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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 6, 2017 11:28:06 GMT
I should have started this build thread a few months back when I got the car, to keep a more accurate record of the absolute hell I've had over the last 2 months with this car, but finally starting it now as I'm sort of at a milestone point.
My mk2.5 blew up at 5fest. A complete failure of both engine and gearbox left me with the decision of replacing everything, or breaking the car and selling all the mods to pay for a new one, and with the itch for a Mk1 in the back of my mind I got out the spanners and started selling parts... no going back.
I raised what I could, borrowed a bit more, stretched by budget and went on the hunt. Fizbne's Mk1 was the top of my shopping list before it sold a week before my payday so I missed it, and then a Mk1 turbo unfinished project comes up on eBay...
The signs were good. The car was running, had some choice parts, and was very cheap for what it was, and I just ran with it. The lure of boost within my budget was strong and with the previous owner being an actual mechanic working at a garage and testing MOTs, I went to view. On arrival the car started with a battery boost, the underside was clean, the signs were good and it came with a 12 month MOT and I went for it. Partly for chooing noises and partly because I desperately needed a car.
Within 2 hours the regret set in.
The car cut out on me an hour from picking it up, leaving me on the side of the M25. I was towed home by my lift. The previous owner basically told me that it was my problem and he wouldn't even help, let alone take it back. The penny drops, I've been done.
Once it was home the spanners are out and I find an alternator failure. Blag on for free from Stiff (on here) and after fitting it tests good. But still not running right or starting right. Days of testing later and I find the real heart of the problem, a loss of compression- the car needs a new engine.
I'm devastated. I pushed my budget, borrowed money and I'm exactly where I was before. The more I look at the car the more I find that the work carried out by the previous owner is shoddy at best, outright dangerous in places, and the car is completely unfit for any kind of use.
So, what was a project of finishing off someone else's project whilst running it to work and back has now turned into a complete nightmare. I'm not in a position financially to bring this back to any former glory, but with ingenuity, planning and luck I'll get it to being a car that I might one day like - at the moment it is the bane of my life.
What a great way to start a project, eh?
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 6, 2017 11:39:50 GMT
So the car is on the drive, and I'm spending my weekends and very dark evenings poking the car, ripping out terrible rubbish the previous canoehead has done... things like leaving 4 metres of speaker wire in each door instead of trimming it down, things like securing wiring harnesses that are left hanging 10mm away from the drivebelts. I also fit my carbon wrapped side repeaters as he has painted his very badly, fit my central locking system out the mk2, and a few other bits and bobs.
Meanwhile, Stiff decides that me having a turbo without him isn't fair, so buys a complete used kit for his, and it comes with an engine too. A few emails back and forth and the plan hatches - to fit the full conversion into his car, and then put his old block into mine.
A weekend is booked, holiday booked, engine hoist hire booked, parts are ordered, plans are made...
2 engine swaps, 1 full turbo conversion, 4 days. Mission on!
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Post by Horney on Dec 6, 2017 11:54:38 GMT
What a pain, should be a good fun weekend though!
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 6, 2017 11:56:37 GMT
The weekend of the swap arrives, and it's freezing. It's November, sundown is at 5pm so its up at sunrise to make the most of the day. I'm half day Friday so Stiff has his car on stands, exhaust and inlet off, loom labelled and ready to hoist by the time I get there.
By the time its going dark the engine is out, and then into the night a broken stud is retapped and the engine coming out has a oil return in the sump.
Sarigid prarrie canoeay is a 6.30 start and its proper cold! Updated clutch on, gearbox back on and in it goes. The day goes really well, with everything from the intercooler to the ME221 going straight in. All on schedule for finish, but at sundown the car doesn't start. Instantly behind schedule, we're working into the night trying to get it running.
Sunday it's still not running, but we make the call to take the car off the drive and ramp mine up. Stiff carries on with his electrical faults while I get to work, stripping down for a block swap. What comes next was a catalogue of bodges found from the previous canoehead, from finding one of the engine mount cups missing, 4 of the gearbox bolts missing, rust in the engine bay straight painted over, exhaust sections different sizes and bodged together with welded on flanges that don't fit, seized bolts with torn threads everywhere, life electric wires exposed and draped around the car... this was no engine swap - this was an absolute disaster. How someone whos full time job it is to fix peoples car could even think about some of the repairs we find is beyond belief! If I presented that car to the DVLA he would lose his test licence.
We mission on, literally non stop from sun up to sun down, and get back on schedule. Stiffs car still doesn't run, but we get to the point we aimed for for Sunday finish, new engine in.
Monday is colder again, and we smash on. We rebuild mine ready to turn the key just before 4pm, and would you believe it? it doesn't run either. 4 days, 2 engine swaps, 1 turbo conversion, cold to the absolute core, and neither of the cars run. Its absolutely crushing.
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 6, 2017 12:11:45 GMT
The next weekend arrives and we sort out Stiffs car, of sorts. The ME221 install isn't as plug and play as we hoped, and with some rewiring its up and running. Great! Lets take it for a drive!
Or not. No reverse! All gears except for reverse. We tow it off the drive, crack on with mine. We even get techs over, pulling apart fuseboxes but nothing. The weekend ends with 1 car sort of running, one still not. Stiffs car is booked in at a garage to find a washer missing off the reverse switch or something that was blocking things, but also a oil leak from the rear main, which we replaced. Canoe.
Mine goes to the next weekend with another whole day. No fuel, no spark, no injectors. We scour the car to find the plug that isn't connected, we even try running a live bypass switch for the fuel pump (which didn't fix things) and resort to towing it to my work so I can then have it at lunchtimes. Failure of the Control circuit relay is traced, part fitted, starts straight away.
And that's where I am now. A car that runs. It runs very badly, the TPS sensor is disconnected to get an idle but I think that's a mapping issue as the ME221 is running basemap, the exhaust is hanging on as a token gesture, and the rest of the car is just an absolute mess.
The project now is to get it back to something worth having. I have a multitude of fixes to do - right now I cant close either of the windows so that's job number 1. It's be months if not years before I Autosolo or trackday again, with my goal of having a legitimate MOT this time next year as my target I'll post up here with the fixes and comedy bodges I find as I go.
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Post by wannabe on Dec 6, 2017 16:37:29 GMT
I bow to your grit and determination and stamina  I'm put off if I'm thinking about washing it but it's below 20degrees!  I am jealous of the skillz - I hope you can get it sorted as it will be a great feeling when it is  I think I might well have let the DVLA or whoever know, though - what's he doing to customer cars if he's that bad with his own?? |
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 6, 2017 21:03:19 GMT
As dodgy as it is, if I report him to the DVLA and use my car as an example, my car becomes evidence and I lose it. I cannot be without it at the mo, so it's being repaired while it's a daily drive.
Phoned the rolling road, they are booking for next year. Mission on to get it to a reasonable state for then.
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 18, 2017 11:46:12 GMT
A weekend of progress on the car...
First job was the door locks. The car came with a slightly dodgy IGN switch where you had to back the key off to get the interior electrics to run, and I thought that if it wasn't part of the non running fault it'll certainly be done soon, so I bought a lockset. The IGN barrel has been on a while, and I did the centre console and boot in lunchbreaks, so Sarigid prarrie canoeay saw the door locks going in.
I fitted the central locking kit I tool out of my mk2, managed to sort out the central locking solenoid on the OS door but not the NS. It look slike my doors are different, where one has a visible window motor and the other is behind the inner skin. I must have a door off a different car! (hence the thread name)
So one side working, and the reason the other side wont is because the lock is too stiff for the actuator, so theres more to look into.
I also looked at the audio. I only had a very poor sound out of the OS headrest speaker, but im spending money elsewhere at the mo so the plan was to get noise. Turns out that the car had been wired for a sub and amp, and the front speakers had leads to the boot, but the amp wasn't there so they didn't work. I pulled about 20 metres of wiring out the car, used it to connect the speakers to the back of the awful headunit and then fitted the slimline sub out of the mk2 behind the passenger seat. Still sounding rubbish, I find the front speakers blown, so chop those out for the alpines from my old car too and now I have sound. Still not great, the headunit is awful, but it's better than my phone on speaker in the centre console.
This is what has been removed for 1 operational speaker:
Payday at the end of this week, will see what I fancy putting right next. I need a centre pipe for the exhaust made (probably longlife), I need a proper route for the air filter and I need the Tailgate McNoIndicate TPS setup before the map, so I'll see how far I can get.
BTW, I have pictures for all of this, but need to organise a flickr account or whatever to host them. I'll patch them in when I get around to it.
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 27, 2017 9:10:18 GMT
Well, in the theme of 'FFS, what now?', lots of fun over the winter period!
Didn't drive the car for a couple of days after fitting the stereo, so was completely unprepared when the headlights didn't pop up for my drive home on the 23rd. They were lit, but not up. I tailgated a lorry all the way home, and again all the way in the next day, then at lunchtime found that I hadn't plugged in the hazard/headlight switch when I had the stereo out - Hands up.. that was my fault!
Then bizarrely, on the way home I stopped in my parking space and the car cut out literally as I stopped, and the headlights wouldn't go down! Took less than a minute to find that the negative battery terminal cable had fallen out of the battery clamp. Without the proper crimping tool I've swung off it with grips as hard as I could to get it as tight as possible until I can order a ready made earth lead.
On the plus side, knowing that none of my family would buy me car parts for xmas I bought a load of stuff for myself and then wrapped it up and addressed it from the dog. I have a Vindi ducktail, OMP steering wheel and a Skidnation oil warning/voltmeter dial.
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foxy
New Here
Posts: 26 
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Post by foxy on Dec 27, 2017 22:59:33 GMT
Excellent thread, looking forward to seeing some pictures. Sounds like it could be a half decent car when you're finished with it, here's to hoping it goes easier from now on...
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Post by BikeTuna on Dec 28, 2017 14:24:48 GMT
Finally got the pictures working, thanks Imgur!
Ive got the steering wheel, it looks awesome but the dishing is as deep as I feared and I think it'll be too close so I'll need to modify the boss for a decent position. No biggie though.
An inline air filter has arrived too, it's a cheapo £35 enclosed filter and a bit of flexi pipe. I was thinking I'd go 90 degrees down from the turbo, have the filter vertical behind the rad and then out the front of the car for the intake, but I'm thinking I might just return this and have a foam filter straight on the turbo. Is there really an issue on engine temps when you have an intercooler the size of a small county?
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Post by BikeTuna on Jan 18, 2018 10:21:30 GMT
Sorting the front brakes this week, the NSF caliper was dragging and sticking, and its down to the metal so needed sorting fast. I had a set of new 1.8 discs and pads that I fitted to the mk2 a week before it went to scrap so instead of sorting this one caliper and buying new brakes I've bought 1.8 calipers to use my old parts on. They arrived a bit tatty and I thought I'd give them a lick of paint before they went on, but you know how these things go, once you start... So fully stripped, sandblasted the old paint off and then powdercoated.    They are going on the car tomorrow after work. |
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Post by Reechard on Jan 18, 2018 23:52:26 GMT
Wow the guy that sold this really didn't like you, or anyone.
Feel the pain of being sold something and finding it to be a prarrie canoe box!
At least you have the grit and determination to keep going and sort it how you like, if not entirely through choice.
Will keep an eye how you get on, and if I'm anywhere near and can offer any help feel free to ask.
At least it looks nice on the outside!
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Post by scottydugg on Jan 19, 2018 9:15:34 GMT
Glad to see you're getting the better of it now, it'll be worth it once it's finished, at least then you'll know it's done correctly.
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Post by Rickster on Jan 19, 2018 10:59:37 GMT
I am impressed by your fortitude and resolve, look forward to seeing you in the car at some meets soon
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I'm put off if I'm thinking about washing it but it's below 20degrees! 
le sigh