Golf VR6 Track Car Project

[IanH26 0]

[blockquote]Updated from July 2010

Reason for the coolant leak...

Thermostat housing gasket not seating properly as the inner side wall has deteriorated (highlighted by the yellow ring), fell apart as I took it out leaving it like this...

Put the replacement one in from GSF tonight and the bloody thing leaks from a different point now so going to have to take the part off and put some gasket sealant on to help the old seal. not a big job but a big PITA.

Next was to get the original pax seat out and replaced by a bucket one.

Then mount both the seats fixed on bars to help with dropping the heights and making them more secure. Nige kindly offered to help with said process so it was up to Yokshire.

Some pics...

Finished the drivers side completely with fitting the seat to drive home.

Feels really good :thumb:

Huge thanks to Nige :veryhappy:

Ran out of gas on Sunday so got the last little bit of welding on the Pax side was done by PSI in Newcastle tonight.

Will get some of the finished job later.

Whilst up at the Pinders Stan painted the front wing and pax door. It was looking a bit messy with a mix of paint and some scratches/dents.

I did the prep last week ready for him.

Stan did a great job at a great price, really would recommend him, huge thanks :veryhappy:

I have also covered the fuel line to the injectors with heat reflective tubing and created an intake box covered with heat reflective matting. I have found that both of these areas were getting very hot at track days so hopefully this should help with maintaining lower temps and power. Pics later.

Still got a number of jobs to do before Ring trip on the 5th Aug.

Fuel pipe feed to the injectors heat shielded.

Air box heat shielded.

After chatting to Nige last week about something he was using for the Megasquirt, I have moved the outside air temp to just inside the air intake on the induction to see what the temps are via the dash DIS.

Before:

After:

Next was to strip the front off and replace the radiator. Got a standard new one from GSF as I couldn't find any motor-sport ones. But I looked to improve airflow to the rad on UK track-days and the Ring.

Old Rad:

New Rad:

Holes cut out behind number plate for UK use:

Still get some air through under the plate for the Ring:

Holes cut in bumper bar:

Holes cut in fan surround, retaining some structural support:

Rad fitted:

Will be running Water + Water Wetter :whistle:

Had an issue with the NS headlight. Got a small hole in it and the top adjuster snapped for beam alignment (common issue)

Rebuilt a new one from the spare lamps I have.

Glass from one, adjuster from another.

Guess you all know what a headlamp looks like

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[IanH26 0]

[blockquote]update 2010

Been looking out for a VR6 Corrado inlet manifold as they are a different design and meant to improve things a little.

Unfortunately because people know this they sell for some silly prices most of the time.

Anyway last week someone put one up for sale and a very reasonable price so I treated myself.

Took the original off today.

You can see the difference in the air intake. Original on the left with a restriction, Corrado on the right with unrestricted intake.

Also wrapped the exhaust manifold to help with under bonnet temps. Currently drying in the airing cupboard before spraying tomorrow

Pic of Seats fitted.

Update:

Exhaust was dried overnight and treated.

Fitted it along with finishing off the new intake (had to leave it off to get bet access to the exhaust)

Connected it all up and started it up first time :thumb:

Left it to run to warm through, smoked a bit

Quick repair done on the NSF wing which due to a collection of vegetation over the years rusted through

August 2010

Car was great for our trip over to the Ring :veryhappy:

Still not happy with temps issue but otherwise car went very well.

Managed an 8min 45.9sec on Monday TF with a Pax :thumb:

Liking this shot

The concentration

Was very wet on Weds, interesting on R888's

Very wet...

Found these too...

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[IanH26 0]

[blockquote]Update - Oct 2010

Oct 5th

The car died last night.

Newly sourced DR 268 cam sheared the keyway.

New engine sourced.

Hopefully will be in before next TD on 30th Oct.

Oct 25th.

Car collected last night from GVK :thumb:

OBD2 engine fitted along with remapped ECU - originally OBD1.

Coldest night so far and the electric window wouldn't work again so had to drive home with the drivers side down - frozen by the time i got back after a 110 mile drive!

Got a few issues to sort but the car drove well all the way home.

Seems quieter and a bit smoother than before.

Throttle response is good.

Issues to resolve:

Door bar for cage needs reconnecting (removed for work on fusebox)

Water temp gauge isn't working (sender or wiring needs checking)

Oil coolers need to be refitted

Oil pressure gauge needs to be fitted

Rad fan needs connecting up - new loom had different plug

Fan over ride needs wiring in.

Slam panel needs realigning to help bonnet close properly

Indicator light on dash isn't working with indicators on

MPG on MFA is reading 99.9 so not connected somewhere

Sure there will be other teething issues to sort but hope to be track testing it at Oulton on Saturday (fingers crossed).

Oct 27th

Rad fan wired up for manual switching - will leave it like this for now.

Both oil coolers plumbed in.

Had a good look at the fuse panel but need to get some advice I think on that one

Took car for a run to test and all seemed ok (fingers crossed)

Still need to sort out the electrics as windows don't work, nor the central locking, or the water temp gauge, mfa mpg. indicator lights on dash plus i'm sure a few others

Oct 29th

Update for Oulton Park tomorrow:

12v lighter feed connected - was either a loose fuse or relay on fuse board

Water temp sender unit swapped over, now the gauge works, had a broken terminal in sender.

Roll cage bar put back in.

Wheels swapped to run R888's

Car filled with 99 octane

Not had time to put oil pressure sender back, find wire for the indicator dash lights, fix windows or central locking.

Sure I may find other things but car is as ready as its going to be and Judes support car is packed up

Testing day tomorrow, fingers crossed

[/blockquote]

[IanH26 0]

[blockquote]Updated Oct 31st 2010

Car ran really well yesterday :veryhappy:

No issues with the engine all day long which was a huge relief!

Didn't seem to burn much if any oil all day.

Got loads of laps in and hardly spent any time off the track, which was fantastic

Can't wait to drive it again :thumb:

Thanks to Sim for the supply of the engine and Gary (GVK Motorsports) for the swapping of the engines over. No made easy as it was originally an OBD1, so needed to have the full loom also swapped over and the ECU de-immobilised.

Oil temps seemed better but it wasn't the hottest of days.

Seems to have developed a small noise, possibly a bearing but not sure, needs investigating.

Brakes seemed to be more of an issue due to the dreaded ABS kicking in and causing the pedal to push back.

Its an early style system so fairly basic.

Ideally it would be better to run without it.

But I would like to leave it in for mot and wet weather track days.

If I disconnect it then the rear locks up early (due to the rear load compensator valve) and causes the car to start to rotate, not ideal!

Because it runs a dual system fee to the rears I would need either a twin channel bias valve or 2 singles.

I am going to look into a pressure reducer or see how easy it is to fit a later type EDB system.

I am also going to see how much difference using 205 R tyres instead of 195 that I currently use.

Any other ideas greatly welcome

Would corner weighting make any difference :fish:

Central locking fixed itself and also showed the windows worked on the key so there is a definitely a loose connection somewhere as they won't work on the door switch.

Still need to fit the oil pressure sender.

Finally got round to sorting some video out.

Here are a few laps of the VR6 with the Racechrono overlay.

Went through how to do this with Nige yesterday while staying with them :thumb:

First attempt by but seems to be ok.

Fastest lap was a 2min 10sec.

Oulton Park Golf Mk3 VR6

[/blockquote]

[IanH26 0]

[blockquote]March 2011

Not a lot has happened since last November with the engine swap.

Following a VR6 track car thread on the VR6OC who also had high under bonnet temps decided to help with some venting.

He went with vents at the rear as believed that would draw the heat out.

Actually this is wrong as the rear of the bonnet is in a low pressure zone and the air stalls. Better to go for the front.

Often some projects raise the back of the bonnet to help but this will slowly draw air into the back of the engine adding to the heating as it traps the hot air.

By having the holes at the front of the bonnet in the high pressure zone but behind the radiator the hot air should be drawn out.

Pics from his thread.

The start on my bonnet

Ended up going for 5 holes rather than 3.

You can see from one of Gary's pics at Oulton

Attended the Northloop Oulton day at the end of Feb.

Car ran well all day except for an issue with the brake pedal.

Following Alex at Oulton Feb 2011

Following Gareth (UB) at Oulton Feb 2011

Following Stu Preacher at Oulton Feb 2011

Following Nige at Oulton Feb 2011

During the engine install the brake pedal /servo clip was broken which caused issues during the day with the pedal position and brake light switch leaving the brake lights on.

You can see the clip in this pic - no 6.

Replaced the clip and reset the brake light switch which had been been compressed.

Pic taken from Nige's thread as he has had a similar situation.

By pulling it out to the full extent, the switch is then refitted and auto-adjusts to the correct amount. Brake lights now work properly.

Before:

After:

As I was crawling around in the foot well I decided it was time to tidy the car up a little on the inside. Not going full detailing but just freshening it up a little.

I have cleaned up both the driver/passenger foot-wells and primed ready for a paint.

Not got many pics yet.

before

after

When I have finished painting it, hopefully this weekend will add another pic.

Following similar issues to Nige with rubbing on the rear Spax RSX coilovers with 205 profile tyres I have got some Lupo spacers to space the rear out.

From Niges build thread (thanks for trying all this stuff first to make sure it works :thumb: )

Hope to be doing this over the weekend.

My rear wheels run 5mm hubcentric spacers to ensure that when I run 205 tyres' date=' the tyres clear the rear suspension springs, very occasionally on the karussell (nowhere else), the wheel has rubbed the spring, making it shiny. Obviously this is bad.

I was going to fit 10mm spacers, but this creates extra load on the wheel bearing. A far more robust solution is to increase the rear track by fitting a machined spacer between the beam and stub axle. Not knowing anyone with a machine shop who could machine them cheaply, I was on the lookout for ideas. A guy on ClubGTi found that on Lupos, they have a 9.5mm spacer already fitted

[img']http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/wh00sher/Golf/6E0501466A.jpg

Local scrappy didn`t have any Lupos, so a trip to VW was needed, part numbers are 6E0501466A and 6E0501465A (left and right hand), these were £10 ea but I understand they are now £13ea.

Remove stub axle

One spacer

Cut to fit with angle grinder, 0.8mm cutting disc and tidy with flapper wheel.

Ensure spacer covers the area the stub axle will bolt to.

Paint spacer to stop rusting, clean beam and stub axle faces with wire wheel, secure with M10x1.5 x 40mm 10.9 High tensile bolts, quick and cheap 10mm Stub axle spacers. :thumb:

I also fitted new rear caliper carrier mounting M10x1.25x20mm High Tensile Cap screws whilst I was at it.

I have also decided to remove the ABS system completely so I can fit a brake bias lever to help deal with the rear lock up issue as discussed in other threads and in here.

Ordered some piping, joints etc but on the look out for a bias lever.

Will leave this until after the MOT in a couple of weeks which means I then have more time to sort it.

Update:

Tackled the front cross bar unused mounting points after a few suggestions to remove them :whistle:

Cut the tabs off, ground them done a bit to smooth the area down.

Primed and painted.

Before

During

After

Completed the rear wheel spacers.

Had done the OSR, so finished the NSR.

All the bolts came off relatively easy.

New bolts used for the stub axle and brake carrier.

All put back together and connected up the rear brake bias valve while in the area for the MOT.

There was a slight rubbing on the tyre when I took it off so the new spacer will sort that out

Will need to check to see if it rubs on the wheel arch now.

Will need a catalyst for the MOT which has been sorted via Sim (from Northloop).

Also sorted an AP bias lever today, ready for the ABS removal post MOT.

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[cabrioman 6]

good lad getting air in a mk3 round the ring ..... got any pic of how the main hoop is connected to the floor .... cheers dude

[IanH26 0]

Thanks Tony.

Any good? (from the first page of the thread)

Ian

[IanH26 0]

[cabrioman 6]

ah yes spot on mate i got the same cage and looking at putting it in soon ..... cheers ....