Nialls supercharged GTi6 - project tidy up

[welshpug]

I bet your old M4's would feel better with fresh fluid, people forget its DOT fluid and still needs changing every two years the same as a car, but then how many people change car brake fluid every two years....

[Niall]

I bet your old M4's would feel better with fresh fluid, people forget its DOT fluid and still needs changing every two years the same as a car, but then how many people change car brake fluid every two years....

I flushed the fluid on the V2s the day i got it. The M4s were done probably about 5-6 months ago so both have got decent fluid in them. Like i say the M4s still fill me with a lot of confidence. The V2s don't but i haven't ridden it properly yet so we will see!

[Dum-Dum]

Reminds me I need to do the brake fluid on my bike as that's probably 3 years old.

[Stef205]

Ive now finished nialls and sams axle which hopefully they will be collected on monday. 


 





I was told any pink would result in a price reduction so i played it safe, once niall arrives with the old units i will swap over the hubs, carriers and arb etc.

[306Dan]

Ooo shiney, I want one

[Dum-Dum]

All of the wants!!!!

[Niall]

Well old beam is off! Was expecting it to be a bastard of a job but it took about half hour which i didnt think was bad going considering its never been off before.







I was planning on cleaning up the underside whilst its off but its actually pretty mint under there minus a few patches which i will deal with over the week.

[Paul_13]

Ignore me

[Stef205]

you do on phase 3 axles as the pipes go through the mountings

[Paul_13]

My bad, do apologise. I was referring to ph2

[7057sam]

Surprising clean under there

You giving it a underseal whilst it's all off?

[Niall]

Surprising clean under there

You giving it a underseal whilst it's all off?

Well i was going to but its much cleaner than i thought. Ive had a good look under the rest of the car today and other than the usual spots at the sub frame mountings, its spot on. In the winter i would like to get this garaged somewhere where i can work on it for a while and get the underside stripped, and welding that may need doing (don't think there is any thankfully!) done and resealed.

[Stef205]

you brave with them axle stands!

[Niall]

haha just realised it looks like its leaning. Its not, don't worry! Its nice and stable.

[Stef205]

its not that its that there rachet stands cant trust them personally

[Niall]

I think as long as you always ensure the lever is down as far as it will go, its fine. Its when you lift them up and the lever doesn't quite drop into place that you have to worry!

[Niall]

Well today has been a busy today! Left the house at 8 this morning to embark on a 150 mile road trip to Lyme Regis with my usual road trip colleague.
Arrived at Stef's in good time after a nice drive with 2 old beams and 2 hours later after messing about swapping bits over (Rowell, could of at least stripped yours down!!), we were back on the road again. Unfortunately the drive home wasn't as great and we got stuck in traffic going past Stone Henge because every spastic and their dog insisted on slowing right down, not giving 2 fucks for anyone else on the road and going "ooh look, pretty rocks!"
Anyway, made it home for 4pm and got the beam built up...



And thought sod it, may as well get it bolted on. Well before i knew it, it was just starting to rain and i was just dropping the car back down on its wheels







I asked Stef for a 30mm drop and he's got it absolutely spot on. The rear was just a tad too low before so i am really happy with how this sits now.
Tomorrow i need to bleed the brakes, get the beam lined up and the mounts torqued and then go for a drive. Unfortunately I've damaged one of my ABS sensors so have decided to just replace both so they are on order.

[Eeyore]

Looks good buddy.

[Dum-Dum]

Needs lowered.

[Stef205]

Another fan of the shopping trolley effect are we?

[Frosty]

These axles are are looking very smart

[Grant]

Height looks good mate.

Didn't realise you got so far putting it all back together. Do we still need to bleed the brakes before the pub tomorrow, or do we have more drinking time now?

[Piggy]

good effort fella!

[Niall]

f*ck you car. Just f*ck you!
Today i had the idea of getting a lot done. I needed to fit some new rear ABS sensors (damaged one or both of mine on the beam change), relocate my battery and fit my PTFE gasket.

So, out early to do my ABS sensors. Surprisingly, it was very easy and has cured my fault. I was expecting the old ones to be a pig to get out but came out fairly easy albeit in pieces. New ones fitted (correct way up Stef ) and problem solved.



And this is where things started to go wrong. I've discovered a leaking brake hose on the rear. Thankfully (i think?) it wasn't overly tight so I've nipped it up, cleaned it up and just need to monitor it.

So, onto the battery relocation. Im moving it so i have more room for activities....and for my standard GTI airbox with a decent filter in rather than a cheap shitty eBay thing.
This took me a few hours as i run the cable right down the middle of the car under the carpet and have mounted the battery (in the original box for now) on the passenger side of the boot. All went well here and I've used a proper junction box to join the cables in the bay. Managed to get the original cabling cut back slightly as a lot of it had broken strands and bad corrosion around where it was crimped into the battery clamp.
Unfortunately i didn't order enough cable! I ordered 4 metres and this was exactly the right length for the positive run but i didn't have any left over for the negative strap. I did have a spare 16mm strap left over so I've used this as a earth just to make sure the car started. It got a bit warm i can tell you
Unfortunately, the car is now running rather lean . I think this may be due to the poor earth. Im also getting the tell tale gauges spinning to max so I'm going to go and buy a proper sized earth strap tomorrow and hope that fixes my issue.



Now, onto my PTFE gasket. I didnt realise till i had run the car today and then removed the inlet just how hot the runners get. I could barely hold them so hopefully this gasket will make a big difference. I took the inlet off (which is a pig of a job) only to find i had lost the gasket! 20 mins later and i found it but then also found something I'm not too sure about...





This black bit concerns me. Its not burnt. Its like a oily/petrolly mix but why is it there?! is it ok to live with or is it a sign of something bad??
Ive started the car up and...ive got a air leak. Its idling at 2k. Bollocks to this, ill sort it tomorrow, time for beer now

[Dum-Dum]

I thought they all had black bits there, as it's shite from the breather and that's the line where the injectors clean it up to.

Tried finding a photo of this but I can't, sure every time I take a manifold off I have to clean black shit.

[Niall]

I thought they all had black bits there, as it's shite from the breather and that's the line where the injectors clean it up to.

Tried finding a photo of this but I can't, sure every time I take a manifold off I have to clean black shit.

That would make me feel better if thats the case. I just can't remember that being there! Its not like its leaking oil, it runs cleanly and the rest of the inlet is clean plus its not loosing any oil. All it can be is fuel. The car does run richer than your normal GTi but its not NA so of course it does. We will see!

[bashbarnard]

Yeah that black stuff is in every petrol car I've ever worked on. Sometimes I have to clean it as it sticks idle control valves open closed etc. Nothing to worry about id say.

[Niall]

Right well today was a bit better!
Started off with a trip to Halfrauds to pick up some paint and a battery earth strap. Fitted said strap and car starts much easier and happier now. No more dancing dials. Still have my lean running issues though but onto that in a bit!

My cam covers were pretty fooked seeing as i used poor paint and no lacquer so decided to sort that out. Stef gave me a set of shot blasted covers so I've painted them in.....purple!!



As soon as they are dry, i will get them swapped over which should tidy things up a bit.
Anyway, AFR issues. It seems I'm a bit of a victim to my own success. The charging and power system on most 306s these days is rather corroded. My battery positive leads has broken strands and rather bad corrosion and the car was mapped like this. Now, thats not an issue but what I've done with replacing all of the cabling is improve it all! Checking old logs, the ECU used to read 13.8-9v and is now reading 14.4-14.5v so where it should be which pleases me greatly.
Now, all ECU fuel injected cars have a battery voltage compensation table. A cars power supply isn't very clean at the best of times and this can have an effect on the way injectors work. Its not rocket science that if an injector doesn't open for the exact correct period of time, it will run richer or leaner. My battery compensation table was never set up. It didn't need it. It comes with out of the box settings which the fuel map is then based around during mapping.
So plug the laptop in and alter the site between 14 and 15v slightly, blip the throttle and dah dah! Idle has gone from 15AFR (far too lean on a scatter spark engine. Should be 13 ish) to 13. My knowledge of this is quite limited so I've emailed Omex to make sure what I've done isn't an epic bodge and that it won't affect any other tables but it should be fine as this is what its designed for.

Next job. I noticed when walking up to the car the other day my intercooler wasn't straight. Turned out my mounting methods were crap. it worked on the old one but the old one was substantially lighter! So, i CBA to have tabs welded on to the IC as that costs money so I've made up some brackets to sit on the cross member to hold it up.





Also removed my PTFE gasket until i can pick up another paper gasket. Despite PTFE being soft, i can't get mine to seal correctly seeing as its already used. Was idling at 2-3k yesterday so taken it off for now.

Jobs for me in the evenings this week. Get ECU wiring tidied up (a lot of it was mounted to the battery box), get new air box fitted, Get cam covers fitted and general tidy the bay up as its getting close to show season! Need to get a arch liner badly on the passenger side as the bay is just bloody filthy now
Ive also resigned my self to the fact this is going back for remapping. My pipework is all being welded up soon, I've now solved my air temperature issues and i will be buying new, much better more efficient injectors. The thing that was limiting me at mapping was air temperatures. Im hoping under serious load now that is fixed so lets push it harder!!

[Poodle]

How come you're not just buying another ptfe gasket? Jealous of where you are with your car, almost a complete package now.

[Niall]

Because they are bloody expensive for what they are and difficult to get hold of lol.
A paper gasket either side of the PTFE one will solve my issues fine so I'm just going to do that