My minor modding thread

Few more of the little jobs sorted today...

The bottom half of the air box has been modded to death during the various iterations of my build... so much so that its kinda lost its integrity a bit so I got hold of another airbox and this time only made mods required for my current setup... should hold together better now :)
20140406_132611.jpg


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To help support this as I no longer have a battery tray I have been using a bit of thick alloy filler rod so felt its about time I made something a little bit better...

Support bracket for the airbox...
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...and support bracket for the battery trim panel...
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Welded and painted (was getting withdrawal symptoms lol)...
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...and fitted...
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As I was on a bracket making roll I cracked on with making one for the catch can as its being held on with a cable tie currently..
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Used a small offcut section of 3" stainless tube and welded a a bracket to it...
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Painted that too of course :D
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A few more off the list... have now done 400 miles on the new engine... feeling stronger all the time... will get the oil changed this week for fully synth ready for mapping... gearbox is still leaking from the crack and still need to 'adjust' the back box a bit but other than that she has been as good as gold all week

<tuffty/>
 
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Nice work PT!

Looking forward to seeing what this does when it's mapping time :) i'm predicting greatness!
 
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I had a small crack in the new gearbox I put on recently I managed to sort it using that chemical metal stuff only took a few mins to do too and is quite a good colour match but am sure you can paint over it too :)

Loving seeing the final touches too bet you cant wait to get it on the rollers and see what it can do once all settled in. Am heading upto Bills on the 17th so hopefully I might get to see it for real too and say Hello of course.
 
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Prawn said:
Nice work PT!

Looking forward to seeing what this does when it's mapping time :) i'm predicting greatness!
Click to expand...

Likewise....I think it's going to turn in some great figures.

Every time I see an update here I'm just amazed with the quality.
 
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Small update...

Grabbed a ramp today to do the oil change and sort the exhaust knock...

I have done over 500 miles now so while underneath I had a look around for any issues that may have cropped up since the build...

Working from the back I could see where the exhaust was knocking...
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So whipped the towing bracket off for some fettling...
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Painted of course :)
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...can report that the knock has gone but will see how it goes over the next few weeks...

Next I noticed the center exhaust rubber had split... its a powerflex one and to be fair the hole was a little smaller than the bracket hanger...
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...so fixed that in the traditional motorsport manner ;P
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Had a good look under the engine/gearbox... shock horror the gearbox is still leaking although not as bad so cleaned it up and will have a re-think later... then I noticed pink...! :( ****** coolant leak... had a good hunt around and turned out to be the heater hoses.... phew!..
20140413_135520.jpg


So went around and did a quick clip tightening check on all clips I could get too... cleaned up the mess and moved on :)

Noticed a small drip of oil too... this I believe to have been from the cam cover so I went around the nuts and they all took a turn which tbh is expected on a freshly painted cover as the paint softens with heat and spreads out loosening the torque of the fixings... hopefully that should be sorted now, cleaned it all up too so I could check later if its still leaking...

Last thing I noticed was that I will need to tweak the battery cover support bracket I made the other week and potentially add another one too as the cover is being pulled across..
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...where it should sit...
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Will have a look at that another day...

So, that about it now... the car is ready for mapping which will happen as and when Bill can spare some time... I am over there for the next week or so helping out with the back log as I have now finished at my previous day job...

...and while on that subject I have sorted a new job that I start at the beginning of next month... happy days... just need to find this A2 TDi now :)

<tuffty/>
 
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Looking great and fantastic news you've sorted a new job!
 
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Well done on getting yourself a new job nice and quickly, will look forward to seeing the figures after mapping!
 
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Watching and waiting with excitement to see what figures you get mate! Build threads like this are what inspired me to do mine. Keep up the good work and congrats on the new job.
 
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Tuffty, you have a lot to answer for...


Untitled by russwuss, on Flickr

I've caught the bug!!

Congrats on your new job :)
 
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Small update time....

Not done much recently as I have spent the last few weeks while in between jobs helping Bill out and sorting a few issues out on the new daily...
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Great little car... 1.4TDi, £30 tax a year and currently 64mpg which is just as well as I did 500miles last week traveleing between the offices of my new job... thankfully I get mileage paid so will all work out...

Bill has been massively busy so not had any time to map the S3 so nothing to report there at the moment but I did get around to sorting a small problem I had with my headlights where I have a lazy xenon...

Bought some 6000k DS2's from T8ups a while back but got some new ballasts from him a couple of weeks back with the intention to replace mine... so here we go :)

Original ballasts...
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New ones with DS2 conversion leads...
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Removing the old ones proved to be a challenge... the DS2 plug was too big to get past the main beam reflector and I didn't want to destroy them in case I needed to roll back (working in IT too long lol)...
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...so I cut a section out to allow me to get the cable out... (note that I managed to get plastic filings in the lens and while I used an airline to blow most out there is still some left in... DOH!)
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...also had to cut the 'bung' in half to reuse on the new cable...
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Old unit out and unharmed :)
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Used sealant to 'glue' it all back together and prevent moisture ingress
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Marked up and drilled holes in the original ballast carrier
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...to fit the new ballast...
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...and cable tied the cable to the back...
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All sorted :D
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Headlights all working properly now... :)

<tuffty/>
 
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This thread is no longer "minor" :))
Nice job and very useful thread!
 
No real updates yet.. not had a chance to look at mapping as it needs to go on the emulator and Bill is flat out so not had the time... no real dramas as I am not driving her too much at the moment and most of my time seems to be taken up with sorting the A2 out lol... joys of a cheap car with 155k on the clock :)

Anyhoo... had a slight setback.... was out in the car for the first time in a couple of weeks showing Jap boys what a man turbo is like in a civilised car and managed to a miss a gear change to 4th... by knocking it into 2nd! :(

Dipped the clutch as quickly as poss and got her in gear... engine sounded fine, car drive fine so thought nothing more of it until I pulled up and heard a new rubbing noise from underneath the engine... can't hear it in the car, sounds like she always does but definitely something up so parked her up and left her for a week..

Checked the cam belt visually... seems ok... scan of VCDS did bring up the following though...
16396 - Bank 1: Camshaft A (Intake)
P0012 - 35-10 - Advance Setpoint not Reached (Over-Retarded) - Intermittent
16705 - Engine Speed Sensor (G28)
P0321 - 35-10 - Implausible Signal - Intermittent
17968 - Maximum Engine Speed Exceeded: Engine Warranty VOID!
P1560 - 35-10 - -) - Intermittent
17748 - Camshaft Position Sensor (G40) / Engine Speed Sensor (G28)
P1340 - 35-00 - Incor. Correlation

Cleared codes and drove to Bills... rescanned and the only code to come back was...
17748 - Camshaft Position Sensor (G40) / Engine Speed Sensor (G28)
P1340 - 35-00 - Incor. Correlation

Cambelt has jumped... booo...

Will check her over today... see how many teeth the belts jumped (hopefully just the one), use the bore scope to check for contact marks and see where this rubbing noise is coming from...

I am pretty optimistic as its a solid engine with supertech valve train and I caught it pretty quickly so best case will be new belt and happy days, worse case based on how she runs now may be a head rebuild... bottom end seems fine

We shall see...

Just remember kids... 2nd gear is not 4th... :/

<tuffty/>
 
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Doesn't sound too good. Hopefully it's all ok!

Protect your investment with an SQS seqshift ;)
 
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Okies... results are in :)

There appears to have been a little rubbage on the side of the belt... not sure where but I beleive just moving it across will sort that... however...

..there are signs of valve contact.. check the other cylinders and they all have this (it was at 7k plus to be fair)
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...and as expected, the belt has moved a tooth...
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So... plan now is to reset the cambelt, drive her home and sort some valves out... will have to assess the impact fully once the heads off but at the very least it will be a new set of exhaust valves as bouncing them off pistons at 8000 rpm is not going to help their life expectancy

Pistons will clean up ok so no drama there... worse case will be to replace the entire supertech valve train... hopefully won't come to that but won't be able to tell until its apart..

Ah well... joys of modding cars lol

<tuffty/>
 
<tuffty/> said:
So... plan now is to reset the cambelt, drive her home and sort some valves out... will have to assess the impact fully once the heads off but at the very least it will be a new set of exhaust valves as bouncing them off pistons at 8000 rpm is not going to help their life expectancy

<tuffty/>
Click to expand...


Bummer.. :(

and 8k....... *cough*
 
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Looks like you got off lightly,
Know of two people to do the same, both pulled endos...
One got off no damage at all, other needed major work, new block, crank, couple of new valve seats and valves, if it wasn't for the vernier pulley slipping I think his top end would have survived tbh.

But they were both revving in excess of 8.5k when they miss shifted
 
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...breaking news! (see what I did there) ;P

Found the source of the rubbing noise.... its coming from the DMF... what it looks like is one of the bolts from the rear seal has come loose and is now backed out enough the rub the back of the flywheel... the wear pattern supports this but obviously it can only be confirmed once the box and flywheel is off...

So... she will be SORN'd again, cash the tax in and lock her away until I have rebuilt the other box and sorted the valves... tbh I am of a mind to replace the lot and be done... new inlets, exhausts and springs... I am sure the springs and inlets would be ok but the valve train will have floated at the RPM's it saw (hence the contact with pistons as slipping one tooth won't have caused that)

So near lol...

<tuffty/>
 
I was looking forward to seeing this go up the strip at Inters as well

:crying:
 
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voorhees said:
I was looking forward to seeing this go up the strip at Inters as well

:crying:
Click to expand...

Soz dude... was debatable anyway due to not having the time to map her...

Never missed a gear like that before... have gone from 1st > 2nd and not got it in before but thats not loading the engine like going 3rd > 2nd would... engine braking ++... was like hitting a wall...

Only explanation I have (no excuses as I know it was totally driver error) is that I have been driving my A2 quite a lot and the gear change on that is quite a lot stiffer than the S3... getting into the S3 after a couple of weeks of driving the A2 is a lot different to transitioning from the Mk2 Golf... the S3 is easier to drive after a week in the Golf... its the opposite with the A2... lighter clutch, lighter steering, less precise gear change...

Will just have to be more careful in future... and fit a quick shift to the A2 to make the transition easier lol

<tuffty/>
 
Gutted for you mate was so looking forward to seeing what it made when mapped up as I'm going for similar spec booked into bills in July for a gt35 build
 
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So... conclusions from today....

I think the rubbing issue was always going to happen and would have resulting in grounding the car regardless... only explanation for that is I didn't use locktite for whatever reason... something that won't happen again :)

I clearly need to drive the S3 more... I haven't been recently as the A2 has needed a few odds and sods done to her and so I have been driving that pretty much since I bought her...

Finally... don't change into 2nd gear when you are at over 7000rpm in 3rd... it doesn't end well LOL

Actions from today....

Get my **** in gear and rebuild the new gearbox

Order up a full supertech valve train as a replacement... while its entirely plausible the only thing I need to change is the exhaust vales I am working on worse case... anything salvageable and usable from the rebuild will get sold on to lighten the blow...

Have pizza and beer...

<tuffty/>
 
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I went to find this thread to see if the beast had been mapped yet and wasn't expecting to read this...... Hope you get it sorted relatively easily and get the s3 back on the road soon. Pizza and beer always help!
 
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Never seen so much passion, attention to detail and effort put into a car before! I really like how to the majority of people it would look like a standard car when in reality it is far from it. Awesome job mate
 
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