I loaned my car to Steven Darley over a year ago as him and Paul Blamire were off to York raceway to drag the banana and Paul didn't have a car, plus I knew they would get a proper time out of my car . The car didn't make it to York drag way as when Steven was driving it home one day after trying the new suspension he saw smoke coming out of the exhaust and became suspicious. He phoned me up and suspected head gasket trouble and couldn't uderstand how it started as he was driving really slowly due to the uncomfortable ride of the new suspension I told him to look at the car when he had time as I knew I didn't really have the cash for the work at the time. A few months later Steven stripped the engine down and it turned out to be a dropped liner A block which I pressumed was ubreakable broke. Steven put the block into RCM to be sorted and two weeks later when the block was all polished up and ready to be sent home they noticed a hairline crack in one of the bores I was told we could either repair the block and take the chances of it going again or go down the ej22t route. One way was to use my rods and and buy the pistons from RCM and source a ej22t or the other way was to buy a complete package from Lateral Performance. Mark wanted me to go down this route as he considered my car a Lateral Performance car and I wanted to go down this route as I felt more commited to Mark. The idea slowly started to come together but Steven has other comitments so it took its time plus finding the money was easy when it was spread a longer period. The 1st time I actually saw my car and it was still a shell was when I was down York for the weekend and I took a picture for a laugh as it was in a barn
The block was also slowly coming together.
The heads were then slowly starting to be built up.
The new RCM cam timing gear was sorted .
The RCM rotated pipework was sorted.
The new headers were fitted and wrapped.
Engine is dropped in place for a dummy run.
The new Carbonetics tripple plate caron clutch.
The engine is now fully dressed
Here and the ones of the engine bay from picking the car up last weekend.
The car has been sat on my drive since getting it home as its either been too icy or too much snow. I'm looking forward to warmer weather so I can take the car out and give it a proper drive. The car is runing 555bhp@1.5bar and is limited by the injectors which will be changed early next year as I intend to go to Marham and want the car running proper power. Just incase my .63 housing isn't good enough once fully mapped I have a .82 housing bought from Madhammer. I expect the .63 to see me 620/630@2.2 once mapped and when I swap to the .82 I would expect say 650bhp once running 2.2bar? These are my guesstimates as I will have to wait and see what mr Blamire wants to run the car at. I have only had one little blast of the car and I back off off due to minus temps and it was putting my foor down in 6th gear which sees full boost at under 4000rpm and it feels as fast @1.5bar on this block as what 2.2bar felt like on the 2.5block Before I drove it home I told Steven and Paul that I was going to boot the car thru all the gears to get used to it and they both strongly advised me not to as this has a better top end and even put the tail out for Steven in 4th gear with all 4 wheels spinning. I chose to ignore thier warnings until I saw the temps on the day I drove it back were -7
I know virtually what the car stands me but I can’t work out a final figure as I still have the final bill to settle with Steven and I’m unsure exactly how much I still owe him. I’m in debt to the tune of around £50k and that’s everything I have spent including the car and all parts and servicing etc. It’s something I would never do again and if people do it the costs just spirals out of control but it’s only a little it here and a little bit there so it’s never really about having a lump sum to spend otherwise it would not of been the car I would of chose
A brief spec of the car is below, if I went through all my receipts I could come up with a stupidly long list for all parts similar to what others do but it’s really not needed. I always tell people not to go down this route as its a waste of cash but those who chose to ignore me should price up some of the parts listed and see what they come out at and there is loads of other parts I have not listed and no labour costs
EJ22t block made to 2.35cc built by Steven Darley Rods and Pistons supplied by Zen Performance Custom 272 cams by Lateral and shimmed in by Zen Supertech inconel valves Ported and polished heads GT35r supplied by Scoobyclinic Magnus Inlet manifold Autronic ECU Deautchwerks 740cc flow matched injectors RCM cam timing pulleys RCM 14mm head studs RCM fuel rails RCM inlet manifold spacers RCM rotated pipe work APS dr725 fmic with custom pipework Carbonetics triple plate carbon clutch HSD coilovers Whiteline front and rear anti roll bars and anti lift kit