pcmhacking.net

new chassis is getting close when I saw it last weekend. there is new wider billet wheels.

Right, I know it's been ages but here's a little update. I have ended up with a very fast and great handling car, we lost more weight than we hoped and are still finding ways to get rid of it. I have competed in two endurance events and had mixed success. Although the car is fast, I was dogged with power steering problems at both events. In the three hour enduro a car spun in front of me and left me no where to go, I hit him hard, had to pit to get the bumper cut to not hit the wheels, got back out not knowing that the rack mount was damaged. About 50 laps later one of the rack mounts failed and caused me to hit the wall hard.
So today I spent the day at a mates panel shop on the rack fixing the bent rails

yep not mucking around there!

the power steering issue related to the electric setup I assume ?

Yes and no,

The circuit board in the Barina electric steering column control unit isn't robust enough for what Im doing, three units and similar failures... The column itself isn't a worry, did a lot of wheel banging and didn't break it.

The electric hydrolic pump from the TS Astra got fitted next with a Carlynn (power head), found that flow was lacking with that setup (If you turned the wheel slow it was great but the pump couldn't keep pressure up if you where quick with the wheel).

So I ended up with a stock power steering pump running the Carlynn (much to my disgust...) ordered a larger pump pulley (which turned up the day after the event, I'd ordered it a month earlier... ), So at the pit stop after I hit the spun car while my crew was working on the bumper bar I had a look for the burning smell I had been smelling... The power steering reservoir had changed colour it was that hot I poured 10lt of water over it and the pump which evaporated straight away. By the end of the race the fluid was that burnt that I was loosing power assistance.

I'd like to revisit the Astra pump idea, Im sure it could be made work.

Oh, and I got this to add to the circuit...

To the PS line?

yep

you might want to get a proper oil cooler radiator, that has such small internal surface area and large internal volume that oils poor heat transfer properties will reject jack all to the heatsink. You might only reject 1-2c at most with that.

You want a proper oil cooler with internal fins or tight spiral. The issue is not so much getting the metal to cool, but rather getting the oil to transfer to the metal in the first place as you need to get the oil to flow over as much surface areas across as much of the volume as possible.

Good illustration on typical oil cooler internal design. Gives a fair idea how difficult oils are to cool off compared to water and other mediums.

A good alternative is use a water to oil exchanger and pumb that to the cold side. As the PS system and fluid won't have much total thermal load it won't effect the main cooling system in any adverse way, it will be more compact and be hidden further inside the engine way, away from potential front damage as would a regular oil cooler.