Monday 1 September 2014

Exhausted !

I spent a while trying to find a decent exhaust, I didnt want a stainless system just yet as I want to see how loud it is then get a custom one fabbed up. I thought I would stick with the Golf system as it was already suited to the engine but obviously I had to really modify the shape to get it all to fit.















I found a nice Ashley 2.5 inch one from a MK2 GTI. It didn't take too much effort to change all the bends and I added a rubber hanger to allow the box to move a bit. Its quite short and its a straight through box so I think it will be quite loud. I managed to get most of that sorted in one day, then I moved on to mounting the fuel pump.






I added new rubber mounts and new filter, the mounting bars are just bent metal. Its a Golf MK2 8V Digifant fuel pump, with just the swirl pot. No accumulator like the 16V but this is plenty enough to stop fuel surge.













I quickly added a return spring to the accelerator pedal fashioned out of a spring from some garden loppers, just the job and gives the pedal a good feel.

I sent my ECU away to get the immobiliser deleted which hopefully will make the wiring a lot easier.
Unfortunately I forgot to take the OBD port from the Golf so I wont be able to talk to the ECU.










Recently started the wiring loom from the Golf engine, and started to separate and identify all the wires I need and don't need. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to this part but I did enjoy it after a while. I am currently still on the wiring and struggling to trigger the fuel pump relay.
Close but not quite ready to hear that exhaust note.


Tuesday 22 July 2014

Engine in !


I cleaned up the block and fitted all the necessary diesel parts, I used new gaskets and seals where I could and a new water pump, cam belt and tensioner including a new tensioner stud.


The diesel alternator went on because I managed to just use one v belt from the crank to drive the water pump and alternator, way better than the weird diesel setup with 2 v belts and shims and stuff.

The diesel dipstick is annoying and I'm not sure if I like it but time is ticking and I just want to get it going now.


Finally got the engine in ! It went in nice and easy, I re-used the diesel clutch so ill see how that goes, and fitted a new spigot bearing. I tested the starter and it works fine but I'm going to re-locate the earth lead from the gearbox mounting to the starter bolt as suggested by Aiden Talbot


I started putting all the water hoses on and used the original AGG water flange on the head. I reckon I can make this work all I might need to do is block off the small 8mm pipe or connect it with a T-piece to somewhere, I haven't got that far yet so I will see.


While I was doing this I cleaned up and fitted the engine wiring loom to all the injectors and sensors.


There is plenty of room on the inlet manifold side. It looks really tidy and I kinda like the freaky tilted 50 degree look. Also means any parts are easy to change in the future. I fitted the drive shafts with new CV joints, boots and bolts and fitted the original clutch slave cylinder as it was in good condition.





The throttle body went on then I had the problem of the throttle cable. I didn't want to have a joint with a few inches of AGG cable on there so I bought 10 meters of bike cable with all the nipples and ferrules to go with it and its done the job nicely.


Another thing that was bugging me was the exhaust manifold, I looked at several different ideas but most of them used the AGG cast manifold. I thought that there has got to be another way.


I didn't like the idea of having a 2 into1 joint at the manifold with a 90 degree turn at a length of about 4 inches. The original Golf GTI down pipe has a runner length of 18 inches and this contributes to the torque curve. After a lot of searching I found an ADZ manifold from a Golf mk3 1.8 8v it was perfect and had a lambda sensor with it that was the same as the AGG.


The bores are the same size and shape and the cast shape is very similar apart from the ADZ one has less material around the tubes and obviously the lambda boss is directly on the flange. Sweet.



This will make building an exhaust much easier and the flange is angled away from the engine slightly so I can make a much smoother flow. 



The only problem was the lambda probe was so long that it interfered with the nearside rubber engine mount but this is easily solved with this.


Next up is new fuel pipes and I got a Golf mk2 gti fuel pump to mount underneath somewhere.





Thursday 29 May 2014

Its been a while !

Well its been some time since I last posted any progress but lots of things kept getting in the way.

Ive been playing with my wheel fitment and bought longer rear studs and longer stud conversion for the front hubs. I worked out that I would need 10mm spacers for the rear to clear the large hub nut.

The front hubs were going to be a bit of a problem because the alloys were ET35 8J and without spacers they interfered with the front control arm and the standard grease caps were never going to fit without having the center bores machined to 66.6mm.

Much head scratching later and I developed my own grease caps, they seem to work quite nicely and the nearside has the speedo cable drive in place and the alloys fit on the front with no clearance issues, this saved me from getting the wheels machined and I could use the centre caps that the wheels came with.





The wheels are close to the front control arm but there is between 6-7mm of clearance. If they ever touch the control arm then something else has already failed. My mk4 golf has less clearance on the front so I'm not going to worry about it.
As it stands now the wheels have 10mm spacers all round making them ET25, a little bit out of factory spec but hopefully not enough to notice.




I also completely rebuilt the front and rear brakes including brake pipes and unions and lacquered the drums and calipers in Hemi Orange (seemed like a good idea at the time)

I bought new back-plates and stainless front back/splash-plates from the brickwerks. Amazingly I snapped off two bolts on each control arm holding the splash-plates on so I had to drill and tap new ones on which took so much time. 



The bleed nipple in one caliper was seized and snapped off and after trying all the easy-outs I had to end up drilling and tapping a new bleed nipple which took a lot of time and was really annoying, I gave up at one point and almost ordered a new caliper for £100, but I went back to it the next day and got it sorted and fitted stainless steel bleed nipples hoping they wont ever seize again. 


New upper ball joints and track control arms were fitted and I changed everything that was starting to look crusty.


I fitted new 60mm lowering springs and shocks, although the front shock length is the same as the old ones I'm worried they will bottom out even after cutting 3 ribs off the bump stops.

 I think I will have to get shorter front shocks. Ordered some KYB GR2's for now although a friend of mine has these on his hightop T-25 and says there harsh its gotta be better than no suspension travel at all.












Got some part-worn tyres for the alloys fitted. 
205 55 16 Goodyear Eagle NCT on the front  
215 55 16 Bridgestone Turanza on the rear. 
The rears work out the same ratio as stock and the fronts are a little undersized but only 1%
I'm chuffed with the stance, the rear will drop a bit when I get the engine and gearbox back in I reckon.