ha ha! yuuuup! The lifters you aren't sure about? Fair enough. I don't really notice it to be honest. I need to remove them and see what it's like. I need to re-think the washer jets otherwise.

Just fitted the manifold back on, looks goooood! I had to bodge the exhaust back on using a lot of cable ties. Should hold temporarily.

Hi jon.
That is deffinatly one mean 340.
Cheers Mark.

Yeah basically it would look great without the lifters. TBH in the photos above it looks fine, just in the flesh it's a bit weird. It'd be worth doing as I think it looks like your bonnet is open . But that's just my opinion dude, I'm full of them as you know so have a think about it before you change it

Cheers MCHUDD, apparently you were around the south west recently, how'd you find bristol?

Still havent done anything with the lifters, they stop my fingers getting caught every time I shut the bonnet!

I have, however, fitted the super gay tow hook. A bit of card board and some measuring and I eventually have this.


which bolts up quite well.


I apologise for the lifestylerness. I know its very scenester and "JDM" but it was purple and cheap second hand. You should also see the fanboys faces when they see one on a volvo!

Eventually I'll replace the plate with a laser cut one thats a bit lighter (centre sections cut out) at the point of getting some other bits cut. I've managed to get hold of some bike carbs I'll be seeing whether I can convert them to be used as injection throttle bodies (gutting the inards and restrictions just leaving the butterflys) and getting a manifold plate laser cut. I've got the spare engine I got off smchris now so that is being used as a testing jig for now. At that same point I'll get some 5 link plates cut. It seems (after looking at loads of pics) I can adapt escort bits, as well as make my own bits very easily. Also got dimensions for the strut brace bar which I can do pretty easily with some tube and two rose joints.

Exhaust wrap wasn't black for long,


That'll teach me for buying cheap stuff! Just been browsing ceramic coatings. Christ some of that stuff is expensive!! Some not so bad though so we'll see. I'm also annoyed at the alternator bracket which has never worked that well, so I'll be doing something with that too.

and to add, I've also found that I'm getting no oil pressure on the oil pressure gauge. Plenty of oil on the dipstick, no dash warning light or struggling from the engine but there's a leak around the theromsatic cooler plate and out of one of the inlets for the cooler itself. I hope the stat hasn't stuck. I dont think this would affect the circulation as it'd just not go through the cooler. Either way I won't be driving him until I've finished uni stuff so I'll have time and I've got enough money to sort that stuff out. It means I can take my time with a lot of other bits I've got going on for him. Here's the list:

Finish the rex prop
finsh/make door card moulds
finish/make front wing moulds
strut brace bar
buy rear axle, modify to take 5 link set-up (rear coilovers etc)
design/make inlet manifold for bike throttles
design/make alternator bracket and tensioner
Fix leaky diff/gearbox

I'm pretty sure there's more but I'll keep you posted. It seems I've got more than enough to keep me occupied over summer!

That's a point it could be the sender. I have a spare I'll lob on wednesday and see.

Nice one john! Sounds like sound interesting stuff! id be interested in bike carbs/throttle boy stuff

Cheers! Ill try and keep stuff updated as i go along. Going to try and do some cfd flow analysis (sp?) to see how well it should flow.

TAKE NOTE EVERYBODY, JON IS THE NEW SCENESTER.

*Runs away*

jon-ovlov wrote:Cheers! Ill try and keep stuff updated as i go along. Going to try and do some cfd flow analysis (sp?) to see how well it should flow.

This sounds ambitous john, have you done much computational modeling? Does SW do CFD?

Look forwards to seeing these plans take shape!

my exhaust wrap went like that exactly the same

Solidworks does basic stuff. We did have a topic on it at uni but it was taught very badly. We all kicked off and should be getting a good weeks training on ANSYS over the summer free of charge. It should be cool to see what can be done. Also its a program I'd really like to know how to use properly.

With the exhaust wrap I think mine was just cheap. I may as well leave it to burn off the black and just have it white, either way it needed doing.

I've found it would seem the oil pres gauge is no longer working, hence the zero oil pres reading. I'll confirm this later with my mates spare gauge, just to make sure. Seems like it'll be a good day for it atm . . .

I've never used SW for any CFD, I've used ANSYS but I don't like it, tbh I don't like anything that involves programming/writing input files

The pretty colours at the end almost make it worth it! One thing that surprised me was how significant the approximate solution varies with mesh density, we did an example where the solution varied between 200 and 250 degrees so it not a small percentage which could be the difference between an unsafe and safe operating temperature. If you have the patience to construct varying meshes in HyperMesh to determine mesh sensitivity and get a worthwhile answer, then respect I find it proper bore!

yeah, its a slog but something I think would be useful for future work. The training is there so I'd be mad to miss it! Its is true how dramatic the results change with mesh resolution. I did a quick test on my car, and it apparently produced no drag then re-did the mesh, and all the drag appeared.

Just managed to knock up a strut brace cross bar, in between bunking off my dissertation work Took some measurements and . . .

Steel bar


Turned up inserts


Bend it and fill in the gaps


and it'll be welded tomorrow morning. I've ordered some rose joints to fit into it as well, should hopefully fit!

If I was a Facebook user I would 'Like' this.

Turning into quite the machine marra!