The engine build begins at last ....

Cheers Mick
Its certainly great fun and great to drive.
What plans do you have for yours ?
Or are you going to be sensible and keep your money in your pocket ?!

Just cannot make my mind up Stan to be honest. It's three years old in March and i think i will end up tossing a coin to see if it's a trip to Enginetuner or a change to the new RS3

Every morning i wake up i have changed my mind again

Love the Hatch but the RS3 is pulling me in. Saying that going forged and re-mapping would give me a cheap Supercar.

See what i mean !!!!!

The impossible bit (to me) is having started the engine upgrades, sticking to the plan and keeping to a sensible, safe, reliable output

If you can stick to <450BHP it should be as reliable as "normal" (non 2.5 litre) engines !

Decisions, decisions !

As the oil is hitting 110C after a bit of a blast in these air temps, I decided to bite the bullet and sort an oil cooler before taking it on a track day.
After a few calculations, and much head scratching as to where it would fit, I bought what I hope is a suitable size cooler. Should dissipate 20kW and reduce temps by about 20C if the air flow through it is correct.

First step was to make up some brackets to mount it. Also needed to move the catch tank and lower some bits under the cooler. After a few grazed knuckles, and wrist ache (shaking the spray can !) I got to this stage.





Having done a preliminary guestimate on which fittings and hose I'd need, ordering and receiving them, I rented a lift at my local "i-tuned" to fit the thermostatic sandwich plate and make up the pipework.
Having removed the filter, I found that I had been sent the wrong adaptor to secure the sandwich plate to the water sandwich plate.
So while I had it up in ther air I checked out the pipe run from the sandwich plate.
Its going to be very tight, probably one pipe touching the corner of the block and the other just missing the wrapped headers. Hopefully, with the shiny insulating pipe shield, it should be OK.

I rang the supplier who is putting the correct fitting in the post this afternoon, so I should get it tomorrow and have a second go on Friday. If that goes well I can design and fabricate the ducting from the bonnet scoop.

Quick update. After 4.5 hours trying to get the sandwich plate and pipework to fit under the water modine missing the equal length headers, + getting the pipe runs to the cooler clear of manifolds and without too sharp bends and not putting stress on the cooler inlet/outlets, its now all in and working. No test runs with prolonged welly yet, but temps rarely exceed 90C when pushing a bit - mainly around 80-85C.
Started fabricating the ducting. Will post pics when done - it may be a few days .....

Don't you take the water modine out when fitting the sandwich plate?
Paul.

No room for the picnic basket in there Stan

I think I removed it on the Classic, but on this one I had 2 thoughts !
I thought leaving it would help "quick" warm up, but more important I found you need the extra thickness of the modine to lower the sandwich plate enough to allow the pipes to run using 45 and 90 swept elbows.

If the cooling is not as good as I hope, I may well blank off the pipework to the modine, and accept longer warm up times.

Best news is that there is no noticeable pressure drop since fitting the cooler

mickp wrote:No room for the picnic basket in there Stan

It takes a special effort from me for any picnic basket to arrive unpillaged before arriving at a destination - so we usually plan things without picnics but with a pub somewhere along the route

It is getting full in there - too much like an old man's comfortable car

After a few more hours with hammer, files and mole grips subbing for vice I got the ducting and deflector sorted.





Having given it a continuous blast up and down the gears for 10 minutes it got up to 95C, so I reckon it will work OK on track days.

What I need to do now is use 5W30 or maybe 5W40 Motul 300V instead of the 15W50 which is far too thick on start up and gives very high oil pressures with this pump. I sit on tick over until its about 50C, then keep the revs below 2K so oil pressure stays under 9.5 bar until I can ease the revs up ! 5 or 10 grade will help with cold start up and improve cooling further.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83
Long read (8 pages) but very informative.

Now started clay baring

"Invested" in some summer/track rims and tyres. Rota Force 18 x 8.5" and 235 40 R888's.
Also had the car sound checked at Snetterton - 103.5dB on static test @ 5krpm so very iffy.
Went to H&S and had a centre section silencer fitted. Nice job and now 87dB at 5krpm. So seems I'm ready for even Bedford now !

August update.

Have done the side vent mod to draw hot engine bay air out of side vent.
Remove side vent (losen sill poppers first !) Remove rubber blanking strip.




Cut holes, rustproof (lots of Finnigan's !) Don't worry about the odd run - it'll be hidden by the vent !)


Replace vent and sill. Have beers, BBQ.

Just done a v1 vent for the CAI. Just need to get some primer tomorrow so I can paint the visible parts behind the slot black and also the front fog covers (thanks for the idea Ethanrob ! )

Opened out the hole a bit behind the slot and painted the visible bits behind the slot black and also fog covers.

Wow
Amazing
I remember I used to read your posts on your green wagon 8/9 years ago and I remember when you advertised it for sale the specification and conversations about what you had done were so indepth

Just like a time warp with your new hatch now

Thanks John
Hope you have recovered from the stresses of organising NBO9. What a magnificent job you did - can't wait for NBO10 !! So much response, great stands and fun competitions. It was my first visit and involvement with any S&S competition. It was wonderful seeing the truely immaculate cars there.

As per usual, I try to develop the car best I can with my limited budget. Only wish I knew at the start what I know at the end !!

Any plans for your super economical diesel ?

StanS wrote:Just done a v1 vent for the CAI. Just need to get some primer tomorrow so I can paint the visible parts behind the slot black and also the front fog covers (thanks for the idea Ethanrob ! )

Like the concept Stan but why did you cut a slot in the fog cover rather than simply remove the backing piece from the cover which leaves everything between the ribs (where the mesh is) wide open? Removing the backing piece from the cover is simple, 4 clips and 2 screws.



Must admit though that I've not checked the car to see if there's a reason why that would be pointless and a slot is the only viable option - cover pictured is from a kit I've never fitted.

Cheers, Neil

Hi Neil !
Thanks for the suggestion - all welcome !!
The bodywork behind that bit is fairly solid as its access to where you screw in the tow eye. I also didn't want to have too much air going in as one US guy who removed just about everything possible (including the fog light, and cut away some bodywork, had the inner wheel arch blow back and melt, rubbing on the tyre !!!!
Also in winter didn't want too much rain getting to the filter, so it would be easy to put some black tape across the slot.
It has made a difference. Yesterday ambient temps were 22-24C and AIT (when moving) were 1-3C over ambient as opposed to 3-5C before.

Hope to get the re-map soon. Ecutek hasn't done anything about solving the phantom det so Bob is going to move or de-sensitise the sensor, load race rom with lauch control and flat floor shifting and maybe tweak the boost a tad.

Then I can do some testing at Snetters.

Probably followed by looking for a new clutch !

That makes perfect sense Stan - I did think as I was typing that you wouldn't have passed over something so obvious if there wasn't a good reason.

2 - 3 deg is a fairly significant difference for not a lot of effort! Not sure if that's into remap territory, but who cares, you're going RaceRom shortly anyway.

Hi Neil & Stan...

So the fog lamp housing - how's it come off ?

Yank gently or bumper off ?

A

A wrote:
Hi Neil & Stan...

So the fog lamp housing - how's it come off ?

Yank gently or bumper off ?

A

Just pull it off, it's only a couple of clips that hold it in place. You can see them in the pic I posted above.

Neil

I find it easiest to pull the side nearest the outside edge of the car, gently push it towards the centre of the car while pulling gently,outwards and slightly down, on the middle of the surround. The nearside surround seems harder to remove than the drivers side on mine for some reason

Once you have one removed and see how it clips, you get a better idea how to get it off !!

JDM rack arrived 0830 this morning from Grade A breakers - only ordered it yesterday afternoon !! Trying to locate a Whiteline drivers side bush (the big one they supply for JDM racks along with the UK one in the kit). Main hope is that Rob may find one in his "left overs" box of bits !!

Stan,

I had the PU mounts for the steering rack a while ago, I may have the unused bush as they gave me all the old bits back .... but wasn't sure if there were 2 kits to suit, not 1 all in one kit?

I'll dig it out at the weekend and have a look!

If it was a Whiteline kit there would have been both size bushes included. It's the large diameter one that fits around the rack that's different between UK and JDM.

Keep your fingers crossed Stan!