Might have been...

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Right, after a monster Photoshop session with the latest photos, it's time to bore people with another update.

First up, the picture I didn't have before - trial and error to an extent as I couldn't be arsed with drilling up from below, add another hole, penny washer and bolt and the topmounts are now actually secured properly.



Right, this oil cooler. While I was there it seemed appropriate to remove the useless poverty-spec towing eye, which looks frankly ridiculous cowering below its big brother.



I believe I'm right in saying that the Spice Girls penned their 1996 hit balad "2 Become 1" whilst performing this very act of weightsaving.



If there was headscratching done over the positioning of the cooler, the cogitation that went into the running of the pipes was enough to leave your scalp bleeding. Each pipe has a 90 degree end and a straight end, which only served to add to the confusion. Still, eventually it became clear the left outlet would need a 90 degree bend, as it was too close to the bumper when it was back on. It fitted well enough, but some minor work was still needed on the bumper to make sure there was plenty of clearance.



While I was poking around, I found my air inlet pipe was in this kind of condition:





Which was pleasing to see. Luckily I had some spare pipe so it's been sorted for now, but something will need to be done there as it'll just happen again.

The right-hand pipe was easy enough - there was a convenient hole to run it through and round the rad.

The left-hand pipe proved a bit more tricky - I didn't want to ever risk them getting scraped along the floor, so did not want to run them under the car. I decided in the end to take advantage of my single-fan goodness, and to run it up and over.





Plenty of clearance from the bonnet, all good. Just make sure you don't over-tighten those connections.

Having removed the fog lights and a lot of the plastic stuff from the bumper, I was left with a big gaping hole in the front, which not only looked a bit crap but would also let stones and bits up into the washer bottle, some random wires and rad pipes. Not ideal, but metal mesh is hard to work with and heavy, and anything too serious would block air. In the end I bought some plastic mesh from eBay to give that a go - not a glamourous solution but does the job nicely enough for me. Cost a couple of quid, weighs zero and can be attached with a staple gun.

Apply to inside:



I left some of the original plastic in the middle to stop the lower part flapping about too much.



True enough it's not fantastic, but it does a good job of blocking the light to all the crap behind it, whilst allowing pretty much unrestricted airflow to the cooler.

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Last up for this little stint, it seemed pointless going to all this effort just to put the battery and wiring back in, so ordered myself a Red Top 25 and decided I'd fit that instead.

Determined not to screw anything up, I was careful to remove one wire at a time, and relocate it. I cut the negative battery clamp off, crimped on some M10 spade connectors and bolted them to the chassis earthing point the gearbox used. There was one wire from the block, one from the gearbox and another from elsewhere. In the name of neatness I ran a new cable from the chassis to gearbox, then piggybacked another new cable onto the block.



There were three cables going to the positive terminal - a twin going to the fusebox and another fat one going off somewhere. Again, spade terminals on them, along with the new 170A cable running into the cabin.



All three heatshrunk to the max to make sure nothing can short, and bolted up tightly.



Then one final bit of heatshrink over the whole lot to insulate it:



And job done - use some of the old brake line clips to hold it down, and you've got a nice secure, insulated connection to the cabin.



I've got an FIA killswitch to fit, but Rikky buggered off on holiday and didn't reply to my PM so I'm yet to fit that. Apparently I'm looking for a thick brown wire going to the relay on the back of the ECU/battery box, which will cut the spark if opened. Havn't had a chance to look yet, I'll probably try and fit that tomorrow. For now I'm just running the positive straight onto the battery (and disconnecting it when not in use, as these Varleys are much more susceptible to drain), and an earth lead is currently going from the battery to one of the passenger seat mounting points. I'll attach it directly to the chassis when I get the bits to secure the battery, at the moment it's just sat on the passenger seat for testing.

Seems silly wasting space on the battery box when it's no longer got a battery in it, but silly buggers went and stuck the ECU in there as well. Not really sure what to do here, but once you've cut the battery part off there's no going back.



After a bit of a think, I came up with this solution. The steel used for the arches is quite thick, so I drilled two holes through the side of the ECU box and into the metalwork. After lots of swearing and pain, I managed to tap the holes out to M6. I *hate* tapping threads.

Squeeze fat hands into ECU box with a short screwdriver, and it's actually a lot more secure then I expected. WIN.



Quite frankly after that amount of dicking about with electrics I was pretty sure I'd have shorted something, or screwed something up but hey, no way of finding out without checking it up. The battery only came part charged, so was not holding out much hope for a tiny battery starting an old engine with new electrics.

Fair play to the battery, started up first time. I did not see that coming. Just goes to show that as long as you're careful and think about what you're doing, any old monkey can do this kind of thing.

So.

Next day, knowing I hadn't overtightened the oil cooler connectors, I decided I'd take the car to work to give it a decent drive. No silliness, no throwing it around corners, just a decent run out. Keeping a *very* close eye on the oil temp, oil pressure, water temp guages and the distance between me and the car in front, I made my way to sunny Southend - without incident. Again, was not expecting that. Brakes were still pretty poor but they're new discs, new pads and need bleeding. Again, quick test on the industrial estate and when you push your foot down it's easy to lock up the rears, so they're clearly working. Had a play with the bias valve and it all seems a bit weird, even with the bias to full front I could lock the rears.

I spoke to a mate about this, who made a valid point - with no real pressure to the rears, the fronts are doing all the work. Your car then dives more, lifting the rear and making them lock easily. Putting more to the rears will actually help them *not* lock up, as the car will be flatter. All makes sense, but haven't had a chance to try yet and seems little point until they've all been bled through properly.

The oil cooler appeared to be doing its job, as expected a little too well on normal motorway driving. The oil temp never really got high enough, so clearly the ever-successful "bit of cardboard wedged in front of the cooler" is required.

So I was a little disheartened by the brakes to be honest, but at the end of the day I now have such a basic setup - MC, good fluid, solid lines directly into braided lines directly into massive calipers pushing amazing pads into great discs - it can't really *not* work once it's all set up properly. So here's hoping. Had a look around under the car and had a bit of weep from a couple of the brake connections, which I nipped up with the spanners I'd taken along for this very purpose.

And then I noticed the oil cooler.

Yeah, there was quite a lot of oil everywhere. All over the cooler, inside the bumper and a little puddle on the floor. Interesting, I'd been pretty damn careful to heed those over-tightening warnings.

Funny story.

In trying not to over-tighten them, it would appear I'd not done then up tight enough. I did them tight, don't get me wrong - it's got to contain hot oil under pressure after all. Unfortunately saying "no more than 30nm" is great, except there's no way of getting a torque wrench on there and trying to estimate 30nm with a spanner is a pretty impossible task. So I got the car home, and whipped the bumper off again, only too aware of the big dark raincloud heading my way.

Long and tedious story short, I managed to get them tightened up and all back together just in time to run inside as the rain fell like a bath was being emptied on my head. I had a chance to get the car started up to get it back into the garage, but as it's got a thermostatic sandwich plate the oil cooler isn't pressurised until the oil gets hot, which is unlikely to happen when reversing it ten feet.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll take it out for a proper drive and get it up to temperature, see if it's sorted.

It's in a bit of a weird state at the moment, lots of work done so on paper the car's awesome, but currently have no confidence in the car as I've had no seat time since the work. I think booking up a day at Woodbridge is in order to get it all tested somewhere safe.

Bring a toolkit, I'll be the guy with the bumper off looking fed up.

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Yup it's definitely one I've thought about, been there when someone's PAS pump cracked and it made a right mess.

The clips holding it on originally weren't all that tight, and came off pretty easily. Being aware of how high pressure it is, I've put a fair bit of the solid pipe down inside the flexi (over an inch) then done them up nice and tight.

I'll definitely be keeping a close eye

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Excellent work mate,wish i had the motorvation to suc things to my car

I imagine that i had issues with mine because all the pressure from the pump is stuck when it hits the rack which is the main resistance. After the rack it just has to make its way back to the reservoir so theres much less pressure.

Cooper666 will confirm the 'pop' noise mine made when sat on axle stands and the amount of fluid that went everywhere just because i was dicking about going lock to lock.

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Goldie the track car.

Don't think the rears need more bias, as someone said, either the fronts needs bleeding through a few times - probably a few bubbles stuck the to walls of the pipes/calipers, or those pads need bedding in.

Look like bluestuff NDX? In which case mine needed a complete pasting before they came good.

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- Bespoke rollcages/additions/adjustments. Half cages right up to complete custom spaceframes - MSA/FIA spec, CDS, ROPT, T45, etc - PM me
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Custom-made polybushes available - need an odd size or fitment? - anything from batch work to one-off pieces.

If anyone knows anything about ignition wiring, please check this out

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Righty ho, shall do. Didn't get a chance to bleed the brakes today, need to try and convince the girlfriend it's a good idea to get a curry tonight, and that just won't fly if I'm out in the garage all day.

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This is full of win, looks stunning mate

Wish I kept those top mounts now

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Chris
1999 China Gti6 Supercharged [Fun car] >>Project Thread<<
2000 Bianca 306 Diesel [Work runabout]

Wtf is that?!

You missed half the old tow hook you tart, think of the extra weight!

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- Bespoke rollcages/additions/adjustments. Half cages right up to complete custom spaceframes - MSA/FIA spec, CDS, ROPT, T45, etc - PM me
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In your face



I know, I know - I didn't have the Dremel at the time so could only cut off what I could get to with a massive hacksaw



Alas there is not. As discussed in this thread the wires going to mine are completely different colours, and there are five white ones.



Annoying.

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That sounds awfully painful Phil, I really am not sure I want to do that.

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