lil grey
Turbo Mini Forums

looking good. I did exactly the same thing with the gear linkage on mine. easily done

glad to know I'm not the only one then

been busting my balls this week with nearly every moment i can spare between work and the misses trying to do the odd task here and there.

so with a deadline to move the car looming i was stressing about what to do about an exhaust. i have a bike can and want a custom stainless jobbie but just was a bit off a nightmare with the car not being road worth and just not having time. Lee had a good idea and i dragged the old exhaust out from the garden, wire brushed it, bit off paint.... and tada it actually scrubbed up pretty dam well and even fitted. So it will do for an MOT and to drive it to a place where i can get something better made up.





I made a few enquiries about getting an intercooler made, out come the DT child in me from school



I then took this box to the car, an hour..... cutting and angle grinder fun later





yay it fits!! even with steering on full lock, this isn't final just seeing what clearance i have.



So today i started and had a few things i wanted to do.

random picture to start!



- tidy up wiring
- make new longer rad bracket now it sits further forward after last weeks cutting antics
- finally fit the rad (with the intention off not being removed)
- get cooling system all plumbed in
- test pump
- finish intercooler ducting templates

i managed to do all bar test the pump and do the ducting templates, this will have to be mondays task.

pictures below.... took a bit longer than i expected as i wanted to make sure everything fitted perfectly.



Finally doing the more complicated end off the plumbing trying to get around the pulley. At the moment there appears to lots off room and as you can see now testing the pump because i cannot count how many clips i needed when i went and bought some.





This is the space i have to for the ducting, more than i thought i would to be fair but i'll see how it develops.

Top down pic off how the day ended.



T

So in the spirit off keeping this updated to keep me motivated.

on the weekend opened the garage to be be greeted with this sorry sight.



I have then spent what has felt like hours trying to perfect this....... no words can explain how many times i have cut friggin card out. It has also changed from the picture to enclose the top as well to help with trapping air.



i then got bored a bit and decided to test fit the gauge after some advice on my help thread. i think it looks ok. Will look better when all the dash is back in covering up the wires.



I also went to thinkauto to get some fuel hose. I went with 6/8mm cloth coated fuel line and asked them to give me similar. They supplied -4/-6 reinforced fancy fuel line hose. Great i thought.... how wring i was. The stuff was a cunt to work with and get over the reg. Few hours later and red, sliced hands from the wires its all plumbed in ready to be filled up.

Once i have wired in the rev counter and heated screen it can go back. then its just the I/C to get made. Oh and some seats, they are important as well.

Edited by t@z on 10th May, 2017.

Looking tidy mate! I have an intercooler core that I'm not going to use if your interested?
It's 65mm thick, 355mmx225mm, just needs end caps making n welding on

Looking great dude!

Where are you getting the IC done?

No worries :) check out the mk4 golf intercoolers if you wanna save some ££ for something off the shelf. They're a bit thicker though and one of the end tanks need modding:

Another weekend can only mean more cut fingers :)

Didnt really have much in the way off time yesterday maybe 2-3hrs. First thing was to get the rest off the dash wired in.

The Stack tacho was amazingly easy to wire. 1 pin from the Nodiz, switched live and earth. I am assuming it will work albeit at the moment i have only set the no. off cylinders not turned over the engine.



Another plus was that i was able to piggy back the heated rear screen switch on the loom i got made up ages ago. I checked the wiring diagram from the haynes manual and it was just live to earth on each side off the screen. I wired it to the same earth as the Stack and well time will tell.

In other news i had a bit off ball ache fitting the rest off the items in the engine bay. i mounted the fan using the fitting kit. Was glad to get this done however in my haste in trying to get it started today i forgot a few things.

I'd forgot to fix the strap on the slam panel to hold the bonnet down (obstructed by the rad) and also struggled to locate the water pump plug as i had tried to keep everything tidy (tight under the rad). After faffing around for ages fighting with wires, small nuts and my fingers in tight places i eventually got there.

Next step was to prime the pump. I used a spare battery to use to pulse the pump while i was filling up the little header tank. Once that was done i plugged it all into the controller.

I put the new battery in the car and turned the key. Things lit up which was good and something odd happened. The EWP80 controller was reading the temp off 100 deg and the pump and fan were on. I mean i'm happy they were but its not really as i was intending. I am hoping it is the current temp sensor i am using as i noticed that i am using a bosch one that i bought for the Nodiz and this is a different colour to the one that comes with the kit. Maybe i am just hoping here if not annoyingly i will have to drain it and remove the rad.

However for first start and bedding in the cam i will leave this as is as i would prefer to have flowing water and air while i run it for 20 mins, then i will do some digging.

Also random one is that my alternator seems to get warm over night i've forgotten if it is just with the battery connected or the ignition on. I have this item http://www.powerlite-units.com/products/rac068/ can someone just confirm that the alternator should be live all the time or be switched?

Picture off everything installed (fan and oil cooler) minus the I/C and some breather pipes.



In the end i never got around to starting it as the throttle cable i bought from minispares turned out to be a pile off poop. For start the nib that sits in the throttle pedal was a round sphere not a tube type shape. This meant it was to big to go through the bulkhead hole, then when i grinded it down there wasnt enough wire on the other end to stop the retaining clip from falling down the pedal. I also then realised that i dont have a dipstick so it was at this point and as it was the end off the day ish i called it one and packed up.

On to next weekend!

Edited by t@z on 22nd May, 2017.

So gents i have good news and bad news.... good news is i fixed the EWP controller issue with ease as seems that you do have to use the one that comes with the kit. Perfect

Bad news and urgent advice needed is i filled her up and i've got no oil pressure. I took off the turbo feed union from the front off the block and i can feel a small wiff off air but no dam liquid.

I swear we do not have a blue roll issue as lee and i were so careful as this happened to him.

Is there anything i can check before i have to take the bastard thing out?

Have you primed the pump? take off oil union, turn engine backwards chucking in a bit of oil to feed it back, reconnect and see if that cracks it.

as suggested, prime the pump first before getting up-tight about it.

soooo....

after many of what felt like painful hours trying varying tactics the oil pressure gauge finally tickled me with some movement. however before i could crank it and the battery died.

good news it was sunny so while i was waiting i got bored.


zip across an hour or two few more cranks and tada


the above was yesterday job today was seeing if the bugger would start. filled her up and switched in the ignition just to make sure things were looking well and the rear fuel lines but the tank has perrished which meant fuel everywhere! a royal pain in the smelly ass. i had to bodge a temp solution in place using normal rubber lines rather than my preferred stuff but for now it will do.

Went to fire her up and like a magic trick a puff off white smoke come from the carb is area. I check the fuses just in case one had blown but all was good. then i noticed the carb float bowl was leaking. Hoping its just the seals are shit as they look pretty hard and squashed when i took it apart.

a wee update.

todays task

finally got the carb rebuilt. the seals and rubbers were pretty old tbh so i am glad it pissed out now than when the turbo is hot. I did notice as well the down pipe wasn't done up (must have forgotten) so i am praying that was where the smoke come from the other day when it nearly started before the fuel saga.

also fitted the new fuel line hose to replace the old stuff on the back...

went to fire her up and after a few sputters the battery just gave up. thought it could be the effort off the oil pressure last week so put it on charge. 10 mins later the charger said it was ready which was very strange. Back in the car it went i also removed a plug and the thing was soaked in petrol, however tested for a spark and i got one; a good one at that!

this time turned over 4-5 times sputtered and the battery just gave up again.

put a multimeter on the battery and its showing 11.2-5 so i will look at taking it back to the shop tuesday for them to test and get a new one. the dam thing is only 1 month if that old.

seems like endless problems but i hope to god getting there.

Anyway its nice out and I'm sure the misses is happy that the battery is dead cause it means i can now spend the rest off the day with her

Edited by t@z on 10th Jun, 2017.

just updating for reference to problems i had

- http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=608706

- http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=608723

following from my problems in the "won't start" thread tonight was dismantle.

so she now looks like this... pulley is lose so tomorrow will knock it off and do the business.



also randomly you forget how much like a bloody jigsaw these things are sometimes. as its the first time i have had it a part since having it together i thought i would take the opportunity to see if i can get as much out in one piece as possible.

Seems to work, however going back together will be bit more tricky with the tight places.

rad, water pump and fan all out :)

Just in the spirit off keeping this updated.

Car now has started after everyone's help nodiz & TM peeps, big thank you to all

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lilpinkiy/36420488551/

Didnt really do much more than getting to this point as i needed to order some more heat shrink and terminals to redo the wiring again. Fit the rad etc back in ready to tweak the idling and bed in the cam.

Also while the car has been in a state off flux with this problem i've decided to re route the screamer pipe. So rather than out off the bonnet i will more than likely send it down by the inner wing somewhere.

Just a 2 second update. So after my holiday and few orders off trivial wiring stuff i managed to get the car back kinda to where i was at back in May!

Not sure where the time went but jesus it has flown!

So wiring today all back and tidy around the wing. Actually had to undo more off the wiring to re heatshrink it but alas its all done now. Rad and alternator back in as well. Need to fix the earth as the threads shat themselves today then i will try to get her to idle for more than 5 seconds.

Also popped to Think Automotive again to finally get my breather hoses completed as the unions have been out off stock since FOREVER



watch this space.

Edited by t@z on 29th Aug, 2017.

Pretty sure this thread probably requires a massive update but I'll try shorten it as to be honest i cannot remember everything I've done and all the issues I've had since the last update in.... wow 2017....

- Early 2018 had to move the car from my g/f parents garage back to my parents drive. This caused a massive bomb in motivation having to brave the elements.
- I ditched the Nodiz in the end as it was just problem after problem. Ended up going with the DTA from MED
- Coil placement with the DTA was a bitch. The wiring that come with it was the shortest ever and was just unnecessarily a pain. If that wasn't enough the only place I had space meant that the HT leads somehow had to flow over the wastegate so not ideal either. Time to think of a plan.
- More wiring hell, fuck i hate wiring.
- Make external wastegate
- Tidying

None of the above was also helped by the fact that in Apr18 i also moved up to Chester from sunny Surrey so it was pretty hard to get to the car to work and every time I made the journey to work on it the stupid UK weather had other plans.

Early 2019 I also reached out to Alex from TCK to look at doing my I/C set up. Paired with his busy schedule and me scampering to sort out the above and then some while living 200 miles away 2019 was an interesting year. Finally Jan20 the car went off the Alex for him to work his magic and roll on to this weekend just gone where I picked her up after the RR and then drive her the 200 miles home :)

While at Alex's the car had:

- Full suspension set up
- Bucket seat mounts
- Custom Intercooler
- Custom Ducting
- Relocated the coil pack for me.
- Carb area had a few issues
- Few other issues i probably missed
- MOT
- Rolling Road

The car made 120 odd at the wheels @14psi which was a bit lower than i was expecting. The engine is definitely built for more and i know it has more in it. Some tinkering in the future maybe and i'd like to add she is no slouch so for now certainly fast enough

As with all these things now it's on the road the never ending 5% to get the car "finished" starts.

Things on my list are:

- Internal gear linkage
- Fix the leaky windscreen (random)
- Check as i might have a battery drain somewhere (again also random)
- Tidy up the inside. I think she spent a lot of time outside uncovered maybe and with the leaky windscreen it could do with a wire brush and paint.
- Bloody good clean, she is filthy!! The paint is flat and while i love the look the oily hands could do with being removed.
- Paint the bonnet.
- Potentially look at getting the IC duct made out of Ali. I know Alex wanted to do out of Ali but as time was limited as i had my train booked to come collect her he opted for fiberglass. I know he wished he could have had more time on it but I am happy as it does the job and is a great template if i wanted to explore that road next year.

So in short. Car drives amazing so thank you Alex for all your work and although he doesn't have his TM anymore Lee for helping me build the engine to the professional tolerances and spending my money haha!

Few pictures for your eyes

Edited by t@z on 5th Nov, 2020.

such a cool car thanks for reviving the build. Did TCK do the intercooler looks like a neat package ?and what water pump are you running cheers Jason