"Ariana's going hybrid" - Now with forged engine - build thread

So as the title suggests, I've decided to go hybrid with the old girl. But before we go into that, perhaps a small history lesson is appropriate...

Once upon a time, many gear boxes ago, Prawn actually owned two A3's and his driveway looked a little more like this...


The one on the left being the infamous machine we know and love today, and the one on the right (Ariana) it's slightly more sophisticated younger sister and Prawns daily hack about.

Time came and went, prawn did his bit then sold Ariana to some french bloke who started this thread:
http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-...52-frenchmans-a3-daily-track-all-rounder.html

Again, time came and went, frenchman did his bit then decided, after only a few months, to move on. How could he!? This is where I came into play and took the old girl under my wing... Don't worry girl, I'll look after you! (sort of)

This was just over a year ago, I took over the frenchmans thread but and until now, nothing significant has been happening... Apart from a few relatively major mechanical failures that is: There was that epically comical moment the gearbox exploded as I was trying to show off Ariana's launch control (please refer to page 3 of frenchmans thread for more hilarious/humiliating details), shortly followed by this:
http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-...s-when-you-need-least-might-forced-brake.html

And more recently... I was chasing an oldskool EVO 6 down a country lane as we neared a rail crossing, I let off and dropped a gear on approach to the crossing and watched the 4wd rally slag effortlessly glide over the crossing following not so far behind....

DONK!!!


For the less savvy of you, that is/was my sump plug! . . The rest speaks for it's self and is slowly bringing me onto how I made the decision to go hybrid! (bear with, bear with)

So a used sump arrives and I go about taking what's left of the old one off... For anyone that has attempted to do this you'll know about that one impossible to get to bolt and in traditional style I couldn't get to it for SH!T! Tried everything but just ended up rounding it.

Now bearing in mind my old S3 never had a bolt there (with no problems) and my new sump had drill marks where they obviously had to drill out the bolt I started hatching a plan of bodgery... Thinking the bolt went into the block I started prying with a leaver bar assuming either the bolt or sump would break before the block, surely!? . . WRONG!


Please meet rear main seal and it's now broken casing! . . Obviously the gearbox has to come off to fix this, which is when I decided now would be a good time to take her off the road and get a few niggly things sorted. So I started to put a shopping list together and before I knew it a hybrid turbo was on it!

Now before we go into that shopping list there's someone else you need to meet. Who without, none of this would be possible. It brings me great pleasure to introduce you to Alfred:


275 quids worth of A4 TDI (PD may I add) alleviating Ariana of her week day duties while delivering a cool 58 mpgs in the process thus making all this possible... What an absolute hero!

So here we are today, an A3 in many pieces and a sizeable shopping list which consists of:

- Rear main seal
- drive shaft seals
- S3 injectors
- S3 fuel pump
- S3 steering rack
- S3 strut brace
- Front wheel bearings (one has a fair amount of play)
- Some sort of heat shield
- Supersized k300 TIP
and finally...
1 x hybrid turbo, k280 or equivalent


Sorry for the lengthy thread intro however I feel it is all necessary and relevant. I'll keep you all updated as and when these bit turn up and I start getting them on the car!

Can't wait to have her done tho! I know it's tight but I hope she'll be ready for mapping within 3 weeks. . .

You could say that... Although it could definitely be argued that it was all self inflicted! ha ha!

Cheers prawn :icon_thumright: I see what your saying prawn but I'm not gonna be forking out for rods for the sake of an extra 20 break and don't really want to run more than 280/290 on standard rods... If I was forking out for rods it's be because I'm going K04 hybrid!

True that Lavis, dare I say it... Better than dolphin gey!? There, I said it!

And thanks Daz but I really don't need an extra expenses or hassle at this point! lol

Nothing major to report but some of you who read through my ramblings on frenchmans thread would have seen my monstrously messy DV arrangement:




Well I just had the DV inlet welded to the ally t-piece:


Which will hopefully look 1 million times neater once it's all back together!

Ha! It was! . . I got TFSI ones now tho

Why, did you put that in there?

Ha ha! Dam it, if I'd have known about it's heritage I would have definitely kept it and perhaps even framed it!

So I had a bit of a steal last week but didn't want to say anything till it actually turned up as it almost seemed too good to be true! But basically got all the following delivered for 170 quid....

S3 steering rack + strut brace:


AAAAND, S3 injectors and fuel pump:


Admittedly one of the tie rod ends is knackers on the rack, but was just thinking of swapping both my tie rods over anyway to save me having to get it tracked again.

And I was expecting the pump to be a whole unit but I guess this'll just fit into the original housing... Still tho, all that for 170 quid, I most definitely can not be arguing!

Also hoping to order my turbo next week. Looks like I'll be going with the CR Turbo Engineering stage 2 K03s hybrid, rated to 280 brake :thumbsup: that should do me just fine for now!!!

Orite already! . . So after discussions with a few people including Prawn (me - Prawn ) it would appear I have just placed an order with Dan from BBT for one of his finest k300's + oversized TIP! . .

Lead time is a lot better than originally quoted as well so should hopefully see it within a couple of weeks!!!!


Aragorn, I only want the S3 rack cos it's quicker (2.7 turns lock to lock compared with 3.4)... What's the advantage of having S3 arms + uprights and A3 rack over just the S3 rack? . . .

So last weekend was fairly productive. Started off Saturday morning and the car looked a little like this:



(check the ghetto engine brace) No clutch, flywheel or turbo... Got the clutch assembly and gearbox on with only minimal drama. Ref:
http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-...se-tell-me-part-not-imperative-operation.html

Which I'm not not too fussed about now... Also got the S3 rack on and the hubs off ready to receive my new bearings when they turn up.

In slightly more exciting new, this turned up yesterday:


Looks awesome! The cars also in a good position for this to pretty much go straight on at the moment, unfortunately I'm going to be getting drunk at a wedding up north this weekend but I hope to have everything back together next weekend... We'll see!

Apart from that had a bit of a result with a few things on ebay over the weekend so went a little mad just ordering bits and bobs on ebay, nothing big but I'll get some pics up as and when they show up!

Oh, and booked in for mapping with bill on September 11th.... The day could not come sooner!

^ He knows

So! What's been going on!? Quite lot really. . . In-between working 6 days a weeks and still maintaining a reasonable level of decent pub time I have actually manage to get quite a bit done.

Most importantly, got the turbo on over the weekend! . . Was quite a squeeze, there isn't much room at all between the compressor housing and the block, had to tweak the oil feed a bit to get it to sit in place, also "modified" the metal pipe going to the heater matrix to squeeze the MAHOOOSIVE tip in there. Bit of a pants photo but you can see the heater matrix pipe hugging the TIP:


Also set to work painting my TFSI coil pack adapter, they've been sitting around a while so I went at them with a dremel with a to get the rust off first. As you may all have noticed the weather has not exactly been good spraying weather! . . It's with great pleasure I can now unveil the VAG-Slag custom made all weather spray booth:


Few coats of acid etch followed by some alloy wheel paint:




While browsing ebay one evening I randomly came across these fastenings. They're actually for motorbike fairings but happened to be the right thread size, the exact size of the adapter and came in packs of 8. Only about 8 quid as well... Think they'll make a nice little touch to the engine bay:




Hopefully that'll do the job... As it's a second hand pump and I'll be running it @ 4bar I'm well aware that it might not have 300 brake left in it! I'm going to take a spare new pump with me when I go for mapping and if it starts giving up the new pump will go in, if it holds up the new pump will be going back thus saving me 100 quid!

Fit the strut brace as well, no real photographic evidence but I promise you it's there! Also got to work plumbing in the rest of the boost hoses and installing the new catch can.

I'd been thinking for a while about where/how to mount the catch can. While snooping around for a decent spot I noticed this threaded hole on the back of the battery tray:


After offering up the catch can, taking some measurements and making a rough template I came up with this simple bracket:



And mounted the catch can:


Really pleased with how it ended up, pretty much exactly the kind of thing I was looking for!

In slightly more dramatic news: while pressing a bearing I somehow managed to do this:


Feeeeeck! . . Been trying to source another on over the past week or so but have had literally the worst luck in the world sorting it! Have had FOUR lined up and for one reason or another all have fallen though! . . Hoping to get that sorted ASAP!

Apart from that really not a lot left to do... Just get the hubs sorted and back on, fit injectors, TFSI coil packs and my jazzy adapters and she should be ready to fire up once again! Then I'll just be ironing a few things out ready for the club GTI sprint on September 7th and finally MAPPING at bills on the 11th!

Hope you guys like what I've been up to. . . And I promise I'll try make more regular updates in future so it doesn't all come in one massive lump like this!

I ported the hell out of my OE manifold a while back:


Hopefully it'll hold together! lol

ha ha! . . Granted, it's probably closer to butchering than engineering and although it's not the smoothest finish in the world I think the most important thing is just to open up the collector and increase flow at that point.

And to be fair I think the pictures make it look worse than it is! . .

Well it's stood up at stage 2 for a good few k now... I suppose the real test will be on the rollers at bills and the months following!

So in traditional style everything has been hectic and I'm cutting it ****** fine for mapping at bills on the 11th, let alone Club GTI sprint THIS SUNDAY!

But, we're not far off... Here's whats been going on.

Since my head rebuild earlier in spring something has been eating away at my cambelt:



Turns out the tin cover and bent a little. So I took the opportunity to to change that on the weekend.

While the cambelt was off I also changed the head bolts following this conversation a few months back:
http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/head-bolt-torque.210689/#post-2093492

I just wasn't completely happy with the way I did them first time round and for the sake of 20 quid or so, would be worth the piece of mind... What with all this new found boost she'll be running as well!



After all that was done came the moment of truth, the first turn of the key in almost three months! . . Will she start!?

. . . . Will she F*CK! After a bit of probing about I pretty quickly worked out she wasn't getting any fuel what so ever. Very odd as I could hear the pump priming.

So I took the pump out to see if I could see anything untoward... Basically, the cheap tat that cafs sold me had massive deteriorated already. The rubber had tuned into what I can only compare to Haribo, the layers had come away from each other and the main feed had developed a massive kink.


bastads! I even asked the fella at cafs if it would be suitable for in tank application as well. . . Oh well, off to the local motorfactors! Quick trip to Yateley motor spares, luckily they have good quality fuel line which they sell off the reel... Introducing fuel pump 2.0!



You can probably see it's much better quality fuel line, much more willing to flex as well... And just a quick mention (if you are local to Yateley at all) Yateley motor spares are the nuts! Know what they're on about and can still be price competitive with the likes of the big boys!

So I try again and she pretty much started first time... WIN! . . Mostly it doesn't take me long to notice that my down pipe is blowing like a cheap hooker. It's been welded before by a mate but I'm not so sure his welding skills are up to much if I'm honest.

I whipped the down pipe off on Sunday and sure enough the weld has a crack bigger that a cheap hooker!.. Managed to get the guys next door to us as work to weld it up today tho, looks like a good solid weld as well!


Also today, that elusive hub FINALLY turned up! Quickly pressed a new bearing in at work today and straight to fitting the hub and the newly welded DP as soon as I got back this evening. The final pieces of the puzzle!

So I've spent most of this evening rolling about on the floor fitting this DP and wacked the hub on, for the first time in months she is finally on four wheels! Time for a test drive wouldn't you say!? . . Well yea, so would I. Unfortunately the DP has other ideas and it still appears to be blowing

I'll have a closer look tomorrow and I'm hoping it's just a ****** gasket, but I'm wondering if the welding as warped the flange... We'll see!

Apart from that I'm so close, so ****** close!!!! . . Fingers crossed I'll make it to the GTI sprint, who know's tho. I also have a small gear selection issue, hoping I can just adjust the linkage tho. Also I wouldn't be surprised if the tracking needs doing.

Can't believe how quickly everything has come around, when the fist mapping of the 11th was given to me I was gutted it wasn't sooner. Didn't think I'd still be at this stage by now!? Oh well, if things go smoothly for the rest of this week I should be good, still going to be ****** close though! . . I'll keep you guys posted as to what happens over the next week or so

Wish me luck, I'm going to need piles of it!

The gasket was new a few months ago and looked ok so was reused, I'm gonna order another one today though... And yea, deffo coming from the DP flange area

****** hope it is just the gasket, really don't wanna take the whole DP off again, such a PITA!

Just a little update...

On closer inspection turns out the manifold to turbo gasket was leaking... Knowing how much of a **** it was to line up the turbo and get the three bolts in I went about thinking of a way to do it easily, here's what I came up with:

I loosed off all the bolts a couple of turns, then got under the car to loosen the turbo bracket, pulled down on the turbo and tightened up the bracket again. I then removed 2 of the bolts allowing me to poke something in and swivel the gasket out like so:


You can probably see where I'm going with this but I then put the other two bolts back in, removed the last bolt in order to remove and replace gasket and then did the exact same in reverse using new bolts in the process... Voila! Took literally a few mins. Granted not exactly rocket science but a quick and hassle free way of changing that gasket.

Now, remember that hub that I had unbelievable amounts of bad luck sourcing? . . Not long after my last post I noticed this:


It's only ****** BENT!!!!? Absolutely unbelievable, literally had FIVE hubs lined up and the one that does eventually turn up (a week late even after paying extra for next day) is BENT!

There's someone locally braking an A3 so I'm going to go rip it off tomorrow after work. Will press a new bearing at work Saturday, fit the hub Saturday afternoon and then HOPEFULLY be able to take her for her first test drive since she's been in a million pieced.

Hoping to F*** that everything is ok as the next morning it's off to Curborough for the GTI sprint event... Cutting it fine or what!? If all does appear to be in order mechanically then I'll check she's fuelling ok (n75 unplugged!) before filling up on high octane and getting an early night.

FINGERS CROSSED!

Since my last post (and in traditional dramatic style) my life has been predominantly occupied by many late sleepless nights working on the car shortly followed by disappointment and anti climax in various forms....

Come Saturday afternoon I came straight home from work and fitted that hub (number 6) and for the first time in literally months was able to go for a drive PRAYING that everything would be ok in time for Curborough the next day! . . . And, of course it wasn't

Not only was that manifold to turbo gasket still leaking but I had a rather bad oil leak coming from the bell house that was it, Cuby cancelled and another few days of ripping the car apart and fixing sh!t.

So first thing Sunday morning I wasted no time in getting the gearbox off AGAIN!.. The oil leak was fairly obviously coming from the sump so that came off to be RTV'd again. While I was there I took the opportunity to have a look at why the turbo wasn't sealing...

On closer inspection the compressor housing was contacting the head stopping it from bolting up properly... WTF!? Surely not a manufacturing fault of Dans!? . . My thoughts quickly turn to the fact I now have an APY head and luckily I still had my AUM head about to compare to. Upon closer inspection I notice the AUM head has a chamfered edge on the corner where the APY doesn't. Here's the AUM head:


So I disconnect the turbo and out with the Dremel... At which point I'm actually slightly grateful the gear box is out as access is TIGHT down there! . . And just for reference and to set the scene, this is what I was doing while the others where hooning round Curby sprint track:


Those guys didn't know what they were missing out on! . . Mugs!

And here's the end result, just that few mm causing all that agro...


By now it's almost Sunday evening and I am well and truly ready for a BEEEEEER! So I went to the pub leaving the rest to finish in the following evenings...

Between the evenings of Monday Tuesday and Wednesday I gradually piece the rest of the car back together, even finding time to run the injectors through an ultrasonic cleaner, and eventually finishing at about 10pm on Wednesday... Mappings eve!

Wen't for a little half hour drive to see that all was in check and AT LAST, all appeared to be in order... So I got my head down in preparation for my trip to Bills in the morning. What could possibly go wrong now!?

So I got to bills nice and early... Bill and his team had a good look round the engine bay and swiftly got the old girl on the rollers.


Initially the car started responding well and pretty quickly we were up to around 260 brake, bill gradually through a bit more boost and a bit more timing at it but unfortunately the power didn't want to go much above 260... The engine was flowing well but wasn't able to to anything with the extra air or ignition, so it must me going somewhere!?

After letting her cool a little Bills guys set about performing a compression test and unfortunately cylinders 1&2 were down on compression. Still within Audi tolerances mind, but not sufficient enough to hold 300 brake worth of boost

So that was it, all this work for 260 brake. Not the result I was looking for what so ever

Pretty gutted if I'm honest... For the moment I'm just going to enjoy the car for what it is, and it is still pretty quick! It's also fairly impressive how it makes it's power, it has pretty much over 250 brake from 5k past 7k!

Maybe next year I'll take the head off and wack some rods/ring in or something... But right now it's going to have to sit on the back burner, I've poured way to much into this physically, financially and emotionally for one year.

I'd just like to say a massive thanks to Bill and the team at Badger 5, I don't think there are many other tuners that would have been that thorough in helping to explain and investigate exactly why we weren't reaching the desired numbers.... And I suppose that's all I was doing at the end of the day, chasing numbers!
Right now just looking forward to actually having my weekends back And let it be known that this IS NOT the last you lot will be hearing from me! (sorry)

In the mean time I'll keep this post updated with anything I may be up to, and if anyone knows of a cheap forged bottom end going, LET ME KNOW!

In theory you are right... Although I have just noticed I still have a rather serious oil leak from the bell housing area, must be that rear main seal. And don't really wanna drive it till it's sorted at risk of contaminating the clutch.

Looks like the gearbox is coming off AGAIN!


Yeahhh, I aint giving up on the girl yet tho... Might start putting together a proper engine to drop in.

Will have to wait till my bank balance has recovered and I've caught up on my sleep first though!

In other news:


Looks like I just bought a water meth kit.....