[car_overhaul] Project Jalopy

[SurGie 54]

Removed the remaining parts from the engine bay today and tackled the grime and rust.

 

I don't know what it is with 205 engine bays, but they seem to get absolutely caked in oil and grime no matter what, and this 205 was no exception. Copious amounts of elbow grease and decreased later, the engine bay was clean, the thick film of oily gunge banished for... well, until about five minutes after I get it back on the road I'm sure.

 

 

Yes i know what you mean

 

I think having both inner wing covers on both sides would help stop much of it, however these are now NFP. I mite try to see if i can modifi a under engine bay 306 gti 6 one with air holes in at some point.

 

Looking good.

 

Oh and Cameron, i have researched about sealants and found THIS place. It sells very specific sealants and has some that are very flexible, so less likely to crack and let water through and trap it.

Edited June 26, 2011 by SurGie

[Cameron 16]

Thanks guys, hijack over!

[maxi 36 1 Cars]

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Cough.....valver......Cough*

 

Maxi

[Anthony 1,003]

Glorious sunshine greeted me when I woke up this morning, ideal weather for painting the engine bay.

 

Lack of preperation on my part left me limited options where to buy the paint from on a Sunday, and with my prefered choice not stocking Onyx Black I had to resort to Halfords. Now, I'm usually one to stick up for Halfords when they get an inevitable slating on the forum, but there's no point denying that their paint isn't the best out there - it's expensive (even on trade), it's in tiny cans that seem to last no time at all, and the colour match is often distinctly dubious... as anyone that's ever used Alpine White paint from there will confirm!

 

Still, beggars can't be choosers and seeing as I wanted to get it done today, Halfords it had to be. Things didn't start off well, when apparently "Peugeot Black" was their listing for half a dozen paint codes covering most of Peugeot's 80's and 90's range, including P3XY that I needed. Doubtful though I was, I bought it anyway.

 

A coat of primer followed by a couple of coats of black, and the results...

 

 

 

 

The bulkhead and nearside wing came out pretty well I think, other than the seam sealer I applied along the join between the two sections of the inner wing sticking out like a sore thumb owing to my somewhat generous application. There's not normally any seam sealer there, but I figured that moisture getting into that seam - both from above and from below - is what causes it to rust and disintegrate, and sealing it up should in theory help keep the moisture out. Besides, it'll be all but invisible once the washer bottle is in place.

 

The offside wing on the other hand didn't fair so well. I'm not quite sure what I did wrong, but the paint has either reacted to the primer or hasn't taken properly on the horizontal section, as it's noticeably less glossy compared to the other side, and has a fine sandpaper like texture. Oddly, the paint immediately around the affected section is fine with a nice smooth glossy finish. Given the jack will largely cover it up I'm not too fussed, but annoying never the less.

 

In places you can see where the epoxy mastic is underneath as I didn't sand it back prior to priming and painting, but my thinking was that the areas in question can barely be seen with the engine and other gubbins in place, and hence I'd rather have a nice thick coat for maximum protection at the expense of a perfect paint finish. The camera makes it look worse that it does in real life anyway.

 

The blending between old and new paint came out pretty well though I think, and it's pretty difficult to make out where I have and haven't painted. Given that where I've blended will be mostly obscured by the engine, battery and coolant hoses, I reckon that it'll look all but seemless once the car is back together again. The paint colour match certainly wasn't as bad as I feared it would it, atleast not in the confines of the engine bay anyway.

 

 

*Cough.....valver......Cough*

Tempting as it is to chuck a 16v lump of sorts in there - especially given that I've a choice of four(!) in the garage - for the time being at least it'll be getting the Skip Brown "Roadspeed S" 1.9 8v engine that's been sat waiting for a vacant engine bay ever since I removed it from Feb's old Sorrento GTi-S last summer.

 

It's not the quickest engine out there and wouldn't see which way a tweaked 'valver went, but it's a nice period conversion and combines the best bits of a 1.6 and 1.9 8v into a revvy little lump that's as tough as old boots and fits in well with the 205's character.

 

Besides, when you drive a 306 HDi as your daily hack, even a humble 8v 205 feels like a go-kart with a firecracker up its ass by comparison...

[Cameron 16]

Did you paint the offside wing last by any chance? I think paint comes out like that when the ambient temperature is too high and the paint part-dries in mid-air. If you painted that side last when the temp was nearing the 30's then it could well be what caused the odd finish.

Edited June 26, 2011 by Cameron

[Anthony 1,003]

Did you paint the offside wing last by any chance? I think paint comes out like that when the ambient temperature is too high and the paint part-dries in mid-air. If you painted that side last when the temp was nearing the 30's then it could well be what caused the odd finish.

Nope, that was painted after the bulkhead and before the nearside wing. It's only the horizontal section that's suffered too - the bits all around it are fine

[SurGie 54]

Glorious sunshine greeted me when I woke up this morning, ideal weather for painting the engine bay.

 

The thing with this very warm/hot weather is it can make the panels too hot and paint/lacquer dont like the surfaces hot and can lead to paint/lacquer problems. I prefer it around 20 degrees Celsius, not humid and no rain within the next and past few days tbh. Im about to do this to mine but im using a fair few thin coats of lacquer then polish back.

 

Like the way the off side inner wing area, thats what it looks like when its too hot. It either does what Cameron says or the paint dries too quickly when the panels are hot which leads the surface of the paint splitting.

 

Good job though, it looks nice

Edited June 26, 2011 by SurGie

[Anthony 1,003]

If you both reckon that it's a heat related thing then I might sand that area back and give it another go if I can muster up the enthusiasm to do so

 

Can I get away with just sanding the top layer of paint back with some wet and dry to give me a flat smooth surface to then reapply a single coat of black over the top of, or will I have to take it all the way back and start over from scratch with primer?

[SurGie 54]

Yes, use coarse paper for the very top then use a medium paper then go fine at the end, does depend on how bad it is in real life though. I would spray a fine coat first then after a bit of time where its got tacky, does depending on the outside temp then i would spray a thicker coat for the shine like the off side, without it running though.

 

I tend to do my spraying in the spring/summer at night where it cools down a bit but warm enough for it to dry quick and well. Wind & water are the worse parts of spraying out side of a booth, especially when using the compressor.

[Cameron 16]

Another possible thing is Halfrauds' spray nozzles are incredibly s*it and unreliable / inconsistent. I've discarded nozzles and swapped them for old "known good" ones as they've tended to spit out large drops rather than a fine mist; although if you used the same can for the lot it's less likely.

[Longun 1]

A paddle clutch, which seems a curious addition to a 1.6 GTi given that they're not exactly renowned for having clutch-shreading levels of torque and given that - to the best of my knowledge - it was still a comparitively standard roadgoing car when Joe (Longun) bought it. Sadly, it's worn pretty much to the rivets and started wearing grooves into the clutch cover, so the whole lot is basically fit for scrap only - just baffled as to why on earth it was fitted in the first place really.

 

I fitted that It was cheaper than a standard clutch as a friend had it lying around and wanted shot. I needed a clutch so just chucked it in, I had to use a standard cover as he only had the plate. Wish I didn't after though as stop start traffic was a pain at times.

 

Boy it looks good now. Great work

[Anthony 1,003]

I sanded back the offside inner wing and gave it another coat of paint, and whilst still not as good as the nearside, it's now perfectly acceptable and looks much better with a fair amount of shine and a smooth(ish) finish.

 

 

With the painting done and rust spots dealt with, I started putting the front end back together, readying it for the major bits like engine, gearbox and suspension to go back on and free up a big chunk of space in my rapidly overflowing garage! Most of the parts cleaned up surpisingly well prior to being refitted, the heatshield and washer bottle for example pretty much cleaning up to look as new - all little things, but go a long way to making a nice finished product.

 

The headlights and indicators took a little bit of time to make them sit right as I no longer had the marks from where the nuts had been before to re-align the brackets. Again, it's just a small thing, but one thing I can't stand is the boss-eyed and wonky look that many 205's that have been taken apart or crashed have, usually stemming from the headlights being badly fitted and making everything else look bad as a result.

[Anthony 1,003]

Taking advantage of the good weather, I cracked on and made some good progress on the 205.

 

First up was replacing the master cylinder and brake lines. There was nothing wrong with the old MC and most of the brake lines on the car did appear to have been replaced at some point in the past, but it's one of those thing that I do for peace of mind regardless - brakes are the one thing that I like to have absolute confidence in, and I wish not for having a repeat of the heart-stopping moments I had in my early days of 205 ownership many years ago when I suffered complete brake failure on more than one occasion...

 

 

Given that it had been dry and warm for several days, I took the opportunity to apply fresh underseal before refitting the brake and fuel lines. I used Waxoyl Underbody Seal for the job - there's mixed opinions about it on the internet, but I've been happy with the results and effectiveness when I've used it previously, and the Waxoyl content helps to combat any rust and repel moisture which should bode well in terms of protection. It's a messy and thankless task to be honest, but given that I'm hoping to keep this car for a number of years and want to keep the menace that is tin worm at bay, it's time well spent.

 

 

I had been planning to replace the fuel lines as they're usually looking very sorry for themselves after 20+ years living underneath the car exposed to the elements and to road salt during the winter months. Surprisingly however, after rubbing off the top layer of crud the fuel lines were in good condition, free from any pitting or notable corrosion and easily have a good few years of life in them. A quick coat of Waxoyl to help protect them and I fitted them back on to the car, finished off with a new fuel filter in the engine bay.

[Anthony 1,003]

Rain rain go away, come again some other day.

 

It might be a lyric from a Nine Inch Nails track, but it's certainly summed up my day - the glorious weather yesterday replaced with frequent downpours, which is exactly what I didn't want when I had lots to get done

 

Plan was to get the subframe built up and on the car, and then get the suspension, hubs etc fitted so that the car could be temporarily dropped back onto its wheels and rolled off the driveway so that I could get my other 205 into prime position to be pulled apart. I can't really progress much further without the gearbox and driveshafts from the white 205, but more to the point, the deadline when it needs to be ready is coming around fast so the Jalopy will have to go on the backburner for a few weeks.

 

First I had to get the Jalopy rolling again though, starting with the subframe. What I said previously about the engine bays in 205's having an amazing ability to get plastered into oily gunge is surpassed ten-fold by the subframe which seems to act like a magnet for thick oily sludge. The only thing to make cleaning the subframe any less enjoyable would be if it started raining when you were halfway though... and so the heavens opened.

 

The postman turned up with his usual impecable timing to drop off a jiffy bag with a couple of bronze bushes for the gear L-bracket from Nick (GTi6BOY). I had replaced the bushes with new OE plastic ones not so long back when it was fitted to the other car, and whilst it had made a significant improvement, there was still a little bit of play present which I wanted to get rid of to tighten the gearshift further. Nick's bushes did exactly what they said on the tin, fitted perfectly and completely eradicated the remaining play.

 

 

With the subframe finally clean, attention turned to the Xsara VTS steering rack that I was intended to use. I'd removed it from a low mileage Phase 1 Xsara VTS some time ago with the intention of fitting it as part of a PAS conversion to further quicken the steering over a 205/309 PAS rack (2.4 vs 3.2 turns lock to lock, which is in itself a massive improvement over the 3.9 turns of a non-PAS rack).

 

There's two main issues to overcome with using a Xsara rack on a 205, namely the lower steering column/UJ and the track rods. The lower column was straight forward enough, as the part from a square drive non-PAS 205 rack fits perfectly to the Xsara rack and obviously mates up fine to the 205 upper column - I did find that it came further into the car than on a 205 rack and was only a few millimetres from bottoming out against the UJ on the upper column, but nevertheless it fits fine.

 

The track rods you have two choices as the Xsara ones are too long - you either replace them with 205/309 ones, or you cut down the Xsara ones. I had been intended to replace them with a pair of new 205 length track rods, but upon inspecting the rack the track rods that were fitted were still tight and felt like new and it seemed silly to remove them, especially when you can pretty much guarantee that the OE fitted part is going to be far better quality that most aftermarket pattern parts. Out came the angle grinder and ~15mm was removed from both track rods, which had worked for my friend and thus should have been fine for me too... I'll come back to this later.

 

Whilst the subframe was off, I took the opportunity to fit a new pair of OE ARB bushes for the 205 ARB that I'm going to run. The old bushes still seemed OK, but at 20 years old they're bound to be past their best and since it's a 5 minute job to replace them with the subframe off, it seemed silly not to.

 

 

The finished subframe ready to be fitted to the car, with a couple of old 309 wishbones that will be swapped out later for a nearly-new pair when I get around to replacing the knackered bushes with a set of new genuine OE ones.

 

With regards front struts, I was going to run the Skip Brown Roadspeed damper setup that I'd built up last year with new bearings and Group N rubbers from BakerBM. The setup had worked very well indeed on Feb's old Sorrento GTi-S that they were removed from, and strike a good balance between comfort and road holding that's exactly what I'm looking for with this road-oriented build.

 

For those that aren't aware, the dampers are part of the Skip Brown "Phase 1" Roadspeed suspension setup, and consist of a set of standard damper bodies that have been machined to take a Bilstein insert. The damping rate on these is 200/80, which sounds a little soft compared to the 300/200 rate of the tarmac spec inserts, but it works very well indeed on the road - firmer and more controlled than standard, but still riding well over the typical broken and rutted surface of a British B-road.

 

The only change over how I'd built them up previously was that I decided that I'd use the newish Eibach 7001 springs that came with the Jalopy rather than the Skip Brown springs - I pondered about it for a while as the Skip Brown springs did work really well, but the general consensus from people that have tried both on the same dampers was that the Eibach's ride a little better and sit a touch higher, which sounds ideal.

 

SBC Roadspeed dampers with original Skip Brown spring (top) and Eibach 7001 spring (bottom).

 

The built up struts were then fitted to the car along with a pair of 1.9 GTi hubs (with stud conversion) and brake disks, and a pair of new drop links. Calipers on, wheels on, back on its wheels again... and a massive amount of toe-in, even with the TRE's wound in as far as they'll go.

 

Hmmmm.

 

I was expecting to be almost out of adjustment on the TRE's once the wheels were pointing straight ahead, but this isn't even close - there's atleast 5 degrees of toe-in, if not twice that. Put it this way, it's toeing in so much that when pushing the car round the side of the house, any more than about a quarter of a turn of lock has the front wheels snatching and hoping as they're fighting against each other. Couple that with the brakes dragging slightly from sitting with the handbrake on for a while and I was bloody exhausted by the time I was done.

 

I'm scratching my head somewhat as to why though, given that whilst it is a bit of a bodge, what I've done has worked for others and should if anything have been a touch easier on my car since I'm running a slightly wider 309 front setup. Looking into it closer, I'm wondering if either the threads inside the trackrods are badly crudded up (or simply aren't properly tapped) or whether the TRE's that I've got have a longer threaded section than normal, as there's still far more thread showing on the TRE's than the 15mm I cut off the end of the track rods. I'm sure all will become clear when I get a spare half an hour to look into it.

 

Clearly I could just cut down the threaded section of the TRE's to get around the problem, but I'm not particularly keen on going down that route if I can help it - although I accept that ultimately it may come down to a choice between that or replacing the track rods for some 205 length items.

[hman205 1]

Looking awesome mate can't wait to see it in the flesh

[feb 47]

Great work as always and attention to detail which is what makes the difference IMHO

 

For those that aren't aware, the dampers are part of the Skip Brown "Phase 1" Roadspeed suspension setup, and consist of a set of standard damper bodies that have been machined to take a Bilstein insert. The damping rate on these is 200/80, which sounds a little soft compared to the 300/200 rate of the tarmac spec inserts, but it works very well indeed on the road - firmer and more controlled than standard, but still riding well over the typical broken and rutted surface of a British B-road.

 

The only change over how I'd built them up previously was that I decided that I'd use the newish Eibach 7001 springs that came with the Jalopy rather than the Skip Brown springs - I pondered about it for a while as the Skip Brown springs did work really well, but the general consensus from people that have tried both on the same dampers was that the Eibach's ride a little better and sit a touch higher, which sounds ideal.

 

SBC Roadspeed dampers with original Skip Brown spring (top) and Eibach 7001 spring (bottom).

 

Interesting what you mention about the springs comfort wise.

Does anyone know the rating of the SBC ones?

I would expect the opposite looking at the pics.

The reason I say this is because looking at the above pic it seems that the lower coils of the Eibach ones are much closer to each other than the SBC lower coils so I would expect them to touch and become "dead" faster hence the initial comfort period would be worse in the Eibachs if that makes sense.

 

I saw an increase in comfort when I swapped the OE black springs on my FSTi with the Sti pink ones (which are about 12% stiffer IIRC) and as I understand (correct me if I am wrong) this is because the lower coils of the pinks are further from each other hence the initial comfort (before they touch) is better.

 

The springs are upside down so when I refer to lower coils these are actually the top ones in the pic

[Cameron 16]

Anthony; there's about 80mm of thread inside the track rod iirc, of which you actually need 15-20mm at the most. I wouldn't feel too bad about cutting them down a bit further, from memory I cut about 20mm off mine and have about 8mm of adjustment in the track rod when set to 1mm toe out.

[Lan 24 1 Cars]

good work car is looking top notch, I too have used the underbody seal in the past and currently and find it does a perfectly fine job and it make the underside look nice and clean

[Anthony 1,003]

With it rapidly dawning on me that due to other commitments this car isn't going to be finished before the end of summer as I had originally hoped, I decided that at the very least I wanted to get the rustproofing and underseal finished whilst it we still had decent summer weather.

 

First job was to remove the beam, fuel tank etc from the rear of the car to see the scale of the task ahead of me, and whilst you can never be quite sure what horrors you'll find behind the fuel tank, I was reasonably confident that it would be pretty good given the condiiton of the rest of the car and the fact that there was no rust bubbling through underneath the rear seat bases at all.

 

 

With everything removed, it seemed that my rare moment of optimism was well placed, with the boot floor and fuel tank area all in fairly good condiiton. There was some surface rust either side of the tank as usual, and a few areas on the boot floor where the underseal was beginning to peel away which if not dealt with turns pretty rapidly into a rust problem. No issue here though as it had been caught early.

 

With no welding required, I tackled the hateful part of the job, grinding off the surface rust and the old underseal. Words cannot descibe just how messy this job is, leaving you and the area all around the car covered in a sticky brown and black coloured film of dust and gunge. My garage is still plastered from where I made the mistake of doing this job on my '89 White GTi last winter, getting into every corner and covering everything and anything. Needless to say, I learnt my lesson and did this one outside...

 

Degreased and a coat of Epoxy Mastic applied to rust proof and protect, I then applied a couple of layers of Hammerite Underseal with Waxoyl just as I had with the front half of the car. Another messy job, but atleast once it's done it won't need reapplying for a few years, and helps to keep the car tin-worm free.

 

 

With the underseal done, I could get on with re-assembling the car. First job was fitting new copper brake lines to go with the new front ones that I'd done previously. As you can see, I've retained the standard 1.6 GTi brake line setup, with a single front-rear brake line and the standard 1.6 GTi compensator - I find this setup seems to be more reliable and long-lasting than the 1.9 GTi setup and the failure prone compensators, and as a bonus, means that you can just about do the whole car with a single reel of copper pipe.

 

 

Fuel tank and cleaned up heatshields refitted, it was time to finally fit the SBC Phase 2 beam that I'd refurbed last year and had been gathering dust in my garage ever since. I won't recover the rebuild process or pictures as they're all in my Roadspeed Revival thread (post #16 and #17), but suffice to say, it's been completely rebuilt with new bearings, seals, shafts - the works.

 

Hell, I even had a funny turn and gave it a lick of paint, as utterly pointless as that is given that the only people that are going to see it is me when I work on it, the MOT man when he gives it a clean bill of health once a year, and anyone else is probably only going to see it if I get things very wrong on a trackday and park it shiny side down... in which case, I think I've bigger worries than what the beam looks like

 

Spec wise, the beam is as follows:

 

• 205 GTi beam tube and trailing arms
  
• 20mm torsion bars
  
• 23mm anti-roll bar
  
• SBC negative camber kit, giving 1 degree negative camber and 20 minutes toe-in per side
  
• Group A solid beam mounts
  
• Bilstein Group N Forest (360/250) dampers

Given the swap to Eibach springs from the Skip Brown ones that I had originally intended to use, I raised the height of the beam fractionally to match, now built to approximately 305mm between shock centers. I might need to adjust it further, but hard to guess until it's on the car and there's an engine sat in the front.

 

 

With the beam fitted, I finished off the brakes, fitting the calipers originally from the car as they turned out to be a refurbished pair which was a nice surprise. Even though everything moved freely, I took the opportunity to re-grease the sliders and handbrake mechanism as a bit of preventative maintenance. New brake disks and handbrake cables as a matter of course, plus took the opportunity to fit the stud conversion kit that I had sat around in the garage.

 

 

Exhaust cleaned up and back on its hangers, and that's the rear of the car pretty much finished - a sizeable tick in the done column and a step closer to it finally being on the road... and protected against the elements in the meantime.

[cybernck 402 1 Cars]

Superb work and excellent pics/writeup - very inspirational!

 

P.S. What's the part no. for the sunroof handle seals?

 

Thanks.

[Anthony 1,003]

P.S. What's the part no. for the sunroof handle seals?

694875 and you'll need to order two.

 

They're priced at 29p+VAT each in this country, which makes a mockery of the idiots paying £3.50 for a pair off eBay!

[pug_ham 244 3 Cars]

Looks very good Anthony, nice turn around from how it looked when you started.

 

Even though my car is supposed to be getting close to completion on stage 1, the list of things to do in stage 2 are growing all the time.

 

g

[Anthony 1,003]

I had been intended to fit the SBC 1.9 8v engine into the Jalopy and thus build the car to full Skip Brown GTi-S mechanical spec, creating a nice period converted car.

 

The problem is that, as the saying goes, power corrupts - absolutely.

 

I had completed putting a very similar spec engine into my other 205 for its new owner, and whilst quick and entertaining in isolation, it felt a little underwhelming against a few of the other cars that I'd been thrown the keys to recently - hardly surprising when amongst them was an 200hp+ XE powered Westfield, a 205 V6 and a 300hp odd Impreza. Coupled with a growing dislike of the crudeness of the antiquated Jetronic management, and it was increasingly clear to me that the SBC lump in the standard form it was in wasn't going to cut it.

 

I sat and pondered many options, from management and 'bodies on the SBC lump (couldn't justify the cost, especially against the modest performance - although the soundtrack would have been glorious), Mi16 conversion (love the character, dislike the rebuild costs and fragility on track) and a host of other possibilities - but in the end the solution appeared courtesy of eBay.

 

Enter the BX 16v of the 21st century - the Xsara VTS and it's XU10J4RS (GTi-6) engine

 

A 2001 Phase 2 example popped up not too far from me with just 73k miles on the clock. A few messages back and forth with the seller suggested that it was in good machanical order and had a good engine, but a little tatty cosmetically, a few electrical gremlins, and with only a couple of weeks MOT remaining (which it wasn't going to pass without work). Basically, on paper it was an ideal donor that was likely to go cheap, and a last second low bid later, I was the proud owner of a Xsara VTS.

 

 

The chance paid off and it was indeed mechanically sound, drove well and most importantly, had a quick engine that pulled like a train with no smoke, rattles or tapping.

 

I'd been here before of course, about a year or so ago previously having bought and broken a Xsara with an eye to converting my '89 GTi, but I umm'ed and ahh'ed and ended up selling the engine to Ali (allye) on here for his 205 Rallye. In truth I knew that I was making a mistake before I'd sold the engine, as it was a good strong, low-mileage unit, and sure enough with the benefit of hindsight I should have kept hold of it. His gain, my loss.

 

Anyway, some 24 hours later, the all important heart was removed and another Xsara laid to waste prematurely:

 

 

In truth, all being equal it wouldn't be my first choice of engine - it lacks the rev-happy character of an Mi16, is a little heavy compared to the alloy block engines, and renders the car pretty hopeless class wise if I did ever want to use it competitively. Catastrophic piston and valve failures, whilst rare, aren't unheard of either.

 

However, it does prove to be the best compromise in my eyes - new enough not to need an expensive mandatory rebuild, decent power/performance out of the box, modern reliable engine management as standard, plentiful and cheap supply of both engines and parts, and doesn't suffer the oil control issues that the 1.9 (and to a lesser extent 2.0) Mi16 engine does on track - oh, and not to mention the best induction soundtrack from an XU without going down the ITB route.

 

The plan is to use the engine as-is following the usual full service, new cambelt/tensioners/waterpump, plus a set of replacement big-end shells as a sensible precaution given that it's far from unheard of for them to lunch the big-end shells, if thankfully not with the frequency that 1.9 Mi16's are notorious for doing. Otherwise, given that it's low mileage, runs and pulls well, and has excellent compression (15.5 bar on all four cylinders), I don't see the need to strip it down for a full (and expensive) rebuild, especially when replacement engines are plentiful and comparatively cheap should it cry enough.

 

I figure that if for whatever reason I decide I don't like it, it's not like I should have too much difficulty selling a complete ready converted conversion package, and certainly I'll be keeping the Skip Brown engine under wraps at the back of the garage should I choose to revert it back to its period correct spec in the future

[Anthony 1,003]

Being from a Phase 2 Xsara VTS, there is a bit more work to do and parts to swap compared to an engine sourced from either a 306 GTi-6 or a Phase 1 VTS owing to the use of multiplex wiring and differing fitment parts on the later car.

 

• Wiring loom and ECU
  The multiplex wiring on the Phase 2 VTS is sufficiently involved and difficult to retrofit into a pre-multiplex car like a 205 that to all intents and purposes you need to source a replacement loom and ECU from either a 306 GTi-6 or a Xsara VTS, both of which are pre-multiplex and thus comparitively simple to convert for use in a 205. Make sure that the ECU is supplied unlocked, otherwise you'll be paying a chunk more money to have it unlocked.
  
• Exhaust manifold
  The Phase 2 VTS manifold uses an olive type fitment for joining to the downpipe/CAT as opposed to the normal 205 style arrangement used on 306 GTi-6 and Phase 1 Xsara VTS. Could be used I'm sure with a little fabrication, but given how cheaply the earlier manifolds are available for these days, it's easier just swapping it for the earlier manifold in my opinion.
  
• Knock sensor
  The 306 GTi-6 and Phase 1 VTS use a three pin knock sensor, whereas the Phase 2 VTS uses a two pin knock sensor. I suspect that the third pin is just a shield and not needed and thus you could swap the connector on the loom, but for the sake of simplicity and keeping modified parts to a minimum, it makes sense to just swap the knock sensors over.
  
• MAP sensor
  Different connector on the Phase 2 VTS's. Not sure whether the sensor itself is electronically the same and thus could be used with a connector swap on the loom, or whether it works differently and is incompatible.
  
• Oil pressure switch
  Different connector, although works in the same way and could be used with a connector swap. As per all but Phase 1 GTi-6's, there is no sender for the oil pressure gauge fitted as standard to the engine.
  
• Fuel injectors
  Different fuel injectors are used on the Phase 2 VTS compared to the earlier cars - 306's and Phase 1 VTS's are green, Phase 2 VTS's are black. Not sure whether the flow rate or impedance differs between them.
  
• Fuel pressure regulator (FPR)
  350KPa (3.5 bar) regulator fitted on the Phase 2 Xsara, whereas the earlier cars use a 300KPa (3.0 bar) FPR
  
• Coolant temperature senders
  Phase 2 VTS uses a single coolant temperature sender that's shared by the ECU, dash guages and radiator cooling fan, and this needs to be swapped for the earlier setup that used seperate senders. You don't need to worry about the brown "Bitron" sender when using the engine in a 205 as the radiator fan is controlled by a seperate thermoswitch, but you will need a dedicated ECU temperature sensor, and either using the 306 style combined sender for both the gauge and warning light, or using seperate senders as per a 205.
  
• Upper engine mount arm
  The top arm is also different which I didn't spot initially - the Phase 2 Xsara arm sits slightly forward of the mount, whereas the 306 (and Phase 1 Xsara I'm assuming) uses a mount that kinks backwards from the mount.

Also, phase 2 VTS's (and I believe the late GTi-6's) use the later 137 tooth cambelt and auto-tensioner setup, which I personally dislike and will be swapping back to the earlier 136 tooth cambelt and conventional eccentric tensioner. To do this, you'll need to fit the piller that the earlier tensioner sits on (part number 082017) and use a different tensioner bolt (part number 693278). The idler pulley is the same for both the early and late belt setups.

 

Otherwise, the engine itself is the same and with the above issues addressed it's basically as per a conversion using a 306 GTi-6 or Phase 1 VTS engine that's been discussed in great length elsewhere on the forum.

[Anthony 1,003]

On paper the GTi-6 engine should be better than a 1.9 Mi16 - it has more power delivered at the same peak revs, and more torque with a more accessible powerband - but somehow it never quite felt like it had the same urge to be thrashed, lacking that something on that makes an Mi magical and so well suited to a 205 GTi. It's almost like a standard GTi-6 is if anything too competent, too clinical, and somewhat lacks the character and drama of an old-school 16 valve engine.

 

Handily, a Petert Stage 1 regrind inlet cam (RSH435A) came up for sale around the same time that I picked up the engine, the extra 10 degrees of duration hopefully adding more fizz and willing at the upper end of the rev range without unduly affecting low-down tractability or being too agressive for the standard engine management to cope.

 

Coupled with that I'll be fitting the lightened flywheel that I've had sat around for over a year that I bought from James_R. It's a standard Mi16 flywheel that has been significantly lightened, down from 6.5kg as standard to a whisker over 4kg, which should make a significant difference to the responsiveness of the engine and the acceleration in lower gears.

 

I'm hoping that between them, coupled to a short ratio gearbox, they'll give the '6 that bit of sparkle that it subjectively lacks in standard form.

 

I'd normally be a little wary of a standard flywheel that had been lightened to that degree, but given that James used it for several years on several different engines and covered a lot of miles during that period, I guess that if it had been excessively weakened, it would have long since exploded by now. It was done by a contact of Miles's who has lots of experience in lightening flywheels, rather than a typical tin-pot outfit with a lathe and worryingly little comprehension.