the overall length and find out the size of the slip yoke required to fit the gearbox, and as I already had a Cossie prop I simply dropped that off so the guys had all the positions of the yokes and centre bearing to go off. I left the rest up to them, and the end result is stunning. The front section is now made of 2.5in tube and is fitted with the correct slip yoke, it retains the original Cossie centre bearing and mounting point (although a new bearing has been fitted), and the rear section is now a massive 3in tube. According to the calculations the guys made based on my gear ratios this prop will be good enough for over 200mph!
Custom Y-piece is a piece of art. Modern art, that nobody understands or visits galleries to see, but art nonetheless.
I was itching to get the new, custom-made part onto the car (mainly to make sure my measurements were correct and that the whole thing was going to work!), but with other stuff on the go it had to wait a couple of weeks. Thankfully I did manage to find time to get it all fitted up this month, and aside from a quick heart-in-the-mouth moment when for a split second it looked as if the prop was three inches too long, it all slotted into place rather nicely. It was quite heavy to hold up, especially when lying on your back (hence the stupid faces I was pulling when fitting it), but I got there eventually and at least the diff and gearbox are now connected (which hasn’t really made the car any easier to push about when working on it!).
There’s one thing I need to look at with regards to the underside of the car before I can give it a clean bill of health, and that’s the fuel system. I’m still in two minds at the minute, but am leaning towards fitting a Cossie tank for the ease of installation. Hopefully I will have more for you on that for next month, but one piece of good news was the custom Y-piece for the boost pipework I was having made by Forge Motorsport has been finished. As I needed to get both turbos blowing into one intercooler I asked Forge Motorsport to knock me something up that would do the job, but it couldn’t be a traditional T-piece type of joint.
Here’s why: a standard T-piece would have been quite restrictive and could cause the turbos to be unbalanced as one tries to push air one way and the other tries to push air the other way. Instead the Y-piece needs to be smooth flowing so that the air is all directed straight into the intercooler with minimum fuss.
And that’s exactly what the guys at Forge did for me. It not only looks the business (the fab work is really tidy) but with it all fitted up I have finally finished something, namely plumbing in the boost pipework. Yay! Now onto the fuel, oil, and water systems…
Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2011 at 4:07 pm under Cars, Jamie, Sierra, Staff Cars. You can subscribe to comments. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
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