Indium Gray Metallic Money Pit Mk7.5R

[scrllock]

Working on a bunch of mechanical stuff while I figure out what I'm doing with the tune. Dropped the car off at the dealer (I know, I know, but they're the only shop nearby who aren't booked a month out and have the tools), asked to check for vacuum leaks and verify new engine adaptations were done properly (by me, but I'm just an idiot with VCDS). End up getting a DTC printout, a visual check, and an insane $180/hr bill for nothing I asked for. Sigh.



One pressing issue is the bar-tek filter adapter. No matter what I try it leaks out the top after it gets a heat cycle in it. Mechanic who swapped the engine thought it was an issue with the gasket on the filter they provide. Bar-tek insists no one else has had this issue and to just tighten it more. Personally hate it when filters are more than hand-tight, so made me cringe to try it. Didn't work. Tried a couple other filters, same thing. It's getting cold enough I'll probably just take the whole thing out, bite the bullet and do the iabed kit next spring.



One of the (I thought) easier things I had laying around was the TTRS brake retrofit. The Mk3 dust shield alone is a nice upgrade. Only slight modification is bending it back slightly where it contacts the caliper. Stripped one of the dust shield screws, don't be like me and try to use a T27 bit for a T30 screw.



Unfortunately the pads that FCP has listed for the Mk2 TTRS seem to be the thicker variant (FCP1334) which I just can't seem to fit around the 372x32mm rotors. Ordered a set of FRP3067 instead which should give a few more mm clearance. Other than that, the Hel lines from VBT fit right up. The bracket on the back of the caliper guides them well enough, and the guide on the line fits with the stock mk7 bracket on the knuckle.

Once those are all set I'll tackle adding all the other adjustable suspension links before it goes back to the race shop for the Ohlins + track alignment.

 

[scrllock]

One pressing issue is the bar-tek filter adapter. No matter what I try it leaks out the top after it gets a heat cycle in it. Mechanic who swapped the engine thought it was an issue with the gasket on the filter they provide. Bar-tek insists no one else has had this issue and to just tighten it more. Personally hate it when filters are more than hand-tight, so made me cringe to try it. Didn't work. Tried a couple other filters, same thing. It's getting cold enough I'll probably just take the whole thing out, bite the bullet and do the iabed kit next spring.

This one's been bugging me more than anything. Got a deal on an RL oil cooler kit and I think I'll try to make a frankenstein kit to solve as many shortcomings as I can. Mostly the leaks plus the lines could be larger on the bar-tek kit.
iABED deletes the stock HX, adds a ton of labor.
RL comes with -10 lines, the leaks some folks were describing seem to be fixed by switching out the pressure plate but keeping the adapter and filter?
Hoping to mimic @bobivy1234 with his setup, I think it's just a mocal brz kit (spacer + thermostat?) and then maybe some new fittings. I'm sure I can get different banjo fittings to upgrade the bar-tek 19 row to AN-10.

Thought I read that some needed to use a Setrab thermostat instead, but that thread is a big mess now. At least that part is easy to swap.

 

[scrllock]

First emailed Quaife, Wavetrac, Drexler, etc in December 2020 trying to find an LSD for the DQ381. Super excited for this! QDF33R, might be the first in North America.

 

[bobivy1234]

This one's been bugging me more than anything. Got a deal on an RL oil cooler kit and I think I'll try to make a frankenstein kit to solve as many shortcomings as I can. Mostly the leaks plus the lines could be larger on the bar-tek kit.
iABED deletes the stock HX, adds a ton of labor.
RL comes with -10 lines, the leaks some folks were describing seem to be fixed by switching out the pressure plate but keeping the adapter and filter?
Hoping to mimic @bobivy1234 with his setup, I think it's just a mocal brz kit (spacer + thermostat?) and then maybe some new fittings. I'm sure I can get different banjo fittings to upgrade the bar-tek 19 row to AN-10.

Thought I read that some needed to use a Setrab thermostat instead, but that thread is a big mess now. At least that part is easy to swap.

Here's what I bought below off Amazon and haven't had any issues alongside a Setrab 16 row cooler using the same RL mounting kit with smaller rubber isolators. I used the RL kit AN lines and just changed out the line adapters as needed to fit the Mocal sandwich plate (90deg -10AN) since the RL kit has some special thread on their sandwich plate.

Not sure if you have MPI today but this Mocal tstat and spacer take up a lot of that room by the intake manifold if you go straight LPFP->MPI->HPFP and don't T it off like the A2B kits. Oil changes are a bit odd to change the metal filter, only remove the very top cap of the filter assembly and don't unscrew the whole filter body or it will be a mess due to how the oil stick under the filter body keeps pressure. You'll want a strap wrench and a 30mm (I think) socket for it since it is reverse threaded, turkey baster is good also since it is basically filled to the brim with oil (won't spill though) until you carefully remove the filter out.

Also when you install the new stuff with the oil filter removed, tuck the oil pressure sensor wires in the back gap between the oil filter housing and engine block, without that they are pretty tight since the Mocal tstat takes up more room. Glad to send any pictures.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGDKH9T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[scrllock]

Here's what I bought below off Amazon and haven't had any issues alongside a Setrab 16 row cooler using the same RL mounting kit with smaller rubber isolators. I used the RL kit AN lines and just changed out the adapters as needed to fit the Mocal sandwich plate AN -10 since the RL kit has some special thread on their sandwich plate.

Not sure if you have MPI today but this Mocal tstat and spacer take up a lot of that room by the intake manifold if you go straight LPFP->MPI->HPFP and don't T it off like the A2B kits. Oil changes are a bit odd to change the metal filter, only remove the very top cap of the filter assembly and don't unscrew the whole filter body or it will be a mess due to how the oil stick under the filter body keeps pressure.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGDKH9T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Awesome, thanks for the info! I have MPI but my supply line takes the normal route to the T by the HPFP. And the big annoyance I have with my setup is that I have to unscrew the whole filter and it's a big mess every time. So this sounds like a better solution all around.

 

[Autobahn]

I have a Mocal Sammy and Setrab cooler on my R32, never had an issue.

When you think you might install the front diff?

 

[scrllock]

I have a Mocal Sammy and Setrab cooler on my R32, never had an issue.

When you think you might install the front diff?

Yeah, the modified RL setup seems popular enough. Would love to do a whole filter relocation but I'm not sure of a good spot on an R.

At this rate, not til November. Long story but I am not comfortable/willing to leave a UM tune on my car, so that has to be sorted out before much more driving. And the guy I'd trust to reassemble my DSG is over an hour away.

 

[manu97]

Yeah, the modified RL setup seems popular enough. Would love to do a whole filter relocation but I'm not sure of a good spot on an R.

At this rate, not til November. Long story but I am not comfortable/willing to leave a UM tune on my car, so that has to be sorted out before much more driving. And the guy I'd trust to reassemble my DSG is over an hour away.

. You think UM's tune had something to do with the motor going pop?

 

[scrllock]

. You think UM's tune had something to do with the motor going pop?

I strongly suspect they heavily neutered my misfire and overboost detection. I don't know if the tune caused the old motor to blow, but the way the tune is currently behaving would likely blow a stock motor sooner than later. And it's not throwing any codes or EPC lights to indicate there's an issue, so if I had taken Fred at his word when he insisted there's no problem, I'd probably be looking for another replacement block.

 

[manu97]

I strongly suspect they heavily neutered my misfire and overboost detection. I don't know if the tune caused the old motor to blow, but the way the tune is currently behaving would likely blow a stock motor sooner than later. And it's not throwing any codes or EPC lights to indicate there's an issue, so if I had taken Fred at his word when he insisted there's no problem, I'd probably be looking for another replacement block.

Does UM not offer a logging/monitoring solution?

 

[scrllock]

Does UM not offer a logging/monitoring solution?

They do not. I've used a couple off the shelf mode 22 loggers but they don't like working with anything but their dealer logger.
They used to sell a cable/app, not sure if it was for logging or just adjusting parameters, but they've been out of stock forever.

I know in the past some customers could borrow a dealer laptop but I'm told I need to either drive on a bad tune or pay to ship the car almost 300 miles to the nearest dealer. Besides the sunk cost, there's no justification for sticking with them.

 

[scrllock]

Working on suspension tomorrow. Waiting on an adapter to re-do the oil cooler. But got this sexy piece today:
Quaife QDF33R, via TSR Performance in the UK. Came with new ARP crown wheel bolts.

 

[scrllock]

Not a fan of the 2x4 method in principle, so I pulled the outer axle out like the service manual says. If I was smart I would have done this while the caliper/rotor were off the knuckle.

Almost done with the first corner, but there's not much else to see after this point. Guess I didn't mention it here, but I picked up a haggard set of OG, 2015-spec GTI ohlins earlier in the year and sent them to 3DM for a rebuild and re-valve to the 2020-ish R spec. Then motor things happened and these have been sitting in the box.
2021 or 2022 they shortened the strut body by 20mm or so, obviously that's not that easy on a rebuild. Don't care to lower it that much anyway. 70N/mm front, 80N/mm rear 8" 65mm id swift springs for now. Getting replacement bits was... difficult. Barry just sent me a few sets of swift thrust sheets to use in place of the Ohlins pieces my kit was missing, said they don't even include the rubber spring spacer anymore, and I hope the rest is right because Barry seems to be dealing with post-hurricane recovery and is understandably not available.

Set spring preload to 5mm, torqued the lock nut to spec, then followed the manual-- bolt the strut mount to the chassis, spread the knuckle and push it onto the strut, remove the spreader and put a new strut-to-knuckle bolt/nut on. Put the axle back into the knuckle, hand-thread in a new axle bolt, then get the balljoint back over the LCA (WIP). Then strap on the DCC canceler, re-attach the abs sensor/headlight level sensor, put the knuckle at "unladen" position and set swaybar preload/torque balljoint nuts, then finish torquing everything to spec. Axle bolts are 200N-m with the rotor braced via screwdriver or brake pedal, then 180deg more after it's back on the ground.

Things I learned: do things in the proper order. make sure you put wheel bolts into the hub, otherwise if you're jacking up on the rotor the rotor screw is doing a lot of work. dealing with the outer axle is not that hard. you could maybe do this solo (breaker bar on the brake pedal for the axle bolt), but having another person makes it way easier.

 

[ZERO815]

Is the rubber of the ball joint just greasy or damaged?

 

[scrllock]

Is the rubber of the ball joint just greasy or damaged?

Hit it with a pickle fork a few times, just marked up from that.