Associate
So I think some of you will have seen me post this elsewhere as a snapshot etc but its turned into a little more of a project than I expected so throwing up a thread on it incase it's of interest plus generally good to have one to look back on 
Was fortunate to actually win this car from Dream Car Giveaways for £9.99 (ignoring how many £9.99s I spent on tickets that didn't win
) Won it on the evening of Dec 1st last year (2023) and chomping at the bit I went to collect it on the morning of Dec 3rd.
Full spec is;
56,000 Miles, with a bare metal restoration carried out by RG Motorsport - genuinely crazy how clean the car is, I'll dig out and upload some underside photos shortly.
Fully Rebuilt Engine - 2.0 Long Rod, 1400hd Wiesco 85.5 Pistons, 156mm Oliver I-Beams, Manley Springs & Retainers, GSC S2 Cams, ARP Main Studs & Head Studs, ACL Bearings, Tubular Manifold, S205b Turbo, ETS 3" Intercooler, 3" Intake Pipe / K&N, 3" Russ Fellows Exhaust System
Been swapped to a 5 Speed Gearbox as they're stronger than the 6 Speed.
Link G4 Ecu
Cusco Power Brace, Superpro 24mm Rear ARB, Meister R ZetaPro Coilovers
Water Methanol injection fitted
Lots of Xtreme Carbon external bits
Work ZR10 Alloys
And at the time of winning was producing 480bhp on low boost and 552bhp on high boost.
Enjoyed it through December on the odd days they didn't salt the roads and took it on a run along the south coast to my parents for Christmas.
Fast forward to mid Jan and the S205B turbo decided it no longer wanted to be part of the world, broken down in a woods from 2pm-8pm when it got dark at 5pm was not the nicest experience
Used a 50p coin to get the intake off and the turbo had an absolute huge amount of play in it and had obviously rubbed the turbine against the housing so no choice but to phone the AA. Who in turn refused to send a recovery truck until after their roadside chap had a look, spoke to him on the phone and he agreed it was daft but sadly everything is GPS logged so he wasn't able to mark it as unrepairable at the roadside until he actually got there. Let me sit in the van with my dog for 30 mins to warm up at least.
Sure enough turbo well and truely goosed
Got the turbo off and took it to Turbo Technics for inspection, diagnosed as overspeed. It's on the limit of what the turbo can handle really and was 9 years old having been on the car for about 5-7 years or so. As it was completely goosed with nothing reusable on it I ordered a replacement S205B (like for like) turbo from Turbo Technics, that arrived just before I went on holiday. Went on my holiday, got back and lost my job (great timing
) which gave me time at least to fit the new turbo with all new hardware etc.
Had a great shakedown run out all good, about 50 miles in total (with stops to check on everything etc) then took it on a second post-fix run out to the Cotswolds, again great fun had and always cracks me up how much love these old things get. Many conversations had with old and young alike
However on the run back home the car had a huge hesitation when I was overtaking someone and found no boost. Limped it the final couple of miles home and sure enough turbo was goosed once more. Got it straight off and drove it back up to Turbo Technics, complete with the Circlip that was hanging out of the oil drain :/ This time the failure was diagnosed as oil starvation, no warranty cover or anything like that so they sent me an quote for yet another brand new turbo at more or less full price after a lot of effort to try and get some goodwill contribution from them.
Engine seemed fine but obviously will need to give it another complete look over. Oil level was at the minimum (having filled it to max) and the difference between min and max was sat in the catch can presumably having been pushed there by boost pressure when the turbo let go. That was a little bit of a shock when draining the little bit of water out of the catch tank and suddenly dumped a load of oil on my driveway (oops!)
Threw my toys out the pram a little with the lack of support from Turbo Technics so I ordered a Precision Turbo PT5858 Ball Bearing full turbo kit from Ross Sport that should actually be a decent power boost but more importantly gets me away from the fragile S205B turbos. Could have gone much bigger on the turbo but I want a good usable powerband not a 1/4 mile monster.
PT5858 Kit was delivered and the manifold is a complete work of art from JMF;
Got it all assembled (and I won't mention the V Band clamp I snapped *cough*)
And started fitting it
And that's where we're up to so far. I had a delivery earlier today of some extra hoses I was waiting for (oil drain & connection between turbo and IC pipework) so will crack on if/when I get a break in the rain
Was fortunate to actually win this car from Dream Car Giveaways for £9.99 (ignoring how many £9.99s I spent on tickets that didn't win
) Won it on the evening of Dec 1st last year (2023) and chomping at the bit I went to collect it on the morning of Dec 3rd.
Full spec is;
56,000 Miles, with a bare metal restoration carried out by RG Motorsport - genuinely crazy how clean the car is, I'll dig out and upload some underside photos shortly.
Fully Rebuilt Engine - 2.0 Long Rod, 1400hd Wiesco 85.5 Pistons, 156mm Oliver I-Beams, Manley Springs & Retainers, GSC S2 Cams, ARP Main Studs & Head Studs, ACL Bearings, Tubular Manifold, S205b Turbo, ETS 3" Intercooler, 3" Intake Pipe / K&N, 3" Russ Fellows Exhaust System
Been swapped to a 5 Speed Gearbox as they're stronger than the 6 Speed.
Link G4 Ecu
Cusco Power Brace, Superpro 24mm Rear ARB, Meister R ZetaPro Coilovers
Water Methanol injection fitted
Lots of Xtreme Carbon external bits
Work ZR10 Alloys
And at the time of winning was producing 480bhp on low boost and 552bhp on high boost.
Enjoyed it through December on the odd days they didn't salt the roads and took it on a run along the south coast to my parents for Christmas.
Fast forward to mid Jan and the S205B turbo decided it no longer wanted to be part of the world, broken down in a woods from 2pm-8pm when it got dark at 5pm was not the nicest experience
Sure enough turbo well and truely goosed
Got the turbo off and took it to Turbo Technics for inspection, diagnosed as overspeed. It's on the limit of what the turbo can handle really and was 9 years old having been on the car for about 5-7 years or so. As it was completely goosed with nothing reusable on it I ordered a replacement S205B (like for like) turbo from Turbo Technics, that arrived just before I went on holiday. Went on my holiday, got back and lost my job (great timing
Had a great shakedown run out all good, about 50 miles in total (with stops to check on everything etc) then took it on a second post-fix run out to the Cotswolds, again great fun had and always cracks me up how much love these old things get. Many conversations had with old and young alike
However on the run back home the car had a huge hesitation when I was overtaking someone and found no boost. Limped it the final couple of miles home and sure enough turbo was goosed once more. Got it straight off and drove it back up to Turbo Technics, complete with the Circlip that was hanging out of the oil drain :/ This time the failure was diagnosed as oil starvation, no warranty cover or anything like that so they sent me an quote for yet another brand new turbo at more or less full price after a lot of effort to try and get some goodwill contribution from them.
Engine seemed fine but obviously will need to give it another complete look over. Oil level was at the minimum (having filled it to max) and the difference between min and max was sat in the catch can presumably having been pushed there by boost pressure when the turbo let go. That was a little bit of a shock when draining the little bit of water out of the catch tank and suddenly dumped a load of oil on my driveway (oops!)
Threw my toys out the pram a little with the lack of support from Turbo Technics so I ordered a Precision Turbo PT5858 Ball Bearing full turbo kit from Ross Sport that should actually be a decent power boost but more importantly gets me away from the fragile S205B turbos. Could have gone much bigger on the turbo but I want a good usable powerband not a 1/4 mile monster.
PT5858 Kit was delivered and the manifold is a complete work of art from JMF;
Got it all assembled (and I won't mention the V Band clamp I snapped *cough*)
And started fitting it
And that's where we're up to so far. I had a delivery earlier today of some extra hoses I was waiting for (oil drain & connection between turbo and IC pipework) so will crack on if/when I get a break in the rain
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