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[quote][i]Originally posted by Kyle T[/i] TRACKDAY PREP WEEK! Normally I enjoy the buzz of the week building up to a track day as much as I enjoy the day itself, but I've been a bit busy on the car this time round. My intention was to whip the undertray off, spanner check the toe-links and have one more check of the oil fittings I've added. This was on Monday night. Unfortunately I found evidence of a bit of oil weepage from the sump, barely anything - and my original intention upon seeing it was to just clean it up and get a track day or two done then get the car to a specialist for the token yearly stamp and have them refit the sump. This would have been fine as the oil "loss" wasn't even registering on the dipstick and it had not seeped enough to even break surface tension and mess up the undertray. However... I'm very impulsive with spanners, and after leaving and re-entering the garage a couple of times I eventually suited up and dropped the oil (< 500miles worth!). I am 90% sure the issue was just me being crap, but to cover all bases I wanted to change everything that I did previously which meant a different degreaser product and a different RTV gasket sealant product to rule out any inadequacies of the stuff I used before. Removing the sump was much easier than it was when I took the original off a few months ago, and there wasn't much evidence of the rubberised "gasket" that the sealant should have formed. It was barely a blue smear on each surface. Hmmm, perhaps I torqued it up wrong and squeezed it all out?! I went with the same sealant this time as I used on my Elise - as that never leaked. No idea what the chemical differences are here, but the black one is clearly marketed more towards oily environments than the blue one is. [img]https://i.imgur.com/WRpDJyp.jpg?1[/img] I very much repeated the same process, but with dollops of added patience this time. I noticed that whilst the car was jacked up on an angle that oil persisted to drip out of the engine and onto the block flange for several hours after the oil was drained. This was also the corner where it was weeping, so perhaps between me degreasing and refitting before a smidge of oil escaped onto the contact area. After draining the oil this time I left the car overnight to make sure any rogue drips were long gone. I also noticed some witness marks on the sump that suggested a casting mark on near the gearbox housing (the problem corner) had possibly prevented a flush fit - so the file came out to sort that. Beading the black stuff was a lot stodgier than the blue stuff, which gave me confidence even though my hand hurt like hell afterwards! Both times I've done a sump previously I'd felt rushed to get the bead onto the sump and get it bolted up, but after reading a few forums etc it seemed that it was fairly normal to leave the sealant for 15-20mins before fitting it anyway, so I took my time properly this time and was confident that I got it bolted up with practically zero lateral movement to smear the bead. I followed a very strict torquing process that Ed China would be proud of, and felt pretty comfortable with the end result. If this leaks, it's off to a garage! Due to all my patience, cure time and other stuff (like having a job) this took up most of the week and I finally got it finished and topped up with oil today. I only had time for a quick 12 mile test drive but no evidence of leaks, so stuck the undertray back on and cleaned the car. Next job happened inbetween all that, waiting for cure times and such. This was the installation of my new 4point Schroth ASM harness for the driver seat. [img]https://i.imgur.com/M6ADK5N.jpg?1[/img] The car already has a harness bar in on the factory mounts, so was a very quick install. I had originally intended to remove all of the trim, remove the inertia reels and tidy all the 3point stuff out but I just couldn't be arsed inbetween all the sump stuff. For now I've cable tied the 3point out of the way, and depending on how annoying I find a harness on the road I always have the option to fit a coexistence kit and keep both in at once. [img]https://i.imgur.com/q3rLXEk.jpg?1[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/hSPR2bZ.jpg?1[/img] The car is definitely looking the part now! I can't wait to try these, I've never driven with harnesses before and through both of my previous track cars had real problems keeping myself held in. CG-Locks were a great compromise but hopefully this is next level. I'll admit to feeling a little uncomfortable with my trial fits of the harness, very claustrophobic when it's done up properly and I seem to be struggling to keep the lap belt down too. I'm aware that I should be tightening it up first, then doing the shoulders last - but for me to get the shoulders tight enough to properly pin my upper back into the seat, I end up pulling the lap belt up a little bit. I know that's bad, so I need to have more practise and adjustment before Saturday. So there we go, car cleaned - sorting out my travelling toolkit and supplies then I just need to rehearse some gopro positions and we're all ready for Blyton on Saturday. Fingers crossed the car behaves, oh and good weather would also be nice!TRACKDAY PREP WEEK! Normally I enjoy the buzz of the week building up to a track day as much as I enjoy the day itself, but I've been a bit busy on the car this time round. My intention was to whip the undertray off, spanner check the toe-links and have one more check of the oil fittings I've added. This was on Monday night. Unfortunately I found evidence of a bit of oil weepage from the sump, barely anything - and my original intention upon seeing it was to just clean it up and get a track day or two done then get the car to a specialist for the token yearly stamp and have them refit the sump. This would have been fine as the oil "loss" wasn't even registering on the dipstick and it had not seeped enough to even break surface tension and mess up the undertray. However... I'm very impulsive with spanners, and after leaving and re-entering the garage a couple of times I eventually suited up and dropped the oil (< 500miles worth!). I am 90% sure the issue was just me being crap, but to cover all bases I wanted to change everything that I did previously which meant a different degreaser product and a different RTV gasket sealant product to rule out any inadequacies of the stuff I used before. Removing the sump was much easier than it was when I took the original off a few months ago, and there wasn't much evidence of the rubberised "gasket" that the sealant should have formed. It was barely a blue smear on each surface. Hmmm, perhaps I torqued it up wrong and squeezed it all out?! I went with the same sealant this time as I used on my Elise - as that never leaked. No idea what the chemical differences are here, but the black one is clearly marketed more towards oily environments than the blue one is. [img]https://i.imgur.com/WRpDJyp.jpg?1[/img] I very much repeated the same process, but with dollops of added patience this time. I noticed that whilst the car was jacked up on an angle that oil persisted to drip out of the engine and onto the block flange for several hours after the oil was drained. This was also the corner where it was weeping, so perhaps between me degreasing and refitting before a smidge of oil escaped onto the contact area. After draining the oil this time I left the car overnight to make sure any rogue drips were long gone. I also noticed some witness marks on the sump that suggested a casting mark on near the gearbox housing (the problem corner) had possibly prevented a flush fit - so the file came out to sort that. Beading the black stuff was a lot stodgier than the blue stuff, which gave me confidence even though my hand hurt like hell afterwards! Both times I've done a sump previously I'd felt rushed to get the bead onto the sump and get it bolted up, but after reading a few forums etc it seemed that it was fairly normal to leave the sealant for 15-20mins before fitting it anyway, so I took my time properly this time and was confident that I got it bolted up with practically zero lateral movement to smear the bead. I followed a very strict torquing process that Ed China would be proud of, and felt pretty comfortable with the end result. If this leaks, it's off to a garage! Due to all my patience, cure time and other stuff (like having a job) this took up most of the week and I finally got it finished and topped up with oil today. I only had time for a quick 12 mile test drive but no evidence of leaks, so stuck the undertray back on and cleaned the car. Next job happened inbetween all that, waiting for cure times and such. This was the installation of my new 4point Schroth ASM harness for the driver seat. [img]https://i.imgur.com/M6ADK5N.jpg?1[/img] The car already has a harness bar in on the factory mounts, so was a very quick install. I had originally intended to remove all of the trim, remove the inertia reels and tidy all the 3point stuff out but I just couldn't be arsed inbetween all the sump stuff. For now I've cable tied the 3point out of the way, and depending on how annoying I find a harness on the road I always have the option to fit a coexistence kit and keep both in at once. [img]https://i.imgur.com/q3rLXEk.jpg?1[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/hSPR2bZ.jpg?1[/img] The car is definitely looking the part now! I can't wait to try these, I've never driven with harnesses before and through both of my previous track cars had real problems keeping myself held in. CG-Locks were a great compromise but hopefully this is next level. I'll admit to feeling a little uncomfortable with my trial fits of the harness, very claustrophobic when it's done up properly and I seem to be struggling to keep the lap belt down too. I'm aware that I should be tightening it up first, then doing the shoulders last - but for me to get the shoulders tight enough to properly pin my upper back into the seat, I end up pulling the lap belt up a little bit. I know that's bad, so I need to have more practise and adjustment before Saturday. So there we go, car cleaned - sorting out my travelling toolkit and supplies then I just need to rehearse some gopro positions and we're all ready for Blyton on Saturday. Fingers crossed the car behaves, oh and good weather would also be nice! [Edited on 07-04-2019 by Kyle T] [/quote]
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