And now it's raining
MautoK - 21/7/09 at 11:31 AM
At long last I think my car is sorted! 
SVA was Feb/Mar 09 and it first went on the road early April. Since then I have:
Knacked the autobox and changed it;
Had dire engine overheating problems, so replumbed with Polo rad; still overheated so fitted another engine;
Fitted baffles around the rad;
Cut vents in the bonnet;
Fitted sumps guard (under engine and g/box);
Had gearbox overheating (poss due to sumps guard);
Fitted remote oil cooler for the gearbox.
At long last it seems to be behaving so thought it was time to go out for a decent run of 50 miles or so....and it's raining! 
Maybe tomorrow...
John.
omega0684 - 21/7/09 at 11:34 AM
Chin Up! 
i haven't driven mine for a couple of weeks! its so depressing, i was hoping we'd have a good summer this year
iscmatt - 21/7/09 at 11:38 AM
have you any pics of the sump guard??
mediabloke - 21/7/09 at 11:53 AM
Never mind. The weather for the weekend looks good (up to now). Fingers firmly crossed. 
quote:
Originally posted by iscmatt
have you any pics of the sump guard??
I'd be interested ^^^ too...
miikae - 21/7/09 at 11:55 AM
I took mine out last Thursday for MOT had a nice blat in the sun and its rained every day since on and off , long range forcast says ok for tomorrow
Wednesday , rain until, Saturday sun & cloudy , sun & showers Sunday, next sunny day thursday 30th, oh well so maybe next month then
Mike
MautoK - 21/7/09 at 12:01 PM
quote:
Originally posted by iscmatt
have you any pics of the sump guard??
Here's a couple or three:
Sumps guard sideview
Sumps guard front view
Sumps guard again
David Jenkins - 21/7/09 at 12:06 PM
That looks solid enough!
The only comment I'd add is that the oil is cooled a bit by the air passing by the sump - maybe a few holes would assist?
MautoK - 21/7/09 at 12:24 PM
quote:
Originally posted by David Jenkins
The only comment I'd add is that the oil is cooled a bit by the air passing by the sump - maybe a few holes would assist?
True! However the primary concern is to maintain the integrity of both sumps. While the engine sump is fairly robust, the pan of the autobox is
extremely vulnerable and having holed it once...!
The car is primarily going to be used fairly locally and this being quite an agricultural area, you never know what sort of junk may be lying in wait
on lesser roads!
There's currently about 4" clearance at the lowest point, and that's with no-one aboard. When 2-up, the sumpguard scrapes the ground on
entering my property!
I may need to fit another cooler for the engine oil.
John.
iscmatt - 21/7/09 at 01:13 PM
thanks for those pics it looks really good, is it steel? what thickness -
the reason i ask is i have just found a small fracture in my sump due to constant scraping - i too live in out in the sticks and a lot of the roads
are very rough with pot holes and huge cambers!
thanks again!
MautoK - 21/7/09 at 04:18 PM
iscmatt:
It's Dural or similar. I got it from a scrap metal yard years ago and it did service for a while on my trials Midget in the late 80s.
Dims 36" long, 10" wide and 3/16" thick (shade under 5mm)
It's secured to the engine/box, rather than the chassis because every mm is critical w.r.t. ground clearance.
HTH
John.
iscmatt - 21/7/09 at 04:47 PM
cheers john thats some great help!!! thanks! 
mediabloke - 21/7/09 at 07:15 PM
Thanks - some useful ideas to think about. I hadn't thought of using the bell-housing / gearbox bolts to hold the back end of the plate.
iscmatt - 21/7/09 at 07:27 PM
quote:
Originally posted by mediabloke
Thanks - some useful ideas to think about. I hadn't thought of using the bell-housing / gearbox bolts to hold the back end of the plate.
yup same here, i only thought about the chassis rails, just need to get some cardboard cut up now and do some test fitting!
MautoK - 21/7/09 at 09:30 PM
Here's the OS bracket close-up:
Bracket
This one attaches with the bottom starter motor bolt; the NS bracket bolts to an unused hole in the bellhousing - probably needs a bit of
strengthening as b/hsg is alloy.
The brackets are 3mm gauge plate and the shape is deliberate so they'll collapse upwards in the worst case.
These are actually the only support for the guard, but the Dural is stiff enough to support itself lengthwise (36" total)
I didn't want the disruption of welding bracketry to the chassis.
John.
