Ross's Supercharged AG RS200

[Regy53]

So a brief update to this, we installed a 2 poster at work for cars but mainly its for this for now.

It was a little worse than we thought all together and the car has had a big strip down at work.

The underneath was luckily just dirty so not much needed there but anything that can rust has, such as the braided hoses etc, little bits on the refurbed brake calipers, springs, rear calipers were disgusting under the paint.

Sitting under a tree for 3 years is really incredible, the grim is everywhere, So i went to work cleaning it up and pictures will follow this was the strip down

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr
Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

The air filter was ruined, all broken up.

So we set out taking it to bits, mainly wheels off, coilovers off, brakes off, front bumper and rads etc off, all coolant hoses off as they were once white but now covered in just grime.

I will grab a few more pics in the week but so far we have sent of the shocks back to gaz for a refurb, the springs are of to a powder coaters as they were looking tired, new rear calipers and ds2500 rear pads ordered, front caliper parts ordered to get rid of rusty bits, new brake lines ordered..

When I got it my mate said they see it was leaking oil, initially it was thought it was the gearbox but it looks to be coming from the air filter, which was directly mounted to the charger..... So Rotrex chargers can let by if the reservoir is higher than the charger itself. I think because the car has sat forever its been doing this a lot. It suggests the oil seal in the charger is failing. Which cannot be replaced so TTS say

More worryingly though is this,

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

That is the top of the charger, the ally is breaking up. It has been fitted for 7 years now and looks like it was done up to tight but also the metal is eating the ally, worse is the big crack at the oil inlet union that is likely to fail any time, that my friends is a dead charger really, we cant get it of as the bolts are siezed solid but even if we can we cannot replace this part so its kinda dead I suppose. Since this kit was built many others have followed suit, and in that time some better design mounts have been made which would mean this wont happen. So after some research I actually found somebody who can repair this charger or supply me a rebuilt one for a lot cheaper than a new one (new is 2k) and i have ordered a better mount design with Supreme motorsport. Hopefully a few weeks and we will have this. I will have to modify the pipework to the intercooler but this will be a much better solution, it will mount where the unused air con pully is now.

so parts on order, parts of for refurb and some work to do, next week we will tackle the cam belt, water pump, plugs and oil service.

I was pretty down about it all this week, the more you look at the worse it gets and I didn't pay cheap money for the car, I actually thought I was buying my old car back with 7 k spent on it making improvement's. Once i found the charger rebuild place i felt a bit better

Will grab some other pictures this week, I also took of all the arch liners and had a good clean everywhere with the yard steam cleaner which helped. Its looking a lot brighter already

 

[Addison]

Feel for you mate. Such a lovely car thats been left to slowly die.

I'm really looking forward to seeing you put this back the way it was and deserved to be. I just hope it doesn't cost you the world!

 

[Regy53]

Thanks, i'm in deep enough now. The forged build will be put back and i will never be able to recoup some funds but that's cars...

It is still clean, it just needs to be gone through, also when you look at the spec of it (sometimes its easy to forget what's fitted) you realize it would cost fortunes to replicate anyway. When I went to pick it up I should have walked away, but i had already committed to my friend and tbh you couldn't really see how bad it was it just looked weathered but its worse than that really.

 

[VolumeX]

Hang in there... you are the true owner, once done it will be nothing short of EPIC. Its very special car! Good On you mate.

 

[needforspeed]

Wow serious spec there!! Keep the updates coming!

 

[Regy53]

So its been a few weeks since the last update. this is a project on the side of my main business so we have looked to find time to get it back.

It got put onto the ramps and striped down in a big way. The coilovers were sent to Gaz for a recondition, although they only do the insides we tidied up the outsides using a bench grinder with a wire type wheel, and then added a light coat of hammerite. I sent the spings of to shotblast and powder coat as they were pretty messy

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

great result in the end

The supercharger was leaking oil from the main seal, its a common thing. Also as you saw above it was pretty spent, the metal had eaten into the Aluminum so with the help of Supreme motorsport who told me about somebody who refurbs them I was able to send the charger off, he had a spare oil pump housing, i had all the bearings replaced for low friction ones and seals replaced at the same time. Reading about it some people suggest the bearing can help create up to a pound of boost so that will be interesting. At the same time i went for supreme motorsports charger mounting. Mine was done 7 years ago and was a flat plate of metal that actually used the air conditioning compressor to mount of. It meant the charger was literally in the front bumper and allowed for a very tight fitting air filter and to be honest a lot of weight on the front end. The kit from Supreme takes of the Air conditioning compressor itself which is fine as it was not connected anyway. The result will be a much nicer weight as well as a easier way to find a better air intake solution

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

We spent a long time degreasing and cleaning the wheel arches while the liners were out. I also gave the calipers refurb with new seals. The old ones had blown all the paint and were disgusting underneith. These are temporary I just wanted to get the car back to working condition so I stripped the paint of again using the bench grinder steel wheel and a few other tools. Then just painted them with some high temp paint to hopefully match the fronts.
old
Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

new, i also gave the disk a little once over with a wheel and a light coat of paint which will clean up with some light braking. Fitted then with Ferodo DS2500 pads as the RS29's were spent.
Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

A lot of nuts and bolts were rusty, so these were all sanded back and given a coat of hammerite.

This weekend i set upon cleaning the front suspension area and scuttle panel, if you look at the history of this car it was so mint i had to get it like this. I forgot to get a full pic but even after a steam clean it was still so mucky so from this
Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

to
Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

however i soon realized i needed to do more, i pulled the windscreen trims to find

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr
Luckily i have a full plant workshop so i have a tool from autosmart which fires cleaning fluid and high pressure air (like a turbo nozle) out via the compressor which helped a lot in this clean. You can imagine as well i pulled the door seal off etc to clean that too

Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr

Seeing what was under that made me thing i should probably remove the rear bumper to see what's there but luckily it wasn't to bad, i previously wanted to do this but the project was getting far to big
Untitled by Ross c, on Flickr


So the front suspension is now on as is the rear and i can finally roll this car back to the wash bay to get in all the tough areas, it will then go back to the ramp to a bit more detailing, and then we will start on the charger mounting.

I also changed all the brake hoses including to the rear calipers with Supreme motorsport's braided version.

So lots going on but everywhere we turn the job gets a bit worse, at the same time we are getting through it and i'm happy with the progress made

 

[needforspeed]

Thats what its all about tho, at least you'll know everything is as it should be and reliable. Better finding the niggles now. Great progress

 

[N0ddie]

So happy to see another AG 200 being properly saved. Looks like it has been totally neglected.

 

[mike harper]

Hi great build and a real inspiration for someone that is looking to supercharge also.

Is it running std cams?

Is there any advice for someone looking to go down the same route? (Ie Stop now! Get a meglio or do it!!)

Hearing your car is the main reason I want to do it!!
Thanks in advance

 

[Regy53]

Hi great build and a real inspiration for someone that is looking to supercharge also.

Is it running std cams?

Is there any advice for someone looking to go down the same route? (Ie Stop now! Get a meglio or do it!!)

Hearing your car is the main reason I want to do it!!
Thanks in advance

Hi, yes standard cams, there are loads of builds now pushing on my one, i will forge it in the end but for now I just wanted to get a stable base again. I didn't want a Meglio even though it seemed more sensible and also financially better. The only thing with supercharging is its expensive, very expensive.

Do it..

The car is now of the ramp, but not much progress. Still needs a blast over with a pressure wash which is being done Monday. Then onto the cam belt and other bits. Time is seriously precious at the moment But i want to get out in Jan for a shake down

 

[mike harper]

Thanks for reply

When you say it’s expensive - do you mean in terms of maintaining it, or initial cost , or both!! Haha

Desperately want to supercharge rather than turbo just want to have my eyes open going in.

Do you know the weight of the charger by chance? Does it make much difference to the handling balance ?

Thanks!

 

[PITA]

@mike harper

K-tec have 10% off for Black Friday

 

[Regy53]

Thanks for reply

When you say it’s expensive - do you mean in terms of maintaining it, or initial cost , or both!! Haha

Desperately want to supercharge rather than turbo just want to have my eyes open going in.

Do you know the weight of the charger by chance? Does it make much difference to the handling balance ?

Thanks!

not sure on the weight on the charger, the old setup was very ugly forward of the air con compressor, must be a good 10kg.. which won’t help

this new setup is to replace the air con compressor so I imagine it’s a bit like for like
With regards to costs there just a expensive solution per bhp. Much easier to take a meg lump . Superchargers are for engine purists imo

 

[mike harper]

Yeah there is no comparison for me. It’s one of the things that put me off my 250 and civic type r fk8. They didn’t have so much as engines as ‘power plants’. Bereft of character

As long as there isn’t significant extra running costs versus a meglio I think I’ll definitely go supercharger.

In terms of mapping who mapped the car for you efi or rs ? Was it all done at once with your spec or have you upped injectors etc as you have gone along and had it mapped each time?

Why didn’t you have it forged from outset?

Does the extra power shred the synchros more easily? That’s my only other reservation

Thanks for help

 

[Yiannis197]

I can not even begin to describe how much I love such projects. Fair play to you for the commitment - state of the car on purchase basically shows how easy is for a car of such age to go downhill if not looked after. I currently daily mine and no matter how much attention I throw at it it's literally impossible to keep it at high standards. Bad weather and grit are killers and ACF50 can't work wonders...

Reading this makes me sad for not having a garage where i can do similar work on my cars. Keep us updated

BTW, what steam cleaner are you using? I'm thinking to buy one and do a deep cleaning when weather allows.

 

[Regy53]

I can not even begin to describe how much I love such projects. Fair play to you for the commitment - state of the car on purchase basically shows how easy is for a car of such age to go downhill if not looked after. I currently daily mine and no matter how much attention I throw at it it's literally impossible to keep it at high standards. Bad weather and grit are killers and ACF50 can't work wonders...

Reading this makes me sad for not having a garage where i can do similar work on my cars. Keep us updated

BTW, what steam cleaner are you using? I'm thinking to buy one and do a deep cleaning when weather allows.

Thanks, I hadn’t realised it was such a project when I got it but it’s taking shape now all be it slowly. The steam cleaner at work is a big girl


The suspension is all together and brakes back on. Bled up with some rbf600 fluid . New rear pads ( ds2500 ) The fronts are not the best but just want to get it running before going mad again

Cleaned up the rear end and got the bumper refitted loads better too

also got the cam belt replaced last week ... now we can really get traction in the new year getting it back together

 

[Regy53]

Bit of progress last week

I had already cleaned up all the real dirt white hoses, the supercharger is about to go back on

cleaned out the inter cooler pipework and which was dirty but also cleaned the dump valve now that was grim

supercharger filter and oil is here so that can go on . Hope to see it running later this week but then need to work out the intercooler pipework as we have changed the positioning of it .. also will need to do the same for the intake filter ... any ideas ?

 

[PITA]

I’m going to be running a 75mm Ramair come straight onto the supercharger, I may box it in if there is room.

Where are you looking to mount the intercooler now? Most sit under the crash bar and 90 straight into the charger.




I’m looking to have an intercooler made by Pro Alloy that will incorporate the crash bar and above a bit like this

 

[rSilva]

Regardless of the price, that looks like a very neat soution.
Have you considered incorporation an oil cooler (or supports) in one of the sides?

 

[PITA]

Regardless of the price, that looks like a very neat soution.
Have you considered incorporation an oil cooler (or supports) in one of the sides?

I’m having mounts added for the supercharger oil cooler but not an engine oil cooler. Do they need an engine oil cooler when boosted? They have a coolant jacket cooler as standard.