madmanluke's supercharged mk2 VR

[thai-wronghorse]

Looks really good that. 

[madmanluke]

So I started off the Charger rebuild again last night.


_MG_4675 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

All was going fairly well.


_MG_4684 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Now that I had the correct imperial allen socket (3/16th if any one needs to know) the mounting plate came off fine this time. But, there are 10 gearbox casing bolts. As always, one had already been attacked before and was rounded. Tried several different stud extracting methods but nothing was biting. Out came the drill....


IMG_4687 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

........


_MG_4695 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Finally managed to get it off. Had a quick feel of all the bearings. Wow...... These were long shot. As in, so far gone probably another 1k and these would have been eating them selfs alive and throwing sh!t all around the place. Nice to see that vortech have left all bearing info off these so you can't find out what bearings are needed.


IMG_4699 by luke.pappin, on Flickr


So..good thing I started this at least.  You only need to press the output shaft out. The large input shaft wiggles its self loose since the casing is closed where you would press the input out.

IMG_4701 by luke.pappin, on Flickr


_MG_4703 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Pulling the bearings off


_MG_4704 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Brick wall......

Once I started pressing bearings and seals back in, it soon came apparent that one bearing one was wrong. The output shaft on the gearbox side just plain didn't fit. It fits on the gear shaft, but not into the gearbox casing. You can see the new bearing sitting onto of the outer casing of the old bearing in this pic. Its pretty sizeable difference!


IMG_4706 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

So..... This is where my charger ended up and will stay until I can get hold of the correct bearing.... sh!tballs!


IMG_4714 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

So... i'm gonna email the guy that supplied the bearings, see what he can do to either get me the correct bearing asap, or try and get hold of a part number and source the one bearing here...


The saga continues......

[madmanluke]

So, speaking to one of the largest bearing suppliers here, those bearings are not widely available here since they are a specific type of tapered/thrust/speed rated bearing. Basically I've had to go back to the guy I bought the bearings from originally order one bearing at a mouth watering cost of £115 with airmail (I would probably cry if I saw what he was making in markup on those ).

So hopefully it will be here by Friday at the latest and it will give me a week to get it all built back up and running again.

[VR6_Wherry]

Not had much luck with this! Let's hope this is the last of it!

[madmanluke]

So... building it is actually a hell of a lot easier than it is taking apart I think....

Pressing the shafts back in.



Gave a compressor housing a quick spray in satin black. Had no gloss around. 

Fully rebuilt.



Now... it runs, and it runs a hell of a lot better. Seems to have opened a whole new lease of life to the engine, sounds cleaner, no smoke etc. however, there is a strange noise from the charger. Im not sure if its just because I have gotten used to how its sounded before. Its sounds like a tick, or a knock, or a rattle. I'm not sure what. there is absolutely no play in the bearings. Is any one else's charger thats reading this, this noisy, or can you only really hear just the whine and the recirc? The charger is defiantly getting oil so its not being starved. All the teeth where perfect when it was out. So I'm really struggling to figure out what the noise is or if its normal? Or Friday the 13th messing with me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr6kkoYI-c0&feature=youtu.be

One good thing came of today. New shoes turned up for the mx5.

[madmanluke]

Here is how my day at Early Edition went in pictures. Copied as most of my posts are from edition lol

Car raped whilst I was away getting food by friends. Came back to a pit team cleaning my car and removing body panels. Had a good rest of the day.


EarlyEdition 076 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Left just after awards. Ran through the mad hail on the motorway!


EarlyEdition 100 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

A bad misfire and then completely dead engine on M1 luckily with somewhere to stop!


EarlyEdition 105 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Pulled all the plugs out and cleaned them up. Ridiculously gunked up. Must have been from all the oil the charger was passing.


EarlyEdition 103 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Still raining.....


EarlyEdition 104 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Sad face. Still not firing on all cylinders.


EarlyEdition 106 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Had to run it on 5 cylinders 3 miles down the road to get off the motorway. Parked up in a Murko and called the AA.


EarlyEdition 107 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

20 mins after calling he arrives! Result!


EarlyEdition 108 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

This looks to be the issue...


EarlyEdition 109 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

And these!!! (this was after attacking them all with a wire brush)


EarlyEdition 110 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

AA guy managed to rebuild the HT lead and everything seemed good! Got on the motorway, hit 70 MPH on the outside lane. Dead again! wouldn't start, nothing! Had to swiftly cross 3 lanes of traffic and get on the hard shoulder.

Quadruple checking all leads.


EarlyEdition 111 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

No go still. Sat here until 9 PM for recovery. All the rain seems to have got to the coil pack and blew the coil pack as well.


EarlyEdition 102 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

Home at last. 11:30PM


EarlyEdition 112 by luke.pappin, on Flickr

So todays lesson kids is, preventative maintenance! In this chapter, we will walk through how and when to change HT leads and spark plugs! Hindsight is such a bummer since I already started ordering leads etc for this whilst I was away in italy last week but never managed to complete all the orders.

I'm hoping its just the leads and plugs, but its likely to be coil pack too.  Finding out what plugs I need to run and to what gap is proving to be difficult!

[madmanluke]

So managed to get this running again. Honestly couldnt tell you what did it but basically we tested everything! Compression tests, injectors out, injector looms etc etc. It must be a dodgy ground somewhere but its going to be a PITA to find now that its running again.

What is most strange is once we built it all back up, it ran like crap still. Left it for around 10 mins whilst I  put the bonnet and bumper back on. Fired it up to take it off the ramp - hey presto, not a thing wrong. Frustrating!

[Dean_W]

Love it! Nice motor mate.

[Bellend]

Have you tried a new coil pack?

[leigh_harty]

I have a spare coilpack.

Payed 99p for it and you have have it for postage + a quid