Right, thought I'd start this. As some of you may know my cars a bit broken at present and I have a pile of parts ready to fit that gets bigger without it making its way to the car.

 

So lets start with what's up with the engine. Myself and gaz pulled the engine about two winters ago now, as one of the turbo's had failed. Compression was tested at this time with a very even 170psi across the board. Pulling it all apart we found a multitude of issues, egr hanging off causing an exhaust leak old sockets rolling about etc etc. We took that time to replace every damn crusty water and vac pipe and delete just about anything I considered a waste of space.

Water plenum bypass,

EGR,

AIV,

PRV,

Cruise control,

Aircon,

Think that's all. The turbos were rebuild by myself and for the first 50-100 miles things were bob on and I didn't give it too much stick. The first couple of pulls it detonated, new plugs, reduced the issue but it still did it a bit. Changed to a smaller gap and great the det was gone. The car was pulling very well at this point with virtually no lag and was dyno'd at 289hp bone stock, no extra boost no chip. Not bad for an old auto engine. Sadly it had started to smoke on over run, I assumed id cocked up one of the turbos during the rebuild. So I had been putting it off for months, well actually years now to pay out for brand new turbos. Anyways as the tax ran out I thought id do some more inspecting as the symptoms just didn't fit the pattern of failed turbos. The first thing I found was that lovely even compression was no more, cyl had a rather lame 115psi. Cue further inspection to work out exactly what block I had, manual/auto etc I assumed it was auto. That's when I found this...

That head casting reads R-10Y, wtf is that I thought. It's supposed to read 40P this was one of those penny drop moments. The piston crown sealed that moment of realisation and many dots connected.

That's right its an NA, 30p pistons are NA and 30p1 are TT defiantly no 1 on that code. Turns out r-10y is the later spec NA head aswell, so yeas 100% an NA block. Now this engine was fitted by a garage 4 years ago a few months into my ownership and we wont go into that too much but it wasn't a great experience and it transpires it was worse than I first thought. Anyway whilst they refused to reimburse me for that error, a good will gesture was sent out to me in the post of a few quid.

So a replacement engine is going to be sourced and fitted this winter. More of that and what's happening to the current late spec NA block.

 

So now more about that shelf of parts. I purchased last winter a full rear subframe assembly off Jaffa, the one off his time attack car. Loads of goodies already polybushed to death etc. So I stripped it down to bare metal and started painting it all with a few coats of lovely hammerite. This is how it stands at present;

So this winters aims are.

Remove front and rear bumpers, re underseal all of that and rip out and guff.

Delete HICAS system

Reloacte PS reservoir and fusebox

Switch over all suspension to new units from the shelf

Fit 354mm diameter brembos

Change engine out and preform various mods

It sounds like a lot, but hey winter is along time. Don't expect it to be coming through thick and fast. Im lazy haha

Oh I rolled the arches as well so I can run the proper camber at the rear again.

Fitted my old tension rods and upper arms?

Yup they are all in there :) looking swish.

 

I think I just realised a mistake. The rear calipers the bleed nipple is facing down. The bleed point is fairly central but I think they should be the other way up. Can I just unbolt and flip them for the bleeding process?

Nipples up dude....ALWAYS nipples up. :)

Phew, sorted. I have to admit though there's still not that rock solid progressive feel you get on a new car.

Well I'm at the mot place. Few things noted on the mile drive here...firstly there's still an issue with the brakes that needs attention. The alignment settings are as suspected silly. I need way less negative camber at the rear and more low at the front. It looks a touch comical at present.

The alignment settings are as suspected silly. I need way less negative camber at the rear and more low at the front. It looks a touch comical at present.

 

It's a bit like that but the opposite at the rear. The front I could get my fist in the arch gap.

We have a pass

Congratulations!

Epic work to get that done in the time.

We have a pass

 

Nice one Stephen :thumbup1:

Well done, you must feel pleased with all the work you put in

We have a pass

 

Well done mate :thumbup:

Sadly there's some bad news though. There's a tiny issue with one of the new calipers meaning I can't sustain brake pressure. They get progressively worse over time. So essentially I need to sort that before I can drive it. Failed on a minior detail the day before. Gutted doesn't cover it.

Hang in there Steve - you're almost there mate!!

 

Richard:clover:

Il get it sorted this week, just miffed as I really wanted to get out on track.

Basically one of the bleed nipples sheared off on the caliper. Common issue with these by the sounds of it. So I pain staking lay drilled out the thread half a mm at a time. Sadly it appears I've nicked the caliper body and the nipple no longer seals properly. That's my leak. Gaz popped over this evening and we tried to rectify the spongey brakes, at which point he noticed this fault. Any ideas greatly recived.

 

Sadly japfest is now out. Despite my best efforts I fell at the final hurdle today. With the wedding a meer two weeks away now I simply cannot justify driving the other halfs kia to castle combe in the early hours. To walk round the event and then leave early when an increasing list of stuff builds up here. So sadly I'm out :(

 

Rest assured though my zed will be on the road over the next week or so once I get round this pesky issue.

Gutted for you mate, after all the work and effort you put in.

CHIN UP! Always look on the bright side ...At least the brakes didn't fail when you were lashing down a racetrack!!

I've nicked the caliper body and the nipple no longer seals properly.

 

You mean the conical seating area I've arrowed?

 

Yup that's the issue :(

Gutted for you mate, after all the work and effort you put in.

CHIN UP! Always look on the bright side ...At least the brakes didn't fail when you were lashing down a racetrack!!

 

That's the exact conclusion we came to. It's a serious buisness stopping, not much room for error. So in a way I'm glad we found it and we found it before it caused a problem beyond a spongey peddle.

Which caliper is it?

Drivers side brembo front. The last one to bleed which helps with the illusion that it's working to start with.

Yup that's the issue :(

 

I can't see why you could not have that machined to create a new surface. The actual sealing area

is shown below: