Some off site development :)

Reviewing my performance on the track, I have found, that I can get use from shift light. So I developed some digital one:

Development:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2338982599823033755&hl=en

Testing:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7589142863918180962&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3837530617030326719&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=993669843614644269&hl=en

Prototype is a bit raw, but does the work. I am planning to make it 4 or 5 led bar, like on WRC Groholm's peugeot.

Some news, some pictures :)

If you are watching this space - you may have noticed, that there are no updates for last few month's. Actually I'm still busy with my human carrier, work, personal life, etc. However there's some progress. I just was too lazy to write those small things here ;).

First, at the end of September, while it was dry and shiny (and the last day for the "summer" insurance), went for a spin, with G-Meter attached. Clutch slipped badly, but after few runs, I've managed to get this 0-60 time:Not bad for my heavy underpowered coupe with destroyed clutch...

Maybe the shiny logo was the reason? Here is the satisfied smile after a run (oil on pavement is not from it ;))
Note that the blue samco in a picture was replaced by exactly the same looking, but different shape and measurements one. Now it sits more in a place, and I don't need piece of black hose any more. That was last blown hose at the track. Hope it will be the last ever ;).

And of course old/new flywheel and clutch (not in a picture, it just standard remanufactured SACHS disk, and LUK pressure plate). Happy revving awaits :)~
Thing looks little dirty, but it is in good condition. Decided no to go ebay 6 puck way, because got light flywheel and remanufactured SACHS dirty cheap. Let's hope it will hold my harsh clutch engagement.

Just to show, that something is done at the garage

At the moment I'm busy with my human carrier (trying to fight the rust somehow, and paint places which rusted). I use spray putty to fill scratches. It takes time to dry before you can spray new layer. So there's some time which can be spent on better purpose than watching the wall ;).

Somebody maybe noticed, that front grille is from old typ81 coupe. It carries 5E logo, not the quattro inscription. It's not terribly wrong, but it's good when it's better. Found quattro logo from my old 80 laying in pile of rubbish at the garage. It was quite worn out after 20 years of trusty service. So decided to refresh it a bit. Here are pictures of the progress:And the final result (looks about 7 from 10, but much better than original condition):

One month resume

So, just to brake the silence a bit. Resume of the month, that passed. It was really more shopping time, than working with car.

Bought IR thermometer. Very nice toy. Found, that my oil temperature gauge lies about 10-15 degrees which is good :). And that water temperature gauge doesn't lie to me. Which is also good.

Bought some cheap accelerometer. Measures G's, acceleration, horsepower, breaking distance. Seems to be not very optimistic (like Tesla G-Meter old versions were). Measured friends 220v - 10.2 seconds 0-100, 54 meters 100-0. That's very non optimistic, which is good ;).

Still thinking what clutch to buy, was offered SPEC, clutchnet (very expensive race piece) and local made one. Tend to buy local one together with new pressure plate from LUK or SACHS.

Also the main point is roll cage selection. Yes, the beautiful interrior must go. It's sad, I don't like very much, however I like my health more, so sane mind won. It will be professional roll cage this winter in the car. This means complete tearing apart whole thing (I promise pictures).

One more thing - cleaned the car (especialy wheels) and went to local audi show:
My car was standing in the very respectfull company of rally-cross urquattro, and heavy modified red ur (only white wheel is in the picture).

2007.08.10 - kupplung schaden :(

In short - put aggresive chip inside moronic, went to race track, ruined clutch. It seems that clutch plate or pressure plate leaf spring gave up. Pedal is soft, max speed is ~130kmph, engine happily revving at higher speeds, and the speed is not rising. Back in to the garage for a looong time (no planned funds for the new clutch and pressure plate). Will pull engine and box someday. Maybe in autumn? Silence starts...

Searching for the boost leak

Due to low boost (1.3 bar instead of 1.5) searched for the boost leak. Spent half of the day trying to pump up the system, however it was not possible with one pump. The air was escaping faster than I was able to pump. So I've tightened the clamps again and went to some drive :) :

video

Also during the drive (not in video), tried to run sharper in one usual corner - massive understeer at low speed :(. Bad wheel alignment is serious for handling. Will try to align front myself. Will see what that will bring ;).

Exaust bump stop

Still fighting with exaust movement. After my rubber/duct tape temporary item melted at the track (after boost hose blew off, and the exaust was really hot), exaust pipe was happily melting the rear bumper. So I need something more rigid. Yes, and more clamps ;). Here is the result:
Adding more flexibility benefits whole system, now the engine is not trying to break the exaust off the turbo, but pushes rubber. After engine returns to the initial position - the exaust returns also. Went to the street for a test drive - after some pushing, exaust still in place. Good :). For some reason DVR refused to record this run. This is bad. I think I need to rethink whole on-board camera concept.

Alternator and stuff

The pain is gone, so it's time to check why alternator is not charging battery. Took out voltage regulator with the brushes. They are worn, but ok. Replaced whole unit with the 14.5v aftermarket one - just to be on the safe side.And as expected - nothing good happened. No battery warning light, no charging on start. Okay, that means dirty job awaits...

After checking bulbs, tracing schematics and wiring, I have found where blue wire from the alternator ends (near driver legs, red 1 pin connector). Checked the wire - it's clearly shot. So it's time to do a new one. Just made single lying wire, hope it will not rub to anything (fixed it with cable ties) and the car will not burn...
Now battery light is on with ignition, and it seems, that battery is charged without rising rpm. Good.

2007.07.19 fitting samco's

The day started by badly injuring my little finger. Good thing, that it happened to the left hand, and another good thing is that the bones were intact. Started to work at the garage only in the evening, instead of entire day :(.
First took out old intake. Looks strange, isn't it?
It's not so restrictive as it might look, but was really PITA to make. And the elbows are poping from the hoses all the time. That's because engine is moving under load and the intercooler - is not. This radial movement turns elbow out of the hose (due to it's bent surface, elbow tries to exit hose when you turn it around).

So I have installed this thingy right after the turbo:
Now the hoses have space to move. Also replaced three SS elbows with two, changing diameter silicon hoses. Those are more flexible than SS, so now hoses should not be under stress by the engine. No photos of the hosing, because it was done on the fly underneath the car. Only the final result (bumper was cut more after drive test ;))
Also found, that I have tightened the clamp for the BPV a bit too much:
Poor thing doesn't seem to be very happy with it. Hope it will hold the boost without leaks.

2007.07.12-18 vacations

Driving my human carrier, visiting places of interest and resting. A lot.
No time in garage, so nothing interesting to put into blog.

2007.07.10 SAMCO'S!

Finally, my SAMCO silicon elbows have arrived. It's a pity, that I'm leaving for vacations. I hope that they will be a key to stop damn boost hoses blowing from the turbo.

2007.07.09 The track...

So went to the racing track. Again. First two laps were OK, and then... Turbo hose blew again. Stopped near the track, put strongest clamp I have (Norma), and it popped after half of the lap. Then I've ditched MTM chipped ECU, and started to run with stock ABY one. Things went better. With no need to worry aboud boost hoses, made around 20 laps.

Very satisfied with the brakes. No noises, vibrations or other problems. Of course they are very hard. When you are braking from 180+km/h, it really requires physical force to make sufficient decelleration.

Not satisfied with suspension. Due to rear spacers, now all four wheels are touching the arches... Very bad feeling when you are cornering, and feel that the tires are rubbing the body. Same on hard braking.

After tracking the car, noticed two things. First - that oil temperatures rise to 170C when pushing hard, and cool to 120C after half of the cooling lap. Next, that I've lost battery charging. For some reason alternator refused to charge. Tried to move wiring a bit, and it started to work. Very strange...

No photos or video footage from the event. Sorry, for some reason DVR was not recording anything.

2007.07.08 Optimizations

It was raining. So it's time for small jobs to do. First dropped few clamps and L pieces from the PCV system. Now it looks much simplier and reliable. From what I recall, I have made it so sophisticated just because had no apropriate length hose at that time...Next step was intake tract. Threw away 3b throttle body reducing piece, and put 76mm SS elbow with welded pipe for the ISV. Not very good looking, however does the job well:

Now car is ready for the track. Let's see what it will bring.

Video lab, or on board cam installation and testing

Brought all video related stuff to the garage. Put it in the car, and realized, that I have nothing to make preview what I will record. I mean DVR has no screen, so I can see what I am recording only at home, using PC. That's bad. Checked local web pages, and found ideal thing for me - B&W auto TV, which has sound defect (I don't need sound preview, because you cannot mount mic upside down :)). Picked it dirty cheap (~10eur), and suprisingly it works. It also runs from car battery, and you can look at it whilst driving. Good. Now I'm ready.

Connected camera to the tv, and started to search for the place for it. First I was thinking to mount it to the metal headrest part of the passengers seat, but it appeared too low position to see what's happening outside the car. So I've took two cable ties and tried to fix camera on soft headrest part. Perfect. One more possible position was rear passenger's "oh-shit" handle, however, it requires some sophisticated 3d adjustable mount to work good. That's why cable ties won:Microphone (that temporary fixing was replaced later by cable tie :)):

Havent' done DVR and all cables mounting and fixing to something, so everything lied as a mess:

Note black box - that's my microphone amplifier. Final overview of the "on board video system":

Here is result from it:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2799531820604317264

On board camera

Finally. Spent lot's of time and effort to get onboard cam. First idea was to mount my trusty SONY TRV-250, but it's size, weight and durability put me in doubt. After browsing some auto forums, and e-bay, I found, that now new approach to on-board video exists. Digital Video Recorders (DVR). Those things are recording to memory cards, so it means no moving parts inside. They are light (also from safety point of view) and relatively cheap. So the saga has began :).

First I've got digital DVR. It's very cheap, with shipping it's about 100$. Yeah right, what you pay is what you get... The thing appeared to be purely designed by China, not a copy of some more finished product. Extremely crappy. Build quality is also scarying raw. Also missed some text in description, and haven't noticed, that it only records half of the PAL frame. That's bad. However it works.Quality is crappy, but at this point it's not so important. Next step was to get some input for this thing. Video was easy - just picked cheap lipstick camera. The sound was something more sophisticated - my DVR has no mic in, only AUDIO IN. There were two possible ways - first to get mic with amplifier (like for e-bay), or other was to use microphone capsule, and make amplifier myself. After some thinking - I made amp myself. It works suprisingly well, no matter, that it's simple as five cents. Cost of whole amp+mic (for materials), is around 5$. If you know how to solder. Here is the schematics (power supply part is omitted, because it supposed to run on batteries, but I've used 7809 and 12v directly from car battery).

Now, when all parts are working together, it's time to bring all this video lab to the garage!

2007.06.16 the presentation

So, car is chipped, clamps on the hoses are tightened - it's time for the little show :). Few friends of mine, came to check, how things go. Before they come, I've decided to check damn caliper once more. Now with the thick stickers. I've attached them to the caliper suspicious places to find out, where it touches the wheel. Shaved about mm at one place, and found, that it's really not caliper itself is doing major touching, but the brake pad steel part. Took angle grinder, and seriously rounded the pad steel part. Put on the wheel, went for a ride - CURED! At least at non race braking/speeds no touching wheel at all. That's very good.

"Presentation" also went smooth as silk, no blown hoses, no problems at all.

Boost magic, or caliper carrier strikes again...

So exaust pipe fixed, transmission mount fixed, boost hoses reinforced with high strength clamps, caliper aligned. OK, sounds like time to test chipped ECU!

First run few km's testing the car, listening to the noises, warming the engine. Everything runs perfect, no cars on the street (it's Sunday early morning in the industrial district of my hometown). Time to boost a little and bed in brakes. After third stop, same noise which I've heard on the race track - tatatatatata from the right front wheel. Cooled brakes a bit - noise stopped. Good sign.

Now it's time for the chips :). I have put MTM stage I chip to the ECU. Car on the third, rolling around 60km/h, full throttle - here it goes lovely ~1.3 bar. That's neat. Good acceleration, followed by nice bang from exaust when switching gears. I like this car. Tried to do standing start - 1st, 2nd - full boost, and "PAF!!!", boost hose gave it. Short field repairs (I was carrying half of my garage (tools and spares) in the boot :D), and it runs again. Tried to accel to fourth, that is quite fast. And heavy braking after that. Was impressed how the car brakes, but the noise from the caliper said - it's enough for today! Brake pad metal part was cutting around 2mm deep into the wheel. I could feel it on the car rolling. I definately need new caliper carriers :(.
Also ordered silicone reducing diameter elbows to eliminate changing diameter sections in the intake, because those are weak parts in my intake design (all blown hoses blew in those parts).

I need clamps, lot's of clamps!

No pictures today. Sorry.

Next step was re-clamping half of the pressurized intake with high strenght clamps (passengers side, because drivers side is already done). It's whole snake's nest there ;).

After re-doing bunch of clamps, it's time for the brakes. Disassembled whole front right brake, and saw, that it's not right at all. The problems in one package - first, as I've suspected, the caliper bracket was not having good contact with the strut. Due to typ85 strut construction, it should precisely match machined part of the strut. It needed around one mm to have full contact. Easily corrected that with file. Next, let's see how caliper contacts the carrier. Not very good, also caliper touches the wheel (wheel is bent a little). Where is my angle grinder?

It looked like I've shaved only ~0.5 mm, but maybe it's blur after being sick, or just I'm stupid - 2mm, and with the angle. Damn! Took a file, and managed to correct the angle a bit. So needed to put 2.5mm aluminium washer, and this made wheel to be even closer to caliper. What to do? Measured where it touches caliper, and shaved around milimeter (with a file this time). With pain in my heart of course, because it's hard to do such barbarism to 300eur worth performance part :(. Was pretty much satisfied with results - wheel spinning freely, caliper is aligned better than before. Brake bedding and test will tell how it is.

After two weeks of being sick...

Went to garage again. Still a bit weak and fuzzy, but in much better mood. So, where we stopped? Ah - the transmission mount. Drilled few holes (because wanted to work it in two ways, like stock), and made it a bit more original :). 034efi stuff is much more harsh (motorsport grade), because it is single movement only (bolt stops any tensioning).

Here is final "product" (rubber appeared much more soft, when pushed with M6 bolts):
Two smaller bolts are holding rubber bound to the aluminium, and big bolt comes through a hole in the aluminium and bolts to the gearbox leg. Between gearbox and rubber there are pile of washers, which also go through a hole in the aluminium.

If the bolts will come through rubber under load, then I think I will add aluminium disk instead of washers. Then rubber thingy only will work as flexible element. I can replace them every week - price is only 2euro in local sport's store...

Transmission mount nightmare

As I wrote before, that weekend I've started to feel sick. Having no idea why I feel so tired, started to work on torn transmission mount:
One more thing I have noticed, that due to complications when mounting engine, it sits a bit at the angle, and "rests" on this poor rubber mount. I think that's why it failed (it was orginal VAG part). So I had hard choice - used orginal mount, new non orginal mount (rubbish, but expensive), and fabricate my own. Yes, from ice hockey things :).
This is not my idea BTW. I've read about such way of doing it in some nordic audi forum. So I took some aluminium and started to fabricate mount:

After measuring it underneath the car (and working on ladder) I started to feel so badly, that stopped working, and went home.

Dexter, should you get those fixed?

Next weekend after TA, the repairs started. Haven't made something important, because as it appeared later, I have got an digestional infection that day...

First dealed with exaust pipe. It appeared, that center section of the exaust is mounted opposite. So I switched ends. So much better fit underneath the car!

Also dealed a bit with clamps holding the end pipe in position. The problem was, that they are made from stainless steel, which expands a lot under heat. That's why clamps became loose. Ok, let's put some rubber to compensate that (powerflex mount was used):
Now even if long clamps expand - strong urethane rubber still holds the pipe in place. Note nice yellow color too ;).

TimeAttack...

As expected, trouble was waiting anywhere I went. First it was chaos and lack of information from organizers, so it fucked up my mood :(.

And the problems - for some reason right front brake caliper bracked started to flex when hot (bad contact area with the strut?). When I brake, caliper touches the wheel and gives "nice" ding ding noise. Second - gearbox mounts gave their last... Engine and gearbox started to move and loosening exaust pipe fittings. After that exaust pipe was riding on the rear inner CV joint, givin more "ding ding" noise. After two stops to check it, I've decided, that it's not critical, and I need to complete at least one round. Pushed a bit, and at the end of the straight boost hose blew. So needed to "rest" half an hour to fix it. Not very comfortable in some wet clay-like ground with racing boots and the cars going into braking point at about 150-190km/h. After this I finnaly gave up "racing" and joined the spectators.

This picture I'm still driving my favourite turn (old oak's turn). For some reason it fits my car well. I always really enjoyed this part of the track.

Ready for per4m TimeAttack!

Finished making my 29c512 to 87c257 chip converter. In human language this means that now I can put rewriteable chips in the ECU. Fast programming, fast erase. Now I can have whole arsenal of different software versions in one box and change if necessary (87c257 chip, which motronic uses for boost is very rare and expensive part).

Changed camber of front passenger's side wheel - to maximum. This should save me some tires on the track. Also it should give more grip on the track (which contains left handers mostly).

Street testing revealed that due to big spacers - front wheels are touching fender arches. This is bad, because front springs are too soft. Solved this issue by adding two rubber rings to the spring on the right, and one on the left. Front lifted about 2cm. Hope this will be enough for track.

Washed the car and added sticker - nothing to prove...

Bondaged exaust pipe end with glass fiber tape. Maybe this will prevent melting of plastic parts nearby.

Blog created

First post of my blog. From now all major modifications will be put here.