Nick Must make an effort to come and see you. Somewhere I still have your address. Don't often go past you even though you are quite close. Was looking out some old pics last week and came across some of you and the GT4 in Bracknell town centre from many yonks ago
Hi guys i now have the v8 in the car, the sump has been drilled for the turbo drains, and I;m cleaning the V8 up and getting it all sorted. I spent most of the weekend modifying the block and inlet plenum so I can reverse it on the engine. In the Audi the air inlet is by the bulhead over the gearbox, dont have enough room there for that setup so i need to have the inlet over the front pulley. I have also cut the manifolds ready to make the exhausts Now its done, I think it looks a lot better than OEM.. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Has anyone got a V8 they dont want, I dont care what flavour, but an Audi one would be good.. This one went BANG rather spectacularly; I guess there is no way of telling whatteh previous owner did to it just before selling the car for bits. Looks like it was cooked as the pistons and bits of the heads were melted. Driving the Audi powered kitcar, sadly it looks like the new engine has blown - YouTube
Thats a blow BMW V8's seem to be available pretty cheaply; bmw 535 v8 complete engine | eBay Not sure if that would suit the car.
I now have my "new" 3.7 V8 and new 012x gearbox, over the past few nights I have been transferring my 4.2's bits over to the 3.7. Whilst I was at it I also painted the cam and timing belt covers. This engine has a good history and came from a trusted source. It was only removed due to the Gearbox failing on the A8. I have now spent more time cleaning the engine and gearbox and have started refitting all its little bits. The oil system is different on this engine uses an external filter. So I have made an oil filter/cooler flange and just need a couple of 1/2" -8an fittings to make up the oil pipes.and I also had to make an adapter to fit the flyhweel and pilot bearing. The ECU has been off to another chap to be fixed, this chap seems to know what he is doing and says its all good to go! Can't wait to get it all back in the car and plumbed in. I tried swapping the drive shaft flanges over so i could use the Granada drive shaft adapters. Sadly, the flanges on this gearbox have much larger diameter splines than my old gearbox. But the ratios are great so acceleration and top speed will be scary! GEARBOX BAA25054 012 301 103 BAA: for engine 1.9l 66kW TDI 1st: 3.545 2nd: 1.857 3rd: 1.156 4th: 0.838 5th: 0.683 reverse: 3.500 final drive: 3.889 Now this is a VERY clean engine! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sadly its not dedication, I just dont like to see things unfinished.. had i not been on the 3rd engine in 50 miles I would have finished a while back. Cheers Nick
I now have the new V8 in the car and connected to the HUGE turbos, the engine runs, and the car drives and all in all everything is coming together. The next job is to finish the body work and get the DVLA to do their stuff to my rebodied Ford Granada Scorpio. This 3.7l V8 is as sweet as a nut; I have kept the mechanical water pump and am still using the electric one to keep things cool. I have upgraded the ECU to a higher spec Megasquirt and am running edis-8 and semi sequential injection. This engine is much better than the V12 on petrol! I have also changed the gearbox to a later Audi unit with much bigger and tougher "bits". The CarPC has been upgraded to a quad core Windows 8 machine which looks after the sound system and auto-tuning the ECU. Surprisingly, although this engine is MUCH smaller than the V12 there is even less room in the engine compartment, the car is also very light now, so I will have to lower the rear suspension quite a lot! I have taken loads of time doing it all this time, the wiring looms are all nice and tidy, I rewired the dash and switches, so everything works just perfectly. For the moment I have fitted PVC induction tubes, but they will be changed to aluminium in due course. I have also built an aluminium smelting oven to start sand casting some of the more bespoke bits I need, like trims and finishers. 75% of the body has been smoothed down, there is just one side to go, and then I'll spray it with High build primer. I am not sure whether I want to wrap it, or spray it. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well written Rob I have always supported Nick's project right through even while those in other places rubbished it (even though I am a Mod there!). Must really make an effort to get over to see you Nick, and you are of course always welcome at TVFOC meetings, even if your previous experience wasn't good. I'm in charge now and I can assure you it is a friendly and welcoming environment.
Thanks Mate Hi Francis I was beginning to wonder whether to post here or not as the interest in it seems to have diminished You must come over (I'm away for the next week) I still don't understand what happened on the other site, I was asked to post there and got slaughtered! I felt a bit like a dinner guest in that film "dinner for schmucks". It wasnt just my kitcar he ripped to pieces but my Gt4 too . Ho hum
I'm not sure either Nick. It did surprise me, especially as some of it came from people I know well and otherwise respect. I hope you noticed that I did stick up for you Although - much as I like your GT4 - I do tend to go for originality and don't really like your wheels - but it's YOUR car and you can do what you want with it When are you back. I'm off on hols on 5th Sept so maybe a visit in between?
Thanks Francis, that's cool I am at the Littlewick Show on the 26th August with the GT4 see you there?
It had gone a bit quiet, excellent to have another update. Keep up the good work. In the time it has taken you to do 100 jobs on the "Jag v12" I've only finished fitting one set of seats to my Triumph and got rid of one dashboard squeak! (although it was a very annoying squeak). Incidentally, did you announce on a name for you creation? David
Nick... it's always been a great thread to follow, with all the ups, downs & different engines along the way. Regarding the other matter... haters gonna hate whatever you do. You'll recall my gashing for the DIY door fix that according to some experts would last 6 months, but lasted over 3 years untill car re-painted this June. Bollox to'em all and just carry on. I'm running Revolution wheels on my GT4 now and they're far better for steering lightness, feel, lack of shaking at 80mph, ability to fit modern tyres etc etc.
Thanks Rich.. I have done nothing to it that cant be undone (not that i would want to - and all for the same reasons you said. If Enzo were to make my car today, would he have fitted the wheels he did in 1978 or wheels like the ones I am using now?? A chap called Adrian in another section of this website has developed and made a modern circuit board for teh speedo, and i am just about to fit that... accurate speedo too I have now started to do some more work to the body. Surprisingly one of the hardest jobs was fabricating a fuel filler and getting that to line up with the outside body work. All the panels now line up beautifully and I have made and fitted exterior door handle mechanisms. Such simple things we take for granted on cars take hours to make from scratch, all the levers and push rods I did a load of flattening of the body panels, so a lot of the car is now down to below the gel coat - but its getting very flat At the end of the weekend I had had enough and decided to try the car out. I filled with petrol (through my new nozzle) and tried to drive it. This is the first time I have started it since connecting the turbos etc.. It started first time, but wont idle at all, the only way is to keep feathering the throttle. I dont have a throttle adjustment screw, so I guess I will have to fit one. I think the idle control valve is struggling to regulate the idle and suck through the quite long induction tubing/intercoolers/turbos etc. But it drove! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPjefFejeIo]1st drive Zonda inspired twin turbo 3.7l Audi v8 - YouTube[/ame]
thanks Hud... running much better now [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-hZzoV-b2s]A quick tune up, twin turbo Audi V8 Zonda inspired kitcar - YouTube[/ame]