[Project] Starting My Xu5T Build

[BackStreetRacecars 3]

just proves why you should be pitcrew+ with every post on this one Tom... loving it...good work!!! has it cost you much so far??

[sonofsam 5]

I've got a cunning plan, fear not baldrick

 

A plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and called it a Fox?!

 

Good luck, look forward to seeing it

[M@tt 77]

is your plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel?

 

EDIT> s*it beaten to it

Edited February 27, 2009 by M@tt

[Rippthrough 98]

is your plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel?

 

 

It is a weasel, with a big pair of lungs.

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Well cunning plans aside I've had a really hectic week and haven't done anything on the car, however tonight I got out there for a bit and carried on with the exhaust downpipe. I need to get another bend but here is where I am so far.

 

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

It would be fair to say I'm really quite happy with how it has turned out!

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

that looks lovely tom, do you fancy coming round giving me some welding lessons

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Practise and a TIG, thats all there is to it! I got my TIG about 11 months ago having never used one before, I can now do pretty acceptable looking welds in both alloy and stainless. You are welcome to pop in some time and have a go on it if you want.

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Practise and a TIG, thats all there is to it! I got my TIG about 11 months ago having never used one before, I can now do pretty acceptable looking welds in both alloy and stainless. You are welcome to pop in some time and have a go on it if you want.

 

that'd be good cheers. You could perhaps give me a bit of advice on buying a tig too as we've been looking at getting one for a while but haven't got a clue about them

 

anyway, get back in the garage and finish your car off, dying to see it up and running

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

No probs. For TIG's you've basically three options-

1- Spend upwards of £1500 on a pro AC/DC TIG made by someone like Kemppi/Butters/Miller- fantastic bit of kit but unless you use it for work probably out of most peoples price range for a bit of knobbing about in the garage- certainly was out of mine. Even second hand these machines really hold their value, as a lot are three phase and so no use to the likes of you and I, so the single phase ones go for top dollar.

2- Spend about £400-600 on a foreign (read: chinese) AC/DC TIG- this is what I have- mine was £385 plus carriage new off ebay from a place in Germany.

3- Spend about £150-200 on a foreign DC TIG- you can only weld ferrous material with this- so no ally- Matt has one of these.

 

The car will be finished when its finished!!

........I'm hoping to get some time in on it this weekend though.

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

I had been looking at the ac/dc ones on ebay but wasn't sure of the quality/reliability of them, you seem to be havin no problems with yours though i see.Cheers for that, I'll let you get back on topic now

[Cameron 16]

Just to hijack quickly, there are some TIG welders on eBay for about £300 that are actually very good. One of the guys at work (who has been welding for about 20 years) bought one and was very impressed. I think it was a 200Amp AC / DC welder with HF start (VERY IMPORTANT) and also a pulse setting which is very useful. I think it was called TIGMIG or something like that, and came from Italy.

 

That or you can spend about £500-600 on a second hand "designer" name one. We recently got hold of a very decent Lincon Electric one at an auction for a good price.

 

Also, a good tip for good looking TIG welds is to just try and move at a steady pace and count each dip, so you have a fixed amount of time between dips. Then you'll end up with very tasty welds.

 

Hijack over.

Edited March 7, 2009 by Cameron

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Well a bit more progress to report. I've mocked up the boost pipe coming from the turbo over the top to the front for the intercooler. Good job I have the pedal box as space is still tight.

 

PICTURE MIA

 

The air filter is probably not staying there, I've another possible cunning plan for that, but will depend on where the intercooler ends up.

 

Next was some work on coolant hoses, these are proving to be a real headache, I'm not using the SAD housing so I've linked the heater hose off the side of the stat housing with the standard one.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Finally some pics of the downpipe fitted. It is certainly close but it does clear everything even when moved about a bit on the flexable joint. Its not very photogenic mind you!

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Well last night was a night of fannying about, I was waiting for a section of exhaust pipe to turn up, and I'm also waiting for the intercooler to come back.

 

So in the meantime I dragged the 309 lower arms I had stashed out and gave them a good seeing to with the wire brush attachment on the angle grinder. They came (s/h) fitted with poly bushes, despite these looking like new I've not had much luck, so I pressed these out and pressed in some standard OE Peugeot items. Then a quick whizz over with some primer and satin black and voila!

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

When I got home tonight the bit of exhaust I had ordered was waiting for me, so I've been out and finished off my downpipe. It is 2.5" all the way through the downpipe, at the moment I am going to mate it to a 2" twin box magnex system, but I may well change this to a homebrew 2.5" single box system all the way to the back of the car at some point. I do still need to weld a lambda boss to this, but that won't take a minute.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Finally I had another delivery today, since discovering that 14" alloys don't always clear 266mm brakes I've decided to go to 1900 wheels, hence some tyres arrived, £126 plus £10 post for 4 is dirt cheap in my opinion. I've plenty of 1900 wheels to choose from, but I think I may go the whole hog and refurb the set of Italian Speedlines I have.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

[billybluesky 1]

The final bit of news is the insurance- renewal price for basically standard car was £220, add the turbo, exhaust, ECU etc that will be fitted, and the price goes up to £265 fully comp, bloody result I say!

really well reported informative piece cant wait to see the end result and insurance quote sounds reasonable who's that with?

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Glad you have enjoyed reading it matey. Insurance quote was from HIC, that is 3k limited miles, social/domestic/pleasure, not commuting, I'm 28, car is garaged.

I'm in the middle of doing some more today so there will be another update later on.

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

What have I been up to today then....seems like I've had the slam panel and grille on and off about 1000 times making pipes and checking clearance!

 

So the intercooler is in there, can you see it? I'm pleased as its not obvious! The lower black grille is now about 1/2 its original depth at the bottom to make enough room to squeeze it in!

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Its a Cosworth intercooler, but can you spot the difference to a normal one?

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

First job was to make the pipe from the turbo. The silicone bend wouldn't fir behind the grille so I made up an alloy one instead. I still had to chop some material out of the back of the grille.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

The slam panel also needed a localised cut out

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Next up was to sort out the pipe from the i/c to the throttle body. I made it partly in alloy so I could incorporate the dump valve take off.

205T by Tom Fenton, on Flickr

 

Still to finish is the air intake pipe to the filter, the filter is going down infront of the rad behind the bumper where it can get plenty of cold air, I am also going to make up a shroud to go behind it to shield it from the radiator.

[jimistdt 1]

Your level of skill and thought proccesses astounds me, Tom. You're a credit to yourself and the forum.

 

I suppose you know the answer to this but wont the air filter be prone to the elements there?

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Perhaps, but then again behind the headlight as per 205 gti induction kit isn't exactly sheltered either! I'm not too worried about it there.

[EdCherry 34 1 Cars]

The IC has re angled inlet/outlet

 

Im curious, what kind of power/boost do you expect to run on this?

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

Up to about 1 bar, power will be whatever it makes.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Continually snazzy and practical progress Thomas. As said: a credit to the forum.

 

Each of these (well thought out) elements, may alone yield 1BHP. But you make 10 good choices now and you reap the reward, both in increased access to power and more reliability.

[DrSarty 90 1 Cars]

Continually snazzy and practical progress Thomas. As said: a credit to the forum.

 

Each of these (well thought out) elements, may alone yield 1BHP. But you make 10 good choices now and you reap the reward, both in increased access to power and more reliability.

[pug_ham 240 3 Cars]

Finally getting to catch up on some of the project threads now new users are on hold so I get more time to spend on the forum checking stuff out.

 

Cracking project Tom with some skilled handy work making bits so it fits.

 

One thing I thought of when reading posts near the start of the topic that you solved with the drain back into the sump was the turbo oil return.

 

Had I seen it at the time I would've suggested it but why not use the tapping in the XU block where the oil level sensor fits on the Mi16?

 

Look forward to seeing the finished project, shame you've swapped to 1.9 alloys though, lost some of the sleeper effect with 1.9's on imo.

 

Graham.

[Tom Fenton 1,525]

I did consider the oil level tapping but TBH its a bit small and not really in the right place, plus it would have meant making the pipework from scratch. As it is, I have used the standard Peugeot 2.0T drain pipework, and just made an elbow that welded to the sump to meet it where it ended up sitting. Seemed the easiest thing to do at the time TBH! One of the things that has been a ballache with this has been making everything to suit, but I've certainly got my moneys worth out of my TIG welder!

It was going to stay on 1600 wheels until I found they didn't clear the brakes, plus it has to be said that tyre choice/price for the 15" rims are both much better. Apart from 1900 wheels it is still going to look relatively unmolested from the outside, even the exhaust tail doesn't really give the game away!

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

excellent work tom as usual, particullarly immpressed with the intercoller