Good callouts. Vortex came off the car at 80k miles at the end of March/beginning of April. Replaced with a TPC38. Wanted to see how a slightly larger turbo performed. The standard Vortex was always great, but the way boost came on was a bit brutal. Limitations of Eurodyne were definitely in place and knew I eventually needed to move to OS. Mainly for BBG.
Really turned things up in August before switching to OS/MQB tuning. Car was at a super consistent point and clearly didn't need pushed any further then these runs. These were all around 34-36psi and 15deg timing up top. I did stretch timing out to 7500rpm as an experiment. Times were pretty similar. General consensus from the tunas that have hit the dyno with similarly spec'd cars, was that power had reached the limitations of the stock head without running excessive boost/timing. That was likely seeing the times stay in the same range with minor tweaks.
Around this time I was also testing the fueling support solution. After a couple of failed passive attempts, I chucked in the first shot at the pump first week of August. It worked, but needed something to retain the pump in the tank. I wanted to develop a kit that would be able to be integrated into any RS3 MQB kit (FWD obviously first).
With the awesome help of some "shall not be named" tunas, got a solid base file built out. Flashed over to OS 8/14. Times and tuning progressed quickly. TunerPro had a similar feel to ED, but with everything you could ever want or imagine defined because of countless hours of work by the OS crew. And it turns out I was missing out on even more.
With the addition of flex fuel patches, SwitchPatch, MPI patch, SWG patch, tuning was a dream. Again, had plenty of help when digging for particular parameters to define and appropriately modify.
Example log posted below. Not shabby for two weeks of tuning. Again, shoutout to the
s and devs working on those projects.
https://datazap.me/u/arob157/grifted-runs-sub-18-tank-34psi-boost?log=0&data=8-17-24-25
At the beginning of October, car experienced what I thought was a mechatronics failure. Mechatronics replacement was likely a costly affair, so I decided to purchase an entire transmission matching my box code. Benefit of this was that the trans had 23k miles, came with a parts/labor warranty, and a bunch of supporting components including the mech and clutch basket. Total cost was just under $1500 shipped to the shop (also paid for an extended 2 year parts/labor warranty; only covers the gearbox, but I have my spare VAQ/mech that is still in good condition after inspection; old gearbox is still in good shape internally as well.)
Purchasing an entire trans turned out to be a great decision. My original trans experienced a clutch pack failure. Due to the length of time the car was waiting to be repaired, I had the shop install a Wavetrac LSD at the same time. During this time, tuna crew helped me pin-point a suitable software package to remove the immobilizer from the new mechatronics and code it to my ECU.
There were a bunch of other items refreshed/replaced at this time. All axle boots, a new dual mass flywheel, rear main seal, etc. Since the trans was disassembled, the outer DSG pan and clutch basket seal needed to be replaced. Car was just shy of 92k miles. Got the car back right at the end of November. Wavetrac was a great decision. I decided against upgrading the clutch discs at this time. Plan is to build out a motor starting mid-2023. Planning on keeping it at similar power/torque levels.
Moving towards the New Year, fueling kit orders started ramping up a bit. Happy to say a fair number of them are out in the real world and getting pushed pretty damn hard.
Recently decided to try a new suspension setup (Hammerstick's special; Koni Yellow + H&R OE Sports). Wanted to move away from a progressive spring and to a linear setup similar to OEM. Rears do look to have a small dead coil section. Landed an awesome deal from throtl on a ST Suspension X Kit. Was a bit of a risk for missing parts, but it was only $700 landed on my steps. Turns out not a damn thing was missing. Excited to try out a mid-tier/street oriented set of coilovers. Hoping to install them in the coming weeks. Have some suspension creaks from the right rear. Already have new front and rear strut mount and bearings + rear shock mounts. Going to order some new poly inserts for the sway bar and the KartBoy rear end links as well.