Xmas post has put a halt on proceedings, so I have moved on to making my own strut brace. I started with a couple of lumps of 5mm plate cut into a square and then mounted these into my 4 jaw chuck on my lathe to open out the centre holes. I then swapped the chuck over and mounted the plate from the centre holes to turn off the corners to leave me with a pair of rather large washers. A nice piece of CDS tube with a 4mm wall thicknes will do for the cross brace. Test fit I might even have enough room for an engine cover
Finished off the strut brace and gave it a quick coat of paint. I also knocked up a lower strut brace but forgot to take pictures.
I started taking a look at my brakes, I have std Corrado 16v 256 setup, but I also have a few options. From top to bottom, Std Corrado 256 disc, G60 280 disc, Golf mk4 288 disc & S2 Lotus Elise 288 disc. I I intend to use the Golf mk4 caliper with a 288 disc, this should just fit under the std 15" wheels. The Lotus discs are 288 and 4x100 but the centre bore is a little smaller at 60mm where as the Corrado ones are 65mm this is a golf mk4 disc alongside the Elise disc So I guess you can see what's coming next. The Elise discs put into the lathe and open the centre bore out to 65mm, not forgeting to leave a nice chamfer on the inside. And here they are fitted up.
I also picked up a set of braided hoses from ebay, not bad quality and reasonably priced. View attachment 6409
I have decided not to go with the usual silicone turbo intake pipe, but I am going to make my own similar to the old Badger5 one with an aluminium spun nozzle fitting onto the turbo. So an hour of playing on the lathe and I am left with this intake nozzle. I will pu a 90deg silicone hose onto this and then the rest of the pipe going to the Maff and air filter will be stainless.
I am going to make my own downpipe, so I have cut the flange off the old Golf downpipe to give me something to start with All cleaned up on the lathe ready for some stainless bends.
Tried to start the car today after finaly finishing up the wiring. The fuel pump wirred into life, the throttle body buzzed away and the engine cranked over but would'nt fire. We spent an hour or so problem solving and checking over a few things and then realised that the crankshaft sensor wasn't plugged in. Doh! Tried the car again and it sprung straight into life. to say that I'm happy is an understatement. So I then went and refitted the fusebox and put the dash back together.
Managed to do a bit of work on the down pipe, more will be revealed later Gone with a 3" downpipe going into 2.5" under the car.
Got this intercooler donated to me from my son's old Polo GTI, it's a bit big but I reckon it will work ok. I like freebies
I found a 3" Maf that I had from my old Focus ST, so I took the Ford sensor out of it and tried the VW one in it. I now have a choice of 2.5" or 3" maf.
You are doing very well. Installation looks neat and I am sure from the shared details, exactly how you want it.
Something I missed earlier, I fitted new driveshaft bolts when refitting the driveshafts. But instead of buying the over priced VW bolts which are M8 x 75, I bought some M8 x 80 high tensile 10.9 cap screws. You can just make out with the driveshafts fitted that the bolts just protrude through the flanges by 2 or 3mm. I am hoping that this solution stops them coming undone, they have been loctite in place as well.
I made a boss for my MAP sensor and got mt mate to weld it into my intercooler. I then gave the intercooler a coat of high temp black paint, it's the only black spray I had to hand at the time lol As things were going so well I thought I'd get the front panel back on, which then led me to fitting the headlights and grille. I think I might need a new grille badge now?
Looking great. I like the idea of spraying the IC in black, that looks neat, I may have to copy that.
I was going to fit my rear brake hoses today, but as I got under the rear of the car I noticed that the rear beam bushes looked a little tired Now that I had seen this I just had to get the beam off and get those bushes out, not a job I had planned on. I used Ed China's trick of suing a bolt through a socket to pull the middle out of the bush, then using a 35mm hole saw I drilled the remaining rubber out. Then it was just a simple case of using the hacksaw to cut through the outer steel shell and knocking it out with a hammer and chisel. Whilst I was removing the beam I disconected the ABS sensor cable from inside the car and pushed it and the gromet though the boot floor, unforunately I also removed a little bit of rot at the same time So I cut a plate and repaired the hole, I'll dill it out for the gromet later and paint it all back up.
I removed all of the brake lines from the beam whilst I had it out on the floor, they were pretty much shot. I also noticed that the little plastic wheel that goes inside the spring for the proportioning valve was broken. So I couldn't really leave that, time to fire up the lathe. So new Floflex bushes on order, less than half the price of the Powerflex ones. and that's about all I can do for now with the beam. I'll give it a clean up and paint before refitting.
