Right,its been a while since ive updated this and ive been doing stuff and not tossing it off honest.
So ive started to build the bottom end up and as usually happens i ran into some problems.
I bought some new conrod bushes(little end bearings) and rather than me reaming them out with a hand reamer i took them to a machine shop and got them to do it so they were bang on.
I pressed the bushes out and pressed the new ones in myself mind.
Anyway as i went to build the pistons up with new rings and connect the rods i noticed i had 0.25mm of play with just one but the others were perfect.Soooo i spat my dummy out pressed the new bush out and went to get some more.
None in the country ANYWHERE
so i got some sent from vw Germany and pressed it in and took it back to the machine shop and i will be picking that up tomorrow.
I also found upon rebuilding that i had 3 oil squirter jets missing.Agin,none in the country so i ordered some and they came from vw Germany a few days later.
I then decided to purchase some ARP headstuds and nuts.Oh and i ditched the 13 row oil cooler in favour of a 19 row Mocal oil cooler braided pipes and a thermostatically controlled sandwich plate.
So i set about building the bottom end up including VERY carefully putting the new rings on the pistons and connecting the con rods etc.
On the crank end of things i used plastiguage to make sure my oil clearance around the crank journals were perfect.I also measured them with a dial bore guage and vernier just because i prefer to double check shizzle.
new OE shells and stuff including thrust washers were used and once built up a checked the crank end float with a dti gauge.
Few pics
I think there roughly in order lol.
Also im about 20 hours into my cylinder head port and polish.This included pressing the valve guides out,grinding,grinding,grinding then a lot of hours polishing the inlet,exhaust ports and the valve bows while being very careful not to screw the valve seats!.Ive also gasket matched the inlet side to the Newsouth performance inlet mani gasket.They now have a nice flute and ive got another 5 hours on the head before its mirror polished and ready for new guides a skim and a 3 angle valve job on the seats.
How its looking now.
I finally decided on a weight i want my flywheel and rather than send it to Hot Golf i really wanted to have a go myself.
So we have a machine at work thats roughly £1million pounds worth so i decided to use this.It was simply a case of measuring the flywheel diameter finding the centre using a probe and then writing a program across the zxy axis' to follow the outside of the flywheel going down in 0.5mm increments until the desired weight was acheive.Which in this case is 5.5kg.
Couple of vids here if you have facefluff.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152216998970389https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152217037695389Oh ive also knocked up a cam timing tool out of ally to save buying one.
Aaaaand ive stripped the spare subframe off the vr6,cleaned it up and painted it in black enamel,pulled the track rod arms out as i will be replacing with new and ive just ordered a powerflex steering rack polybush which will go nicely with the eibach front anti roll bar ive just bought.
So ive just got in from my next engine dilemma.
The oil pump drive intermediate shaft has a shell type bearing that fits into the block.I noticed this was proper fubarred!Enough to screw the intermediate shaft which i do believe will be the reaason the engine was taken out of commission after Grant Motorsport had built it a few years ago.
So,no problem i will just get a new one....WRONG! Nobody in Europe (trust me i tried everywhere)can supply this part and VW have NEVER done a replacement part and it doesnt even come with a new intermediate shaft
So lots of swearing,kicking small puppies and shouting at the missus later i thought id have to either scrap the block or get the hole machined out machine a bush and get a bearing made!
Then a stroke of luck and i got in touch with Fourseasons tuning in America and low and behold they have a set on the shelf!!So ive ordered some and they should be here in 10 days along with some valve guided i bought as they are slightly shorter to allow for a mega lift set of cams
The offending item.
In other news i got a set of lights made up from a guy in Ireland as i fancied a change.The work he does in immense and while they dont suit the car the lights have had hours spent on them smoothing the dimples out,removing the writing and then painting in a Tamiya polycarbonate body red paint.
Just not feeling them but i think if i had a bootlid with a numberpalte recess they would look spot on
Thats it for now.Im waiting on parts to finish the bottom end off and then its time to concentrate on the cylinder head.
Potter will be coming off the road end of November and getting sorned and whacked on steelys,coilovers raised,engine out and time to start smoothing.
