Part 4
The 1795cc engine.
So the first thing to say is its obviously a bit big! The original intention was that this motor would be another 1776, but as with Johannes's 1603 the problem was finding a round cylinder hence the need to over bore the 90.5 cylinder to 91.
This was actually a compromise for me but necessary in the circumstances. I convinced myself it would be OK as at least it was still under 1800cc but it still niggles me to this day that its not a 1776, but given it performs so well I didn't have anything to complain about.
The plan for this engine actually dates back to 2007 when I started to collect parts for an 11 second 1776 motor too replace the 2nd 1776, "the shopper".
Needless to say the old Shopper over delivered and ran the 11's that this new motor was intended to do, which was a nice problem to have.
It was around this time that Mat Sanchez mentioned a thing called the cal-look lounge and suggested I took a look as I might find it interesting. I signed up in August 2007 and generally snooped about reading and looking at what others were up to. Mat was right though it was interesting. Then BeetleBug started the small motor thread which of course was right up my street.
When Johannes went and posted his plans to build the 1603 for his red car and all the information it really caught my eye, so I followed this thread and the build up with great interest.
I can still remember hearing that video clip of the 1603 motor for the first time revving on the engine stand. I knew I was ruined in that moment and had to have an engine that sounded like that. I still have to listen to that clip every now and then as I just love the sound!
So of course I sent Johannes a PM and organised to speak on the phone one day soon after. Its fair to say that having spoken to Johannes for the first time, if the sound of the motor on the stand had not sealed my fate that phone call certainly did!
For those of you that know him this will come as no surprise, but if you have never spoken to him I'll warn you that the combination of his friendly enthusiasm and engine knowledge makes him very difficult not to like.
So there I was with my head full of numbers to contemplate and the first steps towards the inevitable.
The first thing I did was to talk to Ian and Peter and of course neither of them did anything to dampen my enthusiasm in fact quite the opposite!
So in what seamed like a short space of time Johannes had finished all the simulations and there was a plan in place. This was March 2008.
I still had plenty to do to sort out my current plans with “the shopper” for 2008 so I knuckled down to that and continued to collect parts for the new engine.
It wasn’t until January 2009 that I was wrapping up all the engine parts I'd collected and was posting them to Sweden. There were some nice parts in these parcels including a new mag case with sleeved lifter bores by John Maher, a new forged Scat crank with Chevy rod journals which Richie sorted out, some Jet Ti rods from Mat Keene, and some ceramic lifters from Peter and a few other niceties like a mag sump, 26mm berg oil pump, and a Ti case stud kit amongst numerous other bits.
In Feb 2009 Peter, Ian and I made a plan to go and see Johannes for a shop tour and to firm up the details of the plan for the motor check through all the parts I sent and to bring a few more. Needless to say we had a great time with lots of high octane talk and some good fun too. It’s really impressive to me when someone understands humor in their second language, so we had a great laugh and some great technical chat too. Not to mention seeing and more importantly hearing the single cylinder development engine run, which is a mad thing and you certainly take a few steps back when it gets up in the rev range!
I needed to get back to sorting the car out for the upcoming season after the trip. I only did the two races in 2009, but it was a great year with the 1st 11's some street driving and the new motor excitement in the background.
At the end of 2009 Volksworld did a feature on the car which was published in Spring 2010 which was another nice milestone for the car.
So at the end of the race season the new motor was coming along nicely and plans were made to take the car to Sweden to dyno the old engine and fit and dyno the new one back to back.
So in October 2009 Peter, John Maher and I set off for Sweden. Its a long drive but with a very early start we made it from Dunkirk to Helsingborg in about 15 hours non stop, but for nature breaks and some fuel.
Needless to say it was an adrenaline fueled journey, but the time passed quite quickly with plenty of high octane talk with John accompanied by the tune of Peter snoring in the back (that boy can sleep!).
Having dropped the car and trailer off with Johannes and having had a bit of a chat and poured over the new motor we headed for the hotel for some sleep.
We arrived early the next day and got the car on the dyno and "the shopper" made 186hp at 7,300 rpm breaking the 100bhp/litre target by some margin. So we had a good base line. Peter, John and I took the motor out of the car whilst Johannes finished the exhaust for the new one.
The initial fire up of the new motor on the engine stand that evening was a great moment as it was much like the 1603 video clip that got me hooked in the first place.
http://vid384.photobucket.com/albums/oo284/petershattock/RaptorMouseedit2.mp4 I remember being knackered that night, but not being able to sleep with all the thoughts and excitement of the day and the day to come.
So the next day we fitted the new motor and having sorted a few gremlins we started with the calibration and some power runs.
Again I was knackered at the end of the day, but not able to sleep. I forget the exact numbers made that day, but it was more than the simulated figure which was 215hp so it was a great day and we were not done as we were still running the small vents at this point.
After the final set up the next day it made 228,3hp/7990rpm and 231Nm (166.9lbs) 6200rpm corrected (Din), 127hp/l. This was on pump gas through the muffler.
We all like numbers, but an interesting point of note is that it actually made a peak of 231hp with one jetting and ignition set up, but there was more area under the curve with the lower peak figure above. So less is more!
So that was it. All the exciting bit was over, we just had to pack up and deal with the long drive home which was dull and seamed twice as long as the journey in the opposite direction.
Once I got the car home there were two main jobs to do, make the tinware fit and fit the silencer, which was previously just on the end of straight pipe for the dyno.
I had the car all sorted and road legal in May 2010 and started to put some miles on the new engine. It was great to drive the car again and all was looking promising for the 1st race of the year.
It was a great start to the 1st race weekend as I turned up at the gate moments before Andy Marriott did in his hot 1914cc n/a street car so we drove into the Outlaw pits for the weekend in formation.
Given the gearbox in the car was designed to suit my old engine I was a little paranoid about breaking it, so I ran for the first day on MH street tires which netted me a best of 11.87 at just over 113mph which I was very pleased with as it beat my previous PB on slicks and all I did when I arrived was change the oil check the valve clearances.
Day 2 of racing I ran with the slicks and ran a number of 11.6* second passes with a best of 11.60 again just over 113mph. That was over 3 10ths of my best previous ET. I had a number of problems with the car, and my driving over the weekend, so I had a list of things to do now before I raced again in July.
Bugjam was the next race and this was the first with the right gearbox ratios which was the big change from the last race. Unfortunately it was clear after the 1st run that the clutch was not up to the job, so it was only a matter of time before it gave out. Worse still it was also clear that I had not resolved my suspension problems either. Fortunately I had enough options at the track with the parts I'd taken to resolve the suspension issues, which gave me the chance to see what difference the new gearbox ratios had made, whilst I still had a clutch!
With sorted suspension and the new gearbox ratios the car ran 3 consecutive 11.3…. with a best of 11.315 @116mph.
http://s384.photobucket.com/user/petershattock/media/bugjam2010008.mp4.html Pulling up on the drive at home and clicking the motor off was a great feeling after a weekend of racing I won’t forget for a while!
The next race did not go to plan, as I was still struggling with clutch issues, but did run a couple of 11.50's, the best being a 50 flat, so there was no et improvement. The clutch center plate let go on the 3rd pass on Saturday, but thanks to Ian WPS for an express road trip to Cogbox and Peter's help to make up a new center plate we made it back to the track with the bits to fix the car on Sunday.
Adele and I ran on the Sunday as the first pair after the rain in the morning, and I'm sure most of you know what happened next, but as the others have said the main thing was that Adele was OK.
The last race of the year for me was DDD8 and it was a great weekend. As had become the norm the clutch gave up on Sat afternoon, but thanks to Ian (WPS) we got the motor out, clutch sorted, and back in, just in time to catch the last of the DAS barbeque hospitality that evening. After chasing a good set up for a few runs, the car ran from 11.8 something to an 11.52 last run.
So the car ended the year with a best et of 11.315 at 116mph (no fan belt on slicks, with a muffler on super unleaded pump fuel) from around 25 passes and just over 1000 street miles. Needless to say 1000 miles is not much for a street car, but unfortunately my time for regular street miles is limited.
The only problems I had, were clutch related (one center disc per meeting), but the last set up we tried for Sunday at DDD held up well.
So the 11.3* spec
The long block is based around a new Magnesium case with a wedge mated Scat Chevy journal crank and flywheel. The flywheel is the JPM “window” style. The pulley is an aluminum Gene Berg power pulley size. I ran a 180mm clutch with an aluminum stage one Kennedy with an organic disc. The rods were 5.4 Jet Ti, the cam is a JPM 01005(10mm cam lift 271deg at 0.05" 105 lobe center), ceramic lifters, GB 160000psi pr, JPM 1.55:1 rockers two stud, ti valves, JPM alumec retainers, OTEVA75 valve springs and single grove 7deg keepers. Heads are JPM modified 043’s with 42mm x 37.5mm Titanium valves and cut down Scat big beef manifolds for tuned inlet length. 26mm Shadek plugged oil pump with JPM prime cover, Mahle 90.5 barrels bored to 91mm with JPM / JE pistons and DLC coated wrist pins. Ignition a Bosch 050 with Pertronics module and coil and 8mm Moroso leads. Modified Webber 48 IDA’s with a Unique Industries Ti cross bar linkage. The exhaust header is a one off JPM tuned length steeped header with muffler. Welded Gene Berg fan, Gene Berg magnesium deep sump, external oil filter and cooler with fans. CR 12.7:1
The gearbox was fitted with various lightened parts but was based around a stock case with a 4.375 r&p with an aluminum spool, 3.75 1st, 2.54 2nd, 1.78 3rd and a 1.35 4th and the usual HD side plate and axles.
The great thing about the car to this point was that it was really simple. The benefits of a simple reliable fast car are not to be under estimated as it was a lot of fun, easy to maintain and drive.
So no need to change it right? Sadly what happened next was for me to take apart (again) a perfectly good car with a view to making it a little bit quicker…..
This is the motor in the car and I loved the subtlety of it. No fuss just fast!
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The Cal-look Lounge
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