Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post pics of your car in here
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Thanks for your comments Miro.

I have a Laminova coolant/oil heat exchanger installed in the hot coolant line from the engine before the radiator. In this configuration we decided, after lots of debate, not to use an oil thermostat. This avoids any thermal shock issues due to cold oil suddenly arriving at a warm/hot engine. Under cold start conditions, the Lamina helpfully uses the heat from the coolant to warm the oil as soon as the coolant thermostat begins to open. This configuration also allowed me to keep the oil lines level and as short as possible, an added bonus.

The car will be used for track days and road use. I share your concerns regarding fire. I am talking to 'Fire Monkey' and intend to fit an automated extinguisher system in the engine bay. In the cockpit I have built twin rear bulkheads with the gap lined with fireproof insulation, a battery isolation switch and a manual fire extinguisher.

Returning to more positive news: I am driving the car up and down my driveway every day! Today my Dad and I modified the top hose bleed arrangements after I found a fitting to enable me to fit a bleed hose to the top hose. Pictures below hopefully show this. Over the past few days we fitted the door mirrors and have the side windows and door rubbers working well. We set the suspension up to one degree negative camber front and rear. One degree toe-in front and half a degree toe-in at the rear. The front castor is set to 4.5 degrees positive.

I have also taken delivery of some stainless steel strops from Fox's Chandlery which I am about to install as front and rear bodywork restraints. That is tomorrow's job.

Tomorrow I am meeting Car Glass & Trim from Ipswich as we are going to determine the best options for windscreen surround with a view to fitting the screen next week. Once the screen is fitted I will book my IVA!
Top hose bleed modification routing air to expansion tank
Top hose bleed modification routing air to expansion tank
Stratos top hose bleed modification 1.jpg (25.64 KiB) Viewed 27376 times
Top hose air bleed connection
Top hose air bleed connection
Stratos top hose bleed modification 2.jpg (30.13 KiB) Viewed 27376 times
One degree negative camber front and rear
One degree negative camber front and rear
One degree negative camber front & rear.jpg (24.66 KiB) Viewed 27376 times
Doors with mirrors and windows
Doors with mirrors and windows
Door mirrors and windows.jpg (26.61 KiB) Viewed 27376 times
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Today I realised I need to apply to the DVLA for a VIN number which I have done. Once this arrives I can apply for an IVA test.

I have fitted the front and rear bodywork restraints and varnished the gear lever. You know the car is almost finished when you are varnishing the gear lever!
Front bodywork restraint
Front bodywork restraint
Front bodywork restraint.jpg (19.12 KiB) Viewed 27358 times
Rear bodywork restraint
Rear bodywork restraint
Rear bodywork restraint.jpg (23.84 KiB) Viewed 27358 times
Newly varnished gear lever knob
Newly varnished gear lever knob
Newly varnished gear lever knob.jpg (17.68 KiB) Viewed 27358 times
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Made the finishing touches to the front inner wing wheel arch liners today. These are now in primer and will be top coated and fitted tomorrow. I have some neat rubber seals to finish it off and keep the road dirt from the front compartment. Still waiting for the DVLA to send me a VIN number prior to applying for an IVA test!
Attachments
LH Inner Wing.jpg
LH Inner Wing.jpg (43.62 KiB) Viewed 27310 times
RH Inner Wing.jpg
RH Inner Wing.jpg (42.58 KiB) Viewed 27310 times
Will01
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Joined: November 26th, 2012, 3:50 pm
Location: Dumfries, Scotland
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Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Will01 »

Looking better and better
GC_21
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Finished the front inner wings today and the rubber seal works just fine. I will underseal the front and rear inner wings soon.

I am currently modifying the cam belt cover to work with my toothed auxiliary belt. I am also working on a change to the positioning of the low oil pressure switch to move the wiring away from the auxiliary belt.
Attachments
The rubber seal fits perfectly!
The rubber seal fits perfectly!
Left front inner wing.jpg (51.64 KiB) Viewed 27269 times
Ready for under seal
Ready for under seal
Right front inner wing.jpg (46.31 KiB) Viewed 27269 times
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

A couple of days ago, whilst driving up and down my driveway, the auxiliary belt pulled a wire off the oil pressure switch. So today a modified the oil pressure switch position. I used a 90degree male to female 1/8" NPT fitting to resolve the issue as you can see from the photograph below.

I have also modified a cam belt cover by removing the bottom few inches to miss the auxiliary belt and using bushes to space the cover away from the belts. I will post a photograph when I have painted it, as it currently looks a little scruffy!

I am now working on an under tray for the engine bay and an improvement to the steering wheel boss cover to allow the horn button wiring to travel more easily.
Attachments
The blue fitting improves the switch location.
The blue fitting improves the switch location.
Oil pressure switch.jpg (51.82 KiB) Viewed 26973 times
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Finally my car is IVA ready. The IVA application is in the post!

Wiper blade works without hitting dashboard fixings. The headlamps now lift the correct distance rather than point at the ground.

Hopefully in a few weeks I can post a video driving on the road.
Stratos IVA ready.jpg
Stratos IVA ready.jpg (59.68 KiB) Viewed 26894 times
Stratos IVA ready2.jpg
Stratos IVA ready2.jpg (50.15 KiB) Viewed 26894 times
Stratos IVA ready3.jpg
Stratos IVA ready3.jpg (57.94 KiB) Viewed 26894 times
Stratos IVA ready4.jpg
Stratos IVA ready4.jpg (44.13 KiB) Viewed 26894 times
Nobby
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Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Nobby »

Excellent Paul - well done. Fingers crossed for the IVA.
Chris Burgess
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Will01
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Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Will01 »

That looks brilliant. Alot of work but worth it.after iva you be able to enjoy fruits of your labour. Then we just need some videos
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Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Michael (my son) and I had a great day at the Norwich IVA test centre on Wednesday. Dennis, our tester, was a great guy and made the entire IVA experience good fun and informative. We didn't pass but only due to relatively easy issues to resolve. My car was the second Stratos he has seen at Norwich and he has worked their for many years.

1. My terribly old rear fog lamp was 'E' marked but not with the additional 'F' marking so at this point we knew we could not pass.

2. The very cool front DRL and Indicators are above 350mm high at the centre but the measurement is taken from the bottom of the lamp. Although thanks to the advice on this forum their positioning was good. We could have increased the front suspension preload and jacked the front of the car up but I there was no point. I now have smaller, slimmer indicators to mount as high as possible.

3. The front clam opens too far pointing the headlights at the ground making the car invisible if broken down in the dark! We knew we could shorten the restraining straps and pass but due to (1) we didn't bother.

4. One of the bottom front suspension bolts wasn't quite long enough to fill the nyloc completely. This was a 'fair cop' and very obvious when the car was up on the hoist. Ironically these 9/16 UNF bolts were part of the original kit! I now have longer bolts.

5. The steering self centring didn't perform as it should. In my driveway it worked but I suspect the gradient of my driveway helped. I have ordered new ball joints and I will increase the camber and see if that helps. The rack is well greased and the pinion appears to be set up correctly. I have never been convinced that the lower balljoint is correct but a thread on this forum pointed me at the correct part number.....

6. When putting the car on the trailer I noticed that I was doing 20mph. The speedo had consistently read correctly in first and second gear on the drive. During the test the speedo was very erratic and the nail in the coffin was doing 20mph standing still! I suspect a bad earth as the rev counter was also erratic.

7. The drivers door mirror needs to be positioned further out as the cone placed on the ground behind the car, directly inline with the off side, cannot be seen as the rear wing is in the way. Easy to fix.

We look forward to returning to Norwich soon. Michael has some photography of the day and we will likely post these soon. Paul
Will01
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Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Will01 »

Nice one. Shame about not passing.
Good to hear you had a fun tester rather than some miserable who couldn't care less.
Apart from 4,5 & 6 I would say the other areas are just an example of how phinikity the IVA test can be.
It's like u can do these tweaks to get through and then change the car when u get a pass and back home.
Good luck for the next test.
Be great to see more pictures
GC_21
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

My son Michael and I now have the car through the IVA test and the certificate and registration documentation is with the DVLA team.

We learnt a few things alone the way:
To improve the speedometer accuracy I mounted my VDO speedometer inductive sensor on the gearbox lined up with a Fiat Ducato reluctor ring that I mounted on the differential flange. 54 teeth per revolution results in a really smooth and accurate speedometer. I also ran a screened cable for the speedometer wiring as the speedo was susceptible to interference resulting in the needle flickering whilst at a standstill.
The VDO tachometer was erratic when driven from my Bosch distributor with inductive pickup and electronic amplification! A simple diode in the tachometer feed results in a smooth rev counter needle.
I at last brought the correct size springs (Coilover Spring Faulkner 10.5 Inches Long - 2.25 Inch Inside Diameter | FRS-105-200) for my front Leda shocks and now I can mount the shocks the right way up.
I fitted new front suspension ball joints, top and bottom, plus repacked the Litton steering rack with EP grease. The front steering is now really nice and self centring is as it should be.
I have re-aligned the front suspension to 10 minutes toe in, 40 minutes negative camber, 4 degrees of castor. The rear suspension has 10 minutes of toe in and 1 degree of negative camber.
I have 205/15's on the front and 225/15's on the rear. I am currently running 16psi in the front and 20psi in the rear but I suspect these are too high. 350kgs front axle and 540kgs rear with full fuel tanks, 90litres.
I fitted rear mudguards to meet the wheel covering requirements.
Guy Croft solved my over fuelling problems by recommending that I fit a fuel pressure regulator. My engine ran fine with just a couple of gallons in the fuel tanks but when I brimmed the tanks for the IVA test I could not meet the emissions test. The Silver Top road specification fuel pump is able to overcome the Weber DCOE 45 needle valves and neat fuel drips from the accelerator pump jets! A Malpassi Filter King from Northampton Motor Sport cured this issue and we sailed through the emissions test.
Speedometer sensor and reluctor ring
Speedometer sensor and reluctor ring
IMG_2445.jpg (216.9 KiB) Viewed 27681 times
Photograph shows the reluctor ring on the differential flange and the speedometer inductive pickup mounted in my bracket.
Whilst I am waiting for the DVLA to process my paperwork and provide me with a registration number I have a few other things to do:

I am currently working on a steady bar for the engine. I have not used the Lancia head mounted solution as this leads to head gasket issues. I have designed a bell housing mounted solution. I will post some photographs soon.
Guy Croft
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Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Guy Croft »

well-done my gifted client!

For those who do not know, Paul Eustace invented BT Open Reach - the UK Internet system.

I just wanted to say that.


GC
Guy Croft, owner
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Ha Ha. Thanks for the kind words Guy!

I should say that whilst I did do some very interesting work with digital call switching and also worked on transmission systems that became the forerunners to broadband, I cannot claim to have invented BT OpenReach.

I believe Guy is referring to my role leading the Design and Development of BT Connect, the Business Internet Service Provision solution for 100k plus businesses at the time that I moved on. A real high point of my career. Looking back we had a superb team of hard working people with such diverse talents.

That’s enough talking about the past, back to the workshop to weld the Lancia engine steady bar fittings together…..
Paul Eustace

Re: Lancia Stratos with 2.0L 8V rolling chassis

Post by Paul Eustace »

Whilst I am waiting for my registration application to be processed by the DVLA K&R team I have been working through my jobs list.

I have fitted my engine steady bar and the clutch footrest.

I extended the standard Lancia Beta engine bar and brought new bushes from Beta Boyz. The Lancia bracket which is normally mounted on the end of the cylinder head has been welded to a plate I fabricated and bolted to the bell housing. If the steady bar had remained on the cylinder head it is highly likely that the head gasket would fail due to the stress the steady bar applies to the end of the head.

I have also correctly aligned the headlamp shells in the pods and now have the headlamp pods nicely aligned with the front clam bodywork.
Attachments
ClutchFootrest.jpg
ClutchFootrest.jpg (32.09 KiB) Viewed 27620 times
Steady bar bolted to bell housing
Steady bar bolted to bell housing
EngineSteadyBar1.jpg (56.8 KiB) Viewed 27620 times
Steady bar bolted to chassis
Steady bar bolted to chassis
EngineSteadyBar2.jpg (47.44 KiB) Viewed 27620 times
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