Inspired by works going on at our joint work/storage space I decided it was about time I got cracking with the MK3 polo shell I picked up.

I bought this with plans to eventually re-home my G40 conversion into. Not convinced I was any better off with this despite its lack of sunroof I decided it would make the perfect shell for my 1043 boosted plans. Not sure why or how but she has become known as Alison.

Project brief.

Remove anything not essential and build a tin can slut for general everyday use. Spend as little as possible. 1043cc displacement for comedy value.

So all began with a little peek on ebay for a donor shell For my G40 conversion. Which had started with me deciding I needed to re-locate the battery! ::)

So £250 later, some shit fast food, a stop enroute to buy some coilovers off Andy and a blow-out on the trailer. I had myself a 1272cc Polo CL coupe K reg with a snatch over 100k miles on the clock. It's by no means perfect and on further investigation I discovered it has had a slight front end impact, although minor damage by the looks of things.

So friday night arrived at our unit about 18:00 to discover my mate Martin had actually done some welding work on the MK1 golf shell I sold him!

Jim was bang on his MK1 Rocco at long last and was getting stuck in with a get it done approach!

So overalls on and made a start on removing the knackered light panel. Things went quite well and eventually had success in removing it with a flap disc on a 4 1/2" grinder.

It was getting a bit late for general gnawsing duties, so next up was remove brakes, steering rack, pedals, front suspension etc. MIG plant came out to remove the annoying blank headed bolt VW fit on the steering column to chassis.

Once this was off it was a case of the shittest job ever.. underseal removal!

This took me to about 3:00am Saturday, at this point I was running low on fuel/enthusiasm so thought i'd call it a night.

Saturday saw a hive of activity up at the unit.

Even Baker made an appearance!

Wee Jimmy Got on the hammerite!

Phil made him self useful on the teas and ciggies!

Si spent most of his time under a very rusty Merc 190

And i recruited the use of his brother Doms expertise in the underseal department!

Lookig really happy about it in this picture!

Which saw us about ready for some welding. (Plus I was bored and wanted another job). Marked out 25mm along the chassis leg seams and got the TIG plant out.

Got these welded by which time the camera was out of battery and the charger was at home. Eventually left the unit at about 03.30 leaving si and baker still working on the mk2 golf. I was fooked and needed a beer!

Edited 7 May, 201214 yr by randombadger69

Sunday saw a slightly more leasurely start. Went to the local Dubgen meet at the Ram for a gander at some motors and to say hello to a few peeps. jim was already on the Jager.. oh dear!

Got up the workshop by about 16:00.

Few lads popped up to say hello. Bagman volunteered himself for bitumen removal in the back, who was I to complain?! Unfortunately i made the mistake of stopping him on the home straight, which blew the fuse in the heat gun

Still saved me some graft.. good lad!

Meanwhile armed with a grinder a hammer and a chisel I set about removing the scuttle panel.

Me in Hollywood welder shocker!

Not quite finished round the brake servo area, needs some trimming and welding still.

Before I knew it, it was light!

Started to feel it by this point, so chucked some primer in the direction of bare steel and wrapped the tools up. Left the workshop about 07.00am monday. Still feeling fucked.

Lots to do still! Need to finish the scuttle area and seam weld the turrets and gearbox mounting area. Thinking about re-enforcing the chassis legs a wee bit with some 32 or 38mm CDS (have some offcuts) ala Yoof style.

Nice work man, good progress in a weekend!

You talk about a 1043cc engine, and I also think you mentioned boost? ..eh, do tell us more?

Cheers. Basically gonna fit an HZ crank into a PY engine if it'll go. Need to check the journals etc. In theory its possible. Bores both being 75.0mm. Just I have a feeling I can get more power out of a 1043cc with a G-lader than my current 3F engine in my GT. Which is enough for a dirty slut like Alison.

The other reason the idea seems so good is that I shouldn't have to put the G-lader under a huge amount of stress to get the engine nicely stressed!

Got some more done to this.

I burnt the underseal out of the gearbox mount as best as I could with a blow torch and it welded a lot nicer. Still all down to amperage control, but I never went above 55 amps.

The turrets are an arse, got one side nearly ready for welding.. again lots of blowtorch and grinder with a knotwheel. >:(

Martyn made an apperance yesterday and slapped some filler in the bay of his mk1.

Jim cracked on with the surgery on his Mk1 rocco..

Never happier than when using a chisel is our wee Jim

I got the gearbox mount mostly welded. Still a couple of sttitches to do round here (awkward ones!)

Inspected the rusty battery tray. Almost gone right to the steering column mount. May have to cut past this and re-weld it.

The graveyard

Got the beam and fuel tank off. Found some lovely rust inside the arch here, where the stupid breather pipe travels has rotted out causing the inside of the wing to get wet and start rusting. Not looking great, but then it's still there.. for now!

Jims delights!

Woah! How the fuck have i missed this!!

Great build man, looks very much like mine at the minute, seam welding everything is this weekends job, how did you go about removing all the seam sealer though?

1043cc G40 sounds awesome, will be a right laugh!

Haha, busy building yours i expect!

I thought i'd get a build thread going for inspriration.

Its all about getting rid of that sealant. where I welded the chassis legs to the inner wings I never got it all out and its a bit messy and left a slight gap where there was previously sealant.

Once youve gone hammer and tongs with a knotwheel on a grinder get the blow torch out and heat the seams, the underseal will ouse out! The turrets are the worst bit where they meet the inner wings, massive gaps on the corners loaded up with sealant!

Just burn it till it stops burning

Fuck that lol, i just used twice as much argon and turned the amperage up

Worked pretty well haha.

awesome stuff mate!!

Fuck that lol, i just used twice as much argon and turned the amperage up

Worked pretty well haha.

I'm pretty low on the argon, so been skimping away with as little LPM as possible and minimal pre and post flow.

awesome stuff mate!!

Cheers fella. Was thinking of going red oxide all over on this. Is yours primer? Looks good!

Not sure its man enough for the job on its own though?

haha do ittt! yeah mine was! just laquer over it after :)

Well, lost a bit of momentum this weekend. Still chipped away at it.

Friday night got stuck into the turrets. Had a bash at stitching the nearside turret. this didn't go so well. Loads of dirty underseal and huge gaps to fill left a rather unsightly mess.

Having made a bit of a mess of the turret to inner wing I decided i'd have a change of job to keep me motivated. So started removing the rear seatbelt mountings.

After doing the N/S i was bored of this too. Stopped for a brew. Simon then arrived and announced it was all round Jims for some brews. So needing no further persuasion I downed tools for the night.

The great plans made the night before with Simon to do a scrap run in the morning went out the window. It was light before any of us got any shut-eye, needless to say am had passed by the time heads awoke.

So bleary eyed, we made our way to the workshop. Things started slowly. with lots of this..

I got on the tidy-up and sorting through the scrap as things were getting a bit out of hand. Look at all that floor!

Eventually things were looking good and the head was feeling less abused. Not really in the mood for grinding and bodywork antics I thought i'd sort through the parts and see what i had and what I needed.

Chaz popped up and gave us a hand with cleaning a few things.

Good old boy!

Dug out an HZ bottom end for a butchers.

Feggin oil pump bolts laughed in my face, so I obliged by making them an 8mm spline. That'll learn the fuckers!

Soon had retrieved the crank and a piston and rod for inspection

Look at the wee crank! Good condition engine really, which is a suprise as Webbo had been the previous user and he abuses everything!

Made a start on cleaning up a rocker cover

By which time i'd had enough and was thinking of heading off. Baker was royally stuck in all day though!

Nat popped up (Mr vinyl/paper cutter himself), so I made use of his visit by handing him a water pipe gasket (obsolete at the stealers) to manufacture for me. Also a throttle body to inlet gasket and crank end-seal plate gaskets as i had some on the bench :-)

Jim had been under his mk1 rocco some more.

That pretty much concluded saturdays antics.

haha do ittt! yeah mine was! just laquer over it after :)

This is what I was thinking! Hows it fairing?

Brilliant reading, I love this.

Brilliant reading, I love this.

Haha, cheers dude, glad your enjoying my toils!

Wish I had more time for these updates etc.

Right so took me a while to realise that all i managed on sunday was to get a spare PY lump out of my parents shed and onto an engine stand in the workshop. A BBQ was mentioned and that put a halt to everything!

Jims pile of refurbed parts for his Mk1 Rocco were getting endangered by my works! As if we have sofa's up our unit that get used for this!

The mood was definately not buzzing, Jim hobbited away at re-assembly of his beam.

Baker got pested up on the blower..

And these bag men pretty much halted all play. Tom looking especially batty in this photo!

Onto monday. Got the PY block i'd bought as spare stripped. Noticed the exhaust valves had all smashed the pistons. (Timing out?). Also looks like the crank is a bit gnawsed up where the pulley fits onto the notched out "keyway". To top it the big end shells were fucked and "baggy" and looks like cylinder one has got serious corrosion around the headgasket sealing ring landing in the water way. No-wonder the block was for sale!

Anyhow, while i had it in bits thought i'd try out some theory.

Fitted the 1043cc crank and a PY piston and rod. I'd measured the rods and they both measured circa 122mm c-c. However the pistons on the 1043cc were taller by a good 10mm from the centre of the gudgeon pin.

So as expected.. no compression here Dave..

So Decided to have a look at a standard 1272cc piston. Pulled one out of a 2G block i'd previously butchered thinking it was a 1043cc. Trialled this in the block.

Hmm.. still not ideal. Didn't have a dial guage, but tbh didn't really need one to measure this. So had a peek with the verniers. For example the PY piston and rod at TDC in a PY block sits somewhere near to 2mm from the Deck. The PY piston and rod on a 1043cc crank in a PY block sat around 9mm from the deck iirc and the 2G something like 7mm.

So me and baker sat there doing some loud thinking.

Conclusion was that in order to get anything to work we'd either have to cut around 5mm off the deck (and bolts) or double stack gaskets/head spacer with the 1043cc HZ piston on a PY rod on an HZ crank in a PY block... did you get that?

.. Or machine some HZ pistons down. None of which were a satisfactory solution. Especially as i didn't actually want to be spending money on it.

So I began muttering defeat in the form of 1272cc..

To which I was shot down in flames by Baker saying there's no point in putting a 1272cc lump in Alison with a G-lader. As that's what was (almost (1306cc)) in the shiny red one. To which I agreed he was right and it went against the whole principal of this build (vaguely sensible).

Soo..

What to do?

Baker finally said, well you can put a 1272cc in if you turbo it! Otherwise there's no point. To which I agreed. But where can we find a turbo?

So "the team" went out on a scout round the yard. And who should find a turbo? Baker of course..

A fucking great thing!

So a bit of pilfering later and we had ourselves a turbo..

My partner in crime.. Martyn helped with the removal. I have honestly never seen such a shite set-up in all my life. The inlet and exhaust on this fecker were just designed to stay on the engine. Makes a crossflow polo engine a delight to work on in comparison even when fitted with a G-Lader!

So all we have to do now is make this thing work on a peeny little engine!

Melted pistons anyone?

Edited 15 May, 201214 yr by randombadger69

Right so hold on here.. The engine code for the 1043 SPI is AAU.

What, then, is PY and HZ all about? I am lost.

Enigne in this was an AAV originally. Ripped that out and threw it to one side.

Found an HZ lump, which must have been from my mates mk2 polo saloon. That was 1043cc with a pooberg iirc...

PY is a G40 block code. Which is also the same bore as the 1043cc engines, see chart above^.

So I was hoping I could use the G40 block, so as to make use of the extra bolt hole for mounting the charger bracket/engine mount as these have 4 bolts. Also the faced and threaded hole for the knock sensor and the faced and threaded hole for the oil return feed from the charger.

Then fit the crank from the HZ 1043cc engine in the G40 block, which physically goes. However the 1043cc pistons are taller than the 1272cc pistons, so fitting a 1272cc piston to the 1043cc crank results in a piston that stops almost 7mm from the face of the block. Meaning feck-all compression.

I was hoping i'd be able to swap the G40 (PY) piston and rod for the 1043cc (HZ or AAU) item to lower the compression. However its not quite that simple it would appear due to piston height difference on the 1043cc.

So I reckon what I need is an HB 1093cc lump looking at that chart, its 8.0:1 compression, ready for boost. May be able to use a hydro head on it!?

Or an HA lump.. 895cc!!

Anyone got one going cheep/local?

Edited 16 May, 201214 yr by randombadger69

Ah, So I see. (said the blind man)

What I originally thought you'd be at was to start with a AAU engine, then simply lower the compression. ( I don't know whether this would involve putting shims under the cylinder block or by machining the tops of the pistons, but anyway) I didn't know about the hole for the charger bracket! Surely though it wouldn't be difficult for the likes of yourself to fabricate a mount for the charger on to a non-charged engine? from what I know the blocks only went alloy when the 1998 999cc engine came out for the 6n.

Just put a 2 stroke engine in it while you're at it sure. :)

Sorry but might have missed something here,

Why don't you just use the 1043cc block and rotating assembly, but with skimmed pistons or a double thickness head gasket?

Ah, So I see. (said the blind man)

What I originally thought you'd be at was to start with a AAU engine, then simply lower the compression. ( I don't know whether this would involve putting shims under the cylinder block or by machining the tops of the pistons, but anyway) I didn't know about the hole for the charger bracket! Surely though it wouldn't be difficult for the likes of yourself to fabricate a mount for the charger on to a non-charged engine? from what I know the blocks only went alloy when the 1998 999cc engine came out for the 6n.

Just put a 2 stroke engine in it while you're at it sure. :)

Dont joke!

My mates dad has a trabant that I keep threatening to buy! I Have too many cars atm though! And my polo GT sounds utterly haggard and gets consistant daily abuse exploring the rev range/limit, it needs a replacement, but I do need a van!

Hmm..

Its not the block thats the problem, its the compression ratio of the 1043cc internals putting me off. AAU is slightly higher than HZ again!

Sorry but might have missed something here,

Why don't you just use the 1043cc block and rotating assembly, but with skimmed pistons or a double thickness head gasket?

Haha, funny you should say that, I was driving said Haggard Polo GT home tonight thinking about needing a replacement. I got onto thinking about Alison.. and your engineering skills popped into my mind! Fancy machining some pistons for me?

This would be more ideal than two gaskets.

I'm assuming the blocks are internally identical between the PY 1272cc and the AAU (other than perhaps a strengthened casting?

Anyway I was thinking use the PY block with 1043cc rotating assembly (bar the PY forged rods if they measure the same, which I think they do), but machine down the pistons to reduce the compression ratio.

However this is where maths comes into it!

I need to do some measuring.

Thats your best bet, you could even factor in "squish" area too which will improve overall combustion further.

I'd be happy to machine the pistons for you, we are talking about modifiying the originals arent we? not manufacturing some custom jobbies.. (which i don't have the material for)

So is the idea of the 1043cc just a laugh then? I wanna do it too lol, but maybe keeping in NA , it will be a propper sceamer with the tiny stroke.

Thats your best bet, you could even factor in "squish" area too which will improve overall combustion further.

I'd be happy to machine the pistons for you, we are talking about modifiying the originals arent we? not manufacturing some custom jobbies.. (which i don't have the material for)

Indeed. (If I knew enough about engines! And how to work out compression). Looked into it a bit, just need to try and get my head right round what I need to measure, how to do so and how much metal removal equals what compression ratio.

Yeah I was meaning modify the originals, but ooh.. now you make my brain run wild!

:biggrin:

The plot thickens however.. found an HA lump in the unit today.. 8.0:1 compression 895cc.. hmm! Cheeper road tax?!

I'll have a wee butchers at this tomorrow. Bore size differs to the PY, so would have to consider charger mounting/machining on the block etc.

So is the idea of the 1043cc just a laugh then? I wanna do it too lol, but maybe keeping in NA , it will be a propper sceamer with the tiny stroke.

Pretty much!

N/A would be good. If I had some money to spend on it then i'd consider N/A. I'm just thinking bang for buck, if i can make it work without melting stuff, then boosted will be easier with my limited knowledge/parts pile/tools/ etc.

This was in the 1100cc class at Eschdorf last year, absolutely screaming, sounded amazing. Was proper rapid too!

Edited 19 May, 201214 yr by randombadger69