Author Topic: My GT-G40  (Read 112612 times)

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #255 on: January 25, 2014, 10:15:10 pm »
I like tarnished stainless, too. Looks used. :-)

Offline Andy

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #256 on: January 27, 2014, 06:25:42 am »
Baby purchases are going to slow things down this year though.
What kind of babies are you buying? :P

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #257 on: January 27, 2014, 10:04:58 am »
Shit! Cat's out of the bag!

Offline JoeH

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #258 on: January 29, 2014, 02:43:41 pm »
Be interested to hear your opinion on way car drives with 4branch, especially as you've done it alone so to speak.
I imagine it'd behave a bit like a GT inlet manifold, fractionally less low down torque and more power higher up in rev range...??

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #259 on: February 14, 2014, 07:17:41 pm »
Just been out to turn the engine over as it hasn't been anywhere for a couple of weeks. So I now stink of exhaust fumes a bit.

However, I also have a video (you'll need decent speakers to get the low notes - for some reason cameras like to amplify injector noise)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knomz_HH9F0

And a tripod-assisted photo with the branded boost hose rotated out of sight:
« Last Edit: February 14, 2014, 07:23:33 pm by Alex »

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #260 on: May 20, 2014, 07:28:21 pm »
So, predictably my project thread has been a bit quiet of late. Life changing new addition to the family etc.

It hasn't completely stopped me using the Polo, but it does make things more difficult. I don't trust the car park at the hotel in Hatfield so it's not going to work, and I tend to swap cars at the office anyway. On the weekends I get Jenson to look after, which is brilliant, but it's also a good way to sink a weekend into doing nothing else. The Polo isn't child seat friendly, so we can't all go out in it, so as much as I'm still getting track time in at work (Bedford in an M235i the most recent example) my own car isn't doing many miles.

Imagine my joy, then, when this weekend presented an entire afternoon of sunshine. I wheeled the car out for a clean, quickly realised my mistake, coiled the hose up and took it out for a drive.



I nearly headed for Brecon but changed my mind. Drove up the A470 to get everything nice and warm, then turned around at Merthyr and took the old road back down south.

Interesting to note that the new exhaust doesn't seem to be as vulnerable as the old one, which is useful.

Otherwise it feels spot on, a nice reminder that I've got something fun in the garage which I can use to let off some steam. Trouble is, it's done. I don't have much left to do, and I'm hankering after another project. Something I can take my time building. I still want an old BMW.

I did get some time in this last week though, a 1959 Vauxhall Velox, which has put a Fifties car on my wish list. Not something I expected to be saying about a slow, heavy thing like this.



For now though, our newest driveway resident is absolutely brilliant. I will be getting this filthy as soon as possible, but in the meantime it's a thoroughly fantastic family car and - I think - a real looker too.



Sorry it's a slightly muddly update. I could bore you with baby pics but... I won't.

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #261 on: August 20, 2014, 12:13:19 am »
Small updates this week (and next). I've reached the point where, to be honest, there's not much left to do.

It's just had a service, and it turns out the oil temperature gauge is correct, and the thermostat is behaving properly on the oil cooler. Sadly this means the 13 row, 235mm oil cooler (lifted from the PSD website) I have at the moment is about twice the size it really needs to be, so for the time being it's part covered and I'm seeing normal oil temperatures on the gauge. Smaller matrix is coming next week.

I've also decided to take the plunge and fit some softer front springs. Gaz supplied 275lb, 7-inch springs with my coilovers, based on me saying I had plans to take it on track days. It's not back breaking but I'm going to follow the crowd and use 225lb, 8-inch springs to take the edge off the bumpiness. Another job for next week!

Then it's down to wiring stuff. I love the Stack gauges, but they're too bright at night. So I'm fitting an additional dimmer to turn the brightness down separately to the rest of the dashboard instruments. My headlights, meanwhile, are dangerously bad without the uprated wiring loom. So that'll go back on next week, once I can trace the fault with the dipped beam part of the loom.

Otherwise, pretty bloody happy with how the car has turned out. I still want a subframe, but that'll require some more freelance work to earn the cash to pay for it. The rest is just fine tuning.

Offline Alexiskayak_7

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #262 on: August 20, 2014, 01:34:17 am »
Alex, were have you placed the oil temp sensor and what temps do you see???

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #263 on: August 20, 2014, 08:33:56 pm »
I've had it in the sump, but decided it was too vulnerable. So it's now in the head.

In both cases, 60°C was the norm on a motorway run.

Offline Alexiskayak_7

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #264 on: August 21, 2014, 12:51:46 am »
Sweet... I have plugged the sender in the sump bolt too and I see the same temp values like you do.
Before the oil cooler installation i could see temps up to 110 C at light load in motorway...

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #265 on: August 23, 2014, 12:36:09 am »
I'm halving the size of the matrix to see what happens. I'm pretty sure it'd get too hot without one, but what I have is definitely too big. Is yours a 235mm 13 row too?

Offline Alexiskayak_7

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #266 on: August 23, 2014, 03:21:56 am »
Yes Alex, I'm having the same cooler with yours combined with a c20let thermostatic adapter. I came in a conclusion that it is to big too, even for me where I leave in a warmer country.

I am really curious what temps does a 10 row cooler gets...

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #267 on: October 19, 2014, 10:57:13 pm »
Interesting thing, fate.

If I'm honest, it's been a bit of a struggle getting much proper time behind the wheel of the Polo this last year. It was too low for Caroline to get in and out of when she was heavily pregnant, and our car seat doesn't fit into it, so the weekend drives have become a bit complicated as I have to go on my own. During the week I tend to use work cars because I try to combine swaps with trips to the office - it gives me time behind the wheel to write a review.

But how's this for a sign?

I had a call last week from a press office which was due to send me a car on Monday. Bad news, the car had been stacked and wasn't going to be repaired in time. It just so happens that the last seven days have been pretty full on, too, with a trip to Liverpool on Monday and Tuesday, and a weekend in Llandudno. My options: take my long-term Renault ZOE and charge five times each way, or take the Polo and take the direct route through Wales. Easy choice, really.

Monday gave me an opportunity to catch up with this, which is a story in itself:


Unfortunately that did mean a detour to Cirencester, and in turn meant taking the M5/M6 to Liverpool which scuppered my first day of driving. But after about six hours crawling through roadworks in three lanes of heavy traffic, I touched down at the Titanic hotel (which is really nice, and has loads of fascinating stuff throughout, but is kinda morbid too) at about 6pm.



The real reason for being in Liverpool was a long trip across North Wales in the (sort of) new Corsa, with its new three-cylinder 1.0-litre turbo engine.


The trip up the M6 had cemented the idea that a run through Wales on the way home was a smart move. It was. Admittedly the run to Oswestry was pretty crap, albeit scenic, but the A483 down to Newtown was much quieter. Summer is definitely over, though, as it got dark far earlier than I was expecting it to!



I had half expected to encounter some sort of problem that hadn't reared its head earlier in the year but the car felt great. No glare from the gauges, headlights that work and suspension that's functioning as suspension should do. Very happy. And, as it's a work trip (the car is insured for work use) I get to claim the fuel back.

Saturday was a slightly different trip, at least it was from Builth Wells. Google Maps throws up two viable possibilities - either going across to the M5 and M6 or going straight up most of the A470 with some detours. With no need to divert to Cirencester I was able to get a full cross-country run in typical four-seasons-in-one-day Welsh road trip style, getting into Llandudno at around midday having changed into a business suit in a lay-by about 20 minutes beforehand, and just in time to make the trip across to Porthdinllaen Lifestation in the Suzuki that was waiting for me at the hotel.



Then today I've been catching up on a few cars I haven't driven. Including this which - seriously - is a lot more fun than it deserves to be. If I had the space and the cash for a second insurance policy, I'd be pretty tempted by an early one as a cheap winter toy.



Followed by a route home that's been every bit as incredible as the route north.





After a shit year last year with the accident, a winter of hardly using it and a summer of occasional trips on my own, an 850-mile week in the G40 has been pretty epic. No problems, no worries, no careless OAPs in Corsas to ruin it. I might have to treat the car to a wash next weekend though.

« Last Edit: October 19, 2014, 11:00:30 pm by Alex »

Offline Jester

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #268 on: October 20, 2014, 07:27:46 pm »
Looks awesome Alex, good to see it getting used!

What was the corsa like to drive? what sort of power output do they have with them new engines?

Offline Alex

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Re: My GT-G40
« Reply #269 on: October 20, 2014, 08:21:15 pm »
It's much better than the old one, which is quite an achievement considering the structure is the same underneath. I drove with the chassis engineer from Opel in the passenger seat and he was talking me through all the changes - there's nothing shared between the two cars. That's not to say it's a set of radically re-engineered parts, but it's a huge set of small changes that add up to a big difference.

The 1.0 turbo is available with either 90 or 115bhp, it's a sweet little engine a bit like Ford's EcoBoost. I reckon the Fiesta is still a better drive, though. Ripe for tuning, both of them.