Grahams81-Leon 4wd, Big Turbo - Back in the saddle :-)

[grahams81]

Pure filth! Excellent work!

I've been smashing a bit of cod too

Cheers Mate, i have just been on the old MW2, haven't been out and bought the new COD MW3 yet though, i have intentionally been staying away from it cos i know if i buy it the Leon build will be pushed back and i will spend all christmas sitting on my arse playing online....

nice watching this evolve

Thanks Bill, i'm slowly getting there

love seeing updates on this...such a great home build!! looking forward to the nest update!!

Glad your enjoying the read mate

Graham, I don't know if you'll regret not being able to remove the cam cover I would find it most annoying! I'm not sure if it's a lot more fuss to just extend it an inch or so towards the passengers side??

Are you a PS3 or Xbox man though?! gotta love COD

I may live to regret it but it was hard enough to design the manifold anyway.
To be honest i can't see the need to take the rocker cover off too much, and even if need to it will be loads easier than an original manifold.
Suppose putting large turbo's on etc is a good way to loose some area's of practicality....

Oh and i am mainly a PS3 man, but i've also got a 360 that i sometimes take away with work and play when im sat bored in a hotel room.

So spend another couple of hours in the garage today.

Started by carefully removing the runners and finalising all the angles etc, here is 1 & 2 nicely squared up -

Next up I decided to angle the cylinder 3 runner towards cylinder 2 runner, this was to give more room for the cylinder 4 runner -

Break for silly picture / smiley limit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[grahams81]

Continued.....

All done -

Side View-

So after quite a bit of faffing around i made up the runner for cylinder 4 -

I double checked all the lengths of all the runners and they are all within half an inch so i'm well chuffed with the deisgn this time.

So feeling quite chuffed i then decided to trial fit it again -

Looks like it's touching the rocker cover but its just the angle of the shot -

Another silly break for pics.......

 

[grahams81]

Another continued.....

You can see there's clearance here -

Put the turbo on next -

I checked the EFR Housing V-Band Clamp connection for the downpipe clearance and there's plenty of room for a 3" pipe using a tight radius bend.

Shut the bonnet and checked for clearance, all good -

So thats it for now folks, i am aiming to make the brace tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and any comments.

 

[CupraElliott]

Awesome Graham.

Shame it wasn't a cleaner pipe to start with it would look amazing all welded up, nice clean stainless steel with heatspots around the welds.

 

[grahams81]

Awesome Graham.

Shame it wasn't a cleaner pipe to start with it would look amazing all welded up, nice clean stainless steel with heatspots around the welds.

Yeh i know what you mean, i like seeing stuff like that too, but i'm gonna have it ceramic coated, think it will look nice coated and hopefully it will stop everything in the area melting

 

[paul-murphys]

Looking good mate can't wait for finished project. Also what size and thread bolts do I need for engine mounts thankyou

 

[DaNnY_LaD]

Absolutely awesome graham ...


True work of art that is...have you thought about making a jig of your manifold and sellin the design/manifolds on,to at least earn some more money back?

 

[ibizacupra]

nice
good luck welding it up... hope it does'nt pull and distort too much etc..

presume you are back purging the welds when you tig em up.

going to be a monstor..

 

[CupraElliott]

Yeah good point, clamp it up as much as you can and clamp a thick piece of metal to the head flange so the heat transfers through.

 

[joehirth]

Amazing that manifold is something else.

 

[grahams81]

Looking good mate can't wait for finished project. Also what size and thread bolts do I need for engine mounts thankyou

Cheers mate, i had a look at the Drivers side engine to body mount bolts, if its the same as mine you will need some M10x30 Cap or hex heads

Absolutely awesome graham ...


True work of art that is...have you thought about making a jig of your manifold and sellin the design/manifolds on,to at least earn some more money back?

Thanks Mate, quite proud of it ...
I still have the 034 Motorsports Head flange and a T3 divided & one T4 divided flange.... Still have the original jig for the head flange to turbo flange along with about a mile and a half of 1.5" SCH10 fittings / pipe so suppose when im done i could knock another one up and sell it, or just buy a T25 or T3 flange and make a regular style ram horny manifold....
Still got about 1.5M of 1.25" SCH10 pipe and 8 90degree bends, i think i got carried away ordering.

nice
good luck welding it up... hope it does'nt pull and distort too much etc..

presume you are back purging the welds when you tig em up.

going to be a monstor..

Cheers Bill, yeh i'm hoping it doesn't distort too much. I'm gonna remove the runners and weld them up complete then just reattach them where access can be had to the full weld.
I'm planning on purging the pipes when i weld them up, got a new Argon regulator with a y-piece and two needle regulators and flowmeters.

Yeah good point, clamp it up as much as you can and clamp a thick piece of metal to the head flange so the heat transfers through.

Will do mate, may even bolt it to my old head for welding so it's nice and flat and sturdy.

So i've been working on the car again today, now i've got the manifold all tacked up i really need to get the car ready for paint. Whilst it's in getting painted i can weld the manifold up and start preparing all the front chassis parts so when i get the car back i can fit the window seals and get the car up on axle stands and remove all the wishbones, steering rack, trailing arms etc and rebush and paint them all..... fit the propshaft.
Design and build the exhaust.... etc etc

So i had a good clear up today the garage looked like a bomb site after all the cutting welding and grinding etc.

I inspected the original wiring loom and jotted down the part numbers of the plugs i damaged during the strip down, also found that the wire sheathing is all perished / cracked in several places. The worst part was the wiring for the coils - it's a common place for the wiring to brake down.

So i may just bite the bullet and order a new loom - luckily this part of the loom is quite short, and just runs from the ecu (under the rain tray) to the longest point around the coils... I'll have to get a price first and decide whether i order a new loom complete or just the plugs and repair the broken wires etc myself.

So i decided to start building up the car to get the bumpers and everything mounted and prepped before the respray.

Started the reassembly by fitting the front panel to the car after removing the rubber bits that guided air to the OE side mount intercooler, also cleaned up and refitted / connected the bonnet latch assembly -

Some time ago i bought a radiator pack of a lad called Paul on Vagcars, at the time i needed a new Aircon condensor so just bought the lot off him (Aircon since binned!!!).
The new radiator assembly was off a facelift Cupra, the fans are slightly different (look a better design) and the radiator is slighty thicker and seems to have finer fins.

Here's a shot of the radiators side by side (it's quite hard to see the differences in the photo) Newer type on the right -

So i decided to use the facelift rad and fans so i washed the radiator out using a garden hose and washed the radiator externally with the hose aswell.

I then refitted the fans to the radiator and fitted them to the front panel -

Break for pics....

 

[grahams81]

Continued.......

So i just had to get the LCR bumper out of the shed to try it on

After that i decide to get the new grills and badge assembly out and trial fit them -

Gonna look sweeeeet !!!!!!

Just to fill in an hour i decided to sort out the gear linkages as the connection type was different between the 4wd box and the original.
What a pain in the arse it was to get the levers off the gearbox, had to use a slide hammer with pullers.
Then what i did was hacksawed the back off the ball type pins as they had been riverted in, then punched them out of the levers. I then drilled them out with a tapping drill for M10 for the horizontal lever and M8 for the vertical lever.
After that i though ooohh i might drill some extra holes to make it a quick shifter....

I then cut some Cap headed bolts down, luckily i found some too long but had a perfect length plain part on the bolt.
Installed the bolts and used nuts on the back to lock the screws so there was some free play between the bolt head and the linkage end.

All installed with some fresh grease on -

Well i'm definitely getting there now, even looks like a car again now

So plans for the bodywork -

Weld-up hole in the roof (where a nasty hands free arial was )
Remove Side rub strips and weld up / fill recesses,
Fit new LCR Side Skirts & check fitment,
Modify LCR front bumper and fit Supercopa wing extensions.
Align Rear FR bumper and fit guides etc.
Remove Cupra rear spoiler and fit FR one.

I want it to look OEM so no outrageous stuff planned here, just some fresh paint and nicely smoothed / debadged.
Would love a Supercopa style rear spoiler but think it may look a bit halford's styling / chavvy.

Feeling good about the project now... really moving, can't wait to get the car painted.

Anyways thanks for all the comments lads, so long.

 

[grahams81]

Amazing that manifold is something else.

Cheers Joe, I think it's gonna look nice when its ceramic coated

 

[beta85]

Working crazy!! :-O
best wishes!

 

[t0m]

Good GOD this is going to be some car when complete mate!!!

Really loving this! Hope to see it at a show or 2 next year really will want to see this in the flesh and also how it goes! Like stink no doubt!!!!!

 

[Tom.]

You NEED the supercopa spoiler! Will look awesome!

Manifold looks quite a work of art. Wouldnt want to be the one to weld it all though.

 

[Phillc]

Graham you can get the repair loom for the coils from AwsomeGTi make sure you get the one with the sump level sensor its very straight forward to fit.

 

[grahams81]

Working crazy!! :-O
best wishes!

Thanks

Good GOD this is going to be some car when complete mate!!!

Really loving this! Hope to see it at a show or 2 next year really will want to see this in the flesh and also how it goes! Like stink no doubt!!!!!

Cheers Tom, yeh hopefully be knocking around some shows in the coming months

You NEED the supercopa spoiler! Will look awesome!

Manifold looks quite a work of art. Wouldnt want to be the one to weld it all though.

I would like to try and make a spoiler bracket, the supercopa brackets go through the rear screen which is plastic but i think i could maybe knock something up to mount through the boot or something..... may look into it

Graham you can get the repair loom for the coils from AwsomeGTi make sure you get the one with the sump level sensor its very straight forward to fit.

Cheers for the info Phill, i'll look into that

 

[fourtwofive]

What an epic build top work!

 

[paul-murphys]

you mean like these,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainless-...item3a3c900369

they seen cheap do i not need any type to take the strain?