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.