Cope's GTI

Discussion in 'Members Gallery' started by copeidge, Jul 14, 2008.

  1. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    Croft 2022


    I was really looking forward to Croft and to see how the car performed after making the braces and uprating some of the bushes. I wasn’t expecting to shave seconds off a lap time, but I was hoping to see some difference.


    Even thought I was still on a lesser tyre than last time at Croft, I wasn’t disappointed! The car felt brilliant! It’s really hard to describe the difference/ or the sensation behind the wheel, I’m sure it’s faster, it’s certainly more precise, all I can say is it feel bloody spot on!


    …until lunch, when I had a problem, can you guess?





    Correct. Another 020 has transitioned to transmission heaven.


    [​IMG]


    This time it was the diff rivets which had failed, one of which shot straight through the casing of the box.


    You can just about make out the hole here


    [​IMG]


    So that was end of play for me. I stayed until the end of the day with my mates and went out for passenger rides, all in all a great day.

    Luckily for me one of the lads trailered his E46 M3, so the Golf took its place


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    That meant a drive back home in his E46. What an absolute animal it is, never been in anything like it!


    [​IMG]



    I had a spare 020 in the shed, that came with the new engine, so I began to strip the old one out of the Golf, whilst I tinkered with the new one. I wanted to swap this out for an 02a, but I didn’t have the time or the budget to do it properly and source the parts, as I’ve got a trip to Germany in a week, so the decision was made to crack on with what I had.

    Looking at the gearbox I wasn’t sure if it had an LSD of not, both cups span the same way, so I decided to stirp it down and investigate. It was also a good excuse to learn a little bit more about how these things work, which was nice.


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    “you can only piss with the dick you’ve got” one of my favourite quotes. Adapt and overcome!


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    [​IMG]


    While it was off I put some new seals in it too

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    To my untrained eye, everything looked good, with minimal wear, unfortunately no LSD, it was just the springs behind the cups fooling me!


    Which brings me nicely to the cups. For me this is the biggest blocker/pain when changing a gearbox, the are a pain to remove and you have to constantly be on guard waiting for the cup to spring off in your face. So, I decided to buy myself a set of long nose circlip pliers (these are a god send) and I also made a tool, which puts pressure on the cups to remove the clips easily and then you can slowly take the tension off – Result!


    [​IMG]


    Surprisingly the gearbox still seemed to function correctly, a miracle.


    My new ABF was running an 020 with a lightened flywheel, so I decided to get this on at the same time.


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    Decent weight saving - 1.4kg


    Refilled the box using some different fluid this time.

    [​IMG]

    I had to also replace the friction disc, as the old one got covered in gearbox oil.

    With the box back in, something was a miss. The pedal would just go straight to the floor. I toom the cap off the end of the box and inspected the fork, push rod and spring. All look good. The fork has some wear so I swapped this for a spare from my old box. Unfortunately I still had the same issue, so back off with the gearbox.


    I check on brokevw ( a great source for anything 020 related) and he mentioned the hub face of the flywheel should be 36mm to the plate the push rod sits on.


    [​IMG]


    I was getting 42mm. Night after night I was checking everything I could, had the flywheel off, the old one back on and vice versa, and finding nothing. It’s a very simple system so a problem should be obvious. In the end I just refit the box and put it down to the friction disc being new. After messing around with the manual clutch cable for a while, I found the sweet spot. The clutch feels good and the pedal returns and I’m sure as it gets some more wear it should improve.


    I might rename this build “Cope messes with gearboxes” It’s safe to say I’m sick of the things.

    As a precaution for my trip to the Nürburgring, I bought another cheap 020, I’ve put new seals in that and I’m taking it with me in the back of the golf as a spare… Yep its drastic, but I have zero faith!

    Next on the list was the brakes. I’d noticed when changing the pads in the last update that both dust seals had split as had the slider dust covers. I ordered a kit from big red, great quality and great price!


    The old caliper

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    I use this little contraption for popping out the piston, made up of a brake pipe union, brake pipe and some silicone hose to attach to an airline, works a treat!


    [​IMG]


    I’m glad I did this as the piston was starting to rust in places with the water ingress.


    The caliper built back up with a new lick of paint

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]



    Next on the list was cooling, the old rad was looking tired and I noticed on track that coolant temps were at sat at ¾ on the gauge. I went for a true Yorkshire spec ali rad from ebay, for the total cost of £41! Yep bargain! It’s a 4 core rad, so should help the coolant temps.


    [​IMG]


    I was sceptical but the quality looks bang on.

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    The rad was installed with the standard fan and cowling set up, new rad hoses, a new head flange and metal water pipe.


    I also used Water Wetter instead of coolant, the benefit being if I happen to cause any spills at the Ring, its nowhere near as slippery as coolant and is very similar to just running pure water with some added lube for the waterpump.


    I took the car for a test drive after spending hours trying to bleed the coolant, it was a real pain this time!! But got there in the end and touch wood no leaks.


    [​IMG]


    I went to the mk2 golf owners national meet on Sunday, had a great day and the car performed really well, with no gearbox issues, thank Christ!


    [​IMG]


    In prep for our trip to Germany, I decided to make some kind of phone holder for maps, I usually keep my phone on my lap, but that’s less than ideal.


    After thinking of various different solutions, this is what I came up with. Using a spare dash blank and modifying one of the spring loaded phone holders.

    [​IMG]

    So far seems like a great option, and means I can remove it for a standard dash blank when not using my phone for maps 

    Cheers 
     
    davkav, erreesse, R1ch and 3 others like this.
  2. Zender Z20

    Zender Z20 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Great write up, going to have a deeper read about your gearbox work later... but keep the updates / images coming, all very interesting.

    There's an Audi ball joint socket remover thingy which is 27mm and perfectly fits the VW embossed metal end cap (plus handily the green plastic timing inspection hole screw in cap), can be used with a 1/2" socket wrench.

    This one is from Laser Tools (No. 6397) but seems to be plenty of others doing it too.

    27mm A.jpg


    27mm.jpg
     
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  3. GVK

    GVK Paid Member Paid Member

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    Great update as ever !
     
  4. Zender Z20

    Zender Z20 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Took my own gearbox back out yesterday.

    The 42mm you got for the below measurement, I did too (with a new friction plate in).

    Full credit to BrokeVW for the following images / links - like you say, fantastic site for 020 info.

    http://www.brokevw.com/releasearm.html


    1.jpg


    Other measurements that have to be taken from the input shaft I took to be from the outermost end, there's a drop in / lip of about 1.5 mm to the actual seal and I've assumed (maybe wrongly?) he isn't calculating from there.

    My pushrod is one of the types that sits flush with the seal, which he touches on as being the case with some boxes.

    The following dimensions on my box match his stats.

    Rod is 340mm long

    Pushrod extends 24mm when lever arm is at 9 o'clock

    Splines on input shaft are 33mm

    After that things go off - his stats. are on the left, mine the right.

    2.jpg


    82mm / 77mm

    3.JPG

    A. 94.5mm / 88mm

    B. 58mm / 50mm

    C. 54, 41, 33.5mm (this confuses me, not sure which is applicable) / but regardless mines 28mm.

    Did you take any of these measurements on your box and did they match / different?
     
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  5. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    Thanks Zender, I didn't take any other measurements. But all seems well :)
     
  6. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    Nurburgring 2022


    It was fantastic to be back over in Germany after 3 years!

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    Above is a little teaser.

    After road testing the car and doing a shakedown at the national meet sprint day I was confident the Golf was ready for action.


    [​IMG]

    Before leaving I gave the car a good clean, packed with the usual spares, tools and this time a spare gearbox! Yep… you read that right. Best to over prepare than face a headache trying to find a gearbox in Germany.


    She was fairly loaded up!

    [​IMG]


    There were 4 of us travelling, Myles in his M2, Brooke in his 330 touring and Beardy passenger with me after selling his teg.


    We had a nice steady drive over to Hull to get the ferry across to Rotterdam.


    In the queue for passport control, I spied another mk2! I pulled up next to the owner and said it was nice to see someone using a proper car for a trip abroad, turns out he was travelling over to Belgium for a bowling tournament! Amazing to see.


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    We arrived in Rotterdam the next morning ready for the 4 hour drive down to Kelberg where we were staying.


    Despite the heavy load in the Golf she still managed to go off the clock on the autobahn!


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    Brooke managed 145mph in his 330 touring

    Myles, who thought his M2 was limited to 155mph, managed 175mph before tapping out! Hell of a speed!


    We arrived at the guest house early afternoon.
    [​IMG]


    The host Christa was a lovely woman, who’d fully stocked the fridge with beer, and essentials, a really nice touch. The house is in a great location, 2 min walk to a big Lidl and a fairly new garage to the area, 24/7 performance – which, as you might have guessed from the name, is open 24/7!


    We had a wonder down, and there was some SERIOUS metal in the carpark and on the ramps. It would be an absolute dream to own a place like this.


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    This is always a great view when driving to the track, with the Nurburg castle in the background

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    I was keen to get straight to the track and get 1 lap under my belt, so I could rest easy. It was Myles’ first time at the ring and he had some trepidation, but I talked him into getting out there for a lap, following me. That night he said he was really glad he did and meant he could get a decent nights sleep without feeling too nervous!


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    It had been 3 years since I’d last been, and the magic of the place is totally overwhelming, it’s still a real privilege to be there and to be able to drive the track.

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    Time seems to race over there and it was soon the weekend, we spent the time between driving and viewing at various points around the track.

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    We made the obligatory stop to the Pistenklaus

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    And continued day after day, lapping lapping and more lapping, only stopping for fuel and oil top ups. I got through 2 litres of oil on the trip! The Golf has always used oil, not so much during normal road driving but on track it gets through a lot, which I’m fine with.


    This is one of my favourite pictures of the trip. I’ll be getting it printed and framed I think!


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    There’s no atmosphere like it!

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    The little Golf was yet again holding its own! With the only issue being the brakes.
    Once the brakes were hot I was experiencing horrible pedal judder, which travelled right through the steering column, it was REALLY bad! That night I took the car out and did a bed in procedure again. The next day on track it had improved them but still not great. I headed back to the guesthouse to swap my pads over, Id taken my previous set of DS2500’s which had about 2mm of meat left on them. Went straight back for a lap and the brake issue was fully cured! I kept these pads in for the remainder of the trip.


    The yellow stuff pads I’d got off my mate must have been very old (we thought 10+ years old) and they were well past it.


    [​IMG]


    After doing a lap, I usually take the car for a cool down, and park up in a big layby down the road, on the weekends they blocked this off, so we found another in the opposite direction towards ED Petrol station.


    [​IMG]


    After one particular lap, I’d parked next to a English EP3, his mate popped over for a chat,

    He said “oh this is going really well, you flew past me earlier”

    “oh really? What were you in?”
    “the silver R8”

    “oh yeah I remember”

    “it must have some power! You were flying, what have you done to it”

    “errm, yeah a few bits and bobs, mostly suspension, brakes etc”

    I daren’t tell him it was a fairly standard 8v…


    To be fair to him, he was probably being polite, as he definitely wasn’t flat out!


    I’m no expert around here by any means, but I do know the Ring very well now, mostly from sim knowledge and the 50 or so laps I’ve done in real life. It’s one of the few tracks in the world where track knowledge beats outright power, grip, braking, you name it. If you want to go faster at the Ring, get some coaching or really put the time in on the sim. Luckily for me, I had Nige in as passenger a few years ago, I rewatched the footage back before our trip to make sure to familiarise myself with the little hints and tips he talked me through.


    [​IMG]


    I forgot to mention about the new rad, its made a huge improvement on temps! The coolant gauge stays around 90 degrees on track, which is ideal!


    [​IMG]


    Throughout the week we’d had a lot of yellow flags (crashes) on one lap there were 5 yellow flags, pretty shocking. But on Monday evening I had a fairly clear lap, I wasn’t going for an outright try hard fastest lap, but it was a nice, smooth lap with only a couple of minor hold ups - a motorbike at Adenauer Forst and a Ring Taxi at Breidscheid.

    This lap felt pretty special, the car felt great, temps were good, gearbox felt great! But mainly because of the “Jump at Pflanzgarten. I’d always braked before the jump, and back on the brakes again after the jump. This time, I kept my foot flat in 4th gear, took off and heard valve bounce at the limiter… it didn’t feel as terrifying as I thought, but it was a HUGE adrenaline rush as you can see in the video.

    To my surprise, when I got home it was a 9:02 BTG. Without the hold ups I think a sub 9min lap was on the cards. Without sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet, I’m massively proud of the car, it’s been a long journey of development, both in the car and me as a driver and this was the icing on the cake.






    After this we had around 30 mins before the track closed – perfect, just time for one more lap. Our ferry back was the next day so this was the last chance to get on track.

    I bought another lap ticket, and got my helmet on ready for another lap. As I started the car the siren sounded across the carpark, there had been a crash and the track was closed for the rest of the day. I wasn’t annoyed at all, actually slightly relieved as deep down, even though I shouldn’t have been, I know I would have been chasing that sub 9 lap time. Everything happens for a reason.

    [​IMG]


    Our ferry back wasn’t until 8:30pm, so we had a day to kill, the plan was to visit the shops on the boulevard at the ring centre, do some karting at the Nuburgring and them drive an hour towards the ferry to visit Michael Schumacher karting centre (a pretty good day all in all)


    At the Karting centre, Myles got chatting to Jake Hill, the current BTCC driver, he knew him from racing Genetta’s years ago. Jake was a really sound bloke, over there for a stag do. We were on the session after their, so didn’t get to race alongside him unfortunately. But I did managed to put in a faster lap!! [:D]


    (JH24 is Jake Hill)

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    (Insert Jeremy Clarkson Smug Face)


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    3 very different cars!


    We arrived at Schumacher’s place, this time they had opened up both indoor and outdoor as one track!

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    Very fun and very reasonably priced. I managed to bag fastest lap of the week, which topped off a great day and an even better week!


    We left there for the ferry.

    [​IMG]



    So that was that. The Golf had an absolute blinder of a trip. 10 laps of the ring, 1,000 road miles, off the clock autobahn, many many smiles, laughs and jokes with the best lads.
    Theres some great outside footage which I’m going to complie and post up in the coming weeks.


    Onto the next one!
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2022
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  7. GVK

    GVK Paid Member Paid Member

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    Absolutely brilliant report, know the feeling when you first keep it pinned over pflansgarten 1 ..lol!!

    Just watched the lap, going very well mate.

    Mega.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2022
    copeidge likes this.
  8. Tristan

    Tristan Paid Member Paid Member

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    Awesome awesome awesome! I bet you were smiling to yourself even whilst typing this out!

    Did you get a lap with Nige in his car, too?
     
    copeidge likes this.
  9. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    Thanks chaps!

    GVK, its terrifying! :)

    Tristan, not around the ring unfortunately! but hopefully next time.
     
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  10. GVK

    GVK Paid Member Paid Member

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    Not terrifying, thrilling i'd say
     
  11. Ring54

    Ring54 Paid Member Paid Member

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    Awesome driving and an awesome read! Looks like you got some amazing pics of the car snapped as well! :thumbup:
     
  12. watercooled Forum Member

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    Impressed how your track driving has improved in a rather short time,well done .
    Cant wait to see your results with the 16V ?.
    Cheers.
     
  13. cupracraig

    cupracraig Paid Member Paid Member

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    2:40 ish you are spotted
     
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  14. Hot Water Forum Member

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    Looking forward to your 16v build!
     
  15. Savagesam

    Savagesam Moderator Staff Member Moderator

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    I’d missed that update. It makes me so excited to get mine going.

    I love reading and watching, keep it up :)
     
  16. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    ^ Thanks mate :)


    Last Track action for 2022

    I had a surprise outing to Cadwell Park last weekend.
    My mate Nick races his Leon Cupra K1 in the Javelin Sprint Series and he'd persuaded me to give it a bosh.

    [​IMG]

    Javelin run the series in different classes according to engine size (turbo cars get bumped up) I was in class J12, 1600cc–1800cc.
    They then have 2 categories, Spec1 and Spec 2.

    Spec 1 is for cars with full interiors, carpets and 2 seats but they can have a full roll cage, splitters etc.
    Spec 2 is for full blown track cars, anything goes essentially.

    I would be racing in J12 Spec 1.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I did my research and my class consisted on only 1 model of car, a Toyota Celica from around 2000 ish (not sure on exact model)
    But standard they are 190bhp and 1100kgs. So I knew I had my work cut out!

    [​IMG]

    The morning started out damp and the first few shaded corners didnt dry out fully until after lunch.

    After the first run I was really happy to be leading the class, I think this was partly down to me being on NS2R and the competition were all using AR1s and I have much more low down grunt which suited the damp conditions. But I knew as soon it started to dry out I'd really have to push to get a respectable time.

    [​IMG]

    Sprinting is a whole different ball game to track days. It's being able to put down consistent fast lap times, all using cold tyres and cold brakes.
    The nerves also really get to you, as the start line looms your heart rate increases, I think part of putting in fast times is being able to keep a cool head.
    We had 6 timed runs in the day, and not having been to Cadwell for a while it took longer than I wanted to become comfortable.

    [​IMG]

    On my 4th run I was finally taking Coppice flat. I'd figures Charlies was much faster staying in 4th, dab of left foot brake and straight back on the power for the uphill Park Straight. Any times gained at the exit of Charlies was really noticeable in the rev range.

    [​IMG]

    Each time I came back to the pits and had a debrief with Nick, I told him there was maybe 0.5 seconds to gain in the lap, but not much more. One thing I learnt was not to underestimate the knowledge and confidence you get throughout the day and I consistently found time each lap.

    [​IMG]

    My fifth lap out, I was confident in the track condition and the car, I just needed to give it my all, nail the lines and stay focused.

    Unfortunately I had a big lockup after Hall bends into the Hairpin, which probably made for good viewing, but not great for my lap times.
    never the less I'd shaved off a touch more.

    My last timed run the pressure was on. I tried hard, very hard! ... a little bit too hard!
    took Coppice flat, little flick right into Charlies, which in hindsight was too aggressive and causing a decent slide with half a turn of oppo at about 90mph.
    Exciting and frightening all at the same time as theres no run off there.

    Felt decent through the Gooseneck, which I'd been happy with all day. If there was time to be made on the competition I was sure it would be through Charlies and the Gooseneck, as the car is really on the limit there.

    The Gooseneck I tend to go in fairly hot, get the rear to just rotate on entry, giving me a neutral steering position, a little flick left and it swoops the car nicely down the hill towards Mansfield.

    Unfortunately again I was a little too hot on the cold brakes which caused another slide through Mansfield - scrubbing time.

    Below you can see the entry to Manfield on my last run, rear wheel in the air, slight opp and front tyres trying to peel off the rim.

    [​IMG]
    Less haste = More speed captain! - note for next time.

    I ended the day with my fastest lap, despite the over exuberance.
    (my time in pink, competitors in blue - I cant get on the site to screenshot first place in my class but I think he was an early 1:40)
    [​IMG]

    And that was that. The day was over, I'd had an absolute blast! Loved the competition and was proud with my first stab.
    I'd finished 3rd in class (*cough* out of 4 cars...) But i was happy with that. The little Golf was 70+hp down on power, so I was very happy with the results.

    Also want to thank this lad.

    [​IMG]

    No only did he supporting me before each run and pep me up throughout the day, he also absolutely smashed his class and came 4th overall!
    Just to put that in perspective, he was in a fwd Leon vs full time attack spec Evo's/Impreza's, a huge achievement! Well done buddy!



    Above is video of my fastest run.

    and a video of Nicks 1st place run, which I know some of you will enjoy.



    So whats next...

    Well, I've got some plans for the Golf over winter.

    I've not yet started stripping down my new engine, but I think I have a clearer vision of what I want to build.
    I think the plan will still be a 16v on ITB, decent cams, stand alone ecu, BUT I'll be building it as a 1.8 not a 2.0/2.1.

    I'm pretty keen to get the Golf up to spec and do a full year of Sprinting. Keeping the car a 1.8 will mean I'll be much more on par with the competition in my 1.6-1.8 class and ultimately make the car much more competitive ( Although I need to work on my driving style too!)

    Lots to learn and lots to look forward to.

    Cheers.
     
  17. GVK

    GVK Paid Member Paid Member

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    Great update as ever dude , well done. Is that the same Leon that Dannydc2 drove on one of his vids?
     
  18. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    Thanks mate, yes I believe he did :)
     
  19. daNpy Forum Member

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    You're running an ABF motor with a 020 gearbox? What kind of supports do you have?
    My engine is 1 to 2 cm lower on the gearbox side as the mountings don't add up in combination with my 9A engine.

    Also, where did you get that radiator exactly? [:D]

    I love the detailed posts, will read them more thoroughly later :thumbup: :thumbup:
     
  20. copeidge

    copeidge Forum Member

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    No I'm still running an 8v PB engine with an 020. The new 16v engine I've got in the shed, ready to rebuild.

    The radiator is just from ebay, the seller is called cathch_21, it came from Germany.

    Thanks :)
     
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