205 GTI 1.6 - 1.9 on Dual Carbs Restoration
Discussion
As I've an ongoing thread with my S2000 so thought I should do one on a very long term project, my 205 GTI.
It's a 1991 J-plate. It was a Cat D which was basically new bonnet, wing, bumper, none of the frame was affected.
It was/is in a tired state. It had covered 140k miles, 2,000 of which were done on a rebuilt Skip Brown engine 1.6 - 1.9 conversion.
This included:
A 1985 block (don't ask me why)
Gas flowed head
Forged pistons and rods which I believe have a longer stroke which increases the capacity
New liners
Uprated valves
Uprated Vernier Pulley
Uprated cam
Dual Delarto Carbs
Uprated (and very noisy) fuel pump
Retro fitted power steering
1.9 rear axle
306 GTI-6 Front Brakes
4-1 manifold
Stainless exhaust
The body in the main is in remarkably rust free order, just the usual small dents and some very faded paint on the roof that looks like it's been cleaned with a brillo pad.
The front seats need reconditioning, the carpet is crap, some interior pieces are missing, but a lot is there. it even has a parcel shelf with no 6x9 holes!
A headlight is cracked, an indicator not working, but she runs and sounds rather meaty!
Anyway, I found it on ebay, it was in Manchester, a 5 hour drive each way. The guy was very open and honest, he'd only had it a couple of months as his house sale fell through then came back together so was ordered by the wife to sell it.
The owner before that had spent the money on all the upgrades, tracked it once or twice, then it sat in a garage for four years. To cut a long story short, I got it for the princely sum of £2,000.
We drove up there on a Friday afternoon, the plan had been to drive it back, but didn't want to risk it so I hired a pickup and trailer.
It's a bloody long way in one of those! But we made it, drove it up the road, handed over the cash, loaded up and headed home in the pouring rain and dark. Got home at 3am, unloaded tucked away in garage and promptly passed out.
Collection Day:
It's a 1991 J-plate. It was a Cat D which was basically new bonnet, wing, bumper, none of the frame was affected.
It was/is in a tired state. It had covered 140k miles, 2,000 of which were done on a rebuilt Skip Brown engine 1.6 - 1.9 conversion.
This included:
A 1985 block (don't ask me why)
Gas flowed head
Forged pistons and rods which I believe have a longer stroke which increases the capacity
New liners
Uprated valves
Uprated Vernier Pulley
Uprated cam
Dual Delarto Carbs
Uprated (and very noisy) fuel pump
Retro fitted power steering
1.9 rear axle
306 GTI-6 Front Brakes
4-1 manifold
Stainless exhaust
The body in the main is in remarkably rust free order, just the usual small dents and some very faded paint on the roof that looks like it's been cleaned with a brillo pad.
The front seats need reconditioning, the carpet is crap, some interior pieces are missing, but a lot is there. it even has a parcel shelf with no 6x9 holes!
A headlight is cracked, an indicator not working, but she runs and sounds rather meaty!
Anyway, I found it on ebay, it was in Manchester, a 5 hour drive each way. The guy was very open and honest, he'd only had it a couple of months as his house sale fell through then came back together so was ordered by the wife to sell it.
The owner before that had spent the money on all the upgrades, tracked it once or twice, then it sat in a garage for four years. To cut a long story short, I got it for the princely sum of £2,000.
We drove up there on a Friday afternoon, the plan had been to drive it back, but didn't want to risk it so I hired a pickup and trailer.
It's a bloody long way in one of those! But we made it, drove it up the road, handed over the cash, loaded up and headed home in the pouring rain and dark. Got home at 3am, unloaded tucked away in garage and promptly passed out.
Collection Day:
The following weekend I finally got to get into it.
The list of jobs was long:
Replace clutch
Replace coolant hoses
Fix seats
Replace Carpet
Replace interior parts
Fix various oil leaks from Distributor, rocker cover, sump and potentially other areas
Fix Water Leak
Refresh Suspension
Replace/Refresh Brakes
Replace Headlight
Fix Indicators
Fix Starting Issue
Repaint Roof
That's just from initial inspection.
At the same time the car arrived, we'd only recently moved house which included a double garage. We hadn't intended to buy one at that point, but it came up. So consequently a lot of time went into the house, and also renovating the garage into a clean dry organised workspace.
Before:
After:
So whilst I was doing the garage, I dropped the car off at my tame mechanic to do the clutch, replace the hoses and give the engine a quick clean.
Next was trying to figure out the bad starting. It would take two or three goes. It turned out to be bad plugs and leads, so replaced all those and jobs a goodun.
Next was to get her up in the air, and sort the interior (i'm 6'4" with a knackered back so makes it easier) and then the oily bits.
The list of jobs was long:
Replace clutch
Replace coolant hoses
Fix seats
Replace Carpet
Replace interior parts
Fix various oil leaks from Distributor, rocker cover, sump and potentially other areas
Fix Water Leak
Refresh Suspension
Replace/Refresh Brakes
Replace Headlight
Fix Indicators
Fix Starting Issue
Repaint Roof
That's just from initial inspection.
At the same time the car arrived, we'd only recently moved house which included a double garage. We hadn't intended to buy one at that point, but it came up. So consequently a lot of time went into the house, and also renovating the garage into a clean dry organised workspace.
Before:
After:
So whilst I was doing the garage, I dropped the car off at my tame mechanic to do the clutch, replace the hoses and give the engine a quick clean.
Next was trying to figure out the bad starting. It would take two or three goes. It turned out to be bad plugs and leads, so replaced all those and jobs a goodun.
Next was to get her up in the air, and sort the interior (i'm 6'4" with a knackered back so makes it easier) and then the oily bits.
Time to get the seats and remove the rotten old carpet and replace with a nice red one I found on ebay.
New carpet in, by god the centre console is a pita. The carpet needs to settle down, but looks good.
During this time the front seats had been sent away for a retrim and side bolster repair. The original centre cloth was retained and the "leather" (it's actually vinyl on these) replaced with new vinyl, new stitching etc. £600 but well spent.
Very pleased. The rear seats were fine with a good clean along with all the door cards. Replaced the coin holder having spent £9 on a flippin tiny plastic catch.
Next up, onto the engine work.... TBC.
New carpet in, by god the centre console is a pita. The carpet needs to settle down, but looks good.
During this time the front seats had been sent away for a retrim and side bolster repair. The original centre cloth was retained and the "leather" (it's actually vinyl on these) replaced with new vinyl, new stitching etc. £600 but well spent.
Very pleased. The rear seats were fine with a good clean along with all the door cards. Replaced the coin holder having spent £9 on a flippin tiny plastic catch.
Next up, onto the engine work.... TBC.
So the engine is covered in oil. It doesn't really leak much when parked, but it's obviously been leaking for sometime from various places. The sump for sure, also the rocker cover. A helpful chap on 205 forum mentioned they often leak from the distributor too.
So upon further investigation I noticed the body of the distributor was held on with just one nut, the top one, and sure enough underneath there was oil coming out.
Now you can strip everything completely back and replace the cam seals, but the purpose of this resto is not to make it concurs, or to make any huge horsepower or trackday weapon, it's to be a fun car to be enjoyed on weekends etc Even with the seals replaced, I understand oil will still leak into this area, so I cleaned everything up and used liquid gasket to seal things properly, and of course, fitted another nut.
I also removed, cleaned and prepared the rocker cover, this had silicon sealant everywhere and the gasket was brittle. A new gasket and some more of my trusty liquid gasket and job jobbed. Now the more observant ones will have noticed the colour and consistency of the oil. We'll move onto that....
Now to present day, we've had the 205 for nearly 3 years and whilst some things have been attended to it's very much a car I work on when have the drive and inclination. My S2000 is a dream to work on in comparison. The 205 is dirty, oily, everytime you fix something you notice another issue, previous owners have clearly no idea what they were doing. But it's the motivation of getting it back on the road and the fact I secretly enjoy working on it keeps me going.
So, time to drain the oil, remove the filter, drain the coolant. The coolant seemed ok, old but no real sign of oil.
The oil on the other hand was pretty grim. The potentially fateful mayo was evident, the oil had yellowy colour to it and the last few drops that came out were basically sludge.
Next was to remove the sump and see the horrors inside. My god what a bloody mess. I restored a Massey Ferguson tractor in my youth that had sat in a field for years and not seen sludge like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYzbpFpj3n0
So tomorrows job will be to call the people that cleaned up after the Exxon Valdez to attend to the sump.
In the meantime, more pics/vid of the bottom end:
I have no idea what this sensor is, it doesn't look too happy though!
The mayo on the sump, corresponds with this area where a pipe feeds in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pA2KvE79mM
I'm not convinced it's head gasket as it's only had very short runs/sat for basically the last 8 years. My hopeful plan is to clean and button everything back up, move onto the other items, then submit for an MOT to see how comically bad it is (it actually had one when we bought it) and if it continues to show up i'll do the head.
I will update this thread more as time progresses!
So upon further investigation I noticed the body of the distributor was held on with just one nut, the top one, and sure enough underneath there was oil coming out.
Now you can strip everything completely back and replace the cam seals, but the purpose of this resto is not to make it concurs, or to make any huge horsepower or trackday weapon, it's to be a fun car to be enjoyed on weekends etc Even with the seals replaced, I understand oil will still leak into this area, so I cleaned everything up and used liquid gasket to seal things properly, and of course, fitted another nut.
I also removed, cleaned and prepared the rocker cover, this had silicon sealant everywhere and the gasket was brittle. A new gasket and some more of my trusty liquid gasket and job jobbed. Now the more observant ones will have noticed the colour and consistency of the oil. We'll move onto that....
Now to present day, we've had the 205 for nearly 3 years and whilst some things have been attended to it's very much a car I work on when have the drive and inclination. My S2000 is a dream to work on in comparison. The 205 is dirty, oily, everytime you fix something you notice another issue, previous owners have clearly no idea what they were doing. But it's the motivation of getting it back on the road and the fact I secretly enjoy working on it keeps me going.
So, time to drain the oil, remove the filter, drain the coolant. The coolant seemed ok, old but no real sign of oil.
The oil on the other hand was pretty grim. The potentially fateful mayo was evident, the oil had yellowy colour to it and the last few drops that came out were basically sludge.
Next was to remove the sump and see the horrors inside. My god what a bloody mess. I restored a Massey Ferguson tractor in my youth that had sat in a field for years and not seen sludge like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYzbpFpj3n0
So tomorrows job will be to call the people that cleaned up after the Exxon Valdez to attend to the sump.
In the meantime, more pics/vid of the bottom end:
I have no idea what this sensor is, it doesn't look too happy though!
The mayo on the sump, corresponds with this area where a pipe feeds in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pA2KvE79mM
I'm not convinced it's head gasket as it's only had very short runs/sat for basically the last 8 years. My hopeful plan is to clean and button everything back up, move onto the other items, then submit for an MOT to see how comically bad it is (it actually had one when we bought it) and if it continues to show up i'll do the head.
I will update this thread more as time progresses!
Lovely wee 205 there! I had a sorrento green 1.6 back in my youth. Wish i had kept it, but it went to a mate and was sold on after it started chuffing out plumes of blue smoke! 
you are in it for a decent price, so dont be put off too much by what you are now discovering as you delve further into it!
you are in it for a decent price, so dont be put off too much by what you are now discovering as you delve further into it!
rickygolf83 said:
Lovely wee 205 there! I had a sorrento green 1.6 back in my youth. Wish i had kept it, but it went to a mate and was sold on after it started chuffing out plumes of blue smoke!
you are in it for a decent price, so dont be put off too much by what you are now discovering as you delve further into it!
Mrs Quags had one when she was younger which is why we ended up with it, but being someone who had an AX GT500 then a supercharged Saxo VTR i'm very much into them too!you are in it for a decent price, so dont be put off too much by what you are now discovering as you delve further into it!
No, it's just everytime I think i'm getting there another thing presents itself. But for £2k I could part it out and make more, but I won't, she will live on!
Bit of an update, been working on my S2000 and more recently the pug.
I've replaced the radio having spent ages sorting out the dodgy wiring. I've also fitted some rear speakers in the OEM locations. They were a pain in the ass!
I've also removed the front breaks, stripped down the calipers and replaced the pistons and seals along with giving them a fresh few coats of caliper paint.
I also rubbed down all the front suspension and painted it to protect it. Not a perfect job but its not a show car.
So the interior is pretty much complete now, the engine seems to be running well except for the hesitation under hard acceleration, I suspect it needs someone with more skills than I to tune the carbs.
The exterior is surprisingly good, but the roof isn't. At some point it was repainted and for what ever reason didn't take.
I did a test patch sanding it down, there was hope I might be able to save it:
Today I took it outside, washed it and begun sanding. Sadly not, it needs paint:
I've replaced the radio having spent ages sorting out the dodgy wiring. I've also fitted some rear speakers in the OEM locations. They were a pain in the ass!
I've also removed the front breaks, stripped down the calipers and replaced the pistons and seals along with giving them a fresh few coats of caliper paint.
I also rubbed down all the front suspension and painted it to protect it. Not a perfect job but its not a show car.
So the interior is pretty much complete now, the engine seems to be running well except for the hesitation under hard acceleration, I suspect it needs someone with more skills than I to tune the carbs.
The exterior is surprisingly good, but the roof isn't. At some point it was repainted and for what ever reason didn't take.
I did a test patch sanding it down, there was hope I might be able to save it:
Today I took it outside, washed it and begun sanding. Sadly not, it needs paint:
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff