MrWayInOverHisHead's Saxo - VTR > VTS and beyond 'Build'

[Bodeka]

Here's some pictures of my Saxo when it actually worked.





I've had this VTR for almost ten years, and it's the first car I ever bought with my own money which I earned at a cafe. My first actual car was a Saxo, a 1.1 desire. My mum gave it to me after she took my sisters. It was the epitome of a ****box. The car had chipped paint on the D pillar for a start. But as the saying goes, it got me from point A to B.

My dad taught me how to do an oil change. I got under the car with a bucket, and turned the drain plug. Absolutely nothing came out. So it was no shock a few months later it died completely as I just arrived to work.

When looking for an upgrade, my friend suggested that I could just get a faster saxo, and introduced me to the VTR and the VTS. For the money I had from working at a cafe, I couldn't have afforded anything more expensive, and the excitement to fun ratio on these is immense as anyone who has driven one will know. However, the VTS was still outside my budget. I was naively saving for an S2000 which there was no chance I'd be able to afford, but I was young and had dreams. Those savings turned into an emergency fund of £1300 which would just about get me a VTR if I found the right one.

I spotted one online for £1300, and drove to Virginia Water to pick her up. Anyone who is familiar with that area knows that people there are minted. When we got closer to the address, we entered a private road, passing by huge houses until we got to the house my new car was at. The guy was sound, kept the Saxo in the garage while it rained so we could see the bodywork properly. Inside the garage the guy had pictures of De Tomaso's he had from back in the day. I offered him £1000 due to a broken spring, and he countered with £900 because he was tired of all the tyre kickers who came before.

My old car was still sat at work, so I drove there with the new car to uninstall all my speakers my amp and the sub. I took this picture which to be honest i only unearthed because I started writing this thread and it was quite nice to see. The old and the new. I still have the badge for the desire somewhere.





So fast forward through many years of ownership and that brings us to today. I had always said that one day I wanted to do a VTS swap. Because of this, i didn't take as much care as I should've. There was an oil leak which I didn't check as regularly as I should, the sunroof was leaking (which to be fair is a right of passage).

Eventually, the car died on me. Ironically, very close to where the previous car died. It was only at this point I began to learn more about mechanics, so all the years of neglect had finally caught up. I found a VTS engine online and picked it up ready to put in.

Over the last year and a half (i know), I've been trying to do this engine swap. What tends to happen is the following:
1. I set out to do a job
2. I can't work out for certain how to do said job.
3. I can't find anything online and overthink.
4. I **** it off for the weekend.

So now my drive has looked like this, and if you cast your eyes to the bottom left you'll see the blood stains which led to her untimely demise.



This repeated until eventually it's just been sat there and i've finally decided to actually bring her back. I want to complete the VTS swap, and then begin to refresh everything. I definitely won't turbo it, but I intend to put some B6s on, a nicer manifold, those types of things.

The issue is, because it's been so long, I've basically forgotten everything I've done thus far. Adding to the fact the engine is slightly different to the previous, I'm at a bit of a loss. Everything I know about cars I've learned from working on this car. In other words, I'm pretty much doing everything for the first time.

The current status is the new engine is in, but I've yet to turn it on to see if it works. If it doesn't, well the thread will be a bit longer. I have however cranked it manually. My current goal is to just get it to a point where I can run it for 10 seconds and hear how she sounds before installing everything else.

So this thread serves two purposes:
1. A personal diary/log of how long it takes me to do things. In other words, a virtual kick up the ****.
2. A way of asking people who know what they're doing, what I should be doing.

I've included some pictures of how she looks on my drive, and the current state of the engine bay.

If anyone can point out what things are obviously missing, that would be appreciated! Even if it's something as stupid as a earth, assume I know nothing. Couldn't even tell you what that pipes for.
















I'll see you in a couple of weeks with hopefully more progress.