Time for another update:

I plumbed in the internal heater the night before cadwell, ran the car up to temperature and left it running for 25 mins so the fans kicked in several times to make sure the system was under normal temperatures and pressure, no leaks or anything - great!
On the morning of cadwell, i got about 3 miles down the road before coolant was p**sing out everywhere in the passengers footwell.

It was hard to tell the exact point it was leaking from, but i reckon its where the fitting screws onto the radiator rather than where the tube goes into the fitting. I tried fixing it at the side of the road but gave up when it leaked again when restarting the engine.
To get round it i just put the old silicon 180 degree hose over the two thermostat take-off's to completely bypass the internal heater. I burned both thumbs using them as plugs over the take-offs to try and stop myself losing so much coolant, blistered up a bit for the day but they are fine now
I think some of the coolant got on the speed sensor though as that was a bit intermittent during the day.
After fixing the car and topping back up with some spare water i'd packed i got back on with the journey and met the others then did the trek over to cadwell.

At some point during the day my dipstick tube decided to come out of the block and p**s out some oil - not ideal. Got myself black flagged for it, but i didnt lose too much oil fortunately. I wrapped the end of the tube in PTFE tape, shoved it back in the block and secured it down with several tie wraps. Topped up with the spare oil me and a mate had taken, wiped away all the oil from the block, sump, subframe and everywhere else under the car. Left the car running for 10-20 mins to make sure the leak was solved which it seemed to be so ventured back out onto track.
Thats that issue resolved.

The only other thing i noticed is that my expansion tank works to some degree.

IMG_6906 by Steve Count, on Flickr

For some reason the header tank won't suck the coolant back in when the system cools, unsure why.

Temperatures have been massively improved since fitting the extra oil cooler and shrouding. Coolant didnt seem to get above 90c throughout the day.
Oil probably nudged 110-115c, which i'm going to have to live with i think, not hugely excessive and it gets replaced at least once a year, only having to do a few trackdays each year.

Heres the only other picture i got of the day, some of the lads i went with.

IMG_6908 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Heres some of the videos i have obtained from the day.

Drive-by
In-car Session 1
In-car Session 2
In-car Session 3
In-car Session 4
In-car Session 5
In-car Session 6
In-car Session 7
In-car Session 8
Video of me behind my mate in his Boxster S
Video from the Boxster S behind me
Loving the little slide at ~3:27

There were a lot of quick cars at Cadwell, i was very impressed with a silver clio there which consistently left pretty much everyone else for dust!

Just washed the track wheels today, think i need to consider a new set of rubber

IMG_6915 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Might give the Nankang AR-1's a try, bit more affordable than R888's, and i also need to pull my finger out and get a plate diff!

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Goldie the track car.

I also respect the person that modified & kept going with it Loads to

Time for another little update ready for Pugfest.

On the drive home from Cadwell i was sure something wasnt running perfectly, a slight misfire at random when just cruising at a set speed but no evidence when accelerating.
Fast forward a couple of months after the car had just been sat in the garage feeling a bit unloved due to the recent purchase of a 205, i decided to give it a quick wash ready for a local car meet, needed some more fuel to headed down to the nearest shell and filled the tank. The car ran flawlessly all the way there, after filling up i went to leave the forecourt, got to around 3k rpm and it felt like i had hit a brick wall with the engine refusing to pull, slapped it into 2nd and it went fine to around 2.5k rpm, but it would idle fine after the initial hissy fit. I managed to limp home keeping the revs below 2k rpm all the way and put this down to getting water on some of the wiring when i washed it.
The next day i got the laptop out and plugged it into the ecu, all the sensors showed up alright, i took it for a drive and everything was perfect again so i just put it down to my water theory.
Along came the meet, half way there it decided to do its cutting out trick again, which is pretty annoying on the motorway, i found that once it did it if i could kick in the clutch, get the engine to rev above 4k rpm then put it in an appropriate lower gear it would almost always then run fine at the higher rpm.
Every time the misfire occured the tacho would drop to 0rpm, so after talking to a couple of mates we diagnosed it as the crank position sensor or the gearbox coming away from the engine. No visible gaps anywhere between the bell housing and the block so i changed the crank sensor and it seems to be running fine again now.

On the way back from that meet i also had something else to contend with, one of the half nuts supplied with the aerocatches had vibrated off, causing the offside front of the bonnet to come up when joining a dual carriageway, once again, far from what i needed!

IMG_7120 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Looking at the state of the original aluminium pins i gave aerocatch a ring to see if they could supply me with some steel ones, which they seemed very reluctant to do and asked me to contact rally design where i had bought them from originally. After a phone call to them they wouldnt sell me just the pins and wanted to sell me whole new kits. Got back in touch with aerocatch and they eventually agreed to sort me out. Whilst not cheap they did arrive the next working day which was really useful.

Enough waffling on, heres one of the replacements:

IMG_7136 by Steve Count, on Flickr

One of the spot welds near the offside rear aerocatch mounted had also broken at some point, so i simply used a rivet to secure it once again.

IMG_7144 by Steve Count, on Flickr

The bonnet wafts about a silly amount as anyone who has ever seen me driving it will tell you, so i bought some 3/4 x 1/8" aluminium strip, spent a while bending it to match the inner profile of the bonnet then glued it to the underside. It's stiffened it up nicely, although i'm still considering adding one along the rear and possibly putting a layer of fibreglass matting over them to add a little more strength.

IMG_7143 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Fixed in place:

IMG_7145 by Steve Count, on Flickr

Another issue i've been having is the engine has been weeping oil from the oil take-off area.
I removed the 'charger and found that the take off plate wasn't as tight as it should be against the block, but one of the an fittings would hit the 'charger bracket when trying to nip it up, the 'charger mounts quite close to this area so i had to have a think of the best way to do this.
I decided to make up an offset bracket to hold the charger to the backplate, meaning i could cut away the part of the backplate which was hitting the take-off fitting, but still secure the 'charger to the plate in that area.

IMG_7141 by Steve Count, on Flickr

IMG_7135 by Steve Count, on Flickr

That's the bracket i came up with, i've fitted helicoils to it for a bit of added strength and durability with the regularity i seem to fit/remove the 'chargers

Previously i just used a long bolt that went through the 'charger then a spacer, then the backplate and a nyloc on the rear to secure it, whilst this worked it was a pain to try and fit and also try and get a nyloc on as there's no way to get a finger anywhere near that area. The new bracket has made that a problem of the past!
Having seen how much easier this made life i replaced the other 3 spacers with new ones, which are now helicoiled at each end so they now stay mounted to the backplate then the 'charger just bolts to these.

IMG_7149 by Steve Count, on Flickr

One final issue that i tacked whilst the 'charger was off was the oil weeping out of the an fittings where they went into the oil take off plate. These fittings have 1/2"bsp thread where they go into the take-off plate, and came supplied only with regular o-rings, but without a face groove on the mounting face, so if they were too loose the oil would force its way out, or too tight the o-ring would be crushed and squeezed out, once again causing a leak.
I'd tried sourcing dowty washers but had no success getting any which were the right size, not sure how that worked out as i literally ordered loads of imperial sizes and even tried some metric ones
In the end i decided to order another pair of fittings which came with dowty washers, the new ones were plated mild steel and weighed a ton, but they had the right size dowty washers so i simply used them washers with my old ally fittings and that seems to have cured the oil leak from there.

I think that just about covers everything i've done to the car recently, fingers crossed it holds itself together this weekend for Pugfest!

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Goldie the track car.

No chance! This bonnet can still be lifted with just a pinky, the standard one is ridiculously heavy!

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Goldie the track car.

Thanks Damien, don't worry i'll find you, i'm desperate for a ride up the hill in yours!

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Goldie the track car.

Good to meet you the other week mate.
I use the ns2r's and think they are brilliant, the ar1's are supposed to be even better so think I'll give them a go next

I did suggest that David could make a shorter version for a standard width 306 by removing some from the middle of the splitter

Small update, Cadwell has been and gone and i'm well impressed with the Nankang AR-1's.
Coolant and oil were a little warmer than i'd have hoped for but seemed stable and it was quite a warm day.

Here are some of the videos:
Trying to keep up with Pete
Following Cully
Session 1
Session 2 - Trying to keep up with a Porsche GT4
Session 3
Session 4
Session 5
Session 6
Session 7

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Goldie the track car.

Yeah, it's a shame it just didnt work out time wise that we were out together, oh well there's always next time

I'm loving the tyres, they seem to have more grip than my old R888's and barely seem to wear, win-win!

Has your mate made any decisions on what he's doing with his rallye yet? I'm hoping i did enough to persuade him to rebuild it!

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Goldie the track car.

Yeah, him being OK is the main thing, but i'm glad the car is getting sorted too.
Cadwell is my favourite uk circuit, the 306's seem to get on really well there. If you book another trackday there just let me know and i'll book on too, it'll be interesting to see how mine compares to yours.
I'm contemplating Oulton Park in November, assuming i get back from Germany with no issues in a few weeks. I think Jeffers is booked on there on the 12th of November so i may go for that one.

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Goldie the track car.

following cully.....lol
thanks for the passenger ride was great got out grinning from ear to ear
has certainly made me think on the fate of mine!
but what happened to Ryan's friend has made me think more about not driving to track-days and getting a Van and trailer

am glad he is ok and the rallye will live on

well done guys
and was nice to meet you all

Yeah, a diff is the next purchase i'll be making for the car. Hopefully santa will be generous this year!
Next year i'll hopefully have the diff fitted and get a session with just me in the car to see what lap times i can achieve, fingers crossed i wont be too far behind what you and dan are achieving. With the diff i might fit a smaller 'charger pulley to get a few extra bhp out of the car too, theres just no point going for any more at the moment, plus i like knowing my setup is somewhat reliable now, i gave the car death all day and other than getting a bit warm it didn't miss a beat.

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Goldie the track car.