Project Double-stock HDi - On hold pending removal of thumb from arse

[Poodle]

This is my little project, i've had her for nigh-on 18 months now, so a bit late with this thread. Basic gist is as the title - i'm aiming to double stock figures for the car, not just in terms of power. I'm also looking to achieve similar results with items like mpg and cornering G, although these will be a bit more difficult than doubling power. Not least because no-one seems to have really gone for a measurable result on handling or shown the slightest interest in tuning for economy. This thread will be slow in the extreme as i'm doing it all on a shoe-string, but it will progress so bear with me if you're interested.


Thought for the month: What's for dinner?


Car details:
V-reg phase 3 silver HDi GLX 5-door hatchback. When i got it there were no modifications, FSH, had recently had the cambelt done and was also showing some rather persistent fuelling problems. (For those that don't know - i'm still fighting with said fuelling problems, car is about to be declared sorn so i can sort it in my own time.)

Haven't got any decent pictures for some reason so these will have to do until i get it back home:



^^^ The one on the far left.



How not to fix your car; a short history:
Bought the car on 89,000 miles for £850 with fuelling problems on the basis that it could be fixed and still cost less than a decent working one. Not only that, but i'd also have some fuel system components that were good for another 100k. Didn't quite go to plan... Will try to keep this brief, there's a lot to recount lol.

After extensive testing the injectors seemed to be the problem, leak-off rates were all over the place, as were IQ correction values. Replaced all 4 and noticed a marked improvement, however the problem kept up.
When testing everything before, i'd also noticed the fuel tank was mounted on the piss and the lift pump securing ring didn't seem to be sat properly, which could explain the smell of diesel when turning hard left and poor mpg. After spending a few hours trying different ways of getting the ring to sit straight and tighten properly, I gave up and bought a new one. And a seal just to be sure...



This didn't help, turned out it's the tank itself that was the problem, if you look at the above pic you can see the hole is slightly misshapen. I needed a whole new tank, luckily found a landrover dealer who "found one in the shed of a property he'd just picked up"(!), genuine, new fuel tank still in the packaging for £30 + postage, win! After solving that problem I vaguely hoped that the lift pump swinging loose had been causing the cutting out, realised this was nonsense almost immediately.

Remembered I had a couple of bits left off the last car and bought some other odd bits in the hope that it was being caused by a minor item that i'd somehow missed - injector pipes, fuel filter, fuel pressure sensor, fuel pressure regulator... None of these helped either, still the same cutting out under high loads and same codes coming up from the ECU.

Ran out of money for a bit and fixing the problem took a back seat until one day the car refused to start. That was enough incentive for me to renew my attack on the fuel system, after further testing I decided the next most likely culprit was the HP pump. Bought a second-hand pump and rebuilt it myself (badly) and fitted it up.




Erm...

Amazingly enough this didn't work, so i took the sensible option and bought a properly refurbished pump. Gave in to temptation at this point after realising an r70 pump was only £35 more expensive than a standard replacement, so went for the upgrade.

Was pretty pissed off when i discovered this didn't work either.
Retested every item and couldn't find anything out of the ordinary, so bought a code reader just to check the codes for the fourth time before spending anything else. Couldn't get this tool to connect properly no matter which program i tried it with, it would read some basic stats (ambient air temp, battery charge and something else), but that was all. Got a known-good code-reader attached and same thing happened, indicating a problem i hadn't even considered - the ECU was shagged.

That's where i'm at today, car is off the road and bloody useless to me, awaiting more cash to consume. Having worked it out the other night, i've only actually spent a total of about £750, so compared to a similar car bought that time last year (around £1800), i'm somehow still in the black! :blink: May have to adjust that calculation in a few years once the psycho-analyst bills start coming in...



The damage so far:
Aircon was getting on my nerves as it didn't work, and on inspection of the service history it seemed various garages had been trying unsuccessfully to fix it since 2001, a whole year after it left the forecourt!! I considered that a pretty final judgement, so ripped it all out and sorted the aux belt to run without the compressor in place.

I wanted some winter wheels, so picked up some 15" steels and stuck winter tyres on them. When summer came back around i'd already scrapped the original harriers so picked up some foudres with half-decent tyres on. They rubbed without spacers, so 5mm front and 20mm rears sorted that:



When i went all eco-obsessed pro_steve took an interest (or was it pity..?.) and wrote a couple of eco-maps for me, personal best stands at ~71mpg combined. Hope to beat that in the new year once i get her back on the road.
Other than that i've done very little in the way of modifications, all I can think of is some powerflex poly-bushes for the wishbones and a further nod to weight saving with the removal of carpets and sound deadening in the rear.



Darling buds of May:
This is when the ticket on my temporary transport runs out, so this is the completion date for phase 2 - the "lack-lustre, first-time, home-brew, budget modder build". Just hope the "little darling" buds into a beautiful flower, rather than catching the frost and withering back into a fuel-related mire... Or something like that anyway. Most of the parts for this are already in the garage/conservatory/dining room table and waiting a few changes before fitting, details as follows:

Home-grown rear beam (what lesson, what's an HP pump got to do with this..?..) lowered 40mm with new mounts and bilstein b4's on the back, 40mm Spax lowering springs also with bilstein b4's on the front. Baker BM solid engine mounts because i'm tired of killing the bloody things. Got a splitter and spoiler, although the latter is mostly being used as a guide for something of my own design. EGR is deactivated, but i'll be hauling the whole thing out and welding up the ports. Got an experimental gt15 to fit:



Hmmm...

Will port-match everything while i'm there and throw in a decat for good measure. Have a couple of maps from Steve still to check out, one of which being the all important "125/smokey" map. Want to continue stripping unnecessary weight out, including from the loom.


And finally some good, old, blue-sky thinking:
I have so many ideas and plans that writing them down here would be long-winded and pointless, not to mention foolish since most of them will probably never come to fruition. That said, here's some of the more likely plans:

• Full undertray and aero-tuning. Undecided on materials for the undertray and need to test my ideas for aero-tuning to make sure they'd actually be beneficial.
  
• 6-speed gearbox and dt paddle clutch conversion, needs no introduction.
  
• Breathing overhaul. Fmic install; completely new intake system; 2.5" exhaust with straight through design box; TD04 or possibly a twin-scroll unit if i can find one suitable for less than what i paid for the car.
  
• Chassis overhaul. Hybrid ARBs; top and bottom strut braces; adjustable top-mounts; decent coilovers, probably gaz; rear shell brace; modified rear beam; 283mm discs, calipers and pads undecided as yet, will have cold air ducting.
  
• Fuelling overhaul. Some sort of home-brew, uber HP pump; uprated lift pump (know i'll get flamed for that, but :p); 1800 bar fps.
  
• All manner of extra gauges, cos i'm a nosey bugger: oil temp, oil pressure, boost, emp, intake temp (pre and post cooler), egt (pre-turbine), gearbox oil temp, 'bay temp, etc. Most will probably be read by something like a scangauge for convenience and to keep cost down.
  
• Depending on what i find out from the above, possibly oil cooler and gearbox fluid cooler, and almost certainly a whole bunch of ducting for various items.
  
• Guess i should mention the exterior, will probably ignore it or possibly commission an artist friend of mine to graffiti/spray a piece on it.
  

(Disclaimer: Any and all items are subject to change, sacking-off or outright denial.)



Big thanks to everyone that's helped me so far. In no particular order, apologies if i've missed anyone:
Cully, pro_steve, tom1357, warlord0, mike_T, puglicker, Fozzy, mooey_65, fynnbar, Curt, jimmyadams, lolsteve
Last and most definitely not least; Dum-dum, cheers bud!

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Looks like this as of September 2013:

[attachment=12293]

April 2014:

[attachment=18282]

August 2014:

[attachment=18281]

[Matt]

i will be folllowing this closly very interesting to see if its possible

[Ben]

I'll be amazed if you can double mpg!

[Dum-Dum]

Watching with interest mate

[Harky]

Watching this with great interest. Any idea what 6-speed you'll be using...Its something a dturbo really needs!

[Poodle]

Right, finally some progress with this, has all been delayed thanks to various factors, including but not limited to; an unexpected house move, forced change of job, collapse of the second car, and then similar demise of the second-second car... Been a busy old year hahaha.

Will update properly when i have the time, but for now this should explain...

[Tom]

Well yeah, happy f*cking days!

[sam]

I'll be keeping an eye on this chap looks really good

[spike2002]

Looks good mate

[THE_Liam]

Forget doubling mpg, but if you can make as much as 80mpg I'll be hugely impressed

[samass]

Excellent, some of your ideas match my own ecomodder ideas! Specially regarding undertray/smooth floor. We should chat some time

[Dum-Dum]

Looking forward to coming and making this not work again.

[Poodle]

Thanks guys, was so chuffed/angry when it started running lol.

Liam, i've got that down in my head as the most difficult part, will certainly be a huge challenge. That said, i've got some slightly off-the-wall ideas and think it's achievable, although definitely not in the immediate future, will have to wait until my budget's a bit more forgiving haha.

Yeah we should Sam, reckon you need some guidance if nothing else, the 2.0 16v petrol was a bad start, not to mention your experiment with latching onto other motorway users for a tow.

Now it's running i'm not touching the 'bay until it's back on the road Chris, sod causing it to stop again lol.



Right, proper update time....

Further damage has since been done to the car while moving it to the new house, most will already have lol'd at this, but for those that missed it:

We moved house in April and obviously the car needed moving too. Not having access to a flatbed and the move only being a few miles, we decided to tow it with my slightly unhinged second car of the time. Following a communication breakdown between my best mate and I (i accelerated and he braked - he was piloting the project and i was on boost), this happened:




Bollocks... Just one more job to add to the list, nothing structural so will be bending it back and welding it up at some point soon.

I've since picked up a near-identical 5dr silver HDi as a daily, which needed some work. Rather than actually fix anything i've just swapped all the knackered panels onto the project and the necessary running gear was stolen from the same. So yeah, have pretty much decided the project is going to be a sleeper, and a fugly one at that!

A couple of months ago, i decided she wasn't going to be back on the road any time soon and started selling off loads of parts to try and make some room in the garage (little did i know she'd wait until i'd sold most of it, then start as if nothing was wrong in the first place... ). On the bright side this means i've now got funds to pick up the suspension i want, namely Gaz GHAs, which will be purchased pretty soon. Managed to be the first to get to Chris' for that '6 beam too, which is in fantastic condition actually, pretty pleased with that.

This is how she looks at the moment:




Should probably explain how she's now magically running again:
In an effort to try and work out what was preventing starting, i have got hold of a scangauge - which told me nothing new - and a peugeot planet 2000 diag tool. The PP2K in particular has been enormously useful, it's already helped get several cars besides my own to run properly since i picked it up in May.

Used PP2K to read the codes, which told us nothing new, but going into the live data showed she wasn't getting any fuel pressure on cranking, as in it was actually showing 0bar, which is a bit weird since the lift pump alone will create 3bar... We went through the fuel system piece by piece, checked everything was sending/receiving the correct signals, working properly and swapped in known good items to see if there was any difference - it was all working perfectly. Each time we'd try starting it again while monitoring various parameters, but there was never any change... Finally got to the HP pump and injectors, I couldn't test these as i don't have a high-spec flow bench, but all are freshly refurbished items and really shouldn't be a problem. Was getting pretty disheartened at this point and we'd decided we'd try and start it one more time for the hell of it then give up and think about breaking it. What do you know, she suddenly showed good fuel pressure and fired up on the 6th/7th crank. All signs of the starting issues have disappeared as well. What the actual f*ck...?

So that's where i am now, once the coilies have arrived she'll be ready to be rebuilt and put in for an MOT. Have acquired a few other goodies since she came off the road, so hopefully be pretty sharp to drive once she's back together. Bits i can remember off the top of my head:

• Lower strut brace, only an OMP one though
  
• '6 Brake calipers and discs
  
• '6 Splitter
  
• Scanguage
  
• Decat and second mid-section for home-brew exhaust
  
• Blue fleck S16 seats

Dum-dum is going to be coming down and helping me strip her out next weekend and the welding shouldn't be far behind. Hoping to have her on the road by the end of November, money-dependant, watch this space!

[thethorne]

where abouts in southampton are you? be interested to see this once its going. i wanted better mpg so gave the 6 a rest and got a 106 1.4 diesel smoker

[samass]

Dunno what you're on about dude, the xsi is well known for getting over 65impgs
























(imaginary miles per gallon)

[Poodle]

Flol Sam.

I'm in Chandlers Ford mate, want to come and check out yours at some point and all.

[Dum-Dum]

Dunno what you're on about dude, the xsi is well known for getting over 65impgs

My 6 is ACTUALLY getting 73 MP3Gs though

[cwspellowe]

My xud with no leakoffs regularly got 45mp3g's though..

[Poodle]

I've missed something...

[Dum-Dum]

The fact that you've been renting it out as a 2 bed cottage to a group of eastern european migrants to re coup some of the expenses and your now having trouble evicting them?

[samass]

That's all irrelevant, I'm gay.

[Tom]

Double everything is awesome! Double mpg more so than the others

[Poodle]

Update time:

I have started fiddling with the suspension, front wishbone bush bolts are out, lower brace will go on tomorrow. Have cleaned up the '6 beam and got it ready to fit. I have also bought some avos, mainly because they came up cheap a couple of days ago, (much as i want new gazs, my wallet says no ) can't wait for them to arrive.

Old cat is off and the whole system will be replaced on Wednesday with my scrapyard special. Will probably be doing a few other bits then too, will try and get pics this time lol.

Dum-dum was here this morning, helping me strip out most of the interior and cut the wiring loom down, will get pictures of the final result whenever i remember.

[Dum-Dum]

Dum-dum was here this morning, helping me strip out most of the interior and cut the wiring loom down, will get pictures of the final result whenever i remember.

He wouldnt let me proper bum ra*e it for lightness though.

[Niall]

Dum-dum was here this morning, helping me strip out most of the interior and cut the wiring loom down, will get pictures of the final result whenever i remember.

He wouldnt let me proper bum ra*e it for lightness though.

Dont blame him either. Would only end up broken and probably scrapped by the end of the day!

[Poodle]

Yeah, what he said. Tbf half the problem was the missus deciding she wanted to keep her airbag, selfish bitch.

[Poodle]

Had a couple of mates round for the day on Wednesday and, in between getting very... tomato-ey..., we also managed to sort out the "new" exhaust system:

Decat:



Mid-section:



Backbox; we hacked an old backbox for the cradle, and another mid-section for the box and a bit of pipe (the remainder of which resides in steve's fmic set-up lol), and tied the two together with old handbrake cable:



My best mate spent a happy hour beating the funk out of the nsf corner to straighten up the lump of chassis we broke while towing:




Front end will be welded as soon as it stops raining for a day, other than that i'm just waiting on the coilies as there's very little left to do that doesn't involve them being on first. Must get around to changing the runners on the s16 seats actually...

[Jonny81191]

looking good mate, i'll be watching this one with interest!

[Poodle]

Managed to get a bit more done this last couple of weeks, now just a few bits short of going for an MOT.

Finally remembered to get some pics of the interior, or rather lack-of... (more coming later):




The other door cards will be going, but these are in better condition than those on the other car and the doors are being swapped anyway, so will sort it then.

Front end was stripped of radiator and wiring and any mating faces cleaned up, then dad attacked it with the welder:






Not the prettiest job, but pretty solid. As much as anything, doing this just highlighted how badly the engine bay/whole chassis needs stripping back and resealing, areas of surface rust left, right and centre, with a couple more serious patches beginning to develop...

I replaced the wiring, radiator and fans and plugged everything back in, cleaned up all the contacts and connections while i was there. Next my best mate, Dan, and i spent some considerable time pushing, pulling, beating, swearingatandfindingabiggerhammer'ing the slam panel until it fits and the lights sit straight (just...), then stuck the front end back on just to see it looking like a car again:



Got bored of doing sensible stuff and fitted the lower strut brace, will probably repaint it at some point when i can be bothered (probably never):



That brings us to today, well, yesterday actually, when i got home from Brands Hatch to find a package full of shiny suspension bits:



Dan and I are planning to spend almost all of the rest of today outside fitting the new coilies, '6 rear beam, '6 front brakes and pikey mid/back-box.

Items left to sort before MOT:
- Drop links
- Brake pads
- Bleed brakes
- Fill g'box with oil
- Top up and bleed coolant
- Adjust handbrake
- Xsara washers
- Aero wipers

[Arron]

Hello mate. Interesting thread and one I'll keep an eye on as a fellow HDI owner with running issues (kind of)

Did the r70 pump come with regulator??