[trackday_prep] 309 Gti Trackday Car

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

All looks super, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fit some air filters to your carbs. Running without will wear the rings and liners in your lovely new engine in double quick time.

[swordfish210 20]

All looks super, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fit some air filters to your carbs. Running without will wear the rings and liners in your lovely new engine in double quick time.

 

Dont forget all the dirt that will get mashed in to the valve seats so they wont seal properly.

[edbar 6]

Thanks guys but the engine is not finished yet and of course i'm getting a filter. Was talking money about pipercross and itg dome filter yesterday. Does anyone know of anyone who makes a backplate already cut for the 8v? Thanks for the interest.

[edbar 6]

Spent some of the morning bolting bits onto the block and doing little jobs.

Fitted the oil pressure sensor.

 

 

Then put hylomar onto the dizzy hosing to try and seal it against the alpha coilpack mounting plate.

 

 

Then bolted that on although not too happy with the seal so might make a gasket yet.

 

 

Also took the elbow off the master carb and fitted the new T piece.

 

 

Trail fitted the carbs this time with the misab plates and rubber washers and dummy fitted leads.

 

[edbar 6]

New ZX volcane leads to stop water potentionaly pooling on top of the plugs.

 

More carb bits arrived, linkage and balance link.

 

Having a real game getting it to fit, Linkage is fouling the fuel "T" piece. So Removed some metal.

Before

 

 

And after removal.

 

 

Wasnt enough though as its still very close and now the washer is fouling it.

 

So i plan to cut the steel bracket to allow more movement of the "T" piece to hopefully give me sufficiant clearance.

 

Also need to remove the threaded bracket on the side of the carb to allow full travel of the throttle linkage.

 

However one job has gone well and that is fabricating a throttle position sensor end plate.

Cut steel.

 

 

And nicely painted and bolted up.

 

 

Hopefully try and rectify most of the linkage issues tomorrow.

[edbar 6]

Went back to the workshop today to try and finish the linkage issues i've been having properly so took the carbs and manifolds with me today so i could do the dummy fit there.

The offending bracket on the master carb.

 

 

and after removal and a file.

 

 

 

Cut the linkage bracket to allow movement of the fuel "T" piece to try and get it to clear the linkage during operation.

 

 

Dummy fit now the bracket is removed and "T" piece in new position.

 

 

Return spring also positioned now.

 

 

All seemed well so returned for the final fit.

 

 

 

Seems to work o.k so we will have to see during operation if it is o.k, Wouldn't recommend this kit to anyone, too much hassle and not good quality, but after fettling seems alright.

[edbar 6]

Too k the 309 to my friends workshop today to make a start removing the engine.The entire engine bay was covered in fresh oil and old grime and grease that had obviously built up over the years to make every part covered. It was a filthy job to do but great to start the ball rolling with getting it done.

 

The start, manky old bay!

 

 

Then removed the front end, little bits of rust dotted around but i will take care of those next year as i dont have the time in the workshop available to me.

 

 

Inlet mani, pas pump, alternator etc off, and a jetwash with traffic film remover.

 

 

Manifold undone, driveshafts out, wiring off.

 

 

And lifted out. The torque bush is completely shot and the gearbox mount wasnt bolted to the car so could move back and forward!

 

 

As i left it, I only had help at the end when my friend operated the winch and put the wheels back on, apart from that i did it all myself and was my first pug, feel very satisfied knowing that and i did it within the day, worked my nuts off!

 

 

Didn't set out to take it out completely, just kept going bit by bit. Need to have it done before next weekend fingers crossed.

Edited May 3, 2009 by edbar

[Cloverleaf 1]

Good work mate. Can't believe how much oil was over your bay!

[welshpug 1,661]

you could use a core plug or something similar knocked into the hole to solve the problem here, the tabs for the coilpack are even taped out so you can bolt the coilpack on as it would be from the factory and have a neater wiring, must be a late engine.

 

[BackStreetRacecars 3]

What about the thermostat housing from one of the later 8v engines? Surely that'd sort out all the problems?

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I got my mate to turn up an alloy plug and then TIG welded it in, then milled it back, the thermostat housing was horrible to weld though.

But you can get later thermostat housings without the hole bored in them.

[edbar 6]

Well had a real task last week. Found my exhaust manifold to be cracked, luckily i knew someone with a non cracked spare, bottom engine mount is knackered so ordered a solid bottom mount from ab motorsport but got the one which connects to the subframe instead which was completely my fault i might add, filter didnt turn up until yesterday! So friday night got to the workshop at about 6, first job i did was to port ther exhaust mani, then burn out the old torque bush/very bottom mount and fit in ab's nylon bush and bolt all ancilleries up to the engine , trying to clean them as best as i could along the way (only had friday and saturday available in the workshop). By 11.00pm the engine was in the bay.

 

 

 

Started saturday morning at 8am, no major problems at the start of the day but a few little slip ups due to being over tired,not eating or drinking etc, we were so focused on the job at hand. So we decided that there wasnt enough time to put the new ecu in and try and get it to run in the time we had so on went the original dizzy. Then when we filled it with water we found a leak at the back of the thermostat housing which was plugged with a bolt. then we noticed the front of the engine was leaking, looked to be the head gasket!!! Panic was evident but i had a look and was coming from behind the inlet mani, panic again!! Had i ground into a waterway without realising? so off came the mani, only to find it wasnt covering two approx 6mm water galleries at the bottom middle of the head inbetween ports! We realised that the holes wernt threaded and needed to be flush, the manifold i put on for the carbs was a straight line at the bottom whereas the original had two protusions to blank the waterways. A quick phone call to my mates dad and he was out to have a look, he decided that he would go and get his thread taps and some threaded 6mm plugs. 45mins later he was back then the holes tapped and plugged manifold back on and that was the end of the leaks. Five mins swapping some wires around saw the car turning over then fired, ran for a few seconds then stopped. The carbs were filling with fuel and it was going everywhere literally pouring out of every orifice! We hooked up russ's pressure gauge in the line but it wasnt working and giving mental readings. We tried screwing it in and out, changing the pipes around but still didnt work. So i decided to bolt the front end back on and accept defeat.Finished 7.00pm.

Yesterday i rang aldons to see if they had a pressure gauge, they did so i set off to get it. Upon arrival we realised they didnt have the inline adaptor! So i would need a new filter king and the gauge! I wasnt happy as i didnt have the money really but i didnt know if it was my regulator or the gauge or both which were faulty. So we were looking through the catalogue when i stumbled across a picture of my reg under the heading INJECTION 1-5 BAR!!! No wonder there was fuel everywhere! I was then asked what pump i was running and i explained that it was the stock injection pump the said i need a turbo regulator, that would be the only one to bring it down. I said yes straight away and made my way back to worcester to the workshop.

The new filter was there aswell, so i undid the old reg, put the new one in and as soon as i touched the key it sprang into life and sounded smooth with it! The only problem i had was that the filter base plate was wrong, Centers weren't right and the back plate fouled the alternator and the starter motor, so put it on over the trumpets as a temorary fix until i find out the correct one. Also the fans dont work and they had stopped working before it went off the road, no idea why?

Needs a few bed in miles and then set up, but glad to have the harder lot done.

 

 

 

Not many pics due to my camera stopped focusing before i started so these were on my phone so apolagies for quality.

[Cloverleaf 1]

Good work mate, make sure you run it in properly!

[edbar 6]

Did a few more jobs today, fitted temporary catch tank, tidied up hoses, removed the cambelt cover as it was rubbing the pulley, topped up oil to correct level. Drives so nicely cant wait to take it on the road. And booked it in for its mot on tuesday.

[taylorspug 7]

Ive lost track, why is there a time constraint meaning you couldnt get the mappable ignition fitted?

[edbar 6]

i was using a mates workshop so i only had friday night and saturday in there before i had to get out so he could bring cars back in to earn money. so we put the dizzy back on because we know it works and less wiring to sort out within the time we had. Wanted to be able to drive it for the bedding in miles and if we hadnt of had it running when we finished i would have to have tried fault findind on the drive.

[edbar 6]

Time for an update. Have managed to do 25 miles in the car and all feels good, had a problem with the fans not working on the rad but cured that for now with a switch on the dash. Also need to get a few new hoses as i have two that have pin hole leaks. Well took all the dash out and decided to start stripping the carpet and underlay out, also ditching any non essential interior out. A few hours of work and the car is gutted and now needs cage and seat mounts welding in.

 

Stripping the dash.

 

Dash back in, now with fan switch, and seats and cage placed inside for storage.

 

 

 

And new bottom hose from block to metal inner wing pipe.

[Cloverleaf 1]

Good work mate. I hate taking the dash out. Love the steering wheel

[edbar 6]

Thanks mate love it to just feels so good to use. Yeah dont really like doing the dash but just one of those fiddly jobs that needed to be done. Left the glove box out as was barely held in anymore due to previous owners hashing its removal. Oh well, less weight

[edbar 6]

Replaced the bottom hose, then had to try and get a hose for the top of the rad without heat exchange pipes. After much searching i found one in the gates catalogue. With an inch trimmed off it was perfect.

 

Knackered top hose.

 

New "straight" hose.

[edbar 6]

Decided to make the most of my time off and get rid of the dizzy and fit my weber alpha set instead.

The mess of wires that used to live in my glove box now hanging.

 

The hole i've decided to use is where the headlight adjuster cables and bonnet release cable ran through. Not going to use any of those as im going to use bonnet pins so seemed ideal save cutting a new one, and i can chop up the grommet to still use.

 

Wires fed through.

 

Hopefully not need these anymore.

 

Engine sans distributor set up.

 

With lovely coilpack and leads.

 

Had to make a hole in the filter baseplate for the air temp sensor to live.

 

Was going to use the tiny allen head bolts and nuts to fix it on but the heads were pretty rounded. As it was a tight fit anyway i decided to use a little silicon.

 

Thats as far as i have got now, Need to find where to put the fused live to (tried battery but makes the pump run constant) And also find which terminal to plug the tacho connection to on the coil.

[edbar 6]

very small update.

New alloy bonnet pins fitted.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Have you fitted any rubber grommet to protect the wiring going through the bulkhead hole? Might be a good idea if not.

 

Trying to avoid saying 'chafing'. Damn it! I said 'chafing'. Double damn it, I've said it twice now.

 

[welshpug 1,661]

why do people always fit the bonnet pins the wrong way round if you fit them the other way its a single action to pull them and whip the bonnet up, whereas the way I have seen most do it, like you, it's open one open the other then lift bonnet

[edbar 6]

I cut and adapted the orginal bung then siliconed the engine bay side to waterproof which i forgot to put in the pics.

 

I didnt realise there was a right or wrong way just preferance? not really going to worry about an extra second to open the bonnet really. Might try the "proper" way with the fibreglass one though.