My 3B Coupe project - Total rebuild

[Acidburn]

I had to draw a line somewhere! I'll upgrade it to a Wagner reverse inlet at a later date.

Have you thought about having your stock im chopped and reversed? I was chatting with allisport and they quoted me £100 to do it on the urq.

[AndyP]

Have you thought about having your stock im chopped and reversed? I was chatting with allisport and they quoted me £100 to do it on the urq.

Stop tempting me!! I was thinking of ringing them and getting a qute for an alloy aux rad as mine is shot.

[Acidburn]

lol, really looking forward to seeing this on the road, miss mine as pearl blue is lovely.

An alloy rad would future proof it for power and iirc they help the engine run on average 25% cooler which is always a bonus, that and a reverse inlet would be good, think of the lower spool up and temps as the pipeworks not going near the turbo, go on andy you know it makes sense mate

whatever you decide it will be good to see this on the road and fingers crossed at castle combe this year.

[Jamo]

The only time the alloy rad is going to make a difference is when the car is standing or in traffic, when moving the stock rad with airflow is fine. granted I have rs2 water pump though

On my stroker with stock rad and no aux rad fan only cuts in traffic when running it's about 87c coolant temp in VEMS

[Error404]

you must drive like a girl Jamo I get my fan on all the time on the Cq

[Acidburn]

you must drive like a girl Jamo I get my fan on all the time on the Cq

lol I get the one on my derv daily on when cruising

[AndyP]

Been working on the exhaust recently, here's a few preview shots

Downpipe and front section






Almost got it to the stage where the front and back section meet up, should be finished for this weekend then I'll start doing all the final welding.
It's been much more time consuming than I thought, doing it on axle stands does not help. It's a case of cut and tack, crawl under car to check fit, repeat until it's a good fit. I can see why people pay / charge a lot of money for 3" downpipes! Probably the most satisfying parts of the project though.

[Error404]

awesome work, looks very tidy Andy.
What did you use to cut the pipe off straight for the joints? 9" grinder?

[AndyP]

I started using a grinder, but I soon realised that the key to good welds is in the preparation and the joints need to butt up perfectly to ensure this. So, I ended up buying a 14" chop saw and a belt sander / linisher, which made the job so much easier.

[Error404]

that sounds like the ticket, was tryinng to get my head around cutting the sections off straight. I'm picking up an old TIG soon so will spend a few months practicing before I have a go I think.

yours looks quality mate

[AndyP]

that sounds like the ticket, was tryinng to get my head around cutting the sections off straight. I'm picking up an old TIG soon so will spend a few months practicing before I have a go I think.

yours looks quality mate

Thanks, athough I have to confess that the turbo flange in the last pic was not done by me. I'm still struggleing to weld thick to thin, and the 12mm flange to 1.6mm tube was a prime example. I couldn't get enough heat into the flange before the tube melted I got a pro to do it and he zipped round it in a couple of mins, which was sickening. Practice is definatley the key.

[Error404]

yeah I hate it when they make it look too easy

[Bram]

Looking good! Nice welding

[Jamo]

Is it running yet?

[AndyP]

Funnily enough my plan was to try starting it today, but of all the stupid things I ran out of jubilee clips to finish putting the rad in. The exhaust is 95% finished, just need to put the lamda boss's in. I was really hoping to get it running in time for the Leeds meet this Saturday but that's looking unlikley now
I'll get some more pics tomorrow and do a proper update