Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

[Prawn]

it doesnt like me, that's for sure, but to be honest, it's post 200k, and gets thrashed like no other on the planet!

Manifold will be off tomorrow morning, and new one on, and should be running

New charge hose arrived today, so I'll mock up a heat shield, and we're good to go until next weekend when the WMI will go on!

 

[Prawn]

it's coming together folks!

Should be donw within the hour

 

[Westy]

Good work Nick. I'm impressed at how quick you get that thing apart and back together again.

 

[Prawn]

Cheers dude, although to be honest I'm not that fast

Rain has been stopping play a fair bit this weekend, total time from running to turbo and manifold off was just under 3 hours. New mani went on an in hour dead, and I've up to about 2 hours reassembling the rest in between rain showers!

Fitting the V2 is very different to fitting a V1, will update later!

 

[Maz]

You don't mess about do you mate, that looks quality!!

 

[Prawn]

Cheers Maz.

Right, todays progress, or annoying lack of due to near constant rain!!!!

Finally got the last of the evil nuts of doom removed, and by 10am, the manifold was off!

An issue that was mentioned to me when Rick built Sam Bryants engine, on the V2 manifolds one of the exhaust studs actually hits the runner on cyl 1, and stops if from tightening down properly:

Still not perfect then XS!

Simple solution though, just grind down the studs at the two tight locations. I whipped the studs out to do it properly, and ground them down and recut the threads, then wound them back in with thread lock, you can see the short ones in this pic:

Brand new nuts again, and of course the Nordlock washers

New gasket in place, and I bolted up my shiney new XSDave:

After I blew the hose at Rockingham, I bodged on a hose I borrowed from Andy, not the right size, but it worked. This hose has been on the car for just 200 road miles, and I think one track session on actuator pressure.

You can see how the heat was already effecting it here:

Give it a squeeze and it gets a whole load worse!

New hose ordered from Mr Silicone, known as AP motor store on ebay, arrive yesterday:

Nothing unusual there.....

However:

It's quite clearly a hose from siliconhoses.com (sister company to Forge), sent to me by Mr. Silicone. Most bizzare!

Everything back in and slotting together nicely, and it's alive!:

About 5-10mm more room behind the V2 manifold compared to my V1 before:

Time for some more CAD to get this heat shield under way:

30 mins later after plenty of filing and triming, I came up with this rubbish looking bit of plate!

All will become clear when it's in place, it actually looks quite smart, but it's raining again, so it can wait!

Manifold already turning several shades of gold after just 5 minutes running

Maybe more later, maybe tomorrow, depends if the F1 gets dull or not in the next 45 minutes

 

[Westy]

Well done bud. I know how difficult it is to work on these manifolds with the engine out let alone with it all in the car

Was that old red hose the heat proof stuff that the forge S3 ones are? Also what grade is the new black one?

 

[Prawn]

Right, GP is over, rain has stopped, might finish this heat sheild quickly and get the bumper back on!

 

[superkarl]

is their no place you could get a nomex silicone hose from?
nomex being the heat proof material forge use.

 

[beachbuggy]

The stud you had to cut, isn't so much of a problem with the head off the car as you wind the nut on with the manifold slightly off. I have to say having done it with the head off, fair play for doing it while still on the car.. Patience of a saint!

 

[Prawn]

The stud I cut will still be an issue with the head off Dan, as it's too long and the actual stud hits the runner, it's not related to the nut.

If you've done it up without cutting the stud down I can garantee that the stud will be gouging into the runner, or, worse, stopping the flange from sitting flat on the head.

Having done this twice now, It's annoying, but provided you set yourself a silly amount of time ( 2 days) it's easily done at a leisurely pace.

I could ahve finished it in a day easily, but I like to take my time and take pics along the way, plus I have to answer the constrant stream of phone calls, either Dad wanting to buy more tyres, Jardo trying to send me more pics of his clio, or frenchman sitting in his room in oz with sodd all else to do but talk about his new car he's just bought from me

Right, post GP progress, bumper is back on, car is ready to hit the road when I empty the crap out of it.

Heat shield is also finished, and I'm very happy with it

Next weekend, WMI!

All ready now to take the car to Pistonheads Pub Club meet on Tuesday

 

[s3dave]

Brilliant progress mate, loving the heat shield....:icon_thumright:

 

[ScottD3]

Nice bit of fabricating Prawn.
Looks good mate.

Any chance of the heat shield hitting the pipe or bulk head when the engine moves?

 

[Prawn]

Shouldn't be Scott, there's a constant 8mm gap between the shield and the silicon pipe, and both are attached to the engine so will move together.

there's also a 15-20mm gap at the back against the bulkhead heat shield for that very reason, although in the pics it looks more like a 5mm gap! I was watching very closely on Bills dyno how much the engine moved under full load as I wanted to see if the manifold touched the heat shield. it was ULTRA close on the V1, but the V2 has much more room at the back and now there's no chance of it hitting

can't wait to get WMI installed now! Need to call Bill when he opens to discuss getting a boss sorted on a bit of pipe

 

[Westy]

my mani was about 1mm from the bulkhead heatshield until I bent it out the way a bit. My main issue is the DP is hitting the prop shaft tunnel heat shield. There's maybe only 2-3mm clearance so at certain rmps it'll vibrate

 

[<tuffty/>]

Good work mate and a sound lesson in why heatshielding is important... the number of cars I have seen come in with inadequate or simply no shielding is bonkers...

<tuffty/>

 

[badger5]

prawn..... are you going to heatshield your coil pack wiring? (I suggest you do)

 

[Welly]

There's maybe only 2-3mm clearance so at certain rmps it'll vibrate

That is very annoying when that happens, mine does it a tiny bit at about 3K RPM, which is 70 MPH in 6th, so all the time on the motorway... Grrrrrrr

 

[Prawn]

I am planning on doing that next Bill yes probably something temp for now, but long term plan is to change to tfsi coils with an icm delete and a new coilpack look, wrapped, and then some form of alloy shield as well

 

[Jason.s]

The americans on Zine love seem to love these.

 

[<tuffty/>]

The americans on Zine love seem to love these.

From the ones I have seen like those I don't think they will fit the TFSI coils but it maybe that a revised one is available for them now seeing as everyone is going TFSI coils lol...

<tuffty/>

 

[Jason.s]

Surely you`d just have to bend it a touch more to fit over? But then saying that i wouldnt buy one from 034. Easier just to make one and save a shed load of cash lol.

 

[Westy]

I'm sorry but that looks pony! I'd rather have the OEM fabric coil pack wiring heat shield.

 

[Welly]

If it was made by anyone apart from 034 I may consider it. However, since it is I won't buy it.... It might crack.

 

[Reesy]

If it was made by anyone apart from 034 I may consider it. However, since it is I won't buy it.... It might crack.

You could ask Dave, just expect it to come with about an inch of dust or a fossilized animal attached to it!!

 

[Prawn]

I'll just be a pikey and make something from the offcut of alloy plate Dave sent me. if it's long enough.....

People, WMI help required! Bill has very kindly sorted out my injector boss issue, I now have two questions:

What size nozzle to use? I know westy uses the small one. Any other opinions?

Where do you people buy your meth? in what quantities? will it go off over time if I buy too much?

Water: tap water or de-ionised?

So much to learn!

 

[Jason.s]

Some of them look quite good on painted rocker covers when polished up and the carbon ones look quite good.

 

[Westy]

I'll just be a pikey and make something from the offcut of alloy plate Dave sent me. if it's long enough.....

People, WMI help required! Bill has very kindly sorted out my injector boss issue, I now have two questions:

What size nozzle to use? I know westy uses the small one. Any other opinions?

Where do you people buy your meth? in what quantities? will it go off over time if I buy too much?

Water: tap water or de-ionised?

So much to learn!

I think you should start with the small nozzle mate. I'm pretty sure there isn't anyone else on this forum running WMI with a K04 like me and the only reason I use the small nozzle is because the medium one was flooding the engine on Bills dyno and was killing power.

I use tap water through a water softener so it should lime up my WMI kit so fast. I also haven't got a meth supplier (sound like an addict ) but Stacey sorted me out with a small container. Stace bought 50 litres of the stuff in 1 go

 

[StaceyS3]

I'm now down to the small nozzle and bought my meth from a reasonably local fella on eBay and bought 50 litres which will have in total lasted 6 months

I do try and use dionised water but just depends what's available at the time

 

[Westy]

And here's my meth dealer now lol

 

[Welly]

I used a D04 nozzle with that turbo Prawny - seemed to be about right.

Meth you can get 25 litres direct from ebay delivered to your door for about 40 quid if you look around. Source locally if you can - the meth isn't expensive but the delivery is.

Just slap tap water in there!

 

[Welly]

I'm now down to the small nozzle

I'm using a D07 nozzle on my meth kit, which is massive - but then again I'm only using a 100 PSI pump.

I guess it must be doing the business because I can feel the power difference when it's turned off.

 

[StaceyS3]

Pretty certain I paid £38 for 50 litres and two containers as it was my first purchase from him but will reuse them next time

 

[Welly]

Pretty certain I paid £38 for 50 litres and two containers as it was my first purchase from him but will reuse them next time

Bargain

 

[Prawn]

if I start googling 'methanol near Basingstoke' the govornment arn't going to show up are they?

If anyone knows of a supply in the south / south east let me know!

 

[StaceyS3]

All I did was searched on eBay under methanol with nearest first and it turns out that there was someone 20miles from me in saffron waldon who buys 1000litres at a time and sells it on to fund his own bio fuel

 

[bigal 1]

if I start googling 'methanol near Basingstoke' the govornment arn't going to show up are they?

If anyone knows of a supply in the south / south east let me know!

Go down to the railway arches, there is a guy there who will cut you a good deal.

 

[Prawn]

hmmmmmmmmmmm, nearest meth bloke on ebay is about 40 miles, and £23 for 25 litres. doesn't sound too bad. Will consider it.

Took it for a drive this evening, only a few miles, but it felt SOOOOO good, going from a 110bhp focus tdi to this, even on actuator pressure it just feels amazing in every way.


Suoer happy with it right now

Pic of heat sheild clearence for Scott:

I love the colours the manifold goes through when first fitted

And the pic I had to send Bill after I did a horrendous job of trying to explain what I wanted on the phone! Thanks for putting up with me Bill

 

[Westy]

Was Bill happy with the boss location just before the bend? I know there's a bit of a knack with where to position the wmi nozzle so it's bang in the airstream.

 

[superkarl]

im unsure of where everyone else places their nozzle, but wouldnt that be a tad low on yours? you'l find meth and water lining the pipes more wont you?
of course there is pros and cons like.

engine bay looks superb btw. it looks so good to work on (compared to its lowsy 4wd brother!)