Diablo 306 HDi Project

[dhdcdarchy]

20psi worth of fuel and I guess a fair bit less actual boost. I need a boost gauge desperately before I get too much more into adjusting the boost blind. The smoke isn't ridiculously bad currently which is why I've left it for when I can actually see what I'm doing to the boost pressure. I'll get a gauge in over the next few weeks.

[Poodle]

Ooooh i missed the bit where you loaded on a stage 2 map from Steve, was thinking you were still on the "pullin power" map. I'll sit down and stfu.

[dhdcdarchy]

Ooooh i missed the bit where you loaded on a stage 2 map from Steve, was thinking you were still on the "pullin power" map. I'll sit down and stfu.

I can't believe I ran that one for so long tbh, I don't know what I was thinking . I couldn't be happier with Steves so far and even with the fuelling how it is I'm still returning ridiculously good mpg 

[insomaniac45]

May i ask,

When you changed your top mounts, whats the wood screw for in the middle of the rubbers?

[dhdcdarchy]

May i ask,

When you changed your top mounts, whats the wood screw for in the middle of the rubbers?

I won't lie I thought that was pretty pikey to be honest. I bought a 'beam tightening kit' from Powerflex and that's what they came with to hold the little Poly shims into the mount. They'll not be on for long as I'm ordering bakerBM solid ones.

[insomaniac45]

so, without that screw, they just pop out? Why not just use some grey silicone gasket, and slide it back in. Might be a better solution to a wood screw  

But, if your ordering solids, that that will be a better fix either way   . Sill love the work you have done.

[dhdcdarchy]

so, without that screw, they just pop out? Why not just use some grey silicone gasket, and slide it back in. Might be a better solution to a wood screw  

But, if your ordering solids, that that will be a better fix either way   . Sill love the work you have done.

Yeah I was pretty surprised, they did come with some packets of what I thought was some form of sealant but it turned out to be copper grease which I really didn't need along with screws  . Bit pikey and not ideal but I didn't think much more into it. Thanks for the kind comments 

[dhdcdarchy]

Just a short update before the new year as some things have changed since my last post.
 
To start off, a couple of pics taken at the End of Season Expo J







I have since swapped out the full tanned leather cabriolet seats and put in the original Meridian black half leathers. I’m on the lookout currently for some decent bucket seats and harnesses to put in.

I also got a set of upper and lower OMP strut braces, the upper of which I’ve fitted.

Finally got a manual boost controller on the car, I just need to take the inlet off drill and tap to get a boost gauge in. I’ve been a bit side-tracked with other projects and work but it’s getting there.

I decided with the cold weather to put my headliner back in the car, although it still remains stripped out in the rear. 



I also got rid of my original steering wheel as chunks were starting to come off it.



OMP wheel and boss much improved the driving position and feel, even with standard seats.

I impulse bought a set of Wilwood 4 pot front calipers with mounts.





I won’t be fitting these right away but I had a moment of weakness when they came up for sale. So I guess I have them now  

I also noticed some wheels I liked come up for sale for a reasonable price and had another ‘moment’ of weakness.





I’m not even sure these will fit over the calipers as they’re 15s but we will have to see.

I test fitted them tonight with 20mm spacers and they look decent, The rear end is going to require lowering a bit more and probably a tad less spacer to get it sitting perfectly.





Gave the car its final full detail of the year a few weeks ago with the help of my friend Adam at ABRevolutions. The session took the two of us 5 hours. We washed, cleaned all trim, clayed, machine polished, sealed, waxed, and cleaned the windows inside and out. Then cleaned, polished, and sealed the wheels.

The fruits of our labour….



You’ll have to excuse the lack of front grille and odd headlights, it was around MOT time so I had to make some minor changes to get it through and have yet to put it back together.














Finally just a little test footage from SJ4000 GoPro clone. Made a mount out of an old headrest, little bit shaky but you get the idea. Need to tweak the settings and as usual compression has nuked the video.



Looking forwards to what the new year brings 
Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas!

[Poodle]

Wow shiny!

[Mole man]

Looking good buddy! Looks very clean! If you ever want sell the speedlines let me no!

[Eeyore]

oh you got those wheels on ebay! I was thinking about the but didnt think they would suit the rallye. Love the headlining!

[dhdcdarchy]

oh you got those wheels on ebay! I was thinking about the but didnt think they would suit the rallye. Love the headlining!

Yeah Haha! I also underestimated how far they were away :p ended up being a 4hour round trip. They won't be going on for a while yet but I like the way they look.

[JTaylor2005]

Looking good mate Very neat looking car and I agree with Eeyore I like the headlining.

[dhdcdarchy]

Okay, so I had a few hours to spend on the car today as it was my day off work.
I finally decided to get a boost gauge fitted and turn it up a bit!
I wasn’t looking forwards to this job and put it off for far too long, after doing it I have no idea why It was a simple task and everything went well (Despite fighting with my strut brace)



Removed the C5 elbow, drilled and tapped the conveniently placed flat face of it.




I then posted my vac hose through the bulkhead into the cabin.



I decided to simply dash mount the gauge for the time being, I have no interest in converting the blower. Ideally I would like a pillar pod, but this is fine for now. I have yet to wire any form of live to the gauge but will do this weekend.



I then wound in my manual boost controller until I was seeing about 20psi J
Please excuse the dirty engine bay.



This then revealed yet again my hoses are shit and leaky.
The next few weeks will be tidy up work making sure everything is solid readying the car for full fat stage 2 not only this but tidying up so that it is as good as it can be. Starting this weekend I plan to rid the car of General Motors hosing which is currently running all of the lower joins to my intercooler (not very well I might add) the joins are very thin and one is starting to split and leaking slightly. I will overhaul all of the piping to make it more secure replacing the hosing with appropriately sized Samco ones. I will also be servicing and potentially replacing the crankshaft pulley as it is starting to become noisy yet again. I will give the bay a good going over, getting rid of tie wraps etc and cleaning everything up.

Next on the list I will be getting an R70 pump and another more aggressive remap.

Thanks for reading

[MY95]

Update looks good and new plans sound sweet! You should get some videos of it up acceleration wise

[dhdcdarchy]

Update looks good and new plans sound sweet! You should get some videos of it up acceleration wise

Cheers!

That's another thing I keep meaning to do, some flyby and general hooning videos.
I don't want to get some poor quality footage but the GoPro clone I got isn't that great and its always bloody dark this time of year!

I'm thinking of getting a proper GoPro soon, Also working on a promo style polished video of the car with a friend.

[dhdcdarchy]

I had a week off work and the car was in desperate need of some TLC, I have been piling the mileage on it and had no time for any maintenance.

I noticed when going out to the car when it was cold or damp and it had been stood it would hesitate to start. This then turned into not starting at all one night as I was leaving work. The lift pump was not priming when the ignition was turned. I had this problem previously where a section of the loom had needed repair. I quickly checked the fuses which were obviously all fine, I then whipped the bumper off to get a good look at the loom running down the front of the car. I stripped it all back and there seemed to be evidence of water ingress, I cleaned the section up and the car started and got me home.

Now I have some time, I stripped the loom back all along that section and re-wrapped and protected it. Hopefully this should solve my issue. (Also I am aware that I'm gonna need some tires   )



The car had also developed a nasty inlet leak from the elbow, making it sound like a jet plane. This should have been pretty simple to solve, but talking to a few of my mates while removing it caused me to unknowingly round the last bolt holding the inlet to the EGR. I originally tried to smash a socket onto it, then resorted to drilling it out but access is so poor down there I eventually gave up with that.

I decided I would rip the whole EGR off and blank both sides, then I could take the elbow off while it was no longer on the car.



Mini upstack? 









I made a template from the EGR base and made up a blanking plate, it’s not pretty but it’ll do the job.



I then changed the top left engine mount which had been squeaking for a while under harsh gear changes etc. I’d taken this off anyway to get better access to the EGR bolts which are a nightmare to get to while the intake piping is in the way. Thankfully no cracks or rot underneath the mount!





I had also been having issues holding enough boost, the inlet would see 20psi but I was still getting black smoke and unburned fuel. So I went over my manual boost controller hosing and made sure everything was as it should, I shortened a section of it because it was longer than it needed to be. I also replaced some tired old silicone boost hose with shiny Samco so everything should be tight.



I serviced the car which was long overdue, including a flush of the coolant system.



Only other additions would be Evo 4 seats (currently only have the passenger side mounted due to the height adjustment on the base of the driver’s seat, I still need to make some mounting brackets)



These will be getting professionally recovered when I am happy that the mounts are all sorted. 

I’m currently in the process of buying my first house so I’m trying not to be retarded with money, with this in mind:
In the next month or so a turbo upgrade is in the pipeline. I have purchased a decent GT2052s already which will hopefully be gearbox mounted to be a bit different (among the other benefits) 



Finally, some shiny pictures! (Feat. the girlfriends 205)





Thanks for reading

[JTaylor2005]

Some good work gone on here! Fair play for getting the EGR out fully without taking the engine out. I have heard they are a right ball ache to do :/
Some nice work gone on there

[Eeyore]

looks tidy. keep up the good work.

[dhdcdarchy]

Thanks guys yeah the EGR had me swearing and I have so many cuts and bruises on my hands from wedging them down the back :p it's not that much of a difficult task once you realise how to get access.

[JTaylor2005]

What does my head in working on the back of the engine is the studs that stick out of the bulkhead which look like they are for earthing on different models. U end up cutting the back of ur hand or arm on them as you move past them. Cant remember if they were on this car or my previous one they were like that.