Ed's Dead Diablo Ph3 GTi6

[Ed Doe]

UPDATE!!!!!

Happy days boys n girls! The GTi6 is BACK!!!

Firstly, last weekend was the last hockey match of the season, and I managed to get hit on my left hand with a hockey stick (through my padded glove), and broke a chunk off and got a hairline crack running up my index finger bone.













So waded into the old rebuild with a bit of a handicap

AAAANyway, I took Thursday off last week to make the most of the bankholiday weekend...

Ruan came up from Gloucester on the Weds night, so we could get cracking easrly Thursday.



Curt very generously let us sleep in his caravan for the Thursday and Friday nights, and let us use all his tools!!!

SO, the list of jobs done/parts installed by Saturday afternoon;

1. PTFE inlet gasket
2. Eccentricc top-mounts
3. GAZ GHA's (didn't have time to fit the rear shockers; they'll be done another time)
3. 4new parada spec 2s
4. meyle hd wishbones.
5. Droplinks
6. Oil Cooler
7. Full service (oil plugs filters etc.)
8. remove dodgy inertia switch, solder and heatshrink wires)
9. Baker BM engine mounts (uppper 2 only, couldnt be bothered fitting the lower)
10. Black Ice magic Tree (yo!)
11. PhillipM lower strut brace.

Things went remarkably well all things said and done:

Thursday we made a quick trip to halfrauds to get gearbox oil, then cracked on.
by the end of the day we'd pulled the OEM front strut assys off, and dummied up the new top-mounts. They only required the addition of 1 new bolt-hole in the chassis, and as they had provided another set of topmount bolts, we bunged 4 into the topmounts.

Friday we mounted up the oil cooler. This was a bit of a pain in the orientation I've got it; the hoses are a bit too long meaning they had to loop before coming round, but it was really hard to loop them without kinking them. Got it sorted in the end, but it was just a bit fiddly.
I have only sporadic photos, as we were all bloody filthy from working in the dust. If anyone's particularly interested in the details of the install I'll get some proper photos at some point

We also managed to put the front wisbone/droplinks/hubs back together, fitted the ptfe inlet gasket, and the lower strut brace. Finally, in the near-dark, we primed up the oil circuit and fired her up for the 1st time

Saturday was a bit frantic though; Fooby came over on the friday, and then got a hairbrined idea that we should go down to the camping meet. so it was a bit rushed getting stuff sorted (as it should NEVER be when rebuilding cars!)

As such, i didnt have time to re-drill the upper strut brace to accept the new bolt arrangement, (drilled it, but need some time to fettle the hole locations, and fooby was whining so i gave up LOL)
We also didnt have time to fit the rear shocks which was pretty gay; the bolts were pretty siezed, and me being unable to use my left hand much meant we didnt really get that far with it before packing it in...

We also had to rush about a fair bit taxing the cars (mine and fooby's) before the postoffices shut... or so fooby thought... /fail

Anyway, enough chatter, I'll let the pics/video do the talking



























I also discovered some distinct fail...





Which ruan found HIlarious...




After we'd finished at Curt's on saturday afternoon, and more fail ensued; the male-male unions on the thermostatic oil sandwich plate weren't completely tight, so leaked oil which went all up the bloody back ofthe car. It was only a tiny bit of oil, but it pissed me right off; I had to jack it up on the driveway and fix it;





Anyways, its been fine since, which is good.

Can anyone spot the camber?
And how stiff it is now?! Prettymuch level whe jacked from the front now...

Right, so how does it drive?


Its FAPPING A-Mazing. Honestly, it's so grippy now, and the coilies aren't that harsh either, set on about half-max damping setting. The grip is unreal, Fooby SHAT himself when i took him for a spin

Only quibbles I have.... 1. the broken top engine mount squeeks a little sometimes. its a teeensy bit vibrational on idle, but tbh i dont give a shit given how it now drives, and it's a bit clunky, but im pretty sure its because there aren't any rubbers in the topomounts anymore!!

One other thing I've noticed; the springs make a 'boing' noise when i turn the wheel from lock to lock.... is this normal on coilies? Should I be greasing anything???

Another slightly annoying thing... I STILL managed to get the oil temps up on an enthusiastic drive... I think i may have to re-orientate the cooler to get more flow...


Oh and I'll leave you with pics of my right arm after the weekend...