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From: Wales

Joined: Dec 2017

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From: East Sussex

Nothing wrong in that. It’s never cheap when you go into that much detail on everything, hats off to you mate. I’m just trying to make sure the car is good enough to be able to spend money on the engine without worrying that there’s other stuff that might/should need my attention first.

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

I finally got round to whipping the front arch liners out to have a nosey and see how much repair work is needed up front.
it all looks pretty good, a few little areas that could do with the wire brush going over. Nothing like the back ends though.
I’m not going to tackle this just yet as I’ll concentrate on sorting the rest of the back end first then move onto the front.





so back to the rear end I managed to clean up the callipers ready for some paint tomorrow.
I think I’ll do these the same lime green as the rear arb.

Joined: Dec 2017

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From: East Sussex

Very little done today but every little helps

Joined: Aug 2015

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From: Wales

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

The first of many parts have arrived. Can at least start rebuilding the subframe now

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

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From: East Sussex

Yeah can’t wait to get stuck in tomorrow.

Got a cheap little kemso 340lph fuel pump on its way. Hopefully it’ll work ok if not it’s only Ł30 so no great loss if it doesn’t.
I’ve been thinking a fair amount about the fuel system. I think I’m going to replace the hard pipe the length of the car with Teflon and fit another Teflon pipe for the return then use 6an fittings on a universal fpr and mod the fuel rail for the return. I want to use Teflon lined braided hose as it’s ideal for methanol possible future ideas of running it part time on home brew me85
Hopefully I’ll have enough time to at least get the fuel rail out and figure up a plan for it this weekend.

Im also trying to hold back the urge to pull the trigger on a me442 ecu. Ideally I want the body and suspension/brakes back together first but the urge to grab, fit the ecu and have a quick play before the engine comes out is starting to get hard to resist

I think I need to learn patience and deal with what’s in hand rather than jump to far ahead to be honest

Joined: Aug 2015

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From: Wales

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

I didn’t get anywhere near as much done as I wanted lol. Not that there’s any rush, I just like the feeling I’m progressing.

First job was to push out the old bushes. I don’t have the special tool for this so a vice and big arse sockets did the job.




then I cleaned up a few other parts I hadn’t got round to and gave them a coat of paint




after that I took a look at the super cheap kemso pump that turn d up this morning



considering how cheap it is, it seems pretty good quality.


I pulled the stock swirl pot apart. The pickup filter is really filthy.




then a quick comparison between the 2 pumps.
The new pump is a little bigger but I think I can modify the seals so it’ll fit and still seal alright.
I think I’ll have to re use the pick up filter so it’s going to need a bloody good clean out first.
Fingers crossed it’ll be all good lol

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

Got the pump back together and added the return line that’ll just dangle in the tank. Don’t think anything special is need for it tbh.
I had to cut the seals down a fair bit, hopefully it won’t get the half tank starvation symptoms. I think I’ll test in in a jug of petrol before it goes back on the car, just to be sure.






I then went on to modifying the fuel rail. I cut off the unnecessary parts. I’ll just TIG a plate over the hole in the middle of the rail.






I found a nice bit of stainless tube on a old vag fuel rail that will do the trick.
So I cut it off and offered it up. There will be a bit of a gap to fill but I think it’ll work a treat

Joined: Jul 2006

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From: Darlington county durham

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

The fuel pump was working fine even with the dirty strainers. The only reason I’m changing it is because of the fuel demand I’ll be putting the system under. Ideally I’d want to run a proper swirl pot in the engine bay and a high pressure pump up there too, then just use the in tank pump as a lift pump. But I want to see if I can get away with just a high flow in tank pump first.

On another note a couple of other little bits turned up today

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

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From: East Sussex

Not fully car related, but I just picked up a new cup for the my TIG torch. Hopefully be able to lay down some reasonable welds on some car parts soon

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

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From: East Sussex

Spent nearly all day moving my brother into his new place. But I did manage to grab a few min this evening to weld the return pipe on the fuel rail.
It didn’t turn out quite as good as I wanted but I’m no pro and welding the stainless pipe to chrome coated fue rail wasn’t the cleanest of jobs. But hey it should work just fine.

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

Yeah It’s not my prettiest welding but it’ll hold so I’m ok with it.


Another small piece of the puzzle turned up today
A set of front RS discs, plus a set of universal 5mm spacers



I nearly have all the parts I need to do the brembo GT Junior conversion. I think I’m just waiting on a new set of open ended wheel nuts, which shouldn’t hold up progress really.

Fuel system wise ive ordered a adjustable fpr and some braided Teflon fuel line to replace the majority of the standard pipes so just waiting for that lot to turn up.
Really hope I can crack on and get some progress going this weekend, providing I can get so solid time to put towards the old girl.

Note to self: must test fuel pump before the fuel tank goes back on

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

Yeah a little bit bigger, ST170 discs are 300mm. RS discs are 324mm.
The original discs that are for the callipers are 323mm so the RS discs are the closest fit

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

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From: East Sussex

Fingers crossed they will be spot on with the braided hoses and full of performance blue fluid. I’ll just use the standard pads initially and go from there.
it’ll be a fair while before they actually get tested though. Although I’m still half tempted to grab the me442 ecu and temporarily run a stock engine with the return fuel system just to get a baseline map and make sure it’s all working ok before I pull the engine out for a few forged inner bits and a tubby.

I could just go full bore and do all of the engine performance stuff in one go later on in the year. Once all the body work and what not is complete ��
I’m terrible with getting side tracked

Joined: Jun 2012

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From: Stoke on Trent

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

I was initially going to do a budget turbo build and aim for around 300+ but for the sake of rods and pistons it would be a hell of a lot safer and be able to handle more. Now thinking around 400-450ish

I did look at ME221 and it’s a bargain for what it does. However it doesn’t have enough outputs for what I want to run.
I.e. boost control, fan control, fuel pump, idle valve, vvt, wmi control. I’d also want to keep the injectors fully sequential too.
Plus I want to wire in a EGT sensor +controller/gauge to the ecu so I can log it’s out put and have it increase fuel at a certain temp to help keep EGT under control.
So really ME442 is the way forward for me as it’ll easily do all that and more. Plus for the price I don’t think it can be beat imo


P.S. just pulled the trigger and ordered the ME442 ecu

Joined: Jun 2012

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From: Stoke on Trent

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

Hahaha, naa I’m going to spend the next 6 months saving for rods and pistons now I’ve spent what I had on the ecu.
Itll all be spread over time form now on. Some of the stuff I’ll use will be Ebay parts as certain corners can be cut safely. Plus I’ll be making both the manifolds, exhaust, charge pipes and any other bits of fabrication my self so I’m hoping to keep cost to a reasonable amount

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

I had to modify the the fuel pump housing a bit more after testing it. It pissed fuel out of the little cap that goes over the pump outlet and the return to the swirl pot.




also picked up a return line for the tank and popped the blank out





More parts turned up too. so I’m almost ready to fit the fuel system back on. Just need some a few brake line clips and paint the tank straps

Joined: Jun 2012

Posts: 514

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From: Stoke on Trent

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

Likes: 13

From: East Sussex

Yeah couple of little shiny bits Decided that I want replace the hard fuel pipe under the car with braided Teflon, so I should be able to run on methanol at a later date if I want.
Just hope the anodising on the cheap adjustable FPR is good enough to put up with it. Although if I do go down the methanol route then I’ll add fuel stabilisers to the mix so in theory it should help with that. I’ll also have to revisit the fuel rail and make it completely out of stainless but for the initial stages the modified stock one will do the job just fine

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

I’ll just leave this here XD

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Jun 2012

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From: Stoke on Trent

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

I didn’t manage to do nearly as much as I wanted to this weekend, but hey it’s just the way it goes sometimes.
Just painted the springs and tank straps.



hopfully the fuel filter will turn up by next weekend so I can get the tank back in and subframe all back together so I can start wireing the ecu in the following weekend

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

Got the ME442 running on the bench (coffee table) flashed a base map to it. There’s a few I/Os I’ll have to sort out as I wire them in. Should be straight forward enough.

I’m going to put the back end together before I start wiring or I’ll end up with too much going on at once

Joined: Oct 2012

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From: South Coast

Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 124

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From: East Sussex

Yeah looking at the ecu, it offers quite alot more options over the 221 and is far more versatile. The 221 is a very good ecu for the price and for slightly modified engines. But has a few limitations when wanting to push things a little further. For what I’m planning the 442 should be absolutely ideal.

I’m even considering running everything off it and doing away with the standard ecu and dash for a complete standalone installation. Really depends on what I can find for dash options though (still in research mode for that)


This weekend I’m hoping to have the fuel tank back in and possibly the rear subframe if I get enough time and don’t have too many interruptions from people needing help with other stuff lol. That way if all goes to plan I’ll have Easter weekend to play with wiring and work out all the I/Os