[engine_work] 205 Gti 6 Supercharged

[Garry 1]

Monster Post Warning!!!

 

What an eventfull fortnight I have had getting the bloody thing running!

 

The entire build was based on going to a Spa trackday I had booked back in January for May 12th, there seemed plenty of ‘float’ in the build programme at the time, about right then that I ended up finishing the car hours before setting of for Dover!

 

So, the weekend starting May 3rd, I had planned to have the car running this weekend, this would give me the week to run around in it to make sure everything was Ok.

 

My brother, Matt came up to help with the wiring. Some of the sensors needed extending as the throttle body had moved about 100mm towards the supercharger.

 

 

We wired up the second fuel pump via a relay, the trigger for this was the live feed from the in tank pump, that way the two pumps would run in sync. I had thought about running the second pump of a switch in the cabin, but was advised not to by the helpful people at Simtek UK, as if there was an accident the pump could not be easily shut down.

 

I completed the coolant pipe work, as you can see there isn’t much clearance between the charger drivebelt and the bottom hose!

 

 

 

 

Over the past few weekends I had noticed that I was missing the top coolant pipe, but I had convinced myself I must have put it in the shed or in the loft. So after turning the place upside down I still couldn’t find it, I was pretty stressed at this point as I couldn’t run the without it. I made a call to the guy that had changed the cambelt for me, after half an hour he called back to say he had found it, problem was he was near Southampton! I was determined to get the car running so me and the wife jumped into the beemer to go and get it, the perfect car for this sort of thing. 8 hours later we were back home with the pipe, here it is, only cost about £100 in fuel!

 

 

So on Sunday night we were ready to start it up for the first time, I filled the car with fluids, checked all of the fittings and all was ready. I turned it over a couple of times but it wouldn’t fire up (the reason for this will found later). We looked under the car to see my new expensive Silkolene oil pouring onto the drive, on close inspection the oil sandwich plate was fitted the wrong way round! I had put the threaded nut on backwards:

 

 

The nut you can see should be furthest from the block, resulting in the sandwich plate sitting some 10mm clear.

 

As a result I had to take the whole front end off, intercooler, boost pipes, radiator etc:

 

[Garry 1]

This is how it should be fitted:

 

 

So again, Monday morning I tried to get the thing started, but it still wouldn’t start. I wasted Monday and Tuesday fiddling around with everything trying to get it to go.

 

On Wednesday I returned to work, I was browsing a forum and some people had suggested I had the fuel rail plumbed in backwards, and Dr Sarty on the 205 drivers forum said it should be 10mm feed 8mm return, the opposite of what I had done, having read it on the 306 forum! I felt sick and embarrassed having wasted everybodys time, I knew what was wrong straight away.

 

I took Thursday and Friday off.

 

Thursday morning I swapped the pipes over and she fired up first time! This was it, I was going to make it!

 

I spent the rest of the day tidying up and fiddling with things;

 

Wiring tidied

 

 

 

I made a metal guard to protect the oil cooler from road debris that could flick up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the car now running I also noticed that the silicone hoses I had were collapsing under vacuum, I had some spare alloy tubing which I used as a replacement:

 

 

 

The 76mm to 51mm Silicone reducer was also being sucked into the manifold, as a quick fix I held the pipework back with some able ties:

 

[Garry 1]

So here we are finally ready to go:

 

 

 

This was on Thursday night, I was booked into DES at 12 on Friday for the new exhaust to be fitted.

 

On Friday morning I was up at 6 loading up the car and fitting the bumper and bonnet back on, fitted the 25mm arb. I started the car at 8.30 to check it and it was only running on 2 cylinders!

 

Again, I did my now well practiced fault finding sequence, ie plugs, injectors, pumps, power. But all was in order. I checked the ECU and the multi pin plug that goes into the top was wet. In my wisdom I have moved the ECU into the footwell to keep it safe form engine heat and to create room for the Swirl pot. What I hadn’t counted on was coolant running down the cables and into the ECU.

 

I took the ECU apart to find a couple of teaspoons of coolant in there, see bottom right:

 

 

So with some cotton buds, WD40, the wifes hairdryer and some very small screw drivers I cleaned up the circuits which now had some crystals forming on them. I plugged the ECU back in and all was well again, but I had missed my time slot at DES.

 

 

I took the car to my local garage who Mig welded the hole in the exhaust.

 

 

 

So I finally set off for Slough at 7pm on Friday, where I was stopping over night before Dover and ultimately the ‘ring and Spa.

[Henry 1.9GTi 36]

i want more!

[tom_m 0]

mint! glad you got it going garry!

[Garry 1]

The weekend was a bit of a disaster, too much too soon to be honest.

 

We got there ok, I somehow lost my oil filler cap on the Friday night so we had to stop off at a pug garage in Folkstone before catching the ferry to get a replacement.

 

The weekend was very busy, we had to queue for 2 hours just to get on the track! I managed half a lap and this happened:

 

 

The oil cooler feed pipe burst going into Breidsheid bridge (Adenau bridge). Luckily I could get straight of the track. It was a very unpleasant experience though, there was a swarm of people looking all over my car which was now covered in oil. What was worse I had to sit and wait to see if anybody had an accident on 'my' oil knowing I would be accountable for the consequences!

 

Luckily nothing happened and I got away with a 20E fine.

 

After that I didn't go on track again and didn't go to Spa, I decided to quit whilst I was ahead and head home.

[cyman 1 1 Cars]

Garry, sorry to hear about the misfortune you have had regarding your last outing in your car.

Doing a large conversion such as a supercharge one has many potential possible problems that can happen and normally do.

The oil filler cap could be crankcase pressure when on boost.or it might have just been loose. I have mine venting to outside air. Not very green i know.

Oil pipes bursting/coming off, iv'e always used the aeroquip racing type fittings mainly becouse once they have been done up they won't leak and you can reuse them.however i know that they can be expensive.

the barb type fittings are also pretty good.

but just jubilee clips on a pipe with a normal bead is not recommended for a critical liqiud.

i look forward to seeing some more updates about your car. hopefully i'm going up to exeter this weekend to meet some of guy's from here, maybe i might see you there !!?

cheers.

[Garry 1]

Garry, sorry to hear about the misfortune you have had regarding your last outing in your car.

Doing a large conversion such as a supercharge one has many potential possible problems that can happen and normally do.

The oil filler cap could be crankcase pressure when on boost.or it might have just been loose. I have mine venting to outside air. Not very green i know.

Oil pipes bursting/coming off, iv'e always used the aeroquip racing type fittings mainly becouse once they have been done up they won't leak and you can reuse them.however i know that they can be expensive.

the barb type fittings are also pretty good.

but just jubilee clips on a pipe with a normal bead is not recommended for a critical liqiud.

i look forward to seeing some more updates about your car. hopefully i'm going up to exeter this weekend to meet some of guy's from here, maybe i might see you there !!?

cheers.

 

Regarding the oil filler cap, I am not sure if it was boost or not put in properly. I would like to think I didn't forget to put it on but I can't be sure. One theory is that I could be getting blow by past the piston rings, but this would mean the catch bottle would fill up, which it isn't. I am getting a compression test on Friday morning to see how the engine is.

 

I know what you mean about the oil pipe, but it is 112bar pipe which you would think would be up to 6 bar or so of oil pressure. It didn't fail at the fittings, but mid pipe where I had it bent. But again the bend wasn't that harsh, you can see it on the previous photos as it joins the oil stat just above the rad. Maybe it was a combo of rad heat and the bend.

 

I am not going to Exeter so it will have to be some other time.

[base-1 17]

Bad luck mate

 

Get a bracket for that oilstat welded onto the rad, it will move around far too much when the car is driving and probably cause another hose failure

[Garry 1]

I am not going to bother with the second oil stat in the future, it remained open a little bit too, so it didn't really serve its purpose. I will just tape over the opening that feeds the oil cooler when using the car on road.

[C_W 3 1 Cars]

Looks like once the niggles are sorted it will be one very quick car! I think you need to use it on the road for a few months to iron out the niggles. I know my original Mi16 conversion which was a much simpler task took a few months to iron out and make reliable.

[Garry 1]

I haven’t updated for a while, but rest assured, I have been still been busy with it!

A couple of weeks ago I went to DES Developments to get a new exhaust fitted, it is a 2.5’’ stainless steel Pug sport Group A system with a 2’’ tail pipe to ‘hopefully’ keep the noise down.

 

 

 

This is the engine bay pretty much finished. Note the ‘local DIY shop tensioner’ I made up to try and stop the silicon reducer being sucked into the manifold.

 

 

I have installed an oil catch tank, £30 from ebay, which should be a bit more robust than the plastic bottle I used in the rush to get ready for my ‘ring/ Spa adventure.

I have also fitted a header tank cap from a ’96 306 Xsi which has a much stiffer release spring than much old 1.9 Gti one. The car had a tendancy to spit coolant out when it got really hot, so far it seems to do the trick.

 

 

I have replaced the failed oil hose with a new one. This time it is straight through from the block mounted sandwich plate to the cooler. I will try and regulate the efficiency of the cooler by taping over the vents in the front bumper.

 

 

Finally gave it a wash and loaded up ready for Croft this Saturday:

 

 

 

[tom_m 0]

good to hear its all go!

 

loving the half inch extension as a blank for the water pipe btw

[Alastairh 47]

Looks good Garry.

 

I must come to one of your track days for a ride

[JamieTonks 1]

this looks great. well done

[welshpug 1,621]

how did croft go Gary?

[Garry 1]

It was OK.....

 

The car was spot on for the first 2 laps, then I got black flagged for noise! Apparently I was the loudest thing out there, some 10db over the limit

My wife said I could be heard all the way around the track! Bear in mind there were some single seaters and radicals there too!

Its strange as at 4-5k it was fine when i was static tested (98db limit), but under load on boost it goes nuts.

We resolved the issue by getting one of those chrome tail pipe extensions from Halfords (thanks Crossie) and packing it with wire wool, this cured the noise but also killed all power, the gases just couldn't get out.

 

It then started raining at about 11 or so and then didn't stop, there were some big puddles on the track and for me braking into some of the corners was act of pure faith so at about 3pm we pack up and came home.

 

Need to see how I can quieten it down now, I think Easypug will really struggle with all that boost, double what I am running.

[Alastairh 47]

Take it back to DES.

 

Zara had one of those exhausts on her Dimma (although a 1.9 8v). 2 weeks later took it back as it was stupid loud, and they sorted it

[smighall 1]

There were loads of issues with noise. Your car was looking good when it was on track though Garry

Edited June 22, 2008 by smighall

[Henry 1.9GTi 36]

my first des exhaust was stupidly loud , 98db and just unbearable, now with the 2 silencer system recorded 84db at bedford. Take it back to them and get it sorted.

 

Glad to see no mishaps apart from noise always nice for a 205 outing.

[Garry 1]

I have made a short speedo video:

 

[Alastairh 47]

f***ing hell mate...

[Goliath 94]

now that is awesome!! incredibly quick and it looks like you have pretty good traction too! Is it just me or is the speedo a bit jittery? like its a little kinked maybe?

[M@tt 77]

s*it the bed!!!! that looks quality!!!!

 

well done and congratulations

[Guest jimbob205]

Wow awesome car great thread!