Installations Setback

What was thought to be “plug n play”, turns out to be “plug n pray”:P 

The installation job couldn’t be completed last Saturday as the mechanics encountered several pipes are in the way of the new turbo inlet hose. And my custom intercooler inlet pipe location makes situation kinda worse. So we’ve decided to unplug heater, SAI, N249 and PCV pipes. We will use ProVent 200 oil catch can to filter and push oil vapor to air instead of recirculating it back to the engine. 

There’re seems to be quite positive feedback on this ProVent 200 in later generations of VW engines and hopefully it works well in VW 1.8T as well. Oh well, we’ll see. Here’s short info on the product: 

http://www.carformance.com.au/products/provent-mann-hummel/provent-200.html 

On the bright side, the Genesis 415cc injectors are direct-fit with BJX-code engine.

3rd Baby Steps: FrankenTurbo F21T Kit

Finally the package is here…well the packaged reached my office on April 3rd. For the price, the FrankenTurbo F21T kit is really a bargain. Based on similarly sized housing, the F21T comes with a significantly larger compressor wheel and rated up to 300 bhp or 260ish whp. Personally, I would be happy to reach 240 whp as anything would invite inevitable needs for serious LSD to keep FWD idiocracy at bay. And Doug (owner) really does go above and beyond to help his customers. Even though many believe he’s a 1 man operation and he’s got far better customer service than any providers I’ve dealt with. The only gripe is perhaps the built quality is a bit crude at certain areas. Oh well...

 The Package just arrived from FrankenTurbo. The last piece of the puzzle..

  

 F21T...Based on K03 housing but packed with impressive internals

 3" MAF

 Ceramic coated exhaust manifold. Internal finishing a little crude but can be easy fix with light porting

 Not sure if I can use this inlet turbo pipe though

2nd Baby Steps: New Blitz Spec Nur & New Piping

While waiting for ‘the package’ to reach my doorstep, I’ve to fulfill couple of prerequisites and that includes new catback exhaust. So happen that I’m on leave for couple of days, to make the most of my boredom agenda I called Ah Heng for an appointment, today.

After short rounds of negotiations, I’ve decided to go for new custom 2.5” stainless steel piping and new Blitz Spec Nur universal muffler. The works started from 1100 until 1630. Typical Ah Heng's attention to detail just like the intercooler job couple of years ago. And I was lucky that Pocong was the only customer they had!

 

 ~Tanya sama Pocong apa sebab goyang ... nanti jawab Pocong Spec Nur dah nak datang~....

 If it's good enough for Skylines, Silvias and Subarus, it should be good enough for VW I think...err

Started work at 1100 and completed circa 1630. Typical Ah Heng's attention to detail, luckily Pocong was the only customer that day

 New 2.5" stainless-steel piping all the way to the end

 

New muffler placed far enough to the left just like JDMs

 

 Kiut miut Polo with muffler tip big enough to barbeque couple of mice...some say big enough for a cat

A German car, manufactured in South Africa, aftermarket parts mostly from USA, tuned by Canadian, styled to be Japanese and modded by Malaysians :P

1st Baby Steps: Genesis 415cc Injectors

I've been neglecting this blog for quite some time, have I? Truth be told, it’s really down to the fact that there’s nothing much to report as the Pocong has been cozily hibernating on my apartment’s car park for months. She’s been too complacent to the point that the parts are beginning to disintegrate by itself!

So I have to do something about this by setting up a goal to replenish and refresh the heart to be a little energetic than it is now. Yes, new turbo kit but it’s not K04-001…something supposedly better. 

The 1st baby step is to get a set of injectors that can provide optimum fueling. And when it comes to injectors for Volkswagen, Genesis is among the top spoken manufacturer in the States. Most Genesis injectors are based in some way on Bosch and Siemens cores but purposely re-engineered for VW’s small-port 20v heads and R32. It features factory-correct dual spray cones, fast response, with atomization directly from injector nozzle and more upon impact with intake valves. 

Aside from the hardware itself, Genesis injectors are backed with information. Fueling is a mission-critical part of any engine build. Meanwhile, how many vendors only put up a product name, picture, price, and nothing else? MOST. They assume that the customer already knows what they need. So, where does this knowledge come from? Compare the contenders to USRT where tech is explained clearly. It becomes obvious where the information trail actually STARTS. And these injectors are the preferred brands by Unitronic. 

Although it’s a little expensive, it’s really no brainer not to go for Genesis 415cc injectors at around USD350 a set for a peace of mind especially when it comes to cold start issues. Fortunately for me, the customs have been very lenient enough to let this through without imposing tax! 

The H&R Monotube is IN!

The coilovers have been installed last Saturday by my regular mechanic, Auto World Car Service in Wangsa Melawati. It wasn't a straight forward installation as the coilover casing has slightly bigger diameter than the original; and we've forgotten to slot in 'freeplay bearing' in between new front top mount and coilover. This has caused irritating noise during turning when vehicle was stationary also known as "coil-bind" problem. Luckily we realised this soon and redo the front installation again. Applying WD40 on the spring plates also helps fortunately :)

And yesterday, I've sent the car for its overdued tyre rotation & balancing at MPS Auto .... and I've actually met up with Faidzil Alang of FA Racing to seek his chassis setup service. Based on his enormous experience as a official test driver & racing driver for R3, I'm quite confident he'll setup my Pocong just as what I wanted: to be competent sunday drive tool with fluidity ride than outright harshness. The car will be in by this Saturday. So stay tune :)

With bigger casing, it's troublesome to install this H&R coilovers

Purposely set the ride height heigher a bit until FA Racing says otherwise hehe

H&R Monotube Coilovers

As you know, the current SuperSport dampers has reached its EOL and replacement is inevitable. Instead of going through the same route of short stroke dampers again and again, I've decided to bite bigger bullet for this H&R Monotube Coilovers and it's finally here courtesy of Speedzone. The price offered by them is well almost the same offered by most of my regular online websites, and yeah it's no brainer really not to go for it. And I'm still banging my head that I should have gone for this in the first place years back!

Part Number: 29379-2 (9N3 GTI)
Dampers Construction: Inverted Monotube.
Damping Adjustable: No. 30% stiffer fixed damping from factory. No mentioned of spring rates.
Ride height adjustable: Yes. As much as 20-50mm front and 20-60mm rear.
Rebuildable: Officially not serviceable in here.
Front Spring Rate: Not known, Rear Spring Rate: Not known.
Top Mounts: Use back the stock rubber top mounts.
Price: RM4k landed

Finally after a month of waiting :)

The package with ever willing non-payable model lol

It's inverted monotube alright

Unofficially, the dampers made by Koni

Starving No More

As you all know Pocong is suffering of fuel starvation disease at high revs lately, but there’s a light after the tunnel after all. The original plans of getting Turbosmart 800 FPR with custom adapter and remap to Stg 2 didn’t materialised after AR have been pretty much put my car at bottom of its priority, ahh oh well. Then came a long a new friend of mine, Kenneth driving a Passat 1.8T on steroids graciously in handed me his old original Bosch 4 bar FPR. Installation is really plug & play. Couple with freshly cleaned injectors, the power delivery is much smoother from 3.5k till 6kr rpm. True enough upon handing the keys to Thomas of GT Auto, the Pocong AFR runs healthy at high revs 12.6-12.8 from 5k onwards. The only downside is it now registers a meager 205whp/305nm on their dyno treadmill. Say hello to sunday drive :)

Report Card Day!

The new result figures have left me somewhat bittersweet feelings. On one hand it scores 216.40whp/326.97nm and no indication of any lag after shoving AH’s custom FMIC as the boost comes in earlier at 2.4k rpm instead of 3k rpm. But yeah a very critical but….the AF is running lean and because of this fuel starvation, the delivery is not smoothly clean as before. Obviously I’m worried!

There’s no other workaround except to go for stage 2 maps. So I straightaway send a request for customized stage 2 mapping from Mike Z of Unitronic CA. Hopefully, he can come out with some mojo to fix this issue which the Pocong can download it through the net rather than having the man to come here and do it manually. Here’s hoping …. Very!

Still difficult to spot the FMIC

Pretty stealthy against human naked eyes :)

Some say it's not worth changing the muffler for gains because there's isn't any....

After the remap, I'm seriously thinking of H&R monotube coilovers to harness all the increased of horsies

Lean....lean....lean.....lean..... :(

Typical Ah Heng’s Mojo

You see, I was only supposed to fetch the Pocong this morning and enroute for slaving activity on this non-working day. But it turns out I had to spend the entire day at Ah Heng’s for his team to complete the work and troubleshoot issues of the new add-ons. Yet, I’ve no regrets because it was worth in the end.

And I won’t beat around the bushes anymore so here’s the list:-
1. Custom FMIC – Used Evo3 intercooler, all-new custom piping from turbo to intercooler and intercooler to manifold, plus relocation of DV.
2. Open-pod K&N filter with custom heat-shield.
3. Custom 2.5” catless downpipe.

Yup, typical Ah Heng and his crew mojo, awesome touches on every single thing making what I’ve paid twice the bargain! No kidding! As for the drives, well, what I can tell though there’s a slight (very slight) lag of 300-500rpm for the turbo to spools but once the revs past 3k all the way to 5.5k, the car pulls with fatter torque figures and more rush feeling at high revs. I just can’t wait to get the whole thing settled down and visit GT for another dyno exercise :)

2.5" downpipe locked and loaded on Friday

It's as noisy as stock so no complains...

Some adjustment on the inlet/outlet needed, if Evo 7/8 intercooler of the same size, it would be ideal

80% of the job completed on Saturday morning

AH relocated the DV to the front-left of the engine bay for more cooling

Amazing work on custom heatshield

The old Evo 3 intercooler seems to be working well which defies its age

AH managed to make a hole when I didn't think it can be done

Got to love the welds done by the Myanmar national staff, reminding me of seeing these things in the US

Pocong full of blues hahaha

Initially I couldn't flat on the throttle because they've forgotten to include the boost sensor but all is well :)

Tadaa...

Journey in meddling with Car Dynamics

Words like control, response, precise, grip etc. are …yeah… very much cliché whenever some blokes blabbering on car handling. But it is undoubtedly the key ingredient in making driving enjoyable enabling you to grin from ear-to-ear as you kiss the apexes after another. And I believe in that absolutely 100x100% before tax and excise duty.

My yuppie driving days started with the Waja, Satria GTi and now coming to 3 years of ownership, the Pocong (Polo GTI), I’ve always trying to meddle with things to get the word like responsive, precise, tenaciously grippy, and adjustable on the limits to be associated with these cars. Because having mediocre technically sounds, things I meddled doesn’t always ended up to be rosy as hoped. Nevertheless, trial & error exercise is a good thing to know which worked and which won’t.

I can still remember the first time I drove the Polo GTI. It was torquey little car courtesy of the ancient but potentially potent VAG 1.8T. But I suspect things just got half cooked plus trigger happy VAG cost cutting exercises, the car’s achilles heels are in the dynamics department. On stock form, it drives with reasonable feel from the steering (mimicking Mk1 Golf GTI which my parent used to own two decades back), city car nippy through the turns and very adjustable on the limits which I love very much. Ok that’s the brownies but now is the BUT part.

At high speeds, it’s just frantically nervous upon lane changes hence the main reason I named the car as Pocong, it doesn’t glide but it HOPS! Reasonable feel doesn’t mean precise or responsive, that’s what the steering feels, and in today’s hot hatch world, it falls back on the loathering line of the people’s mind. And when I had it reflashed for more grunt, Ulu Yam is a scary place to be because it shows how mad it behaves. I had lots and lots of goose bumps as I prayed it didn’t hops or hell somersault into the ravine should things goes south and thanks to stock brakes I always have to second guess whether I can brake on time not to kiss lorries upfront. I even took it to the no nonsense place – SIC. It was worst! But I knew it has the chassis that is good enough to be explored, that’s where the ‘what if change this’ wish lists went on like a disease rotten up my mind and my pocket.

The first thing I did was to replace the stock spring with H&R’s. Cosmetically, it lowers the car by about 30-35mm from stock 9N3 Polo. That’s good. With lower CoG and less axis movement, the car corners flatter, more rapid and precise through the turns just like a normal run-of-the-mill hot hatch is supposed to be. Although H&R’s is progressive by characteristics, because its shorter and stiffer spring rate, it doesn’t gels well with the stock dampers. That’s where it rides noticeably choppy on uneven highways.

Second on the list was the braking. Audi TT’s 312mmx25mm vented solid rotors with ATE 54mm single potter plus steel braided lines brings more stopping power especially from 200+ kmh. Even if the car punches out 200whp, it should do fairly well in assuring me not to kiss cars upfront. Higher temp pads and heavy duty slotted rotors would be a big plus on further complementing this setup. The only gripe for me is the rear. At 232mm diameter, it looks horribly pussy.

Other things like Seat Ibiza’s solid rubber bushings on the front wishbones build up on more solidity feel in nursing the trigger happy torque steer coming from 253nm flat from 3,000-5,00rpm. And more impressive is the Federal 595 RSR. Who would have thought that someone from Taiwan can make good tyres. It’s like this thing has gotten a great spell by the great Merlin in masking Pocong’s achilles heels by instilling very direct response from the steering and provide very very tenacious grips. Throughout my stint with these tyres, I’ve never been in overcooked situation on sunday drives. In fact the more it loosen the thread, the more grip it gives unlike AD07 I heard.

When the car’s mileage went up to 60k kms, I was short on cash for H&R coilovers and reluctantly ended up with SuperSport. It was the cheapest dampers I managed to get hold on to at €200 including shipping. That’s 50% cheaper than originals. What I didn’t know is it does its job unexpectedly well even compared to Koni yellows/Biestein B8. It rides with more immediate feedback through the steering, it corners flatter and cover more ground in terms of lateral grip with more fluidity rather than outright harshness. And speaking of fluidity, I sense that the SuperSport dampers give much more composure dealing with uneven and bumpy roads which means I don’t need to slow down to readjust the music volume and my wife shouldn’t get sick every time traveling on long distance. Well that’s until I ruined it when upsizing the wheels.

I’ve always wanted to copycat Mini Cooper S’s wider chassis allowing the ability to mesh the juice from the engine and it should stick to the road ala AWD rally machines hence the reason why I wanted to upsize the wheels. In doing so, I’ve to admit, this has ruined the ride fluidity, fuel mileage and much more damage on the credit card. But in essence, it does resulting in wider track, it corners with lesser flexes and this setup serves as a good foundation for more lateral grip once I ditch the ‘geli’ RE001 for RSR. Not now but soon.

With all that in place, I’m very much content with the car’s dynamic behaviour on the winding road and it’s ‘liveable’ on day-to-day driveability. Now, it gives MCS-like chunkability when approaching corners, good steering feel and covers more ground in terms of the lateral grip (would be even better with RSR soon). And yet this still retains the adjustability on the limit characteristics in which saves the car few times from t-boning the lamp posts as it tail out at speeds. Having done some joint exercise with friends on sunday mornings, I could sense that the car should be able to smell FD2R’s exhaust fumes on medium-high sweepers of Ulu Yam without being left out too far behind. That’s good enough in my mind as FD2R is a legend precision tool on that area of expertise.

The only problem is to get the power down cleanly on tight sequence of corners like Batang Kali to Genting uphill stretch. That’s where it couldn’t tight up its engine gut to defy the laws of physics unless of course LSD fitted. Second thing is I need to find ways to soothing the mid-corner braking reaction where it just wants to dance, great feeling but can get me a little off-guard. Hmmm…having thing long and hard, should I want to go further on this car dynamics subjects, it would be these things on my mind:

1. Heavy duty solid rubber or PU bushes on rear axle beam, rear spring perch, ARBs.
2. H&R monotube coilovers and get tuned by someone who obviously know what he’s doing and that would NOT be me.
3. H&R ARB 26mm front and 28mm rear.
4. VF Engineering End Links.
5. Wierchers CF struts bars.
6. Peloquin or Quaife LSD with automatic torque biasing.

Hmmm going to have a very sweet and wet dreams tonight!

Journey on fine tuning the dynamics still far and away...

Thanks to Mugil, I've learnt a thing or two on SIC

Alcantara

This is something worth salivating after…hmm alcantara-ing the steering, dashboard and centre console; easily make the car a serious gym machine for sunday drives and track day. Can’t wait till the hire-purchase loan come to an end so that I can do something like this without flinching…

Pocong's Specs

Some people have kept asking .... what you've done to Pocong? The answer is very very mild, nothing much to shout also. But not to disappoint, following is a compiled list of the current specs of the car. Pending for more funds injection, I fancy some additional stuff to pour in to reach 200whp which is pretty ideal and not going too far from being a bitch to drive daily.

Engine

Stock VAG BJX 1.8T 20V
1781cc in-line 4, 81mmx86.4mm
9.5:1 compression ratio
Cast aluminium alloy cylinder head
Grey cast iron blocks
81mm Mahle forged aluminium alloy pistons
Fracture-split forged steel connecting rods
Borg Warner K03S turbo
VAG SMIC
VF Engineering Race Bypass Valve
K&N drop-in filter

Exhaust System

Standard exhaust system

Electronics/Engine Management

Bosch Motronic ME 7.5
Direct Ignition with individual direct-acting coils
Unitronic Stg 1+ Reflashed
NGK BKR7E (0.028 gap) copper plugs

Transmission & Drivetrains

VAG 02R 5-speed manual
ECS Stg 1 Clutch Kit
ECS Single-mass 14lbs flywheel

Suspension

H&R sport spring
SuperSport short-stroke dampers
Seat Ibiza solid-rubber bushings
Ford Mondeo’s ARB links

Brakes

Front: VW 312mm x 25mm vented rotors
Front: Single pot ATE 54mm calipers
Front: Textar brake pads (Audi TT standard)
Rear: VW 232mm x 9mm solid slotted rotors
Rear: Single pot Lucas 38mm calipers
Rear: VW original brake pads
ECS Steel braided lines

Wheels & Tyres

Wedsport SA70 17x7.5 rims
Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE001 215/45/17 tyres

Dyno tests:

178.57whp/253.67nm on wheels at GT Auto (25/10/2008)
174.6whp/288.7nm on wheels at Millennium Motorsport Sunway (10/12/2010)

SuperSport Dampers

After so many of tak percaya ding dong by Kastam in regards to the price, at last the SuperSport dampers finally reached home. I can’t blame them really because in UK websites, they’re retailing almost £60 per piece. Oh well, I just can’t wait to get it installed at Alex’s place tomorrow followed by a little shakedown test on Sunday :)

SuperSport Dampers (1 set): €125
Shipping Charges: €69
Total: €197