Project : Mid life Chrisis. Third time lucky .

Love those wheels, was it a big job to paint the wheels?

The wheels were in a real state as lots of paint had chipped off and the all 4 of the wheels has bad bubbling. So a good attack with 120 grit discs and a air sander made short work of the damaged areas. I would not recommend hand sanding a " bad wheel" as you will be there for a long time .

I did spend about 2/3 hours sanding and cleaning the wheels , then dryer them off and masked them up. 1 tin of white primer 3 tins of white paint and 3 tins of clear coat ( all from tool station about £40) and the job was done . Left them in the sun for a few hours to become touch dry .

Removed the masking tape fitted them to the car and I will leave the car for about a week before I take it out next .

I also ordered some centre caps from eBay to help finish them off.

A few bugs and runs in the paint but they look much much better and will last a few more years. After the engine is all set up it will be saving for a re spray in the spring .

DRC wrote:The car is booked in to have the boost pipes made up .

Had a few hours free today so I repainted the wheels white and gave it a polish .





I love this car

Looks awsome!

Wheels look good mate. I've never painted wheels but always wondering how well the paint holds up. White is always a pain, you can get some spray on stuff that will help keep them clean aswell.

Powder coat bake not to hot. Cool laquer and then way them well so brake dust don't eat in off carbotec pads and job done

Looks very smart Dan
Certainly looks a lot lot better than when you first got her

Small and pointless update:
The car is in with Gordon of Street racers of Leicester at this time. It is having a 2” turbo to intercooler run and a short 2.5” intercooler to engine run. Also the turbo compressor housing I have ( gt3076r ) I was hoping to change for something that is does not have a big anti surge shroud in place as this “I feel “is adding a little with this cars silly lag. So the housing I had with was from 2871r does not fit at all (just to small and the bolt holes don’t line up so that will be going back to eBay). Shame as it’s a shaved polished number. Anyway .Hopefully Gordon has a friend who can make a aluminium bung for the housing ( seems this is what the Yankee supra boyz do for there turbos and apparently it does help bring in boost by a few hundred RPM’s) to reduce the intake down. Then from here it will be a new untaken run.

When that’s all done it will go on his dyno to see if he can locate what is causing the car to intermittently over fuel /miss.

Then I can have her back. I miss it already and it has only been 2 weeks.
When I know what’s what I will be contacting Bob for the next step. But as I now have sold my Audi I want to use this car for my daily run around. But knowing me I will end up buying another little runner and keeping the R in its place. The garage.

Im sure Gordon will get the niggly issues sorted for you Dan, hes a good knowledgable guy whos been in the game for a long time and it helps massively that hes right on your doorstep.
If you have any issues after its far easier to go back to him rather than travel 2 half hours back down to us in Essex.
Hope what we have advised in terms of whats needed to get the car set up with minimal lag has helped you out as everything with the way it was built etc had no bearing on making it a drivable & usable big powered car.
Would have been ok for drag strip and wot runs but thats about it.
With the changes we suggested it will make the world of difference to way car performs

Right the R is back and I am sort of happy again.
So I now have a neater boost pipe run which looks good despite me blowing the couplers off twice due to there being no lips added to the pipes! ( I did specify this and was told it had been done!) so I'm not to happy for the work carried out at least not for what I paid. Also I have a oil breather line just left hanging out not attached to anything . Not high quality workman ship .

Anyway the supper boost lag is still there!!!!at 3k it starts to build boost then it builds to about 4psi then holds at this level until about 5.5k when it comes on full. Not good.

So maybe the wastegate was to blame . 

And fuc* me there is no seal ring from the manifold wastegate so the exhaust gas has just been blowing by all this time!!!!



!! A simple metal £20 seal ring . This could have saved me hundreds! 

Oh well!! Chalk it up to experience and move on .

Anyway I have ordered a new wastegate.

Well it was nice to have the car back . I forgot how many people point and nod at these cars.

So next stop Bob's at the end of month! Here's hoping for a good session.

No lips on the pipes will cause you a constant problem mate

So the new waste gate arrived just as I was on my way to work so .. ......... I came home this evening and get to work swapping it over . But this time I install the wastegate sealer ring!! Put it all back on with the stock 5/6psi spring and warm it up. Then let it cool a bit and nip the bolts up to be sure . 

I have to go for a quick drive to see if there is an improvement. So in 3rd give it some gas and see the boost gauge start to move at about 3k then it keeps climbing fast to peak boost ( it is still set to the old spring and gate) 14psi  and by about 4-4300rpm its holding full boost. 
Before it would get to 3k start boosting hold 4/5psi until about 4.5k then would not make full power until 5.5/6k. Great for drag but not for daily driving So win!
it's night and day better ! It  misses under any load and acceleration and now needs the map Reworking by Bob and I'm hopful for a great drivers car. And it it holds up to the hard dyno session in early November then I'm up for Bob's dyno drag day!

This has all the makings of a real wolf in sheeps clothing. 


It's off tomorrow to get the pipes for the boost pipes lipped and while I'm there I will swap out the waste gate spring for a 14/16psi number so big boost can happen.

Hopefully getting on it's way to been sorted for you keep us updated

Pipes have all been lipped and jubilee clipped down bar one or two. I have fitted a new spring giving 0.95 bar base boost pressure so it should see 1.8 bar boost with out to much problem.

Driving it back home this morning and it really picked up on boost ! it is so much more fun to drive . 

Just need to get it mapped right and it should fly .

just replied in other topic you posted up Dan

As said at start there were a lot of things fitted to this car that were wrong and were not functioning correctly which we asvised to get sorted out.
We just did what we could in the given time we had, but needed so much more done. You've gone about it the correct way so im confident in her making real good power, but far more important is the way in which it is delivered and being usable power as opposed to all being at WOT which was the case when car first came down to us as you know.
Its never going to spool as fast as a standard type t28 but sure you realise that but we will or should i say I will give it my best shot to get everything as usable as it possibly can be

Shame Gordon did not come up trumps though but can only go by what you hear and what you now know by personal experience.

p.s In meantime try not to boost her please, just drive it normally on low load / boost until misfire or fuelling is rectified, could cause a lot of avoidable damage otherwise

Gordon is a nice , down to earth guy and I think he just booked in to much over that month and looking at his compound it should have set off the alarm bells. There must be 15/20 performance cars all in various states some in bits some under covers and all his ramps and shop space was cluttered with engines and the like . The relationship seems good and if I'm ever stuck I will seek his help. There is no point holding grudges over little things . So that has been put to bed. 

In answer to you Bob. I do drive the car with lots of care and attention. The misfire is intermittent and happens 4 out of 5 times when I drive under medium to full acceleration. To add as soon as I hear it miss a beat I back right off , I have only run it on optimax too. I have not done a hard long pull on It yet as I really don't want to cause any issues .

As you said , time did get the better of us last time I was down with you . it had been a hell of a long day and we did not stop until about 2/3AM and we both understood the car was not finished . Now i have all the bits we discussed sorted so we should see some good results . Even now it drives with manageable lag so I think with you working your magic again we will make her drive great. As you said it was set to run rich to aid in longevity and I do drive cautiously so we have no worries there.

Also Gordon took out the oil breather return to the intake and says I need a catch can but I will be led by you on that . 

Look forward see you soon and shopping in you cave of parts.

Oil breather return to ontake will help draw crank case presure and how it was set from stock. Would keep that in and maybe run a catch can inline but not remove it completely.

Glad the car is coming together,

Just read through your post, Awesome looking car and once you finally get all the niggley bits sorted it's going to be a real beast! Would love my R to have that sort of power

Good luck getting the miss-fire sorted and great review for Bob!

Cheers guys, I will keep it updated. 

I'm booked in at Bob's for a day of fun on the 2nd . So fingers crossed for good results .
Can't wait.......

. I will get the catch can set up when it comes . So best thing would be to have it vent over to the can then from the can to the intake with no atmosphere vent/ suction . Sound right? I was thinking of venting to atmosphere so no oil idly resdue in the pipes and a cleaner burn . But I will be lead by Bob and the forum.."".........

Yes as you said, then you can catch the oily vapour but let the induction suck the gasses through rather than just to atmosphere which could cause a heavy breathing engine. I would just go by how bob advices

Thanks for the guidance that is exactly how I plan to do it.

So I got a catch can and cut a bit of Perspex to divide the chambers alowing  a gap at the bottom and then putting in some wire wool ( brilo) in to both chambers.






I will plumb it all in on Friday and upload a snap.

Off to Southend on Sea tomorrow to see Bob and go for round 2 on the dyno.
Oil and filter changed. All fluids checked so let's hope for some good results and one drivable car .

I will be very happy with anything over 425bhp that is usable.
Anything more is a bonus .

I hope it does not go bang!
I will do a full write up over the week.

Spoke to Bob yesterday evening and unfortunately due to a technical hiccup with the dyno tomorrow is off. Really gutted as I must say I was excited for this day for a while but I know I will be able to get down there soon and have a session .
Hope Bob manages to figure out the fault , good luck mate.

Great pics ^ hopefully get it on the dyno shortly then.

Thanks after speaking to Bob I'm re booked in for the following Friday so I'm hoping everything is well his end by then and see how it all goes .

Bob will sort you out

What did you use to take those photos? they came up looking really good quality