Woodys TVR Chimaera

Right time to have a look at the induction side of things, cooling the air getting into the engine, with a plenum isolator plate and heat reflective sleeving for the induction pipe, and helping it get air into the engine with new carbon fibre trumpets. Heat reflective sleeving: Easy enough to fit; Undo the clips around the AFM and plenum Unplug and remove the AFM (you don't have to do this but it makes life a lot easier) Now you can slip the sleeve all the way down the long induction pipe until you hit the front bulkhead I also covered the 90 degree bend in a couple of pieces of the heat sleeve, just to make sure Trumpets and Isolator Plate: This is a bit more involved, instructions to remove the plenum and trumpet base can be found here A few pictures of the various stages; You can see the various pipes and throttle pot removed from the plenum: With the plenum removed; don't forget to remove the vacuum pipe to the FPR, it's at the back of the plenum: Disconnect the vacuum ...

Well popped down to MPH06 last Sunday to see Clarkson and his gang do the usual tricks, very good way of spending a day! Especially when they had models like this in the halls... CG-Lock also had a stand there and I'd been looking at these for a while, after just missing out on the group buy on Pistonheads. I now have a shiny new CG-Lock in my possession! Fitting: In the dim and distant past I remembered that you need to alter the way that you fit them to a Chimaera, as it has a multi-pass tongue on the seat belt. A little digging and emailing and TVRBob had the answer and a full pdf document on how to fit it! Right now for a test drive...

Well I took the plunge, based on the fact that it's a long way from Yorkshire to go to get Mark Adams to custom map an ECU chip I bought one from his shop on eBay instead! Fitting was quite simple, if not a bit nerve racking (must not get static on the chip! must not get static on the chip!) and the instructions included with the chip are very informative and straight forward, luckily I had an ECU that the chip and decoder board slotted straight into with no messing. It was all a matter of whipping out the ECU from the passenger footwell, undoing the torx bolts holding on the cover, carefully removing the standard chip, replace with the decoder board, add the tornado chip and refit!! :) So now for a test firing, ignition...the fuel pump whirrs away, which is a good sign...engage the starter motor...the engine does a few revolutions (to build up oil pressure) and then sparks into life, GET IN! Right time to take it for a spin; first impressions are good, the engine behaves well at l...

Had a couple of new front tyres fitted, Toyo Proxes T1-R's, the Bridgestones were looking a bit too warn, pretty much between 1.5 and 2.5mm left. It looks like they don't make the T1-S's anymore or at least blackcircles.com can't get a hold of any :/ All I need to do now is put them through a few heat cycles and about 500 miles to get rid of the mould slip and they should start to stick to the road like very sticky things! I had also noticed that the rear end was clunking a bit when going into bends, and when the car was in for it's MOT the mechanic pointed out that the rose joint on the near-side anti-roll bar was a bit loose/warn. So it was time to raise the back end and take a look, sure enough the rose joint was a tad loose. I do have to hold my hand up and take the blame on that one, got distracted when fitting them :/ Now all the nuts are tight it's a lot quieter, there's a joke in their somewhere...

Well another day and another Mod-Wise kit to fit, after this I should have the ability to open the boot from the outside, without having to put the keys in the ignition and press the button under the dashboard, and I should be able to see in the boot at night!! Here's how I went about it: Fitting the relay to the boot actuator. This was a matter of pulling up the carpet in the boot to the right hand side of the boot catch (as you look at the car from the rear) and finding the wires that feed the boot latch actuator, here are mine (picture taken from inside the boot looking backwards, the light pod is the off-side rear): Now attach the wires with the supplied clips, and I've also taped the relays in place with good old duck tape! Now it's a matter of feeding the door micro-switch and it's wire around the boot, again I used little strips of duck tape to keep it in place, and fed the switch over the near side wheel arch and through to the passenger door lock actuator. This...

I noticed during this weeks MOT that the left hand fan wasn't working, I did wonder why the temp was creeping up in stationary traffic, when it hadn't done so before. So it was time to get dirty and sort out the electrics and to fit the Mod-Wise two stage cooling kit I'd ordered even before noticing the stationary fan! First get the fan moving again, simple answer, dirty connections. The plugs that sit straight behind the fans were the culprits, the first ones you come across if you follow the wires from the fan itself. So it was a matter of a quick poke and scrape around with a suitable screw driver and some wet 'n dry, short out the connectors to the otter switch with a paper clip and hey presto, spinning fans! Now for the kit, generally following the instructions given in the kit by Mod-Wise and the additional instructions on The Chimaera Pages, these gave me enough information to fit the full kit. I will be attaching the additional power supply this weekend, this al...

During this summer the veneer on the dashboard started to crack a bit more, so I decided to replace it with a Leven alloy item. After reading up on www.chimaerapages.com and using Steve Heaths bible I set off removing the old dash and putting the new shiny one in...Here's a bolt by bolt guide on how I completed it- Dash top removal: Unscrew the passenger "glove box" under the dash Find and remove the three elusive bolts that hold the dash top on Now try and move the dash top into a position where you can get the right hand side bolt to come free, this was completed with a lot of swearing and sweating Dashboard removal: Work your way along the dials and switches removing them from the old dash one-by-one and reconnecting them separated from the dash Unscrew the screws that hold the heater controls to the dash bottom, keep hold of the bolts that are used as spacers between the controls and the dash bottom Now you should be able to lift the old dashboard from the dash bottom...

Organised via the Pistonheads web site and VUE cinemas there was a meet and film night on the 28th July. Here's my pics...

Right to bring it up to date here are the mods/work I've completed so far... Outside: Clear indicators, front and side Replaced rear screen Fitted wire mesh to bonnet holes/louvres Leven petrol cap Inside: Leven stalks Leven pedals (inc. new accel. linkage) Leven air vent covers (top and front) Leven handbrake lever Leven steering wheel screws Leven alloy dashboard Leven ashtrays Leven gear lever surround Pioneer DEH-P5600MP CD/MP3 headunit Focal V Slim 5.25" & 1" component speakers in front Inifinity 5001i 5.25" speakers in rear Alpine SWD-1600 subwoofer Chrome cigar lighter Alloy tax disc holder Mod-Wise boot opening and LED light kit Seat Belt CG-Lock 4 point harness Tuscan seats Headlight reflector Roll Bar Greasy Bits: Mod-Wise hot start kit Mod-Wise 2 stage cooling kit SH drop links front and rear Magnacore 8.5mm HT leads Bosch Coil Braided brake pipes Braided PAS pipes Leven oil filler cap SH swirl tank plug ACT induction kit, fully covered in heat reflect...

Welcome to my new blog! I've owned a 1997 TVR Chimaera 450 since June 2004 so I thought it was about time to make notes on some alterations I've made to it, so I can hopefully maybe help other people. Here are some pics from just after I bought the car: