Supercharged K20a2 Vtec - Race Spec by cptkirk

6 minute(s) of a 377 minute read

Thanks.

The temptation to stick a seat in it and go for a blast has been very great at times, even recently after having the engine tuned I was going to just slap the doors on and take it to a track for a blast round but knowing that I had to swap the diff out made me see sense.

I can hand on heart say that I did not expect it to take this long but I have had a countless amount of setbacks along the way, the majority have not been of my making.

For anyone thinking of doing one of these consider that it isnt like a Caterham where you get every last nut and bolt and a nice instruction manual (I also apreciate that other kits dont) - Oh no, there is virtually diddly squat in the way of how to put one of these together (although Z's are alway happy to talk you through anything) and be prepared to fettle almost everything to make it fit, not just a little fettle but great big ones and maybe even the need to add metal during a fettle (I am poet and I dont know it).

However with all that said when I get to the end of this project I should have a much greater sense of acheivement than your basic kit car in a box person and I will have achieved what I set out to build - A one of a kind mini that will ruin most other cars on the road.

Others that have been down this road will probably agree with the following sentence;

During the build process the car has evolved into something far greater than I ever expected it to be.

I am not going to give up on it now, I am waaaaaaaay too far down the line for that, in fact writing this is giving me renewed vigour to get my sorry ass out in the garage and get tinkering.

1-26-2010

So with Christmas out the way and the snow now gone I have run out of excuses not to get on with the car, so the weekend saw me out in the garage getting stuck back into it - at last.......

Not out there tonight as its a bit too cold for me so I thought I would share my plans and some fo the stuff I have been up to.

First thing was I made another list of stuff to do, which keeps growing each time I go out to the garage but I am finding it the best way to deal with it, pick a thing that needs doing, knowing how much time you have and get it done - simples....

So in one of my prevoius threads I was talking about making a bung/temp sensor holder, well I decided against that idea and have now decided to go with just a stright blanking plug/bung for the old heater matirx output from the block. I have also decided (last night) that I need to take the supercharger and manifold off one more time so that I can get to the solid coolant pipe that runs from the thermostat to where it would have been connected to the heater matrix, pretty much right next to the bung I was just going on about. In the photo below you can see the solid pipe I am going on about. Note the flexi hose that follows that up and more importantly the housing at the top of the pipe.





So I decided to put my water temp sensor right into this housing. I had made the decision some time ago that I wasnt going to run the pre-warm coolant pipes to the throttle body as I wasnt going to be driving it in conditions that would warrant it and I will always take the time to thoroughly warm the engine before taking it out. Also there will be much more heat coming back towards the throttle body from the supercharger than with a N/A engine.

I drilled out the lower 8mm steel pipes from the housing and tonight I popped into my mate Stevie G's as I had given him my 1/8" NPT tap to make my previously mentioned bung/sensor holder with (now just a bung - as above), we tapped that bad boy out and here it is - excuse fingers:



And here are a couple more shots - pretty poor quality though......







A got a couple of shots of my new engine mounts - I plan to get them in once I can get to back up to Crazy Mikes and abuse one of his his two poster ramps - seen previously when I took the engine out. Anyhow enough blah - here are the mounts (dont get too excited):




Yer I know there not the billet ones but it was what I could afford................

So the plan from here - get these coolant system bits nailed, finish off the few electrical bits I have yet to do, still a few bodywork (under bonnet) bits to do, doors need hanging, carpeting, in fact I already have a list why the feck am I repeating it all here, its safe to say that I still have a couple of months of work ahead of me to get it ready for a shakedown, my problem is I want everything to be just right before I take it out for a spin. I realise I will have to go over it again with the spanners to make sure all is tight but I dont want to go half hearted into driving it or things jsut wont get finished, even though I realise it will probaly never truly be finished as I already have plans developing in my head for intercoolers and other stuff


I knows its been a long road but I remember when it used to look like this back in May '08, its come along way since then: