Hi Everyone,
I am starting a new refurbishment project on my Coupe and thought I would post the progress on the forum as it progresses.

I have owned two other Coupes in the past (a metallic blue 16v and a red Trubo plus). Both of these were completely stock, but with my more recent cars being modified (a 600HP Supra and a 550HP SL55 AMG) I was always likely to go for a modified Coupe if I got another one

So last year I spotted Nigel's modified moon grey Turbo Plus for sale on the forum, and after an inspection and test drive I bought it and drove it back to sunny Belfast

As Nigel has already carried out the performance modifications, my project will be to prepare the car to be my daily driver for the next 20 years.

The main work will be:

1. Eradicating any rust (which is now just starting to appear on the underside and wheel arches).
2. Refurbish the rear subframe.
3. Trace and fix an engine oil leak.
4. Change all the engine fluids, filters, belts etc
5. Replace the worn Vibra Technics gearbox rear mount.
6. Full silicone hose set.
7. High flow catalytic converter (to pass emissions test at the official MOT centres here in Northern ireland )
8. Possibly an aftermarket ECU?
9. New rear discs and pads.
10. Fix air con.
11. Double din head unit.
12. Strip and repaint centre console.
13. Front and rear parking sensors.
14. Full respray in a cutom House of Kolor cobalt blue candy paint.

The car was left in with my mechanic on saturday and I have asked him to send me before and after photos as he progresses. So hopefully I will have some photos later this week.

To get things started here are some photos of the car before the works start.

Simon

Just a quick update on the car.

My Mechanic has finally started - he went off with Covid the day after I dropped the car off with him

To date he has fitted the replacement gearbox mount and all the silicone hoses, and has traced the engine oil leak - it seems that the oil cooler is knackered so he has ordered a new one.

He has dropped the rear axle for refurbishment and is also going to replace the brake lines.

I have reminded him to send me photos and I will post them as soon as they come through.

I took a run over to see the car this morning and things are progressing well

Any rust discovered has been treated with rust converter and repainted/undersealed. The eifel towers were a little bit scabby but cleaned up ok.

The rear subframe has been dropped, cleaned up, new mounts fitted, and new brake discs fitted. New brake pipes will be required.

The engine has been checked over and a small oil leak was found at the cam cover. The cover has been stripped and resprayed and is ready to be re-fit with a new gasket.

The silicone hoses have all been fitted.

The replacement gearbox mount has been fitted.

A new cone air filter, cabin filter, fuel filter, oil filter and engine oil has been fitted.

The defective oil cooler has been stripped and a replacement ordered.

The front and rear parking sensors have been fitted, and just need wired up.

My Mechanic hopes to have everything finised by next weekend

The Guys have also been investigating the fuelling issue at idle.

My initial thought was that it was overfuelling, but the have tested the AFR and it is actually substantially underfuelled

So we are planning to fit a piggyback ECU and doing a complete adjustment of the fuelling on their dyno.

The car is nearly finished now

The cam cover has been resprayed and re-fitted with a new gasket.

A replacement (upgraded) oil cooler has been fitted.

The internal dash trims have been stripped out for painting with the exterior - thanks for those advising on how to remove the strips.

The only thing left to do is fitting and mapping the piggyback ECU (which is due this week), and fitting the double din head unit (which will be done after the exterior re-spray).

Picked up the car today after nearly two months in the garage - delays caused by covid, family bereavement, and ecu chip shortages

All the works went to plan and the piggyback ECU appears to have worked extremely well.

With the car on the hub dyno my mapper found that the original tune didnt appear to control the fuelling at idle leaving it running extremely lean. Then on boost it ran rich (9.5 AFR!) with substantial timing adjustments to compensate.

He has therefore remapped it by pulling a lot of fuel and easing the timing back. This has lost a bit of the low down torque (due to it boosing slightly later) but has resulted in quite a sizeable jump in top end HP and torque

See attached dyno sheet showing the before and after results.

Got some photos back from the painter today.

He has everything stripped down and primed.

He has fully painted the interior trims as his benchmark.

It is hard to see from the photo but the metallic silver basecoat should glimmer through the blue candy in the sunlight.

Clearcoat still to do which should deepen the colour further.

All dents etc have been filled and the whole car has been primed.

The door reveals and underside of the bonnet have been painted.

Next week the doors will go back on so the whole shell can be painted in one go.

Metallic silver blue basecoat completed.

Blue candy coats going on

Picked the car up from the Painter today

It was a nice sunny day today and the car looked dazzling! The silver metallic base coat really reflects back through the blue candy when the sun hits it.

Then when the car is in the shade it looks purply blue.

I have taken a couple of photos but they dont really do it justice. I have selected photos that show the transition from blue to silver.

I will book the car in soon to get it ceramic coated, so will hopefully get some better quality photos in the Detailer's lighted booth.

Head unit and painted interior trims fitted.

A couple of photos after ceramic coating.

A couple of photos taken by the Ceramic Coater in his workshop.

The LED lights really show off the difference between the blue and the silvery sheen where the light hits the haunches

I'm now starting the next phase of the refurb project - changing the turbo.

The old turbo (GTX2971r Gen1) has performed well, but it is more suited to fast open road use and top speed runs. It starts to come onto boost about 3000 rpm and by the time it is on full boost in 3rd gear the car is doing stupid speeds

I drive more in the city and on roads which require low end punch coming out of corners. So I have decided to downsize the turbo to get quicker boost and more low down response.

Having researched the various options in depth for several months, studying compressor maps etc, I decided on the G25-550. It has the same size turbine and compressor wheels as the GT/GTX2860 but flows the same as a GTX2867. So hopefully it will spool 500rpm quicker but only loose 30-40hp from the old turbo

My guys have persuaded me to go with the Pulsar Turbos equivalent of the G25-550, the PSR4849G. Pulsar turbos are very high quality exact copies of the Garrett models, but are half the cost!

Turbo test fitted - its a tight fit with the longer turbine housing!

The wastegate actuator is actually hitting the engine, so they guys are going to have to fabricate a custom bracket to move it a bit further out.

Just received a photo of the dyno graph for the new turbo and the results look mega

480Hp and 438ft at 1.7 bar.

So it has only lost 30Hp from the old turbo, but interestingly has gained 63ft of torque. Looking at the graph there is a bit of a dip at 4400rpm which the guys think may actually be the clutch slipping due to too much torque!.

I'm picking it up tomorrow, so cant wait to see what it is like to drive

Here is Nigel's dyno graph for the old turbo.

Compaing the numbers there is a serious difference in the power delivery.

3500rpm: 200hp & 300ft vs 135 & 210
4000rpm: 285 & 370 vs 190 & 255
4500rpm: 360 & 420 vs 270 & 310
5000rpm: 420 & 438 vs 330 & 350
5500rpm: 450 & 430 vs 385 & 370
6000rpm: 480 & 420 vs 430 & 375

It starts to choke a bit above 6000rpm, but it shouldnt be a deal breaker given that the power band starts much earlier and there is soo much torque :

The G25-550 beats the GTX2971 everywhere exept the last 1000 rpm cool: