for those that have followed my build i now have my car near run in ,
i have to say it sounds awesome and but for the slimline fan not being able to regulate the temp quickly enough for my liking it's running flawlessly
untill i sort out another solution we have had to remove the aircon rad and move everything as far forward as possible and squeeze the originals in... which are working a treat for now, though i expect that wont last as they are 2 millimeters away from the turbo and touching the manifold at 1 point i think ,so i don't hold out much hope for the bearings when i start boosting the turbo untill its glowing!
the car is unmapped and on a gtec chip yet we have seen 1/2 a bar at 3k! already and i have had to drive with a very light foot and let revs build gently...i don't like the thought of my turbo bearings and that crappy mineral oil!
i go on tuesday to have a dta ecu wired in and over the week get it mapped though we can only go to about 550 as the rollers can not cope with much more and i will have to go back a few weeks later as john(mapper) is having new rollers for upto 1000 bhp installed
i am so impressed and glad that the car has been so easy to get on with and not given any problems at all for which i have to say a big thanks to barbz who is just an incredible and enthusiatic tuner/engineer/engine builder as some of the solutions he has come up with for various problems we came up against are just brilliant and i believe completely that very few people could have built a set up as good as this..
it's not just about forging internals and bolting on a big turbo..some of the over seas guys have done that and we have seen there power graphs...not a lot happening at all then it all happens over a few thousand revs..no problem with that if thats what you want but to build an engine thats so civilised and easy to use and yet will out perform most supercars for a fraction of the cost is no mean feat..i may be jumping the gun here as i am yet to be mapped and the mappers skill will come into play also,but from the performance so far and from driving barbz which is similar upto a point ,i am sure it will do what i asked him for..and you have to respect the guy that designed and built it as he went with a new piston design and everything from the headwork to head/valve design,manifold diameter pipework etc were all designed to make the type of engine i required..this was not just some buy everything off the shelf and fit together job but a proffesional aproach to a cohesive whole he was trying to achieve and has done so exceptionally well..just brilliant
i wanted a car i could drive everyday that was good and easy in traffic smooth to drive if i was running round with the wife and kids yet brutal enough to beat every coupe in the uk if i wanted to ( i also said i would like to see 600bhp without race fuel)but that wasn't first priority ..seriously thats what i asked him for! and it is real smooth and real easy to drive in fact the hardest thing about it is the clutch which although is no major issue is quite "well sprung" shall we say
so i have everything i wanted, the final ask will not be known for a while though, as i say johns rollers may not be able to cope but will she or wont she?
for those thinking of doing similar i will say this if you are not going to use the extra 100 bhp don't do it!.. its pretty straight forward to do a 500 bhp 2.4 as you can use the standard manifold though it will need barbz to work on it for that ..and you can use standard garret turbos even internal wastegate so its all straight forward stuff..the amount of extra money it costs to take it to over 600 and have a clutch and other parts that can cope is not at all in proportion to the extra gains
theres also a lot of extra work in trying to get a much bigger manifold,a turbo twice the size of the original and air cooled,an external gate,plumbing for it all to fit and not to cause massive issues with heat etc(especially when a awkward owner wants to keep his aircon..i wont even start on the things that have gone into the build that have never been (or needed to be) on other coupes it really does have a lot of 1 off and original parts and solutions.
all in all i couldn't be happier with the car and am looking forward to seeing what it can do