MK5 Edition 30 #57 Track/Race Build

[M4T VW]

Something a bit different from your road & show car, a full on track based approach 
(This is a copy/paste from Club GTI so some of the names might not make sense)

Moving on from the Mk2, still with the bug to get out on a track, I think it was inevitable I would end up with another VW. I looked at a few options but to be honest, I don't know anything else other than Volkswagen. An Elise or Exige may have crossed my auto trader search but not for long, I always ended up back at the MK5 Golf's or Scirocco's. The Scirocco was a hard one to choose as it's less supported in the market, Although the same chassis as the MK5 it just didn't feel right so it had to be a MK5.
I went to look at a "standard" GTI in Wales, A red 3 door manual with 68000 on the clock. The only modifications I could see in the pictures were 2 red VW badges but at 68000 it had to be looked at. It was in a ford dealer so I went up on a Saturday. The car was in very good condition but not standard on the engine front by any means. Lots of metal pipes and a massive halfords cone filter. It drove well though so I made a cheeky offer but we could not agree on price so I walked away. In hindsight I'm glad I did walk away.

I then went to look at one near Bath, A red 3 door manual with...err I cant remember how many miles on the clock but it was an edition 30 base car. It was already heavily modified into a track car, Running about 500 BHP! It was close to me so I had a look, Sadly it was not what I was after and decided I needed to build one myself lol

A few weeks passed keeping my eye on all the usual spots. I had decided on an Edition 30 due to the better TFSI engine and it's potential so this narrowed the search as only about 2500 were produced.
One cropped up in wales again, Not a million miles so it was worth a look. It was a...Yes you guess it, Red 3 door manual with 94k on the clock. The price was not bad so I went over on a Saturday. The car was dirty as there was a building site next to the dealer but other than that it looked quite clean. I took it for a test and it went really well. The interior is in excellent condition for 94000 miles. We haggled on price and I managed to get a good price with me taking the car away there and then. A few phone calls to Admiral and I took it away! The drive home was good, No problems and it went well but I didn't push it much as I wanted to give the engine a once over first.







As you can see the engine bay is a little dirty but it seems in order. There is red over-spray on the front a little as I think it's had the wings done (MK5 problem) and the bonnet has no stone chips at all [:[]
It all looks straight though, no accident damage, Just a blow over. However whoever cleaned it must have used a brillo pad as I have never seen so many swirl marks on paintwork before! Not that it matters...lol

So, Here we go again. I will update tomorrow with the plan of action. Engine has already been serviced and upgraded and I'm half way through stripping and selling the interior parts :thumbup:

I must say a big thanks to Luke (Deako) with his help so far. He has answered all my questions and I'm sure it wont be the end of it lol

[M4T VW]

Fast forward a couple of weeks and i needed to do a few jobs to the engine before i started on the rest of it. Mainly check the cam follower for wear to see what condition the engine was in. It's done 94k with a recorded cambelt and waterpump change at 90k but there was no mention of the cam.

I ordered a revo camcoat intake, Loba HPFP, a new Rev G diverter valve from TSR and also an R-Tech PCV delete kit. These are must change items it you are going to tune one of these engines so it made sense to change them all at the same time.
Thankfully the cam follower looked brand new so it must have been changed at some point. I put the new Loba one in anyway that comes with the HPFP so at least i know the engine is nice and healthy. I also gave it an oil and filter change while i was at it.








Next up, Let the strip commence! (Also start gathering parts)

[M4T VW]

Oh, I also managed to get hold of my build plaque for the car. It shows how genuine this car was because no one had applied for it and you only ever get one. VW customer services were amazing at dealing with my request, even calling me multiple times a day to let me know what the status of it was :clap:

[martinEd30]

Loooking good ;) will be keeping an eye on what you get done

[M4T VW]

Loooking good ;) will be keeping an eye on what you get done

Thanks Martin, Still lots to do. I have 2 pallets of parts to fit onto it!

Now that the car was nice and healthy and working great, I decided to rip the whole thing apart lol

I have been on a buying and selling spree for the last few months and have sold all the interior and parts to claw back some money on the build. I reckon i will be close to 3k back once the wheels are sold so that brings the total of the car to under 5k now which is what i needed to make this project work.
I started unbolting anything in place, took a picture of it and listed it on the relevant forum or well-known auction site. Thankfully the parts for these are sought after so i didn’t have trouble shifting some of the parts. I must have been asked 20 times for the steering wheel and gear knob. They are "eBay rare" with red stitching so plenty of people asked for them!

The car had an old MFD2 sat-nav unit that was worth some money and it was an easy item to remove so i started with that.



I wanted to sell the Sat-Nav with the GPS antenna and all the wiring but once i started looking at the wiring, it was all bound together and i was not in position to remove all that yet so had to sell it without. While i was looking at the wiring for the GPS the headlining had to be removed so that was the next job. However there was a problem. Airbags! These MK5's have a total of 6 airbags so it made sense to remove them all at the same time and try to sell them together.



As you can see, the curtain airbag runs the whole length of the car right into the corner of the dash.



So with this lot removed, I now had a blank roof panel that i could actually see the wiring for the sat-nav. However it was still a no-go to remove this as it was wrapped with the rest of the loom and required a weekend to cut the tape on it and remove the wiring for it.
The roof insulation for these is a paper backed foam stuck to the roof with mastic. You can rip the foam off easy and then use one of those Stanley scrapers with a new blade to remove the mastic and it comes off lovely. Much better than the MK2 and i didn’t get any glue in my hair!







The next step is to remove all the wiring for the airbags, Sat-Nav etc. Taking it back to the essentials!

[M4T VW]

On with the wiring then. After i removed all the dash insulation (who needs that right?) i managed to find the wiring loom from the fuse box, it was not hard to miss! :thumbd:



I love how the MK5 clocks "plug" into the socket on the column. It's very handy to remove them.



Once i had cut back all the tape my hands were stuck together. What horrible stuff to work with. I had to take my time not to cut any wires and managed it all the way.



This is the big plug to the airbag controller that was located in front of the gearstick, under the heater matrix.



I have no idea why i took this picture! lol



All done, and here is all the wiring removed! The airbag loom is the bulk of it but there is the GPS and FM antenna cable, Rear wiper and heated screen, Front and rear speakers. Heated/electric seats. It all came out!



I plugged it all back in and connected the battery to test if it was all still working. When i turned the ignition on the brake lights came on which is strange but i thought it might have been because there was pressure in the system. I turned the key to start it anyway and.....nothing. A faint click from the fuse box but the engine didn’t even try to turn over. Not good.
Got the laptop out and connected it. A few issues but once i had removed all the airbags and errors there was nothing really stopping it from starting.



I pushed the car outside and connected up the Ed35 thinking it might be a dead battery. Still nothing, Very strange.



I messaged Rubjonny and Toyotec and they suggested to jump the starter to see if it was dead. I had trouble getting the black plug off the starter, what a bugger!
Managed to get it off and jumped it and the engine turned over fine so it must have been something i had done inside to stop it.



Jonny also suggested to find the terminal 50 relay which is on the fuse board inside the cabin. I looked at this and noticed a cable was missing from the relay! It was a very thin earth cable that i had removed when i removed the headlining. I managed to find the cable and put the pin back into the relay and put a new ring terminal on the end so i could put it to one of the chassis earths. Turned the key and it fired straight up! Stupid mistake and it cost me a day really! [:x]

The brake lights were also still stuck on with the ignition. That turned out to be a similar problem. I traced back the earth for them and put a meter on it to find it was dead. This earth also supplied the rain sensor and rear view mirror dimming and that was coming up in VCDS as not found so i was on the right tracks. I made a new link cable from a chassis earth to this joint and it's all working again! :D

Next up, a nice early trip to Worcestershire to pick up some dinner plates ;)

[james_kav]

Wow. Very interesting thread and great to see the golf down to it's barebones! Loving the pictures and details and have subscribed to this as I can't wait to see the finished project! 

On anothe note, I don't suppose you'll be selling the Xeons will you at ay point?? (Probably shouldn't ask on this thread but thought I'd be cheeky) 

[Paradox1]

Finally!
A decent track car build thread. I like where this one is going

[lukemk5gti]

 

[Shoduchi]

A bit of a pain to see the Ed. 30 in lots of pieces but your threads are always awesome and great reads! Subscribed!

[grey golfster]

Fascinating stuff.
will be on this one

[M4T VW]

Wow. Very interesting thread and great to see the golf down to it's barebones! Loving the pictures and details and have subscribed to this as I can't wait to see the finished project! 

On anothe note, I don't suppose you'll be selling the Xeons will you at ay point?? (Probably shouldn't ask on this thread but thought I'd be cheeky) 

Thanks! Oh trust me, That is not barebones yet. I currently have a rolling shell with an engine 
When i was searching for information not much info came up on the MK5 and not many pictures so i hope this will help others.
I'm not looking at chaning the xenon lights yet. It's not really a weight saving but you never know at a later date. Lets get it running first!

Finally!
A decent track car build thread. I like where this one is going

Cheers! This is a no expense spared (within reason) build. I have many high end parts to use including VWR Brakes, KW clubsports etc.

A bit of a pain to see the Ed. 30 in lots of pieces but your threads are always awesome and great reads! Subscribed!

I know, I really didnt want to do it to an ED30 as i loved the car while i had it on the road for a few days. My daily drive is an ED35 so i'm still keeping the heritage up 

Next up, An epic gearbox rebuild.

[M4T VW]

Dinner plates are in the next update, I promise! lol

I have a list of parts that i have been on the lookout for since i started this project. Some of them are quite hard to come by but i am prepared to wait for them. About 3 months in and i think i have 80% of them now, the main ones anyway. I will feed these into the thread as i bought them. I signed up to all the usual Facebook pages when i am on the lookout for parts.
Since the engine is good, I don't really want to spend another £1000-1500 on getting more power out of it. 230bhp is more than enough for the time being so i want to focus on the chassis first. However one part that does need looking at is the gearbox. I exchanged a few messages with our gearbox guru Martin Emment (aka Hotgolf) even before i found this car and he offered some great advice so a plan was hatched. I just needed to gather all the parts and ship them to him for the build-up.
Firstly, TSR had a great deal on Quaife LSD's so i ordered one in 02Q flavour along with the APR bolt kit.



I managed to find a very low mileage 02Q 'box from an edition 30 at a breakers for a great price so i bought that also. My plan is to build up a new 'box so i can just do a swap out and then sell on my old one. The new one is a different code but it's a slightly later code and mine is an early one. They are identical gearboxes though.



Luke Deakin mentioned that there were a few possible modifications to these 02M/Q 'boxes to strengthen them internally and externally. Some of them are VW parts from a later model and some custom made from the likes of Darkside Developments. After much more research i had an idea of the parts i needed, and it was adding up!

The VW parts are steel shift forks for the 1st-2nd & 3rd-4th gear. These are from a MK6 GTI gearbox whereas the MK5 GTI forks are made from bronze and are known to break. There is no steel shift fork for 5th-6th, only a pin/rivet to bolt mod.



These are the bronze sliders that go on the tips of the forks above.

This picture is actually from after Martin had built the box up and taken it apart again as it would not turn. You can see why as the bronze slider was too close to the input shaft and looking the box from turning. A small modification was needed and it's fine now :thumbup:



Then we have the 4th gear input shaft support mod.



Then there were several pieces of machining needed for other mods. The input shafts on these are hollow and can be known to deform under higher power. As i will be getting more power from the engine eventually, i thought it made sense to do all these while it was open. Thankfully Martin is fully equipped and capable to manufacture all of these parts required. They include 2 input shafts.







They have to be an exact fit to insert into the input shaft to strengthen it. Sadly they are both different as one has 2 steps and the other has 3 steps.





These are then welded at the top to lock to two shaft together and stop it from moving around.



Then it was on to installing the Quaife. Martin machines the standard rivets to split the diff & crown wheel instead of drilling them out. This ensures that you do not elongate the hole and you can also reuse the standard diff after, as a paperweight maybe?



However, another problem. The holes in the Quaife were a fraction too small so it meant the swarf from pressing the bolt in got stuck under the bolt head and it would not sit flat.
Apparently this was a problem a while back when Quaife first started making these. They designed them for use with the OE bolts but supply issues meant they had to switch to APR bolts which were slightly thicker. There was a cross-over period of some bolts not fitting the smaller hole but i gave TSR a call and this Quaife was from new stock so I’m not sure why we had this issue.



This is an APR bolt in the standard diff, No problem!



Sadly there was only one thing for it. Machine down all of the APR bolts to fit the Quaife Diff! Thankfully this is something Martin had done before for another customer so got straight on with it. Sadly there are 12 of them!!!







This is the 6th gear mod. The old rivet has been drilled out. A bolt inserted and then ground flat. I think a bit of welding was involved also lol



A shim was required and instead of buying one he made one! Handy when you have the tools!





We have run into another problem. The 4th gear support block fouls the reverse switch. Martin managed to cut a little off the support block to allow a plug to go on. I might have to trim the plug down a little also but worst case is i have to use some spades instead of a plug system





And that’s it! One fresh 02Q/M 'box ready for the track. I can’t wait to get this installed. I will also use a few 034 motorsport bushes to tighten up the shift as the rubber ones have perished a bit and i have a sloppy stick lol



I want to thank Martin for all his help and patience on building this gearbox. He really knows his gears so if anyone wants any work done, Give "Hotgolf" a PM or let me know and i can put him in contact with you.

While this was going on, A BCS Power valve exhaust which was on my list of parts came up for sale on Facebook. It was the R32 exit version instead of the Edition 30/GTI one sadly but i actually prefer the R32 style so i purchased this as well as the bumper freshly painted in Red. Luckily this was also in wales so planned to combine the 2 trips to collect it all at the same time...

[james_kav]

Epic gearbox rebuild indeed!!! Brilliant and great photos/detail. I'm sure this will be referred to by a lot of people

[M4T VW]

Epic gearbox rebuild indeed!!! Brilliant and great photos/detail. I'm sure this will be referred to by a lot of people

Thanks! It took me a while to write that one up and compile all the pictures. We are nearly up to date with the progress so far apart from the roll cage but i'm too busy getting it ready for paint that i'm struggling to find the time to write it up!

For the TSFI engines, there are really only two options that everyone swears by. The miltek or Powervalve BCS. The BCS is the more popular of the two as it’s cheaper so I kept an eye out for a second hand one. Luckily enough one came up in wales about the same time I was planning to go to Martin’s so I could collect both the exhaust and gearbox at the same time.
It was brand new and the non powervalve version which is what I was after (as apparently it’s quieter) but sadly it was the R32 exit. I do prefer the R32 look but this meant I had to purchase the R32 bumper with it which was more unnecessary expense but I had no option other than buying one new.  The guy was having his MK5 resprayed in red so got the bumper done at the same time (as it was R32 blue) so this is one less thing I have to worry about.

Here it is laid out on the floor, a lot of pipe work to bolt together!





This is the bumper split in half. The bottom part is the half I require which I will attach to my current bumper as it has the parking sensors already in. I will attach the spare two together and sell them off.