The Project Pad

Sweeeeet!! I mentioned it to you at the show but I love the small details you add in your builds...really makes everything look factory. Keep the updates coming.

thanks Mike, its cool to see people notice all those little details.

did anyone take a picture of my engine bay? I realized that I have none of it all cleaned up.

I didn't. I was kinda bummed that I didn't take more pictures of my favorite Audis. I guess the rain and geeking out caused that.

Get some beauty shots of that thing!

Ahhhh fantastic hahaha

Sweet car! was great to see it and meet you!

They put up a sign for the part of missing road Dana's brand new wheels found. That crevasse was no joke, I'm really impressed with how well the fifteen52's took it.

Grillage wrote:

Sweet car! was great to see it and meet you!

Damnit Dana, this makes me want to build one of these pretty bad. Nice job on the build!

awesome pic Ben, thanks!

Jim, you should. Its a super fun driver. I cannot wait for the snow, the power delivery is going to be epic with studded snows and mountain roads.

vt10vt wrote:They put up a sign for the part of missing road Dana's brand new wheels found. That crevasse was no joke, I'm really impressed with how well the fifteen52's took it.

i still get hot with anger when I think about this. I need to get these wheels straightened. Its ruining the awesome of this car. After this week, it goes back into the shop for cam, lifters, springs, maybe some paint, and wheel fixing. Lame.

I hope it's cheaper up there to have the wheels fixed then here in PA. I talked to the one good local place about straightening a set a few years ago. He asked how much it would cost to replace them, and when I said $1500, he said to buy new ones... I wasn't very pleased with that.

DE80q wrote:I hope it's cheaper up there to have the wheels fixed then here in PA. I talked to the one good local place about straightening a set a few years ago. He asked how much it would cost to replace them, and when I said $1500, he said to buy new ones... I wasn't very pleased with that.

its 75 bucks per wheel if your bring it with the tire off. Fair enough I suppose. The new wheels are around 300 each plus they took 3 months to get custom drilled etc, so new isnt really what I want to do.

little project update, I have about 2000 miles on the car now, still running like a champ. I took my wheels to get straightened after hitting a massive hole in the road on a main road. Thanks VT road crews. One of the wheels straightened out, another cracked and is currently getting welded. Bummer.

I noticed I have some pretty bad cupping wear on the inner edges of my front tires. Like major wear considering the low miles. Its really only on the first inch or so, so I think that my toe got messed up when I hit the hole. I know camber can wear unevenly, but this is extreme, and I think usually that means the toe is off. My steering wheel was off center after I hit the hole. The only problem is, I cannot find what got bent. Everything is still tight, and looks fine. I want to make sure I get things fixed before aligning it AGAIN.

On other news, I ordered heavy duty valve springs, new lifters and a stage 3 cam (more lift and duration). My engine seems to have trouble injesting air at higher rpms. The EGT's also climb quite high when really beating on it on the highway. I think the cam will help some, but really I have a few things going on:
-crappy factory cam
-10mm injection pump causing a long injection window=inefficient and hot burning
-too much fuel for the amount of air I can get through the engine
-horrible stock TDI ports
-turbo running at the top of its efficiency range
-crappy ebay verticle flow intercooler

I will try cam and springs first, then probably look for an 11mm injection pump to swap in and see how it runs then. I also have a bad itch to do compound turbos using the current he211w as the high pressure turbo and an hy35 as the low pressure. This is most likely unnecessary, but it would be super fun and hilariously cool.....plus, imaging the sounds it would make. Glorious sounds. Compound turbos would certainly help things run cooler too. The only question is....can the stock TDI long block take the abuse of 40 psi? I think maybe....although I might not be nearly Finnish enough to pull that off.

My engine bay lays out so nicely as it is, trying to cram another large turbo in there would be a challenge. But who doesnt like a challenge?

Also, I had to swap back to the borbet wheels that have hilariously bald tires, so I decided to play a bit. Listen to the glorious little holset turbo noises. This test confirms that this winter will be awesome.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J5l_R9i-Q8[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzMITtBY8Iw[/youtube]

40 psi from compounds is probably more than the ahu can take...where is the pump timing on the graph?

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I'm sure you've said it somewhere... still using the factory fuel pump as a lift pump? Or any lift pump at all? It really helps with top end fueling on a 10mm pump

Currently no lift pump, its on the list of things to do. The factory pump literally fell apart when I removed it.

I plan on using a heavy duty returnless pump like what rich has on his car. I left all the factory wiring under the seat so I could re-use that. It will be interesting to see how this helps with the top end fueling. Its clearly getting enough fuel up top, but I'm sure the injection window is too long.

As far as the bottom end surviving compound turbos....there is only one way to find out. Really I would just be doing for the hell of it. I put a turbo on my tractor, clearly I'm not doing these things from a rational standpoint. I think if you can control it and get the boost down to like 35psi between the two turbos, i bet it would survive, but AHU's are now selling between $100 and $500, which is "fuck it, try it" money as far as I'm concerned.

I would set it up so the second turbo could be removed and I could put it back the way it currently is. But before I get more serious about that, I have a lot left to do to optimize the hardware I have on the car now. Plenty of things to occupy me before I really have to scratch that itch.

Where is the injection timing on the graph?
I had a stock mkii lift pump in mine for years, it was perfect, 7psi...
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steve, its in about the top 1/4 of the graph. Its at like 68 I believe.

Wow I missed some major stuff around here ! Glad you could make it run proper !

This car looks awesome, seems like your TDI pulls hard, I wish mine did the same !

Advance the pump timing, I know it's a pain in the ass, but it will drop the etgs. Top o the graph.

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scubagli wrote:Advance the pump timing, I know it's a pain in the ass, but it will drop the etgs. Top o the graph.

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Its not too bad to advance it, I've probably changed the timing 10 times at this point. I'll advance it more when I change the cam. I was incrementally advancing it a bit at a time. I think advancing ignition timing also increases cylinder pressure, so like anything its a trade off, but I am guessing its not too much at all.

If it's on the graph your fine.

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Dig it, Dana! My tdi corrado is gone/done for me. The motor is on the floor waiting the new home to be ready. Watching/hearing you rip around in yours make me miss it! Looks like you've really done a bang up job-congrats!

MPG update, averaging 46-49. Its got 50mpg in it with the belly pan and a lighter right foot (like thats going to happen).

Added hella 1000 rally lights, did some repainting of the bad front fender. Swapped out my Powerflex front control arm bushings for rubber bushings, got another alignment, wheels straightened.

I now have all the parts to swap the cam, valve springs, lift pump, 240mm DMF, snub mount and a bunch of other details. Then it should be "good" for my roadtrip to California in October.

It will be nice for that trip to be getting almost 50mpg! I love this build, just wish I knew more about diesels, then maybe I could have attempted it.