Before I use it on track I would have to sort out the progression problems. It was also backfiring a lot on the overrun. I added a fuel pressure regulator to see whether that would help the problem, but no luck. So I asked the WSCC guys who to see and they recommended Redline Tuning at Iver. There wasn’t much he could do though, as the ignition leads weren’t very good. So he just adjusted the timing which got rid of the backfiring. He tried to see what the bhp was but couldn’t keep it on the rollers, even with me sitting on the boot. But he reckoned that it was about 180bhp as the ad. said.
Once I got some new leads I went back. He put some bigger idle jets in, and this sorted out 95% of the progression problems. But it does now run a bit rich at low revs, so I’m not 100% happy.
I wanted to use the 14” Allycat wheels that came with the car, as I thought this would improve the handling and save a bit of weight. Also the low profile tyres on the 15” wheels made the ride very harsh indeed, and quite dangerous on bumpy roads. So I thought I would sell the wheels and tyres and with the money buy some tyres for the Allycats. But there isn’t much of a choice for 14” wheels. I ended up with 195/60/14 Avon ZV3s. These take a while to heat up, but once hot are pretty grippy.
Unfortunately one only lasted 25 miles before a three inch nail went through it. It was too close to the edge to repair, so I had to buy another. The higher profile tyres have improved the handling of the car and I think the bigger profile looks better too.
New tyres and 14” Allycat wheels.
Replacing the diff. (July 2005)
I still only have the 4 speed gearbox and couldn’t quite face up to changing the gearbox. So I decided to replace the 3.89:1 diff with an RS2000 one which is 3.54:1. I bought the diff off ebay (where else!). Fitting it wasn’t too much trouble. But it is a heavy item to manoeuvre under the car, so was quite a physical job.
On the second day I bolted it all together and took it out for a test run. The gearing was terrific, but unfortunately the new diff screamed like a banshee. So it had to come off. It turned out to be too expensive to get it reconditioned, so I went back to the seller. He was very good about it and gave me my money back. But I was still left with a seriously under-geared car. There was no option but to change the gearbox. But I’ll put that off till the good weather is over.
Home-made catch tank. (July 2005)
After returning from a rather spirited drive I noticed that I left a trail of oil down the driveway. The oil was coming from under the nearside front wing. After a bit of probing I found that the previous owner had run the breather pipe to an old white spirit bottle that he had stuffed between the chassis and the wing. It had filled up and was leaking everywhere. Time for a new catch tank. I quite fancied a nice aluminium one, but really didn’t want to spend any money. But I had seen another Westfield that used an aluminium thermos flask. I had one which we never use so thought I’d use that. So after a bit of pipe-work and a bracket I had myself a half decent catch tank, and it only cost a few pounds.
The catch tank is the container between the engine block and the coil. (I might reposition this at a later date.)
Wind deflectors (August 2005)
I don’t like the side screens/doors on the Westfield. I don’t think they look good on the car, and I need the space for my right elbow. The trouble is that without the side screens driving at speed is not very pleasant. I get whipped by the loose ends of the harness and suffer from the sever buffeting. So I decided to get some wind deflectors. These were pretty easy to fit. I just replaced the pin in the brackets with long thin bolts, which enabled me to fix the wind deflectors. They look great, and although they are not as good as doors they do reduce the buffeting quite a lot. I think the doors will have to go back on for Winter though.
82 degree thermostat (August 2005)
The thermostat doesn’t start to open till 92 degrees. This meant my Westfield standardly ran at about 95-97, and quickly went up if I was driving it hard. This would be no good for a track day, so I bought the thermostat for the turbo version that opens at 82 degrees. I also drilled a couple of 3 mm holes in to avoid any air locks. Since putting this in the car runs at a constant 85 degrees even when stuck in traffic in hot weather. After five to ten minutes on track it rises to 100-102 degrees, but this quickly drops if I ease off for a lap.
Fitting an RAC Roll bar. (August 2005)
The standard roll bar is purely cosmetic, and would fold flat if the car ever rolled. So wanted to fit a proper RAC roll bar before putting the car on the track. I put an ad on the WSCC web site and was contacted by Rob Navin, who was upgrading to a full cage.
Fitting the roll bar involved removing the boot box and fuel tank, as there is not enough room to get the lower bolts in with the fuel tank in. So while the tank was out I gave it a good clean. The boot box was a bit of a mess so I decided to leave it out. I decided later to have a go at making my own one from some aluminium sheeting, which worked pretty well. (See below.)
Fitting the T9 Gearbox (August/September 2005).
The WSCC track day at Cadwell Park was getting very close and I still needed to sort out my gearing. I can’t weld so I arranged for a local company to take out he engine and gearbox, weld the extra plate that is needed for the support bracket, and put the engine back in. To cut costs I stripped the engine down first and towed the car to the garage. We decided to change the clutch plate and cover while the engine was out as well. The job was more involved than we anticipated and involved cutting and moving a chassis cross-member. With this extra work and the cost of the clutch parts it ended up costing a lot more than I anticipated, but I had my 5th gear at last. Just needed to tow the car home and put all the bits and pieces back on the engine. I finished this the day before I had to set off for Cadwell, but it was done at last.
The gear change was not as good as the RS2000 box and the first gear was much shorter. I suspected the engineer did not put enough oil in the box. He put in less than a litre and it should have about 1.3 litres. So I wasn’t that happy with what I ended up with. A bit deflating really, but I’d get used to it, and at least it was at last ready for its first track day. BACK