Punto GT

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Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Monday 5th September 2016
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A few developments. The nights are drawing in so I have taken the pillar mounted boost gauge off and consigned it to the eBay skip.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262610610391?ssPageName=...

The blue illumination is brighter than the dash and made going round right hand bends in the dark ridiculous. Also pillar mounted pods are a bit 1998 and not really in my taste. silly

The Alfa wheels the car came with were sold on eBay to someone from Uruguay even though they were listed as "Collection Only" and I clicked no international bidders. rolleyes

Gave the chap 48 hours to get in contact before canceling the order and relisting.

Some new arrivals.



The V-band on the flange is roughly 1mm wider than the rings...



...so I was going to have to either grind the flange ring or weld around the ring lip and grind it flat to make it fit.

From the back of the turbo flange face to the alternator heat pipe is 9.5 cm. From the V-band flange face to the end of the ring piece is also 9.5 cm. So as predicted by members of the GT owners club it will not fit without either relocating or removing the exhaust from the alternator and wrapping the down pipe to dissipate the heat away from it. The funnel section of the V-band flange is 4 cm from the face so I could use it with a ninety degree bend that's less than 5 cm from end to bend.

This won't give me the flexibility of a V-band set up but it will be a damn sight better than the down pipe that's on there at the moment. That's so crap I'm not even sure I should use it as a template.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Tuesday 6th September 2016
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Winging it today...



...two hours hand work in twenty minutes...



...I'm never buying sand paper again.



biggrin

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Friday 9th September 2016
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The guys at Coningsby have heard I'll be driving my GT past sometime soon. wink

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Sunday 11th September 2016
quotequote all
So the 205-40-16 road legal track tyres are crap in the wet and as I'm working in Thetford this weekend and the A134 is a tram line I need some sensible-ish rubber.

So I was looking for 15's with a meaningful side wall and possible for the first time in my life "Winter" tyres.

scratchchin

Hmmmmm... buy tyres or use the ones in my shed that are the least knackered?

Easy choice. I've never been a fan of these Coupe square wheels. They're a faff to balance, porous after a while and heavy so the steal power from the road and you need to think about braking sooner. Looks aside the 205-55-15's have enough of a side wall for the car to be exactly the same height from the floor as before. So I will only scrape the exhaust as much as usual.




Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Wednesday 14th September 2016
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From yellow to white primer...





...just in time for a potentially brilliant change of plan.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Monday 19th September 2016
quotequote all
More new arrivals this week.



As the V-band won't fit I'll have to chop the outlet part and weld a bend to it...



...a bit like this but within the 90mm gap from the turbo to the back of the alternator.

I do like a nice compact set up like the Mini ERA, Metro, Uno and Punto turbo but sometimes I would give a kidney for the space to work you get from a crossover had set up.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
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Before and after down pipe. The Chinese parts didn't fit so I had to cut the original flange and weld to the new down pipe. Not my best work but a damn sight better than before.



Wrapped to protect the alternator and bulk head items.



My shed has a new trophy hanging from the ceiling. smile

A days work and it looks like I have done nothing; but the engine is now even better than before. Smooth, no flat spot between 1,200 and 2,000 rpm and I can now drive at 30mph in fifth without spluttering.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Thursday 22nd September 2016
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Gratuitous "for sale" shots. wink





And the pedantic fog light shot.



hehe

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Wednesday 28th September 2016
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Still not sold so doing little jobs.

The intercooler pipe is a bit of a mystery. Why have a turbo with a 50mm outlet and a front mounted intercooler with a 50mm inlet and standard pipe with funnels going in and out of it?

It's like trying to blow up a balloon through a drinking straw.

So I have mocked up a 50mm pipe and will replace the duct-tape with weld tomorrow. wink


Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Thursday 29th September 2016
quotequote all
I guess one of my neighbors doesn't like me leaving for work at half five in the morning.





Air rifle pellet through my tail light. rolleyes

An inch to the left and it would have been a new screen.

Lucky I keep spares handy eh?

Welded up the 50mm intercooler feed pipe...



...and found some wire re-enforced 50mm hose at work...



...in theory this won't expand, contract and pop off like the conventional silicone stuff.

We'll see if it works. wink

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Friday 30th September 2016
quotequote all
I was a little concerned about the new pipe. It's 50mm and Stainless Steel reinforced but it's a high pressure water hose rated at 110'C. Can it handle the cold side of the turbo?

Had a quick Google and found the outlet temperature from the turbo should be around 140'F

140'F is 60'C so it should be okay. I'll see if I can get some 50mm Silicone pipe just in case. Glad I wrapped the downpipe. wink



Maybe the flat spot was caused by minor boost leakage from somewhere.

So all fitted and I can't say if having 50mm from the turbo to the intercooler has made a noticeable difference but I have also fitted some BSA light weight wheels and they certainly have. Steering is lighter, acceleration improved (even though the wheels want to spin on boost) and braking is something you do instead of think about a few minutes before hand. 195-45-15's instead of 205-55-15's have thrown the speedometer out again. 30 is now 33, 40 is 45 and so on. Even though the car is only 10mm lower she feels less like a Land Rover than before. Almost like a car.

On the sale front. I have someone coming to see my GT Sunday and if that's a sale I have another Punto in mind.

Edited by Liquid Knight on Saturday 1st October 13:10

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
I arrived at work without issue but was greeted by the smell of burning plastic. rolleyes

Then I remembered I work in Wisbech so that's completely normal. hehe





Sadly the car has a major problem. I love the idea of it looking like a shed with a bit of lump under the bonnet. We all like a bit of stealth right? The suspension is terrible but the car handles really well. The engine has gone from a cement mixer though a loudhailer that I was embarrassed to drive to one of the best Punto GT/Uno Turbo engines I have ever known. No, the problem is; none of it wasn't my idea, my build or my vision. Even though I own and have done a load of work on the Punto it has never really felt like my car.

That's the thing about "unfinished projects". Do you strip them apart and start again or finish them off? I should have ripped the Punto apart and started again from scratch but because I have been using it as a daily driver this wasn't an option. All I have done is repaired problems and made a few improvements.

Time to move on.


Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Tuesday 4th October 2016
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So I sold my GT and bought this...



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112150259017?_trksid=p2060353.m2748.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

...for a £184.99

I haven't heard from the seller yet but I hope to collect the car Friday, tart it up with GT bits from my shed and turn it around in time for someone to use a Winter runner or Christmas present.

My thoughts are the Mk2 HGT had a JTD option and as this is basically a 1.7 version of the 1.4 GT 128 Gen II lump it could be as much fun with a little tuning and attention.

I've trawled the thread looking for tuning options for the 1.7TD but they are limited. Even the pre-JTD 1.9 used the same turbo as the 1.7 so no boost cranking or bigger injectors from there.

My basic aim is for GT style with TD economy. I won't be doing anything too exteme...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RAVBoYX5S0

biggrin

Vitorio

4,296 posts

142 months

Friday 7th October 2016
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Is that one of those uber-simple diesels where upping the boost pressure is just a matter of putting a stronger spring on the waste-gate? (or something like that..)

For some reason i really really want to buy a dirty smelly old diesel and tune its nuts off...

There is a bloke in the dutch alfa scene running 270hp from a 1.9 16v JTDm lump, water/methanol injection etc..

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Friday 7th October 2016
quotequote all
Common rail with a turbo that does work but makes very little difference. hehe

I'm not going to do anything mechanical to it apart from may sort the exhaust out.





I'll swap the abs bumpers for the ones from the silver car complete with reverse parking sensors (painting those black tonight at work).



The battery didn't hold a charge on the drive home so I've put my spare on for now.



The driver side headlight is glued together and the passenger side reflector is crusty so I'll swap those for my best H4 spare pair as well.



Tuning is as limited as the amount of space I have to work with I suspect but it has just under three quarters of a tank of diesel so I won't even need to take the cap off let alone cover myself with the stench trying to work on it.

matsoc

853 posts

131 months

Friday 7th October 2016
quotequote all
Vitorio said:
Is that one of those uber-simple diesels where upping the boost pressure is just a matter of putting a stronger spring on the waste-gate? (or something like that..)

For some reason i really really want to buy a dirty smelly old diesel and tune its nuts off...

There is a bloke in the dutch alfa scene running 270hp from a 1.9 16v JTDm lump, water/methanol injection etc..
270hp from the 1.9 16v is impressive but it could be possible. Back in 2000 I followed the tuning on a Fiat Bravo jtd that reached 180hp out of the 8v 1.9jtd which kicked out just 105hp standard. The car was easily much faster than Bravo HGTs with NA petrol with 155hp.

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Saturday 8th October 2016
quotequote all
Got the rear end done last night (at work)...



...the exhaust is crap so I'll have to make something to remedy that. wink

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Sunday 9th October 2016
quotequote all
New headlights while the paint on the front bumper dried.



Just alloys and a wash and she's good to go. smile

Vitorio

4,296 posts

142 months

Monday 10th October 2016
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Liquid Knight said:
New headlights while the paint on the front bumper dried.



Just alloys and a wash and she's good to go. smile
Looks like a tidy little motor now LK!

What's next on the project docket?

Liquid Knight

Original Poster:

15,754 posts

182 months

Monday 10th October 2016
quotequote all




Bravo alloys, locking wheel bolts, tidy up and for sale shots. wink

Next?

There's a charity tack day in November and I want to either have my Bravo or Coupe ready for it.