Very budget track build

[Clarkj93]

Thanks @RBS, I'm getting tired of constantly fixing in the cold and wet and not actually driving, encouragement helps

@FatWelshBoy thanks for the tip on those calipers

Just got them delivered today and just finished fitting. Got the bigger 41mm set up as well. Few little gripes like they painted over some threads making screwing in the hard line tricky and one of the handbrake levers is not quite in the right position so does not have as much pressure on the handbrake cable as it should but seems to work OK, tbh for 125 quid cannot complain and their customer service was spot on.

One of the guide pin boots did split while installing but I doubt it's a major issue in the next 200 miles that I need it for.



The sticky calipers do explain alot mind... why I've always felt this odd sensation in the rear of the car when under high lateral load on track, I always thought it was an over sensitive stability control scaring the life out of me but I bet it was these sticky calipers after all!

[Clarkj93]

Well actually made it to R Tech, and like everyone else if you don't take a picture outside where you even there? 

Their car park is for more interesting than a few car shows I've been to frankly as well.



It was a bit of a trek and had to wait around in coffee shops all day waiting for the work to be done but I have to say bravo to the guys there. Amazing work. They confirmed cylinder 1 injector was dead so a used off the shelf one put in after cleaning that seemed good, it was free so can't complain if it doesn't last forever!

Interestingly they recommended changing my ecs tuning pcv pipes to oem ones as they know they work and they've seen some manufacturers pcv silicone hoses start to fold after a while under high pressure, decided to change just the bottom one for now as its fiddly and annoying to do the clamp!

The issue I've noticed with randomly seeping bost sometimes was never fixed it seemed, r tech said it was actually the rocker cover holding about 20 psi and then eventually letting go. After the map it's quite noticeable when on full beans in a high gear at about 3k. So that's on the list of things to do along with cleaning the broken oil dipstick bits out of the sump.

I was hoping for 260 but expecting about 250-255, I'm pretty sure the production gti championship is 260bhp maximum in the regs and fairplay at 259.7 you can't get much bloody closer than that!



After the inlet and injector clean 220-ish standard is pretty good as well tbh! I told them the purpose of the car, more of a occasionally driven on the road track car and am thinking about doing sprints/hillclimbs with it (probably road going car class) so for map 5 they added a "sprint map" to use for any timed events, just need to install the VIS internals and I can make use of it.

Can really tell that the TC is also much much more sophisticated, much less intrusive and could see it being a valuable aid in certain conditions considering its still an open diff.

But yeah feels far quicker, and the power band feels so more much linear not just off and on and sometimes a little flat like I've always known it to be.

I thought they would do a great job but tbh they did a brilliant job, this is nothing new to read though unfortunately as I know most people end up saying the same thing

Coilovers fitting next!

[RBS]

Looks like they know their stuff!
Had a look on the site of them and YouTube  
If the corona crap wasn’t so intense with all the checking and location forms, I defintively would consider to go R Tech
The injector cleaning and stage 2+ sounds realy interresting!!

[Clarkj93]

Looks like they know their stuff!
Had a look on the site of them and YouTube  
If the corona crap wasn’t so intense with all the checking and location forms, I defintively would consider to go R Tech
The injector cleaning and stage 2+ sounds realy interresting!!

Yeah I can see me looking at stage 2+ in the future also!

[pudding]

Good result 

I like the ride height of your car, nice and even gaps all round 

Glad R-Tech mentioned the rocker cover as it's often overlooked during diagnosis.  They can indeed split apart internally, causing all manner of hard to trace PCV related issues.  It was around £125 when I replaced mine a few years ago, so expect a hefty bill for one of those now, if it does need one.

Another problem area is the primary oil separator, which is part of the oil filter housing. The front and rear PCV outlets pass gases through that first and the pipes can get clogged up.  As it's buried under the intake, it's another PCV part that gets overlooked.

Anyway, good numbers either way.  Not a lot wrong with that engine 

[Clarkj93]

Good result 

I like the ride height of your car, nice and even gaps all round 

Glad R-Tech mentioned the rocker cover as it's often overlooked during diagnosis.  They can indeed split apart internally, causing all manner of hard to trace PCV related issues.  It was around £125 when I replaced mine a few years ago, so expect a hefty bill for one of those now, if it does need one.

Another problem area is the primary oil separator, which is part of the oil filter housing. The front and rear PCV outlets pass gases through that first and the pipes can get clogged up.  As it's buried under the intake, it's another PCV part that gets overlooked.

Anyway, good numbers either way.  Not a lot wrong with that engine 

Never thought about it but I guess you're right, rear has one crusty oem and one aftermarket spring and dampers are knocking a fair whack at the back now so maybe it's not meant to sit like that they're coming off as soon as I get some time and it's decent weather anyway.

Yeah frankly I never would have come that conclusion of the rocker cover, I have heard of them going but didn't know it could be so easy to mistake it for a different issue.

Yeah its nice to hear only a couple things to take care of and seems a healthy engine and turbo.

[Clarkj93]

Been real busy lately so only managed one corner and as I forgot to tighten up the top mounts  effectively did the same corner twice Fronts been a pain and required a bit of angle grinding, another reason such slow progress.



NS2R's turned up this week also, aks tuning seem to be selling them at 95 quid each when everyone else is doing 115 each so thought I'd take advantage of what I guess is older cheaper stock before the price goes up like everyone else.



Had 1 or 2 conversations with the guys at retroresus lately, seem very knowledgeable lot on anything VAG specifically mk5 golf and tfsi and at only an hour away I'm thinking of getting them to do some jobs I don't fancy doing e.g cambelt, front anti roll bar, oil sump and pickup pipe cleanup etc. They've built a few Production Gti championships cars so keen to try and pick their brain on a few ideas in regards to suspension geo/setup, brake ducting and anything else that a pleb like me could make use of.

[JoshB]

Looking good, I had those tyres on an MX-5 and they’re really good for the money.
I need some new ones on mine, it’s got Continentals all round with about 6mm+ tread on but they’re utter sh*te. Like driving on glass…

[Clarkj93]

So coilovers now on. Not driven yet as brakes need a fluid flush, waiting on delivery of a few items (including a new 1 man brake bleeder).



Not sorted ride height out properly, it's super low right now but will just let the shop work it out when it goes in for corner weighting.

Here is the old rear dampers, fully compressed (without struggle by hand) and the 2nd picture is several hours later... it rebounded an inch. Shows how dead they really were! Fronts actually did rebound but still not much resistance at all.





Not get any good pics yet as she has not really moved:


So not much left to do until she is back on circuit, brake fluid flush, new rear and front pads (ebc blue on rear and ebc rp-1 on front) and then taking it down to RetroResus in Taunton in April/May for a couple weeks where they're going to do a number of jobs that are beyond my skill and ones that I just want done (front anti roll bar fitting, cambelt, rocker cover gasket, clean out sump of left over dispstick bits and clean up pickup pipe) followed by corner weighting, not sure on alignmet settings yet I've told them what I think would work best but ultimately after their advice from their experience racing and building multiple mk5's.

I've recently removed my brake ducts... I realised what I had done really does not do anything . My plan is to see if there is any difference in brake temps by taking a measurement between the solid fog grilles and the open fog grilles. There are things like the ttrs brake dust shields that may add to this that are on my radar also.

Booked onto Llandow circuit on 11th June now, its a very reasonably priced circuit and only 30 mins from me now so it will make a good shakedown since all the work has been done since its last outing at Thruxton last year.

[Clarkj93]

Looking good, I had those tyres on an MX-5 and they’re really good for the money.
I need some new ones on mine, it’s got Continentals all round with about 6mm+ tread on but they’re utter sh*te. Like driving on glass…

Yeah very reasonable and great if you only have 1 set of wheels. I hear mixed on Conti's, I saw the review from TyreReviews recently on the new sport contacts 7  and they're raving about them as being as close to a race wet tyres as a road tyre could possibly get, but I do hear people who say some (maybe older variants) are a bit skatey much like you describe.

[RBS]

That will defintively be an improvement
Keep up the good work!!

[Clarkj93]

Couple new goodies.

Sunstrip applied, not the 1st attempt, a gust of wind took the first go



New front and rear pads ready to go on:



New race gloves and VP Racing fuel containers:





Did a brake flush other day (still not great pedal feel but safe for the roads for now) so could actually test drive. It is a night and day difference than the worn out oem setup, huge amount more grip.

Also got car booked in to RetroResus on 30th April for a couple of weeks. Doing various big and small jobs (dreading the final bill ). The most interesting one being the corner weight setup, had a good chat with them today about what to go for they're recommending around -2.5 to -2.75 neg camber on the front for a car that does little road miles but is predictable, they run -3.5- on their race cars, they said the mk5's are so planted on the rear it takes some work to dial our the understeer. They said they sometimes run 8mm of toe out on the rear to get rid of the under steer and rotate them nicely, exteme settings! They're going to take into account predictability if I enter it into a sprint/hillclimb where there is not much practice while still minimising understeer and doing their best to manage the power with its current open diff. Looking forward to what they come up with!

[pudding]

Looking good, I had those tyres on an MX-5 and they’re really good for the money.
I need some new ones on mine, it’s got Continentals all round with about 6mm+ tread on but they’re utter sh*te. Like driving on glass…

Yeah very reasonable and great if you only have 1 set of wheels. I hear mixed on Conti's, I saw the review from TyreReviews recently on the new sport contacts 7  and they're raving about them as being as close to a race wet tyres as a road tyre could possibly get, but I do hear people who say some (maybe older variants) are a bit skatey much like you describe.

The car is coming together very nicely indeed 

I saw that video about the ContiSport 7s and typically not available in 18".  I used to really like the ContiSport 3 for it's ride comfort, low noise and light weight (yeah that's a thing  ) but yeah, not the best in the wet or for steering feel.  The Eagle F1 SuperSport are really good but at the expense of ride comfort.

[Clarkj93]

Looking good, I had those tyres on an MX-5 and they’re really good for the money.
I need some new ones on mine, it’s got Continentals all round with about 6mm+ tread on but they’re utter sh*te. Like driving on glass…

Yeah very reasonable and great if you only have 1 set of wheels. I hear mixed on Conti's, I saw the review from TyreReviews recently on the new sport contacts 7  and they're raving about them as being as close to a race wet tyres as a road tyre could possibly get, but I do hear people who say some (maybe older variants) are a bit skatey much like you describe.

The car is coming together very nicely indeed 

I saw that video about the ContiSport 7s and typically not available in 18".  I used to really like the ContiSport 3 for it's ride comfort, low noise and light weight (yeah that's a thing  ) but yeah, not the best in the wet or for steering feel.  The Eagle F1 SuperSport are really good but at the expense of ride comfort.

I've never tried them to be honest always stuck with Goodyesr being always as good or nearly as good as Michellins but usually a decent amount cheaper.think I would definitely try the 7 though!

[Clarkj93]

Pretty low currently... il leave RetroResus to sort the ride height if the roll centre has dropped too low. Maybe it's because of the height it sits at currently but riding on the b14 with whiteline anti roll bar the ride is pretty rough for the road, and I think my in-laws Scooby on knackered Gaz Golds is fairly comfortable so thats saying something. Not an issue for me but if it was only built for road use would probably not be my choice of coilover. Again maybe a higher ride height would help I'm not sure.



Bedded in the new rear ebc bluestuff pads, feel a bit vague when cold but after a few sharp stabs to the brakes on the road they feel really good to be fair. As you can see the powder coating didn't fair too well after bedding them fairly aggressively this morning.



Just need to sand down the front discs and change the pads, bed in and flush the fluid again with race stuff and we're all ready really for Retro to finish it off before Llandow in June.

Off topic but new addition to the household, Mrs has bought into the VAG life style now as well. 1.4 tfsi 150bhp DSG. Great little thing, bit of a pocket rocket as well to be fair, don't expect a little car like that to pull like it does. As much as I tried she was never going to agree to a  DSG mk5 gti