It's been a long while since I've updated the thread. There's been some movement on the engine replacement front. Thanks to help from
@IanPG, the old engine and gearbox are now out. I've also made a few other changes. There's probably a lot I've forgotten but here goes...
Brute IX rods, Trend pins and King bearings
When I received the built block, I was told it had the illusive standard JE wrist pins which are said to be notoriously weak. This posed a question of whether to change them while the engine was out of the car. In the end I bit the bullet and did it. I bought a set of Trend H13 tool steel wrist pins while I was in the US and brought them back. Trend make wrist pins for some of the fastest drag and race cars and are one of the best in the business. As I was going to have to remove the rods and pistons, I thought this would be a good opportunity to swap the rods for something a little more future-proof. In this case, a set of Brute IX I beam rods from Arnold at PagParts with some King bearings. I'd originally ordered a set of the Wiseco Boostline rods but Wiseco actually recalled them due to issues with the threads in the rod bolts. It took them a year to revise the design and I gave up waiting. They've now released the updated rods but it's too late and the Brute's should be fine anyway. Here's a pic of them mid swap (my hands were too greasy to take more!). The pistons and pins were all weight matched within 0.15g. I could have got them to 0.1g but didn't fancy removing material from the pistons and didn't have a lot of time.
While I was there I fitted a Cometic MLS gasket too. The Elring gasket I was using would have probably been fine but I got the Cometic at a great price so it was rude not too. I went with a .040 or 1mm thickness which should raise CR a bit. I have 8.5:1 pistons which aren't ideal.
ECUMasters EMU Black
I'd always wanted to find a standalone solution that could work with the DQ500 but the standalone DSG controllers were either wildly overpriced or not for sale at all. I gave up and settled on living with the limitations of the ME7.5 ECU instead. Then a friend shot me through a link to a video on Facebook of a DSG retrofitted car running an ECUMasters ECU that was communicating directly with the DQ250. This was promising. I contacted the video author who incidentally has an R30T S3 himself and he was also planning a DQ500 conversion. He told me ECUMasters were adding support for the DQ500 ECU so I put an order in for one with the adapter loom and a couple of pressure sensors (fuel and oil, a 4 bar map sensor is built-in). I'm expecting it to arrive any day now!
Haltech/Racepak IQ3s Street Dash
Having had a Stack dash for a previous build when I lived in the UK, I'd always fancied another "race" dash. I did some research and there were a few options; Racepak, AEM, ECUMasters ADU, Race Technology, AiM. In the end I settled on the Haltech branded Racepak IQ3s mainly because it's available for very reasonable money locally, and it will communicate with the ECUMasters ECU without any additional expensive modules or cables that the other dashes seemed to require.
The first challenge after receiving the dash was working out how I was going to mount it into the standard gauge cluster.
@IanPG gave me an old S3 cluster (thanks!) that I could hack up so I started by gutting the insides and eventually the outer clear plastic. The plan was to mount a piece of matte black acrylic over the top of the old dial housing and mount the Racepak to that.
I then took a photo of the cluster and converted it to vector format so that I could fiddle with it and print out templates...
The first template was made and then laid up to the cluster. Looked good...
So I cut it using a dremel and gingerly (acrylic is an **** to drill) drilled the three holes to mount the dash.
Then I glued the panel to the housing, removed the masking and ******, it's gloss. It turns out the listing didn't point that out until after I'd told them of the issue and they went and edited it. Cheeky ******.
I could have easily called it a day there and just said to myself it'll look fine with the piano black accents in the car but I knew it'd bug me. I also wasn't 100% set on having the dash poking out so much and there were a few issues with the original template. I looked around and found a nice billet flush mount bezel for the Racepak that would *just* fit into the housing. I got an order in for a new piece of acrylic and the nice flush mount bezel. To cut a long story short, after some tweaks to the template and some more cutting and drilling, the end result is much nicer...
Bosch Motorsports 74mm Throttle Body and Wiggins adapter
I originally had planned to run a Hemi 80mm TB but after speaking with a few folks, it seemed to be a bit oversized and can often end up in less than ideal throttle response. I decided to get the Bosch 74mm TB. It's rebuild-able too which the Hemi and R32 ones aren't should the need arise. I sold the Hemi and bought one of these locally. Since taking this picture, I've swapped the homemade paper gasket to the RS3 MLS gasket since it's the same PCD and bore.
Billet Bling
I'm ditching the AC and PS pumps (I'm going for an electric PS pump I got from
@StaceyS3 ) and wanted a nicer bracket to mount the alternator. I got in contact with INA/Issam as they make a compact alternator kit using a small Denso alternator. Issam told me they also sell a kit to retain the standard alternator which I thought would actually be more useful as I'm going to be hanging a fair bit of power hungry parts (eletric PAS pump, 2 Walbro 450 pumps, the DSG etc) off it. Issam is like a pusher for billet parts. I ended up ordering the alternator mount, a billet oil filter housing, a billet lower timing belt cover and a stainless coolant pipe that runs across the front of the block. They all look great and fit well. I might have to run the original smaller 06a oil filter but that's not the end of the world. Since I needed a dipstick and tube, I also ordered one from WhanAB too. In raw aluminium of course.
INA Sump
I have the Forge sump currently which is more than adequate for my needs I think but as a local guy offered me an INA/Issam baffled sump for very reasonable money, it was rude not too. It's brand new and unused. For anyone who's not seen his sump, it's custom made from sheet aluminium and a laser cut flange for the sump. It has full baffling and "hugs" the oil pickup to prevent surge. It also adds 0.7L oil volume to the sump as an added bonus. I've not received it yet but here's a stock photo of it...
CSF Radiator
I had the CSF radiator on the back burner for a couple of years but hadn't seen many reviews of it in use. Then I noticed
@Prawn bought one and seemed impressed so I finally pulled the trigger. Getting them in Australia isn't cheap but it seemed worthwhile if the quality is there (which it seems to be). This has arrived but it's still boxed up.
What's left?
- Fit the sump when it arrives
- Build the driveshafts from a mix of DQ500 and MQ500 inner joints with S3 outer joints
- Remove clutch pedal and MC
- Remove AC pipework
- Remove PS pipework
- Clean the engine bay
- Fit extra heat shielding
- Finally fit the ****** engine
It's been a long time coming but I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here's how the engine sits currently (in our spare bedroom!) ...