Yeah should still be fun, just a bit more refined and quieter etc :)

Erm it's at my brothers in bits still, but Iv sorted my garage out so it's coming home, just in two minds whether to get the head P&P'd etc.. Doing the actual engine won't take long it's messing around making inlets and that which will take time :)

Nothing exciting, however bought engine home now to make a start.

Stripped the head today..

Gave it a quick swill out

Thought about an inlet manifold

Bolted the jenveys together to take some measurements & did a quick drawing for a manifold idea

Plan is to sort inlet manifold first, get bottom end stripped in the mean time.

Then send block & head away for some bits to be done, send the bodies to Jenvey for a service/rebuild and then order a load of bits :)

Not much going down, nearly made an inlet manifold, needs insides cleaning and blending and powdercoating yet, welding isn't amazing but I'm teaching myself as I go along, but should do the job.

Car front not done much either, playing with suspension and geometry etc still, got some new wheels, still playing with how it sits but getting there..

Not much of an update but the car and me still exist anyway

Sweet car, I had a. Mk1 golf in white and the paintwork on that was almost porous, horrible to keep clean.

Oh Hi, forget about build threads and stuff.

Nothing really exciting going down, tinkering with shit as usual, springs bushes etc etc, 16v progress is like 0.0000001%

Next up is fitting the Jenveys to the 8v for a bit to get used to the management etc rather than fitting to a fresh engine.. got pretty much everything now just taking the time to do it.

Nothing new... been a few shows, run consistent 15.0's 1/4 mile at action as always... may update when something exciting happens :P

This was to clear the dish of the pulley.

Messing around for clearance, mocking up a crank sensor bracket...

Does the smaller v-pully bolt up right with the crank?

Thinking of swapping it over just to get more clearance :)

It won't on a 16v mate nah!

arse.. totally forgot you weren't running 16v.. haha :)

I may have a proposed solution at some point as I need to machine some stuff up for my 16v

Also - this is now running on ITBs all properly mapped on a rolling road.

From carbs jetted by me, and mega jolt mapped by feel by me, to ITBs properly setup, there is 0hp and 0 torque differential.

Your just too amazing thats why nick

Or lucky hahaha

Will have a look, I'm in two minds with doing too much to the whole car to be honest, want to keep at it but the same time I can throw money at it for little gain for how much I use it, trying to save for a house seems favourable at the moment.

Been away for a few weeks, came home and now have an inlet manifold for the Jenveys too, but it's straight so may need some form of angled plate to compensate for how the engines canted over.

Hopefully build engine over winter and fit/wire up around march time perhaps, not too rushed at all lol.lshfdjlks

hahahahhahahahahah

Done a few things to this actually, update when I can be arsed/take pictures!

Hello!

So this has been neglected for ages although I have done a few bits... Life gets in the way..

Current state is still the AEE on ITBs

Now have a stage 3 frame and some different wheels and tyres..

Been sat for months decided to give it a wash today and take it for a blast... Need to tinker further and get it dialled in then do some track days hopefully.

Have also made adjustable lower arms and stuff which consequently has caused compliance understeer issues so looking to rose joint the inner tie rods too.. Will see how that goes haha.

Few pictures from earlier

Liking the new wheels, Team Dynamics?

Any more photos/ specs?

I need to do a big update to be fair mate, but still have no pictures of the ITB setup and the cars back away now haha.

Yeah, pro race 1.2's, 13x7 et32 I think, with 185/60/13 NS2R's, also need to make some lock stops as they catch slightly on full lock

How do you find the NS2Rs?

It's hard to say mate in all honesty, they're a different size and fitted to totally different wheels, I also fitted them when I fitted the frame so can't comment really

So from how the car was I:

Fitted stage 3 frame

Fitted adjustable TCAs with a rose joint instead of bushes, these also have a standard rubber bush to the tension strut currently

Reduced rear camber

Guessed a stiffer front Spring rate

Wheels and tyres

Car has then been roughly setup as a start point:

Corner weighted

Rear is around -1.25 camber

Front around -1.8 & 2 deg castor

Rear currently has minor toe out which i want to change

Front a smidge of toe in

As the car currently drives it's very understeery in the wet but i doubt the tyres were at all bedded much when that was

Gentle lane changes and swept steers really need addressing, very two stage reaction in the car which is horrible

In the dry it's hard to make a proper opinion yet, some occasions result in understeer but you can almost push through it and then get lift off oversteer

Plans are to:

Stiffer beam bushes

Tweak rear toe by like 0.2 degree so it has slight total toe in

Try poly outer TCA bushes

Try rose jointed inner tie rods

Play with Spring balance and damping

Tyre pressures

Will be done over time, it's all good fun methodically changing stuff for a good end result.

Ride isn't toooooo bad with rose joints up front either, tyre sidewalls are stiff and road noise can be utterly horrendous

Finally someone is talking sense, and actually has a thought behind what setup they have choosen.

Would you say the car is setup for daily use?

I set the car up with some 2-3mm toe out at the front, resulting in nice turn in. At the rear i didnt really messure. 2,5 deg camber at front, 1,5 deg at rear.

How is your ride hight?

I found when lowering the rear approx 1cm, the car got alot more stable under heavy braking.

Edited 14 March, 201610 yr by TurboPolo

Barely had chance to properly assess it to be honest mate, need to get on a track day so I can properly assess and back to back things, it's the only place you can really drive on the limit safely.

Not setup well at all for daily use no, I mean it could be tolerable but the difference between this and my BMW is absolutely huge there's no comparison, this is loud, harsh on impacts etc, unrefined, but it's excellent fun which is what it's for. It's very stiffly sprung for a road car and Gaz dampers are notorious for "absolutely shit loads of damping"

I have tried toe out before; the turn in response is great like you say but it's a bit annoyingly pointy I find at speed, I've found it very easily darts about. But haven't tried any toe tweaks with the stage 3 fitted yet.

Ride height hard to say, got a list of measurements on a spreadsheet somewhere from wheel centres to arch lip.

Iv never experienced issues under heavy braking other than the car wanting to pull a bit if you let go of the wheel

Will do a more detailed write up/tweaking steps as I have done a few bits anywho! Need to try and educate the Mrs into how cars work and how changing stuff effects it so will probably be a slow process haha

Yeah, okay. I am going on the route with adapting Golf mk1 dampers and hubs with additional rc adjuster.

Last trackday was done with r888 185/60-13 on 6x13 et33, and approx 29,5cm center to archlip without flares at the front, i found the tyre/profile abit to high. Therefore today I have ordered Avon ZZR 185/55-13 for this season.

I take curbs in some corners quite hard, and due to not having a dif it unsettles the car so dif is part of the plan for next season, even with only a afh on std managment.

What springrate du you have f/r.?

Edited 15 March, 201610 yr by TurboPolo

Just had a look at my spreadsheet from when I corner weighted it,

Heights wheel centre to plastic arch lip were 291/290 F & 293/293 R, so literally a few MM lower than you. Yeah the tyres are a bit large, I mean I am yet to drive on track, however its certainly took a bit of the urgency of punchy acceleration a bit...think when I looked at 185/55 the cost put me off a bit.

Currently have 300lb F & 200lb R which was a total guess...however the rear has a very long progressive spring aid, so the wheel rate will be increased in a non linear fashion equating to a stiffer overall rate....front has a large gap so is pretty much dependant on the main spring other than impacts creating a large amount of wheel travel.

Last time I went on track I had 250lb front springs, which wern't stiff enough, it particularly struggled in transient manouvres such as a chicane, now I have lost the front ARB and only added 50lb to the spring rate, so I'd imagine I may want stiffer, but who knows! Wheel travel is a great thing, and with my front setup is something I somewhat lack!

I have had all sorts of springrates on my cars over the years, it is fun to actually test the theory on the road/track.

Do you run a gt/g40 rear beam?

Please give us a review when you have used it at a trackday,

maybe we can compare some notes later in the season.

I will track my own car and cornerweight it. Really hope to fiddle around with different setups, and explore the ZZRs abilities.

Hi all, massive update, well overdue!

Don't really know where to start...life has been in the way a bit, some 22 weeks out of the UK last year, bought my first home etc, but hey ho!

Cant really remember what order things have been done, or whats already in the build thread, but we'll start with changing my Bonarth top mounts to spherical bearings instead of standard ball bearings.

People have always complained these knock, which I established was a combination of a poor interference fit of the bearing, and the fact its a ball bearing which isnt designed to take load in the directions its subjected to on a car...this was simple as I found a suitable spherical bearing which was an interference fit to the top mount, and simply machined a sleeve to suit my dampers...

Got a few pictures of it on the Compomotives.. which I didn't use for long before selling them, did not suit what I wanted from the car, and wasn't prepared to go low enough to fully pull them off..

Stanford Hall 2014 with JamieDub

With 8vOlly, Supercheal & JamieDub

Poloshow 2014, with Max & Olly, formally known as RGT

With Jamie, Oli, Max, Matty at Poloshow 2014

Next thing I guess was fitting ITBs...I bought them for the 16v engine, but thought I'd try them out, and the management system before trying them on a fresh engine...they're 40mm so a bit big for the 8v IMO, but they sound utterly insane, like hurts your ears loud induction noise, although I think drivability wise is worse, made slightly less power than carbs, but hey ho, all good fun!

Inlet mani

Sent them away to Jenvey for a service (pressure test, new seals, spindle bearings etc)

I bought new management, didn't fancy the risks of second hand so... been that long I can't even remember what it is now! MS2 IIRC

Decided to use a GM coolant temp sensor with it, instead of getting the values of VAG one, so machined an adaptor to suit the thermo housing..

Ripped the bike carbs off (this picture is a lie, the swearing is a joke, bike carbs are amazing and I want them back, definitely best bang for buck and throttle response is ace!)

Fitting stuff

So got MS2, 40mm ITBs with G60 250cc injectors, Bosch 044 fuel pump and a weber 3.0bar FPR

Again no order, cannot even remember when I bought these bits, but was a LONG time before fitting them!

Decided to make my own adjustable TCAs....involving machining down new TCA's so they could slot inside the adjustable section, be puddle welded and welded around

Also machined adaptors, they're 1/2'' rose joints, but I didn't want to drill out the holes on my TCA mounts, so back on the lathe it was..

Subframe chucked together for a looksies, after tweaking/tidying up a few bits..

I wanted to revert to a standard depth sump, as ever since fitting an 'early' sump I've had issues with oil being whipped into the breather by the crank and filling my catch bottle...but these don't clear the subframe, so choppy choppy it was...

Also got a windage tray, which really doesn't fit properly...but after some chopping we resulted to this...

Got my starter and alternator refurbished...'slim' starters are notoriously shite, but now its epic! Also got a new batt to go with it

Won some wheels on eBay, brand new, but only ended up being something like £140, absolute result! Got some NS2R's too to go on them, 185/60/13, bit chunky but race car..

Once I actually found time/enthusiasm tasks were to:

Change starter/alt/alt belt/batt

Change tappets

Rewrap exhaust mani

Change master cyl (bigger)

New discs/pads/flexi hoses/fluid (DS2500's and some reputable discs which I have forgotten now, and some 'track day' brake fluid)

Change G/box oil

Change engine oil/filter

Change plugs

Adjust rear camber/toe

Fit subframe

Fit new W+Ts

Change sump + fit windage tray

Didn't really take any pictures, but here are a couple...

Bomb gone off..

New tappets..

Back on its wheels..

So after this I basically did a full setup including corner weights, caster/camber/toe etc...then parked the car up at the start of Nov and it sat there since, put a cover on it after a couple of months of being sat. Got it out the other day, looking in a right sorry state, the sun was shining so I had some enthusiasm..hadn't even driven it in the dry, so was able to see what it was like...long long way off being where I want it yet, but looking forward to tweaking and changing stuff and improving it (or making it worse, its all good fun learning!)

Gave it a wash and quick polish by hand, it definatley needs a day or two spending on it, but doesn't scrub up too badly for a 23 year old car!

To end...a few random pics from VW Action 2015...

Homeless Nick on the M1

RGT Camp!

Random pic, not even sure when it was, but its not all about cars...its about the people you meet and the times you have.....

Updates will hopefully be more frequent than annually...but we will see !

Nick

Stripped down a steering rack today thanks to Steve, now I know how I'm going to reduce my steering lock I can crack on with that, just need to work out what size spacers I will need to reduce the lock.

Also I am going to make complete new steering arms with rose joints on the inner, and have spacers to allow me to adjust/correct bumpsteer... I am quite confident its currently 'miles off' being anywhere suitable, but any improvement helps really!