15Degrees-North S3 turbo Race Car build

For race purposes your driveshafts may take much more of a beating than road use plus yours is FWD if I'm right.

Mine seems ok with 540lbs but obviously with the help of the Haldex.

If you find uprated shafts I may be interested too.
 
So to Snetterton :)

A wet Snetterton :) quali approached and it was till damp and I know my Direzzas just don't work well on a damp track. But it looked like it might dry so out I went. Seat of the pants stuff but a line appeared and I pushed on getting faster. I managed to get up to third, .1 behind the eventual race winner and then I was coming down the main straight and braked for the fast right hander, turned in and went straight off LOL at about 110 I guess. It had started raining at the top of the circuit again :( Luckily nothing to hit there so I flounced across the grass and called it for third.

Parked the car up and the heavens opened for about two hours solid with my car sitting outside in it. As you know my bonnet has big vents in it and so quite literally it was raining all over my engine. I just didn't twig at the time but I did when I went to form up on the grid and it was running on 3! So suffice it to say I was seriously down on power but I kept it going for an hour (just) and I got a 4th in class. lesson learned there then. Don't leave my car outside!!!! I also have an odd issue in that it smokes like mad on idle but not when I'm raggin it. The turbo is coming out this weekend as I'm thinking shaft seal so that's off back to AET to be checked. I might have a stem seal gone so I might have the head off and port it while I'm at it.
 
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More solid results.

Sounds like you're finally having a good time with the car.
 
Yeah over the hump now. Seriously annoyed with myself for not spotting the big big hole in my bonnet ROFL. I am selling my spare race gearbox. Ill post an add up.
 
Yeah over the hump now. Seriously annoyed with myself for not spotting the big big hole in my bonnet ROFL. I am selling my spare race gearbox. Ill post an add up.

It's all part of the learning I guess.....

I thought everything under the bonnet of mine was Ok until I found the MAF wires shroud had melted.....explained why the car felt a bit flat that day.
 
I decided to have the head off this weekend as I was not happy with my post race leak down figures and could hear leakage from the exhaust side and low and behold the reason my car was not running at Snett was a total failure of my HPFP. The bucket has worn right through and the pin and gouged out my cam lobe! Pics to follow. Not good as that is brand new upgraded internals so Im unsure why it failed in such a way after such a short time.
 
The Offender then!!


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So this little failure has cost

New Integrated Engineering pump internals from Bartek
New DLC coated follower from Bartek
New Inlet cam from Audi
Head and valves re done
New Gaskets
Swirl pot
8 bar pump feeding HPFP
5 bar pump feeding swirl pot


About a grand all in and LUCKILY no engine damage as the piece that came off was one piece and it stayed in the chain cover next to the cam.

I will now check the follower after every session for wear!!!
 
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If I remember Backdraft were developing a different drive for the HPFP which I know is a bit late now but might be worth a look.

Good luck with all of this.
The cam follower wasn't Audi's finest hour.
 
Yeah already spoke to Steve and he is getting me a price for that solution. In the interim I shall replace with new and go for the IE pump and DLC follower and keep an eye on it. Mine has failed after about ten hours of running I guess!
 
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not sure if its relevant or not mate but i heard that the alloy threads get a bit worn over time with the 3 bolts on the hpfp when removing and replacing often...

for piece of mind i changed mine to threaded rod and nylon nuts, might not be an issue though if you know how to use a torque wrench i guess...
 
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Ill bear that in mind ta. Ill probably put an insert in them then..
 
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Hmm now that's interesting. CHS rang me today and it appears I have several valve springs on varying heights with up to 8mm difference! So I'm changing them all, just trying to decide between APR, IE, CTS, Supertech or Ferrea. All are mega money by the way!
 
Hmm now that's interesting. CHS rang me today and it appears I have several valve springs on varying heights with up to 8mm difference! So I'm changing them all, just trying to decide between APR, IE, CTS, Supertech or Ferrea. All are mega money by the way!


Thats pretty weird....sounds like the previous builder went with whatever was on the bench....

I used a Ferrea valvetrain with IE retainers and springs.
Also changed all of the stem seals.

I think Ferrea are said to be the best overall.
 
Thing is the engine was stock if you remember. when I stripped it it was immaculate so I can only assume they are standard fit springs that are in it. 8mm is quite a lot of variance though.

Where did you get your Ferrea from in the UK?
 
Thing is the engine was stock if you remember. when I stripped it it was immaculate so I can only assume they are standard fit springs that are in it. 8mm is quite a lot of variance though.

Where did you get your Ferrea from in the UK?

Ahhh I see.

I bought the complete set of parts direct from IE.
I had a lot of help from Cassidy at IE,who checked the order and parts before they were dispatched.
Very quick,and very fast delivery.

You can get them over here from Backdraft as far as I can remember,but the price from IE was good.
 
I know why the springs were compressed. This engine sat on my garage floor for 3 years in one position! I went for IE springs in the end. Got the head back now, cylinder head services did a great job and a semi port, also had my valves back cut 30 degrees.
 
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Hi Guys

So engine is out again and car is stripped. I'm taking it to a better level of endurance spec next so on the list is as follows:

1. Crank Lightening and knife egdeing
2. Dynamic balancing of all components (Crank, pulleys, flywheel etc)
3. New Mahle pistons
4. Fitting an 06a oil pump with a 1.8t oil filter housing to get rid of the ludicrous power robbing balance shaft ****
5. Fitting of air jacks
6. Fitting a 100 litre ATL tank with remote fill
7. Fitting remote res shox all round, possibly AST
8. SQA gear shifter system

Optional Jobs
1. Change my box to a FWD one with a gripper diff in it
2. Dog box kit

Once all this is done I'm having some sessions with corner force to setup the shox correctly based on potentiometer data.

As usual ill document all this including the new engine build as I know you lot live for pictures of nice parts as do I :)
 
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Great news.

Good to see the progress continuing.
 
Still waiting on the machine shop for engine parts. The crank has now been lightened and in the end we went with CP pistons which are being bore matched while the bores are being planet honed. I am using Arrow rods in this build as to be honest they are one of the best and also lighter too.

I should have the block and all the bits back next week so then I can start on the build and pictures etc. Oh yes I want to fit wider arches for this year and a better looking rear bumper

Any thoughts on this kit? It's the widest I have found with a more square shape to the arches which I like as its DTM styleee :)

http://www.pro-street-shop.de/epage...tPath=/Shops/61632411/Products/"WBK0030/AU04"


Cheers
Mark.
 
4. Fitting an 06a oil pump with a 1.8t oil filter housing to get rid of the ludicrous power robbing balance shaft ****

Regarding the 06A filter housing and pump i would suggest you run a remote oil filter set up as there is little to no room thanks to the rad and fans (if ur running any) As i have run into the same issue and currently run the polo gti oil filters as its a small and short one; not to mention you'll to get another throttle body pipe done up can be a pain too... as i've gone down that road
 
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Yes I agree and already run a remote oil filter. Should gte the engine back this week so then its build time :)
 
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Sounds awesome dude. Look forward to seeing your engine build. Not too keen on the kit you posted. Doesn't scream dedicated racecar to me. More show car "low and slow".There must be a proper DTM kit for these.
 
Yeah I know what you mean but as yet I have not found a proper race kit. It would have to be custom made. There is a 1000hp Audi I saw that has a nice kit but I rang him and they custom made it so mega money to do.

All parts are back now so Build starts this Saturday
 
Yeah I know what you mean but as yet I have not found a proper race kit. It would have to be custom made. There is a 1000hp Audi I saw that has a nice kit but I rang him and they custom made it so mega money to do.

All parts are back now so Build starts this Saturday

Was that the TSRacing machine?
 
So I kept the car in the end and have entered it in Track Day Championship this year which I am determined to win. Updates coming shortly as ive made a few :)
 
Hi Guys

So over the winter I have made some improvements to the car and will start documenting them now. I have purhcased a 100 litre ATL fuel tank and along with it a Holley Hydramat. The Mat is amazing and on bench testing it sucks down to 1mm of fuel which is a joke. So with this setup I don't need to run a swirl pot. The lifter pump ive gone for is a Walbro motorsport one.


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This is the mat installed in tank. Its a 15 x 8 inch cross shape, they come in various sizes.

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The Lifter pump, quite powerfull this little thing.

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I made a cradle to hold the lfter pump in the right position

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The finished top plate with lifter pump mounted. This drops in tank and connects to the JIC 6 on top of the holley mat

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I forgot to mention. The little JIC 6 on the bottom of the Walbro was custom made so I could connect it via pipe to the Holley mat. The walbro normaly only has a little metal spout on that end that a filter fits onto. So anyways we made that connector and held it in place with glue and a pin and then we cap it over with the ally cap to hold it all together.

Ive got the final version of the manual Haldex controller and have been setting it up on the bench. I'm fitting it today in my very cold garage but luckily ive got my little devil in there and a new gas bottle ha ha... Stand by for pics..
 
Hi there....good to see you back!

You've been busy too.....that pump setup looks superb,and reminds me a lot of my Escort.
The mat is really clever....I wish that sort of thing was around from yrs ago.....my Escort had a lift pump plus swirl pot and fuel rail pump,and would always start pumping air when the tank was down to the last 5litres,so I could hear when it was running low.

There wasn't a fuel gauge,so that was useful in a way to tell me when I needed to find a garage...LOL

Looking forwards to the next set of pics...good luck!
 
Hi Alex

I actually found the Holley mats in the states. I was doing one of those searches where I clicked a link and went wow thats amazing, order! Nascar teams use them a lot and you can get various shapes. Amazing tech really. We tested it in a tray of fuel and lifted it right out so only the corner of the mat was still in the fuel and it still kept sucking it out. As I say amazing..

Ive actually chopped off the filler from the top plate and welded on an angle so we can remote fill from the quarter window. Pics soon.

Do you know where I can buy an A3 propshaft from? 08 one with the wider centre bracket?
 
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So I was pretty quiet last year. mainly because of this..



Essentially what happened was this. Second race of the season at Silverstone National. I was just getting going in quali when unbeknown to me my main cooler feed swage fitting popped off at brooklands. Net result I went the whole straight with oil ******* all over my rear tire so when I braked at 140 for Copse she let go big style and too fast for me to save because of the entry speed and how hard I brake. The car went quite a way considering I locked up and then hit the barrier too. The video is from the med centre to which I had to pay a visit as I was knocked out for a bit.

I then went to rock 3 weeks later after having turned the car around in record time and the turbo let go as a consequence the crash at which point I went

**** this ****

And quit for the season

I now dont use swage fitting anymore by the way
 
Wow! I've spend the most part of today and this evening reading this whole thread. Simply amazing work Mark! I had to sign up purely to write this reply.

Patience of a Saint.

Been pretty quiet the last few months I see - where's things at currently?

Aaron!
 
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Ive actually got quite a few updates to do. Ill try and make a start this weekend. But essentially

I built a new engine after the cam failure
I upgraded the shocks to AST 3 ways
I changed the DV valve to a GFB one
We modified the HPFP so it dont get so hot after doing LOTS of testing we figured out why they do when you uprate them and this is potentially part of the reason the cam followers fail because of the heat.
I have changed the holley mat the to an ATL internal collector. The holly mat I chose was not wide enough for my tank size so I was getting fuel issues in long corners
I changed the stock ECU to a Link GDi one and had the car mapped on that
I refitteed the whole 4 x 4 and got the custom system i had designed working (it works a treat)
I had a new exhaust designed with twin side exit one each side
I changed the downpipe to one that actually fits past my prop shaft

And lastly I decided to start a parts company with a motorsport designer mate of mine. We are going to develop a range of our own parts for VAG cars for road and motorsport.

Quite a lot really, ive got pics I just need to do it

Racing again at Snett end of August on the 26th and im showing the car At Deene park before the race at Audis in the Park
 
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Hi there
Good to see you back and that you've been so busy.

Sounds like you've done a lot to the car .....great news.

Have to tell me more about how the new ecu works out.
 
Nice!
I am interested in more info on what changes you did to the Haldex..
Also what kind of cooling for the hpfp.
Glad to read your back in the race.
 
Will read through this thread at the weekend - hopefully will give me some inspiration for my track day S3 build :D

And lastly I decided to start a parts company with a motorsport designer mate of mine. We are going to develop a range of our own parts for VAG cars for road and motorsport = cool :D
 
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Hi Guys

So what have I been up to then :)

Well after the cam failed I decided to have the engine out again and do another rebuild and this time lighten the crank etc.

So I bought myself a new cam and then had some head work done. Ferrea valves and integrated engineering honey springs with Titanium retainers. I also did some cleaning up of the ports.

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Cams dry fitted


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This little hole here needed tapping and a thread insert putting in it so I could get rid of the ludicrously heavy oil pump balance shaft ***** and go back to the 06A race oil pump which is both a better pump and also much lighter too.

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Next the crank and clutch etc was sent away to be lightened and then balanced up. I did'nt go to radical on the crank as I wanted to reatain strength but it is a lot lighter than before. We didnt knife edge it this time. As you can see we renoved a lot of the webs.


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And dry fitted


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I went for Reds on the mains and used gen ones as then you can buy the different colours.


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I also went back to my Arrow rods as they are just so superier to anything else really but then at over 1k a set you would expect that. 20mm pin and with new CP pistons. Calico coated big ends.


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All bolted in nice with my ARP stud kit


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And with pistons fitted. Now with pistons I went for 14 top ring and 18 bottom ring gaps. This is a LOT tighter than CP recommend but works well and produces much lesss blow by and a hot leak down of 8% which is very good. Compressions all at 186 psi


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06A to 06F plate fitted so I can run the old filter housing with the adapter plate on it for remote oil filter and cooler.


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Cheeky little red timing wheel from IE again

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And then I slotted her back in the car.


More to follow :)
 
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