Prawn and BigAls A3 Track Car

[Rainbird]

The only trouble with individual forum-specific hosting is when a build thread is duplicated on more than one platform - IIRC Nick's is over on CGTI (and maybe others?) and integrated hosting often restricts sharing externally. I'm not familiar with the ASN method so not sure if this is the case, but a consideration.

At least it'll give Prawny something to do on all those sleepless nights with Oliver

 

[<tuffty/>]

At least it'll give Prawny something to do on all those sleepless nights with Oliver

...when he's not breast feeding?

<tuffty/>

 

[Prawn]

I'm currently trying to download my albums.

Once I've got them, I'll decide what I'm going to do about uploading elsewhere, and my AMAZING wife has offered to go through the whole thread and edit every post for me to renew the images whilst she's on maternity leave with little man!

My only concern there is that she might work out what it's cost over the years

For the time being, any updates that do occur can be found on my Instagram account:

https://www.instagram.com/prawn16

I dropped off the block, head, and all my other parts to Bill on Saturday, and of course had a good catch up with Bill and tuffty over a fee cups or tea

We've got the spec pretty much bottomed out now too.

We've decided on king racing coated bearings, which frees up a few quid over Mahle Motorsport allowing me to buy a cat Cams Vernier crank pulley.

We also decided to have the flywheel dowelled to the crank to be extra safe, and the machine shop are going to lap the valves to the head to save me a whole day with the paste and stick!

After chatting to Bill and Tuffty, I've also decided that the engine would benefit from vvt to get the big turbo going as early as possible, so I'll be assembling the head with a vvt tensioner and working out how to wire that up to the emerald ecu.
Bill reckoned they had seen 500rpm+ improvements in spool, which will be most welcome. I dared to mention the word 'lag' whilst in the Badger cave, and got a torrent of abuse thrown at me about correct gear selection

Lastly, I've decided that whilst it probably won't match anything on the whole car, the block is going to be painted in traditional Badger 5 blue. Every engine that comes out of B5 is blue unless specifically requested otherwise. I'm proud of the links to B5 over the years, and the support Bill has given me on so many areas or the car, so it was the only option really

I'm mega excited that things are finally under way. It's still a fair way off, but it feels like real progress will start to occur from here on, rather than just dreaming up ideas and waiting for them to happen.

450bhp is the target currently at sensible boost. I wonder what I'll end up with!

 

[Rainbird]

Tori's build thread FTW.

 

[Prawn]

For Rainbirds sanity, I must clarify that just the block itself will be blue, and it isn't seen much really.

The top end that's highly visible will always be TeamPrawn orange!

 

[Rainbird]

I was having all sorts of ideas...

 

[Prawn]

Don't be stupid Luke.

It's an a3, not a Gulf!

 

[Rainbird]

It's an a3, not a Gulf!

 

[Prawn]

Very clever 'Bird!

I'm guessing you don't host those on Photobucket

 

[Rainbird]

Actually I normally do - all my build thread phots are on there. Might have to employ Victoria once you're finished with her (phrasing might be a little bit out there... )

 

[Prawn]

I think your contributions are probably the sole reason I won't let her read the thread

 

[Prawn]

Bill asked me last week if I'd considered new rod bolts.

I hadn't at all. Being arp they're reusable. And that was as far as my thought process had gone on the matter.

A bit more discussion and thought, and I don't actually know the exact history of the rod bolts.

Bought new by gops, and assembled by another engine builder. There were that many issues elsewhere on the build, who knows how many times they torqued and retorqued the bolts.

I decided not to risk it.

As pure luck would have it, I mentioned to Gurds I was looking to buy new bolts, and he just happened to have spares sat on his shelf!

He'd bought then be and new from IE whilst in florida some years ago when it was highlighted that his vmi rods may well have fake bolts.

Sadly, his vmi fakes let go before he got to fit them, so these have sat unopened on the shelf ever since.



Now very kindly donated to a good cause in exchange for an 02j box I gave him earlier in the year

 

[Prawn]

Liking the fact that I can apparently post an Instagram link and the picture appears here that can be a short term fix!

Rods and valves all cleaned up and ready for their trip to Badger world:



And a boot full of sorry looking parts, to return as a shiney fresh 1900

 

[craigt1985]

Luckily for me the work network blocks nearly all file hosting sites, so I can't see any of them anyway

 

[Prawn]

Next week I am told!

 

[Rainbird]

 

[Prawn]

I cannot wait for the first time I throw it into a corner, mash the throttle, and experience the diff locking up and pulling the front end in tighter rather than ploughing on.

Then I'll hit the push to pass button and deploy a full 450bhp+, grinning like a mad man.

Then repeat. Over and over again.

 

[Prawn]

Social media mile stone reached



Currently thinking I should change the name to TeamPrawnRacing to match my twitter.

Also considering a word press style website at the moment to document progress ess of the car on some web space in would actually own.

 

[<tuffty/>]

I'm a follower of you but haven't got any of the apps installed as I don't use instagram

<tuffty/>

 

[superkarl]

I'm a follower of you but haven't got any of the apps installed as I don't use instagram

<tuffty/>

You'd love it Paul there is so many grumpuss'

 

[Prawn]

Grumpy cat has 2.3m followers!

https://www.instagram.com/realgrumpycat/

 

[<tuffty/>]

Grumpy cat has 2.3m followers!

https://www.instagram.com/realgrumpycat/

He is my actual hero

<tuffty/>

 

[Prawn]

MOAR BOXES!!!

 

[Prawn]

Potential for shiney things inside.....

 

[Rainbird]

DffDffDffDffDffDffDffDffDffDffDff

Edit; No, that;s not the EastEnders theme...

 

[s3gazz]

It's been so long sorry to here about the car prawn hope u enjoy the new build buddy

 

[Prawn]

Ok, enough teasing.

it's here!

Family day trip to Bridgend booked for Monday 17th to see Martin at Gas n Gears to have the diff installed

I'm also having modified selector forks installed to avoid the dreaded rivet failure that @StaceyS3 and other have suffered, and an insert machined that supports 4th gear and avoids the flex in the input shaft which so often causes issues with big power

Can't wait!

 

[Rainbird]

Anyone would think you were hoping for big numbers with the amount of effort you're putting in.

Diff looks smart mate, edging closer and closer to having things moving again

 

[Prawn]

It's a bit of a spiraling circle really 'Bird. If it wern't for your stag do this weekend I'd have some more spare money to throw at it

the stock 02M has been fine for years, but at worst case I'm hoping this makes 450bhp. Best case, it may make 500, you never know (unlikely without cams and inlet)

At those levels I'm well and truly into gearbox concern territory

Martin at Gas n Gears was unbelievably helpful. He went through the issues I could face at high power, and then the various ways you can combat them, and offered me several options. I've gone with what I thought was most cost effective whilst still addressing the necessaries.

Modified forks were a 3rd of the price of tfsi steel forks. I'm not harsh on gear changes ever, so I think this option is ideal for me.

For the input shaft, you can either have a bolt in brace which supports from either side, or a machined insert which supports the shaft by locating in the end. the insert was half the cost of the bolt in brace, and again, should do exactly what I need.

The most reassuring bit is that both the modified forks and machined insert are transferable into another box should the worst happen and I end up stripping any gears.

Given my preferred approach for progressively building torque this shouldnt be a huge problem I wouldn't think

 

[Prawn]

More details on the 4th gear support.

Martin machines an EN24t steel insert, which is pressed into the shaft:

Seen here on @sparrow (Alexs) gearbox recently which had the same work carried out:

This basically makes the hollow shaft completely solid , and stops it flexing (well spotted on the error Erik )

Shift forks are just a case of replacing the crapppy rivets with a bolt, which I believe it also welded so it'll never come out!

Again seen here on Alexs gearbox:

 

[Prawn]

2013, I was thin. The car was clean, and I even tried drag racing; Once (that was enough )

Happy memories

 

[Prawn]

10 days of silence!

A brief little catch up, things have been happening, although not all good!

First off, Dan, formerly of BBT, and now running Littco https://www.facebook.com/thelittleturbocompany/?ref=br_rs ,offered to run up my GT30 on his VSR balancer.

Not that we thought it needed it, but as the offer was there, and it was a used turbo, it wouldn't hurt to check everything was still in spec, right?

We mounted the turbo in the VSR:

And spun it up to see how it was looking. The green line represents the max allowable inbalance. 1g up to 80000 rpm, and 1.5g above 80000rpm I believe it was.

First run wasn't great, so Dan removed the turbo, checked things over, remounted it, and ran it again:

Oh dear, it was worse!

On close inspection, there were some tiny marks on the compressor wheel:

Not terrible, but not ideal. Almost certainly not causing it to be so far out of balance though.

On closer inspection, we found this:

Sad face

It looks like it's been broken for a while!

The seller wasn't to know though, and he's been absolutely great about it, and gone halves with me on the cost of repair, which has been kept to an absolute minimum thanks to Dan doing me an absolutely fantastic deal

It's going to get rebuilt with a brand new core, and a brand new GTX 11 blade compressor wheel for peace of mind, and whilst it's all apart, the standard plastic bearing cage is being replaced with a metal cage, along with ceramic ball bearings to replace the existing steel ones

So, after looking fairly poor initially, things worked out well in the end

At least Baby bear is happy about it!

 

[Prawn]

Clearly the last update was a little too exciting for some people

Following the turbo problems, last week turned out to be a fairly awful week!

I had a series of messages from Bill

The clutch plate was clearly dead. I hadn't seen this before, but after an acid dip it was really clear, in several places too

the head wasn't a huge deal, I've purchased another from Bills never ending spares pile!

The exhaust valve was ****** annoying though! No idea how that's happened, but not what I wanted at all. Replacement cost isn't horrific, but the hassle of getting a single valve from america is a ****** nuisance!

In slightly happier news, the block is now dipped, bored, decked, and honed:

And also painted Blue!

 

[Erikn89nl]

Yay, progress

 

[Prawn]

Progress indeed! And hopefully it'll gather momentum very soon and keep going!

I'm very pleased with what Bills done.

It's pretty gutting getting messages saying stuff is broken, but it's comforting to know that it's all being checked over properly and I know it's going to be as good as it can be

A few quid more at the start making sure it's all right should end with a better result when it's all finished and running

 

[Dubster5]

you've not had much luck at all with this car lately have you
at least you're still making progress though

 

[antwan64og]

So you're not only the O2J box killer but also destroyer of flywheels, cylinder heads and valves! Lol.

It'll come good in the end.

Thats one thing I never really understand, a head comes off a perfectly working engine and found to be warped...... If it wasn't leaking before my cowboy brain says slap that sh!t back together and it won't leak again, lol. Obviously thats the wrong way to do it and why I use chicken wire and cable ties on the babygate at home.....

 

[Prawn]

I do see where you're coming from Ant.

Being a soft ali head, with 10 bolts holding it down, I'm fairly sure it'd seal up and work just fine too.

OK when pushing 150-250bhp maybe, and who knows, maybe even ok when nearing double those figures, but for the sake of a few quid you just wouldn't risk it.

Much like the clutch cover. It worked perfectly fine with 350bhp for the short time I used it, and it was almost certainly cracked for most if not all that duration and I never knew.

Throwing it back in knowing it's broken though, and asking it to deal with another 30% more power again, it just doesn't sit well with me.

Looking at the numbers, this build has got fairly depressing fairly quickly, but there sort of comes a point where you just don't care any more, and if it's being done, it's being done right.

I'm not going to rush it. We've got a trackday booked at Cadwell in October, but if it's not ready, then it won't be rushed through to get there.

I think purely from a cost point of view, I'm going to get it running on my 630cc injectors to start with. I know they work and have all the cold start and part throttle mapping already taken care of, so it'll be ideal for running in. it'lll just be a case of tweaking fuelling on boost to get it running somewhere sensible and safe with the gt30 at the lowest boost my wastegate willl give.

The 630's will limit me to maybe 420-450bhp depending on FPR, but I think I get some miles on the car I'll road tune it to somewhere around 90-95% idc on the 630's, then put some miles on it before swapping to a set of 875's and heading back to Bills for him to work his magic and unleash the full potential!

Feels like it's still a fairly long road ahead, but I THINK I'm at least nearing the top of this current Hill, and soon to start heading down the other side on the route to completion.

 

[Prawn]

In other, less A3 specific news, I got a new work van!

Seen here, absolutely filthy with only 200 miles on the clock:

It's a 2.0 tdi Caddy Highline, with Satnav (which seemed mega rare!)

Everything about it was great, apart from there was more road noise than I hoped through the semi perforated bulkhead.

To combat this, I cut out 4 pieces of 4mm perspex, to match either side of the 2 parts of the bulkhead, and fitted them via long bolts through the grills to form a double glazed window in the bulkhead:

Instant transformation! Road noise has totally vanished from behind me, and now I just have to listen to the tdi up front. Not the worlds greatest sound track, but far better than horrible van road noise.

As an aside, both the stereo and aircon are miles better since installing the glazing too, so it's win win!

 

[antwan64og]

Nice DIY skills!

Yeah it was tongue in cheek really, I bet ever 150k engine is technically goosed with cracked warped heads, broken valves, sticky lifters, leaky stem seals, loose piston rings and out of spec bearings, lol