[Project] Starting My Xu5T Build

[matty_gti 20]

Great work being done!.

 

With the flywheel end crankshaft cap what sealent did you use with the 'hocky seals'?.

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Just a smear of wellseal, don't need loads of gobbo everywhere.

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Well no exciting pictures, but its getting there alright. I now have completed the water system, all piped up just waiting for the radiator to be fitted and then it can have water in. I have made a start on the wiring side too, I've made a loom for all the sensors for the dash, plus the starter and alternator wires. All the breather and oil fill pipes are also on and clipped up. The boost control solenoid has a bracket made and is also mounted. Made a bit of an error when I'd connected the oil fill hose as I decided to put some oil in it, pity I hadn't put the oil temp sender in the sump, cue 4 L of oil on the garage floor, D'OH.

 

So on the to do list are, wire the ECU loom up, finish connecting the dash sensor loom in under the dash at the brown plug, get hold of some small bore hose and plumb up all the boost connections, e.g. dump valve, MAP sensor, control valve and wastegate, then the moment of truth, try and fire it up!

 

Oh, and I have the rear beam for it to build, and the brakes to finish off.... Not much then.....

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

WAHOO! BIG NEWS! IT RUNS!

 

After lots and lots and lots of wiring, this evening after tea it was ready to fire up. First of all had some problems with the feed to the ECU, so wired this into a different place. With that done cranked it over and it coughed once or twice in quite an encouraging fashion. Looking at the wideband it was seriously lean, so added about 20% fuel in the lower part of the map, with this done it fired up!! With a spot of tweaking of the lambda settings within 10 min I had it idling on its own in closed loop fuelling. It has been up to temp without problem, oil pressure is 1/2 on the gauge at idle speed, and it ticks over steady as a rock at 1000rpm. All in all I'm pretty chuffed.

 

There is still plenty to do though, I fired it up just with the throttle body open to atmosphere, so what I will probably do next is to get it up to temp again to make sure everything is hunky dory, and then refit all the turbo pipework and gubbins.

As of tonight it looks like this

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

and I look like this

[welshpug 1,626]

Well done

 

did you have a base map to work off?

[madspikes 41 1 Cars]

Nice one.

 

Ah the sweet, sweet sound of smooth running, freshly built engine.

 

 

Great thread, great project, and inspiration to many.

 

 

Mad.

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

It is nice to have it running, for some reason it does seem really smooth and quiet, but that could just be me wanting it to sound like that! Exhaust note is louder than I thought it would be with the turbo, although not too loud.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Well done Tom. Next thing on the agenda is the first hoon.

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

There will be no hooning just yet, it runs, but only just!! I've got the map sorted well enough for idle, but it won't rev up yet! I'll have another play with it later and try and get some more of the no load map areas tweaked.

[Alastairh 47]

Great work

 

Al

[base-1 17]

Sweet!

[richsmells 2]

Well done! I have question that perhaps someone could answer?

 

What are the implications of fiddling about with maps and getting it running to an acceptable standard even though the engine is not run in?

 

Is it acceptable to leave it idling for long periods of fiddling or do you need to get it run in ASAP?

 

Thanks

[Chris Hughes 0]

Nice work Tom, this is hell of a project to have done all yourself.

[24seven 104]

Been following this thread since the start and have just re-read it - inspiring stuff! Looking forward to the outcome of this project, Good to hear it's all running smoothly so far, and that the undercrown oil spray holes aren't causing any woes at idle, as thought potentially problematic.

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Well last two nights have been occupied with plenty of farting about, tidying wiring, making a bracket for the ECU (bloody DTA, who supplies an ECU with no method of mounting the damn thing!), refitting all the boost pipes, replacing the rad fan switch that worked when the car was last used and didn't work when tried, and buggering about unsuccessfully with the idle control valve settings.

 

I also made a support strut for the slam panel, quite pleased with it, picks up on one of the bolts that holds the bonnet catch, then bolts through the lower crossmember, behind my intercooler, in front of my rad. You can see it in this pic, the stainless strut top to bottom. Makes the bonnet shut as firm as usual.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

And so here as it looks, starts on the key more or less, with some more buggering about with the map should be even better.

 

PICTURE MIA

[Rippthrough 98]

, making a bracket for the ECU (bloody DTA, who supplies an ECU with no method of mounting the damn thing!)

 

 

You should have said, we've got half a dozen DTA brackets on the shelf up at the workshop

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

glad to hear its running ,it looks very neat and tidy especially when you compare it to the xu10 trumper conversion

 

if you manage to get the idle control valve working your welcome to store a copy of the settings on my ecu Have you managed to get it booked in for mapping yet or are you waiting to get a few miles on it first? al

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Idle valve seems not to want to control, from doing some reading on the DTA forum it seems that many have tried and failed to make it work as well, oh poo. So I've removed it and blocked off the holes, the idle bypass drilling is still there so I've adjusted that, and with a tweak of the ignition map to use some advance to pull the idle speed back up it seems to work just fine without.

 

I'm hoping to get at least 100 or so road miles on it before it goes for mapping, just to bed it in and loosen it up a bit, and also to hopefully not have any catastrophic failures!

 

Last night I set off doing some more to my 309 beam tube, knocked all the old bearings out, fitted 4 new bearings, seal rings and new seals. I almost had a moment of skinflintedness as the inner bearings and one outer looked good to reuse, but then told myself that I had the bits so get on with it!! I also got a "you were out" card from Postman Pat yesterday, so I'm hoping there are some 23mm torsion bars waiting at the post depot for me. However it seems that because of the 205 living in the garage for the last 4 months getting all the attention, my Audi has decided bollocks to that and has started making an assortment of clunking noises, with its MOT up a week on Sunday, whilst I am in America....so that is tonights little project.

Edited May 15, 2009 by Tom Fenton

[calvinhorse 870]

well done tom!!

[Rob Turbo 3]

It seems that idle control is a rather awkward thing to sort, I've had no real luck with the idle on the megasquirt on both the 8v turbo and v6, I'm hoping to go for ms2 and have a crack at a stepper motor to see if that works any better!

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Well I'm back from holiday and full of enthusiasm to get this driveable. Since last posting I've set the tracking up with the new 309 arms and steering rack, and my 23mm 309 torsion bars have arrived. I also got the Audi MOT'd so that is another job out of the way! So over the next couple of nights my jobs are to finish building the 309 rear beam for it, fit the new beam, remove the rear arches to trim them back and then replace, and finish off plumbing up the brakes, then bleed them all, replace the handbrake cables with the disc type ones, and make some studs for the back of my rear brake pads, as they are front pads and don't have the stud to make the handbrake work properly. With that little list completed I can then tax it and very nervously drive it round the block......

 

The good news is that having stood in the garage for 10 days whilst I was away it hasn't leaked anything, nice to know when a lot of the cooling system was TIG welded aluminium tubes by me!

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

Some progress last couple of nights, new beam bits all prepared including sorting out a decent set of the tin rear "legs" and also the front mounting blocks. I then did the final bit of work and fitted the shims Carl made for me to space the vented rear discs off the rear hubs, whilst I was there I also tapped out all the wheel bolt holes. Then last night I took old beam off the car, all came apart without any problems, then whilst I was under there I set about replacing one of the bump stops which has been missing for a while, to my suprise once I'd drilled a decent pilot hole I was able to extract the rusted bolt out of the captive nut in the rear chassis, I expected to have to drill it out totally and re tap or maybe even helicoil the hole. With this done I mounted the replacement 309 beam tube, I find its easier to mount the tube first and then add all the arms etc to it later on. I've ordered the rear brake flexis I need to hopefully arrive today, so tonights jobs are to mount the radius arms, set the ride height and fit the bars (23mm), and then sort out plumbing the rear brakes. Pictures to follow.........

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

As promised

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

Dont hang around do you! looks great.

[Tom Fenton 1,526]

I try not to f*** about!

 

Since those pics, I;ve modified the front pads to fit in the back, needed the small "pip" sorting to make the handbrake mech in the rear calipers work properly. First drilled through the centre of the pip on an old pad, then put it on top of the new ones and drilled through

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

Then tapped M4, cut down some stainless caps, then fettled them up with the powerfile to make them fit in the caliper piston groove. Only el cheapo pads for now to see how it works!

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Finally got the car back on its wheels, the neg camber and toe from the Xsara VTS arms is certainly noticeable, and the wide track shouts at you! Set the TB's at 305mm centres, think its a touch high though so may need to drop it a bit more, we will see, as it was a tad too low before.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

So tomorrows jobs, decide which rear ARB to fit, I have standard 309 GTI, or a 306 GTI6 one I could cut down. Fit the handbrake cables, all the clips to the tank are long gone so will have to devise a way of holding them up. Then finish off plumbing the brakes, picked up some fittings on the way home from work today. With that done, can bleed all 4 corners, then thunderbirds are go!