Turned up the next morning ready to go. Topped up the fluids - plain water in the cooling system (no glycol for the first 1000kms)
Water Wetter was added to the WAI along with sufficient water...
... and Valvoline SAE 30 API SF/CC 'Running In Oil'.
OE plugs were removed from the original fans and soldered to the new Kenlow fans and connected...
Now the time to turn the key. Fuel pump had been left disconnected following the earlier swap to an uprated aftermarket pump.
Engine was then cranked over until the oil warning light on the dash was extinguished. It was then tried a couple more times just to make sure before the pump was reconnected. Then all was ready...
http://www.220gti.co.nz/images/IMG_2168.JPGKey was turned and the engine actually fired up pretty quickly and wasn't too bad on idle. It was left to get up to temp - but it was soon evident that there was a water leak. Switched off and further investigation revealed that the OE coolant spring clamps were no long doing what they were supposed to. With hindsight, these should have been swapped to jubilee clamps during the rebuild!
So, after much hassle, the coolant pipe clamps were swapped and teh system pressure tested to ensure all was as it should be.
Car was then restarted, ran for a short time and then cut out. Restarting wasn't an issue, but it just wouldn't idle - holding the revs up with the throttle open helped, but something was amiss...
As it would still run with throttle open, we drove car up the road to get a WOF and see if it'll sort itself out. No such luck. Ran even worse when you start to come onto boost. So after passing the WOF, get car back to workshop for further investigation.
Only fault code which shows up is 54 - WAI system which is cleared. Then, Air Control Valve shows problem up on the diagnostic tool which is then cleared. Still no idle. TPS is checked and found to be out so is altered to correct factory setting, but still won't idle. Checked to ensure all the plugs are attached and no obvious vac pipes etc left off.
By this time, motor is cold and when re-started, it seems to run fine. However, as soon as the temp starts to rise, the idle goes to pot once again. Ignition is spot on and good flow of fuel. Diagnostic sensor shows the 'mixture' reading as alternating between rich and lean. No more fault codes are coming up on either the diagnostic tool or the dashboard. At this stage it's getting late, so it's left until the next morning...
Tried restarting the car first thing this morning, but now it just didn't want to idle. So first thing was to whip the top cam cover off to ensure that the adjustable wheels hadn't moved. All good there. Next stop was the plugs. Pulled these out and they were all as black as a lump of soot. Hmmmm.
Put some new plugs in, fired it up and while it did run better, it still wouldn't idle - all seemed better when the revs were above around 2k. So we disconnected the map sensor and connected a vacuum pump and set it to 15mmHg and cranked the motor over. And it ran fine making us point the finger at a vacuum idle issue, possible cam related.
Rather than alter the cam timing which we knew was set up exactly as per HKS spec sheet (Inlet - 110 deg duration / Exhaust - 103 deg duration), it was decided to try altering the TPS again (previously set to factory setting). Doing this yielded an immediate result, the engine running much smoother, but still not happy under 1000rpm. So the ignition was advance by 14 degrees in total. With this done, the engine was much happier. However, blipping the throttle caused issues when the revs dropped usually resulting in a stall. To help prevent this, the throttle stop was altered to keep idle at 1000rpm.
Everything was put back together and the car taken for a spin round the block. Back to the workshop for a check of fluid levels before going out for a decent road test. No leaks were evident.
I'm pleased to say that there were no issues whatsoever. Car was extremely smooth all the way up to 5k and despite keeping away from full throttle openings, the motor felt very strong and eager to unleash a lot of torque - especially when the cams started to come into action.
It has been a very frustrating and tiresome period trying to get it running, but all is now well. Another 920kms to go before an oil change and then another 4k before the boost can be turned up. In the meantime, sensible driving and a trip to the dyno shortly to check that the fuelling is as it should be.
Gary
Read that your coming to europe also. What's your location?
