MK1 Leon FR Barn Find

[Guy3657]

Hello everyone

I just recently joined (about 5mins ago as I'm writing this) and I want some help/suggestions

I think I might've scored one of the rarest barn finds when it comes to SEAT cars in Ireland. I have found a MK1 Seat Leon FR Topsport with the PD150 ARL in Yellow for a price I just couldn't resist, yall know how that goes . I know there was a blue one in the country up until 2 weeks ago (yes the only one) but was wrapped around a tree so there isn't any left sadly.

This car has been parked up for 3 years (it is very clearly obvious) but it runs well and literlly everything works. (other then a burst boost pipe but thats a common issue and I have one on the way. I will eventually replace it with a full airtec intercooler that has solid pipes so it will never be an issue.

My plans for it is to have eventually a fully built engine and it making around 350-400bhp. I'm kinda digging the rat look of the bad paint but I'll probably get it fully undercoat protected and painted as well.

Some suggestions I'd like to ask for -

1. The steering wheel is from a mk2 leon. Although it is nice, I want it to be period correct so any suggestions for steering wheels or maybe if anyone has a mk1 steering wheel just taking up space, I'd be more then happy to take it from them.

2. The wheels are horrid and terrible in everyway, so I'd like some suggestions. I'd like the wheels to be either 17", 18" or even 19" and needs to be able to take a good wide tyre, something in between 225mm - 255mm in width. I'll roll the fenders eventually anyway because I'll be lowering it so don't worry about that.

3. I have a bucket list of suspension parts. I have a fair idea for shocks and lowering springs I'd want, same goes for a polybush kit for the car. The shocks would be some bilstein shocks (Front - BILSTEIN 651860613970) (Rear - BILSTEIN 4025258614720) and the lowering spring kit is from Eibach, I believe , their sportline kit, 50mm front and 30mm back. I have a kit from eibach on my current car and it has been very nice so I want to stick with them, unless someone has any other suggestion. Same thing goes for the shocks, I have a very nice set from Bilstein and they have been very nice too so I want to stick with them as well. I don't want coilovers because I think they are stupid for road use and not neccassery. A nice good set of sport shocks and springs I think are much nicer for road use. Again, I'd love to hear other peoples opinions and suggestions for those. For a polybush kit, I am kinda stuck but I have found one kit that I think will be nice. However, I'd like some suggestions for a full kit.

4. If anyone knows a friend, family member, cat, dog, I don't care who but I want and need a Curpa R front bumper. If anyone knows where to get them because I have surfed, waved, slid and searched all over the interwebs but have yet to find one, maybe here someone can find one or knows someone who has one, or someone here might even have one. But if anyone can point me to the direction of one, I swear I'll offer one of my kidneys for it. And along with that, if anyone has or knows about the sideskirts for a Cupra R and rear bumper as well, I will be very greatful too.

5. Are there any things that I should look out for and do as preventative maintenance? I do know rust can be an issue with these cars from time to time but this car is really mint from underneath and for now, it won't be an issue. I was looking back on some recalls SEAT had for the car and I saw there was a recall for the bolts that hold together the high pressure pumps. I'm gonna get new bolts anyway to be safe and get new seals while I'm at it too so that won't be an issue but anything from people who have experience with common issues or just know things to look out for, I'd very much appreciate it

For now, this is all I can think about to ask, if there is any more, I'll probably make a new thread and link this one to it.
Thank you in advance to everyone here for helping in the past for me as I found random threads!!

 

[tracktoy]

best guy on here for parts is Thai-wronghorse but not sure if he ships big stuff to ireland

 

[Guy3657]

best guy on here for parts is Thai-wronghorse but not sure if he ships big stuff to ireland

I'll be sure to message him. Until then, maybe other people can suggest stuff Thank you man

 

[MoToJoJo]

350-400 from a PD150? Thems some deep pockets you have there.

The bodykit parts are available but the problem is that people don't want to deal with shipping. It's a pain.

Billys and Eibach is a solid choice, can't remember his name but there's a guy on here for DPM Performance who has good suggestions. I will say that not looking at coilovers means ignoring KW who produce some excellent suspension (on a par with Bilstein but quite as expensive).

Polybushes? Powerflex or Superpro are the main choices, they both do every bush required.

Preventive stuff? Lift the carpets and see how wet the sound deadening foam is. Front doors, wiring panel and cabin air intake (both under the wiper cowl) leak like sieves as the sealing foam rots away. The solution is cleaning off the old stuff and applying way more butyl tape than you think you need.

Beyond that it's normal stuff like changing fluids and the cambelt. The only important thing is to use the right stuff such as OE oil plus actual VW parts for the water pump and thermostat.

PDs are extremely fussy when it comes to oil, so using the right stuff and changing it regularly is important. And as the sump is pretty low and alloy so impacts will break it, all the oil will come out and the engine is pretty much toast very soon after that.

 

[Nam-uk]

350-400 from a PD150? Thems some deep pockets you have there.

The bodykit parts are available but the problem is that people don't want to deal with shipping. It's a pain.

Billys and Eibach is a solid choice, can't remember his name but there's a guy on here for DPM Performance who has good suggestions. I will say that not looking at coilovers means ignoring KW who produce some excellent suspension (on a par with Bilstein but quite as expensive).

Polybushes? Powerflex or Superpro are the main choices, they both do every bush required.

Preventive stuff? Lift the carpets and see how wet the sound deadening foam is. Front doors, wiring panel and cabin air intake (both under the wiper cowl) leak like sieves as the sealing foam rots away. The solution is cleaning off the old stuff and applying way more butyl tape than you think you need.

Beyond that it's normal stuff like changing fluids and the cambelt. The only important thing is to use the right stuff such as OE oil plus actual VW parts for the water pump and thermostat.

PDs are extremely fussy when it comes to oil, so using the right stuff and changing it regularly is important. And as the sump is pretty low and alloy so impacts will break it, all the oil will come out and the engine is pretty much toast very soon after that.

imagine the clutch at that power, costly

 

[Guy3657]

350-400 from a PD150? Thems some deep pockets you have there.

The bodykit parts are available but the problem is that people don't want to deal with shipping. It's a pain.

Billys and Eibach is a solid choice, can't remember his name but there's a guy on here for DPM Performance who has good suggestions. I will say that not looking at coilovers means ignoring KW who produce some excellent suspension (on a par with Bilstein but quite as expensive).

Polybushes? Powerflex or Superpro are the main choices, they both do every bush required.

Preventive stuff? Lift the carpets and see how wet the sound deadening foam is. Front doors, wiring panel and cabin air intake (both under the wiper cowl) leak like sieves as the sealing foam rots away. The solution is cleaning off the old stuff and applying way more butyl tape than you think you need.

Beyond that it's normal stuff like changing fluids and the cambelt. The only important thing is to use the right stuff such as OE oil plus actual VW parts for the water pump and thermostat.

PDs are extremely fussy when it comes to oil, so using the right stuff and changing it regularly is important. And as the sump is pretty low and alloy so impacts will break it, all the oil will come out and the engine is pretty much toast very soon after that.

You're an absolute legend. Mine leaks under the cowl, has a bit of a habitat going on currently in the passenger footwell I've seen that being mentioned and also door speakers sometimes leak too and the seals around the doors as well like you said, that'll be taken care of. I will probably just replace all of the sound deadening and carpet as I've got asthma so I don't want to deal with that part whatsoever and I will probably repaint the interior floor as well for protection as well. I'm probably gonna strip some parts out (because race car lol) but I know the seats are worth a good amount of money, especially since they are in excellent condition. That is a future project when I have a daily, for my daily, for my daily.

I know there are great coilovers out there but for now, I just want a solid set of good quality, sport but not too firm suspension. I know there are good coilovers out there but good quality ones that last would probably be double, if not more of the price of the normal spring setup I have on my bucket list.

Shipping for body panels I know is a pain and I'm honestly willing to rent out a van and if I can go around Europe and bring them back to Ireland, I'd be honestly willing to do that. For now, I like the rat look, that will come later, it's a future me's problem

Maintenance is an obvious must and yeah I know pd diesels are fussy with everything, I'm an apprentice at vw (which helps A LOT) but I seem to have more common sense then a lot of mechanics I've met in my time so that hopefully won't be an issue I will only use quality parts anyway, I want to keep this car for as long as possible. It's super rare in Ireland, especially a yellow one.

The more power "issue" I'll address when I have EVERYTHING sorted on the car. Those numbers aren't as unrealistic as they seem, people get 600+ out of them but those are some mad engines with meth and N20. What I found is around 300 ish is a sweet spot for cost to performance and if I can go an amount above that mark without spending an extra 10k then I'll do it. I'll be doing most of the work myself so no labour cost which makes it a tremendous amount cheaper.

Thank you so much for everything, again, you're an absolute legend

 

[Guy3657]

imagine the clutch at that power, costly

Not as bad as you think. I do believe the stock on is good for around 230-250 (so adding an intercooler and maxing out the turbo and injectors) and you can get an organic clutch that holds the power without having to go full race car clutch. What I found is 300 ish is a sweet enough spot for cost to performance but since I'll be doing all the work, it'll be A LOT cheaper then having it built. If I can go above that 300 ish mark without having to spend another 10k however, I will definitely do it

 

[Nam-uk]

Not as bad as you think. I do believe the stock on is good for around 230-250 (so adding an intercooler and maxing out the turbo and injectors) and you can get an organic clutch that holds the power without having to go full race car clutch. What I found is 300 ish is a sweet enough spot for cost to performance but since I'll be doing all the work, it'll be A LOT cheaper then having it built. If I can go above that 300 ish mark without having to spend another 10k however, I will definitely do it

Its the torque on the standard clutch that kills it , my pd150 has only a standard map too 200 bhp as the torque is the max you can go on the clutch safely without melting it lol, there is massive modded pd150s out there on utube though defiantly not standard clutch lol , big money

 

[Guy3657]

Its the torque on the standard clutch that kills it , my pd150 has only a standard map too 200 bhp as the torque is the max you can go on the clutch safely without melting it lol, there is massive modded pd150s out there on utube though defiantly not standard clutch lol , big money

Oh yeah I know, clutches transmissions, everything within the drive train is torque rated but this one had the clutch stuck on the flywheel from sitting up and Ireland is fairly damp so that's why it stuck itself on the flywheel. I don't care much for it as the reality is it'll probably be have to be changed anyway so I'll get a nice clutch disc in there when this one goes. Flywheel doesn't make any noise though which I'm quite happy about. Eventually I'm just gonna go full sachs kit on it when I build the engine either way but that is probably gonna be a couple years down the road. I'm only on apprentice wage now so I can't make much out of the peanuts I'm being paid
Also I've seen both of those videos, I've probably seen all the cool pd150 builds on YouTube by now, even before I was planning on buying this. It was on my bucket list anyway to have a car with a Pd150 anyway so that now is ticked off and again, this was cheap and it's probably the best way for me to get into the pd150 game. Again, I can't complain for what I paid for it

 

[Nam-uk]

Oh yeah I know, clutches transmissions, everything within the drive train is torque rated but this one had the clutch stuck on the flywheel from sitting up and Ireland is fairly damp so that's why it stuck itself on the flywheel. I don't care much for it as the reality is it'll probably be have to be changed anyway so I'll get a nice clutch disc in there when this one goes. Flywheel doesn't make any noise though which I'm quite happy about. Eventually I'm just gonna go full sachs kit on it when I build the engine either way but that is probably gonna be a couple years down the road. I'm only on apprentice wage now so I can't make much out of the peanuts I'm being paid
Also I've seen both of those videos, I've probably seen all the cool pd150 builds on YouTube by now, even before I was planning on buying this. It was on my bucket list anyway to have a car with a Pd150 anyway so that now is ticked off and again, this was cheap and it's probably the best way for me to get into the pd150 game. Again, I can't complain for what I paid for it

Mental that golf lol

 

[Guy3657]

Mental that golf lol

I know. If I ever have too much money adn time on my hands, it'll be a goal to beat it
A man can only dream though

 

[MoToJoJo]

Find a CUAA and bang that in. Much as I love the ARL (I have 3 engines), the CUAA is an absolute beast (and now holds the diesel record on Pikes Peak)

 

[Nam-uk]

I know. If I ever have too much money adn time on my hands, it'll be a goal to beat it
A man can only dream though

That's the only problem with the vids , there's no mention of what's used in detail or costs as it would be good info

 

[Guy3657]

Find a CUAA and bang that in. Much as I love the ARL (I have 3 engines), the CUAA is an absolute beast (and now holds the diesel record on Pikes Peak)

Different build for a different time. I deliberatly wanted a 1.9tdi and i know there are better engines to make more power from. However, this car is stupid rare in ireland and I don't want to go that far with modding. I will probably never sell the car until I live but if i do, I know it will still be more special as a fast genuine yellow FR. Those engines are stupid though, I have to agree. I will try to do that in some other car I feel making stupid for no reason

 

[Nam-uk]

Different build for a different time. I deliberatly wanted a 1.9tdi and i know there are better engines to make more power from. However, this car is stupid rare in ireland and I don't want to go that far with modding. I will probably never sell the car until I live but if i do, I know it will still be more special as a fast genuine yellow FR. Those engines are stupid though, I have to agree. I will try to do that in some other car I feel making stupid for no reason

be looking forward on the build that's for sure on what's done, also AliExpress you can get allot of electric components its only the same as aftermarket that's sold on ebay , bought a few parts there myself, theirs also been a few interior mods like them s3 luminated vets ect