Blaze GTi6 Track 'MR X'

[Bertman]

Thought I'd start a project thread for my '97 phase2 GTI-6. Probably more so I can keep an update on where I'm upto than for anything else! 

I'm not new to Pug's. You may have seen my username floating around, mostly on the 205 forum! But I have actually had about 15 306's (or something ridiculous) so know my way around one with a spanner (and right foot haha)! I've had a hankering for a track car for a while now, but didn't want to butcher any of my other cars! 

I bought this one 'MR X' (name will become very obvious in a min) in April from a guy that had been using it for road-rallying up near Knutsford. Ebay jobby with a fully welded in Safety Devices cage, coilovers, and all the usual rallying go faster gear for £600... easy decision, sold!
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Now obviously at that price there were a couple of catches...

turns out the previous owner wasn't particularly good at road rallying and had a previous altercation with a wall:
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Damage to the front bumper, n/s wing, n/s/r quarter and n/s wing mirror. Also he didn't have much luck with the engine either as one of the rods had apparently ejected from the block... non-runner.

Still, i'm pretty happy with it... and it's life probably isn't going to get any easier with me behind the wheel anyway, so might as well save a dog  .
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Apologies if the images don't work, I will sort them...just trying to sort out a life after photobucket

[Bertman]

So i wanted to check out the damage on the body first. Removed the old knackered wing and offered up a spare phase2 wing I had lying around. The N/S bumper bracket will need a little fettling to get it re-aligned, and most of the mounts for the light and hockey stick thing under the light are broken, but this corner should be fairly easy to sort out by the looks of it...

Back end is a little out of my league (for a decent finish anyway), I'll bash it out best I can and then give it my mate for a quick slap of 'bodgey' and some paint. 

Rest of the car looks in fairly decent shape to be fair, little areas of rust to sort but I've seen much much worse on a phase 2 before... anyway, more pics...

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I was sold the car as a non-runner, an apparent bottom end failure... However, the failure occured on the test run after having the cylinder head refurbished (after a cambelt failure - the previous owner really had no luck with this car!!). So the next job was to remove the old lump and see what was salvageable:




Wondering if this things been on fire at some point, is this the remnants fire extinguishing foam?   


Anyway, the lump came out...


This must have gone with a serious bang. Cylinder 4 has a massive hole in the block, which even took out part of the lower engine mount. Oil pump has been smashed in half and theres bits of block/rod/gudgeon pin everywhere...

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Cylinder head miraculously looks OK, and I think will be salvageable. There are some minor witness marks to the piston so there has been some valve contact but I found the piston stuck at the bottom of the bore with the rod hanging out the side of the block. The valves don't look bent and seem to move in and out as you would expect. I think I might whip it over to a specialist though and get there take on it... 

[Bertman]

Engine bay needs a bit of work, also found some evidence of another previous whack on the N/S, chassis member showing a few signs of being smacked and straightened. I've tidyied it up a little, removed the rust, layered it with Bilt hamber and slapped a little primer on it whilst I cracked on with the weight removal. Ripping stuff out is more fun than body work!




Don't need most of this crap...


Getting there... I removed all of the wiring (except the rear light loom) from the car. Not sure wether to thin out the standard looms or just start from scratch with the rest of it? 


Roped in my brother to do the fun task of scraping all the sound deadening material off the floor... heat gun, scraper, vacuum, bin bag, white spirits. and some rags... gets a surprisingly good finish.



After that I gave it a de-rust/weld/protect with Bilt Hamber rust prohibitor and gave the floor and the cage a lick of paint. I didn't take any pictures of that stage for some reason. 

Just kept is simple with Blaze for the floor, and gloss black for anything else. 

[Mighty306]

Impressive stuff Bertman.  I reckon a lot of people would have given up when they found the bottom end in bits.  You clearly have some skills though.  Good to see it being brought back to life.  Any luck on sourcing a new bottom end?

[Eeyore]

A nice little read. Dont recognise the name so welcome the forum i guess! Looks like an interesting project at least. Saw this on ebay for quite some time. I may have missed it but what are you planning to use it for?

[Bertman]

Impressive stuff Bertman.  I reckon a lot of people would have given up when they found the bottom end in bits.  You clearly have some skills though.  Good to see it being brought back to life.  Any luck on sourcing a new bottom end?

Oh I knew there were issues with the bottom end when I bought it, so no surprises there (hence why it was cheap!) I mostly stripped the engine to save any useful parts because I'm cheap!  .

I sourced an iron block Mi16 short motor, fully reconditioned with about 10,000 miles on it off 205GTiDrivers. Collected that a few weeks after buying the car (also ended up buying the lads 205 off him too!). So the plan with the lump is to use the RFS head on the J4S block/pistons/crank, and also swap the RFS sump/trap door over too. One of the next jobs on the list...

engine wise it won't be getting too much more (right now) because I want to use it! But eventually I'd like to go down the forced induction route.

A nice little read. Dont recognise the name so welcome the forum i guess! Looks like an interesting project at least. Saw this on ebay for quite some time. I may have missed it but what are you planning to use it for?

This will just be for enjoying on the track, still not decided if I'm going to MOT it or not yet...

[Blandy]

Good read doing the same myself at the moment so will be watching for ideas

[Mighty306]

Oh I knew there were issues with the bottom end when I bought it, so no surprises there (hence why it was cheap!) I mostly stripped the engine to save any useful parts because I'm cheap!  .

I sourced an iron block Mi16 short motor, fully reconditioned with about 10,000 miles on it off 205GTiDrivers. Collected that a few weeks after buying the car (also ended up buying the lads 205 off him too!). So the plan with the lump is to use the RFS head on the J4S block/pistons/crank, and also swap the RFS sump/trap door over too. One of the next jobs on the list...

I guess you were hoping the bottom end issues weren't quite so catastrophic though!  Any ideas what caused it and what let go?  Look forward to seeing the new engine come together.  Haven't got much experience in engine work (apart from doing a head gasket on a mini years ago) but always take an interest in other people's builds.  I expect I'll have to give it a go myself one day!

I notice the nearside wheels took a good knock in 'Mr X's' little accident.  Fingers crossed nothing got too bent out of shape.

[Ruan]

Impressive stuff Bertman.  I reckon a lot of people would have given up when they found the bottom end in bits.  You clearly have some skills though.  Good to see it being brought back to life.  Any luck on sourcing a new bottom end?

Oh I knew there were issues with the bottom end when I bought it, so no surprises there (hence why it was cheap!) I mostly stripped the engine to save any useful parts because I'm cheap!  .

I sourced an iron block Mi16 short motor, fully reconditioned with about 10,000 miles on it off 205GTiDrivers. Collected that a few weeks after buying the car (also ended up buying the lads 205 off him too!). So the plan with the lump is to use the RFS head on the J4S block/pistons/crank, and also swap the RFS sump/trap door over too. One of the next jobs on the list...

engine wise it won't be getting too much more (right now) because I want to use it! But eventually I'd like to go down the forced induction route.

A nice little read. Dont recognise the name so welcome the forum i guess! Looks like an interesting project at least. Saw this on ebay for quite some time. I may have missed it but what are you planning to use it for?

This will just be for enjoying on the track, still not decided if I'm going to MOT it or not yet...

You mean XU9J4 (D6C/DFW) bottom end?

[Bertman]

Impressive stuff Bertman.  I reckon a lot of people would have given up when they found the bottom end in bits.  You clearly have some skills though.  Good to see it being brought back to life.  Any luck on sourcing a new bottom end?

Oh I knew there were issues with the bottom end when I bought it, so no surprises there (hence why it was cheap!) I mostly stripped the engine to save any useful parts because I'm cheap!  .

I sourced an iron block Mi16 short motor, fully reconditioned with about 10,000 miles on it off 205GTiDrivers. Collected that a few weeks after buying the car (also ended up buying the lads 205 off him too!). So the plan with the lump is to use the RFS head on the J4S block/pistons/crank, and also swap the RFS sump/trap door over too. One of the next jobs on the list...

engine wise it won't be getting too much more (right now) because I want to use it! But eventually I'd like to go down the forced induction route.

A nice little read. Dont recognise the name so welcome the forum i guess! Looks like an interesting project at least. Saw this on ebay for quite some time. I may have missed it but what are you planning to use it for?

This will just be for enjoying on the track, still not decided if I'm going to MOT it or not yet...

Oh I knew there were issues with the bottom end when I bought it, so no surprises there (hence why it was cheap!) I mostly stripped the engine to save any useful parts because I'm cheap!  .

I sourced an iron block Mi16 short motor, fully reconditioned with about 10,000 miles on it off 205GTiDrivers. Collected that a few weeks after buying the car (also ended up buying the lads 205 off him too!). So the plan with the lump is to use the RFS head on the J4S block/pistons/crank, and also swap the RFS sump/trap door over too. One of the next jobs on the list...

I guess you were hoping the bottom end issues weren't quite so catastrophic though!  Any ideas what caused it and what let go?  Look forward to seeing the new engine come together.  Haven't got much experience in engine work (apart from doing a head gasket on a mini years ago) but always take an interest in other people's builds.  I expect I'll have to give it a go myself one day!

I notice the nearside wheels took a good knock in 'Mr X's' little accident.  Fingers crossed nothing got too bent out of shape.

Just misuse and abuse I should imagine! I think the car was used in road rallying for a little while by the looks of it. So its probably fair to say its been ragged about a fair amount! The wheels definitely have taken a bashing but I'm planning on replacing them and near enough all of the suspension too so shouldn't be an issue! The standard cyclones really are heavy.

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Impressive stuff Bertman.  I reckon a lot of people would have given up when they found the bottom end in bits.  You clearly have some skills though.  Good to see it being brought back to life.  Any luck on sourcing a new bottom end?

Oh I knew there were issues with the bottom end when I bought it, so no surprises there (hence why it was cheap!) I mostly stripped the engine to save any useful parts because I'm cheap!  .

I sourced an iron block Mi16 short motor, fully reconditioned with about 10,000 miles on it off 205GTiDrivers. Collected that a few weeks after buying the car (also ended up buying the lads 205 off him too!). So the plan with the lump is to use the RFS head on the J4S block/pistons/crank, and also swap the RFS sump/trap door over too. One of the next jobs on the list...

engine wise it won't be getting too much more (right now) because I want to use it! But eventually I'd like to go down the forced induction route.

A nice little read. Dont recognise the name so welcome the forum i guess! Looks like an interesting project at least. Saw this on ebay for quite some time. I may have missed it but what are you planning to use it for?

This will just be fir enjoying on the track, still not decided if I'm going to MOT it or not yet...

You mean XU9J4 (D6C/DFW) bottom end?

Nope, I mean phase 2 Mi16/S16 XU10J4 (RFY? I think)

[Bertman]

Haven't looked at this for a few weeks because I've had a few MOT's to sort, and it's been cold AF!... and this has been taking up my time:


205GTI if you couldn't guess . 

Anyway, back to the '6. In the background I've stuck the new lump together for a trial fit... no issues here. And I've also gave a mate a ring about potentially making me some fibreglass body panels for this thing. 

The idea hopefully will be to get the 306 inside after the 205's been dealt with, and get some fresh paint on the engine bay and N/S too!

[Mighty306]

Another person who's giving me workshop envy!!!!  That 205 looks surprisingly tidy underneath.  Plans?

[Eeyore]

wish i had that workshop too. did you make the rig to flip it over?

[Bertman]

[quote pid='619085' dateline='1512429120']
Another person who's giving me workshop envy!!!!  That 205 looks surprisingly tidy underneath.  Plans?
[/quote]


The 205 is pretty good considering its 29 years old, some surface rust on the boot floor but nothing major. All saveable. It's on the rig to fix some dodgy previous repairs: a shocking sill repair, and some crap rear bumper bracket repairs. Then tidy up the rest and protect it and a full respray. The late 80's 205 shells are brilliant, hardly rust at all compared to everything else of the era!

Final spec will be: Original 8v engine with Skip Browns GTI-S conversion, LSD, Bilstein Forest spec dampers on Eibach 7001's, 309 GTi front wishbones, Brand new rear tube with 21mm TB's, modified welded and bolted 306GTi6 24mm rear ARB, Citroen ZX (non-ABS) rear arms (-ve camber), Bilstein Group A '2313' rear dampers, plus Baker mounts etc. 

Eeyore

wish i had that workshop too. did you make the rig to flip it over?

Bit of both, i bought the rig on Ebay, but had to fabricate my own frame for the back end: