Trying to get hold of Anthony

[Robin205 7]

I bought a reangled exhaust manifold and unlocked ECU from Anthony last year for a gti6 conversion, I have recently started the conversion but have hit a few snags, one being that the manifold looks to be at the wrong angle and secondly I am getting no spark during cranking.

 

I have sent a few messages to Anthony over the past week or so to ask whether he had these parts on a running car but haven't had a reply :-(

 

Miles has kindly offered to check both parts out for me but it would be good to know if they came from a running 205 GTI6 set up.

 

Does anyone now Anthony personally? If so could they give him a nudge please?

 

The 2 issues above could be related to my car which I wouldn't be surprised but it would be nice to know.

 

Thanks in advanced.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Robin205

[Anthony 1,003]

I've had no messages from you - are you sure that you sent it to me?

 

The ECU was definitely unlocked and had been tested by me on my 205 GTi-6.

 

The manifold I hadn't fitted but it was the same angle when placed side by side compared to the one that I ran on my car which fitted fine with loads of tunnel clearance using a standard bottom fork.

 

Drop me a PM if you need to discuss (if you're on a PC, hover over my name above and click message) or reply with what issues you're seeing and I'll see if I can help.

 

Whereabouts is the manifold touching - the exhaust tunnel, gear linkage or somewhere else?  Check that the bottom fork is standard and all the mounts are good/correct as if these are wrong it won't fit.  There are awful variances in 205 shell tolerances in that area so it's possible that's the issue - certainly with Mi16 conversions for example I've removed an engine from one car where it fitted perfectly and dropped it into another where the manifold was hard against the side of the tunnel.

 

With regards the ECU, are you sure that you've made the correct connections on the loom?  I saw a few posts from you on Facebook and it didn't sound like you were too confident on what you were doing, so it's possible that you've missed one of the connections, especially as there's differences between 306 and VTS looms that aren't very well documented.  First thing to check is that you're seeing the expected voltages on the pins on the relay socket (if you search you'll find the details) and check that the crank sensor is good and plugged in.

Edited March 21, 2018 by Anthony

[Robin205 7]

43 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I've had no messages from you - are you sure that you sent it to me?

 

The ECU was definitely unlocked and had been tested by me on my 205 GTi-6.

 

The manifold I hadn't fitted but it was the same angle when placed side by side compared to the one that I ran on my car which fitted fine with loads of tunnel clearance using a standard bottom fork.

 

Drop me a PM if you need to discuss (if you're on a PC, hover over my name above and click message) or reply with what issues you're seeing and I'll see if I can help.

 

Whereabouts is the manifold touching - the exhaust tunnel, gear linkage or somewhere else?  Check that the bottom fork is standard and all the mounts are good/correct as if these are wrong it won't fit.  There are awful variances in 205 shell tolerances in that area so it's possible that's the issue - certainly with Mi16 conversions for example I've removed an engine from one car where it fitted perfectly and dropped it into another where the manifold was hard against the side of the tunnel.

 

With regards the ECU, are you sure that you've made the correct connections on the loom?  I saw a few posts from you on Facebook and it didn't sound like you were too confident on what you were doing, so it's possible that you've missed one of the connections, especially as there's differences between 306 and VTS looms that aren't very well documented.  First thing to check is that you're seeing the expected voltages on the pins on the relay socket (if you search you'll find the details) and check that the crank sensor is good and plugged in.

 

Just checked and the messages were sent to you, just replied to the conversation we previously had last year, not sure why you can't see them but nevermind.

 

Anyway thanks for your reply, at least I know that the ECU is unlocked so I can investigate further into what the issue could be, just didn't want to waste hours and hours looking at something if it was down to the ECU. Wiring side of things hasn't been straight forward as it should have been as the wiring on the car had been hacked to run an aftermarket ecu so my starting point wasn't great.

 

As for exhaust manifold when I come to fit the down pipe that I bought from Miles the down pipe hits the bracing on the subframe, seems strange but miles is going to check it out on his jig for me, as you say it could be due to something else on the car which is causing the issue.

 

I'll give you a shout if I need some pointers :-)

 

Thanks!

[Anthony 1,003]

Ah, given that was months ago now I think I've deleted the PM from my side to clear space - I couldn't see it having just checked and certainly there wasn't one from you highlighted with a new reply.  I didn't think that you could reply if the other party had deleted the PM and from memory it used to give a warning message on the old forum, but maybe it doesn't on the latest one - I'd need to check.  Apologies either way - I wasn't ignoring you, just hadn't received your messages!

 

If the manifold clears both the exhaust tunnel and the gear linkage post then it's probably OK angle-wise, although equally that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the downpipe Miles supplied - could just be that two different custom parts combined with the usual questionable 205 tolerances making it not fit.  I cut and welded the downpipe to suit when I did my conversion, but there are quite a few cars on here are successfully running Miles supplied downpipes so they're usually fine, and equally, there's a sort-of "standard" amount to cut and re-angle the manifolds to which is how mine and various others on here have been done.

 

One thing to check in addition to the fork etc mentioned above is that the subframe brace bar is straight - I've seen numerous of 205's where that's been bent upwards and/or backwards, and that would probably be enough to make it foul the downpipe.

 

Does the fuel pump prime when you switch the ignition on?  If not, definitely check the wiring side of things and that you've got the correct voltages at the relay socket.

[Robin205 7]

34 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Ah, given that was months ago now I think I've deleted the PM from my side to clear space - I couldn't see it having just checked and certainly there wasn't one from you highlighted with a new reply.  I didn't think that you could reply if the other party had deleted the PM and from memory it used to give a warning message on the old forum, but maybe it doesn't on the latest one - I'd need to check.  Apologies either way - I wasn't ignoring you, just hadn't received your messages!

 

If the manifold clears both the exhaust tunnel and the gear linkage post then it's probably OK angle-wise, although equally that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the downpipe Miles supplied - could just be that two different custom parts combined with the usual questionable 205 tolerances making it not fit.  I cut and welded the downpipe to suit when I did my conversion, but there are quite a few cars on here are successfully running Miles supplied downpipes so they're usually fine, and equally, there's a sort-of "standard" amount to cut and re-angle the manifolds to which is how mine and various others on here have been done.

 

One thing to check in addition to the fork etc mentioned above is that the subframe brace bar is straight - I've seen numerous of 205's where that's been bent upwards and/or backwards, and that would probably be enough to make it foul the downpipe.

 

Does the fuel pump prime when you switch the ignition on?  If not, definitely check the wiring side of things and that you've got the correct voltages at the relay socket.

Ah that explains the messages!

 

Yeah the manifold does clear nicely and looks to be in the correct position however even if the cross brace wasn't there the angle of the downpipe outlet isn't correct as it is angled up too high and hits the upper part of the tunnel. Strange! Might need a bit of cutting and shutting on my side to get sorted but that's not a problem.

 

As for the wiring the fuel pump didn't prime at the start however I later found that there was no positive feed to pin 14 on the double relay connector which goes to the grey wire labelled up as CC2, this is another strange one because in none of the guides mentions this CC2 wire. When I supply this cable with 12v then the fuel pumps prime with ignition.

[Anthony 1,003]

A picture paints a thousand words with regards the manifold and downpipe, but I think from what you're saying it sounds like the downpipe isn't right if it's both touching the brace and angled as such that it's pointing at the top of the tunnel.

 

If the fuel pump primes, that suggests that the ECU is powered up and at least part of the loom is correct.  Double check everything else and the crank sensor and go from there.  As said, the ECU certainly worked fine when tested on my own car, so no reason to assume that it doesn't now.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

My DP from miles, onto my re-angled GTI6 manifold (not from Miles), was very close to subframe bar also...... about the width of a finger space (if that).

[Robin205 7]

After many more hours spent on the wiring side I have now found that the problem was that the feed to pin 14 on double relay feed was a switched live rather than a perm live so during crank it would drop its voltage giving no spark!

 

@ Anthony thanks for your help on this!

 

 

[Anthony 1,003]

Thanks for the update Robin - glad you found the issue and it was straight forward to resolve  

[A1AXX 26 2 Cars]

On 22/03/2018 at 12:51 PM, dobboy said:

My DP from miles, onto my re-angled GTI6 manifold (not from Miles), was very close to subframe bar also...... about the width of a finger space (if that).

Yea have the same downpipe, its also very close to subframe. I have re angled my own manifold, but seems the normal fitment!

[SweetBadger 94]

Have the same DP and likewise, mine was touching the subframe brace bar.

 

The brace bar pushed the downpipe up and caused the same issue - angling the end of the downpipe up too high. The cause for me was that the brace bar was bent upwards, this in turn pushed the bottom of the downpipe upwards aiming it at the top of the tunnel.

 

I pulled the brace bar back down using a couple of breaker bars attached to the brace bar, levered against the subframe cross member by a trolley jack.

 

See highly accurate diagram below...

 

 

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

^ now you’re showing off. 

 

class

 

 

[Robin205 7]

Exhaust manifold issue now solved, turned out that the manifold was the incorrect angle for the downpipe supplied by Miles. 

 

I sent the manifold down to Miles for him to check and to reangle and now it fits bob on! 

 

happy days