Project Coprolalia's Asylum - Sporadic fleet updates - Car pox

[Coprolalia]

After several years here I'll fully admit I am not a seasoned chod-veteran like many, but I'll begin with my dad and American chod. During my teenage years this was the toy barn:

 

My first adventure in rebuilding began with my dad's 1952 GMC truck.

Started like this.

 

Freshly imported from a dry state with a solid body. Rear axle had been dragged around for a while and the drums were worn half away.

228 cubic inches of straight six with knackered rings. Rebuild commenced.

 

Spent a year rebuilding the engine with all fresh bits imported from the states. Neglected to acid dip it, and turned out one of the splash oil bores was clogged with crud. 500 miles later the big ends melted and fused. Much swearing, much vehicle aimed violence.

 

Out comes that lump.

This prime piece of chod donated it's heart.

350ci of v8 muscle*. Actually originated in a smog tune Camaro, so about as shite a v8 as you can pick.

 

Truck now owned by a family friend looking like this:

 

 

My own first motor was this.

1972 VW Beetle 1302s

Lasted 500 miles. Failed on rust. Got it on the ramp and it had rusted right across the rear end. Engine was about to damn fall out. Whole thing needed a new floor plan. Got broken for parts.

 

 

That got replaced with this:

 

Golf 1.4i cl

 

In around 2006. 72,000 miles on it at the time. One old lady owner from new, giffer driven, full VW service history. Bargain at £1k.

Much work was done

 

Now at 156,000.

Syncromesh dead in 2nd and 3rd. Very noisy tappets. Engine mounts shot. Rotten jacking points. Bugger won't die.

MOT runs out next week, and I feel really bad at the idea of breaking it. Going to stick it in and see if it will pass an MOT, but I'm getting fed up of having squeaky bumhole journeys that it will drop a valve.

 

18 months ago, added this to the fleet:

Scirocco 1.8 8v carb

£1k on ebay, advertised with one line of information.

67,000 miles, FSH, 3 owners from new, mainly giffer driven, but owned by a young guy for a year before I bought it. Solid body, decent engine. Mk2 Golf GTD gearbox with a massively tall 5th gear (2k RPM = 80mph). Saving the pennies while commuting yo!

Issues have been that it has not had it's perishables repaired in a long time, so since I've had it it's had:

New hard brake lines

New braided soft brake lines

De-rusted and waxoyled fuel lines.

New timing belt and aux belt.

New temp sensor.

A new CV

Carb rebuild.

 

 

In between I briefly flirted with a a Renault 4 van and a BMC FG350 Ambulance (converted to a camper). No photos of these.

 

There's also been this 1987 Scirocco GTX 150,000 I bought locally as a cat C write off with the intention of repairing. Then found out the A-pillar, the B-pillar and rear chassis were buckled. Would never have been right again. Broke her for parts.

 

 

Finally

Jaguar S-Type 3.0 v6.

Recently bought this for a charity rally. T-reg 1999, so think it still counts as chod. Plus it cost £750 and has done 165,000 miles.

[Jerzy Woking]

I really like old American chod-just a shame import costs are so high for cars and pickups worth very little there (admittedly my knowledge is from local car papers I picked up in Florida and Chicago a couple of years ago)

[purplebargeken]

Nice! Love the pick up. 

[holbeck]

lovin' your dad's shed!

[Coprolalia]

lovin' your dad's shed!

 

I could go on for hours about the stuff in there. It was my dad and two of his mates who clubbed together and rented a big barn in arse-end of nowhere. Much excellent chod.

[Junkman]

Beetle looks more like a 1302 to me.

What happened with the '60 Buick?

[Coprolalia]

Beetle looks more like a 1302 to me.

What happened with the '60 Buick?

 

My error in memory. I stand corrected.

The buick is still sat in the barn awaiting rebuilding. Electra 225 Riveira they found parked in a garage somewhere near London. Numbers matching 400ci 'Wildcat' v8. I desperately want to get my grubby little mits on it. The boot has got to be 8-9 foot deep.

Gratuitous collection pic.

 

[Bren]

From the title I assumed this thread would be about a VW TDi that had shat itself.

[Coprolalia]

Just got number one vehicle (Scirocco) back, pictures to come.
I laid her up over the worst of the winter, and intended on taxing and MOTing her at the start of this month.
That turned into three weeks at the local garage and an absolute saga.
 

Knew she needed new shoes, so fitted a pair of dunlops to the front. Rears still had plenty of tread and were matching decent brands.

Went in for MOT and failed on emissions, headlight dash warning lamp blown, high idle and a few fiddly little things. Fiddly things easily sorted (plastic trim peeling away etc), started on the emissions. I knew the Pierburg carb was fucked as the idle was about 1600 and the second butterfly never opened. My garage here in Cardiff are very good and enjoy working on old motors (they've been using it to teach the young lad about vacuum advance), so they stripped down and rebuilt the carb. This sorted the idle, autochoke (controlled by vacuum and some parafin wax) and second butterfly, but the emissions were well out. This also not solved by full service.
Looked at the rotor arm and contacts and they were shot all to hell. The whole dizzy shaft was wobbling side to side about 3-4mm, so contact was not being made.

Essentially the cars been running on half a dodgy carb with choke on all the time, and 30% spark. No wonder she was rough and slow.

Cue search for a new dizzy. Ended up getting a cheapy one off GSF, and I'll get the original remanufactured in time. Garage kindly put on a fresh coil they had going spare, and that sorted her emissions right out. Full service done including (what looked like original) gearbox oil and new cam cover gasket and timing belt, and we're looking at a win.
Then we discovered the little light for the headlight warning is not an LED, that would be too simple, but a tiny bulb rated at 12v. Discontinued part at VW. No motor factors make them, but luckily there's a company on evilBay that do the same bulb for the T25 campers at £~5. Sorted.

This means so far in 20 months she's had:
Carb rebuild
New cam cover gasket
2x services
timing belt
new ignition coil
new distributor
new clutch
new CV joints up front
new rear wheel bearings
new 6x4 speakers
new battery
period radio
New plastic scuttle panel
New hard brake lines all round
New braided soft brake lines all round
Cleaned and waxoyled fuel lines all round.
New brakes discs and pads at front.
Both rear brakes rebuilt.

 

So much for a cheap hobby.

She now has a years test, tax, a fresh tank of 99 RON and goes like stink. Time to enjoy in the sun.

[Coprolalia]

Shortly after getting the Scirocco back with MOT, it started leaving puddles of oil as dominant territory markers again.

 

The gearbox had been whining for a while, and the oil appeared to be dripping from it. 020 gearboxes as fitted to most VW 80s cars (mk1 golf, sciroccos, passats, polos) have these little metal endcaps, painted green, covering the throwout bearing. Definitive feature on them. The green paint acts as a gasket of some sort.

Getting to the point, this gearbox is unlikely to be the car's original, as the box code is assigned to MK1 golf diesels. Sort after box, worth £500 on it's own. Mine's been whining away merrily, and it turns out because at some point someone's holed the metal endcap and it's been bleeding out it's gearbox oil.

 

This was replaced.

Gearbox cap cost £5. Gearbox oil £30.

Gearbox now no longer whines - WIN WIN.

 

 

Since then the Scirocco has had two FTPs. Likely an issue with the timing as it turns over but won't catch and then runs on when the ignition is shut off. Possibly the vacuum on the carb retarding or advancing (not sure) the ignition for cold start. I can resolve by twiddling the dizzy, but is probably down to the new cheap chinese dizzy. The original Bosch dizzy will get rebuilt. In the mean time it's running well-ish, and is going to my local chap with a timing light.

 

New cheapy chinese dizzy receives much swearing.

 

The Golf is sat outside the garage awaiting a VOSA chap to come and inspect it due to some hooky MOT chap inspecting it this year and almost passing it. I therefore need a new second car. More to come on that at the weekend.

[Coprolalia]

Collection thread update.

 

Scirocco is in the doghouse. It was being used as a daily driver, and was running ok, but kept having odd FTPs. About 1/10 times when started it would just turn over, not catch and then try and start when you turn the ignition off. Fiddling with the dizzy would make it run, so tracked it to that. The ignition was 6 deg too retarded, so timed it properly but it's still being an arse. Probably the cheapy GSF pattern distributors fault. Fuel economy is down the pan, pinking every now and then at random, and generally being a bit shit.

I've therefore stuck it in my lockup until I can face spending money on it again. Going to rebuild the spare manual choke Weber carb in the meantime, then get the original Bosch dizzy remanufactured.

 

With the Golf dead in the water I needed reliable daily transport.

Low mileage diesel local Felicia all got a bit weird when the seller turned out to be in Spain and selling by proxy.

 

What follows is all a bit modern and not my usual thing. Turn back all those a-feared.

 

A not shite estate turned up locally which MsJ liked and offered to put payment on. I've fancied a 20v 1.8T for a while, as they're a useful piece of kit. Dealer advert was brief and to the point, phone call was made and deposit was paid.

 

Come Saturday morning 9am, we're in Plymouth station with an overpriced coffee and sausage roll.

Now boarding the HST into Cornwall.

 

Truro - city well famed for Pasties and Daphne Du Maurier getting lashed up in L2.

 

Down the Falmouth branch line as far as Penryn on this old smoker Sprinter DMU

 

Then a brief walk to the dealer.

MsJ likes to pretend she is Japanese

 

2004 Skoda Octavia 1.8T 20v Elegance. One owner from new, 80k, all the service history; 10 stamps in the book- 8 from Halfords with 18 receipts to match. My good lady paid 2 big bags.

It's a run-out model, and weirdly specced. The motors an AUM, which apparently is essentially a detuned VRS lump and just needs a remap to get big numbers. Leccy windows and sunroof, SkodAuto tapedeck and 6-disc changer, 8+ speaker sound system, but no cruise control or driver aids.

 

As mentioned in the News 24 threat, the service history is a treat. At Halfords recommendation it had a new dual mass flywheel (my pet hate) at 50k. They've also recommended along the way; 3 clutches, 2 alternators, new sump, 2 batteries, all new doors switches, new water pump, all four pads and discs, 2 timing belts, oil, brake, fuel and coolant flushes at every yearly 8,000 mile service. Every snake oil trick Halfords sell.

 

For all this it idles rough. Quick google says dirty throttle body/ MAF sensor, so going to give them a clean. Drives lovely though, and everything works as it should. Gets 38-40 mpg on a run, 30ish about town. Content with that.

 

 

 

Bit of Shaggeduar news too.

It preparation for it's tour terrifying Europeans we noted how tiny the boot was. Not going to fit much wine in there. Solution:

M28 bolt two spares to a scrapper donated bootlid. Fill spare wheelwell with wine.

 

Shaggeduar's 3.0 Ford v6 is terrifyingly fast despite it's 175,000 miles.

[HMC]

Sobering to read the service history. At 80k its been through way more non 'service' items than my old, 2 years older/ 3x more leggy audi a6 tdi (awx engine code)

 

Thae Jag spare wheel solution reminds me of the optional spare mount on a P6. I hope nobody nicked them- they look new and very easy to TWOC!

[Coprolalia]

Small fleet update.

 

Weekend spent tinkering with the modern. 1500 miles into ownership and faults founds. Idle speed wobbly, running about 700, then dropping down to 400 at whim causing it to near stall and the whole car to shudder. Bit of a shudder and lag when booted, in addition to normal turbo lag. Part of me wonders if this is the symptoms noted on all the Halfords service history as "shudders when pulling away" that resulted in two dual mass flywheel changes.

 

Quick google says check for a sticking dirty throttle body. Recommended as a yearly service addition. 

 

Whip off the intake pipe. Eugh.

 

First wipe.

 

Yeah, now see, there's your problem.

 

Gasket has welded itself to the intake manifold

 

Much better

 

Lag now gone. Idle steady at 800RPM. Pulls away and drives more smoothly, onboard MPG has gone from 38 average to 43.

 

Total cost:

Rag - already had

Carb cleaner - already had

Gasket - £3.22 direct from VAG.

 

 

I seriously hope on the old guys behalf Halfords haven't replaced 2x DMF because of a dirty throttle body.

 

In other news, the Scirocco is hiding from the rain in the lockup while I apply WD40 to all the screws holding the body kit on. Aim is to get all the plastic off and attack any rust underneath prior to respray/ winter.

Jag is off having front and rear bull-bars welded to it and roof mounted spotlights. Because touring car.

[Coprolalia]

Had a few DNAs this afternoon, so time to finally get round to this post which has been waiting since October.

 

I will preface this by saying I normally hate banger rallies; seems like just a way to ruin good vehicles to me. However it was a friend of a friend's stag, and I was offered a seat round Europe, so couldn't say no really.

 

As soon as I was on board, said friend announced he had achieved a vehicle. A T-reg 3.0 V6 Pez Jag S-type.

Not necessarily the car (or even the Jag) I would have chosen (why not an XJ6?). He then organised his usual mechanic to rally prep it. This involved mounting spare mondeo alloys to the boot, box section as a light bar, and welding the bullbars from a Pajero to the front of the chassis with a massive boxsection on the crossmember.

 

The word of the day ladies and gentleman is WEIGHT.

 

Seen here the Volvo which may have found a shiter.

 

 

Abridged automotive highlights:

 

 

 

This got dragged home on a flatbed. Shame.

 

 

 

 

These maxis were amazing. Overheated every few hours, so the drivers brought instruments and would play impromptu folk gigs to the bemusement of the europeans.

 

Amazing tour bus

 

Lancia mentioned and spotted previously. This was in Calais. Got talking to the owner, who had bought it sight unseen from Italy, flown down and driven it back. Kahunas.

It's apparently been pigeon-shit repaired by some torpid Italian.

 

Thoughts on the Jag:

A bit chalk and cheese. Very comfy, very wafty. Easy to do 400 miles a day and get out feeling rested. At £750 it really was a lot of car for the money, and when it wanted it could really lift up it's skirts and shift. Engine made a lovely noise too.

Issues... some age related:

180k told, and the mounts were shot, giving driveline shunt like bump and grind with Dawn French.

Gearbox also tired and agricultural, so gear selection was a bit like going apple-bobbing in a bowl of porridge.

Rear suspension spent a lot of time creaking ominously, but did the business.

Others design related:

For such a big car I would expect more space inside. Felt somewhat cramped at times.

Engine didn't really know what it wanted to do. Tons of torque low down, but it also had variable valve timing, so you had to thrash it to get it to shift. In this sort of car it felt a bit at odds, especially with the pudding gearbox.

Impressive body roll also made thrashing sort of pointless.

Mondeo heritage present in the plastic switches. Took the air off the quality.

 

Would I have one again, probably not, but nice for the experience

 

 

Otherwise:

The Octavia just does. It's had a service, new rear brake caliper and a few other odds and sods. Threw up an EML which was a split vac hose, but otherwise generally faultless for my 70 miles commute.

Did my first ever attempt with claybar and wax thusly:

 

 

Scirocco continues hiding in the lockup awaiting the disappearance of the CBAs.

[Barry Cade]

"Scirocco is in the doghouse. It was being used as a daily driver, and was running ok, but kept having odd FTPs. About 1/10 times when started it would just turn over, not catch and then try and start when you turn the ignition off. Fiddling with the dizzy would make it run, so tracked it to that. The ignition was 6 deg too retarded, so timed it properly but it's still being an arse. Probably the cheapy GSF pattern distributors fault. Fuel economy is down the pan, pinking every now and then at random, and generally being a bit shit.
I've therefore stuck it in my lockup until I can face spending money on it again. Going to rebuild the spare manual choke Weber carb in the meantime, then get the original Bosch dizzy remanufactured"

 

Had a similar issue with my Scirocco way back- turned out to be the coil. Some are ballasted,some aren't and gives a similar issue if the wrong uns fitted. I think the ballast resistor is the wire itself.

[Coprolalia]

How about a big old update, not that it appears to be of much interest to anyone.

 

Modern Octavia is functioning with ze german efficiency for 15,000 miles of commuting. Threw up an EML light once for a split vac line and now has a noisy CV. Otherwise dull, useful for it's carrying capacity, surprisingly swift and has uncomfortable suspension.

Car stank of wet dog so changed the pollen filter:

Exciting times.

 

Pulled the Scirocco out of winter storage. Bunged £20 of 98 RON in, which as seen in the News24 thread it promptly wazzed all over my lock up floor.

 

The hard fuel line runs through a hole in the front subframe, and had rusted and pinholed. 

So it went to a friends workshop:

 

On the two poster, cut out the dodgy fuel line and replaced with hose. Rest of the underside looks alright.

 

Old Pierburg never really worked well, so got replaced with this Weber 32/34 which I picked up on ebay for £40 a couple of years ago with all the fitting kit. New they're £300 odd.

 

 

Idle needs to be set properly, as does the choke, but for now it's running more smoothly.

 

Drove it for maybe 100 miles, and then it spat a load of coolant out of the expansion tank. Gave it a flush:

 

K-seal, not even once kids!

 

Still no better though, so Autoshite I turn to you.

Coolant level steady when idling and doesn't bubble. Run up to temp and the rad hoses are soft and too hot to touch. Rev it up and the coolant level falls slightly, back off the throttle and the coolant fills from the base of the expansion tank and overflows out. No mayo/ oil mixing.

?Air lock

?Dodgy thermostat (replaced with a GSF special 2 years ago)

 

Help me Autoshite, you're my only hope.

[320touring]

expansion tank cap not working properly?

[Coprolalia]

Aye, it was probably the expansion cap not holding pressure. A new one was acquired for three whole pounds from the not always incapable ECP. Also got a thermostat; says Volvo fit - incompetent karma restored.

 

Spent a nice couple of days tinkering and have succeeded in breaking it further.

The carb fuelling is now sort of set up (it's idling without the need for a clothes peg on the choke). First time I've played with a carb in a long time, and no guide so was fiddling by ear. It is pinking/ knocking at idle, so off to borrow a timing light.

 

Gave the coolant another flush and took the flange off the block to get into the water jacket.

 

It's now leaking from the join, so think I've buggered the o-ring. Bawls!

 

Tried to clean up the paint a bit with some leftover Tcut metallic. Here's a before pic...

 

No after as the Tcut made the square root of fuck all difference.

 

I did manage to find a minty younger sibling while out and about though.

 

Off to the factors for an o-ring, some hylomar and whatever cheap paint restorer they have in.

[Coprolalia]

More progress.

Coolant is now cooling the engine, not the tarmac. GSF's finest o-ring was fairly shit and the one on the flange was in OK nick (must have just seated it poorly) so smeared a bead of blue gasket-silicon-mush around and now she's watertight.

 

Ran her up to a mate's garage to time up properly. No shots of this because hands full. However only interesting bit I'll shamelessly copy someone else's picture...

 

 

That's a Scirocco flywheel. We've been timing to the little dot in the centre... TDC. Turns out VAG in their wisdom set it to be tuned to 6 deg before TDC with vacuum advance disconnected. There's a big notch on the flywheel to the left of image which is this. Properly timed up she now runs sweetly.

 

Also in today was a 06 Passat TDI where the cambelt tensioner had let go. Here's the EGR system...

[Coprolalia]

I wrote a post around the time of the forum Megadeath but it got deleted, and I've been too frustrated to update until now.

 

So the Scirocco died in HGF glory.

The carb got properly tuned, and the timing was properly set. It ran well for a few hundred miles then started overheating again. The thermostat and expansion cap were replaced, but no improvement.

 

 

HGF diagnosed on sniffer test.

 

 

Difficult to know when this happened. It may be pinking due to my incompetent timing, it may be the k-seal has been hiding it a while and it's been lurking behind all the other engine faults. Compression was good on all cylinders, but one of the spark plugs was rusty.

 

At this point I was moving 150 miles and starting a new job, so I swore at it, wanged it in the lockup and walked away.

Went to visit some family, see my dad and his mates and do some racing. They're currently prepping stuff to run Pendine with the VHRA again.

 

 

 

 

After a few months consideration I decided to pull the Scirocco lump and replace it. Various thoughts on this, but the two main ones:

1. If the spark plug was rusty, the bore may also be. Not going to know without pulling the head, but this may turn into a full engine rebuild (which I may do anyway to keep it as a spare).

2. Even rebuilt the stock 1.8 carb makes 90hp on a good day. It does sound lovely, but has caused me so many headaches so far.

 

Considered potential engines. Lots of people in the Dubber world have put 16v KRs in running on carbs and a fair few 1.8Ts. I'd always hoped to do a G60 conversion and make the car VW should have, but those engines now cost more than the rest of G682. 

I decided I wanted to be able to use this as a proper daily. After discussion with my mechanic friend, we agreed upon a TDI conversion, aiming for an older VW mechanical fuel injection lump like a 1.9 1z or 1.6 SB.

This makes more mechanical sense than would first appear, and is actually easier than trying to fit a petrol injection lump. The looms run off the same fuse box and should need minor work. The petrol tank and lines can be retained, as the pump on the engine will work with the unit in the tank (unlike if this was an injection model). In theory the engine mounts should be the same as for petrol conversions so off the shelf, but we can fabricate if we need to. A well tuned 1.9td is somewhere north of 110bhp, and significantly more torque - similar to the original injection models, while hopefully retaining 40+ mpg. 

 

Started idly browsing potential engine donors on eBay and Gumtree and saving money (as T4 owners also like this engine for conversions), when barefoot posted this about a free sharan:

http://autoshite.com/topic/25973-free-vw-sharan/

 

Some internet wrangling, time, a payment (it wasn't free) and a recovery happened, and this was delivered:

 

Pretty doggy and an MOT failure. It failed on the exhaust and rear fog light, which would have been easy fixes, but the advisories were also for suspension and brake lines so the owner wanted shot. It's cosmetically awful, but otherwise relatively well cared for.

It came with all it's service history, including a legal dispute. Sometime in 2006 VW did a cambelt, tensioner and major service. Not long after it dropped a valve and the engine was written off. There followed a period where disagreements were had over whether it represented poor quality work.

 

Practical upshot; it had a new engine 50,000 miles ago, and it's an AFN; the last pre-pd diesel VW made in these models with the best tune, bigger injectors, a VNT turbo and stronger rod bearings. Perfect organ donor!

[320touring]

I think this lump may be tuneablez- Dave_Q to the GLFOPHONE!

 

TDI ROCCO FTW:)

[barefoot]

Apologies for the lack of free-ness!

[Coprolalia]

Aye, I'm investigating tuning options. At the very least it's having a sump drop, cambelt and tensioner, and then EGR delete, tuning box and a decat (going to need a custom exhaust). These lumps are sought after by the VAG tuning lot, as with money thrown at them can see 200+ whp. I'm not going to throw loads of cash at it because it's meant to be a useable but unusual daily.

 

This is a very concerning site:

http://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/

 

 

Apologies for the lack of free-ness!

 

Barefoot - for exactly the reason above don't worry about it, I ended up paying around what I expected for one of these, and got a low mileage good one!

[Dave_Q]

I think this lump may be tuneablez- Dave_Q to the GLFOPHONE!

 

TDI ROCCO FTW:)

 

S reg is a bit borderline for OBD flashing, post us a picture of your ECU when you get round to stripping it out and we'll see what your options are

[320touring]

S reg is a bit borderline for OBD flashing, post us a picture of your ECU when you get round to stripping it out and we'll see what your options are

BOOOOST!

[cobblers]

Yeah, I like this! BTW the swivelly armrest seats out of the Sharan sell for actual money to camper people, they go nice in T4s.

[Coprolalia]

Bit of an update on happenings. Sharan is currently being broken for the engine, but the plan has changed again. Cobblers offered a 1.6td engine that had been sat in his garage for a few years on a thread on here somewhere. Bit of an unknown quantity, but at a price I couldn't refuse. So I bought Kiltox's engine crane and headed 200 miles north.

 

 

And collected this:

 

 

ACHTUNG TURBO DIESEL!

 

Started cleaning it up today, and it's not an SB engine as I expected (from a Golf GTD), it's a JR:

 

SB  1588  I4T  D  59  80  Golf, Jetta, Passat 1989 1993

 JR  1588  I4T  D  51  69  Golf, Jetta 1983 1991

 

 

 

http://www.clubvw.org.au/vwengines

 

So not sure what this has come out of, potentially an early Golf GTD or Jetta. It's lower powered than the SB, which is a bit of a shame (and considerably lower than the AFN from the Sharan). This is apparently down to being fitted with an air-cooled turbo running lower boost pressure without an intercooler compared to the intercooled water-cooled turbo on the SB.

 

We're now going to fit this engine as it's significantly easier. It uses the same engine mounts, no ECU concerns, the injector loom plugs into my current fuseboard and it will bolt direct to my current clutch/ gearbox/ bellhousing. The AFN will be a spare/ backup. The only issue is that it needs a dash with a glow plug light to work with the relays on the fuseboard. Some ebaying has provided this from a Mk1 Caddy.

 

 

Going to clean up/ degrease the engine next weekend, then do filters/ oil/ belts. It'll get fitted at the end of the month. Planning to run a Sprinter/LT intercooler and tweak the bosch pump, also fitting a custom manifold and 2.5" exhaust. Then BOOOST on veg! EXCITEMENT BUILDING!

 

Otherwise, my new lockup in Wales has "Crack Den" graffiti-ed across a wall, so I've adopted that name. The Octavia has now done 25k in my ownership in <2 years. Rocker/cam cover incontinence has been fixed with a gasket, along with various MOT advisories. It developed a really irritating non-stop-clicking-you-fucking-bastard indicator fault (TADTS) which appears to have self-healed. I'm very bored of it, but can't fault it for doing what is required when required, just can't wait for something a little more fun!

[Coprolalia]

The sun's out, my motor mojo appears to have returned.

Scirocco:

With the car in a lock-up 150 miles from my house I set off for a long weekend prepping it for conversion. 1.6TD lump was loaded in the back of the Octavia. Turbo in question below. VW fitted about 5 different turbos to this engine. This one's a Garrett, but not sure on model number, may be a T3? I was too busy wanging everything in the car to have a good look.


Unloaded.


9 months ago I drove G682 into my Devon lockup, and I've rolled it every couple of months since. On trying to start it with a fresh battery and pez it was having none of it. Couldn't even bump start. I think water from the HGF has got into the bores as I feared and seized it. I'll do a post-mortem after the conversion.
Last shot of the original engine 1.8 8v in situ. I was reminded why I bought this car, as apart from the front valence there's so little rot.


The required change of clocks. Going up in the world. This is more so I have an accurate track of it's mileage.


1.6TD was loaded into the back of G682, which was loaded onto a shagged DI Transit flatbed for the tow to my local mechanic mate.


It's now sat at his workshop along with the Sharan, and will have the engine done when he's less busy. No real timescale but it makes more sense than flatbedding it 150 miles (in my head).

Octavia:

25k miles in this now. It achieves a bit of everything with boring efficiency and without being outstanding at anything. List of faults:

Erratic idle - ?fixed
Intermittent fault code and EML - code is p0172 on Torque - ?fixed
Deteriorating MPGs - ?
Broken driver's armrest
Sticky OSR doorlock - irritating
Missing a wheel liner 
Oil leak at rear of the engine
Front bumper/ splitter hanging low - zip-tied
Mouldy front indicators
Rear washer doesn't work

So today I tried to tackle the p0172 code. "Bank 1 too rich". Google says it can be a nightmare trying to track down the fault as it can be anywhere from fuel reg, to MAF, to vac leaks. I decided to try by cleaning the MAF first.




Sprayed it with carb cleaner, then remembered I had some electrical contact cleaner tucked away. Pretty grot.
I suspect some of that may be down to the Pipercross. Also attacked the throttle body with carb cleaner, and gunked the underside of the engine. Couldn't find the source of the oil leak as it seems to be somewhere up in amongst the manifolds.
Looks it's had a shunt at some point which has warped the front bar and rad mountings. Fiddled about with the bumper and cable tied it up, but it need's taking off and hammering into shape at some point if I can be arsed.

Hopefully more Scirocco fun soon. Peace out.

[Coprolalia]

The Octavia is up to 30k as my daily and had a bit of work in the last few months. All very dull so no photos, just things ticked off the jobs list:

 

Erratic idle - settled since the MAF was cleaned.

Intermittent fault code and EML - code was p0172 on Torque which was chocolate-teapot level of help. Seems to have also settled since the MAF was cleaned.

Crap MPG - a bit better with the MAF, but probably down to all the town driving with work now.

Broken armrest

Sticky OSR doorlock - stuck on the remote, working off the internal handle. Needs a stripdown. I hear TADTS.

Missing NSF wheel arch liner - Replaced with an eBay job.

Oil leak - loose turbo oil return line.

Mouldy front indicators - £8 eBay replacements awaiting fitting.

Rear wash jet doesn't work - Needs a stripdown.

 

I've spent some time racing lawnmowers again doing the BLMRA 12 hour. My family has been doing it pretty much since it started, but if you've never seen it before this is the Reuter's video from this year, sums it up:

 

https://youtu.be/tdIAxj4xBQw

 

This year was arguably the worst ever for bumps. Some onboard video from one of the other teams...

 

 

This mower is pretty old and has done a few years of racing. My bro put a new engine and rear axle in for this year to make us more competitive.

 

The bumps took their toll, we had to weld the seat frame back to the chassis 3 times, most of the wheel arch up and plate the chassis together at about 5am. Sometime around 3-4am my bro managed to rip the wheel off the stub axle on a corner. He then managed to drive it halfway round the track to get back to the pit for us to repair it.

 

 

The seat snapped again within 15 mins of the end, so I crossed the line jockey-style. Sadly this old girl's time is up, as the chassis has snapped under the engine. 

Some eBay-fu means I'm off to collect a replacement this weekend.

 

The Scirocco conversion is off the ground. She's been sat at my mate's garage for a while with this lovely old Syncro for company, but now she's had the old engine pulled out ready for a new lease of life.

 

The engine bay has been pressure washed and prepped

 

The 1.6td SB has required a bit more work. I've had to source a different engine mount from a mk2 golf gtd (eBay again) which took some time and slowed things up. This then required the removal of the (BOSCH!) fuel pump to fit. My mate is doing glow plugs, cam belt and tensioner at the same time.

 

 

I've been looking at 205 STDTs and D-Turbos too. Derskine and I had some chats about his, and then I went to view a couple including this: 

 

 

It had sat for 5 years, but started up on the old diesel following a bit of glowplug action. Was outbid in the last seconds, however probably a mercy as the rear beam was rock solid. Definitely got my juices going for them, but I plan to wait for the Scirocco to be on the road before buying unless something perfect comes up. 

[Cavcraft]

£2,000 for a 53 plate Skoda estate?   

 

Lawn mower racing looks a blast!