Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

Strong progress, I'm envious of how soon it'll be driving again. Your car is faster than mine even when both have the engine out :whistle2:
 
Prawn said:
Context is key here big bad dad.

Yes there were clear issues with the original build, but then thats what you potentially accept when purchasing an engine for an appealing price with an unknown past.

Had we paid twice what we did then yes, I'd probably be fairly upset. I feel that the engine was very fairly sold as seen, and was purchased primarily for the parts it contains rather than its quality of assembly.

Had it been installed as is, then yes, I think we could well have run into issues further down the line.

As it is, I'd like to think I've corrected those issues now, and what we have should do us good service, at considerably reduced cost than if we had built s fresh engine.

No regrets here :)

:racer:
Click to expand...
Point taken. Just pointing out that with our level of use ( read abuse ) one can't take any chances with someone else's build unless it comes from someone like Bill. As you said, good purchase. No regrets.
 
Some good progress there Nick, envious of you cylinder head build; i'd love to be able to afford/justify a valve upgrade.

Don't ever stop doing properly written and photographed build updates, always eagerly await them and they'll definitely help me with mine!
 
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Nick

Please don't run the plastic impeller water pump, it will fail. While the engine is still out, get a metal impeller pump and fit it.
 
Phill Miller, Audi tech , reconds plastic impeller ,ie OEM are less prone to leak. My experience with VAG OEM pumps would agree with this. Go for plastic.
I agree with Tuffty
 
sparrow said:
Nick

Please don't run the plastic impeller water pump, it will fail. While the engine is still out, get a metal impeller pump and fit it.
Click to expand...

I actually prefer the plastic ones alex.

The plastic used isn't the same as those of old that failed so badly. This is the same as the pump I've used for the last 4 years that regularly saw 7600rpm. I have ever faith in it.

The issue with the metal ones is in the balancing. They seem to suffer from running off true more often and end up leaking through the seals. I've had 2 go this way.

It's one of those personal things. Read what you can, and go with your own preference
 
Day 2 progress, continued!

I needed to remove to down pipe studs, to replace for new.

Annoyingly, one had snapped when we removed the engine, leaving just 10mm remaining to grip.

We heated it up as hot as we could get it, and put the stud extractor on, and it immediately snapped off flush with the housing!

D'oh!

So out came the drill!



Drilled to 8mm:



I then drilled just the first few MM to 9mm, which exposed the start of the original thread. Enough to let me get a tap in there.

I gently wound the tap through, and it pushed the remains of the old stud clean out with zero thread damage!





It's nice when these things actually work!

It was finally time to put the turbo on to stay

Obviously new studs, nuts, and crush washers used throughout:




Next up was the oil drain.

Oddly, we found that when tightening it, it wouldn't sit square on the turbo.

The TFSI oil drains are a totally different shape to the 1.8t one I'm using. It seemed to fit the last core fine, but must have been VERY close to fouling, as a very slightmachining difference saw mine sit like this:



30s on the bench grinder had it sorted thoogh :)



Lines complete, silicon elbow on, and its starting to look like an engine!

 
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Last job for day 2 was to throw the gearbox on. A nice easy job to end the day on



I was then forced by my glamorous assistant to partake in a selfie to document our success :laugh:



And of course, the list....

 
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On Friday night I took a trip to to Reading, to see Lewis ( @VAG-Slag )

Lewis very kindly donated a small port inlet manifold (which I may or may not have owned previously), and on top of that, a smuggled slice of exceedingly good carrot cake.

I don't like carrot cake, but this was GOOD! Thanks mate :laugh:

Back home and i cleaned it up as best I could with brake cleaner and a wire brush, before bravely bringing it into the house, to use the 'parts washer' someone inconveniently put in the kitchen!

To my amazement, my poor long suffering wife didn't even bat an eyelid as i did this. She is very accepting of my ways :laugh:



Whilst I was in the kitchen, it also seemed like as good a place as any to stick the battery on charge :racer: after all, it hopefully won't be long until it's needed again!

 
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Prawn said:
The issue with the metal ones is in the balancing. They seem to suffer from running off true more often and end up leaking through the seals. I've had 2 go this way.
Click to expand...

I did a little more research into this recently while getting a pump for my new build. Hepu make a cheap metal impeller pump that seems to be the most common to leak through the shaft and I had one do this too - I didn't notice an imbalance in it though. Geba make a metal impeller pump which, visually looks better than the Hepu one quality-wise and the bearings felt nicer but hard to tell how long it'll last. VAG changed the material that was originally used when they used to suffer from an issue where the impeller would break off the shaft - apparently a lot better but pretty pricey. Meyle also make a plastic impeller pump but I couldn't find any feedback on it. I went with the Geba in the end - hopefully it lasts.
 
Hello Prawn! Engine rebuild looks like it coming along nicely... =]

Quick question, Which R tech did you go to? id like to have my AGU remapped again, and it looks like Nick down there knows his stuff and will be the closest option...

Thanks
 
Prawn said:
On Friday night I took a trip to to Reading, to see Lewis ( @VAG-Slag )

Lewis very kindly donated a small port inlet manifold (which I may or may not have owned previously), and on top of that, a smuggled slice of exceedingly good carrot cake.

I don't like carrot cake, but this was GOOD! Thanks mate :laugh:

Back home and i cleaned it up as best I could with brake cleaner and a wire brush, before bravely bringing it into the house, to use the 'parts washer' someone inconveniently put in the kitchen!

To my amazement, my poor long suffering wife didn't even bat an eyelid as i did this. She is very accepting of my ways :laugh:



Whilst I was in the kitchen, it also seemed like as good a place as any to stick the battery on charge :racer: after all, it hopefully won't be long until it's needed again!

Click to expand...

I have also used the domestic parts washer in my house as well to do the same... =]
 
Erikn89nl said:
Prawn and I did this conversion on my car recently. Took the complete front suspension from a Leon Cupra R (same as TT) and put it on my A3. I don't think there's a real benefit to fitting only the arms, the hubs have different geometry which helps cornering.

If you can get the full TT setup, I believe it's worth fitting.
Click to expand...

Hi,

How much did you pay for the front set up and where from? - breakers?

Many thanks
 
L3NGY said:
Hi,

How much did you pay for the front set up and where from? - breakers?

Many thanks
Click to expand...

I stumbled onto it through a mate, while looking for a gearbox :p
Can't tell you what the set cost, as I purchased a load of stuff all at the same time, for an all-in price.
 
Lucky man! I need to replace a hub and can't figure out if it's worth upgrading whilst I'm at it or not.
 
It's Sunday night.

It's late

I'm exhausted.

Robin, Andy, Sam, you're all fu*king awesome.

I'm more than capable of plodding on and getting it done alone, and that was my intention all along.

But, having the cavalry turn up unexpected to make sure it gets done on time, and having a damn good laugh whilst doing it, that's what it's all about!

:racer:

It's alive!

More later :) I need sleep
 
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We re-join the story at the beginning of day 3.

Day 2 had gone well, and we'd got all the jobs done, plus the fairly important task of fitting the turbo and all lines ahead of schedule, so I started day 3 feeling pretty positive!


I'd realised whilst cleaning up the inlet manifold, that the new one didn't have a bracket for the throttle cable, comming from a DBW small port car.

This was a bit of an issue, and had me wondering if id have to find someone able to tig it up for me locally, costing precious time.

However, Andy seemed to think it was possible to braze aluminium, using a plumbers torch and ali brazing rods, which he had, so we decided to have a go! Andy came over at 9am, and after a quick trip to TPS, B&Q, then finally costa, we went back to the garage to play with fire!

We started by marking it all up and cutting out a little bracket to replicate the standard throttle stop, then heated the manifold up until the manifold surface was hot enough to melt the ali brazing rod, and 'tinned' the surface exactly as you would with solder:



We then heated and tinned the back of the bracket, and placed the two together, and added heat!



After about a minute of heating, the ali we'd laid down melted, and suddenly the bracket 'sunk' into place! A bit more careful heating and feeding in of brazing rods, and it was a decent looking join the whole way round with all the voids filled! I tried to knock it off with a hammer to test, and it wasn't going anywhere, so we're calling it a success! :racer:

A quick lick of paint, and it looks like this:






Robin arrived around 10am, he'd very kindly offered to come over to give me a hand on Saturday, which ended up over running into sunday as well! but more on that later.

Next up for jobs to do before the engine went in, was to deal with the 'no comms' ABS error I knew I'd get by removing the pump. A small orange light I can deal with, but the continuous buzzing and flashing from the DIS for an unplugged pump is not something I'm prepared to live with, so I decided to seal up the OE ABS module and plug it in, in the hope that it stops the errors.



I modified the original ABS pump bracket to make it smaller and tucked away against the chassis leg, and wrapped the module up in a few layers of duct tape to seal it away from the elements:



Then bolted the bracket in, and plugged the module in. Hopefully I'll just need to tape off the ABS light on the clocks and that'll be that :)

 
Last edited:
Given the amount of debris I'd found inside the block during assembly, I decided that before even firing the car I'd remove the thermostat and flush the block through with a hose to remove any large debris.

We hooked up 2 lower rad hoses, a hose pipe, and a few buckets, and flushed 25L a time through it, first one way, then the other way, and repated that process twice.



With that done, all that was left was to wiggle the engine into the engine bay and start connecting things!

....Or was it?
 
it was just gone mid day when I got a rather well timed message from Dan:



Eek!

Due to a slight packaging mix up, I'd accidentally ended up with a stock 6psi actuator, rather than the 10psi one I thought I had!

I'm VERY glad Dan was browsing this thread and spotted the error, as if that had been installed, It'd have been ****** awful, needing stupidly high duty cycles to get the boost levels I want, and almost certainly not capable of holding the WG shut at the top end where I need it.

We had 2 options at this point - Drive an hour each way to Dans to grab a spare actuator he had, or make something that suits.

My old actuator came from an ebay GT28, and had done a perfect job for me all these years, only finding it was broken when we removed it.

Andy happened to have an identical ebay gt28 sat on his shelf, with an actuator he wouldn't be using, so we decided to make that work to save time.

We rigged up a bit of a test rig, using several T-pieces, vacuum hose, and a foot pump, to link up the two actuators in parallel, and also the cars boost gauge at the same time to monitor crack pressure.

As expected, the stock actuator cracked open at 6psi, and was WIDE open before 10. it just wasn't going to do the job at all!

My old actuator started to crack at 10-11psi, and was wide open at 14psi.

Andys replacement was stating to crack around 8-9, and was wide open around 12-13, so it's just a fraction softer than the one I had, but way stiffer than the stock one.



We cut down a threaded fitting to make a threaded joiner, and cut the arm off the stock actuator, and tapped a thread onto it to screw into the extension:



One 10-12 psi actuator complete:



With that done, it was finally time to install the engine back into it's rightful home!

TADA!!!!!!



:sign welcome:

that was definitely worth finding a Biro and crossing one off the list!



It was getting late by this point, so we connected a few plugs, and fed the loom through the engine bay, and called it a night.



Slightly behind intended Day 3 progress, but we've had a fair few little setbacks over the whole project, and the 'anything else' listed on day 4 has really been an ongoing task with a few hours on that each day!

We retired for the evening, with fish and chips and a few beers, ready to attack day 4 bright and early on Sunday :racer:
 
Morning came, and we headed out fairly early to crack on.

First up was the inlet manifold and fuel system.

On with the small port phenolic spacer and 2 gaskets:



And then on with the freshly painted manifold, complete with DIY throttle bracket:



We made up some 11mm spacers for the fuel rail, using 2x M6 nylock nuts drilled out and filed down slightly, and installed the fuel rail.

When connecting up the plugs, I found a broken wire on the AIT sensor, snapped off at the plug :(



I found a spare plug, which I think was from @george_seamons old loom I've had kicking around for years!
Robin being far better at electrical stuff than me, offered to solder in the new plug, so to try and be as efficient as possible, I went below ground into the pit, and installed the downpipe, centre section, and reconnected the fuel pump too :)

I got a text message late morning from Andy, saying he was going to be over in 10 mins.

We hadn't been expecting more help, but it's always welcome :)

Andy arrived, and about 5 minutes later, we heard a 6 pot roar in the back road too.

The team was now 4 strong :laugh:





This is largely what having the garage is all about for me. it's as much a social thing as a practical thing.

It was great fun working away with all 4 of us, having a laugh, getting stuff done. it makes it much more enjoyable than slogging away on your own.

We dug out the oil and cleaned it up, and checked the hoses over.

There were minor signs of rubbing on both hoses. Probably not something you'd NEED to replace, but as it was out, we decided to give it a go.

This turned out to be a major task, as the push fit (clip less) Mocal hose is STUPIDLY tight on the barbed fittings, and when we heated the hose, it became too soft to effectively push onto the barb, as it kinked just above the fitting!

The guys ended up making a split hose clamp using a hole saw and a block of wood, then found my little vice needed bolting down to something to get it stable enough to actually push the fittings in!

A bit of a work up, but it's nice to know it's all done now!



Good Team work lads :laugh:



^^^Obviously the oil cooler doesn't sit like that in the finished situation, but the mounts for it are on the slam panel so it's just sat there for this pic.

Some boost pipework on next before the front end went on:



Followed by the turbo inlet and filter:



I've replaced all the heater lines, and also now the breather lines, with a spiral wound reinforced 19mm silicon hose. The old hose I'd used seemed very stiff when cold, but as soon as it got hot it became VERY flimsy, and I wasn't happy with it at all.

The last length to install was this run across to the catch tank from the cam cover, purposefully kinked to sweep over the inlet:




At this point, it was looking rather a lot like a complete engine. So it was time to uncover the pit, and drag out the slam panel and rad/intercooler, which have been below ground taking up space in the pit since May.

it was pretty filthy as you can imagine!



A quick spray and a wipe down later and it looked ok:





And on it went!



The list was looking pretty healthy at this point!



Only one thing left to do.......
 
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We filled it with oil and coolant, disconnected the injectors and coilpacks, and turned the key….


…. Nothing!

It suddenly dawned on me that I’d not fitted the engine earth!

Simple job. Attempt 2….


I turned the key, and it turned over fine, although perhaps a little slower than I’d expect. The battery was healthy, and had been charged, but I guess turning over for 20s on a lump that’s sat for months and is bone dry inside can’t be the easiest task for a tiny race battery.


We hooked the jump leads up to Sams E36, reconnected the coils and injectors, and turned the key…….




Noisey for a few seconds, but then the lifters filled and it all went quiet, and ran surprisingly well for a very first start!

Then the oil pressure light came on

:notworking:

:sign unfair:

:wtf:
 
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bigal 1 said:
Phill Miller, Audi tech , reconds plastic impeller ,ie OEM are less prone to leak. My experience with VAG OEM pumps would agree with this. Go for plastic.
I agree with Tuffty
Click to expand...
Seems they have been updated since I last played with 1.8t engines then.

Carry on. :whistle2:
 
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awesome progress man keen to see some track action vidoes soon:yahoo::yahoo: !!
always best having mates over to help out

must say that volvo though:hubbahubba:
 
Was pleasantly surprised to see the start up video pop up on youtube, good job.

Just throw an extension spring on the wastegate next time you need more boost.

Why the small port inlet?
Aren't you well in the range of reaping benefits of the extra plenum volume??
 
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Small port port inlet is driven my smallnport head Ant, which we have because it's what was available at the time.

I've long been keen to try a small port head anyway, as it's considered by most to be 'the right' head sub 400bhp.

Time will tell if its any better, but going on results from various cars that have passed through bills in the last year I certainly can't see it being any worse.
 
:smirkcat:So, it runs!

Bad news is, we have the light of doom!



I felt sick.

Absolutely SICK :puke2:

So much time, effort, and not to mention money!

Seeing that oil light pop up my heart absolutely sank. It sounded ok, but the light didn't appear in the first minute or so of running, so I was going over and over in my head what may have happened.

I checked the wiring to the switch, and it appeared to be intact. I removed the spade connector, cleaned the terminal, and refitted it.
We fired it up again, and immediately got the oil warning light. So killed the engine again straight away.

I was NOT happy.

It was 5pm on Sunday evening. I was meant to be going out with Victoria at 5:30, and after all the work I appeared to have an expensive lump of scrap smartly installed in my engine bay!

We went out, and collected the baby things we's bought from friends, then went to nandos for dinner as I really didn't feel like shopping / cooking.

I was pretty grumpy over dinner, even after a double chicken breast pitta with fries :laugh:

I decided I couldn't sleep on it, as I'd never sleep not knowing of it was a mechanical issue or the switch, so at 9pm I drove over to sams to borrow his mechanical pressure testing kit.

I came home and got the kit ready, selecting the m10x1 fitting to go into the block.

I reached down to unplug the sensor, pulled back the rubber boot, and slid off the terminal, only for it to fall off in my hand!




It was definitely intact externally before hand, so I can only assume that the core was broken internally causing the issues.

At this point, I was ALMOST feeling confident. But not wanting to get too carried away, i carried on and hooked up the tester.

All plugged in:



Moment of truth: take 2!

This was the big one. I NEEDED To see a reading on the gauge this time....



WOOOOOHOOOOOO :racer:

4.5 bar from cold start

What a relief!
 
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With the time and effort you have put into rebuilding that I couldn't imagine it wasn't something simple. TBH I think I would fit an oil pressure gauge. It's a worthwhile thing that can tell you a lot about the condition of the engine.
 
Screen Shot 2016 12 12 at 225118


<tuffty/>
 
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Well done Nick (and all those involved).

This reads like a reality show on the Discovery channel :)

I wouldn't have been able to leave the car over night not knowing if there was oil pressure or not either.
 
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Happy days mate looking good! At least one of us will be boosting by Christmas (the buying a house things is still going on, longest process ever!)

Just shows how important it is to check everything, this is the difference between making decent power and being disappointed!
Attention to detail is spot on mate, well in.
 
Just for the record, am I correct in that VE changes to the engine build are

Anti surge compressor
Small port head
Small port manifold
Stock camshafts (sorry if I missed a post about AGN cams swapped over).

Looking foward tto mapping resuts!
 
I'm fairly sure he's got a pair of NA cams in there now, where as the old engine only had one (inlet I think?)

It'll be interesting to see it out and about. It was a good weekend, and I've very glad the oil pressure looks like a purely electrical fault! It was very satisfying to see it fire up!

I must say, the engine bay's looking much cleaner and tidier than ever before too.
 
Soooo made the effort to remember my passwords because your an attention seeking little wotsit! I only come on here to keep up with your thread. I dont post because you know me... I have nothing useful to add.

Your up here!!










My level of knowledge is down here somewhere!

However without thread like this my level of knowledge would be....


Down here.

Can't wait to have my track day friend back in 2017.

PS told you years ago you needed an oil pressure gauge, could of saved you the stress and a wasted nandos!
 
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