Project reshell

[tubbyG]

So here we go! After being quiet on the 5 front for 2 years I finally have a new shell to replace my tungy

A little background - Back in 2013, shortly after buying my first house with the missus my H reg tungy was unfortuanatley hit from behind. Although the damage didnt look to bad I didnt really have the time, or funds to fix it. It needed a tailgate, rear bumper then paint.
Inbetween the house renovations I began to strip the car and asses the full damage, it turned out that it needed a fair bit of welding done to get to a standard I would be happy with, and considering the car was far from original and has had about a million owners I decided that it was not worth the effort.
So the strip down began, I sold off the rollcage and various other parts to raise some funds and began to stockpile some parts while I looked out for a new shell.

Fast forward to last weekend and mising out on lots of 5's, I finally won a white GTT non runner on ebay for a very good price.

It got delivered yesterday

(some pics)

[tubbyG]

The shell itself is in very good condition, windscreen surround is mint, sills and bumper mounts have been tidied up so no rust there, the only thing that lets it down is the paint, its crying out for a mop and polish but if that doesnt bring it back I have a mate who can give it a blow over for me.

The previous owner had refurbished the front end and had the bay repainted before fitting a "running engine", he said it would turn over but wouldnt start.

I only had an hour yesterday to poke around it and immediatley seen that there were a few things missing and connected up wrong.
I put in some fresh fuel, a new tdc sensor and sorted the firing order. Finally swapping out the carb with the modded carb from my tungy - and it fired up! A little lumpy at first but running!
I was suprised to see that underneath, the running gear has been completley overhauled,- refurbed subframe,wishbones, brakes, steering rack & suspension they look almost new!

[Milky]

looks well tidy

looks a good buy

[Trevhib]

Great result! Looks like a very good base to start from.

[tubbyG]

Thanks for the comments

It seems a like a good deal so far and im looking forward to getting on with it.
Dont get me wrong though - (like most 5's) it needs alot of time and money to get it the way I want

[royz]

Thanks for the comments

It seems a like a good deal so far and im looking forward to getting on with it.
Dont get me wrong though - (like most 5's) it needs alot of time and money to get it the way I want

its worth it in the end

[Mr Raider]

Looks a great solid shell with no rust, even a straight subframe thats not seen a jack too!

[tubbyG]

its worth it in the end

Hopefully

[tubbyG]

Looks a great solid shell with no rust, even a straight subframe thats not seen a jack too!

Thanks, I'm sure there will be rust somewhere, I just haven't found it yet!!
I honestly couldn't believe my eyes when I had a look underneath. Previous owner has done Alot of work there, just the rear calipers that are not new, they work so for now they can stay until the more pressing issues are sorted

[tubbyG]

After speaking to a friend this afternoon I have managed to get a loan of an engine hoist Saturday morning for the weekend.
So after work today I set about getting organised for the engine removal(s) - going to be a busy weekend!!
I uncovered the tungy, and rolled it out from the back of the drive to make some working space.
Then got onto removing a few things to make access a bit easier - I also gave the tungys dezent wheels a clean and swapped them onto whitey..... No idea what whitey's wheels were, but they were awful...

[tubbyG]

Some more pics

[tubbyG]

The last few weekends have seen some progress

Both cars have been stripped down, engines out and into the garage! since I have many duplicates, the parts have been sorted/arranged into boxes in an attempt to make the re-assembly easier.

[tubbyG]

With the engines out, I wanted spruce things up a bit and make adjustments to the cam timing.

stripped the engine down, wirewheeled, degreased, washed, primered, painted then finally laquered!!!! Coupled with some new bling brackets, water pump and a refurbed timing cover it looks miles better

I had previously set the BP285 to 109deg, primarily to reduce lag on the T28. Now with a different setup and some advice on here I have retarded it slightly to 113deg this time round.

[tubbyG]

While waiting for the engine paint to cure I wired in and fitted my wideband and oil pressure gauges into the Johnny5 double pod - Looks awesome and almost factory !

Final pic of how it stands now! Still waiting on a few parcels to arrive this week, but all going well I hope to drop the engine and box back in next weekend

[James5]

Looking good buddy love the little blue line on the alternator
Keep the pic's flowing

[Trevhib]

Pod looks ace.

Could do with a set of dials from the shop

[tubbyG]

Looking good buddy love the little blue line on the alternator
Keep the pic's flowing

Thanks James, I seen it done on another post somewhere - may well have been johnathan smith on one of the facebook pages and i thought it looked smart.

Dont worry, i love a pic or two!

Pod looks ace.

Could do with a set of dials from the shop

The pod is excellent, great work done by them. I want to keep the interior as oe as i can, and not having to butcher the dash is a bonus.

Ref the dial kit...... all in good time I have a wishlist of parts i want on this 5, slowly working my way through it, although typically items are being added weekly Trying not to go mad as it will definetley need painting once roadworthy

[tubbyG]

Slower than anticipated progress over the last few weekends but finally the engine is in its new home and I got a few other jobs sorted out.

New engine mounts, campus bottom pulley and shorter alt belt all fitted.
Radiator will be moved over a touch for better ic pipe run, so new mounting holes were drilled in the subframe, painted with new grommets. I have also chopped out the lower half of the crossmember off for intercooler fitment and while I was at it, took some meat out beside the pass headlight surround to give better airflow to the filter.

Still waiting for turbo to arrive, once thats here I will offer it up to check fitment, but its possible I need to trim part of the firewall....

few pics of progress.....

[tubbyG]

few more pics...

[Jonny5]

While waiting for the engine paint to cure I wired in and fitted my wideband and oil pressure gauges into the Johnny5 double pod - Looks awesome and almost factory !

Looking good

[tubbyG]

Looking good

Every 5 should have one

[LiamR]

Looks like your doing a great job there keep it up!

And keep us updated with your progress too!

[Jonny5]

Every 5 should have one

I think nearly every 5 has 😂😂

[tubbyG]

Slow progress on the engine side of things as I still havent got a turbo yet..........hoping to get it this week coming so i can get everything plumbed up.
In the meantime been working on my carb refurb skills. I have 3 in the garage at various stages of cleaning, and one fitted to the egine still to be done........i may have a carb fettish!
I have recently got hold of some decent second hand gaz coilovers for some tarmac scraping lows I have been cleaning and sprucing them up a bit while i wait for new bearings and top hats coming. Wire wheeled all the surface rust off and repainted.

Currently have a 50mm drop at the front but im not happy with the amount of tyre on show so the gaz are a welcome addition.

I also removed the gutter strips as they have been painted and fitted my untouched ones from the tungy - looks much better.

Some pics ....

[tubbyG]

Turbo has arrived along with the external gate

Hoping to get it on some time this week to check fitment and decide on pipework and hose layout.....

[Grants13]

a lot of YES going on here! that carb is gleaming!

[tubbyG]

Had a bit of time while home on on my lunch break................. so thought it would be an ideal time to put on the turbo and external wastegate

Im real happy with how it will look, but As you can see, its gonna be tight with the downpipe/screamer in there!! I have a few options to mull over

[James5]

Looking good Graeme you finally got a VNT

Good tip this retard your TDC sensor as far as it will go to the front of your engine

[tubbyG]

Cheers James!!

Yup, Im delighed to finally get myself a vnt. Been hankering after one for ages, but they always seemed to become available when I was skint.

This one has just only just been rebuilt prior to arriving also

Thanks for the tip regarding the timing sensor - I will get that done......... want to keep this engine in one piece for as long as I can

[James5]

Cheers James!!

Yup, Im delighed to finally get myself a vnt. Been hankering after one for ages, but they always seemed to become available when I was skint.

This one has just only just been rebuilt prior to arriving also

Thanks for the tip regarding the timing sensor - I will get that done......... want to keep this engine in one piece for as long as I can

Project is looking good :-)

I would suggest your next mod is looking into mappable ignition so you can ditch the AEI and have some proper control over the ignition timing. Get the ignition mapped properly aswell. Go for a decent brand product that has a lot of help on the internet, as always Scoff and the Adaptronic is really good the Adaptronic forum's are also fantastic for help, megasquirt has a lot of help advices on the internet.

[tubbyG]

You have read my mind ..Thats the ultimate aim! Mappable ign would be ideal to get the most out of it.

If I were to go EFI then I would definetley consider adaptronic, but dont really fancy a full efi setup as the costs dont seem worth it imo for the little c1j, I would much prefer to do a conversion for similar costs but 16v much more power!

So far I have only been briefly looking at mappable, there are a few varying options out there on the market but I dont know enough about any of them to really make a decision just yet. More research will be done over the winter months.

I didnt plan on having the car on the road until next year anyway so I have time on my side.

[James5]

You have read my mind ..Thats the ultimate aim! Mappable ign would be ideal to get the most out of it.

If I were to go EFI then I would definetley consider adaptronic, but dont really fancy a full efi setup as the costs dont seem worth it imo for the little c1j, I would much prefer to do a conversion for similar costs but 16v much more power!

So far I have only been briefly looking at mappable, there are a few varying options out there on the market but I dont know enough about any of them to really make a decision just yet. More research will be done over the winter months.

I didnt plan on having the car on the road until next year anyway so I have time on my side.

Might be worth finding out whom your most local mapper is as to what options you have available if the drive to Scoff is to far?

With that VNT you will be living on the edge of det constantly, awesome turbo's just take your time setting it up you can get them to come on full boost pretty much anywhere within the rev range I had mine setup to have full boost like a std T2 yet was giving 24psi at this point not building it up it was there already and just kept pulling 7k rpms+:-)

You may also suffer with spiking aswell, when setting carb / afr's go no leaner than 11.9 @ WOT. You will need a bigger needle jet I found a 1.9 pretty good on my MSM setup

[tubbyG]

Might be worth finding out whom your most local mapper is as to what options you have available if the drive to Scoff is to far?

With that VNT you will be living on the edge of det constantly, awesome turbo's just take your time setting it up you can get them to come on full boost pretty much anywhere within the rev range I had mine setup to have full boost like a std T2 yet was giving 24psi at this point not building it up it was there already and just kept pulling 7k rpms+:-)

You may also suffer with spiking aswell, when setting carb / afr's go no leaner than 11.9 @ WOT. You will need a bigger needle jet I found a 1.9 pretty good on my MSM setup

6.5hrs drive to scoff for me

I have a 2mm needle jet in the spares but im hoping I can get away with the 1.7mm std one with upped fuel pressure so to avoid any bogging down.

The adjustment of when you achieve full boost is the whole attraction for me, it's only a hobby/weekend play thing so It will take me some time setting up but im in no rush. As long as I can get a safe tune I will be happy.

I hope the external gate will be sufficient in catching any spiking that will occur and keep pressures steady. I have a range of wastegate springs here so im going to start with low pressure like half a bar or something, then slowly bleed off a bit more to see where my carb fueling can take me to.

[James5]

6.5hrs drive to scoff for me

I have a 2mm needle jet in the spares but im hoping I can get away with the 1.7mm std one with upped fuel pressure so to avoid any bogging down.

The adjustment of when you achieve full boost is the whole attraction for me, it's only a hobby/weekend play thing so It will take me some time setting up but im in no rush. As long as I can get a safe tune I will be happy.

I hope the external gate will be sufficient in catching any spiking that will occur and keep pressures steady. I have a range of wastegate springs here so im going to start with low pressure like half a bar or something, then slowly bleed off a bit more to see where my carb fueling can take me to.

If you've got an adjustable FPR even better, if you need any advice on the VNT I can remember what to adjust happy to help :-)

Keep the pic's coming though builds looking good, white 5's are growing on me :-)

[tubbyG]

The coilovers now complete have been built up with new bearings and rubber donut.


Once set to the ride height I want, it appears that I will be needing some helper springs.

trial fitting of the turbo, downpipe and external wastegate highlighted that I needed to modify the bulkhead to allow for engine movement.
I had considered chopping out a section and replacing it with a straight sheet or changing to a screamer pipe setup, but bashing it with a hammer was a much easier option
So After reshaping and repainting the offending area I'm left with ample room for the engine to move without hitting anything.


So now onto the fueling and cooling. I have got a new 50mm alloy radiator, new header tank, cap and a nice powerful slimline fan. Ordered a decent sized front mount off ebay but it's yet to arrive.




Onto the fueling, before I can get the engine fired up I wanted to drain all old fuel. God knows how old it is... Looked rather nasty and ancient

I have an efi fuel pump, Malpassi 009 and in-line pressure gauge to fit next. These should be enough to get the fueling right for what I'm after.

[James5]

Don't forget to retard that TDC sensor,

Project is looking good, love the hammer work

Would have been fine on the T28 being advanced it's the way the deliverance of boost is so brutal with the VNT at the same psi you were running will feel so much more agressive.

I could run my old MSM setup on full retard all day long @ 25psi manifold and would be fine on full retard but when I put it to std position would pop a HG within minutes of driving on boost. (Only one at surrey meet to break down outside the meet :-) pull over in style big cloud of white smoke.

[tubbyG]

Don't forget to retard that TDC sensor,

Project is looking good, love the hammer work

Would have been fine on the T28 being advanced it's the way the deliverance of boost is so brutal with the VNT at the same psi you were running will feel so much more agressive..

haha cheers!! I will definetley be retarding tdc to maximum before it sees any tarmac. The T28 setup was great tbh and made the car really enjoyable, but fancied a complete change as the B roads I tended to use werent best suited to the rev hungry turbo. VNT ticks the right boxes .

A garage a few miles away has just had a dyno installed in the last few weeks so im tempted to see if I can use it to set up the carb - would be a lot easier/safer than road tuning!

[tubbyG]

Project is still ongoing (slowly but surely) new baby arrival/diy and family ilness have all took priority. But I have been chipping away at it a few hours at a time....

I will update once I get round to sorting out all my pics

[tubbyG]

some updated pics of what i've been up to

#1 new parts

[tubbyG]

#2

bumper repair & paint

[tubbyG]

#3 Bumper repair and paint

[tubbyG]

#4 Intercooler & pipe-run

[tubbyG]

#5 New arb bushes and lowered the rear torsion bar

[tubbyG]

#6 new loom, fuel pump, fpr and side exit fitted

[tubbyG]

#7 Carb re-jet and rebuild

[tubbyG]

#8 header tank relocation, coolant pipes, fuel lines/pressure gauge & support for turbo

[tubbyG]

#9 As it stands just now


quick running vid

http://vid880.photobucket.com/albums...pscn9gaojm.mp4

[Alex]

Looking excellent. Not long now before it hits the road hopefully

[tubbyG]

Looking excellent. Not long now before it hits the road hopefully

Thanks. I'm hoping to get it in for a mot in a few weeks.. I have a few small jobs to sort before then so just when time allows I will get to work on them

[Trevhib]

Wow, big progress! Great pics Tubby. Awesome to have it running again.