Nlc - Lister Bell Stratos Build Thread

[Reg]

Looking good!

[jonnyfox]

Wow .  What a stunning job Leigh, you must be chuffed to bits with its progress. Some of the craftsmanship is just epic.  Honestly I'm properly gobsmacked!

[AlanS1]

Just amazing   

[Dr H]

ITBs on and changed the bolts holding the coil adapters on to low cap heads from button heads





Fuel rails back from being coated in a titanium colour ceramic coating (not full zircotec type stuff)



Will get them bolted on this eve hopefully.
 

[chris_h]

Looks really smart.

[Daveb99]

Stunning as always Leigh - can't wait to see it..

[Dr H]

3 hours ago, Daveb99 said:

Stunning as always Leigh - can't wait to see it..

Neither can I! Want to get the body sorted really but not got a slot yet at Lister Bell.

[Dr H]

Exhaust fitted to check all is OK, and it is.




Have considered the fuel system a bit further and have come up with a plan. The overall idea is to have to run from the tank, to one end of fuel rail no 1, this then loops into rail 2 and along that rail to the end to be fed back into the tank. So just a simple open loop really.

From the tank into rail no1 like this:







It will obviously go through a filter before it goes into the rail. Then it comes out of rail 2 and has the FPR on the end





Then a 90 degree fitting on the outlet of the FRP





And feed back to the tank sort of like this:





 

Need to order fittings and a filter ordered and get it all plumbed it.

On to the oil cooler lines next.
 

[danwebster]

That looks spot on Leigh - just one question, what is the port adapter that the FPR is screwed on to made of, as i've had one snap off. It was an off the shelf part which I changed for one made here out of 7075 and is now fine. 

[Dr H]

10 hours ago, danwebster said:

That looks spot on Leigh - just one question, what is the port adapter that the FPR is screwed on to made of, as i've had one snap off. It was an off the shelf part which I changed for one made here out of 7075 and is now fine. 

Good question. It's only 'mocked' up at the moment and it uses the Jenvey supplied fittings. They don't look great quality I have to admit. Do you know what size thread the housing is? It's an AN6 on one end of the adapter but the one that screws into the housing seems different?

[Daveb99]

Looking fantastic Leigh. Can't wait to see it when you've finished it - in 2025 :-)

[Dr H]

13 hours ago, Daveb99 said:

Looking fantastic Leigh. Can't wait to see it when you've finished it - in 2025 :-)

Don't joke - it could happen!

[Dr H]

One of those days today....

Decided to fit the driveshafts. Should have been a very simple operation. Unbolt bottom of rear shock and pivot upright out of the way. Pop the splines into the hub and then swing the upright back into place and bolt the other end to the output shafts on the gearbox. Simple!

Tried just that and couldn't get the inner end to line up with the gearbox. No matter what I did it was miles out. Ended up removing the shock, the brake calipers and discs and the upright. Still couldn't get it to work. Was starting to think I'd have to call LB for some advice when I noticed something. The inner joint had no articulation at all. I had taken them to bits to powder coat them and then built them back up. At the time I didn't take much notice but somehow I'd reassembled the CV joint in a way that made is solid. No idea how, or what Id actually done tbh.

Cue removal of the joint, complete de-grease, rebuild and re-grease. On both driveshafts. I still don't know why they didn't work before but they do now! Fucking PITA

Anyway both fitted now just need to add the missing bolts to the inner joints.

Near side



The large and of the boot came off! Will have to put a new band on it and make sure it's a lot tighter


Off side




The went on to work out the oil cooler lines. Decided to go this way:

Hoses exit / enter the take-offs on the filter housing and round the rear ARB




Then go through a hose separator bolted to the chassis




Then the tricky bit. It runs under the sump. To make sure there is enough clearance I'm adding a bracket (difficult to explain but will post pics when done) . It will ensure the hoses are held right up under the sump to clear the chassis by enough to allow no fowling even when the engine rocks.




Then they exit under the air con pump and straight into the oil cooler. There will be another hose separator fitted to the air con pump bracket



Using Aeroflow Kryptalon hose (an10) and fittings. Cost would make your eyes water. Ended up ordering a load direct from Oz as they are less than half the price of the UK RRP.

Hose is teflon with a Kevlar braid. Using AN6 version for the fuel. Black fittings for the oil and titanium ones for the fuel.





I will also be covering it in DEI Titanium Protect-a-sleeve. www.demon-tweeks.co.uk .. sleeve-heat-resistant-sleeving

Will give both heat and abrasion resistance. Also going to add some form of extra heat shield bolted to the exhaust flange where the manifolds go into the 'X' part of the exhaust.

Waiting to take delivery of the fuel filter and oil / fuel fittings to finish things off.

[Dr H]

Going over to LB on Fri to drop of the seats for upholstery and choose the headlining colour, collect the laser cut dash piece and hopefully the full dash interior moulding so I can fit my re-worked heater controls.

When I called they said 'and there are the new upright too' - which threw me a little. I have opted for the uprated (bigger) disks all round. This means spacing out the caliper on some stainless spacers (that I sourced). No issue with this and all look nice and neat.



You can see it hear on the handbrake caliper and it's the same on the main rear and front calipers.

But, LB have had some new uprights made for the bigger brakes and are swapping them out to people who had the original uprights but the bigger brakes - free of charge.

I knew there were some advantages to taking so fucking long to build it

Turns out the new uprights also means new rear shocks and rear wishbones! So it's all been taken off ready to go and exchange on Friday.

Just found that one of the rear tyres is completely flat! Must be a dodgy valve I guess

 

[Dr H]

I've also been doing a bit of 'modding' again!



Don't like the original Alfa oil cap. Plastic, writing wears off and there is no alternative replacement of any kind offered by anyone. Alfaholics do a nice billet one but it doesn't fit the V6 engine AFAIK.

The standard one is a simple twist lock version:



Couldn't find anything that looked like it would fit and wasn't a bit 'max power'.

So using a spare cam cover I have I decided to see what could be done. I bought a 1.85"weld on filler neck and cap from ebay - £14.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/232119675066

The diameter of the small section where it reduces at the base of the threads is within 0.5mm of the inner diameter of the 'neck' on the Alfa cam cover. So I cut the end of the filler neck off so there was just a 10mm bit of the correct diameter under the threads.

I then got out the die grinder and removed the section of the Alfa cover that took the twist lock old cap:



Filler neck then drops nicely into place:





But to be honest it sits too high. So marked how much needed to be removed to get it back to the height of the original cap:





Got the angle grinder and files out to do this:





Popped into my super-freindly local laser cutting and fabrication place and they tacked it in place. No need to fully weld it all the way round and only needs to be held in place. Because of the way it sits they would have struggled to weld it all the way round the inside anyway. So long as nothing drops off and falls onto the cams it'll be fine! I f I'm not confident in the weld I'll grind them off and bond the neck in with something like loctite 620 or metal epoxy.





So now I have a much nicer oil cap and it's very 'old school' thread on type .







Just need to get it powder coated in wrinkle black and pop in on the car.

I don't know why, but I get the feeling not many people have done this before