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Project Plum - The Plan of Attack

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Cheers Steve :salute:

 

the brush-on hammerite is a little rubbish (only the streaky finish i'm upset about) but the aerosols are £££ and i'd rand out of POR, but i guess it's way more about function over form.

 

I built my rack up in an evening and the boots are really hard to slide on! especially as you have to line them up with that pole on the underside, well done for doing it in situ! :D

 

Just stopped for lunch now (at 4pm :nuts:), subframe has a few bolts in place but needs small adjustments to position which is hard when it's on 2 jacks, rubbing on the engine and box mounts and weighs about 50kilos. Hoping to have it all bolted up by end of today.

 

On other news, took ownership of the VAG fixings for everything on the rear beam today, just the major suspension and braking parts to come from Febi AVS and then that will be ready to be built too. Pics up of all later on.

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Yeah, it was an arse altho i've done it before on the G60 and on the same side too (drivers side)...

 

Had the clip on first which i'd bent into shape and pinched up slightly, couldn't get the boot on at all but when I took the clip off it went on easily... then fitted the clip round it which was awkward but not too bad.

 

Did you use the VW grease? I did but wasn't sure if the packet was for one side or both? assumed it was one side like the CV kits come with!

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Just looked at the mount pic on the other page - Jeezus!! (once I stopped laughing at Mic's avatar)

 

Your doing things the best way tho, ie hitting the whole drivetrain at once, you'll be loving the way it drives once it's on the road again, i've done a similar amount of work to mine now and it's superb!

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I've also just dropped £500 on the whole rear beam assembly. All the brakes, stoneshields, suspension, and 2 pages of fixings from VW. I must be loco... :cuckoo:

 

Not at all. There are plenty of people on here who like to do the same thing - renew a whole section with all new stuff from VAG. When I fitted my Koni's, every single bit of rubber and every bolt that came out was replaced with all new stuff. I balked at the cost at the time (£200 for the rubber & bolts on top of the Koni's!) but it's worth it as I know that the VAG stuff will last and I know I can just forget about suspension for a while! :)

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Yeah, it was an arse altho i've done it before on the G60 and on the same side too (drivers side)...

 

Any idea why it split again? That outer CV i have seems to weep LM grease from time to time :gag:

 

Did you use the VW grease? I did but wasn't sure if the packet was for one side or both? assumed it was one side like the CV kits come with!

 

Yeah I used the VW grease, but the special order stuff. It's a whole tube the size of your forearm and costs ~£6. There's no way I could have put it all in, it would have squirted out both boots when I got full lock! :lol: Here's the pic:

 

rackfu8.jpg

 

Tube in bottom right, labelled "steering gear grease" looks a lot like the castrol cloudy yellow grease stuff.

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Just looked at the mount pic on the other page - Jeezus!! (once I stopped laughing at Mic's avatar)

 

Your doing things the best way tho, ie hitting the whole drivetrain at once, you'll be loving the way it drives once it's on the road again, i've done a similar amount of work to mine now and it's superb!

 

Yeah pretty fooked eh! I guess it had lost most of it's hydro-ness by the time I took it off :|

 

Yeah, I need to talk to you about your springs actually! I'm going to have boge gas dampers all round now, and it'll be on std springs for a bit but it sounds like your H&Rs are a really good OE match for ride and comfort.

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I've also just dropped £500 on the whole rear beam assembly. All the brakes, stoneshields, suspension, and 2 pages of fixings from VW. I must be loco... :cuckoo:

 

Not at all. There are plenty of people on here who like to do the same thing - renew a whole section with all new stuff from VAG. When I fitted my Koni's, every single bit of rubber and every bolt that came out was replaced with all new stuff. I balked at the cost at the time (£200 for the rubber & bolts on top of the Koni's!) but it's worth it as I know that the VAG stuff will last and I know I can just forget about suspension for a while! :)

 

 

yeah, all those fiddly rear suspension bits :shock: :shock: :shock: all adds up doesn't it! Here's the stuff I picked up today, rear beam items plus coolant flush as recommended by Supercharged :salute: and the new pulley (although it's the wrong one, guh)

 

image011ma0.jpg

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Today in picture form

 

image018xe5.jpg

 

Getting ready to slide it under. Was really fiddly getting it past the 2 stands supporting the engine/box and the 2 stands holding the car up. Just about managed that and then fumbled around a lot with tilting it so I could get a jack underneath. Ended up using both jacks and putting them under each side...

 

 

image019kv7.jpg

 

image020ef0.jpg

 

...which made doing this a helluva lot easier! :grin: a quick wiggle of each hub and both lower ball joints slotted into place.

 

 

image021qy4.jpg

 

image022la4.jpg

 

I connected up the rack to the hubs just to keep the track rods out of the way really. Just nipped the nuts up for now.

 

 

image023xr7.jpg

 

Old parts being put to good use! That hydro mount deffo had a lot to make up for :bonk:

 

 

image024ey7.jpg

 

Once the LBJs were in place and frame was supported as above, I moved one of the jacks into the middle of the frame to jack it up hard against the floorpan/mounting points. Squeezing under the ARB was the first of a few fiddly little problems, but they were getting smoothed out slowly.

 

 

image027ij5.jpg

 

Perfecto. Rear frame mount lined up.

 

 

image034ab9.jpg

 

Skip forward past lunch and all the bolts were done up to torque :clap: :salute: Doesn't that "background" behind the mount look SO much better now? ;)

 

 

image035yw4.jpg

 

REM bolts (:lol:) were taking forever+2 until I got some advice from Prod about loosening the bottom mount bolts to allow some wiggle room. 5 mins after that it was finished, cheers bro :thumb right:

 

 

image036wt1.jpg

 

offside rear frame bolt, then ARB mount and then wishbone bolt.

 

 

image037fz7.jpg

 

offside frame to chassis rail bolt and engine mount bolt.

 

 

image038pm2.jpg

 

nearside rear frame bolt, then ARB mount and then wishbone bolt.

 

 

image039ax1.jpg

 

nearside frame to chassis rail bolt.

 

 

Completed Pics

 

 

image040cb9.jpg

 

image041fs0.jpg

 

image042ff1.jpg

 

Plenty of waxoyl on anything I might want to ever take apart/off and inside any cavities too! :salute:

 

Quite enough for one day, off for some tea and bathing. Tomorrow, the twin turbos.... :norty: :robot:

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It didn't split again, different car... I do need to do the G60 ones tho as I re-used the boot at the time, it was off as I changed the trackrod, both are ok now but look perished / starting to crack, not bad for 16 years old tho!

 

The only reason they split apart from age is monkeys (hehe) not undoing the outer spring clip before adjusting the tracking / or untwisting the boot afterwards, cnuts!

 

Yeah, I got a smaller amount of grease in a packet rather than a tube and yeah looks like regular LM grease - how much do you get in the tube?

 

Hopefully your CV is weeping CV grease not LM (low melting point) grease dude, yeah i have one doing the same rather annoyingly, I think the clip I used is slightly too big as I can turn it, yours will be the same unless the boot is wrong...

 

Is that the coolant flush in the red box? Interested to know what that contains / does! I'd flush everything with a hose first the connect it all back up and use the flush as it advises (hopefully there are instructions) and then drain / refill with G12+ / water...

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Nice work and good pics, i'd consider painting over the bolts with some sort of enamel once it's all torqued up and alligned...

 

Re the springs, yeah the blue H&R's are the only ones I know of that are designed to be used with standard shocks, I used VR gas shocks becuase of the weight of the TDI and it's still slightly too low for my liking and harsh over bumps but then again it's so much better than it was and handles great, better than the New Scirocco round corners!

 

Ideally I reckon I should buy some H&R OE sport springs for a MK3 TDI but I can't be arsed to take it all apart again and then have to have it all alligned etc...

 

I have a new set of PI springs for a VR I might sell but these may be a bit too low for you - you really need something thats 20mm lower than standard, like the difference between a GTI and non GTI Golf - 30mm at most...

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Yeah, I got a smaller amount of grease in a packet rather than a tube and yeah looks like regular LM grease - how much do you get in the tube?

 

I will check but I think it's 500g or something! Obviously for trade use or a workshop at least...maybe I should refurb my 3 spare racks :lol:

 

Is that the coolant flush in the red box? Interested to know what that contains / does! I'd flush everything with a hose first the connect it all back up and use the flush as it advises (hopefully there are instructions) and then drain / refill with G12+ / water...

 

Why, yes it is :D I will have a look at the label. Actually, I'll throw a photo up in a bit! One side just has about 72 different translations of "coolant flush" :nuts:

 

 

I am half tempted to do my HG at the same time, 3 bar variance just seems a bit too much and I'll kick myself if I have to dump another 6 litres of coolant etc just to do the HG which I knew was a bit iffy in the first place.

 

I have a HG off the spare engine anyways, only done 80k.... (joke) :bonk:

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Haha - yeah I think mine was only 25g, used most of it so chucked the packet...

 

Yeah i'd do the HG, it's piece of mind at the end of the day and you have the skills to do it yourself, timing is easy etc..

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Nice work and good pics, i'd consider painting over the bolts with some sort of enamel once it's all torqued up and alligned...

 

What kind of enamel did you have in mind?

 

 

 

Ideally I reckon I should buy some H&R OE sport springs for a MK3 TDI but I can't be arsed to take it all apart again and then have to have it all alligned etc...

 

cheers for the advice :salute:

 

I have a new set of PI springs for a VR I might sell but these may be a bit too low for you - you really need something thats 20mm lower than standard, like the difference between a GTI and non GTI Golf - 30mm at most...

 

Yeah, I'm not really feeling the sump scrapers to be honest, I've done some quite superficial research into bump and droop (opposite of bump / flying) in suspension on single seater racers in workshop class and it seems that just dropping a ride by an inch or so, not much more, helps it handle a lot better so long as everything is uprated of course.

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Haha - yeah I think mine was only 25g, used most of it so chucked the packet...

 

Yeah i'd do the HG, it's piece of mind at the end of the day and you have the skills to do it yourself, timing is easy etc..

 

Yeah, I think the little silver packets are supposed to be 1 per boot, or 1 per side if you buy a pair. My boots are febi so I didn't get any grease, but I grease up the actual rack arms tons and tons and then the inners of the boots a little too.

 

Yeah, I'm guessing a HG, head bolts and cambelt won't cost that much as labour is free :cheers: That might nopt get done very very soon, but I'll get it done before I drive the car again for sure.

 

I'm actually thinking about putting my 280s on now too! :nuts: seems like it would make sense as the front end is all apart...but then saying that all I really need to do is jack it up and pop the wheels off so maybe I should leave that for another day :lol:

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With the HG issue, the rings are obviously a little worn out too as there's a consistent 2bar increase when we did the leakdown/wet compression test.

 

Is it worth whipping the pistons out and doing the rings at the same time? If I did do the rings, can I re-use the big end bearings so long as I keep them with their matching piston?

 

Cheers :salute:

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It's a case of how far do you go... you've gone from headgasket, skiped past the head rebuild stage and stepped into full engine stripdown... I'd just buy a headset for now and fit what you can out of that, VW 4 pots are fairly reliable bottom end wise...

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The spare head has only done 80k which imho would be borderline rebuild time (i think some builders say 60k is the limit) so I could sling that one if this one is knackered. I could also just sling the old pistons in too as they will have done 80k also. Bit gutted i didn't compression test the spare engine, even more gutted I didn't swap it in and strip down the problem lump!

 

I see your point though. Tbh, rebuilding the spare engine is probably going to be £500+ before things like pistons etc, which is why I was planning to turbo it (although that obviously hikes cost further) as you can easily buy an engine that someone else has rebuilt for £3-400, a 16v anyways.

 

Obviously, half the fun is building one up but I gotta weigh the pennies up a lot (note to self: running a C whilst at uni is a bad idea) and concentrate on the priorities. I guess I can live with the old piston rings, at least I know why the oil level is dropping slowly now.

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I wonder if Mic_VR will return or whether he is grooming/choosing which 70s taupe polo neck to wear today...

 

It takes a long time to make sure you're got the right outfit for the conditions of the day. Today, sunday (church), I've decided to go for a more serious jacket/tie combo! :grin:

 

1968.jpg

 

Not sure it'll be suitable for working on the car though! :cuckoo:

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