My Mars Red Mk1 - Thread REBOOT- P82

Hi Tim, sure mate. They charged me 125+vat per bracket so 300 for just those. The guy I dealt with was David Fuller.

Gurds

 

Fantasic! The brakes look intense, love the colour of them too! and the wheels set it off perfect!

 

Awesome work on the brakes Gurds! They look lovely.

Sorry to jump back in time, but I'm hoping you can help.....I've just got my 16v turbo build finished and mapped with a very similar set up to you just a KR block not an ABF. I have the same turbo technics turbo manifold you used to use, same garrett GT28RS and very similar 3" turbo down pipe, 3" mid section to 2.5" over the rear axle.....any how currently even on actuator pressure I'm suffering with over boost / boost creep up to 14psi on WOT. Did you suffer with over boost with your set up? As I remember your first power run graphs showing actuator pressure of 0.7 bar (10 psi) and I can't get mine to stay that low.

Cheers, Sam

 

Hi Sam.

I do get boost creep on very cold days and it does end up at 14psi as you say. Doesn't happen on warm days. Apparently porting the hotside wastegate port can help this.

Gurds

 

Some other goodies arrived which meant I could get the engine finished up.



Yea Baby! They ABF cams worked really well but I'd been eyeing up these hydro turbo specific cams from Catcams for a while now. Although fitment is a little more time consuming than OEM stuff. They come bare without the inter cam timing sprockets fitted so these had to be pulled off some old cams and moved over to the new set. I also had an NOS internal vernier kicking about from a group buy a few years back that finally got put to use.

Here is the spec of the cams chosen.



Quite interesting how different the cam setup and phasing is compared to NA cams. They also come with two sets of keyways cut into each cam. More of that later.

So back into the kitchen with the parts....



The sprockets were baked for a while at low heat to get them to expand a little. Turn them over once and glaze with milk/egg as required.



Put on some welding gauntlets and push them on!





I used the method of measuring lift at tdc with a DTI to set them up. To make life easier I put together an adapter that allowed the DTI stand to screw into the cam cover gasket stud.



At this point I hit a bit of a hurdle. The inlet cam had enough lift to just touch the head casting on the front face and the lobes got very close to the edge where the gasket sits too. I ended up using a powerfile to grind away excess aluminium and gain back much needed clearance.

I proceeded to time the cams to the spec listed on the data sheet using the following guide from Catcams. It's nicely laid out and clear on how to proceed with setting them up.

http://www.catcams.co.uk/acatalog/Cam_Timing.html

I got as far as timing up the exhaust cam when I came across my second problem. There wasn't enough adjustment on my internal sprocket vernier to get enough lift on the inlet cam at TDC and a whole tooth moved was too much. I pulled off the exhaust cam sprocket to investigate the second keyway position. Hey presto! It was positioned to offset the sprocket by exactly half a tooth! This solved the timing issue and I continued to finish off the timing.



Finally with the cams set, I locked them into position by fitting a couple of caps the wrong way round and brought the pistons up to TDC. The true TDC had already been determined and marked with the dti. I also fitted the external vernier and set that up too. Now, after unlocking the cams, I turned it all over and doubled checked the timing. All lined up neatly again. Spot on! Will be interesting to see how they affect performance.



Right, back to the engine bay so it can all go in...



Gurds

 

I'm definitely feeling a CGTi Recipe Book, perhaps sir would like a CV appetiser before the cam course?



Brakes & the rest look awesome!

 

Haha! That's awesome Yoof. Love that your oven is a Competence model lol

With the engine nearing completion, the engine bay needed its final additions and subsequent paint job before the power plant could go in. Saturday was spent painstakingly rubbing down and de-greasing the bay and front panel along with finishing off the strut brace.

Some 3mm steel squares were added to support the strut brace.



Then some CDS was profiled to fit.



Repeated on the other side.



The only reason the bars were not extended to the middle is turbo clearance. Also getting the profiling can be a tricky job so rolling up a piece of card into a tube and cutting that first helps quite a lot.

Then many hours were spent rubbing down old paint, removing grease and grime and scraping off flaky sealant.



The car was then rolled into the paint booth (garage hehehe) and lined with statically charged dust sheet. This stuff is amazing at dust and over spray retention.





The primer was mixed up and the panels were given a final wipe down with panel wipe. I opted to use 2 pack paint products which meant taking special precautions with masks etc. The fumes are seriously dangerous stuff.

I gave the bay and front panel a couple of coats and managed to get into all the awkward areas, even laying down under the engine bay to get full coverage.







Have to say, quite happy with that!

Gurds

 

I remember the rub down and prep stage on mine. Hours of work with little visible change.
Then the paint goes on and it changes almost instantly.

 

Great work Gurds. You'll be glad of the tidy bay in the coming years.

 

Amazing to see how much this is changing. Will be like a different car when finished?

When is your next track outing?

 

Thank you for the support lads. Gotta keep pushing on...

AjVR, it is going to be very different to what it was and hopefully for the better. Next track outing? It was supposed to be Curby lol but now will be when ever the car has been shaken down and deemed reliable.

I cleaned up and dusted down the bay and gave it a once over with some panel wipe. The old seam sealer had seen better days so I went round with some PU sealant and refreshed all the critical areas. The beading across the firewall was also treated in order to keep the new joint water tight and rust free in the future.





This needed 24hrs to dry so meanwhile the front panel was worked with some stopper (a very fine filler) in order to fill the numerous stone chips. Finally the whole lot was given a final coat of thinned down primer ready to take on the top coat.



The tin of Mars red paint was finally cracked open and mixed up. The front of the car had been relined with fresh dust sheets and the front end wiped down, I duly applied a couple of layers of paint.











ANd outside after it had all dried.



As engine bays go, I'm happy enough with that. There is the odd drip and imperfections but hey, this isn't a show pony!

Gurds

 

With bodywork being the main focus right now, I turned my attention to the group 2 kit. I spent rather a long time getting the arch gaps and positioning consistent on all four corners before making any major cuts.



To neaten things up, I am using panel bead as you find on old aircooled beetles and use it between the kit and bodywork.



I think it cleans up the joint and will help break up the sea of red once the kit is painted. Meanwhile the wheels returned from having tyres mounted.



Hmmm, they don't quite fit under the standard steel.





But no matter, the steelwork was due to be cut back for the kit anyway.

I marked up how much steel I could remove without compromising arch fitment.



And out with the angle grinder!





As you can see, this add plenty of clearance.



The rear arches are a bit more involved. With them being double skinned, I decided to cut back the outer skin a little further than the inner and then will fold it up to weld.

Outer skin cut back.



Inner skin cut back not as far.



Ever growing pile of offcuts.




Well that will do for now.



Gurds

 

Awesome!! Did you ever consider the full piece wings with the arches on them That HR sell?

 

Looking good Gurds!

I feel your pain with the cam timing on a regular bases!....8v's are soooo much easier!...cam profiles look good.

 

The one piece fronts? I have seen those about. I want to replicate the bead fitment on the front as I think it would look better. Also means that the arches alone can be replaced if they suffer damage.

Thanks Jason. Yea it's a fiddly job on these old 16vs. Wish it had double external verniers...

Gurds

 

Good point on arch repairs mate. and I agree, it looks better with the bead. Where'd you get that actually?

 

Gsf of all places! It's an empi part and quite cheap actually.

Gurds

 

Mate this car gets better and better

Gurds Turbo Racer : GTR

Dav

 

Haha! GTR.

With the rear arch joints cut off, it is important to weld them back together obviously. So I set about slowly stitching back together.

I opted to cut little flaps all the way round the inner arch and gently hammered them back to meet the outer skin.



Then each flap had a single weld, tacking it to the outer skin.



Once this was done, all the flaps were cut off and the excess filed back with a flapper wheel on the angle grinder.



I then proceeded to weld the joint together taking care not to overheat the skin or blow holes through it.







Then rinse and repeat on the other side.



There are a couple of bits to finish but overall, I'm pleased. Will need some paint but contemplating just doing the welded area in a bid to get the car finished! I can always do a full panel job later. Will see.

Gurds

 

Tasty welding there Gurds.