(G) My Turbo Cinq Story

OK, I’ve tried the Blog thing but that doesn't work for me as it seems too geeky, so I though I’d put the story of my evolving car in the bits that people actually read

So here goes, bought my Turbo almost two months ago now, and those who are regulars will know the work that went into it before I got it thanks to Emma, Aaron and John. The whole reason I bought the car was that technically it was the best Turbo 1108 ever to come up for sale IMHO (all credit goes the people involved in building it!!! )

But............

We all have an idea of what your own car should be and the following months will be me taking a great car and making it into what I really want

The story so far...

Very little, smiling is taking most of my time,

Externally added second ornamental gasket to the front bumper, change the bonnet badge and replaced and colour coded the missing driver side mirror tip.

Bought and to fit wide arches, sprayed and ready to fit also got hold of some genuine Abarth front and rear bumpers (the project for the warming months but the sanding has already started)

Performance wise swapped the TB from a 36mm to a 40mm, this has had a huge impact on performance making the car much more eager and a bit edgy, now spins it wheels in 3rd on the move in the wet with little effort. I need to get the fuelling rechecked before pushing too hard though.

also fitted to the car Cat 1 alarm with remote locking and accessorised with everything, except flame throwers. One piece stainless boost pipe with a Bailey dump valve and samco vac lines.

To be fitted over the next few weeks weather permitting a bit of brake stuff, even though the brakes are great they are a bit dead in feel and actually the car's stopping distance is less than my NA despite having disks all round. So I am taking the formula that is very successful on the NA and applying it to the Turbo.
So I have ATE spec callipers fully refurbed and painted to put on the front with ATE spec pads to go on all around (i.e. soft) also 4 new shiny Tarox Sport Japan disks. If these work as well on the Turbo as the NA then I will be well pleased.

Coming in the next few months will be Samco hoses for the Crank and sump breathers and for the fuel lines, also seriously thinking of a knock sensor warning system and possibly an AFR meter if I can find a diver’s side pillar pod

Hopefully this will mean that the best is just getting better but progress to follow

Nice little right up. If i was you I'd forget about doing the AFR gauge in pillar mount, only because I do not like those. I would move the electric window switches like I did in my old turbo to the doors, this gives you a very convenient gauge size gap in dash where the window switches used to be and fit it there, I fitted a volt meter to mine just because I had the space.

You can see it in this picture


Switches in handles, which is easy to do, extend the wires and reverse the handles, i.e passenger side on drivers door, and vice versa.

Just to hijack another thread i think them handles and gauge look rather tasty..

Think carefully about the AFR. If you're eventually going to go Megasquirt, AFR is the way to go (but wideband). If you're eventually going Emerald, go EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature). Both will run guages (for now), both will interface with an aftermarket ECU (for later).

I think the main reason Megasquirt run with an AFR off a second lambda is just for mapping which they all do on the road, while Emerald do the mapping with a their second lambda on their RR, put the plug in and use the EGT sensor as the "whoops , cut the boost!" trigger.

IIRC, EGT are cheaper than wideband lambdas, but make sure you get the boss with the kit (big delay with my Emerald was that no-one had the bosses in stock, so they had to get a big batch made up).

If you're going Aaron's way on the window switches, consider chopping the rearmost horn off the door pull while you're at it: I find the belt always catches on it.

Yep, yours is unofficially the best 1108 turbo (for now)!

sounds like you're having fun with it

re lambdas and egt and stuff.

you can map on AFR or EGT. Emerald contains a wideband controller, and so it is only the cost of the sensor (£60) to factor in. MS does not 'normally' have the controller needed, hence me buying an LC1 and sensor (£120). The advantage being that it is mulitple outputs, one runs to the ECU and the other to my AFR gauge.

I also have an EGT gauge, it is not connected to the ECU and i'm not sure if MS can act on EGT readings, i know it can log them. But IMO, using a Wideband lambda is better way of monitoring the engine than EGT. AFR reacts instantly, EGT does not. This comes from running both gauges. Whilst you do not strictly need a lambda when the engine is mapped, i wouldn't run without it.

One of the things that popped into my mind was to change the seperate oil pressure and oil temp guage for a combined pressure/temp one leaving me a spare slot for an AFR guage

Aftermarket ECU is on the very distant horizon at the moment (also very dependant on the size of next years annual bonus and talking the wife and kids into not going on holiday for another year) knowing what the downsides of the MF2 setup are i'll just put the monitors in place for now so coupled with the the bits already on the car (pistons, breathers, proper fuel pressure, oil cooler, cool intake temperatures etc) and the fact that i'm mechanically gentle on engines hopefully it should stay in one piece. I also need to do a lot more reading before even thinking of starting anything like that.

Forgot to add in the First post I've also fitted a seperate Kenwood amp to power the rear shelf speakers (had it sat in the garage for ages from a previous car) so all six speakers are now fully plumbed in, strange thing is though i rarely feel the need to listen to music whilst driving it

let me know if you find a decent looking electronic one, the only one i've found was a racetech gauge and it has a capilarily feed to it.

know exactly what you mean about the ICE, if im on the motorway i have music on, but as soon as i come off the motorway (normally a junction before i need to ) the music goes off and the windows are opened a crack so i can hear the exhaust as well

Hence why i do very little motorway driving and have no silly speaker thingys

anyway, leave the wife and kids at home and mod the cinq further

an advantage of the LC1 wideband controller, is it has a patented way of driving the WB sensor, that was never devised by Bosch. It has a FAR quicker response time than pretty much any other WB controller on the market.

Disadvantage of this, is its reading are very quick and can seem erratic....however, you can average the outputs for a smother signal.

Aaron, those window switches looked nice Factory fit

liking all your ideas anyway Money is a bitch eh! Got so many plans for mine, but sadly need to do a bit of saving. How about some more piccies to keep us excited while we await updates


I also agree, blogs are a bit rubbish lol.....nobody ever looks at them, and i feel weired saying I have a blog....its against my nature

Kristian

Today was a day of much swearing and blooded knuckes but was quite sucessfell in the end

Swopped over the front brake calipers today and put on the set of ATE calipers from a Marea that i have refurbed, along with a set of ATE pads (the same ones i use on the NA)

Also switched from solid vented discs to drilled and grooved, vented Tatox Sport Japan discs up front and the same discs but solid drilled and grooved ones on the rear when for the pads for the same pad compound as the fronts.

All in a very big difference to the braking much more feel and stopping power even now and they have yet to bed in properly and they look fantastic through the wheels.

Only one niggle is that the handbrake isn't that good and i suspect that is down to me as i've never changes Fiat rear pads before so obviously i'm missing the technique. The rears groan for a couple of seconds after you Brake at low speeds. I've coppa-sliped the appropriate bits so again suspect it is me or I have a duff caliper

Also found the off-side rear bottom bumper mount had crumbled away so another job to add to the list

I'll post some pics tomorrow I'm buggered right now

Also finished off the new on piece stainless boost pipe as it needed a bit of fettling again will post pics of this tommorow

Time for a beer now and some forum seaching on rear disc brakes

The rear callipers were refurbished by Big Redd, I think there should be a receipt for it in your history file, if not it's probably in Fingers as I got two sets done at once

Remember proper way to bed in brakes, 4 runs from 60-10mph heavy braking but no locking up and no full stops, and no sitting in traffic, good 10min run no braking to cool down then one final 80-10mph near stop, they are now bedded in properly.

PS I have a set of Cinq rear bumper mounts in near perfect condition that were removed from my red Cinq which were about to be stuck on ebay as clearing out any Cinq bits we find. TBH we were aware of the bumper mounts but as the exhaust side was still holding and its not an MOT failure just one of those jobs never got round to as never seemed critical.

Yer ship em up pm me a price

Think it may be me with the brakes will take a look next weekend The car won't be going anywhere before then anyway

When you fitted the new pads did you turn and press when you put the pistons back in?

I'll send a PM.

PS was going to say I wouldn't have gone to trouble of replacing the discs as they are all under 5K miles MaxTorq Group N and have higher friction co-efficient than normal disc material, hence why you can go solid face, gives larger contact area. I know from going on a Track Day forum that these discs were rated higher than all other aftermarket discs due to there ability to withstand 4-5 full on track days (30laps), compared to may 2-3 of Tarox and such. though I would have replaced the front pads with the saved cash for Mintex M1144 which are expensive, but worth every penny.

Though it now means that if you clean the discs up could be used by someone else.

Or get 'em bead blasted, (not shot blasted!), take a file to any little overhangs on the edhes, grease 'em up and keep them. After all, disks are consumables: you'll need another set sooner or later!

I turned them yes, (clockwise as it said from the posts i'd read) and they went back in fine, but i think maybe one side should may have been anticlockwise?

The MaxTorq Group N disc's may be good on the track but they just don't suit my driving style on the road and to me that is more important.
The chances of me tracking the car are small as it would be third in line anyway Believe me though the car stops a lot, lot quicker now than before with a lot more feel through the pedal so will give me the confidence where it matters most.

Disc's and PGT calipers will be in the classifieds soon