Minor updates. Entered in the come and try hillclimb at the end of september. Still have to buy a helmet and extinguisher. Have been taking the car out regularly driving the hills and heading to social events.
Some photographers like filters.
Some photographers do not.
However all the driving started to reveal a problem. Fan belt started slipping at high RPM but the belt was tensioned correctly. Hmm. Tighten it up, no improvement. So I ignored it for a little while, figured i'd put a new belt on it and see what happened. But over the next few drives that high rpm belt slip started coming down lower and lower in the rev range. 4000, 3000... something was seizing up.
This begins my usual four steps back but five steps forward as a simple repair snowballs out of control like normal, my wallet crying the whole time.
So I decided to do a little investigation. Water pump and alternator spin fine and their bearings aren't making any noise. The belt isn't contaminated, but as soon as you hit 3000RPM it starts screaming like an infant on a plane. Then I noticed the fan was pushing an extremely large amount of air once you got a few revs on board. Ah. That'd be it. Fan clutch was locking up, or rather not slipping like it should.
Sick. Order a new fan clutch from a shop across town. Managed to get a brand new American made jobbie to suit RA28 / RA40 the next day. Got to work on it that night, I found the fan clutch had seized on to the snout of the water pump. Had to hammer and pry way more than I would have liked to and in doing so destroyed the water pump bearing. Went out the next day for a new water pump. Got the fan and water pump off. Found the new fan clutch is wrong and won't fit - that American-ness means while it's listed to suit RA28 and RA40, in the USA those had 20R / 21Rs. The shop who sourced the fan clutch hit the books trying to find me one that fits, but unfortunately it was not to be. R motors are getting old.
Back to the internet then. I was hesitant to pick up an ebay special as there's nothing quite like paying too much for a no-brand chinese made part that takes a week to arrive before finding out it doesn't fit. Or paying too little and having it hand grenade. However, gumtree came through with this absolute gem:
Nothing like New Old Stock. Top to tail, complete genuine water pump to suit 18R RA40 / RT104 / RT132. That'll do perfectly. Got it for a steal too.
Swapped the new pump, pulley and clutch on to the old pump housing (as these are different between 18R and 18R-G), put it all back together then filled and bled it up. Took it for a drive to get it up to temperature and had a profound realization: The fan clutch had been fucked from day one.
Let me tell you all something. I'm not going to say I was totally disappointed with how my 18RGEU performed when I first drove my car but I certainly was a little bit. When people came for a drive and their comments were usually along the lines of 'is that all?' and 'i expected it to go a bit harder than that', it leaves you thinking those same things. Were the 18RGs I drove years ago this slow? Did I just think they were quick because I was young and had so much fun driving cars with them? Did I just think they were powerful because I wanted them to be? Do I have my head in the sand? Does an SR20 really pull a premium a week before race wars?
I mean the thing felt like it was slow to rev any higher than 5500RPM, but down low it had plenty of grunt. I couldn't understand how other 18RG owners were saying shit like 'oh yeah, I used to rev mine out to 7k every day' when it was so taxing to do so. I convinced myself of a lot of things. "It's all about the torque with these EFI ones", "the late model cams are holding it back" etc. Very rarely though, it'd go like a firecracker and when it did, it was glorious.
So as it turns out, the fan clutch has always been an issue. This would explain why i've had intermittent struggles with belt slip since I pieced it together. The perceived lack of power, the unwillingness to reach the higher end of it's rev range - overall, the engines failure to live up to the expectations I had for it were the result.
Fuck it goes like stink now. Pulls eagerly to 7000RPM. I'd say there's about 15% more power, especially at the top.
Now if you'll excuse me, i'm spending the night driving the crap out of this car.
Also Lawson i'm going to be needing a chin spoiler to rectify this situation.