Project Yellow thing - coming to an end

[John1.4]

in terms of actual build quality, absoloutly fine, they could probably do some RnD on how they fit on actual cars, as they are meant to be a straight fit, and they do have to be fiddled with to fit well,

---

they are straight through boxes yeah, think they also have some 'side' baffles outside the internal perforated pipe though (which is the bit that'd come loose i think) to absorb a bit of the sound to mellow it out a bit, sounds really good imo

---

this is with a torch shone down the first one i had

[attachment=19305]

[Midnightclub]

I used to love my sportex system on my GTi, but it was pretty loud, I did not care

[John1.4]

i really need a rally spec intercom for when other people are in the car anywhere near motorway speeds, it's just shouting most of the time

[Midnightclub]

Yeah I know the feeling lol! Motorway cruising in the GTi was insanely loud.. although it was essentially a straight through.. no cat, straight through centre to sportex backbox

[John1.4]

yeah the only standard box i have is the cat, might even go for a sport one in a stainless manifold if it passes the MOT this year

[John1.4]

so.... it didn't pass... at all, well... bits of it did, the headlights were naff, with no visible pattern, which i rectified last night with lots of cleaning products, the inner lenses had gone cloudy, and turns out there was a surprisingly large amount of filth on it as well, so now really clear and the light pattern is back!!!!!

however

the other thing it failed on was emissions.... like bad, 5% CO bad,

the tester did manage to test it at basically flat cold though, and i only heard one fast idle test, which was naughty imo,

so today to cover all the bases, i refitted the headlights properly, then went checking sensors / filters etc, water temp was in range, but i had a spare so swapped that in anyways, might get a new lambda sensor just to see if it makes a difference, tbh i wasn't sure it was the right one when it arrived, and i've ordered a couple of new exhaust gaskets for the downpipe join as it's crap and blowing ever so slightly,

past that it all should be okay, theres no obvious air leaks, plugs, leads, coilpack, cat are all fairly new...

more progress hoped for next week when it goes back to the garage, full hot, straight on the tester

[bradh511]

5% CO sounds like your cat is a bit past it

[Poodle]

Erm, yeah, CO readings will be high when the engine's cold, it's all part of the engine warm up. 5% is a hell of a lot though. A good lambda and a serious italian tune-up should do wonders, fingers crossed for the retest.

[Matt-Rallye]

5% CO sounds like your cat is a bit past it

Whereabouts in hereford are you from dude?

Sorry for the thread hijack

[John1.4]

well fitted the new downpipe gasket today and it's still leaking, albeit from a different place so i'm calling that a victory...FML i wish people still did the fibre gaskets for that

new lambda is arriving on wednesday and then back to the test centre on friday for it's retest (after a thorough ragging)

[Piggy]

exhaust paste for the win!!!

[John1.4]

mm, just looks like a complete mess, tempted to re-do that exhaust join and make a tubular manifold to suit, i'd cut the downpipe before the bend under the engine and weld in a 4 bolt flange or something like, then create a 4-1 using the head flange i've got from that scrap 4-2-1 i had

---

just wanna get it through an mot first

[John1.4]

lambda arrived it's a genuine bosch part, got it for £47 which i think is an ok price, just have to see if it makes a difference now

[John1.4]

retest moved to today at 4, this is the acid test for the future of this car, if it fails i'm not sure i should carry on with it, as a cheap car it's ok, but to plunge as much as it's worth into it again i think would just be crazy... opinions?

[John1.4]

riiiight, emissions have come down some, from the 5% CO it was to 0.36 at idle, and 0.49 at 2750 revs, hc at 131 during the run, and 221 at idle, lambda the only consistant thing at 1.03, and a bit of a missfire on the run,


seriously unsure now, it's close, but not close enough to pass, lambda is ok, cat is fine, temp sensors are reading fine, it had new plugs in august (may check the plug gap again tbh) and i adjusted the valve clearances about 3 months back (gonna check those again as well) no idea what could be causing it

garage guy (the owner not the other shit tester) said it may well have excess carbon deposits on the valves causing them not to seal sometimes, i've got 1 week to figure this out, then if it fails it'll be meeting it's maker

[Niall]

It probably needs a serious ragging now it will be fuelling correctly and when you MOT it next, make sure you take it there after a good rag so its all properly hot.
These TUs have never been too good with emissions so need all the help they can get!

[Sambarker]

Have you tried any of the fuel additives? Might just work enough to sneak it through.

I know what my mot tester would do.....

[John1.4]

got some carbon deposit remover / fuel system cleaner and shoved that down the inlet breather, half in the tank, like i say gonna check the valve clearances and plug gaps tomorrow, but in all honesty thinking the rings (it's been burning oil a bit this last year, and it's had a past with it) and low compression so i'll do a compression check tomorrow as well

[John1.4]

ok so it took me a while to get the courage together to go out and do the tests, plug gaps are fine, one was 0.05mm too large so rectified that (even though it shoudn't have been a problem)

compression looks like this:

155 / 155 / 110 / 165

looks like theres something amiss with cylinder 3 to me... might be the root cause of all this high emissions, guage came up slowly as well, the others all got to peak in about 5 full revs, 3 took at least 7, and took until 5 revs to reach over 90,

just means whatever happens from here, i'm gonna have to get the head off to investigate the problem, can't do that until payday (or can't afford to put it all back together until then) which is the same day as the restest period ending and tbh it won't be ready regardless, so that's it!



Bollocks

[Dum-Dum]

Just an excuse for a swap to a slightly larger lump then.

1.8s are cheap

[Jimbo]

DT lump, really easy to fit, rarely go wrong (in fairly standard tune) better on fuel, quicker
Shall i carry on

[Sambarker]

Saxo vts/106 Gti engine?

[John1.4]

with a derv swap i think it'd be better, but a bit of a faff with tax changes, and i'm not sure what my insurance would say about it, might have to give them a ring.... not fussed on bigger petrols that aren't the Gti lump tbh, if i was going to do it, i might as well get the top one lol

was actually tempted to get a 1.5 derv from a saxo, bolt on a bosch and turbo and be different, but then i came to my senses

[Piggy]

1.8 with the gti head

[Toms306]

Or just buy a diesel/GTi (or even better a Rallye ) and paint that yellow as well... Probably be cheaper on insurance...

[John1.4]

taking the thing apart tomorrow to properly diagnose any problems, then it's future will be decided, if it's just a question of chucking in a replacement HG after a bit of valve buggery then so be it, if i find anything more worrying then it'll be stripped and binned

[John1.4]

well interesting to say the least... no obvious signs of HG failure anywhere, the valves don't leak (or if they do it's a miniscule amount..) but they did have a LOT of carbon build up... so much infact, the exhaust runner on the problem cylinder is coked up to about half it's diameter, which is most visible in the exhaust mani.. still took it down to bare bones though, gonna lap the valves in tomorrow after they've been given a thorough clean (the exhaust ones all have 1-2mm of material built up around the stem, no3 had more)

then i think i'll depress myself with how much it'd cost from the local for hg set, bolts, thermostat (which was also leaking) oil, plugs, filter, and a bottle of that ol' janx spirit

pics when i can be bothered uploading them, it'd mean going back to the car, and fk that now

[Sambarker]

Can't imagine head sets for these will be that much nowadays

[Piggy]

headset inc gasket is like £30 on ebay!
wana be cheap?...check the length of the headbolts, you may be able to reuse them!

[John1.4]

thing is tho it's all down to a fine schedule now, i have to get the car through the retest on thursday, or it's full test fee territory,

i get paid thursday.. so i'm going to order the parts on wednesday so i can pick them up at 9am thurs, get home, reassemble the head, bolt the shit back together and be at the test centre with a clean running car before 4pm

roadkill style