[trackday_prep] Cameron's Mi16 / Gti6 Hybrid

[Baz 421]

Yeah it needed to go to make way for some plastic.

Its amazing how much lighter the tailgate is without it though, almost don't need a GRP one.

 

Indeed, i have a tailgate with poly window fitted off the car atm and it's feckin light!!

[jackherer 543]

Indeed, i have a tailgate with poly window fitted off the car atm and it's feckin light!!

 

If you fit them with a decent set of telescopic boot opening things they end up opening so fast the roof kinks by the hinges

[taylorspug 7]

If you fit them with a decent set of telescopic boot opening things they end up opening so fast the roof kinks by the hinges

 

Bloody hell!

 

I can supply knackered boot struts if needed Cam...

 

EDIT: They arent knackered, more 'specially made'...

Edited May 6, 2009 by taylorspug

[Baz 421]

 

I'll have to bare that in mind! I was considering only running one anyway, but that was more from a weight-saving POV...

[jackherer 543]

I tried one and it wasn't strong enough, half knackered ones are the way forward.

[Cameron 16]

Its ok I already have some specially modified (knackered) struts I can use.

[Cameron 16]

A small update.. I've got the new valves from QEP at a total cost of around £50, just FYI Peugeot would have charged me £160!!

I was going to try and get the valves fitted today but I need to get some more grinding paste first so I'll do it tomorrow.

 

I did manage to get the gearbox finished though, looks pretty good.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2009 by Cameron

[oli-pug 6 2 Cars]

Gearbox looks fantastic you tart Had mine out yesterday to fit the diff, did contemplate cleaning it up for a minute or two but it'll only get filthy again!

[Cameron 16]

Woohoo progress!

 

Its a pretty significant step too, I have the seats and steering column in so now I have a proper rolling chassis.

I had to make some mods to my steering column as I've fitted a GTi6 rack and the input shaft sits higher up then the standard 205 one, as well as being a totally different shape. After a bit of head scratching I found that the best solution was to cut the bottom part of the GTi6 column's balljoint off - the part that fits over the input shaft - and weld it to the bottom of my universal joint. Like so:

 

 

As the material is quite thick I had to put a heavy chamfer on both parts and then fill it with weld. It should be nice and strong!

 

While that cooled I fitted the seats, then had to shorten the lower length of my steering column - the part that goes between the UJs. I also took the time to make sure the rack was centred (3.3 turns L2L) and the wheel was central.

 

The shortened part.

 

 

And the finished item.

 

 

 

I'm so pleased with it, without blowing my own trumpet I think it looks the business.

 

This means that I am now ready to put the engine and gearbox back in, and hopefully it should be pretty quick progress from there on! The only hold ups at the moment are waiting for some plastic windows and my torsion bars to be made.

[Cloverleaf 1]

Looking good Cam, just noticed you're in northants....I only live in a village just off J10 M40

[taylorspug 7]

Good solution with the steering coupling.

 

Dropped columns look so cool, ive put them in both my BMW and Golf, the Golf one is even adjustable seeing as it will one day grace a Britcar grid.

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Love the column so much. I just want a running car before I start thinking about moving the steering position.

[Cameron 16]

Cloverleaf - I live in Woodford Halse if you know were that is, about 1/2 mile from work.

 

Thanks for the kind words! I think the thing I like most about it is where it meets the steering boss, it was a bit of a piece of luck that the column is just the right size to slip neatly inside the end of the boss and make it look seamless.

 

I think I'm going to paint the column once its all together properly, debating whether to go silver or black.

Edited May 8, 2009 by Cameron

[Cloverleaf 1]

Yeah I know where that is I think - the place with the speed cameras?! Played woodford at footy earlier in the year...I live in Fritwell.

 

I wouldn't mind dropping by one day when you're out working on the car!

 

Oh, BTW, steering column looks good! I am planning on lowering mine - and moving it inline with the pedals!

[Cameron 16]

Yeah feel free to pop round, I'm doing some work on Garry's car tomorrow but I really need to go it alone so I can get it all done.

Lowering the column is relatively easy, but moving it to the side poses some problems as it gets quite close to the pedals. I had some issues with part of my clutch pedal so had to move it back over slightly.

[Cameron 16]

Awwright!! I have internet again, so brace yourselves for a bit of a big update.

 

So first off, replacing the dead valves. Whipped the old ones out..

 

 

Lapped in the new ones..

 

 

Reconditioned the lifters..

 

 

Got it all back together..

 

 

And then got the cams etc back in.

 

 

So while I waited for the head gasket to arrive, I set about relocating the washer bottle under the scuttle panel. First off, I got it in the right place and made this little bracket.

 

 

Then welded it to the roll cage and bolted the washer bottle in. Then I cut out the scuttle panel so you can get to the filler easily.

 

 

Its a bit rough round the edges, but it'll do!

[Cameron 16]

So the next job was to get the cam belt side of things sorted out so I can get the engine in. Firstly, I had to sort out the water pump blanking plate, as two of the holes are very close to the belt you can't use the original (13mm hex) bolts. I had a massive faff trying to get hold of some M7 countersunk screws but it seems to be impossible to get hold of them! One company wanted £130 for 100 of them!!

In the end I had to use some M7 capheads I had lying around and drill the holes out to fit them, which meant I had to go out and buy a power drill as the chuck on my cordless only goes up to 10mm! Ballache!!

 

Anyway, I got it done in the end, along with one for Felix (off here). If you're reading this, sorry its taken so long!

 

 

So then I could finally fit the belt!

 

 

But that had it's problems.. I needed to grind a bit more out of the oil seal housing.

 

 

Then I set about timing it all up. First off, I found TDC.

 

 

Then made a little TDC pointer out of some filler rod, and got the disc lined up.

 

 

Then I set the cams to 2.5mm lift @ TDC so it was safe to turn the engine over, fitted and tensioned the belt, and then turned the engine round to 108 degrees ATDC.

 

 

And then adjusted the cams so they were at full lift. They were pretty close, but needed a little tweak.

 

 

Did the same for the exhaust, except for 108 degrees BTDC, and all done!

 

[Bas 6 1 Cars]

These work really well, and are a much better design than the other type. I have them on my 205 and wouldn't go back.

How did you get them? On the site those are "still" coming soon.

Stewart said he had them ready in February... It's almost JUNE!

[Bas 6 1 Cars]

Been putting the head back together tonight but due to being in a hurry made a complete balls-up. I managed to get valve to valve contact when I gave the cams a test spin, when the cams jumped down the ramp they touched. I quickly looked round the other side and low and behold, 2 very slightly bent valves!

 

Oh well I managed to do that TWICE....

 

Make sure you check all the valves, slightly bent valves are difficult to discover and sometimes you can only discover the bent ones by rolling them on a table.

They look good, they close the head but WILL TAP.

[Cameron 16]

The head had 2 bent valves when I bought it, I only found out when I came to lap the valves in as it would only grind one side of the valve seat. I'm pretty sure the engine had done a cambelt at some point in its life as some of the valve seats had been cut waaaay back! Got them replaced while it was at QEP.

 

Done a bit more today, started off by going to the scrap yard (thanks to Oli for the tip, its a good place) and having a browse round. I spotted a PH2 base model with some pristine rear clusters so I grabbed them as spares, and grabbed the fog light and reverse light I needed too, along with the associated plugs. Turns out it was a good job I got the clusters, as when I took the old ones out the bolts had somehow welded themselves in place and I ended up killing the thing trying to get it off!

 

I got to work on the wiring, got my faithful wiring diagram out and swapped the PH1 stuff for the PH2.

 

 

Then fitted the clusters, with some LED bulbs I've been hoarding off eBay.

 

 

All done!

 

 

So I had a little mince round to see what else I could do, and decided to get the wiring, dash and speedo cable in ready for tomorrow.

 

 

Tomorrow is going to be a big leap forwards, hopefully I'll be getting the engine in!

While I was at the scrap yard I had a hunt round for this elusive plug..

 

 

Its the connector for the GTi6's ICV, which I plan to use now that I have lairy cams. I remember there was a thread about this a while back, and it turns out that it is a very common plug! I managed to grab two, but they seemed to be on almost every 406 or xsara I looked at, even some 8Vs.

 

 

Next job is to try and find some pins for it.

[petert 554]

And then adjusted the cams so they were at full lift. They were pretty close, but needed a little tweak.

 

You need to be careful doing it this way, as there can be error from the dwell at full lift. The fatter the cam the greater the possible error. You really should verify the position by measuring the lift 20 degrees either side of full lift. If the lift is equal, then you're on centre.

 

You should also then measure the lift at TDC. Then you'll have a TDC figure that corresponds with your centre line angle. This will make it far easier to set the timing up again should the need arise.

[Cameron 16]

Ah, I should have mentioned that really.. I found the peak of the cam by turning it 5 thou past fully open, marked it, then turned it back and 5 thou past again and marked it, then set the cam in the centre.

 

I think I will measure the lift at TDC though, this seems like a much more accurate (and less time consuming) way of setting the cams. I did try to get TDC figures from Newman but they couldn't provide me with them.

[welshpug 1,626]

that's odd, I got an email from Ken Newman within 2 hours when I asked, but that was for PH2's, you have PH4's?

[Cameron 16]

Yeah he said he was going to email me but I guess he forgot. In the end I called up and got the figures from him, but he would only give me approximate figures (2.5mm @ TDC) and said to time it up at full lift instead. Not to worry though.. I'm sure it will need some tweaking on the rollers either way since my engine isn't officially a GTi6.

[Cameron 16]

Update time.. Its been a bit of an epic day!

I was joined by Tom and James to get the engine back in the car, which we managed to do in pretty good time. Everything went very smoothly, no major dramas.. was a lovely job. Until I looked into my tool box and realised that we'd forgotten to put the flywheel oil seal in! DOH!!!

 

So after getting the engine in..

 

 

It came straight back out again!

We decided it was a good time to break for lunch, and after fuelling up on sausage rolls and value choc-ices we whipped it back out again.

 

Engine out..

 

 

Gearbox got its own little cushion.

 

 

While I attacked the flywheel, fitted the oil seal, and then we slid it all back together.

 

 

A bit of jiggery pokery..

 

 

 

And job done! (again).

 

 

James thought it would be funny to take photos of my pain.. trying to get the last manifold bolt in.

 

 

We even had time to fit my heated windscreen. Went in very nicely actually.. washing line is highly recommended!

 

 

Starting to look like a car again!

Although somehow the gear selectors have got muddled up. Seems I can only get first second and reverse, so I'll have to take a look at that tomorrow.

With the engine in I can get on with making the radiator lowering bracket, will come up with something. Anyway, thanks for lending a hand guys, much appreciated.