darrenjlobb's Adaptronic Managed Compound Blown Derv Bus Build

[darrenjlobb]

Howdy,

Its actually been a fairly long time, in fact 2-3 years if I think about it, since there has been any posts on this subject, and although I have been distracting myself building V6 Mtdi Audi's, Cummins 6bt powered landrovers, the daily TU 16V bus and getting my home dyno up and running, the shell of the bus has always sat in the yard / parts shed looking sorry for itself, and I guess after selling 90% of the car off (wheels / axles / brakes / intercooling / interior / suspension blah blah blah) I still couldn't bring myself to scrap the poor thing, given the fun times I had in it, all the great people I have met via forums etc after having built it, and the potential I never had chance to finish!

So for any new members (given the time frame since my last project posts there are rather alot of them, infact more new than old I think which is a great thing!!), my name is Darren and behind all the other weird and wonderful things you might have seen me posting about / putting on youtube, I own a 96 D Turbo (black one) which over the previous years has had far to many engines, and far to many failures, but each and everyone used to bring something better to replace it, and I learnt 99% of what I know through tuning this car, which is likely why I cant bring myself to get rid!

So to bring things up to speed, the car has had 2 major previous phases, the first was XUD powered, which is likely the motor most people remember. Lost track of how many motors I blew up, but in its final form, it was a forged 1.9 XUD overhauled shortblock with a modified head and cam held together with ARP studs all round, a custom manifold to hold my HX35 up over the transmission, which was backed up in compound by an M45 blower in front the motor. It used to run 60psi of boost, and was fueled by a fairly mother 12mm homebrew pump. Obviously the list of modifications goes on and on, but im yet to beat the noise the car made when turned up the wick, and I miss it dearly.
The motor was sadly never actually Dyno'ed in this form, although the same motor before it was forged, and with a single TD05 turbo made 213hp@35psi on a dastek some months before, so we can only assume...

Some photos of it back in its day:







And of course the obligatory....



I really do miss this motor, so so badly!

Anyway, after tuning this for a considerable ammount of time, it was always the same old problem I was hitting one way or another, which would end up destroying the head / motor in one way or another time after time, and without considerable extra investment it would always be a problem...That being primarily issues with heat, and the shear way IDI just shoves so much energy into the coolant around the cups in the head.

So after alot of wrapping I decided to change direction, and go DI...now still being built at home, and in the position I was in, I wanted to keep it mechanically pumped at the time, so I could continue my development of the VE pump, and tune the car easily at home without the farce of common rail. So I built an M-TDI VE pumped HDI engine, based around the 16v HDI head / pistons, forged rods, and most of the other uprated parts from the XUD.

This engine was compound blown via a pair of turbos, a small GT2256V VNT and the larger HX35 WG blower, alongside the blower, which was removed at a later date due to heat and other size related issues.








Overall after getting the engine in, I was very happy with the results, after i built up some decent injectors, and got the pump sorted, the car made good power (not to the extreme level of the XUD) but the key thing was, heat was no longer a problem, you could give it death, and it wouldnt come off the stat, and it just had so much potential, Was making a good 200hp (guesstimated) at less than half the boost of the XUD, and everything was so much happier (partly due to modern VNT also) I could just feel the potential.

However the motor wasnt without flaws, sadly the stock head was very restrictive, and valve springs were utteraly hopeless, and floating beyond just 25psi of boost. So after FCS, I took the motor out, tore it apart, with intentions to uprate it all, and rebuild it once again.
Sadly this never happened, and after sitting neglected in the yard for far to long, I decided I didnt really have the time / love for it at that time, and decided enough was enough so started selling everything off, in the end I was left with the motor (in pieces) and the shell, and not alot else. This has sat in the yard ever since, growing green mould on the sides / plastic, and gaining a rather horrible smell of "must" inside! The engine has had a new home in the corner of the 'shop buried 10 feet deep in projects that have taken place since, but all the parts should be there one place or another other than stuff I sold.

So wind forwards a few years and we are here, I miss the good times I / and many others had with it, so have decided I want to rebuild it once more, and finish (if that word can even exist really with this project) what I started. 

Its fair to say that the poor car has had its fair share of abuse / knocks / bangs from the years of engine changes / explosions and general spannering on it into the nights, and it was starting to look fairly sorry for itself. For this reason, even though I have many plans for the motor, I decided its time to give the car a bit of love.

Although the shell is fairly "straight" its full of small dings, and dents, and a couple fairly major ones on the rear quarters following a frisbe accident one year at FCS, so really, I would like to get all this at least straightened out / sorted now, to try and tidy the car up a bit prior to starting the major rebuild.

I umm'd and arr'ed about what to do, and after speaking to a few bodyshops, as much as I would love to get the car repaired / painted by a pro, I just simply cant justify the cost, or at least, cant when I know the same money will buy so many of the parts I need to rebuild the motor, So after much thought, I decided I am going to attempt the work myself.  I know it will never be a "perfect" finish, or anything close really, but it in keeps with the "built on a farm" nature of the car, and I like a challenge, even more so when its a new one! 

So there is the past, followed by the plan, and if your still reading, then you must be epicly bord by now!!

So here goes the rebuild.....Thanks for reading

First things first was to get an old axle bolted up to the car, and some struts and get it on wheels so that we could move it about again, then we set about getting it in the workshop to mask it up...



Now this turned out to be a mistake, and for anyone else who thinking about trying this, my first advice would be not to mask ANYTHING until you have complete all prep work on the body, as you will otherwise end up re masking the entire car, but this is a learning experience, so here was the first mistake / thing learnt!

Then out came the drill! I drilled holes so i could screw the slide hammer into the dents to try and pull the worst of the damage out rather than just bodging it full of body filler! I must admit, this was a moment where I did think "what the heck am i doing!!"



After pulling out the dents (can see better in video) I used the grinder to remove the high spots around the holes I had drilled, again I'm sure the pro's will be having a field day here, but using what I've got!:



Which left me with this:





I then applied a thin layer of body filler over the area to fill any inperfections, and allow me to hopefully smooth back to a smooth panel:



And then sanded it back:



Another lesson learnt here was to bin the can of 2 year old filler I had, and buy new, as I had to dig all the first stuff out after it was all lumpy / full of air bubbled etc... Also learnt it works best to "fold" it around when mixing it rather than mixing it up to try and avoid adding air pockets into the filler

Some etch primer over the bare metal areas:





Followed by some high build to fill any last imperfections:





And similar treatment around the rest of the car where I had other damage:



I then went right around the car and roughed up the paint / found any other small damage / repaired with high build / filler where needed. I also replaced the passenger side door (old one creased) and the bonnet for a new one.


The first video of the project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtHAiB2ejnY

Thanks for reading,

[Niall]

Awesome!
I Have to ask though, after something you sent me probably years ago on FB, is it staying black?

[THE_Liam]

YES!!! 1 thousand likes and a free pie!!!

[Eeyore]

Looks good man. Good to see its coming back with a vengeance!

[Piggy]

YES!
YES!
YES!

I can feel the fizz!

A mahooosive thumbs up!

if you ever need extra hands...I'll take some holiday!

[Toms306]

Good to see youre finally doing something with this again!

[Uberderv]

Looking forward to this one :-)

[HDi--Power]

Nice to see this being worked on again Did you weld those holes you drilled before filling? They will show themselves again a few months after its painted if not :/

[Pompey306mark]

Good start, to a good project are you sticking with black? As I rear its a hard colour to get right.

[Mattcheese31]

Really glad to see you starting again fella, as most do I love to see your work in progress ......yaahhh good times and hair pulling out to come next few months

[silverzx]

Am I the only one left thinking what's the plans engine wise?

Putting the 16v M-HDi back in but with custom head work? Same turbos, GT2256V and HX again?

Whatever happens I'm sure it'll be fun to follow!

[zx_volcane]

Love that exhaust manifold, great to see some updates on this.

[darrenjlobb]

Nice to see this being worked on again Did you weld those holes you drilled before filling? They will show themselves again a few months after its painted if not :/

Its interesting you bring this up, I was very close to doing this, but then thought, given my level of noobness with bodywork, I'm likely to warp / make things worse attempting this and leaving it alone, in the end i put some fiberglass across the back side of the panel, and then filled the little pockets from the outside... No idea if it will be ok, I imagine at worse the filler might just shrink back leaving slight low spots? Either way its hopefully going to look alot better than the huge dents that were present before...Although im sure welding it would be the correct and also best thing to do...

Good start, to a good project are you sticking with black? As I rear its a hard colour to get right.

The color will become apparent soon....I think any colour is "hard to get right" when you are spraying at home, and you havent done it before, but I believe black is supposed to be one of the hardest...But being a farmer what are the chances of having a pot of black paint to hand...

Am I the only one left thinking what's the plans engine wise?

Putting the 16v M-HDi back in but with custom head work? Same turbos, GT2256V and HX again?

Whatever happens I'm sure it'll be fun to follow!

Heh I thought my dodgy bodywork had distracted people from the small issue that is the engine!  

I'm planning a fairly major revamp of the motor, Its fair to say, as well as it has served me over the years, It is time to say good bye to the VE...The primary will be updated to a GTB2260VK, likely keep the '35 for now unless a cheap large VNT/VGT becomes available at any point...The head will be getting some major attention, and the blower might be making a return... But more on this further into the build, for the time being im trying to "sort out" the car to a point its ready for an engine / dosnt look like a farmers car (although in fairness could easily make it far worse!)

Love that exhaust manifold, great to see some updates on this.

Thanks Tom!

[silverzx]

GTB2260VK and HX will be win.

So... Who's mapping it? Is it EDC16 management?

[mr_fish]

nice to see

[Matt]

Good to see thi is coming back! Hopefully as epic as ever look forward to the next update

[Dum-Dum]

Awesome Awesome Awesome dude! Glad to see you have the enthusiasm back.


Also I knew I was right about it being a HX35 when you wouldn't tell anyone what turbo the big blower was

[306Dan]

Great to see this getting some love again, and hopefully epic boost too

[procta]

about time Darren! I do love builds like these!

[Frosty]

Glad to see you giving it another crack Darren. Is there any time scale you have in mind for this?

[Paul Baldwin]

Great to see this on the go again Love the "in house/on farm" attitude you have for your projects!

[darrenjlobb]

Glad to see you giving it another crack Darren. Is there any time scale you have in mind for this?

Time scales are always hard to go by along side farming, but I would like to think maybe FCS next year...I have alot planned for the car, and more often than not everytime I want to get started on something, something else comes up and puts it off for a few weeks, but I am determined to get this thing back in the game!

Great to see this on the go again Love the "in house/on farm" attitude you have for your projects!

Thanks Paul, Thats always been the main purpose, I will always do everything I can here in the barn we call my workshop, even if it means trying something totally new, which is certainly the case with the latest re paint idea! But at least when it looks awful and someone comments on it i can tell them it only cost the cost of a tin of paint!!

[silverzx]

What paint you using? 2 "mofo" pak?

Hammerite?

[ozonehostile]

Looking forward to some more build thread updates dude

[Piggy]

Only thing I would say for the paint job is how dusty your workshop will be.

£10-20 on a crap load of dust sheets put up on the ceiling/walls will make a big difference

---

And a very good water trap for the airline

[Seb_Ryan]

Only thing I would say for the paint job is how dusty your workshop will be.

£10-20 on a crap load of dust sheets put up on the ceiling/walls will make a big difference

---

And a very good water trap for the airline

For the floor id just chuck some water down on it.. Has worked for me in the past for keeping dust down lol

[pioneer DJ paddy]

Have to say it's good to see u back on this project again think I speak for every one on here wen I say ur car is the the reason why we all gearbox mounted lol at least that's why I went gearbox mounted :-) hope to have something that looks like ur car sum day lol hope all works out for ya man and looking forward to see how this turns out :-)

[rocker8742]

Really glad to see some progress on this again, intrigued to see what your plans are engine wise!

As for bodywork good luck with getting a decent finish

[akuma406]

Glad you start another project with the 306.
Looking forward to seeing what you do.
Regards Darren

[205dtub]

Good choice Darren. I have read through all your past build thread and watched many a YouTube video. Was disappointed to see the project being abandoned. I know the feeling of getting distracted I've too many things on the go myself. Would have been such a shame to simply scrap it and if you're anything like me it would have felt like giving up and you just can't do that haha!! I will be following closely. Keep the updates coming.