Rallye VR6 Turbo - Updated 22-08-2008 Interior update, and more blow?

Well, I'm sure this is one Thread that might end up annoying the Rallye purists, but sod it. Its a car and We're doing with it what we want.....Anyway....Its a longish story, that hasn't quite finished, but here we go.


Some of those that have been around for a while, and have noticed my Forum name, may be aware that in my time I've had a Rallye for quite some time now I have always planned to have it VR6'd. At one piont it looked like this and I was very happy with it:



At the time I had had phone calls from PVW to feature the car and I know some people were very interested in seeing it however, things move on/you run out of money to get it exactly how you want it/other things take your interest and priorities.

While the Rallye ended up cutting a sad figure in my garage looking unloved and bits being sold off it to make a bit of extra cash, I started getting the taste for track days. After one or two drunken nights out, a mate of mine (Rig's off of this forum) was also getting an interest in track days and wanted me to build him a Pug 205. Having no expirence (and to be honest, no wish) to start working on French cars, I managed to talk him into building a Golf Mk2 Track car with my favourite powerplant of choice, a VR6.

After about 3 years, including a 12 month gap after I blew the engine up we had some great time building it and more importantly driving it. Especially great track days at Donnington and Cadwell as well as the CGTI trip to the Ring in 2006. Here that one is in its prime:




Well, as Winter started to fall at the tail end of 2006 and the MOT was coming up we knew that rust was beginning to take its toll on the car and it wasn't financially viable to continue with the old car it was decided to scrap the car that had done us quite proud and embark on a new chellenge/project.

Enter the Rallye.

We could have spent time searching for a load of old Mk2's looking for a solid donor shell for what we had planned, but really with having the Rallye taking up space doing nothing, and still in good condition, we decided the only sensible option was to take a once Show and Shine desited Rallye, and turn it into a track weapon. So I gave my Rallye Shell to Rigs for his new Track car on the agreement I get to use it (and still accidently call it "My car")

So a suitable local workshop was found close to home and the work commenced. First of all the plan was to Convert the Rallye to RHD and put everything from the previous car onto the rallye and run it FWD.

So the Stripping of the mk2 commenced:





With that done, The Rallye had to be prep'd to take all the bits we took off the mk2:

Off came the 4WD rear axle, (I have a feeling that we shall be seeing that back on again soon enough)



So, with any major parts taken off the rallye all that was left to do was put the major sections from the Mk2 onto it:

In went the engine/subframe/wishbones extra as one unit:



And the same was done with the rear end so it looked like this:



So, after a days work, starting with one running MK2 Track car and an empty Rallye shell were were left with a fully stripped MK2 shell hanging and a Golf rallye converted to FWD and fully VR6:



A few parts were needed soucing, mainly the front and rear bumpers and we also fitted a mk2 front end so it looked like this:



Now it was the interior time.

Due to mainly insurance and day to day driving issues, it was decided from the start to conver to RHD. That mean't all Wiring dash etc etc had to go, and lots of holes to be drilled. However this was perfect for us to put into plan the minimal interior look. As it will be used on track, we may as well lose as much weight as possible as the Rallye's are heavier than your regular Mk2 golf.

Big Thanks must goto Vento Mike for the Pedal box!



Also, due to the very high heats we will be getting in the engine bay (the reason for which I shall divulge on later) we have also taken the option of running all the wiring and brake lines, where possible on the inside of the car, and then up the chassis legs:



In the Previous car we, and any others that had driven it, always mentioned the shifter on our VR6 being rubbish. This was partly due to a broken shifter one track day at Cadwell, and partly due to the well known issues of cable shifters. We decided to go the route of the mk4 shifter mech and tower in the gearbox. A mounting frame was made up for this on the transmission tunnel so it was nice and close to the steering wheel:



With the RHD/wiring and Shifter all in place it was time to Fit the roll cage. A Saftey Device cage was originally purchased to fit in the Mk2, but with that gone it found its way straight into the Rallye. With a bit of plating and a touch of welding here and there the cage was installed.



Then the seats were fitted. The Drivers position put in the optimum place for both Rigs and I and the Passanger seat mounted lower down and further back:




During the process of the build we had always planned to run completely without the dash. I always was a fan of the old in car Vid of Big Dub from back when Inters was at Bracknell with the simple interior and all the custom dials running across. However this did provide a small issue of how/where to mount the speedo. We haven't got and didn't want to spend loads of money on custom dials so we had to come up with something else. That was proving a problem untill Chris Eyre Posted this Picture of a Works Rallye Interior:



What started with a "ooh, I like the fuses in the centre consol" turned into a plan to do that with the rallye with a bit of custom fabrication and a standard Fuse box holder. Then came the solution to the Clocks issue. Why not mount them above the fuse box in the centre consol too?

So, a morning and afternoon later we had:



Not quite finished, just needs a touch of welding for strenth and ally plate over the top and we have all those little issues solved, and extra pace for all those much needed switched and dials etc.

And we also have space behind the steering wheel for other important dials like......

(cont....)

 

Rallye VR6 Turbo - Updated 28-01-08 New Pics Page 3

Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, Boost, Air fuel meter and Apexi.

Yep, thats right we decided to go ahead and turbo it. We had sourced the turbo parts pretty early on in the rebuild process, but the plan was to leave them till next winter before we put them on. However, we got impatient and with what has been described as a "Box full of Naughty" just sitting around doing nothing it made sense at the time and we decided to crack on straight away




With the Turbo going on, we had to find a load of VR6 syncro parts. A VR6 rear diff was sourced quickly and easily through a friend and so off came the 2wd rear beam and on went a newly fully polly bushed rear 4WD beam and a Mk3 VR6 Syncro rear diff:



Yesterday however was the day to prep the engine. We've got a VR6 Syncro Box heading over from Germany, hopefully as I type, so now was the time to take out the engine. We had a lot to do.

We had to fit all this and more:



So, Engine out, Gearbox off, Clutch taken off, Engine Stripped down, head off, Completely strip the head to change Valve guide seals (previously fitted GSF ones were crap from almost the moment the engine was rebuilt and running)rebuild the head and then refit the head with turbo spacer plate and new head gasket going in and get the engine to a piont where the engine is ready to go in once the Gearbox arrives.

Once the engine was all but rebuilt we then added the turbo manifold and Turbo. The manifold needed modding because we had previously fitted large exhaust studs in the VR head as we had suffered from bolts losening and coming off due to the heat. So the drill came out and largened the holes and the manifold slipped on nicely.

Then on went the turbo:




So, theres the engine with turbo just waiting for the gearbox to be fitted. Uprated Helix Paddle clutch has been put on to take the power hike.


So, there we are so far. The project is yet to be finished but we are beginning to see the end. Theres still alot to do, but hopefully it will all be in hand. We're planning on only running about 350bhp (turbo is good for 500bhp) from it once its fully shaken down and tested but the plan will be to run it low in boost throughout the summer to see how it reacts to regular driving and the occasional track blast and then come October time we may feel brave and confident enough to complete a full track day with it.

We'll then take stock of how it has gone and improve anything that needs going over the winter and hopefully hit a full year of track days and general malarky with it up and down the country. Already some plans are in the mind to help reliablitly and strength, like 100cm CV's on Prop and Rear diff etc.

I enjoyed trying to prove some people wrong when they still tried to claim mk2 Vr6's were useless as a track car now I'm looking forward to expanding that and seeing how a Turbo'd VR reacts to a life on the track.

 

That's very impressive. See, if I tried doing that, the car would be worth scrap value within 2 hours.

Nice write-up too, very informative.

 

nice one nick

cant believe that rallyes finally gonna hit the road after all those years

 

I can relate to that too!

Awesome project, will certainly be a toy when finished!!!!

 

Thanks!!

The Advice I have is never be scared of the Grinder or the Welder. My rule of Thumb is:


If you add too much on, you can always chop it back off again with the grinder

And if you chop too much off you can always weld it back on.

Alright Al! Long time!

Yeah, it will be great to have it finally on the road!. Been a long time coming.

 

Nice work mate, how much power you planning on running?

 

Maximum power really of about 350bhp I think. Once we are confidnet the engine will behave as we want it too. The idea of it will be use on track so if it starts melting stuff (heat soak will be teh killer I can imagine) as we drive it we'll have to do something like turn the power down so we can actually use it fairly reliably. And then turn the power back up for 1/4 miles etc

Also, any thing much more than that we might start getting to the piont of snapping expensive rare things like rear diffs.

 

wow i love the blue
its looking very dog bawls

 

Ill be interested to hear your thoughts on the handling once youve had it on a track day. keep up the good work and feck the Rallye purists

 

LOL @ Feck the Rallye Purists.

My setiments exactly!! I have heard rumours that VW themselves had fitted a VR6 to a Rallye in a test mule so if thats true all I'm doing is expanding there work.....


The on track handling of it is definatly something that I'll be interested in seeing what happens and if I don't see you around at track days I'll keep you/people posted with my thoughts through here or in the Motorsport section. Having driven Rallyes on road I know they can come out of the corners very well, but it will be the entry and mid corner under track conditions that will be very much unknown.

We also may end up having to think of other ways of stiffening the rear end up. Uprating the Rear Anti Roll bar for example isn't as easy as giving Eibach a call, although I have heard that a Passat estate Syncro ARB or a MK3 VR6 may well be thicker than the Normal Rallye one and could be used as an upgrade. Other than that it might end up be silly Pound Springs to try and stop any wallowing at the rear.

And of course theres the whole, lower the rear of a Rallye goes teh more -ve camber gets added to it. Eccentric Bushes here we come.....?

It'll all be a bit trial and error on somethings, but thats half the fun of having a car that not many people have, and doing with it something that even less would have the guts to do it.

 

Nowt wrong with a loose rear end I'll certainly make it more interesting

 

Yes.....The Bank Manager will certainly be interested when you need more money to buy new Golf Rallye rear 1/4s

 

Pffft, slideways = fun... wimp

 

nice write up , and you've given me an idea with my dash problems as well!

I fully agree with both sides of the tuning argument, but if your building a car purely for practical reasons like track use. Make as you see fit - what ever the mod

 

Don't worry about the Rallye purists, mines not standard by a mile; 20vt, 6 speed 02M, haldex diff etc. Going to Llandow circuit on the 16th June for its first track day, I'll let you know how i get on.

Cheers,

Will

 

Cool

 

nice thread you got running here.

that has gotta take alot of balls to take a show car, change the engine and track it.

good luck with the rest of the build mate.

ps love the idea of a turbo'd vr6

 

Awesome! its amazing the amount of room at the back of a Vr6 engine! you would never think that, that would it in a Mk2

where did you buy all the bits from? ie Turbo and manifold??

 

Nice to see some progress on this Nick.
Hope it all goes together smoothly.