New memember, a few questions if I may

[Lord James]

Hi all.
I've been looking into getting an Ultima, and have been reading some of the great build sites.
Full of good information.

I have a few questions you guys maybe able to help me with.
1. In the price list from the factory the AP up grade are 320mm X 30mm.
Does anyone know why they are not 330mm? or if a 330 fits?
2. The air conditioning Kit looks like it could be an off the shelf kit does anyone know who makes it or where it comes from?
3. I would want a LSD in my transaxle, what G50 type do I need to go for, what car and year is it from and how much should I expect to pay for a 2nd hand one?
4. Has anyone made there own loom?
5. What are the ball joints in the wishbones from?
6. Has anyone got a single nut hub set up on their car? If so where did the hubs come from?
7. What size fuel hoses and brake hoses come with the kit? -3 and -6?

Sorry it’s quite a few.

All the best
James

[G Man]

Lord James said:

Hi all. I've been looking into getting an Ultima, and have been reading some of the great build sites. Full of good information. I have a few questions you guys maybe able to help me with. 1. In the price list from the factory the AP up grade are 320mm X 30mm. Does anyone know why they are not 330mm? or if a 330 fits?

The factory AP racing design road brake kit has proven to deacclerate an Ultima faster than anything else in the world - Do you real want to change this ?

Lord James said:

2. The air conditioning Kit looks like it could be an off the shelf kit does anyone know who makes it or where it comes from?

Don't know everyone gets it from the factory

Lord James said:

3. I would want a LSD in my transaxle, what G50 type do I need to go for, what car and year is it from and how much should I expect to pay for a 2nd hand one?

The 911 Turbo has a LSD fitted as std, G50-51 IIRC, but LSD can be fitted to most G50 gearbox I did this

Lord James said:

4. Has anyone made there own loom?

DO you want to make an entire loom for an Ultima - its big !! or do you want to use the loom and make a personnel loom for your dash which you add in etc - many do this !!

Lord James said:

5. What are the ball joints in the wishbones from?

PASS

Lord James said:

6. Has anyone got a single nut hub set up on their car? If so where did the hubs come from?

Not that I know off, the Stealth cars had this for there race cars, not sure if its UK road legal

Lord James said:

7. What size fuel hoses and brake hoses come with the kit? -3 and -6?

The size of the hoses for the fuel tanks depends on the size and power of your engine

[pb3]

Yep to the loom. I made mine from scratch partly to do with interest and also to do it differently. It was a lot of work, probably cost more and took a long time to design. The upside is that I have a full understanding of it, easy to maintain (but not had too) and easy to expand (am doing so). Next time for an easy life I may well opt for the factory loom.

[craig-ultima]

Ray Halin in Florida has made his own loom (custom dash using a single display unit, and a LS-7 engine, which will need its own harness, so not the same as the factory setup). He does this sort of thing for a living, and he said it was no problem to build his own... but again, that's a pro speaking.

I modified my loom slightly, and I'd recommend getting the factory loom, then add to it whatever else you want.

I've heard it reported that less experienced DIY'ers have had their home made looms fry on startup because they didn't use correct gauge wiring, etc, for the main power circuits.

[pb3]

Even the professionals get it wrong, how many Ford dashes have gone up in smoke and switches that get very, very hot. Even some Ultima's have suffered from hot ignition switches etc. Design is the key, careful wire, connector and switch gear selection is required. I had limited experience with loom design before I started mine, now I know a lot more and am happy to say after two years running all has been fine.

[andygtt]

I do know of a single stud wheel kit for the Ultima, its not cheap though and adds to unsprung weight as its a bolt on item to the existing hub.
355mm dics will fit under the Ultima wheels, again I've seen it done but it has to be argued for a road car why you'd need bigger brakes as unless your Ultima is heavier I think it will just again add to unsprung weight without gain (unless you buy higher spec lighter discs etc).
I think the lower joints you refer to are Vauxall items, but you get them with the wishbones and I'm fairly sure they rarely fail.

[lord james]

Looks like the single nut idea is out the window then.
I was thinking about the 330 disk as they are quite a common size.
I'll see if I can get my friend to quote for a loom rather have one to my spec, than a hacked factory one.
Planning to have a Chevy 500BHP turbo engine in the car so I'm guessing it will be -6 for the fuel and -3 for the brakes (sound about right?)
I'm still not sure what to do about a box planningt to get one and rebuild it my self, could fit a Quaife ATB if the orignal box was OK money to start with.
If the lower ball joints are Vauxhall andy idea what there from? Astra etc what about the top, ford Transit?


Another question
I've got access to some really sexy Master cylinders.
I've found out that the brakes have 5/8"(0.625) and 6/8"(0.75)
But is the Clutch cylinder any given size?

James

[andygtt]

If you fit different brakes you will need to spec your master cylinders to suit.

IMO your first stage is to come up with your basic spec and then plan the major components, I can say from experience that deviating from factory spec is often more expensive and unless there is a very good reason for deviating, its not always worth it.

[jeff-texas]

G Man said:

Lord James said: Hi all. 1. In the price list from the factory the AP up grade are 320mm X 30mm. Does anyone know why they are not 330mm? or if a 330 fits? The factory AP racing design road brake kit has proven to deacclerate an Ultima faster than anything else in the world - Do you real want to change this?

Well, most F1 cars decelerate slightly faster.

James, if you want even better brakes, ask the Factory; rumor has it that they've fitted a 6-piston setup with larger rotors to the front. Or you could go for PCCB (ceramic-composite) if you need something smaller, lightweight, and even more powerful despite the small size (but with the initial "bite" required for safe braking on public roads, i.e., when they're cold), but that's going to cost a lot more, and I don't know of the Factory ever putting them on an Ultima. Also, PCCB's are great because you can use one pad material on the street and during a race-weekend, without swapping to a different pad. In the UK where fade shouldn't be a problem, I'm not sure why you'd need larger brakes, but the PCCB compound has that advantage no matter where you are. If you took the "subtract 3 inches from the wheel diameter" rule, you could prolly fit 380mm brakes...but even if those do fit, the suspension is made so heavy with 380mm iron rotors, that I'd question whether you're losing too much in bumpy corners (from having too much "unsprung weight" ) for it to be worth the 380's better fade-resistance... unless you live on the equator or in hell, in which case the 380mm's may be needed. I'm not sure what the bigger/6-piston brakes were that the Factory supposedly did, but I doubt they were 380mm!

Lord James said:

3. I would want a LSD in my transaxle, what G50 type do I need to go for, what car and year is it from and how much should I expect to pay for a 2nd hand one?

The ones with LSD are usually marked -1, as in "G50/xx-1". But as GMan said, you can always retrofit an LSD.

Lord James said:

4. Has anyone made there own loom?

From scratch?? Never heard of that until this thread.

But Painless Wiring has a "universal" one; even then, I'm not sure whether it will fit a mid-engine layout or anything else specific to the Ultima; also, the Factory's has a nice 3-piece design so the front and rear parts of the wiring can be separated; the Painless one probably won't have that.

Lord James said:

7. What size fuel hoses and brake hoses come with the kit? -3 and -6?

Pretty much, but lots of people use two gastanks plus a tee, so that each tank's AN-6 outlet goes into a -6 by -8 tee, so you can feed your engine with the -8 line. A -8 can feed 1000-HP engines IIRC, and 1000-HP is the max recommended for the chassis.

>> Edited by jeff-texas on Friday 16th December 08:13

[lord james]

Thanks for all your help guys.
I found out the clutch cylinder is 3/4"

I think I'll get the loom costed up from a local place I'd rather pay a bit more and have an aircraft type one to my spec.

Think I'll just stick with the factory set up on the brake front.
But I'm thinking of moding the rear brakes so I can use a hand brake.
Like this
www.5exi.co.uk/images/dev_brakes_2.jpg
What do you think?

I'm still undecided on the box, a Quaife Helical set is £1575 and the ATB is £750.
Thinking of getting a cheepo box and rebuilding it.
But I want to make sure its not too loud, the last car I had was all gearbox noise, nasty.

[andygtt]

I've looked at that handbrake setup for the little bike engine car I'm building but decided that it will be too marginal to pass SVA..... I very much doubt it will be anywere near up to the job on an Ultima due to the extra weight and huge rear tyres, (it doesn't pull evenly so is not going to be as efficient as a conventional one).

Ultima upgraded the rear handbrake calipers a few years back for good reason.

Please let us know how much you are quoted for a loom... I'll be making a similar one from scratch soon and will be interested in getting an idea of the cost.