TVR Chimaera Thread

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duncs500
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Post by duncs500 »

Superb! 8-)
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mik
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Post by mik »

That. And yes - Vids needed
drcarlos
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

Did my first commute in it today (I have elective office working if I want so will be coming in 1 day a week over the summer at least). No real dramas. I need to get the warm up cycle control tuned (cold start is fine, but it's still dying when it's not fully warmed up if I let it idle) but it's booked in with Ed at Surrey Rolling Road on the 23rd for a proper tune.
My conversation with him was that it was well down on power with what it should have from the spec of the engine and that the warm up should be easy to sort as there are no other issues.
I fitted the new cooling fan at the weekend, which meant the rad had to come out, which was annoying having just put fresh coolant into it.
Fitted the new wiper park switch so the wipers stop where they should, easy 5 minute job to unbolt the wiper motor and fit the new switch.
Final job was to cut holes in the inner arches for the boat hatches (to ease the swapping of bulbs as there is no easy access in an early mk1). 5 inch hole saw borrowed from my neighbour and then lots of dust everywhere as I sanded it back with the drum sander attachment on the dremel. bolted them in and sealed/bonded with Tiger seal which then allowed the bulbs to be swapped for a pair of Osram nightbreakers.
Monday saw the auto electrician fit a new Cobra Cat1 alarm system with a microwave sensor which means the interior is protected with the roof off. He also retained my remote boot release, not a cheap job but worth while and he was complementary about my amp install and a couple of other electrical jobs i'd done.
After the tune i'm then down to just the interior cosmetics to do on my jobs list so alloy stalk kit and switches which will need to wait for funds as I've used all the wife credits for now.
Still need to edit the video.....
drcarlos
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

Booked the parking place yesterday for an office visit today. Woke up to pissing rain. Decided I'd go in the Chim anyway.

Well I learned the wipers aren't bad, it doesn't mist up too badly and it's pretty ok if you are sensible with it.

What wasn't so good is it does need a better tune for the cold start as due to the cold and damp it hunted like crazy for the first 10 mins until it was warmed up. This made moving in traffic interesting. It's going to be on the list of things for Ed next week.

Hoping the sun comes out so I can take the roof off for my journey home.
speedingfine
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by speedingfine »

Been following this closely! Love it 8-) I do have one question though, are you getting the mesh by the front no plate powder coated or similar? Doesn't look quite like others I've seen without the cross spar either, wondered what your plans were if any.
drcarlos
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

speedingfine wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 7:46 pm Been following this closely! Love it 8-) I do have one question though, are you getting the mesh by the front no plate powder coated or similar? Doesn't look quite like others I've seen without the cross spar either, wondered what your plans were if any.
Standard grill is a stamped Alu affair that is painted black and doesn’t really flow well, especially when they run hot. Mine was not exactly nice, so I bought some proper welded stainless mesh and cut my own, edging it with some rubber u channel. I’ve got some etch primer and black paint if I want to paint it and considered it, but quite like the stainless look now, so I think I may just leave it that way now.
The cross spar thing I’d never noticed until I got one and the grill does really highlight it. The mk1, like mine has no cross spar, sometime in 96 there was a facelift that coincided with the cerbera launch and tvr combined designs for the two front ends (the chim was actually supposed to have the ajp8 engine too but it wasn’t ready, it certainly would have been a Larry beast with that lump in it!). It’s probably because there are more mk2 cars that you are used to it more. Apparently the mk1 runs a little cooler but I doubt there’s much in it, if anything.
There are a few other details that crept in over the years like the 4 round rear lights that replaced the fiesta ones of the early cars, the covered front lights on really late cars, concealed boot hinges, conventional lit rear number plate (mk1 is backlit through a translucent plate), cerbera seats in late cars and a better dash in mk2s.
I like the plate and fiesta lights, but much prefer the mk2 dash, 50/50 on the covered headlights.

My plans are really centred around the interior now (after the tuning) as I’m pretty happy with the mechanical spec, the black buttons on carbon dash are being replaced with alu affairs from carbuilder and a set of leven style alu stalks, handbrake cover and if I can find it alu fan speed switch.
speedingfine
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by speedingfine »

8-) Look forward to seeing the interior changes!
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duncs500
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by duncs500 »

drcarlos wrote: Thu Jun 17, 2021 10:49 pm
I’ve got some etch primer and black paint if I want to paint it and considered it, but quite like the stainless look now, so I think I may just leave it that way now.
My worry with stainless is that it will end up as a patchwork of bug splatter and end up looking a bit crusty. Black can hide a few more blemishes. Each to their own though!
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

So I went for the tune yesterday at Surrey Rolling Road. When I got there Ed fished the ECU out from the dashboard and hooked it up to the laptop and we chatted about the issues the car had.
First of all outside before we went on the dyno he witnessed and then spent some time working on the idle, which had the issue of dying when on the warm up and sometimes when fully up to temp. After about 15 minutes he had this sorted. The old strategy seemed to be to lean out the mixture massively to cause it to just about tick over, this he said wasn't a good idea but when he added fuel it caused the revs to jump up too much so he played with the timing to bring it down which seems to have worked and it hasn't stalled since. He said it's a difficult balancing act on the RV8 as the low airspeed at idle causes the injectors to just spray fuel into a puddle in the intake manifold (basically no atomization) causing a really bad burn but the only way to get them to idle is to overfuel to a degree but it can be problem come MOT time (we'll deal with that at the time).
Next we loaded the car up onto the rollers and a I hung around watching him work. He checked the settings and ran it up for a baseline figure. He then worked on the tune for firstly the shunting and I could see the road spinning over as he 'drove' in 4th with occasional bursts of power after about 20 minutes he ran through the power and took another reading. He then made a few tweaks and took another 2 runs.
The final figure was 284.3hp at 6250rpm (the limiter) and it was still building at that point. We could have gone higher on the limiter but I decided to leave it there for the sake of the bottom end. Torque wasn't increased over the standard car but was basically flat from 1500rpm to the redline.
A standard 400 usually makes around 220bhp on the rollers so mine has a useful bump and is between a standard 450 and 500 for bhp now, but made further up the rev range which is OK with me.
It's now a lot nicer driving experience now with no comedy restarting at roundabouts or jerking when you are just pootling at 30.
it wasn't cheap but so far worth every penny and I can go back (or get it done remotely) for minor tweaks for free if I need them so that's useful.
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mik
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by mik »

A satisfying update 8-)

Must need an e-start vid now Shirley? ;)
speedingfine
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by speedingfine »

drcarlos wrote: Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:04 pm So I went for the tune yesterday at Surrey Rolling Road. When I got there Ed fished the ECU out from the dashboard and hooked it up to the laptop and we chatted about the issues the car had.
First of all outside before we went on the dyno he witnessed and then spent some time working on the idle, which had the issue of dying when on the warm up and sometimes when fully up to temp. After about 15 minutes he had this sorted. The old strategy seemed to be to lean out the mixture massively to cause it to just about tick over, this he said wasn't a good idea but when he added fuel it caused the revs to jump up too much so he played with the timing to bring it down which seems to have worked and it hasn't stalled since. He said it's a difficult balancing act on the RV8 as the low airspeed at idle causes the injectors to just spray fuel into a puddle in the intake manifold (basically no atomization) causing a really bad burn but the only way to get them to idle is to overfuel to a degree but it can be problem come MOT time (we'll deal with that at the time).
Next we loaded the car up onto the rollers and a I hung around watching him work. He checked the settings and ran it up for a baseline figure. He then worked on the tune for firstly the shunting and I could see the road spinning over as he 'drove' in 4th with occasional bursts of power after about 20 minutes he ran through the power and took another reading. He then made a few tweaks and took another 2 runs.
The final figure was 284.3hp at 6250rpm (the limiter) and it was still building at that point. We could have gone higher on the limiter but I decided to leave it there for the sake of the bottom end. Torque wasn't increased over the standard car but was basically flat from 1500rpm to the redline.
A standard 400 usually makes around 220bhp on the rollers so mine has a useful bump and is between a standard 450 and 500 for bhp now, but made further up the rev range which is OK with me.
It's now a lot nicer driving experience now with no comedy restarting at roundabouts or jerking when you are just pootling at 30.
it wasn't cheap but so far worth every penny and I can go back (or get it done remotely) for minor tweaks for free if I need them so that's useful.
8-)
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duncs500
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by duncs500 »

8-)

What was yours making before the work (sorry if I missed it)?
drcarlos
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

duncs500 wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:05 am 8-)

What was yours making before the work (sorry if I missed it)?

I have print from last year where it made a shade under 250bhp, so the pro tune got me about 35bhp and a whole heap of drivability.
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duncs500
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by duncs500 »

drcarlos wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:39 am
duncs500 wrote: Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:05 am 8-)

What was yours making before the work (sorry if I missed it)?

I have print from last year where it made a shade under 250bhp, so the pro tune got me about 35bhp and a whole heap of drivability.
Excellent! :-)
drcarlos
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

Added a Levin style stalk kit (Levin style as they don't exist anymore but someone is making reproduction's) which replaces the original MK3 Cavalier indicator stalks and column adjuster plus handbrake cover with brushed machined aluminium parts. Not too hard to fit but required cutting the ends off the old stalks :shock: . Gives a more upmarket feeling to the cabin.

Had the 3D printed cup/phone holder delivered so dropped that in. Nice bit of kit that I may modify to have a male USB-C port to allow phone docking.

Got the sailors needle and now just waiting for the thread so I can repair the stitching on the rear screen (apparently it's quite easy to just re-sew following the original holes), so that will be next Saturdays job.

Carbuilder solutions are still out of stock on the latching brushed aluminium switches, but even when I get them it's probably a bit more than a couple of hours on a Saturday to swap them over and get them illuminating correctly.
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by Sundayjumper »

drcarlos wrote: Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:05 pm Had the 3D printed cup/phone holder delivered so dropped that in. Nice bit of kit that I may modify to have a male USB-C port to allow phone docking.
Pics / link ? Sounds interesting.
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Broccers
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by Broccers »

Just caught up on this one. Great to see the progress 8-) 8-) 8-)
drcarlos
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

Here's a couple of pics of the new additions

Interior upgrades

The cup/phone holder came from a guy on the chimaera Facebook group and I drilled the usb cable exit ready for the holder. I'm just thinking now that a socket and a bit of soldering/dremmeling could be done to fashion a dock for a usb c phone.
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by drcarlos »

Haven't updated this thread in a while as we had some covid and then some holiday.

Went back to see Edd at SRR to get some map tweaks done on the cold start (massive overfuelling) and idle (1100rpm), managed to scare ourselves when we removed the ECU to plug in the car would start and after much checking including jacking and checking fuel pump supply we discovered that the rollover inertia switch had become unplugged (undoubtedly another screw up by the salvage yards bodge merchant electrician). Once plugged back in it fired right up. We've now got the idle down to 900rpm and it's much better, cold start now hunts initially but once it's run for a couple of minutes it smooths out and it runs perfectly.

Carbuilder solutions finally got the switches in so I ordered straight away and planned to fit them in a day that I had booked off work.

Taking the lower dash out consists of radio removal and them 4 small cross head screws in the outer of the radio aperture that holds the panel in, the whole panel can then be removed along with all switches and the wiring looms just unplug.
if the switches are pressed the metal brackets holding them can then slide and the whole lot comes away from the panel. I had a choice then. Cut off the old connectors and replace them with the smaller spade terminals required or make a short link lead. I made the short link lead (labelling as I went) meaning that if I ever need to go back to standard (or a subsequent owner wants to) it can by just unplugging and replacing.
Then the led tell tales in the switches needed wiring, this required a link/split cable to retain the old tell tale and the new one in the switch so I made these up and fitted them and with a bit of connection logic they work well, however while I was setting this up I though I caused my first real issue.
Basically I wanted to start the car and move it and it wouldn't start, I thought I'd done some damage when testing my wiring so cue multimeter and lots of testing, then pulling out the ECU and fitting the bluetooth to allow me to connect (checking that I hadn't goosed it), ECU fired right up and not knowing tuner studio for megasquirt I then selected no to updating firmware (which I should said yes) and yes to loading a basemap (which I should have said NO!!!!). Then realising i'd wiped out everything me and Edd did the day before!
However a quick call to Edd and the backup was mailed to me so I flashed it onto the ECU. He then told me that I'd probably expected it to fire up too quickly from cold and it would always do this. I might also need a bit of throttle. Anyway sure enough a bit of throttle and a longer crank and she fired right up.
It's run perfectly since and I've covered a few miles on various journeys. I'm pleased with the switches too, they work perfectly and look far better than the non-descript black plastic buttons that were there before.

Next things of the list are to replace the missing rubber capping on the drivers door corner (they always fall off), get the front wheels refurbed, then probably replace the big standard and bulky battery with an Oddyssey, the jury is still out on the PAS conversion.

Driving wise I'm feeling much more confident and have started to push it further and it seems to have quite high limits along with great levels of feedback.

Oh and I took off the door cards and flush fitted the tweeters.
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mik
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Re: TVR Chimaera Thread

Post by mik »

Nice update. 8-)

Do we have an e-start vid yet? To complement your cold start one like. Pretty please?
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