• Guest would you be interested in CUPRA or SEAT valve caps? let us know in the poll

  • Welcome to our new sponsor Lecatona, a brand dedicated to enhancing performance for VAG group sports cars, including SEAT, Audi, Volkswagen and Škoda. Specializing in High Pressure Fuel Pump (HPFP) upgrades.

IH786's LCR BBT K04 - Full spec list on page 1!! / Colour change - Finished?

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Just had a call from R Tech - the mapping has finished and final numbers are in...

330bhp.

Niki couldnt keep the EGTs down with the WMI so has mapped it to a safe 330bhp.

Now all along my aim was for 330, so I am pleased. Although I would have liked 340 more :D

The most important thing is the set up need to be reliable and set to a safe level - which is why its currently sitting at 330.

I am going to expirement to try and get egts down, maybe some colder plugs (NGK 8's instead of the 7's i'm running now) and possibly another WMI nozzle, do a few logs and see where I am at.

If I have some success I will get the map tweaked.

Need to discuss this all with Niki, but I am stuck in Carlisle for the next few days and won't be able to get to Hinkley till Saturday :cry:
 
Feb 14, 2012
684
0
Slough
Really nice mate, loving the grey brembo's. I am also seriously thinking about going down the hybrid route, after seeing your figures its definitely something I am considering. Did you get the launch control? Its so much fun
 

prawn

Active Member
Jan 29, 2008
183
1
Basingstole
car sounds fantastic mate, how are you enjoying it now that you have it back? it's a lovely looking setup for sure.

As you know, mine was mapped again last week too, and it's finally cracked that 350 figure leaving ****** with 353 from a very similar setup to yours.

It's all in the timing it would seem, Mine was very much like yours, at around 335-340bhp, with niki quoting yours at 21 degrees as the safe max it'd pull. then Niki decided to play with the timing, and found that the car would actually take up to 27 degrees of advance safely and produce over 350bhp with lower egt's than were experienced at 21 degrees.

I ended up leaving with 25.5 degrees, and it feels absolutely amazing!
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Its been a while since I updated - would love to say that I have spent these past few weeks enjoying my car - sadly that has not always been the case....

Ever since the car has been back on the road I have experienced a very annoying creaking noise, most noticeable at low speed when accelerating and braking. The front end also seemed quite unstable.

Now I didn't get much time to look at the suspension before the car went to R Tech to get mapped, so dropped the car off and had a good think about what the cause could be :think:

I decided that it had to be the compbrake top mounts. I also had issues with the driver side, the bearing felt very sloppy when i fitted it, and both sides kept getting loose, so much so that i ended up threadlocking it. I regretted that afterwards...

While the car was at R Tech I ordered these:

http://www.psituning.com/product.php/20097/polybush_polyurethane_top_mounts__pair____golf_mk4_etc___lupo_polo_6n_2

And

http://www.psituning.com/product.php/21130/polo_6n_top_caps___golf_mk4_etc___lupo_polo_6n_2

My thinking was OEM LCR top mounts are quite expensive, and these a poly so last forever.

Once I ordered them I started reading on various forums that lots of people have had problems with these mounts so started to get nervous.

Nevertheless the weekend I got the car back I decided to swap the top mounts.

This is when the trouble began...

Since I had threadlocked the comobrake mounts, they would not undo - even with air tools. Eventually the combination air tools and blowtorch to melt the threadlock did the trick on them, except for the driverside mount.

It just would not undo. The mounts have a steel collar which winds onto the threaded part of the mount, it started to undo but stopped and then just kept spinning around. No matter how hard I tried it would not come loose.

The only solution was to cut it :censored:

Luckily I am pretty good with an angle grinder and manged to get it cut fairly easily.

New mounts and bushes were fitted, easy job. I used the Polo 6N Top Caps, modified using the top section of the standard Leon Top Cap as the Polo ones are too small (as done by Murdered LCR on his R32).

All fitted they look like this:

P1070582.jpg


So did it cure the creaking??



No

:censored::censored::censored:

It wasn't until the following weekend when I noticed the creaking was getting worse. All of a sudden the car started to make a loud knocking noise. I had a look under the car. I noticed that:

1: The front subframe bolts were all loose
2: ALL the driveshaft bolts to the gearbox were loose, one had fallen off and the retaining clip had started to make a gouge in the gearbox casing....

Tightened everything up, new bolts in the driveshafts were threadlocked in and the noise and creaking disappeared :whistle::whistle:

I felt like a bit of a donut. The top mounts didn't need changing. I had also ordered some 034 Motorsport solid subframe bushings as I thought these were the cause of the noise before I made my discovery:

http://www.wotmotorsport.com/034_Motorsport_Audi_8LVW_MK4_front_soild_subframe_bushings/p1556518_7449752.aspx

Still fitted them, very easy to do, didn't need to remove the subframe, just undid all 4 bolts, loosened the rack bolts and removed the dog bone mount bolts to the gearbox, the subframe drops down enough to give you room to remove and fit the bushes. Old ones pop out easily, just needed a light tap with a screwdriver and hammer.

That is not the end to my suspension woes. Everytime I turn quickly to the left the ESP kicks in.

I did get the tracking done before the car was mapped and reset the steering angle sensor. Not sure why it comes on. I just switch it off as soon as I start the car now.

Am going to take it to get a proper 4 wheel alignment to see if that will cure it, also to make sure nothing on the suspension is bent or damaged. Am a little confused as to why it is doing it :confused::confused:
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
So, suspension issues sorted (aside from the ESP issue which is still unsolved) I could finally enjoy the car.... unfortunately not.

You may have seen that when my car went for mapping, one of the oil cooler pipes had come off and the car spat out all its oil onto R Tech's dyno.

The cause of this was cheap jubilee clips, which were replaced and all was good.

I thought that was the end of it - how wrong I was....

Had a job in London for work. On the way to the clients my undertray comes off on the motorway, had to rip it off on the hard shoulder and shove it in the back.

Few days later I am driving back home from London on the M1 late (around 8pm). The traffic was pretty heavy so not going much above 60ish. Finally it gets a bit clear so decide to put my foot down a bit. All is going well - car picks up speed great.

A few seconds later the red oil light is on the dash :censored::censored::censored:

Not sure what to do, I am in the outside lane doing 80ish, for a few seconds I think it is a sensor problem and hope the light will go out, it doesn't.

Decide to pull over, I see a sign for Watford Gap service station, so slow the car down and pull into the service station. The oil light has been on for no more than a minute.

As I leave the motorway the engine starts to make a tapping sound, I dip the clutch to drop the revs, the noise stops. Stop the car and open the bonnet - oil everywhere [:@]

I have no tools in the car. It is pitch black and pretty cold. Go over to the petrol station to buy some oil and wipes to clean up the mess.

Borrowed a screwdriver off some random guy in the car park and using my mobile phone as a light manage to get the pipe back on. It hard as oil is EVERYWHERE and my hand are covered, despite my best efforts to clean up the mess.

Before starting the car I disconnected the injectors and cranked the engine a few times to ensure oil reached all the places it needs to get to. Then connect the injectors back up and try to start the car.

The car turns over but won't fire up. Check all the wiring, plugs etc. No difference :censored:

Called my dad to come and rescue me, told him to bring his OBD2 code reader (cheap £30 ebay thing). About an hour later he arrives. Scan the car, few codes relating to fuel injector something came up, cleared them and the car fired up straight away :D

Drove home very slowly. Engine sounded fine - thank god.

Following morning I had a look at the bay - it is a real mess. I cleaned and degreased as much as I could. The pipe came off at the sandwich plate connection again. This meant oil fit the fans and radiator first. I lost around 4 litres of oil in total.

Damn lucky the engine doesn't seem to be damaged. Lucky I was right by a service station.

So what caused the pipe to come off this time?

I realised that I had used a cable tie to secure the pipe to the slam panel, but the pipe was held too tight, not giving itself enough room to move and the engine moves. Eventually this forces the pipe to come off from the connection with the sandwich plate.

Also the fittings on the cooler itself are not that great - probably OK for NA engine but not for turbo cars running high boost.

So even though I was confident that the problem would be solved by simply removing the cable tie - I ordered some aeroquip hose and fittings, which went on this past weekend.

The aeroquip fittings are a very hard to get onto the hose, lots of heat and oil and force is required to get them on, all very reassuring!

Also the fittings are a bit bigger than the old ones, which means I could not get the top bumper trim to fit:

P1070585.jpg


Looks a bit ugly, my fault for having such a large cooler in the first place. I need to get a custom bumper bar made up which will allow the cooler to sit lower. In the meantime I am just glad to have pipes which I know won't come off.

There are some side effects of this whole episode. Firstly oil is lodged between the front panel, fans and radiator. Everytime I drive the car and the fans come on more oil gets flicked into the engine bay. This was quite annoying at first, thought it was still leaking.

This has started to stop now, most of the oil has come out but I have been constantly cleaning the bay for a while.

As I mentioned earlier, oil got EVERYWHERE, when I took the air filter off I noticed a pool of oil in the metal joiner between the filter and MAF. Gave the filter a good clean (twice).

So if the filter got oily, and the joiner between the filter and MAF got oily, guess what else got oily?? Yep the MAF.......

Took it off and had a look, oil was all over the sensor. I had just replaced the MAF with a brand new OEM one before it got mapped - they are not cheap.

And the inevitable happened, car started to overboost and engine light came on. Error code P0102 MAF circuit low input.

I have cleaned the sensor and housing using electric contact cleaner. Sensor comes off using a security torx size T25.

Since I have cleaned the sensor the engine light has not come on - but the car still overboosts to 25 and sometimes even 28PSI. I think I may need to replace the MAF again, despite this one only doing around 500 miles or so :censored:

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse - my clutch has started slipping :cry::cry::cry:

It does it in 3rd gear at around 5k or so. This is when the car is overboosting at its highest level (nearly 30 PSI).

I also think the clutch may have been contaminated with oil, it is very possible considering the amount of oil the engine spat out.

The SMF setup I am running is not great. Main issue (apart from the slipping) is the noise I get from the flywheel - it is pretty annoying. The fluidampr pulley hasn't stopped the noise at all - although there are no vibrations whatsoever.

I wish I had bought the Awesome Gti SMF kit - but I bought the Fidanza SMF and Sachs clutch kit a while ago, before the Awesome kit even came out. So I am stuck with it.

Hopefully once I sort out the overboost issue it will stop slipping - could do without having to spend another £600 right now :(
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
car sounds fantastic mate, how are you enjoying it now that you have it back? it's a lovely looking setup for sure.

As you know, mine was mapped again last week too, and it's finally cracked that 350 figure leaving ****** with 353 from a very similar setup to yours.

It's all in the timing it would seem, Mine was very much like yours, at around 335-340bhp, with niki quoting yours at 21 degrees as the safe max it'd pull. then Niki decided to play with the timing, and found that the car would actually take up to 27 degrees of advance safely and produce over 350bhp with lower egt's than were experienced at 21 degrees.

I ended up leaving with 25.5 degrees, and it feels absolutely amazing!

Saw what your car made - your are my hero and have to admit am a little jealous mine didn't quite hit the heights yours did :2nd:

At the moment I am a bit scared to drive the car fast - with the clutch slipping and overboosting issues :(

I have also had the intercooler pipe from the TB pop off too. But I now carry some tools with me so that was easily fixed.

Have to say when the car was working properly (before the motorway episode) it was epic :D

Such an animal in damp conditions, the way it picks up speed is a little scary - takes your breath away.

Once all my niggly issues have been sorted I am going to try and eek some more power out of my car. Main course of action is to try and play around with WMI nozzle sizes and locations, spark plugs (running 7's will try 8's), phenolic gasket and..

I notice you are running the Badger 5 TIP, I have a SFS 3" one. Seen a few post by Niki on FB saying he thinks the Badger 5 flows best on Hybrid Relentless setups.

My friend has a Badger 5 TIP on his car which I am going to 'borrow' to do a few logs to see which one is best - should be interesting :whistle:

Once I am happy my tweeks have worked I will be paying Mr Gower another visit to see if he can squeeze a few more hp out [B)]

Be warned - I will be picking your brain in the next few months :D
 
Last edited:

wild willy

Full Member
Aug 4, 2003
2,323
0
Wales
Hi Mate,
what wmi nozzle are you running. Your spec looks great, as soon as these niggles are sorted i'm sure you will be a happy bunny. The Badger 5 Tip does outflow the SFS one;) and worth considering.
i would be looking to optimise your wmi setup to make best use of potential timing available.
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Hi Mate,
what wmi nozzle are you running. Your spec looks great, as soon as these niggles are sorted i'm sure you will be a happy bunny. The Badger 5 Tip does outflow the SFS one;) and worth considering.
i would be looking to optimise your wmi setup to make best use of potential timing available.

Hi mate

When I dropped the car off at R Tech it had the middle sized nozzle fitted - a few inches before the TB.

I had bought a 2nd nozzle set too and took that along with me. Niki decided to go with a twin nozzle setup:

P1070584.jpg


There is a port for a nozzle after my TB on the adaptor plate i got from RobDon when he broke his car.

Not sure what nozzle sizes it is running. Prawn is running the middle nozzle i believe - and it is just a few inches after the FMIC. I am going to do the same, and like you say optimise the WMI to try and get it perfect.
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Well its time for my first update of 2013 :D

2012 did not end well - to summarise I had the following issues:

Overboosting
Slipping clutch
ESP kicking in when I turn left
Oil covered engine bay

So how has 2013 been so far? Well just as bad!

None of the problems have been fixed yet. Main problem I have is my car is needed to get me to and from work - I can't afford to take it off the road for a long time to fix things.

Decided it would be a good idea to buy a winter car to drive around in so I could fix the LCR and get it running right.

So went and bought this:

P1070632_zpsff4f28bc.jpg


Got it off eBay for £1800 just before xmas. Car had just had a recon turbo, new clutch, rear springs and calipers fitted for its MOT. But apparently an engine pipe was missing and it kept cutting out.

No problem for me - got loads of pipes lying around so knew I could fix it.

Car was in Edinburgh - 300 miles away. Went up to collect it. The SAI pipe was broken - fixed it easily with a bit of rubber hose and tape :D

Scanned the car on VCDS and it had a few codes - crank sensor and oil pressure switch. Cleared the codes and checked to see if the sensors were plugged in (they were) and the codes didn't come up again.

Had car running for about 30 mins - seemed ok but as soon as you put the clutch in it would cut out :confused::confused:

Anyway decided to try and drive it - once it got moving it wouldn't cut out.

After a couple of minutes the oil pressure light came on. Now I thought this was the error code coming up again so though nothing of it - bad mistake!

After about 5-10 mins the car was losing speed and sounded like it had a terrible exhaust blow. Pulled over and opened the bonnet. A lot of heat was coming from the engine bay - engine sounded like a tractor :censored:

Game over - it was a blocked oil pump....

I keep asking myself why did I drive the car when the light came on - I should know better. I have seen it so many times. Sold so many engines to people who have had the same problem, changed the pickup pipe on my own car and read about it so many times online.

Car was recovered back by the AA (my dad was with me and he has membership)

Got the car home and decided to break it - no point putting it back on the road its just not worth it.

Weather has stopped me from stripping it fully but one thing I noted was whoever changed the turbo used the same bolts for the turbo/mani and the all wound loose - there was a huge gap between the turbo and manifold (not helped by the fact they had cut the support bracket) - so this was the cause of the exhcaust blow I could hear and lack of performance.
 
Last edited:

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
So if that wasn't bad enough - my LCR decided to keep piling on the misery - newest issue was the WMI is siphoning.

This is a common fault on AEM kits - the nozzles have a check valve which seems to fail on an alarming basis.

As a result the water meth leaks into the pipes when the car is not running - well just all the time. I have a dual nozzle setup on the car and was losing half a tank a day [:@]

So for the moment the WMI has been removed.

Oh and I almost forgot. Does anyone remember the heavy rainfall we had before Christmas??

I do:

20121230_134455_zps85d21712.jpg


20121230_134517_zps28467544.jpg


Thankfully this was an easy fix - sealed up both driver side door using the proper VAG seal cord (bought it for my wifes Golf a few years ago and still had loads left)

Happy to say this is one problem that has been fixed!
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Now since my winter car lasted all of 10 minutes - I have been back in my LCR.

Didn't drive it much in the snow - used the wifes Golf (with winter tyres) as much as I could.

So what are the plans for 2013? Well I need to fix:

Overboost
Dodgy WMI
Slipping clutch
ESP light coming on all the time I turn left

Also my car needs a respray desperately - its a real mess

As you can imagine all of this is not cheap - especially the clutch and respray.

If I added up all the money I have spent on my car I think I would cry.

So drastic times call for drastic measures........

And so I decided to ditch my SEM :cry:

Quite simply I think I can get back pretty much what I paid for it (£500 with 75mm TB) which will pay for a new clutch at the very least.

Also Prawn & Welly (on Audi-Sport) both managed more power than me on standard inlet manis.

So the weekend just gone my engine bay has gone from:

P1070583.jpg


To:

20130203_143008_zpsb8cbe597.jpg


The OEM mani looks so weedy in comparison! I will get the manifold powder coated in the same colour as the charge pipe and valve cover soon.

Bought a forge MAP pipe and used the uprated OEM style intercooler hose mated to my FMIC piping:

20130203_143014_zps5f939d9e.jpg


Those of you with a keen eye will notice the WMI pipe has been disconnected.

Not a big issue as WMI hasn't been running for a while due to the siphoning. I am getting a bung welded on a pipe and it will be fitted just after the FMIC - so a change of approach there (close to FMIC outlet rather than right next to mani as before)

I have not totally downgraded - decided to treat the car a little:

20130202_135146_zpsdc8a2b1e.jpg


20130202_135134_zps66935677.jpg


Transition phenolic spacer gasket - needed since the OEM mani is small port and head is large port. This gasket it far thicker than the Newsouth one I had before on the SEM.

Also got this:

20130202_154835_zps4c8cd325.jpg


Badger 5 V2.2 TIP to replace the SFS. Would have been nice to do some head to head comparisons - which I was planning to do but couldn't be bothered (not possible at moment due to overboosting anyway).

Niki at R Tech did comment that the V5 TIP flows more and makes a bigger difference on a hybrid setup so that was good enough for me :D
 
Feb 14, 2012
684
0
Slough
The SEM intake is a bit over kill on Hybrids I think. As you said Prawn has managed just fine without it. Money would be better spent on the clutch.
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
So what next?

Well the clutch slipping is still here and needs to get fixed.

The question is - what caused the clutch slip in the first place? I have a few theories:

1. I used a second hand flywheel and pressure plate. Although in good condition and cleaned and prepped properly - I do think it would have been better with an all new kit?

2. The overboosting caused a spike in torque that the clutch couldn't handle. The slipping did happen soon after the overboosting started to take hold?

3. Contamination caused by the oil leaks (both when mapped and when I did it on the M6).

Hard to know for sure - maybe a combination of all 3 :confused:

One thing is for sure - I dropped the sump this week to change the oil pump (did it as a precaution - gods knows why I didn't do it when I built the engine - another failure by me!)

And I noticed the bell housing of the gearbox is covered in a think black later of filth and grease. When I installed the box and engine I degreased the bellhousing and it was spotless.

Must have happened when I had the oil leaks - the oil just went everywhere!

So what to do now?

Well I did my research and saw that a few guys with BT Audis (tufty and Hollie (TT) run the standard DMF and pressure plate with a Sachs paddle clutch:

http://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/sachs-sre-performance-clutch-disc-for-6-speed-02m-dual-mass-flywheel.html

Now I have a new pressure plate (from the S3) and managed to get a new DMF for a very good price.

So just the clutch plate to get. Now I could get the Sachs one - but found this:

http://www.performanceclutch.co.uk/to-fit-original-twin-mass-flywheel/78-3313-audi-twin-mass-paddle-plate-2092726-403741-.php

Decided to go for the Helix as it is cheaper - and is essentially the same thing (4 Paddle Cerametallic)

Also I feel slightly peeved at the idea of buying another Sachs clutch after the last one lasted less than 2,000 miles!

Now when I ordered (on Tuesday) the Sachs was £260 + VAT - now its showing at £225 :censored::censored:

Another fail :cry:

Nevertheless I think this setup will do the job for me. If it works on cars with much more power and torque than mine then I can't go wrong...

Also I hate the SMF on my car with a passion. It is f00king awful - the noise is unbearable and I am sick of it. Wouldn't mind so much if the stupid thing didn't slip [:@]
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
So moving onto the next few problems - WMI siphoning.

As mentioned earlier the nozzle checkvalves failed - I was losing half a tank a day.

WMI has been disabled and I am going to fit a solenoid. This will ensure no water meth will enter the nozzle when the car or WMI is switched off.

AEM do not offer a solenoid in their kits (the checkvalve built into the nozzle is meant to do that job - it doesn't)

So most people go for the devils own solenoid:

http://www.methanol-injection.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=41

Its not cheap - luckily for me my brother had a spare solenoid off his kit (running on his 335i) which he gave to me for free :D

All I needed were some new fitting (he broke them) got some new ones off eBay for £6

So once the bung has been welded onto my FMIC pipe will get round to re-installing the kit to my car.

Also wiring in an on - off switch to turn the WMI controller off when its not needed (motorway driving etc).
 
Last edited:
Adrian Flux insurance services - discount for forum members.