My minor modding thread

Good work, Thanks for the help yesterday mate, I appreciated you tok time out of this project to assist me find my "slight" boost leak.:beerchug:
 
audi upgrades
After making sure all the fluids I put back into the engine were staying there I decided to crack on with changing the strut top mounts to the LCR ones I have had sat around for a while...

Basically if your strut tops poke out like the pic below then you should be thinking of changing them...
20110226_IMAG0587.jpg


I used the LCR ones as they are stiffer than the std items that the S3 (and all other Mk4 platform VAGs for that matter) use...
Part numbers...
1ML 412 331 - Cupra R strut top mounts.
1J0 412 249 - Bearings.

Removed the offside strut first to make a start... plenty of guides on here + the interweb so I won't bother with that side of things but both struts came off surprisingly easily....
IMAG0698.jpg


LCR strut top (right) vs std strut top (left)...
IMAG0700.jpg


On to the near side strut and discovered that pot holes have struck again destroying the bearing..
IMAG0701.jpg


...this also damaged the top of the damper...
IMAG0704.jpg


...and explains the wear mark on the underside of the bonnet where the strut top is...
IMAG0706.jpg


...damaged bearing (left), off side bearing (top) and new bearing (right)...
IMAG0703.jpg


...filed the top of the damper as it was only peened over a bit and all was good...

The result of that effort is a strut top that looks like this...
IMAG0705.jpg


...and a much more positive feel to the steering... difficult to describe if I am honest but it feels much better....

Next we got the car strapped to the dyno and thats where my luck ran out lol....

Finding it difficult to get decent boost control from the MBC at the moment... not sure why but its just not cutting it. Running the stiff spring I get 22psi fully wound in but one turn gave me 26psi!! while 26psi is the goal I would like a little more control than that and its having difficulty holding this boost level tailing off (which it shouldn't and I know it can hold boost better than that!)

For whatever reason the ECU goes rich after 6k killing turbine energy and subsequently boost/power which is visible looking at the graphs... fuelling in general is mid 12's as it should be but the boost request on the map is off the chart and it hitting low 11's after 6k is just plain odd as EGTs (measured from the EGT probe) are too low for EGT protection there but there is still calculated EGT protection in the mapping which could be the cause of this.... either way the map thats in there is so far out of whack (it was faffed about with to account for EGT issues, overcoming unknown at the time pressure drop issues etc etc...) we are going back to the first iteration from when I first had her mapped and we are going to start again from scratch...

Anyhoo... the MBC is set at an indicated 1.5/1.6 bar on my gauge and she pulls like a train... MAF is hitting 292g/s again and generally the car feels so much nicer to drive now that the head is working as it should...

Going to get in touch with the local stealers to see if I can get some coil packs from the recall then its just a case of trying to slot my car in between Bill's busy workload to get dyno time...

I am going to plumb the WMI in at some point but its not a high priority until the engines running fine and producing the power she should be without WMI...

I also plan to try the std throttle body instead of the R32 one as I want to eliminate it as a factor in this... it is possible that there is a mismatch between the R32 TB and the size of the S3 plenum... the std TB may well produce more power ultimately but we shall see soon enough when I fit it back on...

Consider this, Welly made 370bhp on a std TB and std inlet mani... the Ibiza we did recently made 447bhp with a SEM and a 70mm TB... the R32 TB is 75mm...

<tuffty/>
 
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Nice work on the car Paul. Looks like your getting close to the end of your build.
 
S3 Nattie said:
Nice work on the car Paul. Looks like your getting close to the end of your build.
Click to expand...

Thanks Nat... doubt there will ever be an 'actual' end as once she is running right there will be an inlet manifold and WMI to fit.... then the bottom end rebuild to a 1.9 or maybe a 2ltr... ;P

...just be nice to be somewhere close at least lol

<tuffty/>
 
The 70mm TB on the ibiza, is that off a mk4 2.8 v6 tuffty?
 
Wow matey, never seen a strut top bearing in that bad nick! Was it not knocking and grinding when turning?

Looking good though!
 
This is a great thread Paul, glad to see you're getting the 'original' BT project back on track. It must have tried your patience watching and helping everyone else in Gloucestershire with their S3 projects!!
 
Dani_B19 said:
The 70mm TB on the ibiza, is that off a mk4 2.8 v6 tuffty?
Click to expand...

No idea... customer got it from INA...

s3dave said:
Are you sure the MAF is up to scratch? maybe false readings?
Click to expand...

The mapping has been messed about with that much that its anyones guess hence going back to the first one we did as part of the original mapping and starting again...

MAF is reading as well as it has been so no reason to suspect and it is a fairly recent one too (not that it means anything of course...) will see how the mapping goes and take it from there...

<tuffty/>
 
Great thread tuffty it took me three days on n off.... and great work by you and bill...

day
 
Good work pal glad ya got rid of noise my top mounts are like yours was where can I get the lcr ones from pal
 
MUSH said:
Wow matey, never seen a strut top bearing in that bad nick! Was it not knocking and grinding when turning?

Looking good though!
Click to expand...

Not noticeably tbh...

andy_101 said:
This is a great thread Paul, glad to see you're getting the 'original' BT project back on track. It must have tried your patience watching and helping everyone else in Gloucestershire with their S3 projects!!
Click to expand...

innit!... nah, I don't mind.... be more cheesed off if the car wasn't drivable but she has been throughout and still pretty quick even if she isn't at full potential as yet.... gives me something to do :)

day said:
Great thread tuffty it took me three days on n off.... and great work by you and bill...

day
Click to expand...

Thanks, hopefully its informative to anyone who reads it...

s3gazz said:
Good work pal glad ya got rid of noise my top mounts are like yours was where can I get the lcr ones from pal
Click to expand...

Any SEAT dealer with a parts dept should be able to get you the top mounts or directly from Bill...

<tuffty/>
 
audi upgrades
Have you had any luck with the new cooler as having boost temps over 60 degrees currently with my MTM conversion and suspect it is down the ah fabs being to restrictive, same problem as you were having? as i haven't even enlarged the pipework like your previous one
Any info or help will be much appriciated also loving the thread been following it since i joined and helped my steep learning curve
 
audi upgrades
StaceyS3 said:
Have you had any luck with the new cooler as having boost temps over 60 degrees currently with my MTM conversion and suspect it is down the ah fabs being to restrictive, same problem as you were having? as i haven't even enlarged the pipework like your previous one
Any info or help will be much appriciated also loving the thread been following it since i joined and helped my steep learning curve
Click to expand...

All seems good so far but not had a chance to really do much more at the moment... the car should be back on the dyno tomorrow while we try some previous maps and see where we go from there...

On the road the IAT's are much better controlled, the pressure drop issue (while not tested as yet) appears to be gone as the car drives much better now...

I would say that the new FMIC is working well but IAT's do rise higher when on the dyno than on the road... if you are seeing over 60degs on the road then yeah you may have a problem, if you are seeing this on a dyno then I would say that its plausible even on good coolers as I know I have hit this a couple of times...

I would advise a dyno session with plenty of logging to ascertain why your IAT's are high as it could be boost related (too much boost for example) or its could be the FMIC hitting its max...

My IAT's with the previous AH Fabs FMIC did get to 45 deg on the road and a tad higher on the dyno but without knowing the circumstances behind yours I couldn't comment properly...

<tuffty/>
 
Spent an hour or so on the dyno this afternoon.... I put the boost control back in the hands of the N75 and Bill loaded up the T1 file (the first file used from the original mapping).... couple of loaded sweeps indicated the boost request was still a little high hitting 28psi so a quick adjustment and hit 23/24psi so used that as a start...

First run netted 325bhp with no timing pull and fuelling at 12.5 AFR, added a little timing and then got a shade under 350 bhp @ 7300rpm again with no timing pull but then things were starting to go wrong... again!!!...

There was a rather large cloud of 'smoke' coming from under the car... only seemed to kick in at high rpm's which was odd... I currently have the PCV exiting down behind the back of the gear box until I get around to fabricating a catch tank so the first though was that the engine was breathing heavy and my heart sank... pulled the PCV connection off the top by the rocker cover outlet to see what was coming out while Bill loaded up the engine... hummm... nothing unusual, the normal amount of smoke you'd expect and no oil but not the huge clouds we saw on the dyno runs... it was only when Bill did a full run that the cloud appeared again... it was coolant leaking out from a water pipe somewhere by the turbo!!! DOH!!!

******.... no point in doing much more until I find the leak... only happens under full load and high RPM so will be fine to drive normally for now but from the logs etc it appears that this first map file is a better start point than the run I have been running up until now...

On the road liquid is showing 291g/s and she certainly pulls well but feels flatter/laggier on initial spool so indicates the timing needs attention... no fuel dumping either so far but until I get the coolant leak sorted further tweaks will have to wait...

Onwards and upwards...

<tuffty/>
 
audi upgrades
s3dave said:
Great, I thought it was all going tits up reading down your post...
Click to expand...

lol... feels that way... but its moving in the right direction at last... coolant pipes have been a pain tbh, just one of those things as the things been off a few times... not a show stopper by any means and going back to the first map again seems to have been a good move so just need to find the time to get the car on the ramp to find the leak...

<tuffty/>
 
Good and bad news there ini. At least you know where you are now with the original map on.

Do you think you will have it all sorted for GTI, I want to see hear this tear up the strip.
 
S3 Nattie said:
Good and bad news there ini. At least you know where you are now with the original map on.

Do you think you will have it all sorted for GTI, I want to see hear this tear up the strip.
Click to expand...

I ****** hope so.... once Danes car is off the ramp I'll try and sneak mine on to have a look for the leak... hoping its just a loose clip or union so easy fix then once Bill has worked through some of the backlog of jobs he has I should be able to get her back on the dyno for more tweaks..

<tuffty/>
 
Sorry to hear that it didn't quite work out but at least your heading in the right direction, sure it will be a beast when finished!
The wastegate on mine is set to hit 1.75 bar peak and tails off to 1.5-1.6 near redline as kim collins said they set them kits to 1.75 bar hes loaded the base map but said theres no point playing with timing and not interested in getting it on the rollers until i can get my IATs down
Its hitting them temps on the road and even managed to hit mid 50's at 6 this morning but generally only getting that hot generally when WOT on boost in 4th, 5th and 6th think my next step is to make a bung up on one of the pipes before the cooler and measure the drop, think that will make things a little clearer on which direction i should head next to try and improve it? cheers
 
StaceyS3 said:
Sorry to hear that it didn't quite work out but at least your heading in the right direction, sure it will be a beast when finished!
The wastegate on mine is set to hit 1.75 bar peak and tails off to 1.5-1.6 near redline as kim collins said they set them kits to 1.75 bar hes loaded the base map but said theres no point playing with timing and not interested in getting it on the rollers until i can get my IATs down
Its hitting them temps on the road and even managed to hit mid 50's at 6 this morning but generally only getting that hot generally when WOT on boost in 4th, 5th and 6th think my next step is to make a bung up on one of the pipes before the cooler and measure the drop, think that will make things a little clearer on which direction i should head next to try and improve it? cheers
Click to expand...

1.75bar is quite high... do you know what the turbo is?... maybe worth dropping the boost a bit and trying to get the power back with timing... lots of boost will generate more heat and not always produce more power...

Worth getting the car on a dyno and see whats what... I used to run 1.6bar for a while before changing the FMIC and the IAT's dropped when I turned the boost down... I suspect that at 1.75bar the AH Fabs FMIC will struggle regardless...

Easiest way to try this would be to fit an MBC in parallel to allow you to turn down the boost... start at 1.2bar and go from there..

You can check for pressure drop by teeing off the N75 outlet from the charge pipe (assuming you still have the OEM one)....

<tuffty/>
 
audi upgrades
jojo said:
Paul, as a matter of interest, did using the LCR top mounts effect your front end ride height, since they are bigger?
Click to expand...

vanilla_ice said:
I'd also like to know.
Click to expand...


Good question.. the top mounts look as though they have been on their way out for a while as the front has been looking oddly low... changing to the LCR mounts has evened out the ride height imo..

Before...
20100301_IMG_4011.jpg


After...
20110521_IMAG0004.jpg


<tuffty/>
 
Really liking how your car sits Mate! Hope you can get through your engine problems and hit the number you deserve!
 
GT30AudiS3 said:
Good question.. the top mounts look as though they have been on their way out for a while as the front has been looking oddly low... changing to the LCR mounts has evened out the ride height imo..

Before...
20100301_IMG_4011.jpg


After...
20110521_IMAG0004.jpg


<tuffty/>
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul, I actually prefer the stance of the first pic, still considering APEX springs, I've been driving S3 number running the standard 17s for a month now, and it bounces all over the place!

Going to stick with OEM S3 strut tops with my spring change then. I like the idea of beefed up strut tops, but looking at your pics, it has to effect the ride height somehow, and I like my S3 to have a slightly lower front end for better handling.

Cheers.
 
MUSH said:
Really liking how your car sits Mate! Hope you can get through your engine problems and hit the number you deserve!
Click to expand...

Ta mate... I am confident that the mapping is headin in the right direction now... the car feels nicer to drive already and obviously lacking the extra timing advance I had before... the last map file was so messed about with trying to chase issues with EGT's etc that it was just never gonna do the job... got the turbo and manifold back on Danes car today so should have access to a ramp soon to see where the coolant is coming from and then back to the dyno for more powers :D

jojo said:
Thanks Paul, I actually prefer the stance of the first pic, still considering APEX springs, I've been driving S3 number running the standard 17s for a month now, and it bounces all over the place!

Going to stick with OEM S3 strut tops with my spring change then. I like the idea of beefed up strut tops, but looking at your pics, it has to effect the ride height somehow, and I like my S3 to have a slightly lower front end for better handling.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I think the stance was more from the worn top mounts than anything else... the LCR ones should settle to more or less the same height but are obviously stiffer which I can say makes the car feel more precise but then anything would have been better than the worn ones lol...

Not sure the pics do it justice but I'll be at the Inters so you will see for yourself :)

<tuffty/>
 
Any news on the FMIC tuffty? Also i think the car seems to sit the same with the LCR top mounts.
 
AHFabs said:
I hope all goes well soon, you have put a lot of hard work into the car
Click to expand...

Thanks Alex... thanks for your help with the FMIC... which brings me on to....

Dani_B19 said:
Any news on the FMIC tuffty?....
Click to expand...

TBH mate I haven't had time to even think about it...best bet is to have a chat with the man above as he will be able to tell you how much etc...

As for its performance, IAT's are much better sitting closer to ambient on cruise than before and looking good under boost too.. I haven't logged them properly yet but I have now replaced the dodgy coolant pipe so may take the car out tomorrow night and do some logging as I need to check where the timing is at the moment in prep for more dyno time as she feels flat as...

Dani_B19 said:
...Also i think the car seems to sit the same with the LCR top mounts.
Click to expand...
The pics don't really do it justice.... the cars stance is still nose down like before but looks much less like the front suspension has collapsed... :)

<tuffty/>
 
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