my first car* 1.4 1990 340 Carburettor Help Please!

[Speedy88]

Well I don't think there is much difference with the oils as a whole, they are still thick liquids but 80w 90 would be one of the thickest oils you can buy off the shelf. Thicker oil means more molecules to cause more force to "push" the car up. Meaning in theory it will be stiffer making the car corner more level.

In theory.

[Chris_C]

i want the thing to handle like its on rails

Then I doubt cut springs and landy dampers are going to cut it As has been said time and again, dampers are for damping, suspension should be done by the springs.

Seriously, look at the number of people who run landy dampers who've put their cars into armco. Having no suspension will mean it's wanting to unstable itself, which is great for pikey spec drifting but for actually making car handle is useless. Dai's rear dampers are very good value, they just arn't £10 from ebay.

[jtbo]

I think I have said this before, but lowering does only decrease amount of roughness suspension can handle, you need to do lot more to make it handle, with limit bump travel of 300 series, you will need really stiff springs to make suspension to keep tires on road and match dampers to springs + weight of car, there is no other way to make it handle like on rails, which you still won't get with 300 series, you would need to change tires and wheels and suspension geometry etc.

Original GLT ride height and stiffer springs + matching dampers is probably only way to make it usable good handling on roads, you will need that suspension travel to cope with road irregularities, bumps etc. If car is made to be like on rails when on smooth surface, very low and very stiff suspension, then it will loose grip randomly on road because even smallest dips or bumps will upset contact patches of tyres to road and thus loosing the grip and loosing the control.

When road friction is lower because of rain etc, then softer suspension offers more grip than stiff one.

That is at least what I think.

[valman]

i know what you mean that cut springs are not the way forward but them plus 205/60s have completely transformed the handling - it stays level around corners now and is very stable. because when i looked at the springs it seems that the top coil isnt flat it just carries on asif it was meant to be longer so i think thats why its not gotten worse. albeit shite on bumpy stuff, hard suspension will be so fun on smooth surfaces so i think im gonna give landy dampers + thicker oil a go before i start making coilovers etc
cheers all

[valman]

ok, few updates - i got landrover dampers for the back:

quite a size difference haha
fitted them:

that didnt go great though, because the standard bushings were somehow made as a one piece the only way i could get them out was via the knife method, that went well. NOT.

so make sure if you are using a knife for soemthing fiddly it has to be one that can lock the blade in place as mine didnt and closed on my finger

had the clutch replaced too, bloody brilliant - nothing like a car that accelerates when you want it to
didnt get any pictures of that was very dark but heres one of the !ghetto engine support"


and then the lolvo was used to get to reading festival (that was bloody epic)
the car was full = 5 people + enough camping gear for 4 days each
that meant this:

the low exhaust didnt help really. the thing scraped on road markings when i changed lane.

also this happened:

yup deffo need to re-route the exhaust once i take 3 or more inches of the rear height

nice arch gaps

[Speedy88]

How was reading this year? I used to be a big fan and go every year until it got popular and the knobheads started going.

[magnumpi]

Looks great as it is, i'd say you are almost at the limit of how low you can go before getting serious clearance issues. If you are genuinely considering dropping the back another 3" i see untold problems.

As you know they scrape when loaded, i found out the same at the weekend with mine 3 up. I've managed to put a massive dent in the bottom of the petrol tank going over a speed bump at a crawling pace

[jtbo]

Too soft springs if car can't handle the load, so stiffer springs, which then are too stiff for handling and need tighter dampers and after end of day one would be better off with steel bars welded in place of dampers.

So, that just tells the story that car is too low ot perform properly, suspension needs to be redesigned to get it work that low, also looks like few other bits too, just be careful not to snap axle when it is weakened like that, it would be rather interesting driving experience when all of sudden you get 4 wheel steering and rear tyres have their own will

[magnumpi]

Not really, it just tells me speed bumps should be outlawed. Other than over them mine isn't too bad on normal roads

[jtbo]

Not really, it just tells me speed bumps should be outlawed. Other than over them mine isn't too bad on normal roads

Try normal Romanian roads or even Finnish roads and there is some problems


We can't do much for speed bumps but we can make our cars to handle them, police has some great suspensions in some of their cars, handle lot better than standard and still work well on rough surface and speed bumps too.

On track surface is often smooth, but often you gain advantage if you can clip the kerbs:


Also there are some tracks with not so smooth surface, some have even up and downhills on high speeds where then is small dips that easily upsets the car, in these places scraping is something unwanted as is bottoming out as it causes very sudden bite and then almost total lost of grip when happening at high speed like for example at 1st leg of Donington.

[valman]

thanks for the replies guys
speedy = reading fest was good it all depends where you camp mostly as the "nobs" stay in yellow camp and in the surrounding area the further away camps are fine, they had riot police in this eyar so not as much shit got burnt as last year, going next year for sure

its not actually that low in the picture above - that it with stuff in the back and 4 people so that lowers it around 2 - 3 inches so i would get it to be like that all the time with a drop it still has more rake than homebase as it is now

but handling has improved! alot, hoping it will be even better once back is low and it has a lower point of gravity its obviously going to a be a compromise as roads are quite varied in the uk so some might be smooth and great for hard suspensions - others really bad but thats the price one pays to look cool

[jtbo]

Compact citycar for UK roads? Would be great here too at winter, our road department has sold all plows and has bought salt, so sometimes we can have 20cm of wet slush on roads


Beer pint which leaks when it has beer put into it, maybe looks like beer pint, but it really is not as it does not function as beer pint, I must say I consider lowering which looks good but does not work for purpose car is used, pretty much the same

I'm pretty sure same kind of improvement to handling can be achieved without much if any lowering, it might not look clone of each others, but it would outperform all clones on rougher surfaces by really large marginal. Increased spring rate causes less roll and better feel of being in control, lowering itself would not do that much if suspension travel would not be limited and spring rate would be same as original, it is not CG that is in effect now, imo.

Roll centers are which have more effect, sometimes when you lower car, you lift rolling center up, with 360 at least things are luckily so that roll center lowers with car, but only to point, sadly can't remember now what was exact number, but it was something over 50mm lowering at front where roll center rocketed up to sky, anyway such lowering is hardly possible to do any sensible way, so with this car it does not come to issue like with some others.

CG itself has not so much effect, getting roll center lower has far more of effect, this is done with suspension geometry changes = pain in arse, but nothing good comes easy...
CG of course has major effect if we look theoretical side, but means to get it lower by any meaningful amount are rather limited, CG is quite close to your arse in 360, maybe bit forward in 340, at least in 1.7 I would imagine so, but in 360 without driver it is right where backrest and seat connects, between of seats, bit under the seat surface.

Sure it has some effect, but less than one would think at first, because there are other changes that are easy to mix up with change in CG height, one of huge misconceptions that lives in scene really, kind of same with lowering which would always improve handling by some, but if lowering causes roll centers to rise then effect is more like car would be lifted.

However what lowering does is decreasing amount of air going under the car and also if you are lucky, some ground effect, but you need properly designed bonnet went to get desired results as currently air that comes from front grille is pushed under the car, with bonnet went that air can be drawn upwards and that improves handling in high speeds, also massively improves cooling too, but went design is not just some hole in bonnet, it is needed to create low pressure area over the went, by some bulge at front of it (check lan evo bonnets for example), this is also reason why it must be placed rather front of hood as there is natural lower pressure zone.

Maybe gives some thoughts, so when we see fibre bonnet with went?

[valman]

haha seems like alot of work tbh jtbo, for this particular car anyway
designed this little thing*:


a down and out sorta thing for the v300s as there isnt one anywhere, i checked. honest.

i've been thinking a bit and i just cant think of any way to have a car with a good audio install (not sub box from halfords for 80 quid kind of install) but a proper one where everyhting is dynamatted and acoustically tuned, and a "shit your pants" quick car as one
so i think ima buy another car, opinions on mk2 golfs people? that would be my daily car with a good audio system and lowered to death (yes, another lowered vw, i dont care i love the look) 1.6 drivers any good?( needs to be similar to this car in engine power due to insurance)
and buy a tidy 1.7 340 to have as a "project" stripped, caged, valver engine, poly bushed all round etc and use that for fun once finished (by then i could afford the insurance probably )
not sure what to do with this one though if i was to do that - anyone want it? will need the passenger rear sill doing for next MOT (11th oct) and the drivers side finishing (needs plating off at the end)

*disclaimer: if any bastiiid uses that picture above to make stickers without permission i will rip your balls off and stuff em down your throat
that is all

[jtbo]

*disclaimer: if any bastiiid uses that picture above to make stickers without permission i will rip your balls off and stuff em down your throat
that is all

And I thought you were a nice guy

I can't see how you could make fast car that has decent audio system, problem is that to get decent audio system it would add massively to weight, we are easily talking about 100kg as it needs really lot of sound damping materials especially in body like 340 has, also all the extra batteries, wiring, speakers, amplifiers, it will be a ton of weight really, of course bit depending what decent means, but if going to do something, better to do it best way one possible can and even bit better of that or then leave it undone. There is no point making leaking beer pint either.

However, I must say that car that looks fast, but is not, is something I will probably never understand, as you can see pic below, slow looking car is lot faster than that fast looking car:


Learning to patch rust holes is valuable skill, I have noticed, but take rust as opportunity of learning to patch it better, not as a problem and it does not piss so much to find out there is that another rust area that needs to be sorted out

[valman]

well thats exactly my problem! having both in one is like catch 22: more weight from audio = need for more power, more power = more noise = more sound deadening = more weight etc etc

i would gladly weld this one up and all that, but i dont want to own two 340s, ill have something FWD (boo hiss) for daily duties i guess then a 340 project/fun car. dont get me wrong if i had space now id be laying this car up and would have cracked on but i dont get loads of workshop space/garages untill after new years - mot is due october