10th_racer

right, where to start, i bought it in november knowing that the headgasket was gone and that it had a starter problem, so off i went with a few of my mates to pick it up 1 night, took 2 hours to get there, and nearly 4 hours to get back with endless problems along the way. got it home, shoved it in the garage, and it looked like this....











so on a saturday morning, did the headgasket, and it ran, took it to work the next day, put it on the ramp, got the starter off it, and it was as tight as fook to turn, it was practically siezed, and sum idiot obviously knew about the problem but kept turning it over anyway, which in turn put too much current through some of the wiring and melted it, so it had a starter on it and i sorted the wiring.

then on the way home that night it blew a water hose off the oil cooler, was in a rough part of quarry bank and i didnt wana leave it there, so drove it home, which obviously with no water got it rather hot, got it home, sorted the hose out, filled the water up, and for the rest of that week it was drinking water.

so got to the weekend, head off again, head was warped (probably my fault for driving it for 5mins with no water in it) luckily already had a ported polished head lying round so went to put that on it and had a very good look round it this time, and oh my god! the amount of bodges on it were unbelievable!

sorted out whatever i could see wrong with it, then a week later, it did a piston, which we then found out was because of several reasons which wouldnt have helped, it was running 24psi of boost on which are only 0.5mm oversized pistons, it was a shitty cheapo max power air filter, 1 of the injectors wasnt flowing propperly, etc etc and as i needed it on the road the next day for work, i just put the 1 piston in it that night, then the week later it did 2 more pistons, by this point i was piss sick of it and was wandering what else was going to be wrong with it, and couldnt be arsed with finding out, so out with the engine and rebuilt the lot, had 4 pistons in it, heavy duty main and big end bearings, ARP rod bolts, sump gasket, oil pump, basically everything in the bottom end, i knew the head was ok as it had only done about 50 miles since it had been rebuilt.

so together it went again, a week later, headgasket gone again, so off with the head again, turns out the head wasnt being torqued down propperly as there were all crappy deposits of some sort down the holes where the headbolts go, and some of the bolts were bottoming out before the head was tight enough, so sorted that, went to put the head back on (with new bolts obviously) then 1 of the bolts snapped off in the block while tightening the head down, and it snapped off flush in the block, and was an arse to get out, but eventually out it came, head back on, and it was actually running, and lasted a couple of weeks.

then went to it 1 morning and it wouldnt turn over, wire from the ignition to the starter had broke, so obviously that had to be sorted.

this took me upto around the end of january, however that wasnt the end of the problems, since that its had other problems....

overheating
fuel leaks
fuel pump relay running constantly or not at all
injectors were checked and found to be fooked
handbrake sticking on
engine mount was shagged out of its brains
charge cooler pump started playing silly buggers
water leaks
oil leaks
plug gaps wrong
melted plugs
broken down plug leads
dodgey coilpack
some shocking bits of wiring
hoses rubbing through because they were positioned badly
etc etc

however this was all finaly sorted, and was setup around the end of feb, and made 212bhp and 232lb/ft of torque at 10psi of boost, the session on the rollers revieled a couple more problems but nothing major. which then left it looking like this.





then i decided it needed to be a bit less laggy, so ditched the stage 2 hybrid t3 in favour of a rebuilt standard t3, which made it much more responsive and it held boost better as we found cracks in the housing on the old turbo. few pics whilst changing the turbo....





and thats pretty much how its been running ever since, there have been plenty of other changes along the way which include....
all the interior changed to black
smoked front headlights and for lights
colour coded rear reflectors
dvd player
ps2
few more gauges
gaz coilovers
polybushed front end
front splitter
few bits colour coded
etc etc

and heres pretty much how it looks now














and here is a video from a while back

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t=Video034.flv

current spec is as follows....
0.5mm oversized pistons
heavy duty bearings
arp rod bolts
ported polished head
cvh34 cam
vernier pulley
pace charge cooler
standard t3 turbo
-31 actuator
OFAB efi managment
remapable unichip
rebuilt beige injectors
powertek filter
custom hoses
custom alloy rad
IB5 box with modified bell housing
S2 LSD
3" heatwrapped downpipe
2.5" scorpion FRST exhaust with a 4" outrolled centre exit
custom engine mount
AP 4 paddle clutch

212bhp and 232lb/ft of torque at 10psi

300mm focus st front brakes
saff cossie rear disks
sport ka servo
gaz coilovers
front lower strut brace
later style rear beam
polybushed lower arms
powerflex roll bar bush's
sport ka roll bar

sport ka leather seats and door cards
all interior changed to black
dvd player
ps2 (not wired in propperly yet)
various gauges
leather steering wheel
central locking
electric windows

maing thing to get changed now is the wheels because they are horrible, these are going in favour of some escos wheels.

its been a hell of a lot of hassle, not sure if it was worth it or not really, but its great fun, the look on some peoples faces is priceless!

its far from being a very fast very high spec car to get round a track quickly, but is great as a fun road car, and still practical with creature comforts as well

Stu.H

Looking good mate, just needs a more powerful engine now

10th_racer

very subtle hint there stu lol, but if i have your engine it will go in the red 1 anyway, this doesnt really need it for what i use it for, the red 1 however....lol.

mart33

well well well wats this shed here then lol na its sweet even thow its a girly car lol

mart

vinnyvangough

Sounds like you've had a lot of problems. I would have given up on it but well done for keeping at it

bad boy rs

iTrader: (7)

Looks good mate

Sounds like youve got about the same luck as me, good to see youve carried on with it though, when everything keeps going wrong its makes you think is it worth it

Keep us posted

10th_racer

what was it that you said with that calibra turbo down the thorns road a while ago when i nailed it....something along the lines of "i want a ka turbo" :P

ye its had more that its fair share of problems, but its finaly working well now.

and i should thank mart for his help wenever its broke down or when he's helped fixing it, and for that rather long night in lincoln picking it up and bump starting it about 6 times on the way home and not getting back till half past 2 in the morning lol.

thanks for the comments, i dont like to give in easily

McGoo 69

now that is one mean KA! never been a fan of the KA's as there a bit girly but id deffiatly own that one!

love it

centre exhaust is a nice touch too!

mart33

lol yeye that calibra was only a 1.1 realy lol

its ok mate cause wen mines on the road ill need bumping wen its breaks even more than now an it ant even moving for another month lol will be worth it wen it on the road thow will have to hav a lil race :P lol

mart

bonus_boy

at 2.30 in the video your behind one of our lorries (company i work for), i was probly in it to be honest lol...

10th_racer

thats quite an old video now, from around feb time.

taking it to a RWYB day on the 18th of may so might try and make some more then.

mart33

ye make some proper vids off u racing the girly car :P lol

mart33

bodywork doesnt look much like this now does it lol common updates an picys now lol

mart

10th_racer

hey at least mine runs though :P

ok so its not quite looking its best lol, am still tempted to have it aquarious blue, just depends if i can be arsed to strip it and have the inside done as well, i could get away with leaving the engine bay as thats already black.

need to rent a local unit of some sort for a weekend if any1 knows of anywhere?