DOUGS 24V STORM-R - rear cage possibly?

[tribetype40 0]

A few of you have prompted me to start a build thread of my car so here we go....

 

I bought the C from a guy on here about 2 years ago I think as I needed a good fun car after I sold the GT3 Esprit :( The Vr6 was the prefect choice and give a similar buzz but without the worry of massive bills should bend it!

 

It was a Green VR6 storm which although clearly loved by the owner it was pretty tired, the usual things, the cream leather was badly crazed and dirt rubbed in etc, it had covered 150k, the engine was pretty loose which was more than could be said for the gearchange! of and it had a little piston slap when cold.

 

It was only supposed to to get me to work and back but, well, standard is so boring and things needed to be made better....

 

I had previously made an interior for my old V5 Corrado which I had kept, after breaking the car, so for a while I ran with that in there. Some of you may remember this....?

 

Edited August 4, 2011 by tribetype40

[ADZ_VR6 0]

That looks cool is that dash outta ford?

[tribetype40 0]

Hi, no the dash was built from scratch using polyurethane foam, mdf etc to sculp the shape. Molds were then taken from this, then the parts made in the molds using glass fiber. it was then all covered in leather. I'm sure I have some pictures but where they are I have no idea.

[tribetype40 0]

This interior was later sold (I think to a guy from here) although I did keep hold of the dash. I had spent LOADS of time making this and i wasn't finished with it yet..!!

 

It was about now that I took the car off the road, I cant remember why.... I took the engine out and ended up giving it a good going over, it had new chains, guides, tensioners, plus head gasket and crank and rod bearings... Daft thing this never made it into the car! I had been thinking about the easiest way to get the 24v to work with the least amount of effort. I had a few ideas and before I knew it I had bought a 24V engine.

 

VR6 was sold and the engine conversion began!

 

I'll jump quite a bit here as phyiscall getting the engine into the bay is pretty much a swap job.

 

clearing the threads on the back of the block. they are not used in the in the Mk4's but they are there. its best to run a tap down then to clear them out - you dont want to snap a bolt in the block!

 

 

fit the Vr6 rear engine mount,

 

 

Here i knocked up a rough Exhaust so i could fire the engine up without upsetting the neighbourhood! This was made using the MK4 down pipes, and the standard VR6 downpipe, cut up and re assembled, managed to make it using no other tube!

 

 

And here is is pretty much in..

 

 

You can see on the end of the bolck the standard VR6 water housing bolted to the 24V head, or clearer in this picture...

 

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

Looking good Doug! I thought I recognised that dash! I bought that K Reg Grey VR6 from you and saw it then!

[tribetype40 0]

Oh yeah, hows it doing?

[24V Renshaw 0]

More posts Doug, this car is epic!!

 

Jay

[tribetype40 0]

dude, give me a chance!!! 'it's my first time' :nuts:

[tribetype40 0]

Soon after this I had tested the engine and the method I had come up with to get it running from the standard VR6 engine management see vid:

 

[youtube:1xfw6nqr][/youtube:1xfw6nqr]

 

The engine was removed and given some love, new Bearing shells, Piston rings, all new tappets, chains, guides, tensioners, headgasket, headbbolts, conrod bolts, all new sensors, valves lapped in etc etc - its basically a new engine now!

 

I also sorted out a propper downpipe, I looked into the dubpower conversion 6 branch thing but I thought it to be overpriced (or I'm just tight!) however, as I made the rough one before from the standard vr6 one I though, I'll just make a stainless steel one....

 

So for this I opted for the dubpower VR6 replacement downpipe. AND NOW A WORD OF WARNING what I recieved from Dubpower I would have to consider as 'rubbish'! so bad, I had to take photos...

 

Heres what arrived... looks nice on the outside....

 

 

But on closer inspection....

 

 

As you can see the the where the two pipes from the individual manifold join the larger pipe at the base of the 'Y' they extend on, into the 'Y'. The result is a restriction WAY smaller than the standard downpipe. Add to the this the big flake of metal that wasn't cleaned of after cutting and before welding together I can only say I felt I had been done a treat! SO if your buying a Dubpower exhaust make sure you look it over like a hawk, bust your torch out and check inside. How this was supposed to offer anysort of performace gain I have no idea, a con really.

 

Anyway bought it on the bases that I was going to chop it up anyway to make a downpipe to fit so I kept it and just made a propper job myself of welding it back up..

 

found these in a scrap metal bin years ago and kept them as 'they could be handy at some point..'

 

Here I sorted the sh!te out, cut it in half, tidied it all up, adjusted the shape with a hammer so it matched the tube it was joining to then welding it up. really nice and smooth transition now...

 

 

Heres a before, after and fitted..

 

[mattnorgrove 0]

Awesome work!!!

[peppyuk 0]

That interior looks awesome!

Out of interest what have you done to your gear stick? I'd like mine to sit a lot higher with about 10% of the movement it's got now! :lol:

[dgtvr6 0]

Mmm... That dash is simply awesome....

 

Wouldn't even know where to start fabricating something like that... How much to supply one prebuilt for me?

[tribetype40 0]

Thanks for the coments guys.

 

The dash in those pictures is a million miles away from what it looks like now! The concept was good but my exicution of fit and finish was lacking, something I have been fanatical about this time around. heres the teaser shot I posted a few weeks ago... but I'll come to more about the dash and interior later on.

DSC_0215_01_1_1.JPG[/attachment:1reufmlp]

 

Oh, I dont think anyone this side of the Sultan of Brunai could convince me to go through this amount of work again! :gag:

[tribetype40 0]

Some of you may have noticed the nice exhaust manifolds I have... they came from a late spec AUDI 3.2 and are tubular stainless steel items (OEM) and they are way way less restrictive than the standard 2.8 and R32 ones. Oh and they are about half the weight of the VW cast iron ones!

[dgtvr6 0]

Oh, I dont think anyone this side of the Sultan of Brunai could convince me to go through this amount of work again! :gag:

 

Not even if we said please? :wink:

[24V Renshaw 0]

Keep it coming dude.

 

You lot ain't seen nothing yet!! :)

 

Jay

[tribetype40 0]

before the engine went back in I took the time to smarten a few things up so the rocker cover and inlet were given fresh paint,

 

Rocker cover,

 

Inlet,

 

Dirty Throttle body :nono: Clean throttle body! :clap:

 

Engine bay coming together...

[dirtytorque 0]

:D

 

 

:salute:

[fla 9]

Superb. What did you clean the throttle body with - very impressive results.

[tribetype40 0]

Just engine degreaser from halfords, and a nail brush. If you think that was good though, check these puppies out....

 

While the engine was out I gave the injectors a clean. They went from this..

 

 

Before,

 

 

In the Ultrasonic cleaner,

 

 

Filters were removed, then back into the cleaner (new cleaning fulid!)

 

 

then ended up looking like this..

 

 

Before refitting I tested them all. To do this I put one in the the old VR6 fuel rail (not fitted to the cylinder head but just hanging on the end of the fuel lines) turned the ignition on which primes the fuel lines, then off. I then put 12v to the injector untill the pressure run out. I squirted the fuel into a empty coke bottle and marked a line to show the amount of fuel it passed. I also made a mental note of how well the spray pattern looked (no jets etc). By doing this to each injector in turn I could make sure they were all matched for flow rate. They were all bang on, and all had a good spray pattern.

[Mawrick 0]

Where you get that ultrasonic cleaner?, and what type of fluid do you use to clean the injectors?

 

Cheers!

[tribetype40 0]

Ultrasonic cleaner was from Maplin, they had a deal on and it cost about £30, they also sell some cleaning fluid for solid metals (not plated) so I used a little of that. Each injector probably had 3-4x 3min sessions in the cleaner. After it worked so well on the injectors there was nothing safe in the house from getting a good clean!! :D

 

While I was finding those pics I found these too... a neat trick I was quite pround of lol

 

If anyone decides to replace the piston rings in a VR6 engine they will have the problem of the angle pistons going into a flat headed block (ie the top face of the block isnt perpendicular to the axis of the piston) to get around this you have to find and buy a special ring compressor, which looks like a plastic funnel. I seem to think it was exspensive and I'd have had to wait for it to arrive etc which wouldn't do. So a trip to Halfords and I had bought a run of the mill piston ring compressor.

 

And now the neat part. tighten the compressor around a piston, then scribe a line around the inside face of the compressor, remove piston, then carefully grind the coil of metal of the compressor down untill you get to the scribe line. I found a meduim flap disc in a angle grinder was perfect for this.

 

This is the end result, works perfectly and cost about a tenner!

 

[coullstar 0]

What airbox is that your running and did you have any issues with it hitting the suspension turret?

[tribetype40 0]

Airbox is Standard Mk4. I made a small bracket up to hold it in place behind the battery and one fixing into the turret. the problem is the inlet tube being too long. This was cut and about 1.5 inches removed from the flexible bit then (very tricky!) plastic soldered the two sides of the flexi bit together.

 

I wanted the MK4 look to the engine bay ;-)

[coullstar 0]

Ah, ok. Yeah I have problems with the inlet tube when trying to fit the OE airbox. Determined to get it done though as I prefer the stock look as well.