Westfield v6

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Discussion

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Hi all, this little adventure actually started back in early 2018, i did have a build diary on the Wscc but as that section of that forum is now member only I wanted to transfer it to a public domain to keep the progress up to date, warts and all.

This is my 3rd kit build, first was a GKD legend, designed to be used with bmw gear but I put a bike engine in it, then a westfield sport 250 with the 2.0 ecoboost. The 250 was sold, for a number of reasons, some financial, some personal preference, which left me with a far too empty garage space.

So after watching a part built westfield on ebay, a cheeky punt of a bid (which i didnt expect to win biggrin) saw me the proud ish owner of this little lot, well after the 950 mile round trip from glasgow to horsham to get it. The chassis is actually a 1999 built chassis that had been languishing untouched for well over 15 years.





So the car came with a condition-unknown 2.0 zetec engine and mt75 box. However the engine had been stored badly in a damp garage and was going to need a rebuild, either that or just go for a crate zetec at sub £1k. However i felt to get somewhere in the region of 200bhp from a zetec and then a suitably uprated type 9 box it was going to end up being a pricey solution. So other options were explored.

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
So after much researching and a lot of inspiration from a guy (username 40inches) over on locostbuilders who put the engine into an mk indy, i decided to go down the route of a Jaguar aj30 3.0 v6 from an s-type. Its light, infact same or slightly lighter than an mx5/zetec lump, cheap to buy, revs nicely and its 240 ish bhp out of the box. I wasnt a fan of the gear ratios available from the s-type manual box, so after speaking with Bruce at Rocketeer he agreed to sell me just the bits from his mx5 conversion kit to adapt the engine to use the MX5 5 speed box, which is a much better option.

Plus the rocketeer setup did look rather nice



The reality of what turned up from another ebay session smile



this was the cheapest engine on ebay, think it was around 250 quid shipped, bought really just to mock up with. It had seen some use.



[url]

|https://thumbsnap.com/WCUMAnLP[/url]


sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
So then the rocketeer bits started to show up, i went for the adapter plate, flywheel, sump, oil spigot adapter and a few other bits and pieces, all very well made, came with fastener packs and good assembly instructions attached (i.e the opposite of how westfield sent out their bits biglaugh)









Needed to create some space in the garage then, so the body, which was in remarkable condition and also of much better quality finish than more recent westfield bodywork, went out the back of the garage once some support framework had been cobbled together.


sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
So with a bit more room to play with, slaved the engine and box together and went for a trial fit.







Actually fit ok with not too much drama. Pickups for engine mounts on the drivers side were plentiful but needed consideration for steering column routing, the passenger side had plenty of space but the pickups on the block were a bit more tricky.

As you can see they are on different angle planes on the nearside, some cardboard aided design was in order.




chrisch77

535 posts

62 months

Tuesday 10th January
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Looking forward to seeing this build develop!

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
So on with the engine mounts, not to the level of some of the fabrication skills amongst these threads, but they are strong and havent fell apart just yet biggrin









and incorporated a mount for the alternator which is a little denso 40a off a daihatsu charade.







I had purchased some very cheap chinesium stainless headers to use so these were added in to check for clearance and then the column slaved in, tight but it clears.





Some rad mounts were welded up.



I also added some chassis strengthening around the rear diff cage (known cracking point) and also welded in some 50mm lowered floor pans, (seemed to have lost the pics of this), im 6ft4 so all the help required regards to me fitting in comfortably,

At this point you can see although the chassis was "new" it had been painted by stevie wonder. So at this point it all came apart ready to be recoated. Ive had poor experience with powder coat in the past and the one decent place i did know that could do stuff this big, and do it well, had ceased trading. So for this build i went with a lechler epoxy primer, which is brilliant, and a yet to be determined top coat.

Jhonno

5,077 posts

128 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
I never realised Westfields were all box!

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Chassis came back looking much much better. Id also got the rear wishbones done too, didnt bother with the fronts as i was planning on using new widetrack front wishbones.



Id also treated the diff to a full overhaul at Dave Rae transmissions and fit a Quaiffe ATB too, as its primarily being built as a road tourer i felt the ATB was the best option. This wasn't plain sailing either as the crown wheel was in a state, so that was replaced too.



At this point before going any further had to sort some paperwork for the chassis, the previous owner had promised me he had the keys, original bill of sale and ViN plate that were missing when i collected it. The paperwork required for IVA and registration. After several weeks still nothing and his last message was basically its tough i can't find them rolleyes. Luckily the westfield factory wrote me a letter detailing the issue (they didnt have records that old) signed by the MD and issued me a new VIN plate, they assured me this had been good enough for DVSA and DVLA before so shouldnt be a problem so I could plough on.

So due to no keys a new lucas mini steerring lock and ignition barrel was fitted


sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Jhonno said:
I never realised Westfields were all box!
Yeah quite agricultural, I did dabble with an MNR briefly and their round tube chassis was a work of art.

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
So at this point I needed to think about what to do regarding the engine, I did a compression test which was bang on across all 6, removed a couple of big end caps which were all clean and looked down the bores as best i could. All seemed ok, so i rolled the dice and decided to use it, a decision which may or may not cost me later!

New timing cover gaskets fitted to cure an oil weep, along with a new crank pulley seal.



Adapter plate and sump, along with new gasket fitted up, so i could get on with cleaning up the engine and gearbox ready for some titivating. Lechler epoxy used again here.







And then made a start on the cam covers.





And then into top coat, aluminium silver for the engine and box and wrinkle red for the cam covers.







Then could get on with some assembly work. Flywheel on and torqued. Competition clutch stage 2 was chosen and fitted up.





The old girl didnt look too bad at this point


sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
I was trying to rescue some of the aluminium pannelling from the car, but some was just too far gone.







Also decided to go with rustoleum combicolor for the top coat, chassis came out quite well after 3 coats.



Could then make a start on panneling and brake/fuel lines. Also managed to get a hold of an AP racing upgrade brake master cylinder from Caterham, these were getting rare at this point from westfield and are a really good upgrade over the stock item.

decided to gravitex stonechip paint the underside to give a bit more protection.






NotNormal

2,327 posts

201 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Great project, look forward to following your progress smile

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Diff next in, the normal westfield way to fit is a long threaded rod with nylocs on each end, but ive never been a fan, so helicoiled the diff and fitted with bolts instead, just makes install/removal a lot easier.



I then had to temporarily drop the engine back in as id forgotten to measure up for a prop.



thought id check the body clearance, its a bit snug, this is a standard bonnet though and i plan to eventually use a v8 style bonnet which has a scoop built in.



Rear driveshafts needed a little tlc, the boots had all started to perish, fitted new cv joints and boots all round and a lick of paint.





Then i had a big stroke of luck and found a used set of AP calipers for sale, again getting rare and expensive, gave them a clean and paint too





Edited by sdh2903 on Tuesday 10th January 13:04

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Mega service and price from the prop supplier saw this arrive, so engine out, prop in and refit engine and box.



Pedals in and clutch slave fitted, thought this might be very tight but enough room.





Then the back end could be built up, went for golf rear brakes as ive never been a fan of the HI-Spec rear brakes that westfield supply. Temp build shocks for now.






dom9

7,689 posts

196 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Following with interest! Looks like you're doing a cracking job!

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
And then the front end built up. Was really nice to see big bits coming together now after months of prep.







I had a sierra handbrake lever from the donor pile, however it looked a hundred years old, so went for the much nicer lever from a honda s2000



Then had to make a start sorting through this little lot



Nothing wrong with it in principle, however there was a few bits and pieces that werent up to scratch, fuel pump power feed was way too weedy, things like headlights were direct wired without relays and almost all of the dash wiring was not required as id decided to go for a digital dash. So i ended up using some of the wiring but went for an all in one fusebox/relay system to modernise it and remove all the unneccessary stuff. I would have loved to go for a pdm at this point but budget just didnt stretch that far.

Whilst on the electrics the new AGM battery arrived and it fitted nicely under the steering rack out of the way.



Custom fuel tank arrived from ARF, managed to get a 35l capacity into the same foot print as the standard 28l westfield tank as i imagined the v6 might enjoy a sip or 2 of fuel.


sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Rad and fan arrived, went for the biggest CFM i could find in the size, mounted on rubber bobbins.





So then time to crack on with the cooling system, the oem water pump is a big external mounted lump with a fairly complicated aux belt and tensioner run, so i effectively copied rocketeer ditched that and using one of their mounts i went for a Davies Craig pump and controlller. This means theres no thermostat in the system and the pump flow rate is controlled dependant on coolant temp. All you do is programme in a desired run temp and it does the rest, controls the fan too.



Had some custom coolant pipes made up including bosses for the ecu and water pump sensor.



Coat of hi temp paint.



And then joined up with silicon bits and pieces.




nismo48

2,092 posts

194 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
Fabulous job and great attention to detail.. thumbup

sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
At this point I needed to sort an ecu to run the thing. There were a few key deciding factors with this. The engine has VVT, albeit a simple on/off, the Ecu still needed to able to control it. I wanted to keep the Coil-on-plugs too. I also wanted canbus to be able to communicate with the digital dash, this would make things simpler as all the parameters in the ecu could be displayed on the dash without the need to replicate the wiring. In the end after considering most options i went with an emerald k6. The assistance from the guys at emerald was a key factor and it could do everything I needed at a very reasonable price.



So the wiring for the dash initially looked like this



Then trimmed out what wasn't required



Then made a start on the ecu wiring



Simplified the front end loom



Went with this style of fusebox, it can house all my relays and 20 fuses in one neat unit that will be on a drop down panel from under the dash.




sdh2903

Original Poster:

409 posts

159 months

Tuesday 10th January
quotequote all
As a side project, like i needed one biggrin, i found a set of cheap used oz ultraleggeras, offsets weren't ideal but workable. These are one of my favourite wheels and incredibly light.

so set about giving them a refresh.