Mike's helios blue 2.0 16vG60

smudger1980 said

Mike I went for a Seat clutch cable and it was a bit of a pi$$er to fit. Needed to of us to do in the end. Let me know if you need any fitting tips

Cheers Andy - I'll take you up on that when the time comes. Did you get your cable from a Seat dealer?

tidymike said

smudger1980 said

Mike I went for a Seat clutch cable and it was a bit of a pi$$er to fit. Needed to of us to do in the end. Let me know if you need any fitting tips

Cheers Andy - I'll take you up on that when the time comes. Did you get your cable from a Seat dealer?

I got it online mate. The details were in my old PM's which I can't access now but as i recall it was £40. I will have a think and see if I can remember mate.

6K0721335F I think is the Seat part number.

Thanks mate  

I'm not 100% on that mate and don't know exactly what gearbox you have. I have the same one as Pete so might be worth chatting to him as well. Was a^%$£&^ to fit though.

It's been a while and I can't say I did much with the car between May and December apart from driving it to the odd Berks meet.

One little job for the MoT was new handbrake cables, the while the drums were off it was obvious that the brake shoes could do with replacing and the whole lot smartened up a bit
Before


After


MoT passed with no advisores and then the car was used as our family daily for about 3 weeks in November while we were between cars.

Then I had a bit of bad luck with it when the tensioner for the serpentine belt (supercharger, water pump and alternator drive belt) snapped. Luckily I was sat at traffic lights so none of the bits got tangled up in the cam belt or it could have been disastrous

Broken bracket:






It was aparently a prototype that should have been replaced with a proper one before I got the car back, but either way it shouldn't have been left like this - no wonder it broke.  Luckily no harm done.

My little bruv does CAD design for hs day job so he got the final designs together for me.

Mocked up in plywood (!)


Then I had this made up by BCT Engineering in Woking - brilliant engineering shop that were good enough to fit a one off into their busy schedule




When I collected it they were busy making F1 bits out of titanium for MacLaren so I'm in good company!

Fitted, first run
http://youtu.be/-v1CHGIcIjo

Then made it to the CGTI dyno day on Sunday.  Nice to meet some new people there and Eddie and the guys from Garage Streamline put on a great day - I was one of 2 mk1s.

http://youtu.be/2YhzuwBkRP4

Slightly disappointed with 217bhp on the first run due to belt slippage, increased to 231bhp on the second run after tensioning it up. There's a lot further to go though as I was getting a peak of 0.5 bar boost at 3000rpm, reducing to 0.4 over the rest of the rev range. This must still be belt slippage to an extent so may have to go with a toothed belt - will discuss over on dubforce but any opinions here would be welcome too. Once that's sorted I think it'll be gong back to Eddie for a detailed remap. The new injectors weren't needed as it was running safely rich with the reduced boost.

I probably should have a word with myself about being disappointed too - it's still pretty lively as it is!

Another job that got done while SORNed in the good weather - side stripes refitted (pop rivets carefully drilled out and replaced with plastic inserts and screw type)




Arches are back on now too…

Next up is a lick of Alumablast on the 02A gearbox and get it fitted. Here it is washed, brushed and getting ready for primer



That's it for now - I'll post a link to the dyno stuff once Eddie's had a chance to analyse and publish the results

Nice update, lucky that nothing worse happened when that bracket went - liking the new one though  

I'd say you've got a lot to be happy about  

Thanks- yes I'm overall pretty happy. The mk5 edition 30 that ran before me made almost exactly the same bhp!




Can't wait to get the gearbox in, then it's just small fun jobs

Bad luck with the bracket snapping, but could have been worse  

New one is a work of art.

Matt

anymore on this stunning car

heliosmk1 said

anymore on this stunning car

Thanks 

As it happens I did get a few hours in the garage today, finally got around to painting the gearbox. Will post some pics later.
I think I'm putting off having to try and fit it!
I have all the necessary tools and parts though I think so will have a go after the bank holiday weekend

It's the best mk1 I've ever seen.

Pm if you ever fancy selling it

This is awesome, 16v G60 is the best bit,that new tensioner bracket does look good though!!

Finally a small update and some pics - gearbox painted now ready to fit. I'll be using the car tomorrow to travel to work but after that I've got some time off to get it fitted.

Primed





Bit of surface rust on the end plate treated



Finished with 4 coats of alumablast and satin black on the end plate





After doing the primer I read on the side of the Alumablast can that it can be applied directly to aluminium so I may not have needed it, but never mind.

Pretty happy with the results although it's not going to be seen by many!

Looking good dude

Very tidy job  

Snail's pace getting around to this, but out you go awkward stinky 02O box





It was all fairly straightforward in the end except that the engine and gearbox had gone in as one and the bolts holding the passenger side mount to the gearbox had been put in from the wrong side making one of them impossible to remove completely as the chassis leg was in the way. I ended up having to grind the head off the bolt to get the mount off and allow the gearbox the be removed. 
Clutch and flywheel next. 

     

Nice work mate.   

Beeno said

Nice work mate.   

Thanks  

Got some more garage time this afternoon, so put my shiny new breaker bar to use to get those flywheel bolts off. Note the gearbox bell housing bolt/13mm spanner/clutch bolt technique to lock the flywheel



It's only a 450mm bar but made all the difference getting the bolts undone.

New lightened and balanced G60 flywheel on and torqued up with new bolts



And VR6 clutch - again with new bolts



Just the gearbox left to go on now-hopefully at the weekend. Have decided to go hydro while I'm at it so will be getting the JustCaddys conversion just as soon as I can get the car back on the ground and away from that side of the garage to get at the steering column!

SEAT actuator and new unused cable will be up for sale soon