My Mars Red Mk1 - Thread REBOOT- P82

Loving all the work on this build as well as the detailed sharing.... inspiring stuff!

 

Building a decent exhaust is time consuming but very satisfying once finished

 

Conception, Design and Realisation

As you may recall, a while back I did some CAD drawings of new brackets to mount my calipers to the mk2 uprights.






Well my friendly machinist had some stock of 6061 so fabricated them using his CNC machine. Mmmmm shiny!




These were test fitted for good measure but could not be left in a bare aluminium state so were sent off for anodising shortly after.




Meanwhile I made use of the new press I purchased.




All these bits really need to end up on the car at some point.




New bearing in meant I could paint the uprights.






The brackets came back in a nice coating of satin silver and are now fitted in their new home.






Gurds

 

Keep posting like this and I may actually work on mine...

 

Gurds looks lovely but could t you get the brackets done the same colour as the callipers ?

 

Not when the bits that need anodising go off with a large batch of parts of a bulk order that aren't mine.....

Also, they'll never get seen.

Gurds

 

But you`ll always know they don`t match..

 

lol

 

A few trackday sessions of stamping on the middle pedal and it'll be a nice satin black... Lol.

 

And that's a Wrap!

With the exhaust system fully built, I decided to wrap the down pipe to help increase the life of engine bay components in the vicinity.

But as this was the last step in the exhaust fitment jobs, it meant I could finally bolt down the turbo to the manifold. My method of using M10 cap head bolts with nordlock washers and really leaning on them with a breaker bar seemed to withstand any stretching since fitting them. So I opted for the same method of fitment.




I can fit the turbo with the manifold in situ but because of the design on the hotside, one of the nuts had to be cut slim to be able to squeeze in a nordlock.




I opted to use the DEI brand of heat wrap with a 2" width as the large 3" diameter pipework would quickly use up lengths of wrap.




Then with the downpipe now wrapped, it was clamped into service for a hopefully trouble free life.



I think it turned out pretty well. I looked at the possibilities of wrapping over the flex joint but decided against it as the wrap gets brittle with heat cycles and with movement would break down. A few high power turbo car owners said they did the same.

Even though I had added heat reflective matting to the fuel tank, I wrapped the pipework directly under the tank for good measure.








With the system all in place, the turbo could now be assembled into the hotside.




Only issue now it that the oil feed line isn't quite long enough. Bit close for comfort to the hot bits... Guess I will need to remake that too.



Gurds

 

Use a turbo blanket and it can rest on it
Not as pretty but they work very well

 

Wrapping will help keep the gas speed high too, as well as protecting stuff around the pipe.

 

On my MK5 GTI some say it's worth wrapping, some don't but like you Gurds i did it for added protection of components around the turbo. As i have removed all the insulation inside it helps to keep the heat transfer from the exhaust into the centre tunnel.

 

Hardline Supply

Current upgrade don't just include performance parts but also an eye for constant evolution from lessons learnt whether from my car of from friends. We all know the turbo gets very very hot and anything in the vicinity gets baked over time. Whilst I made every effort to wrap, shield and protect parts from heat, there are some things that just sit too close for protect. One such part are the water lines to and from the turbo. The hoses with stainless over-braid were starting to show signs of softening and it would only be a matter of time before they were likely to fail. So i decided no was the right time to make my own hard lines.

10mm O.D. stainless steel pipe fit the bill with regards to sizing and some m14 banjo ends to suit the turbo connections.




I was lucky enough to find a source who supplied the banjos ready to weld rather than pre-built. These had a 10mm I.D. allowing the stainless pipe to slot in nicely.






Using a brake line pipe bender, I was able to bend the tube to suit. This was MIG welded and then ground down to make it look nice.








I added a stainless P-clip to hold the end in place to reduce fatigue from vibration.




That's the return line sorted and would have a short run of rubber hose into a T-piece on the water return circuit. For the supply line, I run a VR6 core plug on the block with a water outlet on it. I use that to supply water to the turbo and up until now was a long run of hose curled round the back of the firewall. This time I intended to go in between the runners of the manifold. First attend ended badly with a mangled piece of tube left over but served as a good template for the second attempt.









You can see how much the pipe has to snake to pass by the manifold and get around the back of the turbo core. I used a push-fit end and a very short section of hose to connect to the core plug. Even though this hose won't be seen, I ground it down anyway.








It's very hard to picture the route of the pipe, here is what I managed. You can just see the connection to the upper left of the picture.




And here you can see the pipe running on the left of the manifold brace.




And finally where is goes into the block.




Hopefully this will mean a long service life of reliable fluid supply to and from the turbo.

Gurds

 

Lower Front Brace

Anyone who has ever owned a Mk1 Golf will know of one very big difference between it and all the other Golfs that followed. The Mk1 was not blessed with a front subframe. Not a big deal for popping to the shops but a very big problem for any kind of spirited driving. What this essentially means is that there is a gaping big gap between the wishbones with nothing but the spot welded bodywork keeping them from moving around.

On this image, you can see the gap between the front wishbone mounts circled in blue. The rear wishbone mounts circled in red are just studs through some reinforced floor panel.




There are many aftermarket solutions to this issue as seen below.

This is the simplest of designs that tie the front end together.




To more elaborate cross bracing that pick up on the rear mounts too.



Although I don't like how this design bolts to the inner sides of the rear bushes only.

I had made my own front only brace a few years back which was fine when using softer poly bushes. Now I'm using sphericals, I am conscious that the bodywork will flex and possibly crack. So the decision was made to use the old brace as a starting point for a more suitable version.

I wanted to be able to remove the brace without having to unbolt the wishbones so I welded so nuts to the wishbone mounts. M10 is sufficient.




Then some thickwall tube was welded to the end of the thinner brace tube to work as a strong place to bolt through.






That'll do nicely.




After that I profiled the various bits of tube with my angle grinder to line up as required and tacked the bits in place.
















With everything tacked into position, it was taken off and fully welded.




I will give it a lick of paint later but am quite pleased with the outcome.

Gurds

 

Looks perfect for putting a flat floor onto. Aero gains ala nige

 

Hi Beetie,

You been looking at my crystal ball again? lol

Gurds

 

Have you driven it since bracing?