Mars Red GTX Restoration

[GTXcess]

No longer mine but very much not forgotten - keep up the good work Henry I can't wait to see how it turns out. I forwarded the link to the previous owner as well who also keeps tabs on progress.

[Roxylife]

Thanks everyone

Pulled the old girl out for a clean and polish today, also fitted a new fog light to replace the one that I had with a broken lens and no bulb! All working now though! The small things give me just as much satisfaction funnily enough,









Put her away in the garage nice, dry and safe

[Roxylife]

Inlet manifold built up with new bolts, gaskets, seals etc.. New silicone vacuum hose, and injector seals. Ready to fit when I get my head back next week





Turbo is ready to fit after a good check over and clean too... Coming together nicely.

[Roxylife]

Cylinder head is back







Just waiting on gaskets and then I can start building this jigsaw puzzle!

Also got some 100mm Gearbox drive flanges off eBay for the 02J gearbox and a new engine to gearbox dust plate.. Pics to follow! Getting there now!

[eefy]

hmmm super clean ;)

[Roxylife]

Oil pump re-attached to the block using the correct torque, making sure al bolt holes were clean and fluid free. The oil pump was stripped and rebuilt having checked the tolerance with feeler gauged. The chain and tensioner also re-attached and torqued up.



From underneath, you can see the oil Windage tray. All the faces of the sump and sides of the block have been meticulously cleaned as leaks will appear if not. I normally use a Stanley blade followed by white spirit on a lint free rag to avoid greasy surfaces and 'bits'.

As I'm still waiting for some bottom end gaskets, I cracked on with the head:

Again being meticulously clean and thoroughly cleaning the faces of both the block and head. But most importantly cleaning out the bolt holes in the block. This is the critical for achieving the correct torque. I also use a bit of ARP moly lube on the bolt threads and bottom of the bolt heads. Not a lot, but just enough to lubricate so the correct torque can be achieved.

40nm, wait 20 mins, 60nm wait 20 mins, then check that 60nm has been achieved over all bolts again. Then the final 'stretching stage' of the bolts can start with a further 90 degrees, then a further 90 degrees. Then breath a sigh of relief! All felt very nice and smooth and no issues

I put the tappets back in which had been cleaned and stored in fresh oil.





I added the alternator mount too. Just a dab of copper grease on these bolts.

And the rear:



Good progress this week so far.

[GTXTRA]

VERY VERY nice Henry.

you just need to ditch the RS and buy my spare set of 7 x 15 RA ..................

[Roxylife]

Thanks Sean, I'm not even sure I will change the wheels at all! - Quite tempted to keep the 'bottle tops' after I get them refurbished!.. The ultimate stealth look!

I have been busy on the engine all day today today too, so an update to follow when I'm all cleaned up and fed!

[Roxylife]

A productive few days I'll let the pics doing the talking!

Dirko sealant, used by VW, the ONLY sealant to use! It's the daddy.


Front main seal pressed in and attached, sealant applied and all bolts torqued correctly and a new bolt and correct torque on the main pulley. Very important to always fit a new bolt here, as its a stretch bolt!



Next the cams went in, carefully timed with the rebuilt chain tensioner and new thin metal gasket underneath. All caps and bolts torqued down correctly. New seals on the other end.


Cams were liberally lubricated before and after they were installed with build lube.


Rocker cover torqued down with new gasket.


New bolts on the pulleys here too, torqued correctly.


Sump on, excuse the poor pic. Dirko sealant applied and carefully positioned and torqued down.


Oil breather, thermostat and rad take off pipe added, both with new gaskets/o-ring, bolts torqued correctly as always!


CV joint heat shield attached.


Integrated Engineering manual tensioner spacer kit fitted.




Knock sensors, and crank position sensor torqued in. And wires routed to bracket.




Cam position sensor and plates fitted (only temporarily until the cambelt and water pump arrive).


Vacuum hoses for fuel pressure regulator and N75 valve take off..


Inlet manifold, dipstick tube, and brackets fitted along with water pipe.


Plugs, coil packs, throttle body and covers and A1 chassis mount attached.





Tomorrows job.

[Roxylife]

Sorry for the lack of update, work, getting the race car ready and general lack of motivation! I'm a firm believer in the fact to get something done properly, unless your in the right frame of mind. Or can actually be bother than you you shouldn't start it. So, a few months later!

The tensioner thread in the head was a little suspect as when I was timing the belt up it didn't 'feel right' to my OCD hands! So I removed the stud and it came out with half the thread attached to it! obviously a previous attempt by someone to tighter the tensioner bolt had been a bit hefty!

Not too much of an issue though. I had a good friend of mine come over and put a Würth Timesert helicoil in there for me, which is actually better than winding into alloy I think anyway.. Proper job as always, here's the results with the rest of the pics from the manual tensioner conversion..

Heli coil inserted.


Stainless stud inserted with a dab of blue thread lock.


Spacer installed.


Mk2 16v tensioner installed.


Aerospace 'K-Nut' pinch bolt. £Pricey, but worth it.


All timed up and tensioned and covers on.

[GTXcess]

How's the Scirocco going, did you manage to get the new engine in?

[Roxylife]

Pm me your email address!
I moved the photobucket photos into a folder and it wrecked all the links, hence the pics missing here!

Engine is now in, just plumbing it all up!

Add me on Facebook 'Henry Wright' and there is the album on there

[Roxylife]

Few updates
Shes coming along!