Nige`s Golf MK2 2.0 16V Turbo track car with Aero. www.pinderwagen.com

Feb 2011

Final prep for Oulton, after sorting the oil leak was to raise the rear ride height 10mm (I`d already done the front when modifying the lower balljoints)


As the car was raised, the splitter was too high and would have been less effective, so I modified some bits I had in the garage to increase the vertical `dam`.

First time driving the car properly was on the sighting laps, I was somewhat apprehensive, listening for any unusual noise, but fortunately all was fine.
The closer steering wheel position is definately much better than it was. I could keep a grip of the wheel in most corners and didn`t need to `feed` it as much, apart from the hairpin. The new top-mounts probably help too, thats the problem doing several things at once, its hard to tell what effect each change is having.

Had a problem mid morning when a rear stud sheared, felt something odd from the back end and it was soon obvious what the problem was.


Quickly removed the rear disk.


I was able to screw the stud partially into the disk and out the back, but couldn`t wind it all the way through.


After grinding a slot into the stud, I was able to use a large screwdriver to screw it all the way out.


Had a bit of an audience whilst doing it.


Using a normal wheel bolt as a tap to clean the thread, then another to secure the wheel once refitted.

I`m now changing all 16 studs for new ones as a precautionary measure...

Back on track and the car was great. Did 212 miles during the day, around 140 after lunch, From the incar footage, I can see the laptimes have dropped since last time I was here (October 2010) to a best of 2:07. Thats very pleasing, although there is still much more time in the car, its definately me thats holding it back.

I`m very pleased to report that after checking at lunchtime, all 4 plugs are now the same, light beige colour

A tiny oil weep from the rocker gasket, actually from one of the blanking plugs, so I can easily sort that, but no loss from the bottom of the engine, phew.

I`m now starting to find my suspension is probably too soft. The spring rate is fine for the ring, I`m still happy with that, but on UK tracks I`m noticing quite a bit of body roll. I`m not changing it this year, but its something i`ll look into next winter.

Finally, a photo I really like from Oulton.


Next time on track will be the ring in April, then Spa then DN.

 

March 2011

Finally took the car off the trailer after Oulton today, 3 weeks later...

Only 1 slight oil leak, thats from the Rocker cover gasket


The top of the gearbox is clear, before, when the crank sensor was leaking, it had oil that had been thrown out of the top view hole and onto the gearbox. Its fine now.


Next week i`m giving it an oil change and a couple of other tweaks, then its ready for the ring

 

March 2011
NEW pads fitted. Carbone Lorraine RC6. They SHOULD be what I need, I`ll report back after the Ring and Spa.They`d better be what I`m hoping for, they cost enough!


I`d fitted a quick release mount for the steering wheel before Oulton, very impressed, but the horn only worked intermittently.
Removed the mount and narrowed it down to the brass screws that make the connections are not protruding enough. Here you can see I`d `fixed` the left one, but not the right (yet)


Remove screw from nyloc nut and spade connector plate, if you look in the empty hole, you can see it reduces diameter. The head of the screw sits against this.


I wanted to add a small washer to make the screw head sit `proud` of the plate, but didn`t have any small enough. Some wire did the trick


Re-inserting


Secured


Tightened down so the heads are now about 1mm above the surface


Refitted to the boss and re-assembled it. The horn now works every time


As I`d noticed, the rocker gasket was leaking. Removing it and the reason was obvious. The rubber was brittle and cracked.


New Gasket.


Removed all traces of gasket from the head with 240grade wet and dry (protecting the cams / oil from dust with paper towel in the process)


Transferred 5l of oil from the 25l drum. It MUCH cheaper to do it this way, Thanks to Simon at Swan Engineering for sorting that out for me.


Oil and Filter changed and Engine run to operating temperature and no leaks from the new gasket.

A few more jobs then its ready for Germany

 

March 2011
Continuing the Spring prep, I decided it was about time I (1) used my new paint spray gun and (2) tidied up the interior of the Golf.


Finally removed the old heater matrix that I`d bypassed last year when it started leaking. Heavy old thing it was too. On doing so, I noticed the bracket holding the accelerator to the bulkhead was loose! There should be a bolt holding the top of the bracket to the bulkhead.


Secured it with a Nyloc nut and tightened the loose bottom nut.


I removed the remaining part of the Loom that was for the K-Jet.


Removed the seats, harnesses & Checker plate floor. The rear windows come out so easily, it made sense to pop them out.


Matty also finished removing some soundproofing from behind where the heater matrix had been and under the passenger seat.

There was still some glue on the roof from the headlining. Stan popped round for a coffee and was given the die grinder, fitted with a flapper wheel to clean some off



Once all the small fixes were done, it was time to degrease the interior with panel-wipe, then a quick rub down to key the paint. Masked up the dash / window openings.

2 Coats of build-up primer later and it looked much tidier. I had to go to work, so the basecoat was left until the day after then applied the laquer coat this afternoon. Stan said my painting / laquering was `OK`.

Before.


During.


After.



Before


During


After (Obviously the fusebox is still to re-attach, ECU to remount, seats etc to refit)


I made a small aluminium blanking plate, sealed and rivetted in place to cover the hole in the bulkhead.


Sealed and fitted.



The transmission tunnel eyebolts were secured buy a plate on the other side of the tunnel that was just held in place by the bolt.


Welded a plate to the tunnel from the inside. Its very difficult to access this from the underside, hence me doing it from the cabin.


Painted.


It looks much tidier and I`ve used the opportunity to do a lot of the `little` jobs that keep getting put off. Should be back together this weekend then MOT`d next week.

 

March 2011

ECU mounted to underside of glovebox. Some high density foam as a vibration buffer, between the ECU and the mount.


Now I`ve removed the heater matrix and box that directed the air, I`ve mounted the fan directly onto the plastic duct for the windscreen. Secured with self tapping screws then some tape over the top to seal the join. (it is NOT held on by just gaffer tape ) The reduced losses from passing through all the convoluted plastic means I get great airflow to the screen now Occupant ventilation is by the vent next to the wing mirror. I need to add a passenger one before Germany.


Fusebox all tidy and secured well out of the way. Much higher than the standard position, which is better as I used to occasionally catch the corner of the fusebox with my foot.


Checker plate footrest and heel-rest refitted. With all the wiring now sorted, it looks much tidier in there :thumb:


Cleaned the harnesses and seat with detergent and a soft brush. The water was filthy !


Tomorrow should see the refitting of the freshly painted sidemounts and seats, along with a couple of other bits so I can get it MOT`d next week

Almost finished !

Sidemounts before we started.


Sanded down to bare aluminium and repainted.


Interior looks much neater now. (A few reposts of the `before pics`..)








All I need to do tomorrow is treat a couple of small rust spots underneath and fix the side repeators on the indicators, then, apart from the rolling road, its ready for Germany

 

March 2011
ECU mounted to underside of glovebox. Some high density foam as a vibration buffer, between the ECU and the mount.


Now I`ve removed the heater matrix and box that directed the air, I`ve mounted the fan directly onto the plastic duct for the windscreen. Secured with self tapping screws then some tape over the top to seal the join. (it is NOT held on by just gaffer tape ) The reduced losses from passing through all the convoluted plastic means I get great airflow to the screen now Occupant ventilation is by the vent next to the wing mirror. I need to add a passenger one before Germany.


Fusebox all tidy and secured well out of the way. Much higher than the standard position, which is better as I used to occasionally catch the corner of the fusebox with my foot.


Checker plate footrest and heel-rest refitted. With all the wiring now tidied, it looks much tidier in there.


Cleaned the harnesses and seat with detergent and a soft brush. The water was filthy.


Almost finished.

Sidemounts before we started.


Sanded down to bare aluminium and repainted.


Interior looks much neater now. (A few reposts of the `before pics`..)








All I need to do tomorrow is treat a couple of small rust spots underneath and fix the side repeators on the indicators, then, apart from the rolling road, its ready for Germany

 

April 2011
Cage padding refitted. As usual, when going to the Ring its better to put more on than you might do otherwise, keeps the Marshalls happy


Remember these ?

Well, 2 and a half years of track abuse has seen that lovely white finish degrade a little...


The paint had bakes on again, cracked the finish and brake dust was embedded into the paint.


A rounded screwdriver is perfect for removing most of the paint, it peels away pretty well and saves clogging up the sanding disks.


Mat (with suitable PPE) tackled some of the more awkward areas.


All the paint removed.


Even from around the embossed writing


A light sand with 240 then 600 grit prepared the surface nicely. Just needs a quick whizz over on the sides of the spokes and then a good degrease and they`ll be ready for painting.


Hope to get them painted on Wednesday (White again) :thumb: I shall apply some wheel wax to them, the brake dust burned into the laquer far too easily after the last repaint. I`ll give them a quick wipe over after a trackday too to stop it burning in as much. These are my favourite wheels and I really like the look of the car with them fitted so don`t mind spending some time getting them looking great again.

Now the injectors are working, I`ve booked a dyno for tomorrow to finalise the MAP to get the most out of the setup I have. Its about half an hour away, so I`ll be bedding in the new brake pads on the way :thumb:

The Dyno was a Dynopack Hub Dyno. This bolts directly to the hub, so there are no losses from tyre slip, tyre pressure has no effect. Although the figures aren`t comparable with a `normal` dyno, they are repeatable and meant I could try something, do a run and see the difference. The actual `power` figures are only useful for the pub anyway

Arrived and the wheels were removed and hubs mounted.


Knock monitor bolted to the Block, the dyno guy listened for Knock through the testing.

Stan came for a day out and Stace popped in to say Hi.


Several runs to tweak the fuelling..


I tried adjusting the cam timing, but the setting I`d used when setting up the engine / cams gave the best result . The dotted trace is `standard`, the Solid trace with the crank>Cam timing retarded 4degrees. Similar story advancing it.


The final result after minor fuelling tweaks.. NOT Calculated Flywheel Power.


We did a side by side power run with my `road` map and the one from the Dyno session. The dyno found about 2whp (max) and 8wlbft at a couple of places on the curve. My fuelling was a little rich (which I knew), but overall, my map was very close to the best we could achieve on the dyno

The main benefit of the Dyno session was the spark table. I`d gone with the standard method of setting the timing until the engine started pinking then backed it off a couple of degrees. We knocked off FIVE degrees of timing and it made NO difference in power.
(October 2012 - I now realise there may be another issue which affected the top end, I was only running a 2" Exhaust system, that has since been changed which I expect to have a positive impact on the high RPM torque / power)

 

April 2011

Ended up getting the wheels powdercoated. NEW Pilot Sport Cups fitted

Having read the many stories of wheels coming loose after powder coating, I thought it wise to remove that chance. The shoulders where the wheel nuts sit were powdercoated too.


Quick whizz with air die grinder and tapered stone.


Thats better



The face on the inside that sits against the hub was also coated


Disc sander and a few new discs soon sorted that out.



Quick wax and seal later and they were fitted to the car.




All ready. Loading it up for Germany now.

 

Im glad you got them powder coated & not painted. The finish is alot stronger & i've never had them come lose after coating.

 

NigeP great to find you are bringing us up to date on your work, man I love this thread!

I found this thread when I was just about to rescue my GTi from languishing in a barn, it made me go for it and introduced me to ClubGTi Forum.
Now recently I confess I've been wavering, had great fun with my GTi but put a few into it and the temptation of a 328i Sport with easy 240bhp + rwd had turned my head!

However catching up with your thread has focused my mind, the GTi stays and I'm going to cracking on more tweaks/modifications :-)

Brandshatch all day Monday 5th Nov anyone? Lol

 

Wow, thanks for that, its always nice to know people are reading ! I know what you are saying, my son has just bought his first track car, well, its a road car we are converting into a roadcar. We weighed up loads of things and in the end, the choice was obvious.


E36 328i

I`m doing Brands on 7th December in the Golf, my first time there !

I wish I hadn`t ! Although it can`t be proven the powdercoating was the cause, I am 99.9% sure it was. 3 of the 4 wheels cracked across the spokes at the ring, first time they`d been used since powdercoating. I`m not the first who suffered from this issue either.

 

Were they sand blasted before the coat or acid dipped? In my experience sand blasting really damages & weakens cast alloy

 

So much detail in the build threads Nige, thanks for the read!!

I just wish I had time to record the work I do!

 

April 2011 - Easter Ring Trip.
Without exception, everyone who sat in with me over the Easter period commented how stable the car feels in the medium to high speed corners. I`m not really taking them any quicker than before, BUT, as I`ve said earlier in this thread, it gives me a lot more confidence and I know there is more in reserve.

Had a couple of issues before Spa. I noticed a slightly knocking from the from nearside when it was under load.

Hmmm, something here isn`t right...


Found it. There was play in the lower ball joint, turned out that I`d overtightened the bolt and stripped the thread. It was tight, but once on track, had loosened enough for me to feel the knocking.

New bolt and nut fitted. knocking gone.


About halfway round a lap the steering felt even heavier than usual, I backed off a little and cruised round for the rest of the lap. Something just wasn`t right so I went back to the campsite to investigate.

It was soon obvious there was something wrong with the steering rack. We decided the simplest option was to remove it and see what was causing the heaviness.


With 2 people doing the job, the job went well.



Removing the track rods and it became obvious something was wrong.


It was a bit tight, so hammer was needed..


Rack and pinion removed. Hang on a minute, why is rusty water running out of the rack ? Surely there should be grease in there... Hmmm, the bearing has collapsed too, you can see a ball in the pinion.


This looks unwell.


There should be a bearing that sits in the top of the rack that holds the pinion central. This had collapsed, allowing the balls to drop into the rack and the pinion to wobble about, causing the dodgy steering feel.


The rack had been FULL of water, this had rusted leaving a brown sludge everywhere.


The small needle bearing was also in pieces.


If nothing else, I now knew why my steering has always been heavy....

This caused a problem. My steering rack was broken. It was a Sunday, Spa is tomorrow, the scrapyard was closed and even if it was open, it was likely that the racks they would have would be left hand drive anyway. My spares stock is extensive, but I didn`t have a spare steering rack with me...

It was time for a phone call. I tried Andy Carlile, hoping he may have an old one at Sliders or know where I could get one. He didn`t have anything, but said he`d have a think.

Shortly after, he rang me back, he`d spoken to Bruce, who didn`t have a spare either, but Bruce had suggested I try Manfred.

Those who have followed my reports will know Manfred used to own a small workshop in Wimbach. He moved to larger premises a few years ago, he is now working by himself again, but still in the new premises. This is a significant change for the better.... He had a LHD rack that I could cannibalise if necessary, but then remembered he may have a borken RHD from the MK2 Golf race car he used to look after in Wimbach. 20 minutes later and I was back with him, RHD rack in hand, with broken teeth on the rack. The gaiters had been full of water and one of the track roads was stiff, so I picked up a new one from him at the same time.

Huge thanks to Andy and Bruce for their help both on the phone and trying to sort out a rack to be sent from the UK to Germany if necessary. Also a thanks to the ever helpful Manfred at Auteg Motorsport

Back at the campsite and we laid the 2 racks on the table to see what we had. I`ve never had one apart before, so this was new to me.


Old and new tie-rods.


RHD Steering rack outer casings. The hole where the pinion sits had `elongated` in mine, so we decided to use the other one.


Pinion with new bearing and my old one.


Pinion > rack tensioner springs


A wire brush and elbow grease was needed to clean up my old rack.


Getting better, but you can see the pitting caused by prolonged submersion (This is why I`m chaning the steering rack)


Andy praying it would all go together. It did


One MK2 Golf steering rack, built from 2 broken ones with lots of grease and a bit of improvisation.


By now, it was after 19:30, the ring was closed, but a drive along the roads to the petrol station proved everything was working, steering felt better than ever !!

I`ve already said it, but I`ll say it again. Thank you to all those who assisted in one form or another in helping get this sorted. Spa was the highlight of the trip for me and when I thought I`d miss it, I was pretty downbeat. Fortunately, we were able to get it sorted

 

amazing you could rebuild it to get it going so far away from home.

 

I love the communal feel to all the repairs that are carried out.

 

Amazing, If that was me i would have given up! Not even thought about dropping the rack in the middle of a field!

 

Stunning car! And I love the way you fix everything by yourself and making photos from it!

 

what else would I do ? No point in sitting there and feeling sorry for myself, best to crack on and try and fix it. Some things aren`t fixable away from home, but fortunately, a manual steering rack was.


April 2011
Stickered up and ready to go, still has the part-worn tyres on from Spa.


This was about as busy as the carpark got all day.


Darren asked if Paul (Porsche), Karl (Black Mk3) and I wouldn`t mind helping out and as well as driving on DN if we`d be `roving` marshalls for the day. Our job was to keep an eye on driving standard throughout the day, report anything untowards and stop at any accident, making sure any armco damage was noted and the driver responsible recorded. The standard of driving on the day turned out to be spot on and we didn`t need to `have a word` with anyone


Like all trackdays, a sighting lap session was provided from 08:00 until 09:00. There would be a train of cars behind the marshall car, we`d set off in 2 minute intervals and were told not to go over 70mph and keep it slower in the corners. We queued up on the main straight.


The sighting laps meant a lot of concentration. I found my mind wandering, at times when I was doing 60mph on track. It seemed very slow, but was still quick enough to have a nasty accident...


The morning session was going well. Being able to got flat down the main straight saw me reach 120 after the gantry, before the uphill incline started. A mile later, on full throttle in 5th, I was still doing 120mph lol

I only did 2 laps at a time, after a while, Darren asked why I was in the carpark and not out lapping...I was just speaking to people in the carpark and enjoying the day. The track was so quiet that you could go out and have 2 laps whenever you wanted, most of the time without seeing another car at all. I appreciate the fantastic weather made the laps good, but Darren has judged the number of cars just right. The carpark wasn`t too busy (the trailers had to park over the road in the overflow carpark) and this meant absolutely no queuing at all.

If you want clear laps on the ring, without insurance issues, I simply can`t think of a better way than a Destination nurburgring event.

I followed a couple of UK GT3`s for a lap, they obviously hadn`t done that many laps and so I was able to keep up. Afterwards, I wandered over for a chat and I was pleased to hear "you were going well", rather than "I was on a cool down lap..." when I said I`d been following in the Golf.

One of them had been before, the other, Nick hadn`t. After a few minutes of talking, I mentioned Northloop and he said he`d heard of it from a video he`d watched.
"The section by section videos ?" I asked

"Yeah, they are brilliant, I`ve watched them all several times, they really helped on my first laps ".

I told him I`d done them with Rory and he said he`d seen them on the Porsche forum. They`d helped him avoid the newbie mistake at AF, which in itself meant it was worthwhile. I asked if there were any major differences with FWB to his 911. He said that at his pace, he could follow my lines, but the braking points were far too late for him. lol


The day was progressing nicely, Al Clark said he`d follow me for a lap to brush up on his lines...

Before going to the ring, I ALWAYS drain the engine coolant and refill with pure water, refilling with antifreeze on my return to the UK This probably saved me causing a car to go off today...

Coming out of AF, he saw a puff of smoke from the Golf, he tried getting my attention, but I never saw him .

Turning into Metzgesfeld I was fine, but going through Metz II (in 4th as I wasn`t `on it`) and the back end stepped out without warning

My Metzgesfeld 2 `moment`

Much wheel twirling later, a full turn of left lock was required initially, and then I slowed for Kellenhard. Checking in the mirror and the cars behind went through without problem, so I wondered if it was the car... Al, behind me said he felt a little loss of grip, but nothing like I experienced.

I pulled off at Breidscheid and opened the bonnet. The cause was immediately obvious. The V belt for the alternator and water fully had split and come off, picking up the brake ducting in the process...


The V belt had come off, causing the water pump to stop. This had allowed the engine temp to rise and the expansion tank had let a small amount of water out, this ended up on my rear NS tyre, hence the loss of grip. As it was only water, it evaporated almost immediately, leaving no slippery deposits behind.

This year I started carrying a small toolbag in the car. It contains various sockets, spanners, screwdrivers, fuses, test lamps, sensors, footpump, 1lt Oil, cable ties and of course some Gaffer tape. I also had a spare V belt, which meant within minutes that was fitted and the car was running again

Over the course of the weekend, I used this on mine and several other cars to fix minor car-park niggles that saved a trip back to the garage / campsite. As saving the last kg doesn`t matter on TF, I recommend doing something similar..


Popped back to the campsite as my 17mm Spanner couldn`t tighten the V belt fully, then back to the ring for same lapping. Jorg came out for a couple of laps.




At Spa, Al had commented the car seemed louder over 6k. Then it went quiet. Weird. I`d also noticed the same today, there was definately something blowing on the exhaust, but I just couldn`t see what... The only option was to remove the exhaust manifold. That done and we saw something rattling around between the pipes. Looking down the end of the collector and we saw daylight..


There is a small `bung` that sat between the 4 pipes, this had come loose. I can only imagine that after the sustained 6k+ full throttle at Spa and DN, the collector had expanded too much, allowing it to come free. We needed a welder.


I rang Dale @ Rent4ring, who was open late turning round a load of cars that had been out for DN, ready for tomorrow. He said they had a welder, but were too busy to do it. Could I borrow the welder and do it myself ? No problem...

Went up to Rent4ring, cut off the collector.


We could now see the loose piece and gain access to it.


Freddy said I could use their welder, but it wasn`t very good..It was brilliant ! I think learning to weld with a crap welder means when you do use something better, its a piece of cake


Tacked the plug back into place.


Fully sealed.


I could now re-weld the collector into place.


Finished.


A big thanks for Rent4ring for letting me use their welder. A `TIP` in the `tip-pig` was left as thanks

Back to the car and ready to refit the exhaust.


MUCH quieter

 

wow! great safe at metzgesfeld!