LC Lancer Circuit/Rally Car

[HoonBoy]

After having someone roll my Commodore khana car and the engine/gearbox/cage/suspension/wiring/body changes to my LA Lancer going much further and taking much longer then I originally thought, I went looking for something to have a bit of fun with. After looking at a few options, I came across an LC Lancer rally car with full cage, rally extra's like sumpguard, terratrip and terraphone, big lights and lots of spare parts. So this is what I ended up with:

The car itself:


hmmm, an astron, at least it has a lot of capacity..


ewww, carby! That has to go!


rather substantial roll cage going through to the front strut towers


it's a rather tight squeeze getting in and out


terratrip and cage going from the front leg to the front strut


lengthened lower control arms


chunky bilsteins and coilover springs on the front


rear bilsteins and cart springs. Note: that the springs are thicker behind the axle then in front, could explain the issues that the previous owner had with the rear end, they suggested changing the springs.


15 inch steelies


spare diff, alloy centre, shortened nissan 720, 5.1:1 but with busted axle/ brake bits. needs a close look but I really want to put it back in.


stack of spare wheels/tyres that came with it, all 15's, either steelies or trx alloys.


Parts car. It's too good to leave sitting there for a "just-incase" rust free, straight chassis, bolt on panels could use some work.



Came with a few parts inside, this is after I removed three guards and some other random parts to be able to get in to the drivers seat







Not pictured are three gearboxes, a spare engine, bonnet, radiators, 2 x 4.6 alloy diff centres (nisan H190) and boxes of various parts.

Just to make sure I really have no room, I picked up some more parts, Magna head, magna injection setup, magna starter and alternator for Commodore guts conversion

Short term build plans are:
1. Change drivers seat to one of my wider Sparco's and lower it down so my head doesn't hit the roof.
2. Replace worn out ball joint/bearing/suspension bits causing a clunk
3. Replace rear springs with something better
4. Fit the 1inch master cylinder and Commodore front brakes from the LA
5. Throw carby away, fit Magna fuel injection setup along with better CAM, springs and piggyback ECU
6. Fix the nissan diff and fit it back in the car.
7. Depending on the event, use either the current struts for dirt or the struts from the LA for circuit (lower height, stiffer springs and more camber on the circuit setup)
8. Depending on the event, use the rally tyres or the LA semi-slicks.

The plan is do enough work on this one to have it fun and reliable whilst continuing to hack away at the LA without having to rush. Let's see how it really turns out.

[HoonBoy]

Work begins!

I have fitted up the circuit front struts with big brakes on along with matching control arms and tie-rod setup. 1 inch master cylinder, different front hard lines and braided brake lines also fitted. The thing sits about 4 inch lower then before and the rally tyres now rub on the guards and hit the springs (the coilover adjusters are much lower on this setup compared to the rally setup) Need to put some fluid in the brakes and give it a wheel alignment.

Magna head is off to get cleaned up and setup with a reground mechanical cam and heavy duty valve springs. Inlet manifold has been chopped up and gone to the alloy welders to get the throttle body plate put on the correct end. Nissan diff is off getting an axle shortened and stud pattern changed

I also re-made the seat mounts to put a different Sparco further back and closer to the centre of the car, now I can actually sit in the car with my helmet on!

All of the "sponsor" stickers have been removed, trying to make it a bit more my car rather then thinking of it as the previous owners car. Going to make the lower half black and add some period correct logo's after the mechanical side is sorted out.

Few pics of the changes:

Battery mounted in boot, lead still need to be secured in place


1inch master cylinder and new hard lines


New ride height


some more camber


Next difficult bit will be sorting out the high pressure fuel system. Having no "boot" to put it in will make it a little harder.

[Rally_2.6LC]

This will be amusing....battle of the LC's at Oran Park. Hopefully mine will be running properly and not S***ing the bearings as I drive lol.

That ride hight is awesome lol....so does this mean strut change between every event (dirt to circuit)??? or just until the LA is track ready???

Sent you a PM regarding diff centres.


Cheers Matt

[75wagon]

Hope you run a few more wheel nuts when you're racing

Nice work hoonboy, I love these lancers, wish I never sold mine...... I had 3.

Dave

[HoonBoy]

Matt, lots of strut swapping. Apart from having to do the wheel alignment, it doesn't take that long. Had plenty of practice!

Dave, wheelnuts are just additional weight! Who needs four per wheel!

[DanTurboLancer]

is this Hoon boy that Has/Had a MAD LA Lancer?

Sweet rally LC!!

[leoca]

Thats some good work in progress Hoonboy.Will be interested in seeing how it turns out .Its great to see others with LC's too!.

Yeah they're light and fun to drive.I,ve just relocated my battery also...you need as much weight as possible back there

[77galantv6]

yeah dan, it is. you can see the lancer in the pic with all the spare tyres lol

hope the other lancer isnt being neglected because of this one.

still looks like a lot of fun

[HoonBoy]

The LA is still slowly progressing, this is a short term thing to get the speed fix so I don't have to rush anything on it.

[HoonBoy]

Updated pic of it, need to do some "minor" suspension height changes.

[TR11KY]

mate talk about a spare parts pile!!! WOW!!!!

im gunna keep an eye on this with keen interest mate...

[77galantv6]

looks good.
always been a fan of the miniltes.

[HoonBoy]

Got just about everything sorted for the EFI conversion now.

Dummied up the head on another block to make sure there were no obvious clearance issues after having the head shaved 3.5mm and the throttle body moved from one end of the plenum to the other:



Valves are fine, will need to relocate some connectors for the throttle body..

Surge tank has been cut so I can use an in-tank pump setup that I already had, need to blank off the bottom fitting as it will no longer be needed.



Nice shiny 4-stud converted H190 axle waiting for some brakes.



A Sigma and a Commodore alternator, the guts of the 85amp commodore alternator will go in to the Sigma housing so I can get a few mroe electrons.



Hoping to get 90% of the EFI stuff done by the end of next weekend, weather permitting of course... also need to build a winged and baffled sump during the week.

[karl_2ltgc]

I use a magna alternator with a sigma pulley on it. Will get you all the amps you need.

[HoonBoy]

The big difference, I had the Commodore alternator sitting here and the Sigma one came with the car (by sitting here I really mean part of the rolled Commodore...)

[HoonBoy]

EFI Conversion is well underway...

[HoonBoy]

Few pics of yesterdays work:

ECU and fuel pump realy mounted behind the passenger footrest, the two wires hanging down need to be attached to the trans tunnel.


The surge tank has been mounted in the side of the car, it will be covered by an aluminium panel to make it "legal"




lift pump is in a similar position towards the rear of the car



Engine bay wiring all done



Best part is the engine runs now

[77galantv6]

nice work, seems like things come together nice and quickly for you.

i like the way the tanks are mounted.

keep em coming.

[HoonBoy]

Some updated pics:

Aluminium panels over the fuel system, still need some cleaning up:


99% complete engine bay, just needs a radiator overflow bottle, clutch cable sorted (when the new clutch goes in) and radiator cap.


New diff, brakes and springs. Note that the exhaust hits the body, diff centre, rear leaf hanger and also leaks... it will be replaced with a side exhaust setup.


How the car sits now (it was dark, hence the grainy pic) with it's yard wheels on.



To-do list now looks like this:

Get tailshaft made (was told one of the tailshafts that came with the car suited the diff, but it doesn't )
Change clutch (it feels bad, real bad)
Change gearbox mounts (cracked and barely holding the gearbox in place)
Piggyback tune to suit the new cam
Change exhaust
Fit radiator overflow bottle
Fit "race" brakepads and fluid
Wheel alignment
Put a "dogleg" in the gear lever to move it backwards
Fit pedal pads to reduce the distance between the brake and accelerator pedals
Change harnesses to new ones

The lack of usefull tailshaft is the biggest concern at this point in time. Hoping that the promise of getting one sorted in a couple of days comes true..

[shuggy]

love it - very nice mate

[81GL]

Looking good mate, love your work as usual lol.

Hmm... why are you only running 2 leaves in the rear though? not concerned about tramp?
&, is that the standard shocker position in the rear? If so... damn you lancer guys have it easy

Nick.

[HoonBoy]

It's got two full leaves and a half leaf, three and a half was too stiff on the LA so am trying a little softer for more cornering traction. Shocks mounts are all stock.

[TR11KY]

woop f**k yeah! cant wait to hear how she runs at the first event!

[HoonBoy]

So a busy few days, not all productive, but busy...

Firstly, when it was first started an inlet manifold leak was found and fixed which made it behave a bit better. Then with it running on the hoist with the wheels dangling down, the sway bar rubbed on the fanbelt and it snapped. There is about 2mm clearance at ride height so add that to the list of things to fix.

Sorted out the exhaust and fixed a few cracks in the extractors at the same time. Whilst it was up in the air I noticed that the idler arm and drag link are bent. Add those to the list of things to fix.

Got it on the dyno and it was running rich, real real rich. 9.5:1-10.5:1 rich all over the place. Made a monster 81rwhp in this mode, tried a few things on the piggyback to make it changed and nothing made a difference. Ended up unplugging the airflow meter as it and a replacement one gave a dodgy output on the multimeter. Power went up to 91rwhp and AFR's at idle improved to 14:1, full power AFR's still rich at 10.5:1-11:1. Removed the airflow meter from the box and power went up to 101rwhp, a slight improvement in full load AFR's, but nothing major. Lot's and lots of fuel smoke under load and oil smoke when backing off.

Did a compression test today, 100psi dry, 170psi wet, so the rings are gone and will need to be sorted ASAP. The engine is half apart waiting for new rings and a hone.

Once the engine is sorted, I then need to work out how to remove some fuel, given the reluctance of the factory stuff to do the job, I'm biting the bullet and getting an EMS Stinger installed and tuned next week. Of course the engine has to be back together and running before then.

Here is the current to-do list, most of which needs to be done before Saturday..

--Engine
Replace rings (and hone block)
Fit and tune new ECU
Change gearbox mount
Wire up shift light

--Brakes
Fit brake proportioning valve
Rebuild rear calipers
Change rear discs
Fit "race" brakepads and fluid

--Steering
Change idler arm
Change drag link
Wheel alignment

--Other
Put a "dogleg" in the gear lever to move it backwards
Finish fitting pedal pads
Adjust harnesses
Number square
Numbers
Battery triangle

Looks like more long nights.

[HoonBoy]

This is what the engine bay currently looks like:



thanks to these:



36 hours until scrutineering...

[HoonBoy]

Woohoo, made it to Oran Park!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57lHh7pEh8E

Got a few things to fix after the day, namely a noisy diff and blown up engine! Handling is good, power was way too low and will need to be rectified when the engine is rebuilt.

[HoonBoy]

Couple of pics from Oran Park:

[Rally_2.6LC]

Yes very fun day, found out that the fuel pump is stuffed, took it back to where I bought hoping for a swap but they have to send if off to get tested to find out what teh problem was........
The cylindrical surge tank u used, did u buy that off ebay? because im looking at the square one that the guy sells and making a bracket for my pump to sit next to it and then encase it in a Lexan box so if something goes wrong in there I can see what it is.

I definately had a much faster top speed but ur setup was heaps better in terms of cornering and getting to ur top speed a lot faster than me
I couldnt find any photos of my lancer, u didnt come across any in your travels did you???

Look forward to future competition.


Cheers Matt

[HoonBoy]

Yeah surge tank was from ebay. I was originally going to use a box mounted where the back seat was but the way did it was a neater solution (but not real rally friendly!). It would of been aluminium as lexan wouldn't be suitable for a "firewall" from the passenger compartment.

I've got some better gears to give me some top speed, hopefully with the engine rebuild I can get some more power as well. The handling felt good but there was bugger all power and that's not on!

Only pic I have found of yours is here http://www.mdephoto.com.au/gallery/main ... 9.jpg.html I'm waiting to hear about the official photo's, hopefuly there are some more hanging about as there was a lot of camera's on the day.

[Rally_2.6LC]

R u sure about lexan? i thought because it was self extinguishing it was ok??? Have you seen the Green LB circuit car that was rotary powered? it had fuel cell and surge tank in boot and then a wall from floor to roof between rear wheels that had lexan or perspex in the middle so he could still c out the back.
one of them is self extinguishing from fire and i thought that was suitable...might be wrong

Either way im mounting mine in the rear passenger side corner of the boot.....going to see if that guy on ebay can make me the tank with the fuel pump holder beside it instead of in front of it (as its too long and not enough room for where I want to move the battery to, battery needs to be moved as I cant put a spare tyre in lol.....thats no good for rallying)

How did I miss that photo, ive been looking everywhere and must have gone through the whole album at least 3 times trying to find one of me.
Thanks mate I would have been a little annoyed if I came out of the whole day without a single photo.


Cheers Matt