Indium Gray Metallic Money Pit Mk7.5R

[scrllock]

24Ah in an H5 case. Bought it in May.

 

[scrllock]

Glacial progress due to typical January temps. Currently have 2 catch cans as I still have the Spulen plate installed. But I was able to mount the APR can on the BFI mount. Just had to put a stock studded bolt in, everything lined up fine.

Biggest things on the horizon: new turbo setup and tune. Ordered a stage 1 Garrett powermax from Dan@DBV2, hooked me up with a ceramic coated turbine housing.



Gonna install that with the speed sensor whenever it's remotely warm. We know that the ECU has a dedicated pin (75) as of Simos 18.1 (pre-19) and it turns out that the 18.10 software has full support to both enable the sensor AND feed the output into the compressor model. If LC_N_CMPR_SENS_ENA is enabled and the ECU sees a valid signal, it should be a matter of setting up the hz->rpm map and then tuning the compressor model to match Garrett's map. No custom code needed, at least on 18.10!

Speaking of custom code, Joedubs was gracious enough to finish porting his live mapswitching code to 18.10 and adjust the controls to match my steering wheel. Flex-fuel will take care of timing adjustment, and these maps will set my max boost level. By far the most complete set of features for the MQB 2.0T platform.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

Sooo dope

 

[scrllock]

Took advantage of a few warm days last weekend to get the car drivable. Still cold AF but it's dry and salt-free today, finally!
I kept having all sorts of LPFP issues so I finally got around to asking Arnold @ PPT to send me a new harness to use the RS3 LPFP controller. He originally wired something in the basket backwards so I had to flip a couple phase wires, nbd. Working on adjusting my LPFP tables accordingly.
Also finally finished up my APR catch can kit install. Pretty happy with it, though I wish they'd just include a pre-cut evap line. I had a couple extras and I wouldn't be surprised if i get an evap code, the bend from the check valve to the plate is very tight. They include extra engine cover mounts my car didn't need, would rather some evap hose.
I was kinda annoyed that their kit retains the terrible OEM PCV inlet connection, so I had custom raceflux lines made to retain the -10AN adapter from the ECS kit. Had to do the short one too, can't be mismatched. Used anhosefittings.com, they had them assembled and shipped out by 10a the next day.

19" -10AN straight female + -10AN 45deg female fittings
38" -10AN 45deg female both ends
36" -10AN 45 deg female + -10AN 90deg female fits much better!

Also, why does APR use 3/16" allen head bolts for the line brackets? Hate going hunting for imperial tools on a euro car.


I also ditched the IE stuff, I didn't really like the finish on their intake and it lets too much weather/road gunk in near the ECU. Threw the 034 inlet and TIP on 'til the Garrett gets installed.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

How much you want for the arp hoses?

 

[scrllock]

How much you want for the arp hoses?

Make me an offer

I'm gonna get the Spulen plate and ECS can/hoses cleaned up and listed for sale soon.

 

[Rare Ara S3]

Make me an offer

I'm gonna get the Spulen plate and ECS can/hoses cleaned up and listed for sale soon.

Didn’t like the spulen ?

 

[Rare Ara S3]

Slowly winterizing. Waiting on a new hose and clamp for the PCV, old hose is on there good and don't like re-using a 50 cent clamp.

The Antigravity does *not* like sub-40F weather, even left on a tender. Car acted like the battery is resetting on start-up, get sudden and intermittent messages on the dash about "please put car in P and exit, service vehicle immediately," triggered an airbag light (!) a few times, and threw a ton of codes of implausible signals, undervoltage, etc. Tried the recommended route of letting the cells discharge a bit to warm them up with headlights/seat heaters, but wasn't much better.

Threw the stock group 48 EFB chonker back on after giving it a refresher on the tender and things are much better. Probably a dumb idea but ordered the Clubsport S battery: 000915105DB. Came stock on the early Mk7s and I've had start-stop disabled forever so mayyyyybe it'll be fine.

This is probably the battery that was in my wife’s 2015. When I replaced it last year the guy at the parts desk was like wow I haven’t seen these in a minute. New one was larger like my S3 battery. I had wondered about that after seeing other mk7 s that had larger batteries

 

[scrllock]

Didn’t like the spulen ?

It was fine, just paranoia about the baffle bolts backing out. My APR plate was built in November so I'm hoping it has the revised gaskets and whatnot. If it leaks I'll give up and go back to a stock PCV.

This is probably the battery that was in my wife’s 2015. When I replaced it last year the guy at the parts desk was like wow I haven’t seen these in a minute. New one was larger like my S3 battery. I had wondered about that after seeing other mk7 s that had larger batteries

Oh, yeah, VW cancelled that order. Don't sell 'em anymore apparently. I tried for a minute to find other H4 sized stuff and gave up, put an H5 NAPA AGM in there for winter.

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

The main body part don’t leak, but my oring still leaking

 

[scrllock]

Fixed a couple problems preventing OpenFlex™ from working. Still on a rough Vortex XL tune, but threw in a couple gallons of e85 and did a pull on e30ish with timing added automatically.

https://datazap.me/u/ngamber/openflex-test-pull?log=1&data=6-11-14-39-45&mark=51

Also tested Joe's mapswitching patch, basically just caps torque requests depending on the map (repurposed powerclass index tables). Slow map capped me out around 17psi, fast one around 27. Just cruise controls, no re-flashing. Very cool.

Garrett and speed sensor go in the 14th. Next week is the audi subframe, whiteline LCAs, superpro FSB, and powerflex hybrid dogbone.

 

[scrllock]

Trying out a new shop nearby, not many places that do aftermarket work on foreign stuff. Great to find a spot that also offers track alignments/corner balancing.

Superpro 26mm front swaybar/links, Whiteline LCAs, Audi subframe, CTS subframe collars, and the powerflex/ecs dogbone combo. Standard alignment for now.

Not sure how long the dogbone setup will last, I had to file down the sides of the powerflex insert to get the arm to fit. Unitronic/Innovative are supposed to come out with their clones of the ECE arm for DQ381/aluminum subframe fitment within the next month or so.


Also got some simple exterior stuff done. Mk7.5 GTI TCR roof spoiler (5G6827940A041) and Aerofabb V2 street splitter. Like the Aerofabb design, includes a pretty beefy reinforcement plate. Not "jump on the lip" sturdy, but I'm not worried about it flying off.

 

[scrllock]

Should have the car back with the Garrett in by the end of the week, too! So much more stuff to do.


I was kinda stupid with the suspension, I had bought some B8s a while ago, and was just gonna use them with the Eibach springs, buuuuuuut then I ordered a GC coilover conversion, then decided I wanted to ditch DCC, had them re-spec it to fit the Bilstein struts, and sent the B8s out to get re-valved for GC's "HPDE" rates. Delta Vee seems to be the spot in the Midwest for Bilstein rebuilds and they're not super far. His process is a bit like what I've read about Fat Cat Motorsports, just without the weird yoga cult vibes (and insane prices--you gotta pay like $125 just to talk to the guy--Rob @ Delta Vee seems really helpful and his rebuild+revalve is much more reasonable than an FCM setup (which can be $3k+ for the tuning, on top of the parts cost). All in, still less than a set of Ohlins, so that's something I guess.
Anyway, all of that has like a 2 month lead time, so I'll just get the knuckles and arms wrapped up in the meantime.

 

[2LEEGIT]

Great build and direction of path. What’s the “HPDE” rate?

 

[scrllock]

Great build and direction of path. What’s the “HPDE” rate?

Thanks! 475F/650R. Significantly higher than stock hence getting my B8s re-valved.

Trying real hard to clean up my pile of parts before summer. Main thing right now is waiting on the turbo job, primary o2 had to be replaced and the part for '19+ cars is scarce apparently.

Still sitting around: toe arms, trailing arms, rear camber arms, rear wishbones, css knuckles, ttrs brembos, rs3 ducts, csf radiators, oil cooler, dsg breather.

Also going to throw the euro tails on at some point, go back to the stock catback with a res delete (weighs less and is not a bottleneck on the Powermax). Ditch the a2b rail for an OE MPI setup. Might do an aluminum oil pan. LMS/TCR dealer never got back to me, but I would still like to try the TCR setup (-6AN drain to the sump with a check valve).

Waiting on:
PDC vented hood. Maybe july?
Bilstein + GC coilover - mid-may
Wavetrac - not ordered but want to get a pre-order in for the front diff. I'll do the rear eventually as well, maybe next winter.

After all that, it's pretty much done for the time being. Eventually I'd like to get a roll bar, fixed-backs, and whatnot, but that's full commit. Both in terms of really limiting street driving and drilling the chassis for backing plates.