2010 MK2 Leon Cupra R - Build from Stock - Stage 2+ (and beyond) including DIY guides

[gurpz94]

Hi all,

I was looking for a hot hatch that I could get insured on in London, had a nice interior and something quite rare. After looking at Audi S3s, Golf Rs etc I wasn't wow'd by them.. Then I found this beast:

I picked it up bog standard. It had a few factory options including the Nav + (I HATE the standard one... sorry to anyone who has it). Unfortunately mine didn't come with Bi-Xenon headlights but I was happy with this trade off. My wife being the amazing negotiator she is managed to get my a total of £2k off (1k extra for my px and 1k lower than the purchase price).

I post updates on my LCR, new mods, how-to's & more on my wife's
YouTube channel. I've linked videos that we've done on each mod for anyone who's interested (confirmed this is OK with staff members).

Here's a few things that I've done since purchase, more will be added to this post as we go along:

- RamAir Oversized Air Intake (I actually ordered this before I even bought the car)
- eBay short shifter
- Revision G diverter valve
- APR stage 1
- Error-free LED sidelights
- Full interior LED light conversion
- Eibach lowering springs
- Cam follower changed day after purchase
- PCV valve changed day after purchase
- THS intercooler - Cleaning, polishing & flushing out before fitting the THS intercooler

Future plans, hopefully in order of what I'll do next:

- Splitter
- Spacers
- Anti lift kit
- Turbo back exhaust system, looking into BCS or Trackslag
- Vis internals on HPFP
- Michelin PS4s once the current ones are ready to change
- Personalised plate for this car
- Various engine/gearbox mounts, bushes etc

Depending on when this list is done, if I have a 2nd car I'll go stage 3 with the LCR.

A bit of history if anyone is interested:

My first car was a MK4 Golf, 1.6l weapon...not...

Then I discovered the world of car audio and... there goes my pay check every month

Few videos of what this could do.. I don't have any videos of when I upped the power but at the final build I hit 157.2dB

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6iqpvzhrvz0c3hd/20140512_115944.mp4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q3tiasngce71o59/VID-20141122-WA0006.mp4?dl=0

I went through 4 windscreens, a bunch of shocks, springs, too many interior pieces and finally split the roof even with 2 inches of MDF on it.

Next I got my Audi S4, beautiful 4.2l V8 but it was way too much to maintain, and after I "rear ended" a silly driver who slammed on their brakes, I decided it was time to move on:

And the damage to the other car.. low life is bad

I then decided financial responsibility is not for me and got a MK7 Golf R.. Stage 2, tonnes of custom bits, Milltek exhaust, so much love from the previous owner! It was a beast. I would take down any M car, any AMG, most RS (except the 6 and 7), any hatchback on the road I came up against

My wife and I had some fun when it snowed on private land:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i13pje0w3jzr6wr/2018-03-02 00.27.44.mp4?dl=0

And then on May 26th 2018... it got stolen right in front of me. My wife and I were sitting 10 ft from the car having a beer and a guy came along, walked up to the car and just opened it... stupid keyless entry. I ran over, tried to get in, held onto the car as he drove off and he ran me over. Nearly a year later I'm still seeing a sports therapist and am down 1 golf R and up 10 KG

I got a boring MK5 Golf GTTDI for the mean time, before I picked up my LCR

 

[gurpz94]

So on my night shift I went down to my car on my break, and did a quick scan on OBDEleven as it didn't feel right the last few days... Looks like I was right for once! I've got a misfire on Cylinder 4. Just what I need before going on holiday! I'm working from home tomorrow night so will try to get a look at the spark plugs before I go.. They're Bosch ones so may just replace them with a set of NGK's and keep the good plugs as spares..

And for all the detailers out there... Sorry. I've been working flat out + working on videos the last few weeks..

 

[Yellow fr]

Hi and welcome like the rr car looks great


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Legojon]

Hi there. Great read. Looking forward to seeing what your doing with it next. I'll be so jealous if you go Stage 3 (I'm currently 2+ and crunching the £s vs bhp of going any further). Cr@p what happened with the Golf! Didn't even know it was possible to start the engine without the keys.

Engine mount wise, I've got the full Vibratechnics set (gearbox, upper and lower engine mounts) and they are brilliant. No noticeable extra noise/vibration but do the job they were meant to. Previously I had the powerflex lower insert and could only stand it for 2 weeks. Destroyed it taking the thing out (£50 down the drain). I've also just had the APR pendulum mount put on for peace of mind (although not sure I needed it).

Haha when your ready to give it a clean:
https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/what-are-you-using.445746/
It's only 15 pages, shouldn't take you long to go through

 

[gurpz94]

Cheers @Yellow fr

@Legojon as you said stage 3 is a big maybe... You can get around 370bhp with stage 2+ and most stage 3 kits will take you to 420bhp or so.. and for the money I don't think that's worth it. If I went for a new turbo, clutch & more I'd want to aim for 500bhp.
The MK7R was entirely keyless, so keyless entry and keyless start. Like with most cars when he unlocked it using the inside lock button no key would open it from the outside.

I saw your posts on the engine mounts, they look really good. Your readers ride is where I got most of my ideas, and by ideas I mean I wanted to copy most of it on there

I was really big on detailing at the beginning, but then when I got into car audio at competition level I just focused on replacing broken car bits and no time or money for detailing


Quick update as well, I'm off to the USA & Canada for the next 3 weeks. I've got a bunch of car videos scheduled to upload whilst I'm away, including a dodgy DIY smoke tester (which worked somehow), fitting the intercooler & more. I'll be keeping an eye on the forum anyway

 

[gurpz94]

So I decided to do an air leak test a little while back, I suspected boost was leaking but it wasn't. Being Indian and not a smoker, no cigarettes or cigars are allowed in my parents house so we made a how to video for finding air leaks with incense sticks

Essentially you use a funnel, a cheap £8 amazon pump and hose kit and put the incense sticks under the funnel and pump it into your intake system. A professional system would of course be better but from what I've heard they can cost £100+ for a single test.

 

[Legojon]

@Legojon as you said stage 3 is a big maybe... You can get around 370bhp with stage 2+ and most stage 3 kits will take you to 420bhp or so.. and for the money I don't think that's worth it. If I went for a new turbo, clutch & more I'd want to aim for 500bhp.

I saw your posts on the engine mounts, they look really good. Your readers ride is where I got most of my ideas, and by ideas I mean I wanted to copy most of it on there

I was really big on detailing at the beginning, but then when I got into car audio at competition level I just focused on replacing broken car bits and no time or money for detailing

Yeah, I'm running 370bhp now. If I think on what I've spent it makes me feel ill. But price per 30bhp is in the £1ks after Stage 1.That's without handling mods. Plus, I've read mixed thoughts about the CDL engines. Some say because "parts" of the engine are already forged it's good up to 500bhp. However Revo recommend forging the engine for 420bhp+ (at least pistons and rods). As Revo don't sell pistons or rods as far as I'm aware, I don't think they'd just say that for the sake of it. Plus, I'd always worry my engine would go bang. So factoring in engine rebuild, turbo, map upgrade, LPFP, injectors. I don't think I'd have much change from £7k. Just for another 40-50bhp.

Haha, cheers. If your interested, it's a couple of parts behind now, but I made a list of pretty much everything I've done to it so far:
https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/seat-leon-mk2-cupra-r-2011-revo-2.446059/

My audio knowledge extends to the combined sub/amp I have in the boot. And the many hours pondering on whether to get the pioneer Android head unit.

 

[gurpz94]

Yeah, I'm running 370bhp now. If I think on what I've spent it makes me feel ill. But price per 30bhp is in the £1ks after Stage 1.That's without handling mods. Plus, I've read mixed thoughts about the CDL engines. Some say because "parts" of the engine are already forged it's good up to 500bhp. However Revo recommend forging the engine for 420bhp+ (at least pistons and rods). As Revo don't sell pistons or rods as far as I'm aware, I don't think they'd just say that for the sake of it. Plus, I'd always worry my engine would go bang. So factoring in engine rebuild, turbo, map upgrade, LPFP, injectors. I don't think I'd have much change from £7k. Just for another 40-50bhp.

Haha, cheers. If your interested, it's a couple of parts behind now, but I made a list of pretty much everything I've done to it so far:
https://forums.seatcupra.net/index.php?threads/seat-leon-mk2-cupra-r-2011-revo-2.446059/

My audio knowledge extends to the combined sub/amp I have in the boot. And the many hours pondering on whether to get the pioneer Android head unit.

That's a fair point about the engine, no point spending all that time and money then the engine going bang. If you forge the engine then theres no point stopping at 450bhp you may as well go all the way

These cars cost too much money but they are so worth it when you drive it

I saw that post, it's a really good comprehensive write up and I've noted down most of the handling parts for later this year

The head unit on this car is really nice, it's the same (I believe) as the mk7 golf r which I was a huge fan of

 

[gurpz94]

In this video I clean up and flush out the intercooler that we will fit soon
You can use this same process for other car parts or other metal/alloy bits in your house

I use paraffin, a wire brush, degreaser and some metal polish. It took a long time and in all fairness after fitting, it probably wasnt worth polishing as the ac radiator covers the intercooler... but I know it's nice and shiny back there

 

[gurpz94]

So I finally got round to fitting the intercooler.. the biggest job I've done before this was changing a driveshaft... I struggled to find a guide for fitting an aftermarket intercooler to the MK2 LCR so I decided to make one whilst I did the job.

Instead of taking 2.5 - 3 hours, it took me over 8 hours It was all worth it though.

I got back into the UK last night so I'll be back at work tomorrow and working on some car bits throughout the week. I couldn't feel the cylinder misfire on the drive home yesterday so not sure what happened there...

 

[Jimbobcook]

I'm sure @Legojon will be using that guide soon lol good work! 8 hours is a proper slog!

 

[Legojon]

I'm sure @Legojon will be using that guide soon lol good work! 8 hours is a proper slog!

I definately won't be watching this at work tomorrow!

 

[gurpz94]

I'm sure @Legojon will be using that guide soon lol good work! 8 hours is a proper slog!

If you know what you're doing and don't mess things up it could be done within 3 hours, I'm an office worker so that's my excuse

 

[Legojon]

If you know what you're doing and don't mess things up it could be done within 3 hours, I'm an office worker so that's my excuse

Love it! In the words of a true enthusiast mechanic "give it a bit of a tug, hopefully nothings broken". Are the badges wrapped to get that carbon effect btw?

 

[gurpz94]

Love it! In the words of a true enthusiast mechanic "give it a bit of a tug, hopefully nothings broken". Are the badges wrapped to get that carbon effect btw?

That's the one.. until the inner caveman comes out and breaks everything

The front badges are wrapped in 3m carbon black wrap, I've got a video coming out soon. I also wrapped the 2/3 interior trim bits as they just don't look right with the rest of the car, but need to re-do those as they didn't come out right and wrap the 3rd piece.
After that (when I have some more time) I'll be wrapping the rear Seat badge too!

 

[gurpz94]

So when I got back from my holiday I just noticed that I have the front bumper with the extra air vents... is there any real benefit or just very slightly more air intake and looks cool?

@Legojon also a close up of the wrap for you. I broke the little plastic bits as a previous owner put the badge in upside down so it took hours to get it out.
I was thinking to cut the wrap out of the left part of the R where the flags are, as right now it looks like a fat R.. but I couldn't get it to look right

 

[gurpz94]

I've been on the phone to lots of people about an exhaust system, and it looks like I'm going to be getting a 3.5" Trackslag straight through system, with Miltek/Scorpion/BCS Catback 3". I'll be getting the catback system used as I don't fancy paying £600+ new, I'm happy with used exhausts

After the exhaust is all done, I'll be either getting an aftermarket HPFP or VIS internals... Depending on how much I can butter up the Mrs Once she hears the exhaust she will want me to spend more on the car!

 

[Legojon]

Once she hears the exhaust she will want me to spend more on the car!

. I hope your right about that.

 

[gurpz94]

. I hope your right about that.

In my wife's words "Do whatever you need to get us on the track this Summer"

So my plans hopefully before Autumn, depending on finances, is:

- New exhaust system
- Upgraded HPFP/Internals
- Anti Lift kit
- PS4s on the front (current tires are a bit crap but have tonnes of tread, good enough for daily driving)
- Play more Gran Turismo so I don't go flying into a wall at a track day

 

[gurpz94]

So I've uploaded the video on how to wrap your front badges when it's off the car. This can be done for rear badges, front badges, interior trim etc. I'll be releasing a video next week on how to wrap when it's on the car - for some badges, they can be done on the car, others need to be taken off so it's good to see how both are done.

This video covers how to prep the badges correctly, then how to apply the wrap using a heat gun (you can use a hairdryer, just be sure not to melt the hairdryer).

You can buy the same wrap I used here: https://amzn.to/2FLg2d1