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Go Back   Madabout Kitcars Forum > Mad Build Area > Marlin 5exi builds

Marlin 5exi builds Calling all you sexi builders....sorry 5exi builders, show us your progress.

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  #121  
Old 27th November 2009, 23:11
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3" ground clearance? That's absolutely bonkers for a road car.....

To have any chance of that being useable on UK roads you'll need rock hard suspension...and then the ride isn't compliant enough!

Have Marlin gone mad?

I'd say 4" is the absolute minimum you want.....but better still at 5-6" if you don't want to rip off front splitters, damage chassis rails, sumps...etc...

ATB

Rich
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  #122  
Old 27th November 2009, 23:17
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To be honest, when I asked Marlin what balljoints they were from, lets just say it was like pulling teeth. What ever reason they have.

All I got was they was Peugeot after a fight. Without Peter's post I would not have known they was Metro/MFG BOTTOM joints. Peugeot top joints confirmed.

With the clutch. Battling with that at the moment. As John and I found. MGF bracket is ok for standard. But needs beefing up if you upgrade clutch or engine. OK for standard power. No good with a race Helix clutch for a 220 turbo! i know as that's what I'm battling against at the moment

Slave goes all over the place if you need an up rated clutch.
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  #123  
Old 27th November 2009, 23:43
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I am gonna set it for 3 inch's this weekend then maybe increase to 4 inch's with different springs later on. The front has tonnes of range its the rear thats more limited 4.25 inches and the shock is maxed out.

One idea I have had, is currently I am running it with 15 inch wheels. I may decided to eventually go for larger wheels for the road which is where I am worried about all the speed bumps and pot holes around here. Hence increasing ride height, and keep the 15 inch ones for the track when a lower ride height may be advantageous. As I have a fully programmable dash, changing overall wheel diameter is not a major issue for speedo, just a quick hook up of the laptop to the car.
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  #124  
Old 27th November 2009, 23:58
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Hi David.

Don't worry about 15" wheels. No problem on the road. No problem with clearance.

I only use 15" wheels and there fine. 150mm is about the ride height you want to aim for. 5-6 inches in old money.

4 inches I would say track only.

10" springs and shocks. Measure your spring length. Could have 9" springs or something.
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  #125  
Old 28th November 2009, 11:42
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David, if you set the car with a 4" ride height, how much droop do you have front and rear?

If the front has as much travel as mine did originally, watch out of the ball joints necking on full droop. Mine was limited by the ball joints, not the travel of the dampers, which is bad news. I've solved it now, by buying different length front and rear dampers.

You might find fitting some polyurethane bumpstops is helpful - allow some movement using just the spring, then increase the effective spring rate of the suspension by compressing a bumpstop as the suspension continues into the bump stroke. Again this is what I've done on mine to give initial compliance, which firms up with travel.

My car is about 140mm at the front, 150mm at the rear, and even this is marginal on the road. I have 300 lb front springs, 350 lb rear springs, and although my suspension arms are different to yours, I would be surprised if the movement ratio is massively different.
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  #126  
Old 13th December 2009, 19:04
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No pictures but starting to hopefully make progress.

After trying/borrowing another Helix clutch plate, which worked fine, had problems convincing Helix that there was a problem with there product. After a few heated discussions on the other end of the phone, I went in person to collect the cover plate from them as I was in the area. Low and behold, it seems like it is now working.

Doing the method of hand turning the crank, someone pressing clutch pedal, someone observe plate being released from flywheel. Only a slight drag every so often, but hoping it just needs bedding in or the flywheel will be spinning a lot faster than I can turn it!

So engine/box back in. One driveshaft back in (broken balljoint on order for the other side). Battery tray mounted.

Things to do.
Complete fitting of water pipes.
Connect up gearchange cables.

Resolder/install connector for a few wires (found I had been eager and solder a fair few wires. Which when coming to remove the engine, had to snip! Good run through though.

Wire in resistor so Rover temp gauge is correct for VW temp sender.

Fit chargecooler rad and plumb in. Re route boost hoses as driveshaft in the way of original route now the manifold has been done.

Fit N75 (easier said than done as I'm not using original air system where it is usually mounted.) Plumb in boost hoses.

Hoping to get car moving under it's own steam next weekend without boost.

Full diags test (£40 locally) check all system go very soon. Full mapping/full boost (21 PSI) early in the new year fitted with bigger injectors.

For the people that don't know how much boost 21 PSI is. Standard 180 BHP Audi/SEAT runs at 7-9 PSI. Rover turbo is 11-12 PSI.

Should see in the region of 300 BHP/same torque safely.
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  #127  
Old 23rd December 2009, 16:12
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Mystery solved re lower balljoint.

The pattern part from Fastline does not fit the Marlin lower wishbone. Starts to "tighen" after a couple of turns screwing in the balljoint.

What is needed is a genuine QH balljoint part number QSJ1060. A leter Metro/MGF balljoint.

Thanks Marlin for telling me it was a Peugeot item.
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  #128  
Old 23rd December 2009, 16:21
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umm wonder which the ones I just bought from Rimmer Bro's are. they looked identical and made sure taper was the same, but havent tried fitting one yet to a suspension arm.

D.
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  #129  
Old 23rd December 2009, 16:22
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Hi David.

I think you arms are the same as mine. Rimmer bros should be genuine Rover parts. Do you have a part number on the box?
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  #130  
Old 31st December 2009, 15:37
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It moves on it's own steam!!!

First impression. A little lively.

Even with engine running very rich and like a bag of spanners. The quicker I get it mapped and checked out the better.

Clutch is kind of on/off at bitting point. But expected that due to being a race clutch.

Boost pipes nearly done. Decide to install a dump valve. Had the baileys so can use that. Just waiting for the T piece.

Left to do:
Fit N75
Plumb in water hose for chargecooler. Hose on order.
Resistor for temp gauge.
Secure all pipes cables etc.

Book in for diags/mapping session.
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  #131  
Old 1st January 2010, 11:20
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Pictures required...
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  #132  
Old 1st January 2010, 18:51
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I will get a video of it moving eventually.

Did some pipe securing today and stacking/torquing the driveshaft nuts. Small things that needed doing.

And took for a quick spin round the block. Could not go far though as it's running bad at the minute and does not want to idle very well.

Completley forgot the last time I used the car was on the track. Shocks turned up to the full! Nearly rocked my teeth out over the speed humps!
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  #133  
Old 19th January 2010, 15:56
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A quick update...

I need to pull my finger out now.

I spoke to qpeng (the VW guys who I bought the ECU from.) They are going to put a more accurate map on the car so it runs a bit better and driveable.

So first step on the way. Sent ECU to have a diagnostic check to see what's going on. And a better map loaded.

In the mean time, I need to install bigger injectors, finish cloolant pipes for charge cooler and vaccum pipes. Before ECU comes back.

Install ECU and retest car. Call qpeng who will then come and visit me at my house (what a service!) to do a more accurate road map. Then rolling road for final part that day.

Looking at starting the tax for the car beginning of Feb.

Maybe first airfield day March.
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  #134  
Old 19th January 2010, 16:54
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John, are you sure the over-fuelling wasn't a result of an incorrect pressure being sensed by the MAP sensor, or an inverted signal? The level of over-fuelling your car had looked off the chart, and reminded me of two recent car issues:

1) the tps failed on my sister's car, and the ecu thought the throttle was 100% open, so fuelled accordingly.
2) my friend's emerald ecu had a corrupted voltage being fed to it from the map sensor, and the fuelling went off the wideband scale - a manifold pressure correction was being applied by the fuel charts.

Whilst your ECU is away, it's probably worth double checking the wiring, as I'd be really surprised if your ecu was meant to be fuelling like it was, rich map or not.
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  #135  
Old 19th January 2010, 18:40
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You have some good points there John.

Checking the wiring while the ECU is sent away is one of the things I was going to do. Meter out all the connections etc.
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  #136  
Old 19th January 2010, 18:48
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Are you also sure the manifold feed to the map sensor, was a true manifold pressure?

You did have a mainfold direct pressure feed to the map sensor? Your mentioning of vacuum pipes made me wonder.
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  #137  
Old 19th January 2010, 19:05
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Hi John.

Not sure what you mean. I just connected the map sensor outlet to the bottom of the inlet (4mm nipple next to fuel pressure regulator nipple another 4mm nipple). Attached using some vacuum pipe that I used for the old rover ECU map sensor to manifold.

Is that ok/mean't?
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  #138  
Old 24th January 2010, 06:38
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A small update.

Chargecooler all finished. Just needs pipes securing (today).
Fit N75 (Today)
Fit vacuum pipes (still waiting for delivery).
Fitted bigger injectors.

Still need to sort out temp gauge. Have a few ideas for this but proving a bit more fidderly than expected. If I put a resistor in line to compensate between the VW coolant sensor and Rover gauge, I will be able to get it to sit right at half way. But will be inaccurate for the rest of the scale on the gauge. Not good.

So idea at the minute is getting the Rover temp sender unit in the cooling system. But has a very fine unusual thread. And I wanted it welded or something in one of the hose joiners. I'm going to call the silicon hose place where I got the hoses and joiners to see if they can do anything.

ECU has been sent away for a more accurate map to my setup. Then QP ENG will come down and map while car is on the road. Only final session will be on rolling road.

So taxing car for the beginning of Feb.
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  #139  
Old 6th February 2010, 17:13
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Well entered a new chapter today.

Testing and driving phase.

Got CPU back. Started off the key though idle does a bit of hunting. But once the revs are up a bit, very smooth ride. This is maybe because I need a 8 pin thottle body or just needs fine tuning/mapping.

But know I just need to test and drive for a couple of weeks. Keep checking fluids etc. Then call QPeng to do final mapping on the road with a final tune on the rolling road.

Even had a little positive bost while testing. Not too much though.

First impressions. It is going to make a good all round drive. Boost comes in about 2800-3k revs. No need for boost around town the way it drives. Very smooth up to boost level. In fact, driving normal you never reach boost.

Roll on more testing.
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  #140  
Old 6th February 2010, 18:02
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Hi
From what I have read about the VAG system the throttle assembly ( 6 pin) is matched to the throttle control, in the engine, if you replace one you need to replace the other. Don't know if this helps you or not. I guess it may able able to be tweaked in the ECU?
At least its not a Toyota !!
Car sounds great. Cant wait to get mine on the road. but that is a long way of yet.
Cheers
Steve
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