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

[gurpz94]

I'm so tired, I had to read that twice. Yup, it's what I thought it said... no way is that a thing!?!?

If you go TTE420, I assume your going to do injectors + LPFP, etc for Stage 3?

Haha yeah I was tired when I wrote it, not sure it made sense as I was writing it. I'm not sure if pest control is the right term?

I'll be installing the RS3 injectors + wiring loom and LPFP, but to be honest they will end up being later in the year. Even if I can get around 400bhp out of the turbo and then more with the upgrades I'll be more than happy.

 

[gurpz94]

So after I buggered up my previous OEM headlights, I had to buy some new ones. I wasn't going to spend £400 or so for new OEM non-xenons and definitely wasn't going to pay close to £900 or £1000 for OEM bi-xenons, so I went aftermarket.

After a long time searching I went for the FK-Automotive headlights. With the pre-facelift Leon (2005-2009) there is so much choice and variety, but for the facelift (2009-2012) there isn't too much out there. I eventually found the FK-Automotive set which is close to being perfect but has a few slight quirks...
The exact ones I got seem to have been taken off their site but here's the product code and a link if anyone is interested. If you are looking at these, contact FK they have some discount codes on their site:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FK-Automotive-FKFSSE13503-Headlight-Black/dp/B00IZJQKZ2 - FKFSSE13503

Also if you're on their site, their discount code right now is FK-VC-PP-19. You can use inspect element if you know your way around it to pull a discount code from their site if they change it (look for span class="code").

Anyway the video and some pics, I really do like the look of them. The DRLs seemed a bit chavvy when I was ordering them but work very well with the car.

One of my favourites when I tried to use Lamin-x on the lights (video coming soon):

The wife - "Can you stop taking pictures now it's cold!":

 

[gurpz94]

Some goodies came today! It's going to take me a few days to get this all in but I'm super excited for it.

I'm going to have the nozzle in the silicon hose on the intercooler outlet - I know most people spray just after the TB with a TB spacer, but spraying at the IC outlet just after the bend will give the water/meth mixture time to evaporate and maximise the cooling effect.

I don't have a 7/8" drill bit to drill into the tank so I'll be doing this at my parent's place tomorrow, and then doing the rest of the install over the next few days after work and before the sun goes down.

 

[gurpz94]

I went to my parent's place and my dad helped (by that I mean he did it and I watched.. he's a carpenter I'm an office worker) to get the 2 holes drilled into the tank - 1 for the feed from the tank to the pump, and 1 for the low level warning.

We also drilled the holes and mounted it on the driver side, I thought I accidentally drilled into the fuel filler pipe in the fuel door but I think I'm OK... let's see when I next fill up.

I did some more research and even though you can secure the nozzle to the silicon hose, there's a few reasons why you shouldn't:

- To do this properly, you need an adapter, basically a metal bung to screw the nozzle into that will be secure in the silicon hose
- My intercooler and hoses are used. I don't know the condition of the silicon, how hot it got, how close it is to 'ripping' and creating a hole.
- Even though you can use Epoxy or a glue of some sort to hold it in place, over time cracks will form in the glue, leading to the nozzle getting sucked into the manifold with the boost pressure. This is worst case scenario, but it's still possible to get boost leaks through any crack in the glue.

I was about to pull the trigger and buy the AKS Throttle Body spacer with Water Meth Injection nozzle space for £85 + postage, when I saw a used one on eBay for £45 + £5 postage! I immediately messaged the seller, he seems all good and looks like he was breaking a modified MK5 GTi. The listing showed 5-6 days postage but after messaging him he said he will send it next day delivery, so hopefully I can get the main wiring and running things through the car, and maybe get this all in over the weekend.

I also ordered a generic box of connectors for less than a tenner, this should be here Saturday so if I do all the cabling, hopefully on Saturday I can do final crimps and connections to get it all up and running.

These are great for general use and if you do anything to your car electrics I highly recommend getting a box to keep in the shed or garage - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/480Pcs-C...rminals-Connectors-Crimp-Box-Kit/333269715326


Finally, I've put a deposit down on a new turbo! I don't want to spoil the surprise but they're getting the turbo ready, should be a few weeks. My main issue now is that R-Tech want the car for 1-2 weeks, and this is my daily & my only car... It would take me nearly 5 hours to get home on the train and I would have no car to get to the station for work, so this may cause some problems.

Continued in the next post so it's not a wall of text

 

[gurpz94]

I went for my MOT and unfortunately failed. I've had my Michelin PS4S on for about 3000 miles and the cords are showing on the insides!! It's definitely rubbing on something. I had my front bushes done about 2 months ago, I didn't know tracking had to be done so this may have caused it. I asked a few people who have had this issue and one of them recommended getting slightly stretched tyres - I know some people are dead set against this but I've run 20mm stretch without issues, so instead of getting 235/35/19 I've ordered 225/35/19 so only 10mm less.
These tyres should be arriving late this week, just in time for the MOT.


Finally, my first track day is coming up soon and I'm prepping the car. I've been looking at getting braided HEL lines but can't get the car up in the air at home, so this may need to wait. I may get some uprated pads (for now) for the track day, mine don't feel the best and I don't want them failing on the track.

Ignoring the creepy stare into the camera, these helmets are great for just over £20 from eBay. Bit tight to get the helmet on for my big head but once it's on it's nice and comfortable.

 

[gurpz94]

This meth kit install is taking much longer than I hoped and turning out to be much more expensive. My eBay purchase list is getting very very long, I'm having to constantly buy new hoses, connectors, fittings etc.
I should hopefully be done by this weekend. I picked up 10L of distilled water from Euro Car Parts, and my delivery of 20L of Methanol just arrived.


In other news, I tried out a Stealth HID kit from HIDS4U. The light output was amazing but was causing a tonne of glare and I only tried it to have a comparison between LED bulbs and HID.
If anyone is interested in how to wire it up and comparison check out the video:

 

[R4cup]

Nice read & vids mate, keep up the good work.

 

[gurpz94]

Quick update:

The tyres weren't even shipped out in time so I had to pay a bunch more to get PS4S from F1 Autocentres. The guys were friendly as usual but cost a fair bit more than the Goodyear F1s. As my car is lowered slightly they couldn't get their tracking machine on so I went to a local place and they sorted out 4 wheel alignment and tracking for £30, not bad. I was apparently supposed to do this after getting my new front wishbone bushes on. After getting those fitted I had lots of vibrations at 80mph+, but after the tracking its perfect up to 100mph (tested on private roads of course).

The meth kit was being quite a pain to install but I've got 90% of it done. To get the throttle body spacer on, you need to remove the intake hose connected to it. To get this off you need to remove the plastic charge pipe from under the car (or at least undo the clip) - my new house driveway is uneven and not solid so don't want to get under the car. I'm taking to a garage tomorrow for them to install the TB spacer - once this is on I can hook up the hose and test it properly, and adjust the boost pressure sensor etc.

The electrical side is all good, green LED lights up when the meth is spraying. The low level warning LED is really strange... in most car electrics you need a + and - for power and ground, but this makes the low level warning light up all the time (even when the tank is full). According to instructions and the manufacturer, you need to hook up 1 wire directly to the ground, and the other to the ground of the LED which I've never seen before. I'll be making this change tomorrow after work and hopefully have a running water meth system by the evening!

 

[gurpz94]

I dropped my car to a mate's garage so he could sort out the front pads, got some DS2500s on there now. I can't feel a difference right now and I have a bit of brake squeal but they should be OK for next weekend's track day.

Yesterday we finally had a day with no rain so I decided to try get the TB spacer on as no garage wanted to take on this job and I can see why. 7 hours later and with my wife's help we got the TB spacer on and everything connected - small hands are a huge help here! I believe this job is much easier with the K03 2.0 TFSI engines but the K04 engine bay layout makes it more difficult. It involves taking off the plastic charge pipe (lots of fiddly bits and hidden screws under the car and a bunch of fittings from the top where you need to put your hands in weird positions), removing the hoses, taking the TB off which is a bi*** to do, then doing it all reverse with less space because the TB spacer moves everything out of OEM shape.

If anyone is looking to install meth and has spare cash, I definitely recommend getting someone else to do the job (or at a minimum fit the TB spacer... the wiring and fitting the kit isn't too bad).

I'll get some pics over the next few days. When I went for a spin after getting the system all running I could feel when the meth kicked in, not a massive difference but it's noticeable. My TB pipe did pop off so after tightening that down again, I'll go for a drive tomorrow at some point.

 

[gurpz94]

Here's some pics of the meth install, all done at home so I'll post the DIY video here in a few weeks when it's all edited.



Tank and pump mounted in the rear. I chose to mount them both in sight because they look awesome, and to remind me that they're there so I don't put a suitcase in the boot and it causes damage. The wiring wil be tidied up a bit, I'll make a slit in the carpet to just the wires and of course put the trim panels back. You want to mount the tank higher than the pump so gravity will help the inlet side of the pump.

I took this piece as it can hide all the wiring, is close to the fuse panel and is easily reachable from the driver seat. I was considering using the ash tray area but the LEDs would constantly be in my eyes. The steering wheel and my arm cover the LEDs while I'm driving if I'm not looking at them, and when I want to I just move my head a little bit.

Red LED = Low level warning - I just need to change some of the wiring for this to work properly
Green LED - lets me know when the meth is spraying (wired between the pump and relay so basically when the pump draws water/meth it lights up)
Switch - to control the whole system. If for any reason something goes wrong or I go very low on water/meth I can switch the whole system off for safety.
Random bolt with a nut on the other side to mount the relay on the back of this panel.

I also led sufficient space for the OBDII port on the back of this so it pops back in OEM as you can see

Engine bay is looking more cool with each mod. You can see the DevilsOwn nozzle (upside down) mounted to the AKS throttle body spacer. The hose runs to the passenger side of the engine bay where the boost pressure switch is. You can also see the boost tap which takes boost readings from the PCV system and then a cheap eBay host to connect to the boost switch. I think I mounted the DV slightly wonky because the boost pipe connected to it is touching the manifold very slightly, but I can fix soon.

The boost pressure switch temporarily mounted to some wiring with a cable tie so I can adjust the psi that meth is sprayed. The stage 1 kit has an adjustable cog so you can set the boost pressure that the system kicks in, between 6 and 30 PSI. I wanted to mount this near the (I think) N75 connector plug but couldn't mount it where I can still access the back incase I want to change boost trigger, when I decide to upgrade the turbo or go further.

And last but not least, the meth! My work laptop search history looks really dodgy and the cyber security team must be watching me... It's full of "cheap meth near me", "meth suppliers", "chemical suppliers near me"

I'll be tidying everything up this week when I have some time as I prepare for our first track day this Sunday. I've also ordered a cheapy OBDII adapter to connect to the RaceChrono app so should hopefully have a nice video of my first track experience. It's a novice track day so I'm not going for the fastest lap time, I want to push the car but also be safe. It will be a cold day on Sunday with some showers so will be careful!

 

[gurpz94]

I sent my steering wheel off for a retrim a few weeks ago. Royal Steering Wheels did an amazing job on the wheel, I went for alcantara with red stitching and a red leather strip at 12 o'clock. The new wheel is so smooth and easy to drive with. I made a video on the quality and how to remove + refit a wheel if anyone is interested, if not see some pics below.

For anyone who is interested, it cost £165 + postage and I had to use a temporary wheel provided by RSW, which was £10 postage + £50 deposit (refunded when returned). Including my postage costs two times, it came to about £200.

RSW couldn't change the material on the bottom grey part so I was toying with the below ideas, what do you guys think looks best? I was going for gloss black. Excuse the Photoshop skills I haven't used it in a while so was struggling to get a gloss look.

Gloss black:

Gloss red:

Carbon:

 

[gurpz94]

With everyone being at home and most places now being closed, I had time to catch up on some editing. I've finished up with the water methanol system video, it took about 25 hours to install taking my time, and I ended up with a very long video because I came across a little of weird little issues along the way so wanted to point them out and the fixes for them.