[engine_work] 306 Project

[Rob Turbo 3]

It's in! It's a rather tight fit, I'm gonna have to lift it back out a bit to chop a bit of the timing belt cover off because it hits the servo. Another couple of bits are going to need to be cut out of the subframe, one for the lower engine mount, the other for exhaust clearance.

 

 

Just the one photo for now, my dad took a couple with his digital camera which will probably be a lot better than my phone takes so I might get some of them off him to upload.

 

I took the driveshaft oil seal back today and was told they don't have one listed for the ML box, so I got a refund and phoned the BS&P, the bearing place I went to the other day for the rose joint and bolts, I phoned at 12.15 and the bloke said they closed at 12 and they were just leaving, but told me they did have the seal I was after and told me to go through and he would leave the seal under a rock for me and told me to put a couple of quid in an envelope and drop it through the letterbox. Which I thought was well nice of him

 

Tomorrow's task is to get the subframe off, chop out the bits that get in the way, bolt it back up, then start on the wishbone bushes, once they're done I can start measuring up for the driveshaft chop.

[welshpug 1,622]

dont know if its that picture but it looks to be too high on the drivers side, may explain the master cylinder clearance issues?

 

I certainly wouldn't like to cut a hole in the cover, that's just asking for the mc to tear the belt off.

[Rob Turbo 3]

I was thinking it looked too high on the drivers side as well but it might just be the angle, I'll have a better look at it tomorrow. The bonnet shuts ok though with plenty clearance, so if anything I'll lift the gearbox I think.

 

It's not the master cylinder that's the problem, it's the servo, and the bit of the cover that's hitting it is like a corner, cutting it off won't be too close to the belt and I could cover the hole it leaves with some thin plastic or steel and rivet it in place to stop anything dropping in.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Just been out to show my girlfriend the engine in the car and it is deffinitely higher on the drivers side, I'm not quite sure how I could go about lowering it, but as I said, I think I'd rather raise the gearbox, that way I'd have more clearence for the cv joints, but doing that might cause issues with the manifold collector pipe thingy, it might put the outlet too high to get the downpipe onto, a bit more investigating is needed I think!

[welshpug 1,622]

I'm sure I remember Hilgie commenting that his first prototype or chopped 605 mount positioned the engine too high, maybe worth asking him.

[Rob Turbo 3]

I just sent Hilgie a pm about it, maybe there's a simple solution!

 

Also, I got the clutch all connected up and it seems to work but the pedal travel is rather short so I'm going to move the rose joint up the pedal a bit to get the travel a bit better, I'm also going to put a bit more tension on the spring that pushes the pedal back up, it's a bit slow at the minute!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Spent most of today trying to get the engine fired, wired it all up, connected the fuel hoses, put a battery on, no fuel or spark! Miles has kindly agreed to try unlocking my ecu, that's why I decided to try firing it up now rather than waiting until everything else was done, this way, while I'm waiting for the ecu to come back I can still be making progress with other things.

 

I've decided the top engine mount is getting chopped off the inner wing, moved forward a bit and lowered slightly, then welded back on, the gearbox mount is going to be modded a bit also to lift the gearbox side up, so along with dropping the engine side, the engine should sit level and have enough clearance for the servo. I want to keep the engine as high as possible after looking at the 306 v6 that was done by spoox, the subframe has been lowered, I can only assume for cv clearance.

 

Weather wasn't that great today, hope it's better tomorrow, makes it much nicer rolling around under the car!!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Today I drilled the top mount out, moved it forward and down, then welded it back in, the engine is now straight but the gearbox could do with being lifted a touch. My dad had bought some gassless wire for the mig so I thought I'd give it a whirl, one word can describe it, useless!! My dad seems to like it, but I sure don't, I went straight up the shed and got the gas bottle and the other wire!

 

 

 

 

While I was pulling the mount off a mate pulled up in a 406 v6 that he's had for a while, got talking and he asked me where he could get an engine mount from, popped the bonnet to show me which one and the first thing I noticed, it's the same engine as mine, not the 210bhp one he told me it was, this was only about 10 minutes after the bloke from DHL had been to collect my ecu, if he knew what he was talking about and not told me he had the 210bhp engine I would have went to him yesterday to attempt unlocking my ecu, bugger!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Bit of bad luck today, spent most of the day trying to get the captive nut out of the subframe that a bolt snapped in, after lots of drilling and bashing I finally dug it out and got what was left of the bolt out, then went to put the new wishbone bushes on, cut the old ones off, went to put the new ones on and they just slide on, which I'm sure isn't right, I'm sure they are supposed to be pressed on. I have a spare pair of wishbones with knackard ball joints so I think they will be getting surgery tomorrow to see if the new bushes fit them, if they do I'll swap the ball joints over and use them.

 

I modified the gearbox mount to put the engine straight, so now the engine is back in, sitting right, and hopefuly won't need to come back out again!

 

My new throttle cable came today, got that fitted easily enough.

 

I haven't done anymore subframe chopping like I was hoping to do because I ran out of cutting disks for the angle grinder and couldn't get out to get any, there was plenty of other things to keep me busy though!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Finished subframe chopping today and got it all welded up, after trial fitting I've found that it will need to be spaced down by about 15mm, so I'll be making some spacers later. Also got the gear lever fitted, but found that I don't have the clips that hold the cables into place on the gearbox, they are only peanuts from peugeot but my nearest peuget dealer is about 30-45mins away and will be closed until at least next week so I'm gonna have a crack at making some I think.

[All Praise The GTI 3]

a simple job is never simple is it lol. carry on with the good work tho mate. im sure its going to make an awesome car once its done!!!

have you found out what killed your turbo lump?

anyway merry xmas and new year!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Haven't been near the turbo lump for a while, still haven't checked the turbo out for you yet either, I'll try to remember to have a look at it soon, although I'm quite easily distracted when I have a project on the go!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Yesterday (yep, xmas day!!) I finished off the spacers for the subframe, they don't really look pretty so no photos! Then today I got the subframe bolted on, the steering rack bolted on, I got some clips to hold the gear selector cables onto the gearbox out of the 309, luckily the clips that hold the door lock in place are about the same size so used them.

 

I altered the clutch pedal again to get better pedal travel, started making the lower engine mount fork, it's all cut to size now, just needs welding together, which I'll probably do tomorrow. While the welder is out tomorrow I think I'll start modifying the exhaust to fit.

 

I'm fairly sure the engine doesn't need to come back out now, other than maybe lifting it out slightly to get the lower mount fork in place, so I'll be able to start the plumbing as well, which is really straight forward, 2 pipes to the headder tank, 2 pipes to the heater, 2 pipes to the radiator and that's it! I'll finish off the wiring, only a couple of wires left to connect, rev counter and coolant gauge I think, then cut the spare wires back, insulate the ends, then cover it all for a neat finish.

 

The only thing left to do then is shorten the driveshafts and wait for miles to have a crack at my ecu!

[M@tt 77]

this has got to be be the quickest V6 conversion ever!!

 

awesome

[Rob Turbo 3]

The engine is now fully mounted! I made the bottom mount fork this morning, ruined the bush in the process so made a new one from nylon, lovely fit! I've put the passenger side wishbone on (with the new rear bush that dosen't fit properly) to measure up for the driveshaft, you can nearly push the driveshaft into the inner cv enough to get the balljoint in, obviously forcing it isn't going to be a good idea though, but it gives an idea of how much needs to come off. I've taken the passenger side shaft apart, I'll do the drivers side tomorrow, then I'm going to cut an inch out of them. Will be interesting to see how thick the shafts are, they are fairly light, a lot lighter than I expected!

 

To get the outer cv joints into the hubs I needed to take the ABS ring off them, which is an easy task, they are only pressed on, so the hammer and chisel knocked them off easily, then I needed to grind a small bit out of the hub carrier. I'm going to need to put a washer on before the hub nut because the threads are too short so the nut would only be half full of thread without a washer, if you get what I'm saying? Also I'm going to need to drill a new hole for the 'R' clip that holds the nut in place because the one that's in already is too far away from the nut to be of any use.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Got the other shaft apart today and chopped one in half and machined an inch off it, I need to chamfer the edges still but I'll do that tomorrow, then I need to make a sleve to fit inside to hold them straight for welding.

 

 

 

[welshpug 1,622]

Rob, how close to the inner end of the splines do the CV joints sit? just wondered if there was enough room to slide the CV further up and cut a new groove for the Circlip?

[Rob Turbo 3]

The outer cv joint sits fairly close to the end of the splines, you could maybe move it in by a couple of mm or so, the inner cv tripod doesn't have a circlip, the tripod is put on the shaft then a couple of splines are peened over to stop it coming off, so the tripod sits at the end of the splines so no adjustment really.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Got the wiring about finished, just the rev counter to connect up now, which isn't on the plug in the engine bay because the car didn't have a rev counter originally, so I have a wire running through the bulkhead to connect it to, but the megasquirt loom is still in the car, I need to get a bung to fill the hole in the bulkhead that it comes through, then once that's out I'll connect the rev counter up.

 

All the plumbing is sorted, just need some hose joiners to finish it all off, but I don't have any transport at the minute, my LDV is off the road after the propshaft intermediate bearing collapsed and snapped the gearbox mount, I've made a new mount and bearing, just need to refit the propshaft, but it's too dark and cold now!

 

I haven't done any more on the shafts yet, been too busy with the LDV, but I'm hoping to get up the shed later and get them ready for welding.

[Rob Turbo 3]

Last night I cut the other shaft and chamferd all the edges, today I machined a sleeve to go inside one of the shafts and pushed it into one half of the shaft, then started pushing the other half on but didn't get very far, it's bloody hard work without a press, it's about time I bought one I think, but for this job I'll pop down the road and use my neighbor's when I can catch him in!

 

I also started chopping the exhaust to fit, didn't get far though, only chopped the flange off the downpipe and started lining it up with the one from the v6, will probably get a bit further with that tomorrow.

[jackherer 543]

Got the wiring about finished, just the rev counter to connect up now, which isn't on the plug in the engine bay because the car didn't have a rev counter originally, so I have a wire running through the bulkhead to connect it to, but the megasquirt loom is still in the car, I need to get a bung to fill the hole in the bulkhead that it comes through, then once that's out I'll connect the rev counter up.

 

Are you fitting the V6 rev counter or an aftermarket one? Presumably the original one would over read due to the extra cylinders?

[Rob Turbo 3]

I'm using the standard 306 one, I'm guessing that the signal sent from the ecu would be the same as a 4 cylinder ecu, I'm off to check part numbers of 406 clocks to see if they are the same, I never actually thought about that!

 

Both shafts are now half put together, just waiting to catch the bloke with the press to finish them ready for welding.

 

Also started putting the centre console back together, had to cut a couple of bits out to fit around the new selector!

[Rob Turbo 3]

Caught him!

 

 

Pressed together and ready to weld, I'm tempted to just mig them, unless they snap right at the end then they can't really go anywhere because of the sleeves in them, I'd just loose drive.

 

I've checked service box as well, the instrument clusters are all the same, there's no special one for the v6, so the ecu must send the same signal.

[jplautomotive 0]

looking good , been reading the whole thread last couple days

 

i would be tempted to mig them as well , should be fine with a good bit weld on them

 

jonny

[Rob Turbo 3]

Driveshafts are finished, I just mig'd them, we'll see how well they last!

 

 

So tomorrow it should be all going back together, I need some engine and gearbox oil, halfords should be able to help there, probably the only place to get oil tomorrow.

 

The to do list is now,

 

Fit new wishbones

Fit driveshafts

Put gearbox oil in

Radiator on

Battery on, I'll put that on charge tonight, it had a bit of hammer when I tried starting it just after getting the engine in

Exhaust needs fitting, I'm fairly sure it dosen't need any more chopping and welding

Front panel, bumper, headlights and indicators can go back on

Put wheels on then drop it back on the floor

 

That's about everything, which can probably all be done tomorrow, then just wait for my ecu to come back and hopefuly it will fire up!