Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Ok cool. Good to know. If you could fit 225/45/16 under there with no rolling then I know I can fit 215/50/15 without the same. My front ride height is basically stock so I'll definitely be ok there, but the rear which I space out 20mm with et40 rims to try to get close to the fronts track will need some attention I think. thx

[Sydneykid]

hmm I know it'd be a good size to run and pretty common but I don't have 16's other than the really heavy stock rims. They will physically fit I think as I'm pretty sure Eddy ran that size.
I called Levens today to see if they had any 215/50/15 second hand mediums and he said try on Monday as he might have some in then. I'm also after a pair of 205/50/15 softs for the front but they are like hens teeth at the moment.

There's a State Championship round on at Eastern Creek this weekend, so that's why Billy thinks he might have some. This time if I see some usable 215/50/15's I'll grab them for you at the track, once they get back to the shop they are too soon snapped up like last time. I've still got your phone number so I'll message you and let you know if I score some.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

oh that'd be awesome Gary. Really appreciate you keeping an eye out. Yeah I'm on night shift like last time so will be sleeping Monday morning and they'd probably gone by 12 again! thanks

[sambb]

Andrew - got a Ringwood question. You do a lot more of the club rounds up there than me. Have you run against Jeff Schmitt since he got the M3? I noticed Woods did a 43.72 last weekend which is beatable but Schmitt wasn't there so curious where he normally fits. I'm a bit scared of what he could do in that thing. A guy who used to drive an XR6T now has a Focus RS in our class too. Must be the earlier mental case FWD one - that thing could be damn quick too. Getting worried. Jeez I wish I could up there for practice, haven't been there for a year.
oh and 5/10ths off Clemens was a good effort. He normally runs A050 softs so maybe the Nankangs weren't too bad on the day afterall.

[metalhead]

Jeff ran the first club hillclimb this year in the M3, and I comfortably beat him, and that was on the aged out tyres when I was way off the pace - but I believe it was also Jeff's first time in the car, and who knows what he's done to it since. Funnily enough, I very comfortably beat Tom Clemens at the previous hillclimb... Can be hard to gauge against others sometimes!

[metalhead]

You can't make it up on the Saturday?

[metalhead]

Jeff ran a 1:11 in the M3 at Wakefield at Aus Time Attack last weekend.

[sambb]

Oh ok so he's not smashing it. I still think a good benchmark will be Woods in the Megane RS 275 R. The RS Focus will be quick (its possible its the later AWD that's been misclassified though), and Liam in the GTS will be the one to beat unless its wet.
I only get every second weekend off and wan to see the kids play soccer. At any rate I'd only be able to do a handful of runs anyway as my set of softs are basically dead and its not much use practicing on street tyres. I haven't done a hillclimb since Bathurst in March so I'm pretty pumped.

[metalhead]

Looks like it will be pretty chilly this weekend but shouldn't rain. May be similar to last week though - we've had more rain this morning - track might be damp.

[sambb]

Its always sooo cold there in the morning in winter. I'll be on my skinny A050 softs rain, hail or shine. In addition to the water pump/timing belt and cam cover leak which parts haven't arrived for yet, my thermostat decided to die literally a week ago. I'll have the thermostat bits tomorrow morning so I will do that job though or else I'll be making every start on a cold engine. See! - always something right before an event, every god damn time.

[sambb]

Looking into fitting my INA sump. Its baffled, has anti oil surge gates around the pickup, an extra 0.7L capacity and is a work of aluminium welding art. Only prob I could see is that it doesnt have a relief welded into the base for the dual oil temp/oil level sensor to fit to. I could get a relief welded into it but thought I'd look into if the oil level/temp sensor is really critical. So after some sage advice (as usual from Gavin) I had a look in VCDS, 17. Instruments, Group 3. That group has coolant temp (goes to engine ECU too but also to the cluster gauge), oil level (which triggers the oil level low alarm on the dash) and the oil temperature which comes from the dual sensor in the sump as well. By looking at this VCDS group I was able to confirm that when you unplug the sensor, the oil level reading in VCDS changes to not ok. This may or may not immediately bring up the alarm on the dash but it definitely is immediate in VCDS. The oil temperature also switched from 39 degrees C actual whilst sitting in the garage to an open circuit default of 155 degrees c. That's obviously the max it could ever read too as well.
So what it all means is that if you get a hole in your sump and all your oil runs out, VCDS will pick it up right away but the dash alarm isn't necessarily so quick. I've tested this 4 or 5 times and only about half the time is the oil level alarm immediate. This makes me think that having the oil level alarm in case of a split sump isn't 100% critical. To back it up there is an oil pressure switch on the oil filter assembly that will see an oil pressure drop quicker than the dash will often tell you that there is no oil in the sump, so I think I can do away with the level sensing. I've read that oil level sensing plays into VW's little program that tells you when you need a service too eg levels consistently low or temps hot and it will beep at you early telling you to go to the service centre. Don't know how definite that is but I wouldn't put it past them and there are groups in VCDS that look at average oil levels etc from this sensor.
To do away with level sensing I'd read that you only need to bridge wires 1 and 3 at the plug and VCDS and the dash will think that the level is ok. Well I found this not to be true. When you measure pins 1 and 3 on the sump sensor when the level is ok the sensor measures 5Mohm so I'll find a resister with that value and bridge the plug with that and see if the level sensing can be tricked.
Regarding oil temp, I'm pretty sure that the oil temperature isn't an engine ECU input eg in the way that coolant temp is and therefore wont affect things like cool running fuel trims etc. There are no VCDS blocks in the engine ECU that monitor oil temp at all. None are listed in the ross tech lists that are active on our engine. It only seems to input to the cluster probably because other cars with similar hardware eg audis, had oil temp sensor gauges on the dash. Ours doesn't though so it seems like its a null signal on the CAN that isn't used on any dash hardware/gauges that our car uses.
So in short, I'm going to fit the INA sump without the sensor. I'll hopefully trick the level sensing and rely on the pressure sensor to tell me if the sump gets ruptured (I'm sure I'd realise I'd had a big hit) and usual maintenance checks to tell me that the level is ok in normal running. For oil temp (since we have no dash display anyway) I wont miss anything, but what I'll most likely do is plumb an oil temp sensor into the oil filter mount so I can watch it realtime on an in cabin gauge. Who knows maybe 0.7L extra capacity will keep oil temps under control long enough in 5-10 lap sprints that I wont need to take the jump towards an oil cooler.

[simon k]

all sounds reasonable - the oil temp sensor can be tricked with a resistor too, you just want to heat the sensor up to 80° or so and measure the resistance...

on cold mornings, my dashboard 'dings' at me and flashes the outside temperature (4°) when I get a little bit of wheel slip.

[sambb]

yeah ambient air temp goes to the dash too - its good that you can read that in the stalk scroll through. Yeah it always freaks me out when that chime goes off making you think that somethings wrong.
Just spoke to Gav and he said that oil temp doesn't show up in any of the Nefmoto stuff for the engine ECU either so I feel fine a bout deleting that now as it seems its purely for the dash. Just have to find the right resister tomorow night at work and see if the level sensor can be fooled.

[metalhead]

Sounds like a plan. Funnily enough I'm expecting a new sump to arrive any day myself - my current sump is baffled, has a nice windage tray etc, but hangs a bit lower than stock, enough that I've grounded it a few times. I've a new sump on the way that is shorter, and at the same time has a bigger capacity and better baffling.

[simon k]

dunno if I've asked before, but is oil starvation a common problem when using these Polos for sprints etc.?