Jan 30 - Feb 4, 2016
Travelling to the States, so work is paused....
Feb 5, 2016
Build Time Today: 2 hours
Total Build Time: 462 hours
First item on the agenda after my return was to finish the interior - only pending item left was the passenger seat... Once again, a simple process made difficult due to the absolute lack of space to move and align the bolts in the holes... a lot of fiddling, cussing and some blood later, the four bolt holes poked through the seat pan, and the seat was bolted on from the bottom! The interior is done!
Next step was to install the windshield and side windows - the windshield was fixed with only 5 of the 9 bolts, as this is a temporary install in order to pass inspections. I will be using the wind deflector, but don't think it will pass with that on - so for now the windshield will be used... Next the side windows were installed - these are also temporary as the angle has to be corrected once the wind deflector is installed after passing/registration...
Finally, the rear wing was attached to the pylons, and car is now READY FOR INSPECTION!!
There are still items pending install (wind deflector, window angles, luggage bin covers, door buffers, etc), but I will get to those after the passing/inspection stage... the car will be sent tomorrow for the process, and hopefully I should have it back by the end of the week...
Also, a test run of the car showed that there is either a misfire, or a fuel/air issue as the the engine is very jumpy and the car keeps stalling at low rpms... Hopefully not a big problem, but I will look into this after the car returns...
Feb 15 - Mar 15 2016
Build Time Today: 15 hours
Total Build Time: 477 hours
I have forgotten to update my build!! Oops!
The car was successfully registered last month - it took about a week to get the required paperwork processed, and the car was insured and plated and is ready to drive!
The pending items were also taken care off:
First, the wind deflector was installed - a simple matter of putting the deflector on the car and tightening the 9 bolts - however, I was only able to get to 8 as the last one is now above the AC blower and unreachable! Also, I received quite a bit GRP scratches from tightening those 8 bolts - not as easy to swap between the deflector and windshield as I had imagined...
I then got to making the angles for the side screens - the side screens were taped off with masking tape, and the edges of the door also masked off... Epoxy was applied to the door frame, and the sidescreen set on top to the correct angle by taping it to the front wind deflector... The epoxy was left to harder for 48 hours and then the side screen carefully removed - which came off quite easily due to the masking tape. The tape was also removed, and the epoxy drilled and taped for M5 bolts that will hold the side screens in their place.
I took the car to a dyno to check the performance, and was able to get a max of 465PS as power on a rolling dyno!
While testing the car on the dyno, we (dyno guys and I) became aware that one of the wires for the cooling fans was burning up - a careful look over the wiring the next few days has shown that the relay and fuse are heating up because there is too much current draw on that circuit - a talk with the factory revealed that the original loom (GTR/Canam) was designed for different fans, but I have opted for the new EVO (larger, more air, more cooling) fans, which draw a lot more current. Thus, it appears that the original loom wiring may not be sufficient. To sort this, I installed a second relay, and have split the current draw between the two relays (one original, one added) - now each fan has a dedicated relay and fuse, so hopefully this will improve the circuitry. Also, while doing this exercise, I realized that I had run the wiring for the rear cooling fans directly from their relay with no fuse, so that wiring was changed to add a fuse within that circuit.
While getting the small items taken care off, I have also been looking over my engine issue. With the help of American Speed, I have tested the throttle body & ECU - the OBDII scanner showed 2 codes P0122/P0223 which relate to the throttle body. I have tested the voltage at the TB and at the ECU for all 6 pins relating to the TB to try and find a cause for the codes - over 4 slow weeks, we have finally gotten rid of those codes with slow testing and correcting of throttle body position.
My engine stalling issue has also improved, although it is still there - now it only happens once in a while. It may be because the ECU has to still complete the 'learning' cycle - so I will keep an eye on it over the first 500-1000 km.
Mar 15 - April 2016
With the build complete (is it really ever complete?), my attention has now turned to the drivability and performance of the car...
First point of concern was the engine stalling - I spoke to a friend who put me in touch with a race mechanic at Renault's Dubai workshop, and I was able to solve some of the issues with his help - basically, we spent two mornings blasting the car around (3000 rpm - 6000 rpm) in gears 2-3-4, and that was really helped the engine settle down...
The second issue is the cooling system - the fans are now running fine with the new wiring, however, they do NOT turn off once they get kicked on... the water temperature drops to about 87C and stays there with the fans, when moving...
WOW - the car is sold! April 21, 2016 - I found a buyer and sold the car... at ONLY 450km!
BUT DONT WORRY - another one will be started soon! Driving the EVO for a couple weeks really has me hooked on owning an Ultima, and now I know what changes I need to make so that the next one is even better... The factory is currently heavily backlogged, so it will take some time to receive the kit - however, I expect to start the build in October! Stay tuned for updates by Q4 2016!!