Updated :
27 April 2004
Note : I've now parted company with this car and sold it on ! I couldn't cope with the repeated breaking down any more ....
What is this site all about ? Well, it's quite simple really. I have a
Westfield. It seems I have to fix it. Quite a lot. So I'm going to
whinge, er, tell you lot about it on a regular (ish) basis, kind of like a
"diary of disasters" if you like !
Seriously, I now have another toy in the Pugh household, a 1990 Westfield SEi
fitted with a Connaught 1600 X flow (more on that later). It's been bought
specifically for the purpose of going to track days, and maybe (just maybe) one
day to compete in it, hill climbing being a possibility. On this page I will
attempt to list (in a vaguely interesting way, I hope) my trials, tribulations
and triumphs with this car, in the garage and on the track. First of all ....
just what IS this car ?
The car is a Westfield (Lotus Seven copy) SEi (narrow body, independent rear
suspension) built in 1990. She was built by a Professor of Engineering for use
as a hillclimb car to full race spec. Originally she was lurid green and
yellow, and was competed for a couple of years. After that initial season or
two, it seems that (for some reason or other) she was laid up and not used for
the next 8 or so years ..... I have whole sheaf's of MOTs with little or no
mileage from year to year ! By this point she'd done about 3200 miles.
Round about the start of 2000 she was bought by her 2nd owner, who kept her for
2.5 years. He didn't really do much to the car, just using her as a weekend toy
(sadly he didn't really keep up much with the maintenance either ... more on
that later too). However, he did get the car repainted jet black (which REALLY
suits the car, though maybe not the best choice for visibility .... remember,
this is a very small car !) and replaced the original swept front wings with
cycle wings, and installed the carbon fibre rear wheel arch stone guards. He
put a further 2000 miles on the car, before I bought her in September 2002.
Body :
Westfield 1990 SEi
Fibreglass body around light spaceframe chassis
Weighs in at about 680-700kg
Engine :
1600 X flow built by Connaught in 1990, lightly rebuilt by Connaught in 1992.
Balanced, blueprinted, ported and flowed. Large valve head.
Dry sumped, remote filter, oil cooler.
Twin Weber 45DCOE carburettors.
Piper 285 Cam. Twin valve springs.
Electronic ignition.
Rev limiter set to 6800 rpm.
Last tested at 145 bhp at 6800 rpm, 133 lb/ft torque at 5000 rpm.
Performance :
Estimated 0-60 : 5.5 seconds
Estimated top speed : 115 to 120 mph
Drivetrain / misc :
"Rocket" RS2000 4 speed gearbox
Rear disk conversion.
Quaife LSD rear differential mated to IRS rear suspension
Quick Rack (2.2 turns end to end)
14" Revolution wheels running Avonspeed tyres
15" Minilite wheels running Avon slicks
RAC roll bar, 4 point harnesses, electrical cut off switch
So, this is it ! I'm now the proud possessor of the loudest Westfield this
side of the equator (well, maybe not, but it is loud) ! Picked the car up
tonight from the seller (bless him, he was really gutted he had to sell the car
(they needed a "sensible" 2nd car not a toy) ... he almost burst into tears
!). The drive back from Stoke (about 45 miles) was uneventful, partly coz I
couldn't floor it due to my nearest and dearest (aka "Wifey") following me in my
daily diesel and not having the foggiest idea where she was.
I was sucking fumes by the time I got home mind ... the fuel gauge seems to drop
somewhat rapidly towards the zero mark, and I have no idea how accurate it is
... have just spent the last 15 miles with the gauge BELOW zero.
Tell you one thing though, when it's night and the temperatures start to drop, it gets flipping chilly round the back of the neck !
You get plenty of looks in a car like this. I'd like to think they were
admiring looks. Possibly they are "look at that fool in that freezing cold
open car at this time of the year" looks. But I'll stick with admiring looks.
Mental note : don't wear baseball caps that face forward in an open car .... peak
acts as very effective "wing" ..... cap wants to disappear rearwards above
60mph. Spent remainder of journey with cap facing backwards. Feel like I
should be driving a 1.0 Nova with alloy wheels and an exhaust that small animals
can get lost in ......
(Picture : "Hi dad, yeah ... um, I've bought ANOTHER car, yeah !)
Raw. There's no other word for this car ! Once you get to the higher rev
ranges (i.e. above 4000 rpm) this thing just flies .... it pulls faster than a
fast thing that's very fast. Well, fairly fast. :-) And talk about road
holding ... I'm still exploring the limits of this car's handling, but if you
keep your foot down through the corner it's absolutely BONKERS the corners this
thing will go round. Glue. It's got to be something to do with glue on the
tyres, really. Honest.
And that exhaust, whoa is that loud ! Already had one or two neighbours, erm,
"comment" about the vocal capacities of my new little baby. Hmmm ... might
have to do something about that long term, for the sake of public relations.
But for now ..... bruuuum !
Nothing much to report technically. Gave the car a good wash, polish and clean.
Had a good rummage around on her. The car is pretty well built, overall. The
basics of the car are superb, but there's just one or two things where the
previous owner (not being a spanner wielding type) has let the car go a bit ...
nothing much, just a bit of a clean here, a bit of a service or R&R job there.
Must get the car's suspension geometry checked for accuracy, and I think she
needs a bit of a rolling road session .... those carburettors are definitely out at
idle, the engine gets a right rock and roll on.
Oh. Oh dear. Nuts in fact, to be brutally honest.
Let me backtrack a little. Got home from work tonight, it was just starting to
go dusk so I think to myself "oh yes, time to go for a play in the new toy, lose
alllll my stresses and daily worries". An excellent idea you might think, and
so it started out. So I dug the beastie out of the garage and went for a spin
on all the nice country roads round our area.
Decided to, um, how do we say ... "open her up a little" (all within this
country's speed limits, of course !). First time since buying her that I've
really spanked her, along some really nice twisty country roads .... ah the
bliss, running beautifully she is, performing well, bombing along the straights,
braking hard for the corners, downshifting, accelerating smoothly but firmly
through the corner. Mightily impressed by the HUGE flames out of the side
of exhaust (amplified by the fact it's now dusk-turning-to-dark) ..... several
small furry animals sat by the side of the road get blackened faces / crispy fur
as a result of my fly past.
Get home and left the beast on the drive whilst I opened the garage door, pull
the car into the garage and ..... oh .... there's oil on the drive.
Everywhere. Lots of it in fact; a nice dribble from the road where I drove onto
the drive, then a big pool of the stuff where the car sat for a while. This is
not good, in fact, this is a "bad" thing.
Bonnet off, head hunting everywhere. Noticed that the oil was coming from the
area where the scavenge pump / distributor / oil pressure switch is. It's a
little hard to tell for sure, because by now oil is EVERYWHERE .... obviously
it's been leaking while I've been driving, and it's done a damn good job of
spreading the stuff all over the engine, engine bay, and underneath of the car.
First assumption : it's the oil pump. Well, it looks like it's the scavenge
pump. Maybe its the gasket between the pump and the engine. Try to remove the
pump, and two of the four allen bolts are tighter than
this. Stare at the
engine a bit more .... nope, maybe I'm wrong. Run the engine, oooh look, it's
actually dribbling down there, by the T piece for the two oil pressure sensors.
I wonder if the T piece has come loose, so I go to tighten the T piece by hand
and .... <snap> ...... oh. no. sob.
The brass T piece used to allow two oil pressure sensors to be run (one for the
oil "stop!" light, and one for the analogue gauge) snaps off cleanly, flush with
the block. Either at some point in the past someone has over tightened it, or
the combined weight of the T piece and sensors has, with brass being quite a
soft metal, over time fatigued away to the point where the T piece cracked where
it goes into the block (hence the oil leak). All it needed was my gentle
pressure for it to break in two. I'm now left with the threaded part of the T
piece still in the block, totally flush.
So, break out the stud extractors ! Well, actually, break out my neighbours
stud extractors. Now, these are of the "left hand thread" variety, a left
handed corkscrew which you screw into the hold in the stud (the handy hole which
is there to let oil get through to the sensors) and the idea is that eventually
the pressure of the corkscrew biting into the metal forces the stud to start
unscrewing itself. Well that's the theory anyway. However, several hours and
two bent stud extractors later (oops, sorry Nigel the Neighbour !) it's obvious
this puppy is going nowhere.
Time for bed.
Ha. The date is appropriate anyway. After much discussions today with various people, professionals, friends, internet web groups and a man down the street who once took his lawnmower apart,, basically this is an engine out job. I borrow two different types of stud extractor from a friendly local garage (Shenpar of Melborne, 01332 862 901 ... thanks guys !) and prepare myself for the task ahead.
Spent 3 hours this morning stripping off the the ancillaries and
paraphanallia off the engine. They're pretty easy to work on these cars,
everythings very
accessible, and it's an easy job to just go round the engine unbolting things.
Have decided to split the engine from the gearbox "in situ", as this looks
easier
than trying to disconnect the gear shift, speedo cable, prop shaft etc. As I
wont be taking the clutch apart, there shouldn't be any alignment problems when
it comes to reassembly. Off to Machine Mart this afternoon to procure a 1 ton
chain hoist and a 1 ton chain to attach to the garage rafters, to lift the
engine (okay, slightly over the top, but a 1 ton hoist is only 5GBP more than a
0.5 ton hoist, so why not).
Engine hoist in place, everything removed from the engine the
previous day (only the engine needed splitting from the bell housing), the
engine came out pretty easily really. 1 hour after starting, the engine was sat
on the garage floor.
30 minutes with the Snap On extractor and a drill, and the stud was out !
Hurray ! I must admit, up to this point I'd had visions of having the cart the
engine off to have the damn thing machined out ! 30 minutes more work with
cotton bud tips, oil and thinners and I'd managed to remove all the tiny tiny
tiny brass shavings from the oil gallery behind it (generated by the drilling
process).
Bit of a clean up round the engine bay and harder-to-get-to bits of the engine,
and it's time to pop the engine back in. Mated up easy as pie to the gearbox,
but the two engine mounts were a right royal pig to get back in ! 30 minutes of
stuggling and, yup, done it ! Right, lets move this hoist out of the way and
.... oh ....
DOH ! I'd let the "control" chain from the hoist loop down one side of the
engine, and back up the other, meaning I couldn't remove the hoist ..... sooooo
.... a bit later on, and the engine was out again (2nd time today), the chain
moved safely to one side (!), and the lump was back in where it lives best,
tricky engine mounts and all.
The rest of the reassembly was pretty uneventful, except for forgetting to
reconnect an oil pipe before shoving the car back onto the drive (to move it
into
the other garage, where it belongs) and getting yet MORE oil all over the drive
.... my nice tarmac drive STILL isn't clean 2 months later (and vast quantities
of drive clean and washing up liquid applied). Music to my ears when she fired
up first time ! A couple of small teething problems (blowing exhaust, loose oil
fume pipe) and job done ! Actually, not quite ..... at the moment I've got
just a single 20psi switch on the engine, for the oil on/off light. I refuse to
put another brass T piece on the engine (do you blame me ??) so until I can find
some kind of remote fitting kit, I'm going to have to live without an oil
pressure gauge. Oh well, the light should be sufficient for now.
(Picture : That'll be an engine then ! (other Neville toys in background))
In a way, perhaps it was a good thing that I've had to take the engine out. I've found several minor "problemettes" along the way, which I've managed to correct (including a knackered engine mount, hidden away under the exhaust manifold). Also, I'm not sure the last time this car was serviced, but the previous owner wanted shooting ! The oil was old, tired, dirty gloop, the coolant system was pure red rust water, and the oil filter was virtually welded to the car ! This car was seriously overdue a service. I've flushed the oil and coolant system several times, and I don't think there will be any long term problems because of it (just caught in time, methinks) but I'm glad it's done now. I think I need to give this car a damn good service all round, and basic servicing has been neglected recently. Oh well, some people.
I have REALLY got to do something about this exhaust !! As the main aim I have for this car is to go on track days with it, most (if not all) tracks and airfields have a noise limit. This varies between about 95db and about 105db (which is usually measured 1.0m from the exhaust, at 3/4 max rpm). Having fears about my how much exhaust noise I make (well, I mean the car, not me. Mind you, my wife would disagree with me there. Especially after a good curry. Maybe that was too much information ... ) I borrowed a noise meter off those nice people at www.bookatrack.com (only £9 to hire).
So, engine warm, my ever loving and tolerant wifee holding the noise meter at a carefully measured 1.0m away from the car and at roughly 45 degrees angle, I rev gently to about 4500 rpm (my redline is about 6800 in actual fact, but I recon I can get away with a pretend limit of 6000 in scrutineering .... "Well, it IS only a cross flow !" .... just don't tell anyone, okay ?!?). A quick look at the noise meter. Oh. 119 db. Can anyone spell "ouch" ?
Lets try again. That can't be right ! Second attempt, 118.5 db. Oh arse. And I mean that. No amount of exhaust tip addons or wire wool shoved up the exhaust is going to bring THAT within limits. Subsequent tests under varying conditions prove the 119 db reading to be about right. And believe me, that is Loud with a capital L. Tapping the exhaust, it sounds very hollow. 12 years of driving has obviously blown out any stuffing that used to be in there, so now it's an empty tin ! Time to source a new exhaust ....
After chatting on the 'gassing' board of that ever useful repository of all things petrol related, www.pistonheads.com, various people with Se7en type track cars advised me to try out www.custom-chrome.co.uk who build bespoke exhausts. Now, I don't really want to replace my manifold as there's nothing wrong with it and it's a good'un, so whatever I have built will have to be totally custom. Plus I want a black box (ooo-err !) as the manifold is black. And after chatting with the very knowledgable people at Custom Chrome, what I really need is a 5" box repackable silencer, rather than my 4" non-repackable POS that's on the car at the moment. Also, I need Custom Chrome's bespoke ickle baffle system inside the main pipe, which apparently kills a lot of the popping and back explosions, which whilst sounding great fun, basically does not do the exhaust nor engine any good.
Luckily Custom Chrome are only 25 minutes away in Nuneaton, so off I poddled with my old exhaust. Had a very pleasant hour with them talking exhausts, and left my old exhaust with loads of detailed instructions on what I wanted. The plan is to pick up the unwelded exhaust next Saturday for me to trial fit, then return to them for full welding and painting. Can't wait :-)
Custom Chrome have just rung .... the exhaust is complete, totally welded and anything ! Um ... hope it fits okay then ....
Call into their office on my way home (slight detour) and pick up the very nice looking exhaust .... oooh ! Lovely welds (can barely see them), nice big fat box which they've actually put a double inner sleeve in (should cut down on the frequency of repacking). And for the pipe which goes from the manifold to the box, instead of having to use those poxy (in my opinion) U clamps, they've done a VERY nice little built in clamp on either end, which can be tightened up using an allen key .... now THAT'S class. A quick trial fit at home and ..... it fits ! Perfectly. Blummin heck. Sounds great too !
Called in at Raceways (Donnington Park) on the way home tonight, bought
myself a nice Bell M-5 helment in metalic blue .... just what I'm after, a nice
looking helmet that's not expensive, and not white. What is it about cheap
helments ...they're always white ?!?
Took the beastie out for a blast, and to check the sound levels now the new
exhaust has settled in a bit (apparently it takes 20 minutes or so for the
exhaust to "bed in" and produce it's correct noise). My readings are now as
follows : 1m distance, 45 degree angle, 3/4 max rpm = 98db. 0.5m distance =
103db. That's much better, should have no problems on track now !
Called in at a friends house (who happened to be out). As I pulled up, I got
swamped by about 6 or 7 local young lads, all about 7 or 8 years old, absolutely
over themselves to look at the Westie ! Amazing, this car gets more attention
and "NICE CAR MATE !" shouts from kids than my Ferrari does ! Amazing isn't it
? Anyway, let them pile all over the car and told them about it, let a couple
sit inside. Well, you've got to foster that petrolhead spirit when they're
young, haven't you ? :-)
Not a heck of a lot to report on the Westie front. It seems to have perpetually rained now for weeks, so haven't been out much in her. Did go out one very cold, damp day when it started raining on me ... the wipers are pathetic !
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGHH ! Utter utter complete disaster. I've annihilated my engine !! First time I've taken her out in about 5 weeks due to the weather. She started up fine, was very grumpy till the top of the street (had to keep dipping the clutch to get her to run) then ran okay, though slightly down on power (I put this down to being grumpy through no use). Went for a gentle drive just to shake her down and get everything moving again, got about 10 miles out away from home into the country and there's this rattle, rattle, RATTLE, RATTLE, BANG ! (literally that quick). Pulled over, consumed in a ball of smoke and fumes. Had to ring Tess (wife) to get her to tow me all the way home (oh the ignominy !) Got home and garaged her. The exhaust manifold to exhaust box joint is dripping oil, and on the other side of the engine there's some oil "spattered" on the engine bay. Whipped off the rocker cover, no apparent damage (though one push rod was incredibly low down from the rocker, on cylinder 3). Took the carbs off, and one choke (and the air filter) is chock full of little tiny bits of mashed metal. Off with the head, and well, this is the result !
Best guess at the moment ? Either the inlet valve melted, or snapped, which then obliterated itself inside the combustion chamber. All the damage you can see is impact damage. The piston's had it, the head well dont make me laugh, and worst of all the bore is cracked. Engine out next to see what kind of bottom end damage there is (oh, PLEASE none !).
Nothing much to report really. Engine is out and on the floor. The piston is actually holed and the sump was full of metal bits and mayonnaise. Definately a scrap block. Have a couple of engines to go and look at as replacements.
Have sourced a replacement engine, another X flow however a 1700 this time. Slightly lower spec than the old engine (smaller valves for example) but it should produce 140-150 bhp and it will do for the moment until I either rebuild the old engine, build a new engine from scratch, or just simply trade up to a bike engined car ! ;-) Next step : clean it up, paint it, transfer the dry sump system, all ancillaries, carbs etc across and fit.
Right, I'm going to have to paraphrase now a little bit because I'm writing this in April 2004 ! Basically, I spent about 6 months rebuilding the engine because, even though it was sold as a runner it had shot main bearings and burnt oil like a bugger. Never trust anyone when they say an engine is a good runner (and you can't hear it run). I had the engine itself built at Midland Engine Specialists (MES) near Loughborough, UK. Installed the engine and started running it in. Seemed to run great, but I was only taking it up to about 3000 rpm max and just pottering about.
After 500 miles I started to open her up a bit, and that's where the problems started. Overheating ? You've never seen anything like it ! Temperatures would shoot up to 110 or 115 degrees in a moments notice if I tried to "exercise" the engine. Long story short, we tried all sorts (with the help of MES) to sort it out including new radiator, new head gasket twice (because the overheating blew the old ones), no thermostat, new water pump ... you named it, we tried it.
In the end I got so utterly fed up of the car I dumped it on Turbotronic Tuning, Woodville with the orders "I dont want to see the car till it's fixed !". So, bless them, they worked diligently and eventually found the problem ..... MES had reused the head bolts, which had stretched ever so slightly, and thus the head wouldn't seal. You'd have thought MES would have known or spotted this, but no. So, a nice expensive race head gasket and expensive Cosworth head bolts, and that solved that !
However ....
I'd now spent about £2500 on this car, and was utterly fed up of it. It was jinxed, I swear ... silly things happened all the time, like putting my size 9 steel toecapped boot through a headlight, knocking the rear number plate off and whilst reattaching it (properly with screws, instead of gluing it on) accidentally drilling through the brand new spare tyre, spent a period with the car not wanting to restart when warm (the engine wouldn't turn over, but the battery and starter were fine), carbs chucking out fuel all over the floor, and oh, so many more ! So that's it, Autumn 2004 was rapidly approaching, and it was time to get rid before winter arrived.
That's when another disaster struck. One person came to look at the car, but couldn't actually fit in (!) so my mate who'd just popped round decided to take the car for a blaster after the potential buyer had left. A quick squirt round all the back roads and just as we're pulling into home, I think "what's all that water on the windscreen ?" Well, we pull up and it's not water ... it's oil ! Looking under the car, and it's like Niagara Falls under there ! Oil PUTHERING out ! An oil cap had come off, and the oil was spewing everywhere .... all over the engine bay, the whole of the outside of the car was covered, including all of the rear and us (!) in a fine oil mist, the drive was ruined (tarmac) and worst of all there was a 1 foot wide trail of thick, black oil all up the drive, onto the road, and all up the street ! They neighbours would be furious ! (I followed the oil trail back the next day, and it went for 2.5 miles into the next village !) Luckily, being a dry sumped car, there was lots of extra oil, but the sump was empty (any further and engine damage might have happened). It took me 5 minutes to fix the leak, and 1.5 days to clean the car ... and the drive is still not the same !
The final chapter to this tale of woe, is as follows. Some potential buyers came, nice lad with his dad and sister. All very keen, all going well, so I take the chap out in the car. Get back home, and the father is just starting to talk money when he spots oil dripping from under the engine ! Oh no, not AGAIN ! This time it was a small oil hose which had blown off (reventing it through the sump system should stop it ever blowing off again). Luckily it didn't put them off buying it, and I made the repair and cleaned up the car AGAIN ! One week later they took the car away.
God, I hope they have better luck than I !
Fin.