Leshkin's Sepang Blue S3 Money Pit Project

Thanks, will check it out. I'm cautious about FMICs as the ones that are meant to perform the best can also cause issues due to larger volume. Will do a bit of reading and decide tonight

-Ju- said:

He still had it this morning, no pipes with it though which are another £150

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Plus a drive up to Manchester or postage Thing is, I'm so deep in this now, an extra £50 is not going to change things. I'll probably try to get another supplier tomorrow and order a new one with all the pipework and in the correct colour

From what I understand, Forge IC come with a set of pipes. At least the one on their site does. I'll speak to a few suppliers tomorrow and see if they do that too.
Ideally I want to avoid dismantling the front end more times than I have to. Would be really nice to have the IC sorted by next Thursday.

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S3Alex said:

The Proalloy is about the biggest but never caused any problems here.
I'm assuming you mean in terms of compressible volume and lag....

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Yes, Andy at Storm mentioned that getting a very large core IC would cause a bit of lag as there is more volume to pressurise. I'm not married to Forge, so will take a look at what I can get at short notice tomorrow. I think enough people have all of the baove ICs and are happy with them.

Changed to Stage 2 Airtec Intercooler for pretty much the same money as Forge and that should be with me by the time the car goes in for surgery

So, this is what 390odd quid worth of silicone looks like...

MICHAEL PARKER said:

Where did you buy the hoses ?

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Forge UK shop mate - http://www.forgemotorsport.co.uk

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Dropped her off at Storm Developments today. All of the parts are in place and ready to fit. Got a lift in their old development turbo'd Golf R32 with 'just' 500+bhp on the lower boost setting! Mental car with awesome exhaust sound!

Being an impulsive shopper that I am, I may have gone and spent a bit extra. I'll keep you guessing what it is until everything is in place. Although if anyone has been following this thread you'll know what it might be, given what I already have on the car

Oh, Andy might have sold me on the idea of a Bilstein B14 kit - I'm finding that the STX kit I have now is a little bit on the softer side for how I've been using the car. May bite the bullet and get it in the next month or so... Just in time for the trip to the Ring in September.



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S. said:

Intercooler or tte420?

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Yes! You just won a cookie!

Jake 61 said:

I don't ever want to sit in a turbo'd R32, or there is no chance of new wheels next year.....!

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Haha, yeah it felt pretty manic

S3Alex said:

Remember that great quote from Walter Rohrl.
"A car is just fast enough when you stand in front of it and are afraid to put the key in the ignition..."

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Indeed, great words from a great man!

To be fair, after driving wife's Mini around for a couple of weeks, the STG2+ felt pretty brisk... Can't wait to feel the new and improved setup now!

Jake 61 said:

Hmmmm...

I've already been looking at superchargers.
I think I need help...!

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We should start a self-help group... oh wait, it will only end up in all of us driving monster Audis and three mortgages!

mookster said:

Best of luck with the rebuild mate, bad luck for sure but making the best of it, despite costs!

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Thanks mate. Not the best of things to happen, but you deal with it and move on. Hopefully she'll be all finished soon. I'm on holiday at the moment and will aim to pick it up from Storm as soon as I can. The final bill will be monstrous, but I'm mentally ready for it and made some steps to help deal with the financial shock too. Will have to be careful how I spend money for the next few months.

One thing is for sure - we'll need to get another South East A/S3 meet organised before the summer is over

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Normal service is being slowly restored, so I thought I'd add an update on what has been done some far. Drove my baby home yesterday, so here is a summary of a day's worth of emotions and impressions...

I left her in the hands of Alex and Andy at Storm Developments just before leaving on holiday a couple of weeks ago and asked that we do a few extra bits while the engine is out, so here is a list of what has been done:

• Strip the old engine and install new unit as supplied by @mjr901
• Replace every gasket, seal, stretch bolt and belt that needs to be replaced while the engine is out, includingnew crankshaft pilot bearing
• Installed a full set of blue Forge silicone pipes using forge clip kit: DV to Intake Return hose, lower coolant hoses, silicone coolant hoses
• AirTec Stage 2 intercooler, including hoses
• Renew S-Tronic, Haldex, rear diff and front transfer oil and filters
• Fit an uprated dogbone insert
• Fit OEM R8 spark plugs
• RS3 intank fuel pump
• New TTE420 turbo unit

While the car was in bits, I also asked the guys to adjust the H&R ARBs to have them on soft front and hard rear in order to further reduce under-steer too. Big improvement and I think it's the only settings anyone should use with these ARBs.

As you can see, the amount of work was huge (the bill was eye-watering too), but the guys at Storm were brilliant throughout. Andy helped to put together a list of work that needed doing and offered solid advice, kept me away from getting overambitious with my modding and provided updates when I called in to checkup on how things were progressing, even while being mega busy with all the other work that was going-on. They fitted my job around a few other big pieces of work they had on and I just can't thank the team enough for pulling this off with minimal fuss and interruption to my schedule. Top guys who I will aim to use for all of my tuning work in the future.

As mentioned above, I was looking at all the work that was going to happen with the new engine and decided to go down a brand new TTE420 turbo unit (Andy helped me to get a good deal on it too, which was awesome!) My logic here was that the original turbo had already done 66k and if I was to keep the car for a few more years, then it made sense to replace it together with the engine. Given the price difference between a new OEM turbo and a TTE420 unit, minus the money I'd get by selling the old turbo, it made some sort of man-maths sense to upgrade now, even if it meant that the final bill would be bigger. While at it, the RS3 LPFP was also upgraded at the same time to support the new fueling needs.

So, what's it like now, I hear you ask Well, the new engine is gleaming and runs much nicer that the old unit. Gone are the funky mechanical noises, replaced by a very crisp clicking sound of the injectors. The engine is in it's running-in phase for the next 1k miles, so I can't take it above 4k rpm for now.
The current Stg2+ map is still on, but once I get the engine run-in, I'll make a trip down to Storm to get new engine oil and filter followed by a custom engine map and a DSG map to make proper use of the new hybrid kit. We'll see if the RS3 LPFP controller is required at that time and fit that on the day.
The exhaust note seems to have changed a little, and sounds a bit more raspy - I suspect this is down to the new turbo, but may also have something to do with the new AirTec FMIC too - I really like it! The induction noise has changed too - it's now less pronounced inside the car with windows up, but outside the intake is sounding more aggressive. I suspect that the new turbo is not being taxed in the same way that the OEM unit was and runs much quieter, hence the lower induction noise inside the car, plus the TTE came with the charge pipe baffles removed, so that must make a bit of a difference too.

I must admit, the new engine bay is looking more colorful and much cleaner I very much like this! I'm tempted to paint the TTS engine cover, but haven't decided on the color - I think blue will be overkill at this point Any ideas?






To my surprise, the biggest impact to normal driving so far has been the uprated dogmount insert! While there is quite a bit more vibration with the DSG is in D while stationary, or slowly pulling off (forward or reverse) the way the engine feels connected to the rest of the car makes for a more engaging driving experience. I didn't realize how positively it would impact the throttle response - there is now no hesitation between you pressing the throttle and car reacting to your input. Feels much more engaging now, but I suspect that the added vibration in the cabin may not be for everyone. Andy explained that with the stock/worn dogmount, engine will twist more on its mounts, which adds a bit of lag between you mashing the loud pedal and car reacting - it's milliseconds, but you do feel this. The harder dogmount insert stiffens this motion and reduces the amount of travel involved, so you get the drive from the engine a fraction of a second sooner, resulting in a better feel. Seeing as my car has turned more into a weekend toy/family trip mobile after I started a new job working from home, I do not expect this to bother me (in-fact, I kinda like it - #racecar ). Obviously, renewed oil in every orifice of the running gear may have also contributed to the improvements.

When I got her home, the first things was to give her a wash:



While all of this work was going on, I've been spending some time in the garage, clearing it out and optimising how I'm using the space, to make the S3 fit in there. Since we moved into this house two years ago the garage was a dumping ground for all sorts of rubbish and made it unusable for storing a car. I'm 99% there and did a trial fit to see what needs moving around to make it easier to use - it fits!



Once I got that out of the way, a friend of mine popped over and we went out for a chilled night drive to start getting some miles on her


I'll get the Team Dynamics wheels cleaned up today and fit them ahead of the trip up to AITP on Sunday. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, so didn't bother asking for any club passes, so the car is not on any club stands unfortunately - maybe next year

In summary, it really feels like a new car now and every time I've driven it so far, I get that tingling sensation of how it feels now as well as in anticipation of how it will feel when full potential of the upgrades is realised in the next month or so... I can't wait!

Focus will now shift towards sorting out a few small bodywork blemishes and interior... watch this space

Cant remember which one Andy said, I'll have to ask him again. He did comment that my car has a bit more vibration than they normally see, but that might be down to the current engine mounts being a bit more worn.

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MICHAEL PARKER said:

looks fab matey , i would love to know the costs .

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Thanks! You really don't - trust me. It's like someone took a big run-up and kicked me in the groin Total of everything was not far off another pre-facelift S3 I think.

If we end up meeting up at AITP I can tell you the full story.

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