[Project] Starting My Xu5T Build

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Well gave the old girl a quick wash tonight, and went for a spin to try and find somewhere scenic to take some pictures. As usual failed miserably, but here are a few I did get, doesn't look too bad for an old shed, and fingers crossed you'd be hard pushed to guess it was anything other than a standardish 205 if you didn't know better!

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

I'm especially pleased with the wheels on this one- all my own work.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

And this last one was me trying to get the sky in the background, and simultaneously demonstrating my severe lack of skill with the camera!

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Edited July 24, 2017 by Tom Fenton

[pip470 61]

Thats a nice happy ending tom, well done. It looks great!

[GLPoomobile 958]

Need vids!

[tom_m 0]

looks the berries tom, a credit to your hard work. look out for the paradas in the wet though

[jimistdt 1]

Looks great Tom, I'm loving how the wheels fill the rear arches, gives a very nice stance.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

750 miles on the clock and all is well, however I'm now bored of the 1600 gearbox, 1st is useless even in the dry, and even second requires a bit of care.

 

So I've acquired a Xsara VTS gearbox, hoping to get it fitted this week to make the cruise down to Pugfest this weekend a bit more civilised.

 

Other jobs on the cards are to resecure a CV boot that seems to be weeping a bit of grease, see if I can find where some annoying squeaky rattling noise is coming from, and perhaps take some fuelling out of the part thottle area of the map, its a bit on the rich side a lot of the time, and is drinking unleaded at a shocking rate.........

 

Oh and I suppose give it a damn good clean too.

[24seven 104]

That looks fantastic!

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Well, 1100 miles on the clock and all seems well, I've heard it det once or twice though which isn't good, so I'll be changing the plugs for a harder plug I think, and see if that helps.

 

Went to Pugfest yesterday, had two runs up the hill, certainly felt quite frantic in the car, not sure how it looked from the outside though!

 

Still have the Xsara VTS box to fit, didn't fancy doing it in the heatwave last week!

[danpug 1]

Any chance of some in-car vids Tom? Would love to hear how it sounds.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Kind of like bwwaaaaaaa, hs, bwwwwwwaaaaaaaahhhh, hs, bwwaaaahhhh........etc etc!

 

It sounds a lot better from the outside as it goes past. I'm hoping someone got a video of it going up the hillclimb at Pugfest.

[danpug 1]

If not then you'll have to get a mate to do it for you!

[tom_m 0]

Kind of like bwwaaaaaaa, hs, bwwwwwwaaaaaaaahhhh, hs, bwwaaaahhhh........etc etc!

 

It sounds a lot better from the outside as it goes past. I'm hoping someone got a video of it going up the hillclimb at Pugfest.

 

i'll say, i saw you launch it off the line, it sounds proper!

 

ps: it was me doing a head stand to look at the vented-ness of the rear brakes before one of your avo hill runs yesterday. i meant to pop back and introduce myself properly, but never made it!

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Fingers crossed someone has some video of it!

 

If that was you when I went for my second run sorry for not stopping to chat, but my little bro (in the red overalls!) was going to give me absolutely no peace whatsoever until we did the second run up the hill!

 

Vented rear discs absolutely not needed, but F it, I like to be different!!

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Brief video courtesy of M@tt, unfortunately followed by the noisiest car there that day...! I *think* the last two bits of noise on the video are my car though, accelerating out of the hairpin.

 

Edited July 7, 2009 by Tom Fenton

[Arahan 4]

Yeah i saw this out there, looked really good! Saw your little brother sat waving all the way around the track too!

[grantley1988 1]

just read the whole thread a credit to you sir! im amazed at your skills in fabricating. Speechless......

[edbar 6]

What does it drive like? Have you lost any of the handling with the turbo delivery? Im interested in doing a 1.9 8v turbo for my 309 but im worried i'll end up with wheelspin and pants handling as a result.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Not really, but the main addition has been a Tran-x plate LSD to help deal with it. With an open diff I'm sure it would be s*ite.

 

Grantley I'm glad you have enjoyed reading the thread, although you must have got through at least 2 mugs of tea to read all 37 pages!!! I'm no fabrication wonder, I'm still learning, some things I make I'm pleased with, others go into the scrap bin!

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Well an update, but not really much to tell you really.

 

I've now done 1300 miles with it, other than discovering it will det very occasionally on normal unleaded all is well. Obviously I now run it on super. I changed the plugs to some colder ones as I thought this may be causing it, but there is no real change, I'm now using Iridium plugs as fitted to Sierra Cosworths, 8's instead of 6's heat range, starts and runs from cold with no plug fouling so that is good.

 

I also found it was using a bit of water, but couldn't track down where from. I did think it was weeping through one of my TIG welded water pipes, as anyone who has TIG'd aluminium will know, its not difficult to do a s*itty porous weld. So I gave it a touch of rad weld and this stopped it weeping by sealing the porous bit. However it still was losing a bit of water, not horrendous, but enough to bring the expansion tank lamp on every 3 or 4 days. Anyway this morning after a run I noticed a stain down the bulkhead, and sure enough it was leaking from one of the hoses to the heater matrix, guess what, I hadn't tightened up the clip..... what a donkey. Anyway with this now nipped all seems well, so thats another teething problem dealt with.

 

So other than that no big plans for the moment, I think the next thing is some suspension fine tuning as it is "OK" at the moment but I think it could be better. So a bigger rear ARB is on the cards, plus I have some eccentric top mounts to fit, however I think the dampers will need to go back to GAZ for the rods modifying for these, so that one will quite possibly wait until the car comes off the road in the winter.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

I guess I should also post this pic in here too, it had its own thread but I guess anyone who has been following this thread will also like it.

 

Untitled by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Done just over 350 miles in it this weekend, all fine, although I don't want to make a habit of it- its too damn thirsty!

[billybluesky 1]

hi tom still reading what has been a great thread , just thought i`d add if anyone fancies JUST adding a bigger rear arb (like the one i have) it does cause quite a lot of oversteer, trying to scrape some spare cash together for a bigger front to balance things up.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Hadn't thought of that, my car was running much harder front springs than standard when I changed the rear ARB. I've got the standard one here out of that beam if you want it, FOC of course.

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Well it has just turned 2000 miles this morning. And boringly I've nothing at all to write here, it is just working.......

[madspikes 41 1 Cars]

2000 miles and no problems to report - Better than factory then!

 

Mad.

[base-1 17]

s*it, you must be gutted...