Imola Yellow Audi S3 - APR - TTE420 - Audi Tuner Featured April '16

[Dan-Jnr]

Cheers mate, all in the instructions? Sounds a daunting task realigning cables .

It's just a case off unlocking the spring at the right distance on the cable, you can easily adjust, make sure each gear goes in smoothly.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[scotty dugg]

Still not sure which kit i need , my car is a 2009 model, is it the mk5 kit i need ?

Yeah, I think this is the kit I think:

https://www.awesomegti.com/shop-by-...igns-shifter-bushing-kit-mk5-6-speed-my08-09/

Maybe someone can confirm, think the other is for a 5 speed then the mk4 platform.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Still not sure which kit i need , my car is a 2009 model, is it the mk5 kit i need ?

Your best giving Awesome ring they will know.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Mine was the MY06 but they did crossover some years so best checking before buying.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Last weekend went over to Spa and Nurburgring. My friend used his GoPro in my car. Will post pictures later.

 

[HHS3]

Last weekend went over to Spa and Nurburgring. My friend used his GoPro in my car.

Looks awesome mate great driving. I would love to be able to go to Spa and Nurburgring one day, they're my two favourite tracks!

 

[paul_zx6r]

Where did you buy the wheel spacers from mate?

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Where did you buy the wheel spacers from mate?

Awesome GTI, they are a brand new product so not everywhere has them available.

 

[paul_zx6r]

Awesome GTI, they are a brand new product so not everywhere has them available.

Cheers mate, I've seen them advertised in Audi tuner mag. But could never find them online. Do you mind me asking how much you paid for them, and do the clear the calipers ok? I'm going to be doing the same brake setup with Audi rotors soon, just purchased the vag-brem brackets and on the look out for calipers now.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Not had a lot time to update this blog due to work, and house project commitments.

Anyway in summer I was suffering from some serious knocking and noises up front.
After some digging around and inspection my wishbone rear bushes were shot, sub frame bush disintegrated, as well as engine and gearbox mounts being soft as ****.
I wasn't expecting the mounts to last forever especially with the power I am running so a trip to Awesome for some upgrades.

PowerFlex anti lift kit
034 Motorsport engine, gearbox, and sub frame mounts (35% stiffer)
KW V3 coilovers

As you can see I decided to upgrade my suspension as the H&R springs with ARB's are good for fast road, they are just not good enough for track driving, my last visit back in May to Croft highlighted this big time.
Once all that was fitted, even on the KW default settings the car just felt so planted on the roads, and the engine and gearbox had more precision and stability. Cant wait to test the stiffer settings on track.
I got to test all this out during a 5 day road trip round Scotland. My god there are some awesome roads up there. Even managed a 7 car Top Gear pass, have it on video too, although not posting it on here.

After a good 5 day blast round the high lands I came back with a pretty bad exhaust leak so straight to Awesome.
They diagnosed a couple of issues, small crack on down pipe flange, and exhaust manifold coming loose from the engine.
This was causing cylinder one to blow past the gasket and leak pretty bad.
A new manifold gasket, new studs and bolts and everything torqued correctly, as well as the small crack on the manifold welded.
After September the car went in my garage as I've got use of the work van so didn't need to drive it much.

I took the car out for a blast not so long ago and noticed a miss fire.
After a quick compression test cylinder 1 is down.
I've done a walnut blast on the intake valves hoping it was a sticky valve but still got the same problem.

Next on my list is a leak down test to narrow down whether its a valve or piston ring. Really hoping its just a dirty valve.
I also need to find a good solution to prevent oil build up in the valves, some trick catch can setup if I can find one.

I noticed there are front and rear pipes that recirculates oil vapour back in to the air tract, anyone know if these can be all routed to a catch can?

 

[S3dave1990]

Im going to go for forge blanking plate then reroute the rear breather to a catch and vent to atmosphere, ill need to blank off where the breather goes into the turbo but im assuming that will work

 

[S3Alex]

......
I've done a walnut blast on the intake valves hoping it was a sticky valve but still got the same problem.

Next on my list is a leak down test to narrow down whether its a valve or piston ring. Really hoping its just a dirty valve.
I also need to find a good solution to prevent oil build up in the valves, some trick catch can setup if I can find one.

I noticed there are front and rear pipes that recirculates oil vapour back in to the air tract, anyone know if these can be all routed to a catch can?

In theory,there's no reason why you couldn't do that.

You've probably seen my solution to this problem.....it does work,and re-routes all of the breathers,and as we've found now that the engine has been stripped down again,even after more than a year,the ports are still clean.

This lot isn't cheap,but it works well...IE can supply all the parts you would need.

 

[MICHAEL PARKER]

In theory,there's no reason why you couldn't do that.

You've probably seen my solution to this problem.....it does work,and re-routes all of the breathers,and as we've found now that the engine has been stripped down again,even after more than a year,the ports are still clean.

This lot isn't cheap,but it works well...IE can supply all the parts you would need.

I still don't get where the pipes are coming from and going , i can see one coming from the rocker to the catch can but what about the other pipe from the catch can ?

 

[S3Alex]

I still don't get where the pipes are coming from and going , i can see one coming from the rocker to the catch can but what about the other pipe from the catch can ?

The cam breather you can see easily,but the other one isn't easy and thats the crank breather.

 

[MICHAEL PARKER]

cheers Alex

 

[HHS3]

KW V3 coilovers

As you can see I decided to upgrade my suspension as the H&R springs with ARB's are good for fast road, they are just not good enough for track driving, my last visit back in May to Croft highlighted this big time.

I was looking into getting some KW ST X Coilovers in the future but that wouldn't be for a couple years as money is now very tight, H&R ARB's are also on my list of things to get (among a lot of others things!).

Apart from wanting MY11 rear lights and gloss black B-Pillars, then the only thing that is left on the exterior is to drop it by 25mm. This is achievable with the H&R springs which are a third of the cost of coilovers, I won't be doing track days however I do enjoy a spirited drive. So for the time being until I can afford coilovers, you're saying that H&R springs with ARB's are more than adequate for fast road use at stage 2+ (TTE420 in your case)? I'm only stage 2 but am planning ahead.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

I was looking into getting some KW ST X Coilovers in the future but that wouldn't be for a couple years as money is now very tight, H&R ARB's are also on my list of things to get (among a lot of others things!).

Apart from wanting MY11 rear lights and gloss black B-Pillars, then the only thing that is left on the exterior is to drop it by 25mm. This is achievable with the H&R springs which are a third of the cost of coilovers, I won't be doing track days however I do enjoy a spirited drive. So for the time being until I can afford coilovers, you're saying that H&R springs with ARB's are more than adequate for fast road use at stage 2+ (TTE420 in your case)? I'm only stage 2 but am planning ahead.

They are ideal for spirited driving, I couldn't fault them on the roads.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[HHS3]

They are ideal for spirited driving, I couldn't fault them on the roads.

Perfect, that's great to know cheers.

 

[HHS3]

you're saying that H&R springs with ARB's are more than adequate for fast road use at stage 2+?

They are ideal for spirited driving, I couldn't fault them on the roads.

I've just seen a comment on another thread whereby a new S3 owner described their ride as a back breaker, after having a look it appears to be due to the previous owner putting H&R lowering springs on but with the stock dampers. Did you change the dampers or upgrade anything else (ignoring the ARB's)? If not, what was the ride like for you? It's down to people's preference/opinion so someone's back breaker is acceptable to another but I'm just trying to get a rough idea, I know some comfort is going to be lost but I would still like to have teeth as it is a daily for the most part.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

I've just seen a comment on another thread whereby a new S3 owner described their ride as a back breaker, after having a look it appears to be due to the previous owner putting H&R lowering springs on but with the stock dampers. Did you change the dampers or upgrade anything else (ignoring the ARB's)? If not, what was the ride like for you? It's down to people's preference/opinion so someone's back breaker is acceptable to another but I'm just trying to get a rough idea, I know some comfort is going to be lost but I would still like to have teeth as it is a daily for the most part.

Stock dampers. Back breaker, is he for real, even my KW set to stiff doesn't break your break back. Like you said it's personal preference, but I found it ideal for fast road.

 

[HHS3]

Stock dampers. Back breaker, is he for real, even my KW set to stiff doesn't break your break back. Like you said it's personal preference, but I found it ideal for fast road.

Nice one thanks for confirming, just thought I'd double check.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Found the answer to my idle miss fire problem. Broken piston landing on cylinder 1. I am super lucky there is no bore or valve damage.

Car is in for PEC forged rods, Wossner pistons, Supertech valve springs, and some other upgraded bits to go with it all.

Watch this space.

 

[S3Alex]

Hi Dan.

Sometimes luck is on our side.
Like you,I can hardly believe how lucky I am that my engine wasn't chewed up like that cam journal on the head was.

Good luck with the build.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Continuation from my fault finding post above.

Spent a fair bit of time trying to diagnose the issue as the miss fire only happened when idling.
First ran VCDS to monitor the miss fire count and that pointed to cylinder 1.
Did the basics of swapping coils, spark plugs and injectors with another cylinder, but the miss fire stayed on cylinder 1.
Performed a compression test on all cylinders and obtained the following results.
Cylinder 1 - 50psi
Cylinder 2 - 150 psi
Cylinder 3 - 150 psi
Cylinder 4 - 150 psi

From that cylinder 1 had some sealing issues. First thought it would be carbon build up on the intake valves so did a walnut blast carbon clean and also ultrasonically cleaned the injectors.
This took the best part of day and didn't cure the problem.
I did a leak down test next and this shown that leak was pointing to the piston rings.

I dropped the car off at Awesome as taking the engine apart is above my mechanic skill level.
Awesome came back to me with the results of their diagnostics.
This picture shows piston 1 landing broken but the piece contained within the rings, this stopped any damage to the chamber and valves, extremely lucky.

I was going to get it rebuilt cheap as possible with OEM parts but after having a think I decided to take a different route.
The amount of tracks and fast road trips I do it would be pointless to rebuild it with stock parts.
I asked Awesome to make my engine bullet proof, so the following was installed:

Wossner Forged Pistons
PEC Steel H Beam Rods
APR 2000 Series Bolt Kit
Supertech Dual Spring Valvesprings
Uprated Big End Bearing Set
Uprated Breather Kit
Timing Belt Kit and Water Pump
Cam Follower
NGK BKR8EIX Spark Plugs
Nanodrive Motorsport 5w40 Oil
Head gaskets and other gaskets, aswell as coolant, other stuff.

Head was sent to the machine shop to be cleaned, skimmed, fit valve stems, Supertech valve springs, grind cam followers to suit uprated springs and rebuilt ready for installation.
Engine was bedded in with two lots of mineral oil. I've only just got the car back and need to do another 500 miles normal driving before I can give it some abuse again.

Now the engine is bullet proof it has now pointed me down the next path of upgrades, TTE480 and RS3 injectors! When will it stop?

 

[mechanic69]

Been busy this weekend getting my car ready for Croft next Friday.

Fitted a pair of TTRS brakes with Vagbremtechnic mount kit for 345 discs. Whacked in a set of new Tarox Corsa pads. They need bedding in over the next week so they can be ready for some abuse.

My wheels wouldn't fit over the calipers (genuine 18" Rotors, and 18" pre face lift alloys) so research long and hard in to spacer kits. Eventually found a new solution from ST called their DZX series, 12.5mm with a moulded insert to keep them hub centric. Very good product and perfect fitment leaving 2.5mm gap between the calipers and the wheel spokes.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

Been busy this weekend getting my car ready for Croft next Friday.

Fitted a pair of TTRS brakes with Vagbremtechnic mount kit for 345 discs. Whacked in a set of new Tarox Corsa pads. They need bedding in over the next week so they can be ready for some abuse.

My wheels wouldn't fit over the calipers (genuine 18" Rotors, and 18" pre face lift alloys) so research long and hard in to spacer kits. Eventually found a new solution from ST called their DZX series, 12.5mm with a moulded insert to keep them hub centric. Very good product and perfect fitment leaving 2.5mm gap between the calipers and the wheel spokes.

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

Hi Dan

got the rs3 brakes and VBT adapters coming, but I've got 340 j hook discs, anyway what are your recommendations for pads and where to get them? I guess 'I'm buying for RS3 8P stuff now?

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Hi Dan

got the rs3 brakes and VBT adapters coming, but I've got 340 j hook discs, anyway what are your recommendations for pads and where to get them? I guess 'I'm buying for RS3 8P stuff now?

Speak with Awesome GTI or check website https://www.awesomegti.com/shop-by-...rt=Brake Pads&category=166&is_category_page=1
Tarox Corsa good for track days) or
Tarox Strada for fast road
Project MU

 

[Kaine19]

Wow lovely car. I dont think you can ever stop when tuning. Am in manchester also so will try keep an eye out for your car. I will be using rick when i get my stage2+ parts... possibly gunna order this week. See whats what yet

 

[8989james p]

Great car there dan. And brilliant build!! Were did you get your walnut blaster?

When it comes to selling your tte420 i would be interested!!!

 

[Dan-Jnr]

I'll be upgrading the TTE420 to the TTE480 so it wont be for sale.

Anyway, yearly full day car detail done and dusted (snow foam, wash, clay, polish, wax) as well as a Unicorn Motorsport dyno the day getting 414bhp, 458ftlb, 620nm (dyno attached). Managed 411bhp (SAE) 423bp (DIN) last year so still running as it should.

More to come though, RS3 injectors, and Unicorn Motorsport map, and TTE480 on the horizon.

 

[Kaine19]

I'll be upgrading the TTE420 to the TTE480 so it wont be for sale.

Anyway, yearly full day car detail done and dusted (snow foam, wash, clay, polish, wax) as well as a Unicorn Motorsport dyno the day getting 414bhp, 458ftlb, 620nm (dyno attached). Managed 411bhp (SAE) 423bp (DIN) last year so still running as it should.

More to come though, RS3 injectors, and Unicorn Motorsport map, and TTE480 on the horizon.

View attachment 125685 View attachment 125686 View attachment 125687

When i commented on this on mnw post i thought id seen this before haha

 

[S3dave1990]

Continuation from my fault finding post above.

Spent a fair bit of time trying to diagnose the issue as the miss fire only happened when idling.
First ran VCDS to monitor the miss fire count and that pointed to cylinder 1.
Did the basics of swapping coils, spark plugs and injectors with another cylinder, but the miss fire stayed on cylinder 1.
Performed a compression test on all cylinders and obtained the following results.
Cylinder 1 - 50psi
Cylinder 2 - 150 psi
Cylinder 3 - 150 psi
Cylinder 4 - 150 psi

From that cylinder 1 had some sealing issues. First thought it would be carbon build up on the intake valves so did a walnut blast carbon clean and also ultrasonically cleaned the injectors.
This took the best part of day and didn't cure the problem.
I did a leak down test next and this shown that leak was pointing to the piston rings.

I dropped the car off at Awesome as taking the engine apart is above my mechanic skill level.
Awesome came back to me with the results of their diagnostics.
This picture shows piston 1 landing broken but the piece contained within the rings, this stopped any damage to the chamber and valves, extremely lucky.

I was going to get it rebuilt cheap as possible with OEM parts but after having a think I decided to take a different route.
The amount of tracks and fast road trips I do it would be pointless to rebuild it with stock parts.
I asked Awesome to make my engine bullet proof, so the following was installed:

Wossner Forged Pistons
PEC Steel H Beam Rods
APR 2000 Series Bolt Kit
Supertech Dual Spring Valvesprings
Uprated Big End Bearing Set
Uprated Breather Kit
Timing Belt Kit and Water Pump
Cam Follower
NGK BKR8EIX Spark Plugs
Nanodrive Motorsport 5w40 Oil
Head gaskets and other gaskets, aswell as coolant, other stuff.

Head was sent to the machine shop to be cleaned, skimmed, fit valve stems, Supertech valve springs, grind cam followers to suit uprated springs and rebuilt ready for installation.
Engine was bedded in with two lots of mineral oil. I've only just got the car back and need to do another 500 miles normal driving before I can give it some abuse again.

Now the engine is bullet proof it has now pointed me down the next path of upgrades, TTE480 and RS3 injectors! When will it stop?

Hi mate keep up the good work, how much did all the work set you back just after a rough price to do mine

Cheers
Dave w

 

[Dan-Jnr]

My car will be going up for sale in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled on here, Facebook groups, and other social media for the advert.

 

[ch1z64]

My car will be going up for sale in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled on here, Facebook groups, and other social media for the advert.

Dan , did your car when bought come with a private reg plate ( last 3 MCC ) just that i sold my Imola yellow S3 2011 plate and been trying to track it down . Sold to webuyanycar in Aberdeen but.not sure where it would end up .
Have to say the yellow is the 2nd best colour Audi have done the S3 in and 1st place is the very rare Green not many off them around .

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Dan , did your car when bought come with a private reg plate ( last 3 MCC ) just that i sold my Imola yellow S3 2011 plate and been trying to track it down . Sold to webuyanycar in Aberdeen but.not sure where it would end up .
Have to say the yellow is the 2nd best colour Audi have done the S3 in and 1st place is the very rare Green not many off them around .

The reg on the car is the same as the one in the service book so hasn't changed, mine is MY07, so definitely not the same car.

 

[ch1z64]

The reg on the car is the same as the one in the service book so hasn't changed, mine is MY07, so definitely not the same car.

Cheers Dan for letting me know

 

[HHS3]

My car will be going up for sale in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled on here, Facebook groups, and other social media for the advert.

How come you're getting rid of your beast mate, getting something else instead?

 

[Dan-Jnr]

How come you're getting rid of your beast mate, getting something else instead?

TTRS is itching my leg and it needs scratching.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[HHS3]

Haha fair enough! Any plans for it in the future or going to keep it stock?

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Haha fair enough! Any plans for it in the future or going to keep it stock?

Probably just take it to Stage 2.
400bhp+ is plenty for a fast road car these days.

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Even though the plan is to sell soon I can't help but tinker and improve.

I relocated the battery to the boot using parts from an A3 3.2.
Apart from the battery post in the engine bay I used a heavy duty terminal joint everything is OEM.

All holes, mounts and fixings were already in place and took about 2 hours to fit it all.

Battery is vented using the OEM internal pipe out bottom of box, and the box is sealed using a new gasket from TPS.

I may get the OEM battery post for the engine bay but that's not a priority right now. It looks tidy enough as it is.

Next issue to resolve is the ZF short to ground antenna issue for RNSE. This will increase radio signal for those who didn't have RNSE fitted at factory.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk