LCR light weight edition, Getting broken up

[Willie]

Willie, are you aware that a decat in conjunction with a remap can cause massive boost/torque spikes which can easily blow your stock rods (has happened before)? Just though you should know about that.

Thank you Rob,

I'm going for a proper full custom remap, for that guy I was onto you about.
I'm going to max out everything I can but obviously keep below rod breaking teritory.

CupraMVR is peaking 370 ft-lbs of torque on OEM rods, that mans got balls, lol.
Also he is a Awesome technician so has the kit to sort any feck ups easily.

I'll take it to around 320ft-lbs, if possible, but no more.
My clutch is rated for this too so it keeps everything nice and safe but a bit of fun too.

 

[Cupra_R04]

On the subject of de-cat i considered this with my blueflame set up to see if i got anymore exhaust note. Have you thought about what your gonna do with the lamba sensor? you going for a plate or something else.

All so have you checked that the powerflow and the blueflame flanges are the same for mating them together?

Mark

 

[Willie]

On the subject of de-cat i considered this with my blueflame set up to see if i got anymore exhaust note. Have you thought about what your gonna do with the lamba sensor? you going for a plate or something else.

All so have you checked that the powerflow and the blueflame flanges are the same for mating them together?

Mark

like min, I've just PM'd you about this.

i'm pretty confident the flanges will mate up as its an OEM CAT I have just now.

On the lambda, I'm wanting to see what my mapper says about this, I'm leaving myself in his VERY capable hands.

you will get MUCH more exhaust note.
this will increase when you get a remap too

 

[Cupra_R04]

Ah ha just noticed this. Im pretty sure you will be a little like ops when the Dp arrives as your cat wll be a 2 to 1 from the Dp im sure as i was gonna leave the dp on and just fit my exhaust but the Dp is a single 3" pipe to a 3" either cat or de-cat pipe where the origional down pipe and cat are twin into single so you will need to fit the de-cat straight on me thinks .

mark

 

[Willie]

I'll have to remove the whole DP/flex and twin CAT assembly.
And fit a MUCH freer flowing DP and NO CAT

 

[JamJay]

The Cat/Decat - Cat-Back flange will match up with any Cat-Back exhaust system designed for the Leon. The problem lies with the OE twin-pipe DP & twin-cat assembly as you can't fit a single 3" decat/cat to the twin-pipe DP, just the same as you can fit a 3" DP to the twin-cat. To get the most out of the parts you need to replace both with large bore (3") pipe work. This also means that come MOT time, if you're a bit naughty and have a decat, you won't be able to just swap the OE Cat back in, you'll have to replace the OE DP as well and it becomes a right pig.

 

[Willie]

The Cat/Decat - Cat-Back flange will match up with any Cat-Back exhaust system designed for the Leon. The problem lies with the OE twin-pipe DP & twin-cat assembly as you can't fit a single 3" decat/cat to the twin-pipe DP, just the same as you can fit a 3" DP to the twin-cat. To get the most out of the parts you need to replace both with large bore (3") pipe work. This also means that come MOT time, if you're a bit naughty and have a decat, you won't be able to just swap the OE Cat back in, you'll have to replace the OE DP as well and it becomes a right pig.

Unless you car is a full time track car and is not going to be on the road.
Then you don't need an MOT so don't need a CAT

But I have my OEM system that has a CAT that just passed MOT so if need be and the car needs to be back on the road next year, I'll refit this for MOT.

 

[D.K]

Willie if your saveing your old cat for the next MOT you do realise it wont fit on with the Blueflame DP

 

[Willie]

yup, id have to refit the whole oem dp and cat

 

[_chris_]

yup, id have to refit the whole oem dp and cat

not a quick job though. even with a lift its a painfull task.

 

[Willie]

Track prep

Due to the impending track day there were a few things I wanted to sort out.

First of all:

I've had the 28mm Neuspeeds rear ARB fitted for 5 years +.
In my mind these bushes 'could' be worn so to be sure I decided to change these.

This was fitted for me by Star performance, this was before I was doing jobs myself.
The only thing I've done to this is to adjust the stiffness.
As you can see the drop links really need to be maintained as there alloy and pretty soft.

I purchased a ARB redress kit from Awesome GTI for approx £85 delivered.

I've always thought this would be an easy job, but it turned out to be not so.

The bar was removed.

As I don't have a garage and don't have a fully comprehensive tool kit the fitting was a PITA.
The metal clamps that fit around the rear beam are very awkward to fit.
Ideally you would have a 'G' clamp the compress these the last bit to allow these to be bolted on place. I did eventually get 2 small 'G' clamps and managed this.

All fittings were copper slipped prior to fitting.
The new drop links were adjusted to give minimal drop. I always thought this bar was 'thrown up' and it seems to be the case looking at how neat it can be fitted with a bit of care.

As you can see I chose to fit the drop links the other way to before, this should allow these to resist the salty water getting into the threads and seizing these. In doing this I had to space out the gap in the bolt with washers, no big deal though.
Nothing was done to the bar as below the bushes was like new due to the SUPER HEAVY DUTY GREASE, this felt like the pressure retaining grease we use in high pressure valve cavities.
This will be tarted up at some point.

 

[Willie]

Cont.

Next up was a calliper change.
I'd seen that one of my 4 pots was leaking through the piston seal and rippling the dust seal.

Thankfully one came up for sale on here, bet none of you noticed this one

So for £100 this was bought.
It seems like it is perhaps off of a crashed car as its paintwork is a bit damaged as was the crossover pipe.
After speaking to John (CupraMVR) I found out this pipe is just standard brake pipe and fittings.
I got a local company to make me up 5 of these for £20

I'd also bought braided brake lines.
I had always wanted to do this but never got around to it. As it has been said before the LCR OEM lines are stiff and braided but the Goodridge ones I got from Bill go all the way from the wheel arch brake pipe to the back of the calliper, this eliminates a few connections.

TBH I was pretty worried about doing this, I'm painfully aware how close my track day is and a small problem would totally feck this for me.

But all went well, it took a few minutes to suss out how best to do this, but once sussed the other side was a breeze.
I dropped the ARB drop link from the strutt to gain access.
there were a few little tweeks done to the OEM set up to account for the new hoses.
Also due to the slight differences due to the brake pad wear sensor, which will get removed.

Where would we be without tywraps, lol

So next up is the fluid bleed.
If this all goes well I have my first track day of the year tonight

 

[Willie]

Also got the alignment done after the rear ARB fit.

This hasn't been done for a while but since the last time there has been quite a few changes.

I've never suspected anything to be out but its always good to check.

I went to a local motorsport place to get a proper 4 wheel laser alignment done and to speak about corner weighting.
The guy came back to me when the car was set onto the system to ask me if this has been done somewhere else recently as the car is set up perfect

So it didn't need any changes and I'm getting almost 1.5 degrees of negative camber front and back

Interestingly the guys were saying that there was no real benefit in corner weighting the car, best off just getting the ride height level all round and that would be good enough, we'll see.

 

[robertj]

Interestingly the guys were saying that there was no real benefit in corner weighting the car, best off just getting the ride height level all round and that would be good enough, we'll see.

That's exactly what Luke at Jabba said to me when they fitted my KW Clubsports. Perhaps we're over obsessing about the wrong things Willy

 

[Willie]

That's exactly what Luke at Jabba said to me when they fitted my KW Clubsports. Perhaps we're over obsessing about the wrong things Willy

Yup, these guys at Clarke Motorsport really know there stuff.
There building a £75,000 MK2 Escort rally car for a Spanish guy

I'm not going to bother about corner weighting just now.
They did a guys Clio 172 the other day and it ended up 15mm higher a one side to the other.
This will effect the cars overal feel and for what benefits??

I've always thought corner weighting was the be all and end all of the FWD handling but TBH on the last track day the handling was very good and everything should be better tonight with the R888's and the diff.

We'll see.

I've got a mate coming tonight with a camera mount and a few track side photographers will be there too so tonight should be well captured, lets hope for dry conditions.

 

[robertj]

Have fun. Looking forward to hearing how you get on, especially how the diff performs

 

[Deleted member 13581]

Looks good Willie.

Cant wait to see this on the track tonight.

 

[alexj124]

shame i'm heading up to aberdeen tonight or i would of nipped up to KH to see how you were getting on.

Best of luck you should see a good decrease in your lap times this time round

 

[jonjay]

Never really throught about changing the arb bushes. Your right in your thinking that they probably are worn 5 years in. Interesting about the corner weighting too...there has got to be a benifit surely otherwise why would all the race cars around the world get their cars corner weighted? or are we saying they dont...

Willie - you could have at least cleaned the arb LOL!

 

[EmDee]

Have fun tonight, looking forward to the pics/vids