1991 Sorrento, First 205 Project

[JamPug 22]

 

 

This is my pride and obsession right now, my first 205 gti !

Due to recent events which will be explained in this post I've decided to right my project thread as comments and advice will be needed, so here it goes.

 

I bought this car back in april and have loved every minute of it. This car is my daily so I've so far not done any thing to drastic so I can get to work on Monday mornings. So I've basically just been changing of things to make it work better basically.

So far I have

Changed all the lights in the front (fogs, headlights and inductors)

Change the rear light covers

Fixed interior things like map light and clock

Drivers side drive shaft

Both front shocks, springs, anti roll bar links

Painted bits of trim like the back panel and roof spoiler

Electric windows (half working)

And I got this lovely set of half leathers which took ages to find !

Then it came to yesterday when I was digging around for the water leak that I have had for ages. I was convinced it was my head gasket or the plugged holes behind the inlet manifold but it turned out to be much worse

So yea the stage im at now is I need a new bottom end so pm me if you think you have something hopefully she will be back on the road soon ????

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Oh dear buddy, thats a shame, looks like someone has not used as much anti freeze as they should have done.

You can either buy a engine or bottom end complete, or get hold of a block and rebuild your engine into another block.

If you are planning to keep it a while then it may be worth thinking about a rebuild, then you will have confidence in future that the engine is good.

[JamPug 22]

Cheers Tom

I did consider it but I don't really have the skill or funds for it atm plus at some point in the future I wanna do a 16v conversion

[dcc 855]

I think we have a good condition block spare, will check with my mate and let you know! Be wary of blocks these days though, many of them have similar rot and can cause a bit of heart / head ache when being built up unnoticed

[Pugleyrich 37 1 Cars]

That looks lovely. Shame about the cracked block though. I hope that gets sorted without too much impact on your daily commute. Out of interest, how did the spoiler come out? Was it pitted?

[JamPug 22]

Thanks man and not great to be honest the texture was crap but it is a lot better then it was, I will probably go back and do it again with a lot more sanding but for the time being its good aha

[JamPug 22]

Right so I'm updating my thread at last

 

A couple weeks of organising and I got my new engine off dcc so it was out with the old

Then in with the new (kind of)

I managed to guide the engine in on my own which I was super stoked on !

 

Since I already bought a head gasket and bolts i sent the head of to get skimmed off and the valve clearances set with a gti cam in. (More on this later)

 

Then it was just a case of putting stuff back on which went relatively smoothly. I did buy the wrong cam belt for the tensioner I was using which was a pain and the threads in the thermostat housing stripped so they had to be heli coiled. Apart from that it was just a case of remembering hoses and routing them as best as I could.

 

Then came to this weekend when I tried to start it but no luck. It turn over fine but would just backfire. Doubled checked everything and checked I had sparked which I did which confused me, I dug into the distributor anyway and found the rotor arm was moving freely ???? after a bit more investigating I found this

And this

The garage didn't put the spacer plate in the cam !!!! This meant the distributor wasn't touching and WORST the cam sprocket was in the right place. I noticed this earlier and refitted the sprocket to check it was in the right place but didn't think much more on it.

 

Save to say I was pretty annoyed at the garage and i will be having words because if it ran, it could have f***ed up my whole engine !

 

I managed to sort it though and after that it started first turn ???? just got to check everything now and fit a few more things then I will be driving it again.

Dan (dcc) was a massive help as well when I forgot where stuff went and giving me tips so cheers bro !

 

Anyway I'm pretty chuffed since Ive never done anything like this before but I've learnt a huge amount, just wish it didn't happen in November aha

[dcc 855]

Way hey! Great news!

 

Glad it's going well

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Being a later engine they don;t run the location plate as it's inbuilt into the cam carrier at the end

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Well done buddy for tackling it and getting it done yourself. The first time is always most difficult. Next time you will be putting a 16v in there!

[JamPug 22]

Thought I'd update this so here it goes ...

 

Basically the car was on the road after putting it back together and it ran well for about a month or two but then started leaking oil badddddd so I'm pretty sure the head has gone again ????

 

So I bought this little beast to tide me over winter because I could not be dealing with the cold any longer.

It runs on air and was 275 quid so I thought it was a bargain.

 

Anyway I've been collected parts to do a big overhaul of the 205 so the bootfloor is getting repaired, I'm gonna refurb the beam, fix the engine obv, power steering install and other bits and bobs. I've mainly been fixing stuff I can fix inside my house though aha

Most exciting for me though is that a bought an old steering wheel that was ripped so I'm gonna find a nice alcantara/suede to wrap it in

Also I picked up some rust removing stuff and submerged my bonnet latch over night and this is the outcome which I'm very pleased with

I also replaced the fan transistor, can you tell which one is new ? I'm yet to to see if this has worked yet though ...

 

Anyway over the next few weeks I'm hopefully going to be doing a lot more.

[speno 239 2 Cars]

Nice work ,I found that bloody pipe now chap send me your addy and I will post it out with a present ^^

[JamPug 22]

So good progress was made this weekend

 

Saturday the engine came out

 

 

Apart from a stubborn driveshaft centre bearing everything went very smoothly. I also had everything spread over the drive and organised everything.

 

Sunday I cut down my brand new engine stand down 10mm I wasn't happy with the amount of threads it would be held on by

 

 

The rest of day was spent removing the steering rack ready for the pas rack, this is where things started to go wrong ..... As I was inside undoing the steering column I realised my carpet was completely soaking wet

 

I'm guessing this is door seal ? Any other ideas ?

 

Then I was was putting in the tie rod end in and found the threads on one side was knackered so they need a tap running down it .... That I don't have

 

Then I tried to drop the subframe and the rusty bolt head rounded off I'll have to see how I get on Next weekend with getting that off .

[Silky 33 1 Cars]

The colour of that looks like coolant, possibly heater matrix.

[JamPug 22]

Hmm could be, I've never had it out before and it's never really worked so I think I'll take a look at that

[allye 530 3 Cars]

The heater matrix pipes are just above there so like to be those.

 

With regards to the bolts, as the head has come off, remove the sub frame and without the tension of the sub frame you should be able to get some mole grips on it and remove.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

I read it as the head is rounded not sheared?

If so, Irwin Nut Grips are what you need.

Unusual though, the subframe bolts usually come out OK.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Think you might be right. Those extractors are incredible.

 

If I'm working under a 205 for the first time I basically just take them with me as I'll probably need them!

[JamPug 22]

First of all thanks for all the replies guys I really appreciate it.

 

I took the head off today and this is what I found

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The the gasket doesn't look like its actually gone anywhere but it seems to have seeped out, my guess is I probably didn't clean the block well enough. Luckily though it think I'll be able to just clean it up really well and new gasket and new bolts and I should be good to go hopefully.

 

I'd love to know your guys opinions

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Might be worth checking if the head is flat. Pop to a engineering shop or something and ask them to stick a straight edge on it?

 

Got one at the garage I always put on the head to check. Get one of these to help clean the head.

 

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[JamPug 22]

Yea I will do thanks, I'll be a bit gutted if I have to get it skimmed again as I only got it done a few months ago.

 

Good shout on the sanding block I'll definitely do that and get some really really fine sand paper.

[Tom Fenton 1,542]

Start with a blunt scraper, then a scotchbrite pad to get it spotless. Take your time. Make sure you don't get any debris down the side of the pistons.

[dcc 855]

Have you got both dowels in the block?

[JamPug 22]

I keep forgetting to update this so I've missed a few steps ahah

 

I remember the dowels ????

 

Anyway engine got built back up and put back in I forgot to take pictures of most of this

 

Then I bought a refurbished 309 beam with 21mm torsion bars for ab axles

 

 

I asked for it to be 25mm lower and this is how it turned out

 

Not good

 

So now I have to raise that up again because it's disgusting. I have no idea what I'm doing though which is always great

 

It was meant to be mot'd today but my tachymetric/tachometric whatever it's called relay has broken so I can't drive it this weekend which is annoying because I wanted to go to a local meet on Sunday

[calvinhorse 870]

I'd say the front wants lowering a bit more