simon's learning what to do with the polo thread

[simon k]

Cool. At the Ringwood MG club where I do my club hillclimbs they run an event where they have a mini rally/autocross circuit and modify the hillclimb a bit too. You alternate between dirt runs and tarmac runs and they average you best dirt and best tarmac time for a FTD average to determine the winners. I reckon a mini would be sick for that.

that would be an absolute hoot - my mini is quick on both surfaces... I bet they hate it when minis show up

Cant imagine your spine is very happy after ploughing through the rough course though yeah?

it's not as bad as you might think, mine is quite comfortable but it's all relative...

How about you build a hyabusa mini for me?

sure, give me about $8k up front for hardware and mechanicals and labour is $70 per hour - you pay invoices as soon as you get them, and I keep working until it's done

want my bank account number?

[Sydneykid]

How about you build a hyabusa mini for me?

A VTEC Mini is more fun



Cheers
Gary

[simon k]

I've not driven either, but I really wonder what the torque is like on a bike engined car... it couldn't be real flash... I will get my honda powered car done one day, I've no idea when, but I will do it....

[seangti]

I didn't find dropping the gearbox to be much of a drama, easier than the turbo, but perhaps I was more confident after turbo swaps. You'll need an engine hoist or brace. A second set of hands once the gearbox is released is certainly advantageous. I used a strap around the gears and hoist to allow the gearbox to wiggle and the strap too most of the weight so I didn't drop it on my face. Biggest frustration of the job was removing and reinstalling the drive shafts onto the gearbox, I didn't have a sufficiently long hex bit and was so paranoid about destroying the head - which I did on one.

[sambb]

oh yeah you're bringing back memories Sean. Yeah you need the correct drive bits (china is good for them) for the driveshaft bolts (new ones from VW + new driveshaft gaskets a good idea) and various length extensions, torque wrench etc. Nothing is particularly hard its just that the whole lot added up takes a lot of time. Good idea re the strap around the gearbox. I had it on a jack and that made me pioneer brand new expletives and hemorage blood everywhere too.
Simon if you want a good contact for the cheapest Wavetracs around ( sub 1000 bucks at the time not kidding) then let me know.

[simon k]

thanks Sean and Sam - sorry, I've been a little bit quiet, all sorts of things going on... both Polo and non-Polo

I made a fully sick Bunnings spec air intake, removed the SAI and coded it out (just left the plugs flying - would like to know how to tell if the ECU is in open-loop) and installed a superpro dogbone bush

Did a sprint at Winton yesterday and was reasonably consistent in 1:47s, best time 1:46.9 which is about where I was hoping to get to... a mate has some videos from behind me showing how far off the deck my rear inside tyre gets - 4-5" at times. I think the front-end is way too soft, it kinda feels like it rolls over on to the front wheel and just sits there until I unwind the steering when it sits down again. I'll link the videos when he puts them on youtube

I'd love a good contact for a diff Sam, I really missed it yesterday (however, a good contact for $1,000 would be handy!!) - I might have some extra cash soon as the Honda will be coming together, and another bloke wants his Hyundai done

[sambb]

with VCDS have a look at blocks 032 and 033. They are LTFT and STFT respectively. If especially the STFT aren't moving around a bit and are parked on 0.0% then the 02 sensor is stuck in open loop because something with how you coded it out didn't work eg solenoid plug does in fact need the resisiter or the N249 hasn't been resistered properly either. You can unseat the oil dipstick to introduce an 'air leak' and that will see the STFT jump around almost immediately so if that doesn't happen its the same deal. You can watch the o2 sensor on 031 but that is real time voltage/% eg an actual and will show those figures whether its in open or closed loop. Either of them if not done right will hold it out of closed loop. Also the car needs to be past 70 degrees or so and also be past the start up program before it'll go into closed loop.
My car used to do that. Itd lft the inside rear but drop onto the diagonally opposite front (outside front) and over power it forcing it to go into positive camber. Looked pretty extreme in a few picks which horrified me. A front bar fixed that but it was really a band aid for the fact that the car just needed to be way stiffer/better damped overall.
Brian at GTI imports is your man. I'll text you his number. My Wavetrac was landed for 900 bucks unbelievably so he must know someone good in the states. Problem is you need the box apart before you can order it because there are two different ring gear diameters with our boxes eg 1mm difference between them which is just ridiculous, but it means you really need to source a second box for a gearbox build if you intend on keeping your car on the road throughout. That stops a lot of people diff'ing their boxes I think but you can always sell the box that comes out afterwards to recoup funds to someone wanting to do the same thing, but I just kept mine as a spare.

[simon k]

with VCDS have a look at blocks 032 and 033. They are LTFT and STFT respectively. If especially the STFT aren't moving around a bit and are parked on 0.0% then the 02 sensor is stuck in open loop because something with how you coded it out didn't work eg solenoid plug does in fact need the resisiter or the N249 hasn't been resistered properly either. You can unseat the oil dipstick to introduce an 'air leak' and that will see the STFT jump around almost immediately so if that doesn't happen its the same deal. You can watch the o2 sensor on 031 but that is real time voltage/% eg an actual and will show those figures whether its in open or closed loop. Either of them if not done right will hold it out of closed loop. Also the car needs to be past 70 degrees or so and also be past the start up program before it'll go into closed loop.

ahhh - that's right - sorry Sam, I think you've already explained that to me

My car used to do that. Itd lft the inside rear but drop onto the diagonally opposite front (outside front) and over power it forcing it to go into positive camber. Looked pretty extreme in a few picks which horrified me. A front bar fixed that but it was really a band aid for the fact that the car just needed to be way stiffer/better damped overall.

yep... all sorts of front-end fixups, I need a shopping list

Brian at GTI imports is your man. I'll text you his number. My Wavetrac was landed for 900 bucks unbelievably so he must know someone good in the states. Problem is you need the box apart before you can order it because there are two different ring gear diameters with our boxes eg 1mm difference between them which is just ridiculous, but it means you really need to source a second box for a gearbox build if you intend on keeping your car on the road throughout. That stops a lot of people diff'ing their boxes I think but you can always sell the box that comes out afterwards to recoup funds to someone wanting to do the same thing, but I just kept mine as a spare.

balls.... no numbers on the outside to indicate?

[sambb]

Nup. Has to be apart and measured to the mm. sucks eh

[simon k]

here's a video from Sunday - the camera car is a very quick R31 Skyline... he included the bit where we were 3 wide on the straight. I saw the Falcon and Skyline coming so stuck to the side and watched the Falcon go past, then looked over my shoulder to make sure the Skyline was out of the way too and the bastard had vanished!! After the session he said that the Falcon had gone mid-track, he thought "I can go through there" and nailed it - was a pretty cool move

The silver R33 skyline looks like he got a bit of a fright too, I reckon he must've been all upset that a little red Polo went past, then shat himself when a big white box filled his side mirror

YouTube

any feedback on suspension changes Gary? feels like the front-end is too soft...

[Sydneykid]

feedback on suspension changes Gary? feels like the front-end is too soft...

Yep, some over the top diagonal weight transfer going on there. Maybe a mild front swaybar upgrade, but springs even more so. Then some decent damping, it looks under damped now, add some bar and spring and it will be worse. The under damping unsettles the tyre contact patch, so it looks tippy toe, not planted, how does it feel? Particularly on the change of direction? I'd avoid the front swaybar upgrade until you have an LSD in it, otherwise it will be wheel spin city.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

That's exactly what mine used to do Simon. Because I had no money for dampers I did the FARB to try to cure it. It did re-address the roll distribution and get that rear inside wheel lift into a better place. It meant though that when I did do the front dampers I left the stock springs in there because they had a good ride height and I didn't want the front to be too stiff. It wasn't until I put the B8's in there that I realised how under damped it had been. Unfortunately its a bit of an all in job on the front - on an effort to reward basis there's no point doing dampers without springs which may mean coilovers but at least if you do them together like Gary said you can leave the stock front bar in place. Ive been considering putting my stock front bar back in. In the mean time I guess you can always drop back to the rear H&R's if you have to eg in the wet just to get it a bit more balanced when you are tip toe'ing around.
I'd love to have a crack at that track - looks great fun!

[simon k]

right... no more avoiding it, I need to do suspension properly if I want to go any faster. It's fun to drive, but changing direction was unnerving at times. I hadn't thought about what it'll be like in the wet

I was looking at B8s a few weeks ago. I'll have to total up the cost of a set of those, plus springs, plus something to make the strut tops adjustable - without adding it up, I have a feeling that a set of MCAs will end up about the same... reasonable assumption?

[sambb]

yep I can save you the time. I went through all the costs of making spherical tops, adjustment etc and at the end of the day you are still on B8's with no camber/damping/height adjustment. My XR series MCA's were $2K but Blues (with simpler damper valving) are $1600. I don't think that for seperate droop/bump, camber adjustment, damping adjustment, height adjustment and pairs of springs thereafter only a hundred bucks if you buy from MCA, that you can beat them.
You'll still need castor though so you can scratch your moding itch chasing that with castor bushes and/or subframe eccentrics.
I was going to look into whether or not MCA Red front tubes could be put into my fronts. If so down the track my XR fronts could go onto your Blues if you ever wanted an upgrade.

[sambb]

Oh but keep in mind that if you want access to the camber adjusters and damper adjustment then you do need to take to the strut top domes with a grinder which is kind of irreversible. That's true of any of the top slide adjusters. The 700 buck k-mac tops that do camber AND caster (the setting is clamped by the 3 strut top nuts) get around that problem, but unless you have a base adjuster you'd still need to get your fingers inside the domes to change damping if you had that feature.
So yeah MCA's (cutting and caster still needed) OR bilsteins with K-mac tops (caster/camber sorted). Problem with B8's is that your spring choice RE rate/height is critical and most likely custom as a stiff enough selection of springs at the right height isn't really available off the shelf. B14's solve ride height but still don't have damping adjustment and paired with K-mac tops will maybe cost more than MCA's. Gary had eluded to the potential for B14's be converted to damping adjustability later. Not sure if you can choose your spring rates with B14's - they are rear soft out of the box, but provided the fronts are in the zone, as you've found the rears are easy to play with.