Yandards

Holy crap, that's shocking..

Thanks honey :) Got a long list of mostly "want to do's" as opposed to "need to do's" which is nice for a change. In no particular order a wishlist by BVF this year (1st weekend in July): Overhaul front brakes - clean up calipers, carriers and disc shields, paint and fit new seal kits. Replace crankshaft and conrod bearings Swap gearbox (AGC code one fitted) for a diesel ASD box with G60 3rd and 4th ratios. Fit new RPM Tuning ribbed belt tensioner setup. Remove rear engine bracket, block breather and oil filter housing and paint external surfaces in Alumablast. Remove charger and paint casing in Alumablast. Engine back out of the bay for the above 5 items. Replace brake lines in engine bay. Clean up engine bay. Flush radiator and coolant system through. Get bumper inner metal dip galvanised and powdercoated. Paint new gearbox in Alumablast. Tweak Mk 2 Golf scuttle cover and fit. Work through fasteners in engine bay and re-zinc with a bright yellow phosphate finish. Fit replacment fuel tank straps with dip galvanised and powder coated items. Replace water reservoir. Make bracket to accomodate radiator cover plastic. Replace fuel injectors with reconditioned items. Custom mapping session at DG (around BVF time). Get it run in. Wire in oil pressure and plumb in boost ancilary gauges. Start removing the interior trim and replacing the sticky felt. Replace sump for one without tappings for oil returns (they get in the way of the metal coolant pipe). A few coats of wax.... Realistically that is all achievable by BVF and is mostly labour. The easiest option is to just remove the engine and do the box swap etc with it out of the car, it makes the engine bay work a lot easier. I have solved all of the current 16VG60 issues that caused the many headaches over the build period and am already into the first set of tweaks to sort reliabilty/running issues as it covered over 1000 miles last year all be it in nerfed mode. Ultimately I am aiming for a factory fresh look for the engine bay, the subframe does need attention but thats a job for next year.

Yep new lead required. Best bet is to replace the complete set.

Its one of those easy to draw but hard to do jobs. Basically there are a pair of circles on the camshaft gear cogs (the exhaust cam is driven by the cambelt which in turn drives the inlet cam via a chain.) Those circles need to be closest to each other with the middle of the circle in line with the top the cylinder head. The exhaust camshaft needs to be at TDC whilst this is carried out. The problem comes with doing that, you can't check the exhaust cam at TDC without the rocker cover on and the hydraulic cam followers tend to throw where the cams want to rest out. The only way to do is to best guess, fit the camshaft bearing caps, put the rocker cover on and tweak the cambelt pulley to reset the head to TDC - then its rocker cover back off and see what the cams look like. Had it running on idle last night, its not happy yet and needs about 10 deg of advance coupled with a lot of the idle screw wound out to get it to run right now, just tight I guess. Need to get it to a stable running point before the strip down so I think I need to tweak the CO etc and monitor the lambda on the wideband as a start. Job for tomorrow though...

Good news Charlie, I can sympathise even if some my issues were also down to my own errors.

Locked: linky

Looking moody John!

Nope, G60 has a unique part number, probably uprated to deal with the boost pressure and it also functions as a boost return valve in certain circumstances.

It is a bit of a pain in the bum frankly. The 2 x 'O' dots need to be cut in half by the top of the cylinder head and facing each other but as DW said, the big problem with that is the hyd followers shoving the cam all over the place. On top of the that you need to ensure the exhaust cam is at no 1 TDC to get it all to work properly (which is probably where mine went wrong all those years ago). A simple task that is not so simple at all. Alex, I don't have a hot dip galvaniser in my garage mate, there are at the dip galv place in Elgin. Thinking I will pull the engine back out to do the box and crank, bit easier and it means I can replace the brake lines in the engine bay that are looking manky and rusty with ease, I don't need to disconnect that much more to do it and trying to fit the new tensioner system in situ would be a pain. It also means I can paint some more ally bits that I left bare blasted as they are not lasting very well and attend to couple of other odds and ends that just need a tidy up.

Nice. I like the burnt orange and it will be good to have a supercar maker in the UK that is still mostly owned by the UK for a change.

How very British of you :D "Oh well, can't be helped, let's go for a spot of luncheon, whato!" Thing is Yan doesn't do 'socials' - I reckon he just went to play on the Xbox... Piffle. Went round a mates with Mrs Yandards and had a spot of food, etc. Right, aside from a nice lump on the side of my face where the bloody 23mm socket and 1ft pry bar slipped off the cambelt pulley all is well. Stripped the cams out tonight and re-aligned the 2 dots on the camshaft (no pics was tight on time), all rebuilt so it was time for a comp test - didn't want to start it up first as it was getting late and I had to move the dizzy to get the cams out. No 1, nothing, onto No 2, still nothing, cue some arsing around with the comp gauge before moving onto No 3, nothing so kept cranking, then 2b, onto 4b, 8b still climbing all the way up to 13b! :clap: :grin: Worked out that there was not enough oil pressure when cranking the starter to get the bores a bit slippery so it was back in with the spark plugs, king lead back on the coil and fuse 18 (fuel pump) back in the relay board. Cranked over and lots of coughing and spluttering but no sign of running - tried again but same thing, seems like the timing is off but I figured it was worth another go at a comp test. No 1, 13.5b and rising up as expected (7b on 2nd comp stroke, 9.5b on 4th and 12b on 6th with a peak of 13.5b) No 2, 11.5b, bit low :? No 3, Another 13.5b No 4, 13b this time Back to No 2 and this time 13b. Massively pleased it all works (sort of), annoyed that a simple camshaft tweak was the source of the low compression problem and it just shows you should always check the simple stuff first (or do a leak down check). It was reasonably rapid with a mere 8b per cylinder when I drove it last year, if the compression settles down to the expected 12b levels then thats 1/3rd more compression which should give me a lot more go on the road. Plan now is to drop the oil, remove the crank so I can change the bearings and then fit the new ASD gearbox (with G60 3rd and 4th). That's a job for the weekend though, I still need to replace the tensioner system with an alternative setup (got one in mind) and then it will be onto some running in and general tidying up of the engine bay (bought a zinc plating kit for that job). Front calipers are on the overhaul list as they are in a right state right now and I have some fuel tank straps in the galvaniser as I type this. Ultimately.. :clap: despite an :epicfail: with my original fitment of the camshafts :scratch:

Right little update. Finished the rebuild late afternoon on saturday, fired her up, no leaks and started on 3rd turn over. Let it warm up for a bit and then went straight for the compression test - this was bad news on all 4 a mere 8 bar (need 12). I then had a social engagement so that was it for the day. Sunday it was back into it, warmed up to 86 degrees oil temp, coolant was nicely up to temp and no top-ups to do on the reservoir. This time I logged the readings on the comp gauge on the 2nd compression stroke, 4th and 6th (look for the pulses on the comp gauge needle). I should have been getting around 7b on the 2nd stroke, just under 9b on the 4th and around 12b on the 6th. Highest was 8.5b with all 4 cylinders reading roughly the same amount. So I then got a wendy on (no offence intended Wendy) for a bit before having a proper think. My options were now basically down to strip my original KR block down get it checked over for cylinder trueness (read round cylinders),honed and have a tiny amount skimmed from the deck of the block to ensure flat (bit where the head sits onto the block). Or just fit an ABF instead - complete with charger obviously. I then set about costing the 2 options up, an ABF engine could be had for around £400 delivered to me and the quote for the block work came back at £150 inc VAT. The cons of the ABF were that it was going to be stacked headgaskets and all the balancing work I had done on the KR bits would not transfer so that was cash wasted. Decided to sleep on it a bit before making a decision and figured it was worth trying a few more things on the current engine before throwing in the towel. Got in from work today and gave DG Auto a ring for some advice on comp testing, Graham as always was very helpful and told me what I expected - initial compression readings on a fresh engine should be very high, he also suggested I try a leak down check before taking it out for a thrash to try and get the rings to bed in; finally he asked if the cams were ok and to check the woodruff keys hadn't moved causing the timing to wander. Just to confirm the timing was ok I reset the engine to TDC on No 1, both the gearbox flywheel mark and the cambelt pulley mark aligned perfectly - at this point it was time for some food so I went in and called it a day. Watched a film with Mrs Yandards but after I decided to remove the cambelt cover to check the cams were aligned ok - easy to do on my conversion and with the engine at TDC easy to check. I was somewhat suprised to see the inlet camshaft mark 1 tooth out of position! This must have been like this since I put the cams in the head although I do recall setting them up in the first place, its easy on a 16v the 2 circles on the toothed sprockets must be in line with the top of the cylinder head next to each other. So the inlet is 1 tooth behind the (cambelt driven) exhaust camshaft - this would result in the inlet valve not being fully closed at the start of the compression stroke on all 4 cylinders, hence my good start to 8b on the 2nd stroke but nothing else. I effectively lowered the comp ratio of the engine by doing this. So its back into the garage tomorrow evening when I get in to move the inlet camshaft (chain is ok, really tight and was new when the cams were fitted) and then re-try the compression test. I am expecting much closer to the numbers I was expecting and to be frank if this sorts it I will be very happy indeed - as well as being a little annoyed! It just goes to show that its always worth checkng the simple things and that a little bit of though before you act is a good job - or I could have an ABF engine I probably wont need (fingers crossed) on the way. As always thanks to DG for some top advice and reminders to try the easy stuff :salute: I just hope this is the problem... :?

Nice, sounds like you need some mods to the inlet duct to get the most from your set-up, as for an off the shelf chip don't waste your money you really need a custom one to get the fuelling correct on full throttle - DG Autotech would be the folks to go to for that up near Birmingham.

Nasty, good demonstration of what can be lurking under some benign looking corrosion though. Get the damn wax oil spray down behind the rear quarter door cards, that should help prevent that sort of spread in the rear sill area.

Indeed, I have overtaken the car in front just to get some space between me and the idiot behind on numerous occasions - bloody glad I did as well one time as about 5 minutes after doing it the chimp went in the back of the car I had just gone past.

beers going down well tonight? ;) on a level headed note as to the two cars.... hmmm its a toughy not too sure about the 16v being light more nimble as its going to be marginal ...i can understand the front end pushes on , on a vr when pressing on but that doesnt really happen if you drive sensibly vr sound is awesome.....but then so is the rate it drinks fuel.....the valver is never goin gto be the vr6..... but then if you have a minter of a valver and the vr is tierd whats worth more monay?.....ins cheaper on the 16v???? hard to say as ive never driven the 16v ...... Thank you for demonstrating with the final sentence that you don't know the diference in handling between the 4 cylinders and the 6 cylinder cars having never driven one :epicfail: :) It's not just the weight distribution that is a factor, the VR6 uses the wide track suspension on the same inner turrets as the 4 cylinder cars. Therefore the suspension geometry on a VR6 is different from the 4 cylinder cars, this actually results in very different handling characteristics. As those folks who either have both flavours or have had in the past have said on this thread, the 4 cylinder cars are a lot more nimble through the twistys than the 6 cylinder motors - yes some suspension will make a difference but the same can be said of both engine types. The real difference is that you have to thrap the valvers to get them to hussle along (but not G60s) and whilst VRs respond well to a good boot of the loud pedal the have plenty of lazy torque available. Ultimately the what engine is best in a 'rado debate has been raging on for years, there are plus points to both types and it is all too easy to overlook the non VR6 models, but in fact the cheapest to tune for extra go has always been the G60.

Yeah keep the leather and flog the VR. Interesting to see another person who has access to both VR and valver saying the valver handling is more responsive than the VR. But you really cant beat the exhaust note of a VR either..

It's also true that higher engine loading (at low RPM in high gear) will highlight any weakness in the spark system, couple that with the lower temperatures and you a receipe for electrical failure. My GT6 that is (still) in 2ccs garage had a similar issue, fine when cold but would cut out when hot. Rotor arm and dizzy cap looked fine but it turned out to be a hairline fracture in the rotor arm, as it warmed up short through the dizzy and no spark.

Item 27, what's wrong with your current Monkey? Mods, item 7, you won't need them :) - just get the existing ones overhauled and cleaned and I wouldn't fit item 6 either..

The hole is standard on late centre consoles but the early ones dont have it.

Nah the body looks identical to the old one just the tip that's changed, see pics ^^^^ supposedly it's a design that was originally used for wideband sensors but it's now being used on narrowband it also allows the heater to reach operating temperature quicker. Heh I bet its cheaper to produce than the old one as well :)

Is the main body slighlty shorter? I know my wideband probe has a shorter body which helps massively with the lack of clearance the wiring loom has to the tunnel covers.

The Ardour, joint RR Turobmeca project.

You dont have to register to do the parts check process.

That's known as constant power vairiable noise in my line of work, used to be joke about the Jaguars engines, that and the only reason it took off was due to the curvature of the Earth.