The car spent last week on a little holiday at Power-tec to get rolling roaded. A scheduling mix up meant that they weren’t expecting me, but they could fit me in if I left the car with them – Top chaps. Unfortunately when they finally did get it on the rollers they couldn’t map it. The fuel pressure was varying by as much as 7 PSI which meant that they couldn’t get consistent results. They’d add a bit fuel in map location x,y and get it purring nicely, but when they tested it again it would be off. Injection systems assume a constant fuel pressure and you add fuel by extending the injector duration….variable fuel pressure is bad.
This is the second time I’ve tried to get the car mapped at Power tec and the second time fuel pressure issues have forced it to be abandoned 
Its beyond a joke. It looks like the new pump I fitted last year is already failing. I’ve ordered a new pump from Andy at ABPerformance and will get it fitted before we go to Snetterton in a few days time. This may explain the overheating problems I had on track last week as running a bit lean can cause overheating. However I thought she pulled like a train and I was pretty close to Tim so it can’t be far out.
Interestingly one of the CBR1000rr tuning sites says you should clamp of the PAIR system when rolling roading the car. This system injects clean air into the exhaust to help the car pass emissions tests. On the racer this isn’t needed so the two inputs are just joined together with a link pipe, which should create a closed system but I wonder if this could be causing false readings on the Lambda gauge. Anyway I’m going to properly block it with a bung. Plus I’m going to instrument fuel pressure and feed it to the DL1 for logging at the next outing.
So somewhat annoyed and disappointed not to get It sorted we spent much of this weekend concentrating on the Winnebago. Last year I bought a larger awning off ebay and we finally got around to fitting it. Sterling exertions from Duncan and my now grown up son Chris, meant that we finally hefted it into place and fitted it. Much thanks goes to them both as it was touch and go whether we could get it up in the air, Duncan has a badish back and Chris seems to be made out of spagetti. The awning is pretty substantial and jolly heavy and we were all working at the limits of our strength 8 foot in the air, much respect to them both.
I certainly wouldn’t want unwind it without a second pair of hands to support the weight. I don’t think it would do the ‘Bago sides any good at all. Still it does look nice and neat, and oddly the extra weight seems to make the beast even stable to drive The next thing is to get some sides for it., hopefully we won’t need it at Snett but it may help keep the Baking heat of the sun off us 
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This led on to a diverting afternoon of wiring problems. Despite me having got the plans from Winnebago and checking that there was no wiring in the vicinity of the awning mounts it seems I may have nicked a wire when drilling. Unfortunately this constantly shorted out the main fuse for the tail lights and side markers. It took us four hours to track it down and resolve the problem.
At one of the meetings last year the generator on the Bago packed up, we’re going to need it at Snetterton as the paddock is not massively well served with power points. The starter motor jammed, and emitted a large quantity of acrid smoke. So we took the beastie out of the rear locker where it lives. It’s a 4KW Onan unit which is made by Cummin(g)s.
That made me titter in a schoolboyish/blackadder way.
Anyway a new starter motor is due this week so we should be good to go before Snetterton. Good job to as the existing armature is plainly toast with at least 6 or 7 breaks in the windings.
On Sunday I did the normal suite of routine pre race checks. These revealed that I probably ought to fit some new front brake pads, as these don’t seem to owe me anything. being at 2-4mm depth and beginning to break up.
Of course this will unfortunately mean that I will be bedding pads during the practice session at Snett, but I’m afraid that appears to be unavoidable now