Leshkin's Sepang Blue S3 Money Pit Project

[S3Alex]

That's a great set of results,and you'll really notice the way the torque doesn't roll off at higher rpms.

Now....get that car out of there and let them get on with mine!

 

[leshkin]

Haha, I was keen to get out there and give it some beans, so wasn't sticking around

The extra shove at motorway speeds is definitely there - getting into license-losing territory just got so much easier and faster!

Other than the DSG map, my next performance mod is probably going to be a Bilstein B14 kit - ST X feel a bit too soft now

 

[BurgoS3]

Well pleased with the results for you, enjoy it, youve earned it

Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

 

[S3Alex]

Haha, I was keen to get out there and give it some beans, so wasn't sticking around

The extra shove at motorway speeds is definitely there - getting into license-losing territory just got so much easier and faster!

Other than the DSG map, my next performance mod is probably going to be a Bilstein B14 kit - ST X feel a bit too soft now

Makes such a huge difference.....the way the stock turbo starts to roll off after about 5000rpm is very obvious when you run a bigger turbo against it,and I think the TTE has most of the advantages,and few of the disadvantages.

It retains the quick spool of the stock turbo,but breathes better at the top end,and avoids much of the issues of a really big turbo in terms of when it gets spinning.

 

[paul_zx6r]

Great results bud, not all about pub talking numbers, it's how the car drives, have you noticed any lag now your able to give it the beans?

 

[Simply D]

@leshkin did we cross paths at AITP, I was the "comedian" floating the idea of getting the Golf GTi inspired Powervalve twin exhausts.

I remember something about an engine going pop, but I didn't realise it was THIS topic...(which I also REFUSE to read in full like @S3Alex)

 

[leshkin]

Great results bud, not all about pub talking numbers, it's how the car drives, have you noticed any lag now your able to give it the beans?

Definitely agree - numbers mean jack (although 400+bhp does roll of the tongue well ) The car definitely feels a bit more eager. It's also quite scary how quickly the big numbers on the speedo roll up. I haven't noticed much in terms of extra lag - I think there is like 100-200rpm between stock and the TTE units form what I've read. Mid range feels stronger and the new turbo/intake does not sound like someone's trying to suck a load of air through a straw. The biggest gains are felt at the top - it pulls harder for much, much longer.
All that aside and I've said this to a few people previously, if it wasn't for the whole engine fiasco I would probably not have gone down this path. The stg2+ power/torque level is arguably the best bang for buck you can get on these cars and I would have been perfectly happy with what I had before. What these upgrades did to the car though, is on another level. Reminds me of my old GSXR600 in some ways - acceleration is that bit more effortless now and that scares me a little

@leshkin did we cross paths at AITP, I was the "comedian" floating the idea of getting the Golf GTi inspired Powervalve twin exhausts.

I remember something about an engine going pop, but I didn't realise it was THIS topic...(which I also REFUSE to read in full like @S3Alex)

Yup, it was me Probably a good idea to not read this or Alex's thread in its entirety - it can get very expensive, very quickly... loads of fun though

 

[leshkin]

Oh, did I mention that she's now on the expensive stuff?

 

[S3Alex]

Definitely agree - numbers mean jack (although 400+bhp does roll of the tongue well ) The car definitely feels a bit more eager. It's also quite scary how quickly the big numbers on the speedo roll up. I haven't noticed much in terms of extra lag - I think there is like 100-200rpm between stock and the TTE units form what I've read. Mid range feels stronger and the new turbo/intake does not sound like someone's trying to suck a load of air through a straw. The biggest gains are felt at the top - it pulls harder for much, much longer.
All that aside and I've said this to a few people previously, if it wasn't for the whole engine fiasco I would probably not have gone down this path. The stg2+ power/torque level is arguably the best bang for buck you can get on these cars and I would have been perfectly happy with what I had before. What these upgrades did to the car though, is on another level. Reminds me of my old GSXR600 in some ways - acceleration is that bit more effortless now and that scares me a little



Yup, it was me Probably a good idea to not read this or Alex's thread in its entirety - it can get very expensive, very quickly... loads of fun though

I've got to agree.....Stg2+ is definitely the best value,but it does kind of lead you down this path,when you find you want that bit more....
The gains with a hybrid or big turbo are substantial,and as we both say,the top end is so much better.
Your analogy of sucking air through a straw is spot on....the car feels strangled.

The difference I noticed at each step with the turbos was how much better everything started to feel.....the 3071 was much better than the K04,and the gap between the 3582 and the 3076 was huge...it just doesn't run out of puff,and the result is the car feels much less stressed,and I'm sure you're finding that seem feel to the car now.

 

[paul_zx6r]

I think because I've gone from stock straight to stage 2+, I've got used to it and am now wanting more lol. I just don't like the way the standard ko4 runs out of puff, its great for no lag and nigh on instant power, but I want more.......

I'm looking in to an uprated cooler plus throttle and discharge pipe, just thinking I may as well put a hybrid and de-cat on at the same time and hopefully be done with the power mods.

 

[leshkin]

I think because I've gone from stock straight to stage 2+, I've got used to it and am now wanting more lol. I just don't like the way the standard ko4 runs out of puff, its great for no lag and nigh on instant power, but I want more.......

I'm looking in to an uprated cooler plus throttle and discharge pipe, just thinking I may as well put a hybrid and de-cat on at the same time and hopefully be done with the power mods.

Sounds like TTE420 will be right up your street then. It pulls pretty well right up to the end. I've logged mine and it's still delivering 2.4bar at 6500rpm when my stock unit struggled to do 2.1bar. I mean, it's no big turbo, but does offer a lot of good things from both worlds.

Sent from a mobile device, please forgive typos

 

[S3Alex]

Sounds like TTE420 will be right up your street then. It pulls pretty well right up to the end. I've logged mine and it's still delivering 2.4bar at 6500rpm when my stock unit struggled to do 2.1bar. I mean, it's no big turbo, but does offer a lot of good things from both worlds.

Sent from a mobile device, please forgive typos

That's exactly my take on the TTE420.

It delivers most of the benefits and few of the downsides.

 

[paul_zx6r]

Cheers guys, I best get saving for one, or get the flexible friend out, not sure I can hide a big turbo from the mrs but I will try.

 

[BurgoS3]

Cheers guys, I best get saving for one, or get the flexible friend out, not sure I can hide a big turbo from the mrs but I will try.

I'm going to try and hide it from the Mrs, hopefully her pregnancy will be enough of a distraction lol

 

[S3Alex]

Cheers guys, I best get saving for one, or get the flexible friend out, not sure I can hide a big turbo from the mrs but I will try.

If you need any tips on how to hide this sort of thing,I can help....



Years of experience to call on,hiding these things.

 

[S.]

I can help you too, just send the turbo to me

 

[THQuattro]

More money when will it ever stop.
I get stuff delivered to the office if i have to.

 

[leshkin]

More money when will it ever stop.
I get stuff delivered to the office if i have to.

I used to do the same, but now work from home, so can pick up my parcels and hide before anyone can notice

Sent from a mobile device, please forgive typos

 

[THQuattro]

Ha Ha , I've just got to get some milk darling and go and collect new car stuff.

 

[MICHAEL PARKER]

If you need any tips on how to hide this sort of thing,I can help....



Years of experience to call on,hiding these things.

Come to papa

 

[leshkin]

Just got back from my first trip to Nurburgring and what a cracker it was! 6 days of pure car-related fun, DTM weekend on the GP track, great banter and hooning around the ring and some great local roads. Car has been mostly fine and the mods made to the car have done their job well. I do have a list of things I need to change though:

• ST X Coilovers, while great for normal driving, are waaaaay too soft for really hard driving and Bilstein B14 kit is going-in to sort things out
• Rear brake lines will be upgraded to braided items, together with Ferrodo DS2500 pads on stock disks
• Front pads will be replaced with Ferrodo DS2500 - surprisingly brakes handled the ring very well, but couldn't deal with local roads all that well, which are littered with tight hairpins. My front pads that came with the BBK were smoking after one spirited drive and I suspect that the lower speeds on normal roads are not enough to cool them between use.
• May need to look at replacing front CV joints, which were making some funky noises after a particularly spirited drive

Lessons for me:

• Do some UK track days to get more track experience, maybe get some track tuition
• Don't go to the ring without prior track experience

I'm hooked on track driving now - so much fun! May have to look at getting a cheap track car at some point.

Here are some photos of the beast in action:

I did three laps of the ring during the stay and jumped in with other, more experienced, people on many occasions. My most memorable lap was the second one, when an oil spill caused the car's rear end to step out at Brunnchen due to an oil spill on the corner, which followed by a big power slide on the next corner due to my tires picking-up oil. I didn't make the final cut of the video below sadly (or luckily ), but you can see how bad the oil spill was. I went past just after the grey M3 that lost it's wheel - my antics were obviously not enough to make it into the final cut



My first lap was 10:45. Second had to be aborted due to oil on the tire, but was a cracker and was looking to be mid or high 9:00s. Third lap was 10:16, hampered by the setting sun and a biker that would not move over for ages I'm not bothered by times though - it's an amazing experience and highly recommended for any petrolhead.

 

[S3Alex]

Brilliant!

Looks like you had a great time.

Maybe avoid DS2500s if you plan on more track days.
I melted a set of those on a trackday,and Mintex 1155s are much better.

 

[HHS3]

Sounds like you had a great time mate, car is looking mint in the photos, love that first one. Glad all that came from the oil spill was a drift and nothing more Would love to do a track day but can't in mine as on standard suspension and brakes at the moment, my brothers and I do own a Mazda MX5 though so we really do need to take it for a spin.

 

[NL316]

****** hell man that guy in the vid is lucky to be alive! .

Great that you I joyed it dude. I'd love to do that one day.

 

[leshkin]

Brilliant!

Looks like you had a great time.

Maybe avoid DS2500s if you plan on more track days.
I melted a set of those on a trackday,and Mintex 1155s are much better.

Definitely one to remember

For pads, I still need a road pad, but one that can handle a bit more heat than the ones I currently have. The blue pads that came with YSR Kit are rated up to the same 500C as the DS2500s apparently, but I'm just not sure I can trust stats for an unbranded pad. I was just thinking that a well-known pad would be a better option to try, plus I don't know a compatible pad for my YSR kit other than a specific DS2500 item.

 

[S3Alex]

Definitely one to remember

For pads, I still need a road pad, but one that can handle a bit more heat than the ones I currently have. The blue pads that came with YSR Kit are rated up to the same 500C as the DS2500s apparently, but I'm just not sure I can trust stats for an unbranded pad. I was just thinking that a well-known pad would be a better option to try, plus I don't know a compatible pad for my YSR kit other than a specific DS2500 item.

I used the 1155's for a good while,and the initial bite is way better,plus the temperature characteristics are better,and they won't melt themselves all over your discs under heavy use.

 

[leshkin]

I used the 1155's for a good while,and the initial bite is way better,plus the temperature characteristics are better,and they won't melt themselves all over your discs under heavy use.

Sounds good - I will try to find out if Mintex make a pad for my calipers and give them a go if they do. Thanks!

So, I woke up today and saw that Google has been fiddling with my phone videos and photos - here is what it came up with:

 

[NL316]

Sounds good - I will try to find out if Mintex make a pad for my calipers and give them a go if they do. Thanks!

So, I woke up today and saw that Google has been fiddling with my phone videos and photos - here is what it came up with:

Quality vid mate

 

[Jake 61]

What is it with 'adults' and roundabouts.......

 

[Nick_C]

Great car and build thread. I'm close to buying a set of the ST X coilovers. Just wanted to know your opinion, obviously you've said they're to soft for track driving. I will be using mine as a daily driver and the odd fast road use do you reccomend them for this or do you think there are better options out there?

 

[leshkin]

Great car and build thread. I'm close to buying a set of the ST X coilovers. Just wanted to know your opinion, obviously you've said they're to soft for track driving. I will be using mine as a daily driver and the odd fast road use do you reccomend them for this or do you think there are better options out there?

Thanks! I'd say that the ST X kit is what the S3 should have been from factory. They are great for fast road use and deal very well with whatever UK roads throw at you.
I did a comparison to stock suspension a while back and this kit has been better in every way.
Look elsewhere if you plan on doing track days

Sent from a mobile device, please forgive typos

 

[leshkin]

Small update time!

Ever since I had this S3, I noticed a faint rattle at idle that was coming from, what seems like, underneath the car on the driver's side. With the addition of the harder dogmount, things got a bit worse due to more vibrations being passed from the engine to the body of the car. After chatting to a few people about this and doing some googling, it looked like the issue was with the fuel supply and return lines that were not properly fixed in place, causing the plastiky rattle to be heard.

The fix is to take off the plastic panel on the bottom of driver's side and add some padding to make it go away.

I jacked up the front of the car and placed it on axle stands, then used a 10mm socket to undo the 8 plastic nuts that held the panel in place:


You can see the black and white fuel pipes are not secured very well and are quite lose, allowing enough movement for them to touch the frame of the car. The place where the pipes go into the frame has a bit of foam, but inside the frame it does not look like they are held in any way, and you can feel them floping about freely.


I've cut a variety of foa mpieces from a pipe insulation tube. Some pieces were used to wrap around the fuel lines and some were cut into strips to be stuffed into the hole, where most of the rattles were coming from:


Where there was enough space, I wrapped the pipes in the foam and secured with some small cable ties and the area where you can't do that was stuffed full of little strips of foam I prepared earlier.


A short test drive later seems to indicate that the problem is now resolved. I can't beleive that I haven't done this sooner!

 

[DJ_26]

I like little fixes like this and getting rid of rattles!

 

[paul_zx6r]

Are you getting used to the extra power now mate?

Just wondering if you'll be selling the ST X kit when you upgrade as I could be interested in buying it off you.

 

[leshkin]

Are you getting used to the extra power now mate?

Just wondering if you'll be selling the ST X kit when you upgrade as I could be interested in buying it off you.

Yeah, the extra power is still a little daunting sometimes - was messing about the other day and all four wheels spun up on a roundabout... Odd feeling that

The ST X kit will be coming off around December/January time, I can ping you once it's ready to go. I'm sure we can sort out a deal that suits both of us.

 

[paul_zx6r]

Yeah, the extra power is still a little daunting sometimes - was messing about the other day and all four wheels spun up on a roundabout... Odd feeling that

The ST X kit will be coming off around December/January time, I can ping you once it's ready to go. I'm sure we can sort out a deal that suits both of us.

Haha It must be entertaining in these cold conditions , you'll have to take me out for a rip if we're ever at the same meet., wouldn't mind seeing what the extra power of the TTE is like.

Yeah that would be good mate, message me on here or facebook.

 

[leshkin]

Another update to the saga that is my S3 I finally paid a visit to @Rick @ Unicorn Motor Dev. today and boy am I glad that I did! As mentioned earlier my plan was to get the ECU map tweaked to get rid of some over-boosting at 3k-odd rpm and generally give the map a look to see if there is any more power to be had. Additionally, I wanted to remap the DSG ECU for a while now and this would be a perfect opportunity for that.

The day started very early - 6am wake-up alarm followed by an almost a 3 hour drive from West London to Stockport (Some may say I’m mad to do this just for a remap, but it was worth it in my mind - Rick definitely knows his stuff amd after today, I doubt I'll let anyone else loose on my maps). The drive over was the usual M40-M6 drone affair with some pretty heavy rain at times, but nothing that the S3 couldn’t deal with

I arrived at Unicorn just before 10am and Rick got to work pretty quickly soon after that. First he did a couple of baseline dyno runs to get a feel for how the existing map was dealing with the new bits, understand what needs to be adjusted to get more out of it and get the DSG map on the car.

As expected the initial runs showed a huge torque spike due to the over-boost condition, but peak power was quite low. Now, as some of the people know, Unicorn’s dyno is one of the most pessimistic out there. Rick warned me ahead of time and said that it is known as a heartbreaker. I would call it pretty precise, mainly due to Rick's strict calibration regime. More details on that here - http://www.unicornmotordevelopments.com/rolling-road-services.html Without wanting to start another dyno flame war, here is what the car delivered to begin with:

As you can see, the torque graph was all over the place and peak power of 362bhp was quite a bit lower than my expectations - my heart was definitely broken at this point. Rick being Rick, held his cards close to the chest and didn't want to promise anything at this point. I wrote earlier that after the recent engine work the car definitely felt much stronger and was capable of getting to freedom-losing speeds with ridiculous ease, but the main thing that confused matters as far as my butt dyno was concerned was that huge spike of torque early on. It made the car feel much more powerful than the original Stg2+ setup, but you could feel it let off after the initial rush kicked-in. That being said, Rick’s facial expression said it all - the map definitely needed a bit of work to get it where it needs to be.

So off we went, some dyno runs, then a tweak of the map, followed by another set of dyno runs, then another set of tweaks. I occupied myself with taking videos and photos of the process, peering over Rick’s shoulder and asking stupid questions, as well as admiring his collection of model cars in the reception:





After a few more runs and tweaks, power and torque graphs started to resemble something that was a bit better and power figures were beginning to look more promising, but we started to hit the limits of the current fueling system. Stock injectors were at their flow limit and because of the RS4 fuel return valve, we couldn’t increase fuel rail pressure to get more fuel through the more restrictive S3 injectors. This resulted in rather aggressive timing due to a leaner air/fuel mix and peak torque numbers being a bit too high for comfort. At least that’s what Rick said - I was a clueless oaf in that conversation



I asked Rick to setup map switching for me, so that in the unlikely event my wife needed to drive the car, I could put it into more or less stock power mode. What he did was setup a stock power map, then a normal boost map with very safe 372bhp/392ft.lb for daily usage (and extended high load use) and a more aggressive map with 403bhp/411ft.lb. Me being me, I picked the high boost one to use during the drive home (more on that later ). I’ve never had a setup like this, so was a bit excited about the prospect of playing with the options. Here are the graphs we ended-up with:

Normal mode graph (normal boost map) - 372.4HP/392.2ft.lb:

“Ludicrous” mode graph (high boost map) - 403bhp/411.1ft.lb:

In that last graph, you can see Rick restricting boost on purpose at the higher rev range to keep things safe - RS3 injectors would help cure that and release a few extra ponies there.

By the end of it, I was quite excited to go home and was over the moon to end up with a map that would give me 400+bhp, especially on a dyno that I trust to be pretty realistic. I know that in the end, it’s how the car feels and performs in real life matters more than a peak figure, but it’s nice to know what the car will realistically deliver. It’s like having a diver's’ watch that can withstand pressures at 200m underwater, but most owners of such watches will never take them there. Anyway, I digress…

The drive home was “interesting”... The high boost map was savage and relentless, with both power and torque being delivered in big, smooth chunks that made me feel like I hit the max warp button - I found myself grinning from ear to ear without realising how quickly I was arriving at some very unfunny numbers on the speedo. That, wet roads and the realisation of how many speed cameras there are between Stockport and M6 made me reconsider my earlier choice of map. I needed fuel, so switched to the 2nd boost map during a stop at a Shell service station. I know, I was being a wimp, but traffic was bad, weather cold and wet, and I didn’t want to find out just quickly I could lose my license, freedom or worse. The car just felt quite brutal and a completely different animal to what I had arrived in.

Don’t get me wrong, I was loving it and even on the lower boost map the car felt so much faster than before. Power/torque delivery felt very smooth, very OEM even. There was just so much of it and it kept coming way up in the rev range too! The grin didn’t get any less for the remainder of the drive home

I haven’t mentioned anything about the other mod that was made - the DSG remap. While the power changes are most noticeable immediately, it still made a significant difference to how the car drives now. I haven’t used the full manual or even sport mode so far, but D is so much better to use now: it doesn’t try to get into 6th at 30-odd mph, it seems to use gears more appropriately and the gear changes are a noticeably smoother/quicker too. Driving aggressively in D is actually much better - it feels less like an auto in that it seemed to end up in too high a gear pretty much all of the time, so that when you want a sudden squirt of acceleration it ended up being a bit slow to respond (paus, change down then go). Now it holds on to gears a bit longer, but doesn’t feel like it’s over revving the engine needlessly and generally feels a bit more refined. Now, it may be down to the fact that the car spent a good amount of time being ragged on the dyno for half a day, so I’ll see how it feels tomorrow, but so far, I like it and can’t wait to try out the launch control as well as the full manual mode. Pretty chuffed so far though!

The plan was that after today, my days of tweaking the power on this car are over. What actually happened was quite the opposite - I want a stable 400+bhp daily and to do that, I’ll need to work on getting the fueling sorted out. Rick said that we could bump the fuel rail pressure and switch to a 150bar fuel return valve, but running high rail pressures seems to cause high cam follower wear rate, so with that in mind, I’ll be looking for a set of RS3/TT injectors instead next year. This would increase fuel flow without increasing rail pressure. It’s a more costly way of doing things, but I’m not looking for shortcuts. That should be it… I think

 

[THQuattro]

Yay you are in the 400 club, great car mate.

 

[mjr901]

Alexei, that dyno run sounded like the spin cycle on my washing machine... I think you need to invest in some RS3 injectors .

Joking aside, glad the lump is strong and all is well.

Sent from my SM-G928F using Tapatalk

 

[paul_zx6r]

Great results mate, always are good write up. Bet the drive home was epic. Give AKS tuning a call regarding injectors, they've got a few different solutions. I was in there last week asking about a tte420 upgrade/intectors and what's needed.