Markstevieandmads Budget Turbo Project: PART TWO

[rossonza]

Good work. Got my fingers crossed all goes ok at rogue (I'm sure it will).

Personally id not get the others done. It's not worth the aggro off the future wife... And as you say. Only ones damaged?

[markstevieandmads]

BIG UPDATE:

The transporter came on time and picked the car up. Nearly a tear in my eye as i waved goodbye



and arriving at Rogue - I recommend this transporter. Very professional and reliable and a great price.



So the car has been at Rogue since Tuesday.....and my wallet has taken an absolute hammering! lol

Dont get me wrong, Matt at Rogue has been brilliant. He has phoned me 4-5 times a day on some occasions detailing what hes found and what it will take to sort it.
Firstly the exhaust manifold - it was recommended to get all 9 studs time inserted and replaced as they were looking rusty. As i had saved money stripping it down myself and i didnt want any further problems with this area I told them to go ahead which they did and now I have 9 time inserted studs. All new studs and nuts. They also found that the manifold was warped so this was machined down.

Next - Matt had noticed soot on the turbo support bracket and when investigated found a small hole in the exhaust housing of the turbo. Now, i seem to remember JimGTS mentioning this when i bought the turbo off him and im sure it had a bolt or something in it to block it. It worked fine at the time and had a year with no problems (i think). However this must have eventually come out so after Matt had checked with his turbo company he uses, i agreed for him to weld it back up. So the turbo had to be stripped off the downpipe and manifold and rebuilt back up again when repaired.
So turbo was all reinstalled (replacing a lost gasket on the oil drain - later found on the drive way at home lol) and the support bracket found to have the wrong bolt in it so was rethreaded. Then the whole system re-bled which was another issue as the tap had snapped off the front rad at home. Matt modified this to allow for bleeding..and all was good (or was it?)....

...then more problems started appearing...

I had asked Rogue to check the car over for anything else and get an mot put on it so i could get it home and use it for the summer.

The following was found:

Driveshaft seal fail so gearbox leak. The driveshaft didnt seem to go in as well as the other so i may have damaged this slightly when installing. Matt replaced the driveshaft seal and was going to use the same new gearbox oil but found it was milky where it had mixed with water. I had previously jetwashed the gearbox before reinstalling so its more than likely there was some water still in there so new gearbox oil was used.

Play in NSR balljoint. I had replaced the OSR balljoint a few years back for a previous mot so it was only right to get this done too.

Lower cambelt cover rubbing on crank pulley as not attached -
Now i had the engine refreshed and head rebuilt by Predator Performance. The new oil pump i supplied came from tcbparts and at the time they did not have an original rev2 turbo oil pump so sold me a 5sfe one which i was told was a perfect fit. However Simon at Predator had phoned me to say it did sit a little proud though it would not leak. TCBParts and Predator had not seen this problem before. At the time it was decided that it was to be left as it didnt look like it was going to leak - and it looks like it doesnt. However, i need to get this looked at by Simon at Predator. He did say it was because of the wrong oil pump...im not so sure...
I will be looking at this in the future - however its not a big issue as its only a noise. Matt did look at putting a bolt in it without removing the crank pulley but found it couldnt be done so the crank pulley will need to come off to do properly.
I will discuss this futher with Predator Performance.

And finally...

Bad oil leak found. Originally Matt thought this could be from the crank seal which was also replaced by Predator performance. However when he removed a bracket of some sort the leak stopped. He could not understand it but we left it as that for the mot....strange....


Matt then put it in for an mot as the garage he uses and late last night I emailed to see how it got on......IT PASSED!!!

However the bad news is the oil leak has come back and further inspection reveals its the sump sealant/gasket that failed.
Now before i sent the car to Rogue, while i had the car running (with the blow on exhaust manifold) i found there was a leak myself around the sump area.
Part of the work Predator did for me was to replace the sump which i supplied.
When i checked, all of the sump nuts were actually finger tight only. I could undo them with my fingers! So i had nipped them up (not real tight but to the required torque which isnt much) and that actually did stop the leak i found.
Im wondering if the sealant didnt set properly because the sump was loose?

Anyway, i have contacted Simon at Predator Performance and he is happy to redo the sump sealant free of charge under his warranty.

So now i have an issue -

Matt has advised not to drive far with the leak. I am 90 mins away from Rogue. I am also another 90 mins from home to Predator Performance.
I also have JDMCombe booked for 2nd June...

1.Do i pay Rogue to redo the sump (he is 90% sure its the sump sealant) which has been quoted £160 which goes beyond my budget (im already over by £40 so £200 over budget - the bill is now over four figures)

2.Risk driving it back(take oil with me and also a tow bar just in case and stop and check oil every 20 miles or so) and repair myself for the cost of the sealant?

3.Risk driving it back home and then on to Predator if they can get me in before 2nd June? If i do this then i will need to use a lieu day at work and hang around for it to be done in Southampton.

After spending an extraordinary amount of money i wanted the car ready to be used for summer. The car has really taken it out of me the last few months.
I have the missus banging on about the amount of money ive spent (she doesnt even know this latest bill!!!) and ive just paid for her wedding dress and have another £10k to pay for a wedding i need to find....


What would you do?

[thomp1983]

I'd just pay rogue and have it done, £160 is expensive for the job but it's an ar$e if a job and at least when it's back its done and right.

An extra £160 on the bill is not really much long term it just feels a lot because of the pressure your under a lot of which should hopefully be relieved once the car is back and working

[markstevieandmads]

Yes ive emailed Matt and just got him to do it.
The more we found , the less impressed ive been of the engine work previously done. Loose sump nuts and the rear cam cover not even bolted in properly.... not impressed.
It seems you get what you pay for these days.

Ive also been told by the previous builder to retighten the head bolts after 1000-1500 miles. Is this true?

[rossonza]

All sounding promising. Shame the wallets taking a hit. But needs must hey.

I've watched a few forged build videos where they said you need to re-torque the head bolts as they stretch after a certain time, presume from heat cycles?

[markstevieandmads]

Yeah
Mines not forged though and just standard oem payen head bolts.
Im not gonna run more than 1 bar. Matt seems to think it will be safe as long as its on vpower.
Ideally id prefer to run a afr gauge too but funds are going to be limited for a while lol

[rossonza]

Yeah
Mines not forged though and just standard oem payen head bolts.
Im not gonna run more than 1 bar. Matt seems to think it will be safe as long as its on vpower.
Ideally id prefer to run a afr gauge too but funds are going to be limited for a while lol

ahh yes, true. not sure how different it will be comparing stock head bolts to aftermarket in terms of re-tightening. i guess for the sake of 30 minutes is it worth checking them with a torque wrench in 1500 miles?

completely missed the MOT pass so congrats

whens she come home?

[markstevieandmads]

Im hoping to pickup today but depends when it returns from the mot place and also when rogue can redo the sump for me.
Just waiting on an update from Matt.

[mrhappy62]

See you at combe buddy

[markstevieandmads]

See you at combe buddy

Hopefully. Still waiting on matt to update me....

[markstevieandmads]

Emailed Matt and he wants to do one more test run just to make sure is not leaking so should be ready to collect tommorow.
Only problem is I have no way to get up there tommorow so will have to wait till thursday to collect

[markstevieandmads]

NICE UPDATE FOR A CHANGE:

So i collected the car today from Rogue and the engine sounds lovely and it purred all the way home. I took it easy as its basically a rebuilt brand new engine now with a few nice pulls at 1 bar. The car ran faultlessly and i cant big up Matt at Rogue enough. Im really happy with the engine work he has done.
Yes, i have a MUCH lighter wallet but i see it as you pay for what you get.
Nothing better than cruising down the fosse way for 65 miles. I actually thought my fuel gauge had stopped working but when i started giving it some beans on the A419 i started to see it drop.
Surprsingly, the car is running so healthy, I managed to do the 74 miles home on less than quarter of a tank!!!
When i got home I checked underneath, and in the five years ive owned the car , ive never seen the underside (and my driveway) so clean!!! No signs of any oil or water leaks....LOVELY!!!

Ive got the father in laws car over at the weekend to give it a checkover for the mot,but im hoping to get my bodykit repaired ,sprayed and refitted.
Due to limited funds now, im just gonna have to give them a tidy up for now and get them done properly later on.

Also i found there was a few grinding,funny noises after i gave it some beans on the dual carriageway on the way home. The brakes have always been noisy being carbotech but this seemed like a different noise. Im 99% sure its not the engine as it doesn't do it at standstill, only when moving.
The car has been standing since July / August last year so it may just be where its been sat but will give it the once over before JDMCombe. Im not too worried as im sure Matt would have spotted any potential problems. I suspect something is rubbing somewhere such as a under tray , something is vibrating somewhere or something and i may give the brakes a cleanup beforehand too. The alloys are covered in carbotech dust (i cant wait to get rid of these when they are due) so will give it a full clean up before Combe.
Also it could do with a good 4 wheel alignment/geometry setup but this will also have to wait till funds allow.

The good news is the car is now road legal and taxed and insured and does run nicely! Once the kit is back on, i cant wait to clean it and just use it!

[markstevieandmads]

With regards retorquing the head bolts...i forgot to ask Matt his opinion.

However checking previous mots ,I only did 500 miles last year and only approx 1k miles each year before that so its gonna be at least over a year i suspect before i need to look at this lol

[mrhappy62]

see you soon mate

[rossonza]

congrats mate, bet your chuffed

[markstevieandmads]

MORE UPDATES:

Im on call this bank holiday weekend but ive had a few hours on the car to get it ready for Combe.

Got the rear in the air and with the help of the brother in law we managed to find the source of the grinding noise... there is a bracket by the driveshaft which was rubbing on it as it had been knocked so we bent this out the way and noise has now gone! Lovely!

Next, i decided not to paint the front lip as it wasnt too bad and just rubbed back the cracks and then dyed the cracks of fibreglass with some black leather dye i had spare... ok it is a bit of a bodge but it works lol.
Remounted the lip and thats now all done





Sorry the car still needs a good clean and polish. I wan to get the kit on first before i do this.


Next up was to finish filling and rubbing down the damage to one of the rear spats and one of the skirts.



I used some high build primer to get it as flat as possible.



Ive also spent a fair bit of time fibreglassing and filling the damaged rear spat. I dont think its too bad considering the size of the holes in it.



and then repainted and lacquered



Not a bad job if i do say so myself. Only rattle cans used.

As im letting the paint dry on this i decided to also get some paint on the side skirt but i didnt let it dry properly after wiping it down with pre wipe and its reacted



So i had to let this dry and rub it down and its now waiting for the paint and primer to harden so i can reprep this skirt. Im not too bothered as ive ran out of halfords astral 202 black anyway. Hope fully i can get this on in the next few days.

I managed to get the good spat and side skirt back on anyway...



I have used the leather dye again to paint the rubber side panel parts as well so this looks better too.



Ive yet to cut and polish up the new paint so it does look slightly matty, but i want the paint to harden for a few days first anyway and the rest of the car will need doing too anyway.

So shes getting there slowly... its not going to be mint for JDMCombe but this car never has been mint. Its a use and abuse toy and i will be glad when its all back together and i dont have to worry bout it anymore


...not like that ever happens with these cars lol!

[mrhappy62]

Looking good mate

[rossonza]

Good work mate. Paint reactions are such a

[markstevieandmads]

SHES BACK!!!!

Managed to get the skirt redone and painted. Again, its a bit matty and i ran out of clear coat (not that halfords clear lacquer is any good anyway lol) but im hoping to give it a good polish and cutting when i get time.

I got the skirt on and think it doesnt look too bad.



Im happy for a rattle can job. Id recommend using cans only doing small areas such as door mirrors etc but time and money was against me and its passable.

Next up was a good wash and polish. Just standard jet washing to get the crap off and then some car shampoo in a bucket and sponges (i know, not that best way but it will be getting a proper machine polish when the kit has hardened and money allows).







The passenger side rear spat is not a perfect fit due to the damage to the fixings which i totally forgot about so had to redrill some new fixings for now for it to be secure.



Once that was all done it looked great...until it dried and the bonnet was really oxidised where it had been sat for 8 months on the drive. The kids had scribbled all over it and it just wouldnt do.
I searched through the garage and found some dreaded black t-cut. I thought sod it, it couldnt be much worse.... and was pleasantly surprised with the result. 15 mins of elbow grease and it went from an oxidised bonnet like this:



To this:



A lot better!!! It still had a load of scratches on it but no kids writing!!!

And thats how i left it and went off to JDM Combe where we had a great time.

Heres the car on the excellent stand that Tony had arranged.



The car ran great and i had a great time.

Thanks to this lovely weather we been having this weekend i been using the car as much as i can....boy have i missed it!!! It just pulls lovely now and love the way everyone looks and points. I forgot just how fun these cars are.
Anyone in the middle of a project....dont give up!! I was at the point of selling up but its all been worth it.

Is it finished now....

OF COURSE NOT!!!

There is so much more to improve on. I have the rear top mount to sort at some point. Ive also decided to keep the alloys i have as they are pretty rare so will be getting them refurbed in the original colour- gold. I need to obtain the original stickers from somewhere.
Theres also a few annoying creaks here and there.I think a loose bonnet stay and missing screws here and there is causing it.

However, its the summer and i have a wedding to pay for and a missus to forgive me for the amount of money ive spent on it so its gonna have to stay like this for a while....which i have no problem with!! The car is running, im back in love with it and its there to be used now so dont be expecting many updates for a while!

Thanks for all the support!

[rossonza]

awesome, paint came up well with the tcut mate. and the spray job looks good to me

I've not driven mine before (well any mr2 at all) so im looking forward to completing my project after hearing how you'd missed yours

good luck with the wedding savings