29 replies to this topic

[the_mighty_one]

I thought seeing how I have been lurking for a while it was about time I actually posted up one of my cars.

Its a 1989 Peugeot 205 1.6GTi. I've had it some 6 years nearly and have replaced virtually everything on it and rebuilt everything else.

Its been up on eBay recently as I wanted to move it on to another good home, due to me moving onto faster machinery.

However there is now a change of plan. If it doesnt sell on eBay this time im going to keep the old girl and drop my tuned TDi engine into it and make a fuel economic track car!

The specs of it as they are now:


Engine and Gearbox:

Weber 40’s with 36mm chokes.
PugSport Grp A Max Torque Camshaft
306 2.0 8V XSi cylinder head (2mm larger valves than a 205gti head)
Lightened and balanced flywheel
Facet Red Top fuel pump
Recirculation catch tank.
Baffled and strengthened sump
K&N filter chargers
High duty alternator with built in vacuum pump (because of the Weber’s)
BE3 gearbox (no crunches etc, perfect gear changes)
Relocated battery (it's in the boot)
Custom Exhaust system (OE Pug split downpipe, with custom silencer)
Twin cooling fan conversion with temp-switch and a manual switch.
The engine is mounted on new Grp N engine mounts and a solid lower mount.



Suspension

AVO Adjustable platform coilovers (Sports Evo GTZ Kit) – fronts only
OE Spec rear shock absorbers on a 35mm lowered rear beam
Has recently (within 250miles) had new wishbones, anti roll bar links & track rod ends.
Last year it had a pair of new driveshafts. I fitted a new steering rack when I first bought it.
It has a custom made, heavy duty (by myself) upper strut brace (not one of those flimsy OMP things!)
The rear beam has got custom nylon rear mounts (prevents lift off oversteer)



Brakes:

Greenstuff pads in front on standard discs
Fly off handbrake lever for quicker starts / easy handbrake turns.
New brake lines were fitted when I first bought it, and has dual lines to the rears.



Exterior:

Peugeot 205 Auto Bonnet (in white)
White 1.9GTi alloys running 205 width tyres!
Exterior colour scheme of black and white.
I have a set of good condition red inserts if they are wanted (not the bumpers though).
Bonnet pins
Sunstrip
Shortened wipers (to clear sunstrip)
Spot light brackets
Aftermarket ultra bright fog light.
Smoked rear lights (previous owner)
Perspex sunroof – the glass one got removed and accidently smashed!



Interior:

Virtually fully stripped, headlining and door cards are still intact.
Bolt in aluminium heavy duty cage (in the car, but not bolted in) – 12point, and extremely strong, the rear diagonal bar is missing but would be easy to replace.
Huntmaster buckets seats
The seats are mounted down low on frames, not to the 205GTi mechanisms.
Willans 4x3 supersport harnesses (road legal release mechanism)
Steering column has been lowered to enable a full view of the road.
Graytronics intercom system (needs replacement headsets – I used cheap labtec pc headsets last time!)
Aftermarket oil pressure gauge, the 205 gauge decided to not work one day scaring me immensely!
It has a plumbed in extinguisher that is piped into the engine bay, not MSA/FIA compliant.
Clip in extinguisher in the boot
Heavy duty aluminium chequer plate foot rests
Start button
OMP Sports steering wheel
The heater motor and control broke, so it has had a Hillman Imp heater motor and manual switch fitted.


Heres a few pictures of it:

















The TDi engine is out of my old 309 (which was a 1.6GRi that I bought as a spare engine for the GTi) and fitted a 406 1.9TDi engine into it.
I fitted a front mount intercooler and a few other tweaks and saw it running 22psi of boost.

The 205 with the GTi engine is 140bhp and 100lb/ft, with the TDi I should easily get this, if not more, but get around 50mpg rather than the 12mpg that it currently does!

[Christian]

Very nice indeed!

A TDi 205 would be a bit different, but a track car? Surely you want something that revs?

[the_mighty_one]

Lol.

A TDi track car is very different, there are a few out there, but not with as many modifications.

And no, you dont need high rev's, its all about torque, but the TDi engine I have does rev to 5500rpm as it is.

And also I should point out the Peugeot and Audi Le-Mans cars, they're all diesel!!

[Christian]

the_mighty_one, on 01 March 2010 - 06:54 PM, said:

And also I should point out the Peugeot and Audi Le-Mans cars, they're all diesel!!

Yeah just because they can exploit the rule book! They're silent.. they're not real Le Mans cars

[the_mighty_one]

Thought I'd just pop up a post to let you know whats going on!

The TDi build is progressing nicely.

I have just mated the standard T2 exhaust turbine and housing to a water cooler T25 compressor, housing and main body! Hybrid Turbo all the way!
According to the math the turbo should be capable of 39psi safely, and even then it will be able to overboost a small amount!

The next step is the engine modifications. I have virtually stripped the engine down now and cleaning up bits as I go.

I have a nice 2mm decompression plate waiting to go on it next, should drop the compression from the standard 20:1 to around 15:1, but it should make the engine safe for a theoretical 40psi
This may make it not want to start when really cold, but its not really meant to be practical, its a diesel afterall

Then I have a lightened flywheel to stick on it to reduce any lag, which by using the hybrid turbo should be minimal anyway!

The injection pump is a standard unit, but has had its fuelling curves altered, the bosch units have a 'maximum fuelling' setting and a 'boost compensator' setting. The boost compensator basically ups the fuel when it detects boost which helps develop more boost quicker. This is going to be wound fully in so that its 'on' all the time. Then the maximum fuelling is going to go to maximum!

The next job is to bolt the engine into my GTi and fit the Cossie intercooler (or maybe an iveco truck one, depends if I feel like cutting away bodywork).

According to all my calculations I should be able to run around 35psi of boost which should see around 230bhp and around 280lb/ft of torque. This should prove to be an interesting combination as the car only weights in at around 760kg! Again according to the math that works out at around 302bhp/tonne!

After its all together the next job on the list will be to book a RR and actually put it through its paces and see what it develops in the 'real world', which I would imagine will be a less than the math states.

Afterall the math is working on the basic of no temperature build up in the turbo, no pressure loss across the intercooler or pipework, a constant outside air temperature, no drivetrain losses, 100% friction between tyres and surface etc.

If I were a betting man I would say that it will RR at around the 200-210bhp mark, which is still 260-280bhp/tonne mark!!

[Christian]

Even at 260bhp/tonne I bet you'll piss all over most things on track. Get some pictures up of the rebuild, I want to see how the diesel fits.

[the_mighty_one]

Hi.

The TDi engine fits a treat, I have done a couple of conversions already.

I have had a slight change of plan, I am not using a decompression plate, its easier to machine down the pistons, also because at some point it would seem the engine has 'eaten' something and has made a mess of piston no. 2!



this is the engine im working on at the moment fitted into my old 309 (which was petrol)!

the only thing i shall do differently is to bring the turbo-intercooler pipe out the left hand side of the engine and then the manifold-intercooler pipe will be attached to the right hand side of the intercooler. this is because of the absolutely massive intake on the t25 compressor housing, and the fact that i doubt the filter-turbo pipe will come up between the bulkhead and servo as the 309 did.

[Christian]

It really does fit nicely doesn't it. Hmm i'm very interested to see how this turns out.

[the_mighty_one]

ok, well i thought i would post up a few pictures of the progress so far..


Thats the engine out of the 309, sitting ready for me to play with it!


The first thing i did was to take the T2 standard turbo off it and grab one of my spare T25's and see what i could make!


The T25 compressor is a fair bit larger than the T2's compressor


The same applies with the housings.


The T25 has a different position for the wastegate so i had to redrill the housing.


The intake of the housing had quite a steep angle in it so I machined it out with a radius to give it a smoother profile.


Everything back together again, and it all lines up perfectly.


Next begins the strip down of the engine, like a typical diesel it is covered in oil so a quick wash off and its nicer to work on.




The head removed, stripped and all valves removed, and thoroughly cleaned!


I couldn't get started with the porting yet as i was waiting for a new gasket.




So i spent a bit of time welding some strengthening to the sump.



Watch this space. I have all the new big end bearings, piston rings, seals, gaskets etc now so its all about the rebuild.

The piston have been machined down by 1.2mm now which should drop the compression enough to give me the boost level i want to run.

[Christian]

Great work, I like the sump strengthening, nice idea.

[the_mighty_one]

yeah.

i did it to the gti sump too, but not as much.

when i went on track days with it i ran 14" steelies with low profile semi slicks which brought the sump very close to the tarmac, if i bumped it over the kerb it would have taken the sump out so the strengthening allows it to either bump off it or rip a hole in the strenghtening first!

hopefully i can get back on it on tuesday.

originally i wasnt going to swap out the big end bearings or rings, but i took one of the caps off and it had worn close the big end bearings almost down to the copper, so i figured whilst its apart i should do it, after all i think im kinda pushing the envelope a bit with the engine.

[Christian]

the_mighty_one, on 27 March 2010 - 10:06 PM, said:

yeah.

i did it to the gti sump too, but not as much.

when i went on track days with it i ran 14" steelies with low profile semi slicks which brought the sump very close to the tarmac, if i bumped it over the kerb it would have taken the sump out so the strengthening allows it to either bump off it or rip a hole in the strenghtening first!

Yeah not exactly what you want happening on road let alone on track!

[the_mighty_one]

Right, well I managed to get another couple of hours on the engine today.



Ive stripped down the bottom end completely now, good job too as the crank mains had started to pick up!



and



So began the final cleaning of everything in preperation for the rebuild:





As i am now awaiting the crank main bearings, thrust bearings and seals i decided to start porting the head, as i now had the gasket!

After looking at the ports it doesnt need much, but after bolting the gasket onto the head to check how far out the ports are, it turns out they are really bad.


So i am only going to match the ports and manifold to the gasket. The exhaust ports do have quite a step in them and that will involve a bit more work.

The next step is to mark the face of the head with engineers blue, or if you dont have any to hand a black marker pen works well too!


and



You then need to re-position the gasket and scribe the port where it needs removing:


Once this is done remove the gasket (so you dont damage it when grinding), and using a suitable tool, such as a die grinder with a cutting tool, dremel etc, rough out the port to the scribed line.


Once this is done and you are happy with amount removed, then using another suitable tool, such as a die grinder with a flap wheel, dremel etc, you then need to smooth out the port.


The next step is to blend the newly smoothed section into the rest of the port and to put a slight radius on the edge of the port.


Well thats one port matched to the gasket. It took me about 30minutes to do it, so I now have another 7 cylinder head ports and 8 manifold ports left to do.

[the_mighty_one]

One thing i should mention which i forgot about (and was pointed out to me on another forum) is that i always drill out the two end manifold holes larger than the studs and then machine a small sleeve to hold the manifolds in place - after all you dont want to match everything up and find when its bolted back up its overlapping.

[the_mighty_one]

Ok,

This isnt normally something that is done with turbo diesels and I said earlier I was going to port the head but as this is somewhat of an experimental engine I decided it was worth the effort.

The first thing I did was to visual inspect the throats to see how much they would need reworking to gain a smoother flow through the throats. The next step is a touch test, afterall your fingers can feel a hell of a lot more than you can see.

After looking at and feeling the throats there was quite a large change in angle and no smooth transition between them, it literally stopped and started!





The next stage in the process is to grab the trusty die grinder with a small flap wheel in it and "attack" the head.

The first thing I did was to rough out a radius between the main port and the throat then gradiually blend them back into each other.

I must admit that whilst doing this i did open out the throats somewhat.

I then took the flap wheel to the upper portion of the throat to ensure a smooth transition between the throat and the valve seat.

I then decided to 'waste' the valve stems on the inlets and using a stone wheel in the die grinder i ground them down almost flush to the port wall and then used a flap wheel to radius them into the port wall. This does really do much, but every little can help.

After 45minutes work I completed the first inlet throat. I then completed the other inlets and then moved onto the exhausts, carrying out the same process, apart from i have not wasted the exhaust stems as a slightly larger stem will help to pull the heat from the valve. I did however radius the tip slightly.

[Christian]

Very nice work, i'm really interested to see how this engine turns out now.

Oh and I've moved you into the build diaries section.

[OlberJ]

Any reason you've gone quite so smooth on the inlet ports? (I'm assuming they're inlet)

We normally leave the finish quite rough on the intake to help with the fuel/air mix. Exhausts can be as smooth as humanly possible.

[the_mighty_one]

OlberJ, on 01 April 2010 - 05:06 PM, said:

Any reason you've gone quite so smooth on the inlet ports? (I'm assuming they're inlet)

We normally leave the finish quite rough on the intake to help with the fuel/air mix. Exhausts can be as smooth as humanly possible.

Hey.

Yes they are inlet ports, and there is a reason. What with the engine being a diesel there is no air/fuel mix in the ports. The injectors fire into the combustion chamber inserts in the head itself. On petrol engines I leave the inlets rough too!

[the_mighty_one]

Thanks for moving it too, I was going to ask!

[the_mighty_one]

Bit more news actually today.

I have got my head back from having a light skim. It didnt need it, but whilst apart its stupid not to.

My valves are with them for a bit of reprofiling at the moment and my flywheel should be going in middle of the week for an extensive rework.

Its really handy my partners dad working at an engineering shop as I can just drop stuff in and get it sorted.

Ive been chatting with a guy who has built an engine very similar to mine and he has suggested that I should use some ARP head bolts, apparently when you get over 40psi boost they stretch the stretch bolts then blow the gasket out.

He is on his second rebuild after snapping one conrod and cracking the other three!