Monzadave

Got the pistons from Gwerks on wednesday (cheers Darren and Rob), and got the block bored yesterday, took it down to auto service and spares 7:30 in the morning and they had it done by 4 in the after noon :D Heres some pics of the block and the new pistons :D heres a comparison of my new wossner pistons against Joes motorcross bike piston :D The builds back on :D Woo.

Right 'O, i guess its time for an update on this overly long tale on woe :( Well, after finding out that the pistons that monkey had were not G60 pistons after all (they were miss sold to monkey in the first place :? ), i have phoned Darren at Gwerks and ordered a set of Wossner 82.5mm pistons, So thats that problem solved. But now the block that i have had bored out has too large a bores of the wossner pistons, so yesterday i had to go out the elworthy's and dig out the other bottom end (the original block that was in the car in the first place) and clean and paint it ready for boring out (again). theres no pictures of us cleaning and painting because it looks exactly the same as the last one lol. So, should be getting the pistons delivered today, and then the block and pistons can go down to scratch tomorrow for machining :D I also got this through the post today, well happy with the quality :D should do the job jsut fine :D and just got these through too :D Woo fingers crossed all should be back on track and the build can continue soon :D

update, Well, it seems like life has shitted on me once again. Me and Oliver got started on rebuilding the block thursday night, all was going well, Oliver got all the upwards oil sprays in, all the MAIN bearings and the crank all in and lovely. While olly was sorting out the bottom end i was cleaning a windage tray and baffeled sump that Jim had kindly let me have (cheers again nasey :D ) the sump was pretty battered but after a clean, rub down and a couple coats of hamerite it looked good as new :D . Olly then removed the old pistons from the top of the rods takingoff the circlips and sliding out the pins. Then i gave Olly a hand removing and replacing all the rod bolts and nuts which was a pan in the ass, but we got it done :D . Then came time to put the new (monkey's) 83mm pistons on the G60 rods and.... ****! .... The pins are different sizes. It turns out that the pistons from Monkey are forged 1.8 8v pistons, and not G60 ones after all :( So the gudgen pins are smaller then the G ones and they can't be used. So much for me not having to shell out for new pistons :( Anyway, after alot of swearing, and wanting to beat the living shit out of something to release my rage (i'm not angry at monkey, he's a ledge, just a pain in the ass), me and Oliver decided to do some more work since we were there and already dirty. So Oliver grabed the charger and comenced to crack it open to have a good look at the bearings and seals to make sure the oil on the outlet was not a bad sign. Thankfully all was ok in the charger, and Oliver stripped it down into three pieces (not sure what the middle bits called :? lol) and we cleaned all the crap out of it that the crappy cone filter had filled it up with. taking out all the apexi seals very carefully and cleaning very carefully we got all of the gunk out and re greased it all up and replaced the seals again. Now is as good as new and making a new slopping sound when turned lol. I have already rung Darren and new pistons are going to be £490 :-S. Cheers Dave

update, Started on some more bits on the rado last night, We and Oliver started cleaning the newly bored out block, and cleaning out the crap left in the rocker cover from the powdercoating :D Heres some pics of the block :D all nice and clean now a 1.9 :D Heres the other block that we didn't use ing the end, After all was clean and no machining dust and crap could get in the engine, we sorted out all the bits that i had been buying over the last month. 100's of pounds worth of stuff there, but its all needed :D We then had a look at the bits i've had powdercoated and realise they didn't tape off all the bits that i wanted, oh well, me and Oliver use a stanley knife and cut off the powdercoating in the unwanted areas, and all id well again lol. Oliver hard at work... Next time we should be able to start putting it all together :D Woo, just waiting on a downpipe, and some bits from VAG, and we're ready to go :D Cheers Dave

Well, i think i just ordered the last part i need for the Rado, so hopefully we should have everything in the next few days and we can get on with putting it all back together :D Woo. Watch this space people :D

Cheers :D , If Oliver wasn't such a good bloke and offered to help so much i would be in complete sh*t tbh. Having a mate that knows pretty much everything anout rado G60's certainly helps :D Cheers again Oliver :D your a ledge :D Dave

haha, it dod look awesome in primer, maybe next time (god i hope theres not a next time lol).

Another update, Went round Olivers again last night to get some more work done, remembered to bring the electrical tape this time and Oliver got to work taping up the looms so it no longer looks like spaghetti scattered across the engine bay :D I had yesterday day off work to send my porsche wheels off to there new owner, so i took the alt and some brackets home to paint them up, no pics but they are ready painted in black too :D. On my day off yesterday i went down to see scratch at auto service and spares to have a chat to hime about the pistons and the block, after a talk he said they should be fine, and he would say there would be no problems using them :) so thats good enough for me :D . So he is boring out the block for the 83mm pistons and should be done soon :D . I also went to gsf and vw to get the last of the parts i need, spent another £150 on parts, and the pile now look like this: Still need some bits though, so will be ringing around today to get them :D Last but not least we decided to paint the charger, after have a good look at it and opening up the boost return block off plate, we could see that the green cone filter that had been run on the car had left loads of green crap inthe charger, which had made a sort of grinding paste within the charger, so we cleaned it out best we could, and threw some primer on it :D (after cleaning it first of course)... Then, we applied the top coat :D Its the same colour as the paint on the car, and it has come up awesome, should be something different for the bay :D Thats about it, now i'm off to spend more money on parts :( lol :D Will keep you all updated :D

heres a quick (late) update, Heres some nice pics of all the parts that have been cleaned and or painted so far: Lots on there, and last night me and Lau went out to clean the rest, and i have the alt and more brakets to paint soon. Then theres just the gearbox to paint :D The engine bay was given a lick of laquor the other night too :D I don't have the cash to fit a front mount at the mo, so we are going to be using the original intercooler :( so we cleaned it up :D I have recently aquired (cheers monkey) some 83mm pistons that i plan to use in the bottom end due to the block having too much ware to use the original 81mm pistons. they have some damage but i have been told by the guy doing the machining that they should be ok :D but i'm getting him to have a good look at them to make sure :D . So fingers crossed all will be ok to use and i'll get the rest of the bits i need tomorrow :D . Will keep you all updated. Cheers Dave

Do you think they'd be ok for charger applications?? or are they too bad do you think???

Haha, cheers Darren. I have some that i got off Monkey, and i'm going to take them down to the place doing my head to see if he thinks they are useable, if not i will be giving you a call Darren.

Sorry for slaking on the updates, the pics are still on the camera, but will post them up soon :D. Lots to do tonight, was going to get somemore LP7Z paint made up and paint the charger the same colour as the car, what do people think?? Bad news on the bottom end front, the other block i sent off to be honed has too much ware in one of the bores as well :( which means i am going to have to go 83mm pistons :( . more expense but has to be done. Will get a load of pics and a new update tomorrow :D

another update :D Went out to see Oliver and do some more painting last night, meant to only go out for a little while and do a couple of small things, but we got a bit carried away :? lol. I rubbed down the cleaned inlet mani and started to spray it, And ended up with this :D While i was playing with the inlet, Lau primered and painted some more of the brakets and bits that are on the engine :D they came out pretty good i thought :D Oliver decided to prep the engine bay for a spray by rubbing it down and spraying on some wash primer then some normal primer :D Then both me and Olly rubbed down the primer on both sides getting rid of any inperfections, then put on another layer of primer and it was ready for a coat of colour :D It went on really well considering i bought the colour from halfords. Oliver gave it a couple coats of colour and we left it there for the night (mainly coz we ran out of paint lol). I'm getting some laquor today and shoudl be able to give the bay a couple coats sometime this week :D . Keep watching for more updates :D Cheers Dave

Thanks for the kind words people :D Update: Well, i took the head and bottom end down to Auto service and spares in Exeter to get the head re-built and the bottom end honed reasy for new rings :D , only to get a phone call saying the scoring on the bores of the block were too bad for just a re-hone, and i would need to bore out the block and get new pistons :( . So after a talk with Oliver we decided to strip down the original block that was in the rado and take that down to Auto service and spares and see if it could be used instead (i don't really want to be forking out £500 on new pistons :? ). So a free night came, and i went out to see young Oliver to get some much needed work done :D I got out to Cotley and i set Oliver on the old block we put it onto the engine frame, and after taking some of my skin off Oliver undid everything and had it stripped in no time :D While Oliver was stripping the engine and didn't need someone to mangle :lol: i carried on the seemlessly endless job of cleaning lol I got the gearbox to look like this From So i was pretty happy, i just need to clean it off and paint it :D I got bored of cleaning and couldn't be assed to paint, so i cleaned some more of the engine bay and started rubbing down some surface rust in the bay :D I decided that i would need more then just my hands, so i am going to get my dads grinder to finish it off :D Oliver had finally finished the block and called it a day And we went in for some well earned tea :D Next on the list is to get the old block cheked and hopefully honed, then contine to buy bits with the money from selling Monza :( . Will keep everyone posted :D Cheers Dave

Bit of a late update, but i've only just got the pics off my camera :? On Thursday me, Olly and Lau decided to crack on with the Rado, so we went out Ollys and donned our overalls ready to get greasy once again :D Me and olly shoved the old engine onto a make shift engine frame, and started unbolting everything, as we are no longer using the block from that engine. (here comes a shed load of pics :D ) Inlet off Gearbox came off easily, but was pretty greasy, Ramdon bits start piling up lol The head looked pretty good Didn't take too long to gut the old block, bits and pieces, bits and bobs :D While me and olly were playing in grease, Lau was cleaning it out of the bay :D She did an awesome job, and it came up awesome :D Then i started on the gearbox, sooooooo very greasy found a nice place to keep the beer :D Woo Heres Lau's finished work :D After a good clear up we were finished for the night :D . Since then Oliver has stripped the head and the new block so i can take then for machining on Monday :D And me and Lau have gone out and had a good go at cleaning off those dirty brakets and bits and bobs, ready for painting :D Stay tuned for updated soon :D

Yes, it is shocking. If i wanted to spend 6k on a car i'd have bought an S2.

The work on the charger was done in 2005, so i'm guessing its out of any warranty that jabba may have put on it :(

Well, a could weeks ago i made the trip all the way up to Rotherham (from Exeter) to look at Griffs Rado G60 that he put up for sale on here, and evidently bought it :D Now the car was less then perfect, with a broken ignition switch, and a few dents, but i thought it wouldn't take much to make it perfect, and so we agreed on 4.5k for the car :D . Now on the way home i was unable to start the car, and ended up bumping it several times, but this was due to the ignition switch, so i wasn't too annoyed. Then while pulling out of a service station i pressed the clutch down and it only came up a 1/4 of the way back up again, and i couldn't engauge any gears. shitting myself a bit i stuck my foot under the pedal and popped the pedal back up and all was fine :D . So after that the rest of the 240 mile drive was fine (but for not being able to stop the car of fear of it not starting again). I got home and the car wouldn't start at all, so i left it and waited for monday until i could get the new ignition switch. I got the new switch and fitted it (taking out the poorly installed starter button) and all was fine. God knows why the starter button was fitted in the first place, when all that was needed was a new VAG ignition switch :? So after i fitted the new switch i went out for a drive with a couple people, and did another 40miles or so, started to head out to my mates house (oliver Elworthy on here) and on the way the oil light and buzzer came on, so i stopped straight away and phone Olly, he told me to check a few things, like temp and if there was any oil in it (i topped it up after i got home from buying it), all seemed ok, temp was 106, and there was oil in the engine. But taking no chances Olly came out and toed me to his house. We checked both the high and low oil senders but nothing changed, the buzzer was still coming on. So we left it for the night and planned to take the sump off the following night to have a look to see what was going on. Heres the results of taking the sump off the next night: What we found in the sump... The shells: Throwing the pump back on The rado flying So, after finding that the new car that i have just bought has to be rebuilt, i was less then a happy bunny. So i rang up Griff to see if i could get some kind of good will gesture off of him, concidering i'd had the car for 5 days and done 300 miles. Griff said on the phone that he had already spent the 4.5k i paid for the car, and he was skint, so couldn't even send me a small amount to help pay for the rebuild. :( Next I got in touch with Monkey about a spare bottom end that he said he had, and me and Olly went up to pay him a visit to have a look: Monkey was busy when we got to his garage. Working on his very own flying Rado lol. Then someone else pull up... Was good to see Jimbo again, not too sure he was too happy to see us though :lol: Picked up Monkey's spare block for a great price (cheers again monkey) and me and Olly were off again We got back and had a look at the shells and crank, and they were fine :D saving me a job of having mine ground down :D Then after a couple hours of bits and bobs and a bit of cleaning we had this: Saw the rado taking a peak at her new heart too After aquiring a new bottom end, it was time to take the old engine out of the rado. So me and my girlfriend Lau went out to the elworthy's and found olly had already taken the front off the Rado and was already nice and greasy lol. Once i was suited up i helped with the undoing of all the pipes and wiring connecting the engine to the car. After taking off the intercooler olly unbolted the rs outlet on the charger to have a look inside, and found... A layer of grease inside the outlet of the charger, this isn't good, especially since the charger was supposed to have been rebuilt to stage 4 only 4k ago, but we wont know whats exactly wrong until Olly splits the charger (not yet). While all this was going on Lau was enforced to clean the new block (coz i was rubbish at it and did a crap job last time). heres lau putting some elbow grease into it :D Next me and olly stapped up the rado's engine ready for the crane to lift it out... and then... Woo leaving having a closer look at the empty engine bay you could see the it was less then clean :? (another cleaning job for Lau ). Oliver then jumped into the bay to have a closer look at the "stevie wonder" lamba wiring, And Olly also found some shoddy wiring connected to the dizzy plug that when into the cabin, maybe for a shift light. By now Lau had finished cleaning the new block and was onto painting :D Then Oliver sent me into the bay with some brake cleaner to see what was underneath the grease, and i'm happy to say that the grease has saved the subframe from any kind of rust, result. Lau's results of painting, turned out awesome :D End f the night this is how we left her till next time, Oliver after a hard nights work (cheers again Oliver), Next i need to contact Darren at Gwerks for some parts, and the cleaning of the lump and bay can start :D Till next time... Cheers Dave

I will do my best. Got a few things to sort out on the car, got to sort out the ignition, as the car doesn't even start now :( and the clutch needs a slave cylinder, and the fueling needs to be sorted (used £60+ of petrol getting from Rotherham to Devon :-S). I will start a new members thread and keep it updated with the future mods :D Cheers Dave

i have the same problem with my mk2 Golf 16v, its an intermitant fault that i can't work out how to fix (i haven't really tried yet though). my water is fine and i've changed the sensor in the top (old style) of the header tank, if anyone know how to fix it it would be great coz its really annoying lol.

pm sent. could turn out to be a good site :D you should move the top menu into the center of the screen though :D

i signed this ages ago, does it say when it has to be finished for??

they ment 20" rims, so theres nothing to worry about :lol: what a bunch to twats lol. :lol: :lol: :lol:

my point exactly yandards, there are some vw 'specilists' out there that have been reported as using the wrong/dangerous methods when rebuilding engines or doing conversions (menthing no names coz i what to keep the thread on track) but they would be seen as a better/safer conversion then if done by yourself, even if you know what you are doing...

I have read this thread on a couple of forums now and most people seem to say the same thing, most people think its good to stop the likes of chavs and muppet’s doing half assed mods on their saxo's which are unsafe. But personally I’m pissed off with the amount that I have to pay for motoring now, with petrol tax, road tax, insurance, mot's, and the price of mods aren't exactly cheap. With this new legislation we will be paying even more for a 'super' mot, and if all mods (suspension, breaks, steering wheels etc) will have to have a 'TUV' type test to check quality, then they will cost more to buy too. Now, I don’t want to sound like a cheap skate (too late for that now I think) but that’s just how my mind works. And, I would have thought all engine conversions would have to be carried out by a qualified mechanic, with receipts proving such.