[Car_Upgrade] Stdt Now With A Few More Horses.

[welshpug 1,661]

some tube or box would be ideal as flat bar will flex, had a mildly scary moment when the bonnet on a V6 conversion popped up onto the safety catch when the panel flexed.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

I duno I'm guessing the slam panel will either try to lift up or push down so if the flat bar (4mm) is top to bottom forces should be down the axis so shouldn't flex? Gota be stronger than a plastic cowling... It will be easier to attach also and not likely to look like a bit of meccano lashed in there. I take your point though and will see where I can brace things and if box or tube is required.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

As WP says it won't catch without the cowling to support it. I've strengthened mine as I've got nothing to tie it into underneath!

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

I spent a few hours freezing my nuts off working on the car today. I received a shortened Rad from Bakerbm, excellent quality. I spent some time offering it up trying to figure out the best position to mount it and how everything else was going to tie together. There wasn't quite enough room for my boost pipes to run it above the stock lower support so I mounted it in front as I had planned to.

 

 

I ended up mounting the top of the rad off the underside of the intercooler bracket. I just need to make a bracket off of the bottom panel to support it. Rad top hose is sorted, I had to lift the charger oil tank slightly to clear.

 

 

 

 

 

Oil cooler slots in front, just need to finalise it's position. I offered up the front valance, the back needs a bit of trimming but nothing major, should still look stock. I ran the oil return pipe in a big loop under the drivers headlight into the charger to make sure it was well clear of the belt.

 

 

The picture is deceptive but the rad only sits around 15-20mm below the bottom support.

 

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

Looks great. Would you have more space if you fitted the Gutmann front valance?

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

That is the plan Henry, I'm going to offer it up and see. I'd like to fit the front arches also, but can't bring myself to cut them yet haha. I do have 2 pairs so I guess modifying one set won't hurt.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Managed to sort out the bottom hose. I bought some random lengths of hose off of Stu Baker at Pugfest and they have come in handy. I only had to notch the bottom panel and with the bends it ties into the metal water pipe in it's standard position. There is also plenty of clearance from the belt and PAS pump.

 

 

I also offered up the Gutmann valance. I was hoping to have a bit more room for the oil cooler. But there's less - basically it doesn't fit. I don't want to compromise cooling for the charger so for now I'll leave the cooler up front and run the stock valance. In the mean time I'l buy some brake ducts for the gutmann valance as i don;t want to cut the middle out. Then I can re-locate the cooler behind one and it will all fit nicely. It will give me a chance to modify the arches to fit also.

 

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

Are you planning on making the short arches like mine and having them black still? if you put the full ones on, you could paint the top part like a standard arch and then colour code the bottom of them to the car.

 

For the vents, Ecosse used to make some brake ducts which fitted in the standard valance. I always thought BMW E30 ones would also fit, but I think these are scarce now.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

I offered up the arches a while ago and I don't really like them with the flare on the bottom. If i were to fit them I'd have to color code everything for it to look right I think. Plan is to cut them down like yours and paint them a textured black so they match the bumpers etc. I've had a quick look for brake ducts and x-sport do them also. Funny you should mention e30 items, I emailed a guy on ebay asking for dimensions. Do you know if e30 ducts definitely fit?

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

The front arches look well with the rear quarters, but I just have a set of mudflaps to fill the gap

 

Not sure on E30, but there are a couple of types, with the MTech front bumper. I don't think they will fit well as the 205 is quite rounded. I think there is the option on cutting out the back of the Gutmann driving light hole and forming a vent around the back as I think it is better than the standard valance in that it has an edge on each side, so you could probably vacuum form / heat shrink something onto the back of it and duct it to where you want. An oil cooler in a box with ducted air would be very effective and you could keep it out of site easily.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

That does look very smart Henry. I may pop to my local scrap yard and see if I can get some brake vents off something and adapt them to fit.

 

Due to the weather I had some spare time today so I cracked on with strengthening up the slam panel. My slam panel was already powder coated so I didnt want to weld it unless I had to. I bolted the panel down and the front edge did flex quite a bit, the back was ok due to the folds in the metal giving it extra strength.

 

My solution was to get a length of 20mmx3mm flat bar and fix it along the front edge of the panel where the rad cowling would normally mount. It was curved in both planes so i used the oxy acetalene and shaped it, cut it to length and drilled the holes. It's bolted to the back of the front face of the slam panel and is rock solid giving hardly any movement what so ever when attempting to bend it. I ran two longer bolts through on the end two fixings so I can fix the grill. Bonnet opens and closes spot on!

 

 

I also finished off the bracket for the oil cooler and mounted the cooler on a couple of bobbins. Almost ready for the valance to go back on.

 

​

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

The car has been getting on my nerves a little. Trying to get everything to fit neatly, be functional and reliable has not been particularly easy. Very much one step forward two backwards. A nice warm garage would help also!

 

Progress has been made however. After offering up the stock front valance the car looked a bit like a 90's RS turbo with a bumper chop. To get around this I removed the oil cooler and radiator and painted them black which looks a lot more subtle. I ordered a small 8" fan for the back of the radiator, offered it up, and it hit the stock bottom panel, leaving around 30-40mm above the radiator. So out it all came again, I notched the upstand on the bottom panel, lined it with some rubber panel edging and then put everything back - Job done.

 

I had to cut a fair amount off the front valance, mainly all the returns off the back due to my rad and cooler being so far forward. I also had too raise the cooler up so I could retain the centre of the valance. I really didn't want to have to chop this as it would have lost all remaining strength.

 

After loosely bolting the valance on the front end doesn't look bad at all. The only issue is flow to the oil cooler. As I had to raise the cooler to clear the valance its now mostly covered by the bloody number plate. I don't want to move the number plate as anywhere other than the stock position looks awful. I can cut around 30mm off the bottom of it which would help, but I don't really want to do this either. For now I'm going to leave as is and make some small ducts off of the sides of the cooler up to the back of the number plate, any air that does hit the cooler will then get forced through.

 

 

I did a bit of reading on temperature ranges for the charger as your effectively running blind on the standard setup. I've just bought an inline sender adapter which will allow me to run an oil temp gauge for the charger. That way I can keep an eye on temperatures and move things around if required. I have a base model blank for the where the clock goes so I will be putting the gauge there.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-16-8mm-BLACK-PUSH-HOSE-TAIL-T-PIECE-INLINE-1-8-NPT-Fuel-Pressure-Gauge-Sensor-/371570886549?hash=item568359c795:g:X~AAAOSwu1VW4EP-

 

 

[welshpug 1,661]

I doubt you will have issues on the road, there's plenty of airflow there as its not like the plate is right up against the oil cooler.

 

you can always take the plate off on track.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

That's what I'm hoping, at least fitting a gauge I'll know what's going on temp wise.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Looking good.

 

Had mine up and running, but before I could get it up to temp the sand which plate started leaking and due to the design of the casting you can't use a normal socket so ordered a crappy box spanner which is taking an age to turn up!

 

When's the key turn ETA?

[Alastairh 47]

Looking good mate. I need to come over and see it.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Looking good.

 

Had mine up and running, but before I could get it up to temp the sand which plate started leaking and due to the design of the casting you can't use a normal socket so ordered a crappy box spanner which is taking an age to turn up!

 

When's the key turn ETA?

 

 

Ah that's frustrating, at least it's a runner though. Most of the fabrication is out of the way now and ready for coolant. I think I'm going to do an oil and filter change on the charger as much as it hurts. Just wiring left and a base map to get hold of. I'd like to get it done before Xmas but we will see how things go.

 

Looking good mate. I need to come over and see it.

 

 

Yeah you'll have to swing by mate.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Not a huge amount of progress as I've been busy with work thanks to the mild weather. After looking at a few different options on front brakes I decided to persevere with the 266mm setup I was already using. I looked into 4 pots such as AP's and Alcon's but I couldn't justify the outlay for a set.

 

After reading Alex's (Sweetbadgers) topic (http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=168265) on front pads I thought I would go down the same route. I ordered a set of clio 172 CL RC5+ pads, just minor modification to the lower edge of the material and they fit fine. There also appears to be the option at fitting the standard springs in the top if they rattle around to much, but I will see how they are first.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the conversion is going OK. I fitted the air temp sensor in the main metal boost pipe just out of the inlet. Front valance is all back on along with driving lights and looks pretty stock. Painting the rad black was definitely the way forward. I did manage to catch the bottom edge of the number plate and break it off when standing up, so I need to get a new hopefully slightly reduced height front plate.

 

Wiring is pretty much sorted, spliced into the sensor earth and live for the map sensor and ran a new signal wire from the ecu. Managed to get the pipe for the boost gauge through. Gauges and wiring needs to be finished off inside.

 

Not a huge amount left after that really. Oil change for the charger (Ouch $$$$). Mount the oil filter so it's not flapping in the wind and tie up a few loose ends. Then it's ready to fire up.

 

It looks like it should work..

 

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

So i had to bite the bullet and order some oil from TTS along with a new filter and oil pipe. Because I am changing oils from the sx100 to the sx150 it's advised to renew the oil pipes and completely drain the system as the two oils don't work well together. Having just finished mounting all the cooler and sorting the pipe runs out this is a little frustrating.

 

None the less it needs to be done for piece of mind even though I was told the current oil hasn't done many miles. Now that I am going to have to remove the oil system and effectively start again it's got me thinking about changing the oil cooler position. Currently it's in front of the rad getting good air flow but because I had to move the rad forward it sticks out quite far and not as subtle as i'd really like.

 

I will be eventually fitting the Gutmann valance I have, fitting brake ducts and mounting it behind, but that won't be for a while yet.

 

So my other thought is putting it behind the intercooler as there is plenty of room and it should be straight forward to mount. I would like some opinions on how effective this will be though????? As although it's not sat behind a hot rad, its still going to be in the engine bay and will no doubt get some heat soak as a result. It will still be getting cooler air that has come through the intercooler but it won't be as efficient if it was mounted up front.

 

I guess it's a trade off, I'd be interested in other peoples opinions on this.

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Well today was the day, mapping time. Had a couple of teething problems. It chucked the belt off, I don't think it was quite on one of the pulleys properly. Was a complete arse to get back on with the car put back together and an air lock in the cooling system which was eventually sorted.

d

The long and short of it is mapping went well after this and ended up making 247bhp & 205ft/lb of torque. It then went for an MOT which it sailed through. Picking it up tomorrow, I've not driven it yet but looking forward to it. It has a great spread of torque, should be much nicer to drive.

 

Edited February 6, 2017 by j_turnell

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Amazing news! The belt goes around a fair few things so can't blame it. Did you adjust anything?

 

Is that BHP flywheel?

 

Post up a good review of how it drives. I'm onto bleeding brakes and doing tracking so a few days and I'll be test driving too!

 

Did you do the run in period on the Charger oil?

Edited February 6, 2017 by allye

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Yeah that's power at the flywheel. I may need to add a bit more tension on the belt using the top idler with the slotted hole. You've got me worried about the 'run in period' which I wasn't aware of. Is that not for a brand new setup? I spoke with TTS about changing the oil and priming the system and there was no mention about a run in period..

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Ummmm, I'll need to read my manual tomorrow but I though there was a running in period with oil changed, it may well be new Charger though and I'm remember incorrectly!

[j_turnell 137 3 Cars]

Ok so I've done a few miles in the car now and its really nice to drive. Temps are spot on, although I need to plumb in an oil temp gauge for the charger circuit but for now with the cold weather it'll be fine.

 

I occasionally get a squeak from the belt when loading up the PAS so I'll add a bit more tension with the top idler.

 

It has plenty of grunt to drive between 3-4.5k and on full throttle after 4k you have to hold on tight, pulls hard to the limiter.

 

Mapping wise it's really nice to drive, starts on the button from cold. I will probably be fitting an idle control valve back on at some point though. Driving in traffic when cold can be a little tricky due to way the charger is plumbed in, there's a bit of hysteresis and a slight dip in revs just as you try to move off. I could change things up and move the throttle body to the end of the inlet but I much prefer not to have a dump valve as it would do my head in. No issues when even slightly warmed up though.

 

Brakes - It seems my disks are warped as there's really bad vibration and noise when braking from high speed. The CL5 pads seem to work well though but I may modify the pads to accept the stock springs as they rattle on uneven roads. I am currently running on the standard MC but I will be fitting a 23mm. When sorting the throttle out I had to tweek the pedal up in order to get full travel. In doing so its made it much harder to heel and toe, a combination of the raised throttle pedal and long travel of the stock MC.

 

So new brembo disks, 23mm MC and fresh fluid should sort that with a bit of luck.

 

 

Only other thing I'll be doing is fitting some gauge visors. Where I've fitted the 3 gauges in the modified centre heater vent is great, works well and nicely in your eye line. But when driving in the dark with them illuminated you get a constant reflection on the centre of the windscreen.

 

These should do the job, although due to space around the gauges ill have to modify them to fit, just like everything else with this car!

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/52mm-Gauge-Visor-Turbo-Oil-Water-Temp-Pod-Shield-Eyebrow-Brand-New-Easy-Fit-/262698917620?hash=item3d2a135ef4:g:~74AAOxy5QtR8o0w

 

 

Bodies vs Charger

 

 

 

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[Anthony 1,003]

Looks really tidy that, as I think I've said before

 

Assuming that graph is showing the full rev range, how come you've set the limiter so comparatively low out of interest, given it looked like peak power was still climbing and the torque curve hadn't dropped much off peak?