I didn't notice I never updated this and feel I should with all the help you gave me in the early stages of the build.
I thought I was on easy street it was 2 weeks till edition38 show, the cars taxed, MOT'd and Insured. Im left with ironing out the niggles and cleaning....... Nothing is ever that simple haha.
On the first night of testing the engine is shaking the car to bits (I assumed it was the poly engine mounts). It had a loud knocking coming from the off side wheel, it was that bad it felt like the wheel was going to fall off. I fitted a new driveshaft and hub on the offside, this made no difference so I changed the pair on the nearside and the problem was still there. This left me thinking the diff had gone in the G40 gearbox. I fitted a 4 speed 1.3 golf gearbox, the release bearing didn't work with the g40 clutch (doh). I then fitted a Polo GT 5 speed. It still knocked!!!!!
Its now the tuesday before edtion38. I removed my front gearbox mount and the knock was alot better but still worrying. The car had got slower on every outting, the exhaust had got ridiculously loud and it had started running on 3 cylinders. This was down to the plug in cylinder one being covered in oil... Oh no the piston rings have gone!!!! Alot of things now make sense!!
Its now wednesday night the car has to make edition 38!!. The only option is to fit all the turbo stuff to the old standard 1.3 HH engine out of my mates Mk1 jetta and run it on low boost. I phoned my friend Arun in the day to see if he still had the saab dizzy needed to run an ignition amp and he did (HERO).. It was game on by the end of the night 5am the new engine was in and mostly plumbed in with only a minor niggle to get it running left.
Thurday afternoon.. I get all the niggles sorted and come to start it. After alot of faffing with the ignition timing it fires up but the inlet is exhaust heated on an early 1.3, (I had cut this off the old inlet because it fouled the G40 head). so this left exhaust fumes pissing out the head haha. This was solved with a quick manifold swap. With this sorted I came to fire it up again but with more timing faffing it would not fire up. Morale is very low and thoughts of missing another edition38 are looming....
Its now early friday morning. Ive even got the Haynes manual out!!! This led me to look at the timming marks and they were wrong, the bottom end was a tooth out (this was why it was hard to start in the Jetta) I lined it all up and recharged the battery.... It fires!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right!!!! I best go get my camping stuff ready.
The car made it to edition38 and back with no problems and ive been driving it daliy (ish) ever since. The VDO boost gauge I bought doesn't work but the actuator maxes out at 10psi so semi safe(ish) boost level.
It is pretty laggy (I think it needs a milder cam) but it comes on boost strong. I left the standard 4 speed clutch, it hates boost and starts slipping on boost in no time. The exhaust is abit to loud also.
So plans over the winter are to fix the G40 bottom end and fit a soild lifter 1.0 GL head with a 1,3 HK cam. fit an uprated clutch and a 5 speed box and make the exhaust more subtle.
Thanks for reading
Winston