Two Tonne Bully

[ricky s]

Appreciate that info, thank you, my own E55 is not dissimilar to your car, modded wise, You have a couple of things my car does not have, and my own, has a couple of things yours does not, and I have currently a 82mm TB in the machine shop currently, modding it to fit my intake, then it will be off to West Tuning to map it again, so it's good for me to know you do not seem to have any major problems with your own 82mm fitment, as a good few seem to have in the past.
That hiccup you mention, I have this, or something much the same already with my current 78mm TB, hardly ever occurs, but usually at low revs getting on the gas slowly, suddenly theres no immediate power, like a flat spot, much as you describe, it always catches me out though, one roundabout near me is profound for this instance, I arrive at it off the gas, in the same usual manner, go to lightly accelerate, wooow, it's like the car wants to down shift to collect the power in low revs, weird, fortunately, this does not seem to happen on track, so I live with it as, as it happens so infrequently, and I do not blast about at big speeds on the roads, this said, no codes are or have been thrown to date, car drives like a dream 99.9% of the time, so it's moreso the reason I am wanting info collected on my next proposed mods, to which it seems you may already have done with this TB fitment, so thanks again for your input here.
PS. With your installed meth system, where did you place the injectors, I spoke with Alex briefly on this, and will be seeking his advise further as I move forward, and also had a big read up on it, seems to be lots of differing opinions to where the best fitment place is and the sizing of the jets, so be interested to hear where you placed everything, if your happy to share your install.
I further note you are in Milton Keynes area, what is going on in that area, so many E55,s being maxed out! theres absolutely nothing like this occuring in Eastbourne, or Sussex as I know
Regards
R.

 

[SMed08]

Hi Ricky,

After unplugging the battery for a while, the the very minor hiccup is not really noticeable at all now, and was barely there to begin with. Mine bucks a little with supercharger clutch engagement, as I have a ridiculous 68mm pulley. Need to sort out clutch gap to smooth it out, but I suspect it will always be grabby with such small pulley.

As for meth, I put 1 injector post intercooler. Spoke to Alex about this and he says it's not a useful location to inject. He's right, it doesn't seem to make sense on paper, but having spoken to many people that have gone this route and seen their data logs, it seems to work. I haven't gotten mine dialled in yet as there were a few leaks. I've fixed the visible ones, but can't see if it's leaking around the injector itself as it's hidden under the supercharger. Will get a boroscope to try and visually inspect it. Just haven't had time to diagnose it yet. I will likely put another nozzle pre-supercharger too and see what we can do. Waiting to get full Zeitronix data logging kit installed before pushing things too hard.

 

[SMed08]

Minor set backs for the Bully.

Had the dreaded petrol tank leak issue. The little plastic nozzle on the sending unit had a crack and was spraying a pool of petrol under the rear seat passenger side. Was driving well, but lifted seat and there was a large puddle sloshing around.

Alex helped me out massively, had a spare sending unit hat which I swapped over, and replaced the internal filter at the same time. The sending unit was a massive pain to open in situ, and I think I inadvertently loosened a return line to the fuel pump pots. I also used wrong black rubber internal seal in sending unit and there's a leak so not getting proper fuel pressure in the sending unit.

This has resulted in:
1) difficulty starting
2) driver side of tank nearly empty despite passenger side nearly full.
3) can hear air leak in sending unit, and fumes coming from unit. But it's dry, no petrol.

Got the tank completely full, and it struggled to start due to not able to build adequate fuel pressure in sending unit. But hit the ignition few times in quick succession so pressure doesn't drop too low, and then it started. And it drove fine. Had to drive it 70 miles back home, which it did perfectly for 1.5 hours. Just made sure not to switch off engine, and it was fine. But as soon as switching off, it struggles to start again.

Plan is to
1) remove pumps and sending unit to inspect and make sure nothing broken
2) open sending unit and find correct internal viton seal
3) if still has air leak, may need new sending unit.

 

[SMed08]

Had the wrong sized O-ring in the sending unit around the fuel filter, but found the right size and it's been perfect since.

Waiting for some cooler weather to get back to Santa Pod and hopefully hit 10s!

 

[SMed08]

Front end suspension having mini overhaul due to some very annoying low speed judders. Control arms, bushings, thrust arms, ball joints... not cheap but hopefully rides a lot better after wards.

 

[SMed08]

Slightly annoying as I just took it for very nice front end alignment at Wheels In Motion in Chesham, which come highly regarded and I've used in the past. Not cheap again, and had really good result with few weeks ago. But after this front end suspension work, will likely need another alignment. Oh well.

 

[SMed08]

Also had some bent rims in the front after some hellacious pot holes over last winter, which gave some really bad vibrations over 90mph. Got them repaired, but really should've just put the money into some new alloys. The old ones were obviously bent but also very rough and in desperate need of a refurbishment. Oh well again.

 

[SMed08]

Cannot believe the improvement made after this front suspension work! I had no idea how bad it was before.

Just feel so much more confident around corners now, really wish I'd done it sooner!

It felt so floaty, and juddered around bends, I wasn't enjoying driving it apart from on the smoothest straightest roads.

It's so much more stable. 130-150 now feels like what 100 was before this work. So stable and smooth now, night and day difference.

It's not really a B-road car, but it's now a great A-road car for sure. And with the temps coming down a bit outside, this car is just eating out there!

Next Santa Pod day for me is September 22nd. Unfortunately, it's a Run What you Brung day, so it's an unprepped track. Next prepped track day I can attend will be 5th of October. Hopefully with cooler weather, that illusive 10.9 second pass is there.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Cannot believe the improvement made after this front suspension work! I had no idea how bad it was before.

Just feel so much more confident around corners now, really wish I'd done it sooner!

It felt so floaty, and juddered around bends, I wasn't enjoying driving it apart from on the smoothest straightest roads.

It's so much more stable. 130-150 now feels like what 100 was before this work. So stable and smooth now, night and day difference.

It's not really a B-road car, but it's now a great A-road car for sure. And with the temps coming down a bit outside, this car is just eating out there!

Next Santa Pod day for me is September 22nd. Unfortunately, it's a Run What you Brung day, so it's an unprepped track. Next prepped track day I can attend will be 5th of October. Hopefully with cooler weather, that illusive 10.9 second pass is there.

What did you have done on the front suspension, did you replace some items or was it just resetting what was already there?

 

[SMed08]

Replaced both lower ball joints
Both front thrust arms
both spring control arms
that included relevant bushes too.

Not a complete overhaul, just replaced things that were very obviously knackered.

 

[Alex]

As for meth, I put 1 injector post intercooler. Spoke to Alex about this and he says it's not a useful location to inject. He's right, it doesn't seem to make sense on paper, but having spoken to many people that have gone this route and seen their data logs, it seems to work.

Just to clarify on this one. Maintenance aside, the issue with fitting the port after the cooler is there's no easy way to make sure each cylinder gets equal amount of meth (thus the risk of running some of them richer than others.) On top of this, since the travel distance for the meth becomes shorter (v. pre-intercooler), there's also a risk of flooding the engine as some of the meth may not fully atomise. There will be some people who will have luck running this setup of course but it's just not perfect. Direct port injection takes care of the above but it's bigger, messier and not maintenance free either.

Glad to hear you're making progress. I may join you at Santa in September/October. Got to try my semi slicks out.

 

[SMed08]

Just to clarify on this one. Maintenance aside, the issue with fitting the port after the cooler is there's no easy way to make sure each cylinder gets equal amount of meth (thus the risk of running some of them richer than others.) On top of this, since the travel distance for the meth becomes shorter (v. pre-intercooler), there's also a risk of flooding the engine as some of the meth may not fully atomise. There will be some people who will have luck running this setup of course but it's just not perfect. Direct port injection takes care of the above but it's bigger, messier and not maintenance free either.

Glad to hear you're making progress. I may join you at Santa in September/October. Got to try my semi slicks out.

Thanks Alex.

Would love to see you out at Pod this year! What wheel/tyre set up have you got?

 

[Alex]

Thanks Alex.

Would love to see you out at Pod this year! What wheel/tyre set up have you got?

Thanks S. I went with R-compound Yoko Neovas. Much prefer the look of 18” wheels too.

 

[SMed08]

 

[BD E55]

Also had some bent rims in the front after some hellacious pot holes over last winter, which gave some really bad vibrations over 90mph. Got them repaired, but really should've just put the money into some new alloys. The old ones were obviously bent but also very rough and in desperate need of a refurbishment. Oh well again.

Hi SMed08, out of curiosity where did you get your alloys repaired and what type of repair was it? I'm looking at same for standard S211 E55 alloys that are out of round and vibrating.

 

[SMed08]

Hi SMed08, out of curiosity where did you get your alloys repaired and what type of repair was it? I'm looking at same for standard S211 E55 alloys that are out of round and vibrating.

It was Pristine Wheels in Woburn Sands, Milton Keynes. I can't remember exactly what they did, I think just heated and bent back into shape. There weren't any cracks to weld.

TBH, wish I saved the money to put towards new wheels as mine badly need either refurbishment or replacing. I'm planning to go to 19" wheels soon.

 

[BD E55]

It was Pristine Wheels in Woburn Sands, Milton Keynes. I can't remember exactly what they did, I think just heated and bent back into shape. There weren't any cracks to weld.

TBH, wish I saved the money to put towards new wheels as mine badly need either refurbishment or replacing. I'm planning to go to 19" wheels soon.

Thanks SMed08!

 

[SMed08]

Decent day at the track. Got a new PB, but annoyingly I accidentally hit the rev limiter in 2nd gear for a split second.

11.04s at 126mph
60ft 1.63s
Ambient Temp 15C (felt cooler tbh)
DA was -78ft
Starting IAT 24C
Finishing IAT 68C

No ice, no meth. Just a 68mm Party Pulley and Micky Thompson drag tyres lol


Very close to the elusive 10.99s run!!

 

[SMed08]

Very disappointed this weekend.

Went to Santa Pod for the final track day of the year, and was rained out. Mostly disappointed as when it wasn't raining, the conditions were utterly perfect for a record setting run.

It was very sunny (when it wasn't raining) and heating the track surface for grip.
Nice cool ambient temps about 9-10°C
Density altitude was -700ft (-213m)
And an 11mph tailwind which NEVER happens at Santa Pod, it's always a headwind there.

I had done about 100kg of temporary weight reduction in the car (Kirkey race seat, light weight wheels and lightweight battery). But it kept raining off and on and they closed the track early without a single run.

These were miracle conditions lol, and would've definitely given the 10.9s run I've been chasing for 2 years. Oh well, will have to wait until Feb/March next year.

 

[SMed08]

Still out here. First time back since October. Still haven't cracked 10s yet, but getting closer.

11.1s at 127.3mph
60ft 1.71s
Ambient Temp 19°C
DA was +600ft
Starting IAT 8°C
Finishing IAT 52°C

Very busy at the track, only managed 2 runs and struggling to launch on this track so early in the season. Happy with this time considering spinning off the line and the weather not being nearly as good as last time. Also this is a new MPH record for me, and should easily do a 10.9 soon.

The 2 big changes from last year is I'm now using ice in the split cooling tank and I've found another 30kg of weight loss from the car to make it a total of 130kg weight reduction. The weight reduction is temporary and can be put back in about 1-2 hours.