madmanluke - mk2 VR6

[madmanluke]

Well the engine came back out today.
I have now tidied up and secured the loom. (I want to run it through the scuttle panel, but I really cant be arsed to, to be fair! The ECU is already plumbed into the passengers side footwell, so I decided against it and just cable tied it up. Il do it when its warmer I think... haha)

I Have also made up complete new brake lines from the servo to front wheels. I am still waiting on this brake compensator valve so i have not replaced the main lines to the rear yet as I do not know what length I will need them. I could go with a manual brake bias valve if this compensator does not turn up.

Thats about it really for this weekend. All thats left to do now, is wait for bits to turn up... Namely, 6 branch, dash, brake compensator. Then the engine will go back in for a final time Then it will just be general bolt seats back in, dash in, setup of gear linkages, bleeding brakes etc etc.  :clap:  During this time, Il be saving my nuts off to get a deposit for insurance together, tax and MOT etc. Slightly skint because of this right now! I really want to have this on the road before the end of december!

[madmanluke]

Another update:

My Flocked dash bits turned up the other day. AWESOME. SBP, nothing but good praise for the guys. Very good quality, and I am extremely happy!

It looks a lot better in the flesh, the flash sparkles it up...







My corrado rad and fans also arrived today, so I decided to spend a couple of hours after work tonight doing the car.
First up, engine back in  (can get it in and out of the car in under 5 mins now, Its been done so many times!)



I then rolled the car into the front of garage and proceeded to light up the patio heater! I think this has been the best idea ive had through out the whole of this build!! nice n' toasty  :-D



Ah yes, forgot to mention my 6 branch had also arrived, so that was fitted before the engine went in



I got everything plugged in, drive shafts bolted up finger tight untill I have the brakes bled, and then started on the radiator.

sits ok, I just need to weld a small plate onto my rad support to support the left hand side of the radiator looking from the front.



The top bolted straight up,  :-D



And here she sits now. I also had painted up my standard vr6 wheels in gloss black. The car looks proper murdered. Sort of looks good, sort of doesnt. They will do untill I get hold of some TH lines in 5x100



The only major bit I am now waiting on is a mk3 rear beam support and brake compensator. Untill I get that I cant run the main brake lines to the rear as I do not know what length I need them... Not much left to do!

[madmanluke]

Well today I got it started again. Didnt really have the motivation as im slightly sleep deprived at the moment after a uni visit yesterday.  lol

Car runs alot lot better than it did before. It used to pop and bang, and generaly run really rough before. I havent changed any thing so Im not quite sure what the issue is. Runs great now none the less!

It sounds awesome out the back also. you can hear it clicking quite a bit in the video, i hadnot done the bolts up that tight at the cat to branch. doesnt do it now though since tightening it up.

I let it run for a while to check the fans came on....nothing....
quick look over the fuse box, I just needed to swap out the old fan loom (strange, it was still plugged into the fusebox, but its not in the engine bay any more!:S) with the vr one into the back. straight away, fans cut in no problem.



Things left to be done. Get hold of brake compensator and mounting plate. This is the only major thing holding me up.
Make mount for the radiator and generally clamp it down better.
Bleed the brakes and clutch.
Find/Buy an original mk2 pump to bottle power steering hose.
Take a look at why the brake lights are on constantly.
Sort out gear linkage. Tidy up wiring by the battery. There is a lot of it and the battery is just sitting ontop of them all at the moment!
plug the dash back in
Sort out the rev counter
Squat the rear down a bit more - ride hight fail currently...
MOT it, Tax it, Insure it.  DRIVE IT!

[madmanluke]

Well this weekend has been a little slow. Im slowly starting to run out of major things to do, although there are plenty of little bits left. Unfortunatly all electrics which is anoying!

Today I got the power steering working (finaylf ound my mk2 steering hose!) I had to cable tie the bottle to the top of the bottle mount as it sat too low and fuled against the gearbox. Will sort that out properly when I can be bothered, Its secured fine for now.

Found the fault with the left hand side lights not working. The radiator thermo switch and rad power all comes off the same block as the left side head lighting loom. As I have to use my original mk2 light wiring, i will need to cut off the cables from the mk3 block and solder them to the mk2 to hopefully solve that issue.

I also got the front end of the car back on. starting to look like herself again!





lots left to do, but getting ever closer to being on the road, especially as my ATS cups have sold. That will probably be my insurance deposit!

[madmanluke]

Probably getting a bit boring for everyone reading, but i like to do this so I can keep track of what I have actualy done!

Today i fixed up the rad fan wiring into the mk2 lighting loom connector, so i now have left side lights and a working fan again. I think the horn runs through this also, as this no longer works?

I have also swapped round the pulls on the heater controls. Note to self. Buy a new heater pannel, all clips are broken and is only being held in place by the controll arms!

I then set to work on trying to get the rev counter working. Soldered eveything up but the rev meter seems to read 500 revs to low. at idle, the counter reads at 200rpm, if i gun the engine to what i think is over 3k rpm, the needle bearly touches over 1000rpm.
I think the guy at maplins may have given me the wrong resistors. I am supposed to use 1k, but i think I may have been given higher.

I have now started to piece back my flocked dash, got the ignition cowling on and speaker grills. I love this stuff so damn much but can see my self cleaning flock out of every hole in the car!

Not much left to do, I need to get to a garage to steal some headed letter paper so i can get the engine down on the log book, so i can MOT and tax this thing asap!

[madmanluke]

The car is now rolling under its own power and as it is now, could quite easily be taken out on the road for a blast! Brakes are bled. I had hassle with the rear right caliper being seized.  The amount of junk that was pouring out the bleed Peeple was horrifying to be honest. It looked more like foam, than oil when we were bleeding it!

Clutch was pretty easy to bleed, and is 100% times better than any cable driven clutch ive used.
I think I have access to all gears and there is no trouble getting into all of them. Will find out 100% when I drive it to the MOT station.

The short list of things left to do:
make the horn work again (it was working - now doesn't seem to be)
replaced bulbs in front fogs and make sure they work.
get the last bits of the dash together
buy new resistors for rev counter to make that read correct.
bolt down the rear seats
find out why the electric mirrors are not working (not major, Il do that when I can be assed)
hover out 2 months of conversion crap out of the car
Insure it
Fuel it
MOT it
Tax It

and most importantly DRIVE IT. Not long left at all!

Apparently the solid front mounts are ready soon, so I have to have that on before I can really give it some beans when it is on the road. I currently just have my vibra technics squashed into place to hold the engine. 

[madmanluke]

Couple of videos of today:

Just the noise



And here it is moving under its own power for the first time off the bricks. Couldnt find the gears very well to start with, all sorted now :

[madmanluke]

brief update. Many things fixed. Fuel pump now primes only when it should. Note to all - remove relay 32

removed the front fogs this morning as one had melted in half for some reason :S and i have also raised the car up a little to help get on the ramps at the mot station.

Things left to do:
MOT it - hopefully be done by the end of the week.
get an inspection report for the DVLA. Get that sent off.
Tax it.

I really want to drive her now!!

[madmanluke]

Not and hopefully vehicle inspection to change log book over booked in for tomorrow morning.
New fogs should be here today although they will be left off untill MOT is over.

I also have a set of 6k hids on the way

[madmanluke]

just found out that the VR6 will be in the same tax bracket as my old 2.0 due to the year of my car so providing the car passes its MOT there is every possibility i could be driving it tomorrow!! I can then change the log book over at my own pace