[car_upgrade] 205 X-s16 Project Car

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Not been able to get to it much over the past week but finally getting somewhere with the wiring:

- Central locking issues hopefully sorted by replacing all of the major wiring

- Electric window wiring neated up

- i dont know who fitted the E/W, and C/L (dealership maybe) but its a right ugly job they did, once i knew it was there i had to replace it!

- new loom for the GTi clocks

- new engine bay loom (lights, horn, indicators, etc), and patch up

- made up a new loom to link the engine to the car

- and also the immobiliser wiring is half back in

 

removed the pedal box, servo and master cylinder today also which are to be replaced with cosmetically nicer looking parts and a GTi size servo with a 406 non-ABS master cylinder attached to it.

 

With any luck the engine should be coming out of XS tomorrow, need to remove the PAS gubbins from it though as im not having it in the GT (for now), also going to be using a 1.6 GTi box on the engine too, instead of the Xsara one as the intention is to build up the Xsara one with an LSD and drop it in at a later date.

 

Heres a pic of the XS anyway, first time its been out of the garage for a while!

 

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

couldnt get an engine hoist as the rental place had ran out, get one in tomorrow

So instead swapped over the front subframe, removed the hydrolic ram from the steering rack, did more wiring, and fitted a new lockset... nice to have all the locks on one key again (apart from the glovebox )

Also had a play with the alternator bracket, and belt situation. I think i might be able to use a belt from something like a 405 XUD, but i'll see about that tomorrow.

[calvinhorse 870]

just measure the belt lenght with a bit of string then go to your local autofactors

[calvinhorse 870]

just measure the belt lenght with a bit of string then go to your local autofactors

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Well, the engine is now in, gearbox is on, driveshafts in etc all the front end is up and on. 95% of the wiring is done too. And most of the interior is put back together!

 

todo list:

 

wire in a lambda

need a s16 VSS

alternator belt

get the steering rack coneected to the hubs

buy some exhaust manifold nuts as ive lost 10 somewhere

mend the bonnet stay

finish off the wiring

get some coolant hoses

secure the oil vapour hoses

buy an O/S indicator

and a few more small things...

 

might even try my luck at getting it started sometime soon

 

Anyway heres some pictures:

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Got a few more things ticked off the list:

Had to swap over the gear lever, aswell as the linkages as they are different

Replaced the 1600 GTi speed sensor with the S16 one

Neatened the wiring, and the oil hoses

Put the GTi-6 brakes on, and replaced the front brake lines. Just waiting on some of Miles's braided hoses to arrive and then i can get the brakes bled.

Bodged the bonnet stay back together, and did a few other little jobs.

 

Coming together nicely now, and starting to look like a car again.

 

New fuel lines, and clips

 

MC clearance is pretty tight even with it slightly tilted up, however the engine aint moving anywhere with the BBM mounts. Had to trim a little of the cam cover.

 

and i picture of just before the brakes went on.

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

just waiting for a hose to arrive in the post, then should be able to get the radiator on.

Im not too happy about the distance between the exhaust and fuel pipes near the tank, so ill be re-routing them tomorrow morning. Also i need to connect the rubber lines at the engine end of the system. Then it should be good for some coolant, oil, and a first attempted start!

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Well, start 1 didnt go to well. The kepyad immobiliser flashing green and red, and then going out and not accepting the starting code.

So after a little head scratching i discovered that disconnecting pin 5 on the keypad enabled the code to be entered, however this is with both the red and green light on constantly.

It seems to work though, setting the key into primer... relay for fuel pump clicks, enter code... relay clicks a second time for injectors etc. and everything seems to be getting power. The only problem now is that the fuel pump seems to be duff, as its gettting power and nothing is happening. So thats next on the shopping list.

[dcc 855]

check the earth

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Yeh, earths are fine. Even wired it directly to the battery and still nothing.

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

it starts! Finally roared into life! The exhaust blows like mad, and it won't idle (vacuum i think) but delighted for now, until something else goes wrong.

it turned out that a combination of a duff fuel pump and the CAS plugged into the wrong socket which is why it wouldnt start. The immobilser confusion wasnt helping either.

Now its time to iron out all the small issues and get it MOT'd

[peter 20]

have you sorted the gearbox oil leak? it wont be the drive shaft seal it will be the 1.9 shaft is slightly shorter on the shoulder that goes into the diff seal than a 306 one but you can just swap the end joint for a 306 one (passenger side)

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

I thought i had but it started leaking this morning so maybe thats the reason why? I'm using an unmodified 205 gearbox so should that still cause a problem?

Well, i think its leaking im going to have a better look today.

 

The problem im facing at the minute is it refuses to idle still, so i wedged an electrical connector behind the throttle just to keep it going. It seems to smoke an awful lot under load. I've done a compression test and they all hover around the 220-230psi mark. Which seems a bit high to me? I also discovered i need a new spark plug seal, as the one on cylinder 4 donsent exist! I'm sure i put it back but i must have forgotten. Anyway, im left with oil all the place now. .

 

Im thinking ill replace the seal (if i can find one, nobody seems to sell them?), sort the idle out and see how badly it is actually smoking. Tempted to buy another S16 engine just incase!

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

the CAS plugged into the wrong socket which is why it wouldnt start.

 

Whoops ive done that before!

 

Tom fenton (i believe) was selling the seals for a 1.9 16v but they look the same so should fit

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

As i need another engine fo rmy other 205, i decided to buy a new one for this. Went down to Kent and got an S16 with a GTi6 inlet off of Paul (thirdtimelucky). Removed it from a nice looking 306, and he even let me have a drive of his V6 205

 

Anyway, today i got the engine home swapped over the clutch, cam belt, water pump, tensioners, wiring loom, and got it in the car. Tomorrow ill get some pictures up of the new lump.

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Not updated in a while but the engine went in and fired up first time. Goes in for its MOT on Saturday and is currently in the garage having a new exhaust fitted and a a snapped bleed nipple (rear caliper) sorted. Unfortunantley the tow eye has snapped off at some point during the transportation to the garage, so im going to go down and inspect. Hoping that the front bumper and valance havent taken any punishment in the process :S

 

Anyway, it moved for the first time under its own power for 9 months, so that is a plus!

 

Apologies for the terrible quality pictures:

interior is 90% back together, and need to finish off the wiring for the C/L and E/W

 

engine in and running nicely, few loose wires need homes finding.

 

After its had its bit of work done at the garage, and ive sorted out the few bits of wiring i need to finish off and assuming no damage from rogue towing eye it could* be road legal by the weekend!

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Well, it had its work done in the garage but they took so long i didnt have time to finish off the electrical issues before i went back to uni! So it missed the MOT, which as it turned out dosent matter anyway as the DVLA havent returned my amended V5 yet...

Anyway, a couple of weekends later and its pretty much done. Runs and drives fine and sounds epic .

Only thing im not 100% happy with is the brake pedal length, its acceptable but haveing the travel before the brakes bight dosent inspire confidence. I'll be sorting that out the first chance i get to adjust the M/C push rod. Thinking of also down sizing the front brakes to 266mm S16 calipers as i think i prefer the look of the 1600 wheels on the car.

 

Question:

Currently im running GTi6 283mm front brakes without any rear compensators, but would downsizing to S16 266mm brakes cause me to continually lock up the rears, so that i would have to fit compensators? or would it work fine as it currently does?

 

apart from that, i've changed the front indicators for phase 2 items as i couldnt find a reasonably priced phase 1.5 item and i had these spare.

I need to modify the clocks to get the rev counter to work

the fuel gauge works... sometimes. Looking at the state of the corroded 3 pin plug leads me to believe this is more than likley the culprit

i need a new indicator bulb carrier

need to finish off the wiring for the C/L and E/W - i don't know why i keep putting this off!

and then i could put the drivers door back together.

also needs a bloody good clean and then i might be on the way to having a half decent 205...again

 

will update when i can get to the car

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I use 1.9 gti front brakes with a rear 1.6 gti set up (single line) with no compensators and its fine so far. Won't be using it in the winter much though so you might want to be careful in the wet/ice!

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Hmm, i might try a swap and see how it feels. I've always got a spare 1.9 set up with compensators if all else fails

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

 

Apart from the indicator bulb holder, this is ready for an MOT now. Finally got a reply from the DVLA, almost a month it took them

[Anthony 1,000]

Question:

Currently im running GTi6 283mm front brakes without any rear compensators, but would downsizing to S16 266mm brakes cause me to continually lock up the rears, so that i would have to fit compensators? or would it work fine as it currently does?

I'd personally say that it would be a bit sketchy - try it by all means, but I think it will need a compensator.

 

I've done it on a 306 S16 before when the rear compensator packed up and it worked fine on that, although it was right on the limit of what you'd want on a road car IMO - with the lighter rear end on a 205 it's quite likely that it'll lock the rears first assuming you're running disk brakes on the rear.

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

took the car the long way round to the test station for its MOT, and it passed! The car feels good, few annoying issues such as rattles that need addressing but apart from that i couldn't be happier with it. Delighted!

Edited December 31, 2011 by BERTMAN

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

Update:

Well I've had the car on the road for a week now and i can't stop giggling like a school girl every time i get in it! The 1.6 be3 box makes the car feel similar to how it felt before with the XS engine and MA box, just with twice the power, which is kind of nice as the car feels 'familiar' even though every single mechanical component has been changed!

Im going to jynx it now but i haven't had any problems as of yet, I was expecting the first few weeks to be a fault finding mission with oil/water leaks, electrical issues etc. however almost everything seems to working! This dosen't mean that there are not a couple of issues which i am going to address in the near future though:

 

First problem to over come is to decide which wheels i want to run! Sounds stupid but i have the choice of 1.6, or 1.9 wheels to run. The 1.6 wheels won't fit over the front brakes, and the 1.9 wheels catch the rear arches. This has resulted in my currently running 1.9 on the front, and 1.6 on the rear! I see two ways around this problem:

1. Replace the front brakes with smaller brakes, which would also mean fitting compensators and also probably a different M/C.

2. Get the rear arches cut and rolled

 

Im going to get some quotes today about the arches, however i also want to replace the front brakes anyway as the GTi-6 brakes weigh an absolute ton, and it would be nice to reduce the car weight a little bit. With me sat in the car and no fuel it weighs 960kg! So ~885kg unladen with no fuel... im not sure if thats good or not.

 

I've eradicated most of the rattles but there is one which is really annoying, a metallic rattling that comes about at around 2-2500k rpm. i think it might be the exhaust manifold heat shield but this needs more probing

 

The third issue is the speedo is under reading considerably, at 65mph it reads 60mph, and when it reads 80mph im doing 88mph! This problem was discovered by one of my friends i took for a spin who commented that the car felt alot faster than the speedo was suggesting, so we drove along s straight road (private property of course) at a steady speed checking it against his and my sat nav. I know the sat nav isnt going to be 100% accurate but both sat navs show the same case. Im pretty certain this can be easily fixed by replacing the plastic cog at the base of the VSS with the 1.6 box's cog as its running a 306 S16 one at the minute. Stupid mistake for me to make but an easily retrified one.

 

Other than that i have some more wiring to finish off to finish off the central locking and things like that, i've also mounted the immobiliser keypad in the drivers side air thingy and made a fibreglass battery box for the boot. Heres some more pics anyway for anyone that might be interested!

 

 

flying 205!

 

 

and my favourite one so far...

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Get yourself a choke blank! Glad its going well, just the exterior now Reference the wheels why not run steel wheels? Some 106 Rallye steels would look great powdercoated silver on that!

 

Also welcome to the exclusive TU > XU club Its a arse of a conversion.

 

Edit: Just thought the GTI6 brakes won't fit under steelies, I use 1.9GTI brakes that I rebuilt and they are more than up to the job.

Edited January 9, 2012 by allye