Life of the McDub by photo

[McDub]

Thought i'd give the dub it's own pictorial photo diary sorta thing...

Will try keep my chat to min and keep with the theme of pics.


Picked her up from the Kangaroo valley almost two years ago, stock 2003 gti with 86k on it, greeting me with open arms (door):




First wash, all clean and stuff...

[McDub]

probably the only thing i did in the first 9 months to it was give it some yellow foggies...




Didn't think i would end up 'wasting' any money on her with mods, but that all suddenly changed as soon as I caved in and got it flashed. I chose (unfortunately), to go with Unitronic

Knew something was up, so had to get it looked at on the dyno




Oh noes, it's making the same peak power as a stock gti!
Money pit, here we come

[McDub]

think i'm gonna get a boost guage to help diagnose what's going wrong, also maybe a new diverter valve, actually while i'm buying all this stuff from ECS, why not just get the 14lbs clutch kit that's on special. It doesn't need a new clutch, but what the hell...




Last oil change i got done by a mechanic... i'm a mechanical engineer, surely i can handle this on my own?
It's just unsrew, screw and pour, correct?
First ever attempt to do an oil change, i picked a great day for it...

[McDub]

Hmmm Unitronic think the problem is with the intake.
Ok i'll try install a silicon TIP just incase the stock rubber one is collapsing...

Out comes the stock one, this is the easy bit




old vs new




the inlet to the turbo... that black coolant piping just below the inlet makes it almost impossible to get the new one on. unbolting it from the engine and bending it away slightly finally let enough room for the new TIP (after some some cursing and grazed knuckes)



Problem with car fixed? not at all, still a slow peice of crap!

[McDub]

mcdub down at the farm... but it's missing something...




Look, it's just gone and rolled down the driveway on it's own accord. what's it trying to tell me? (thank god for the otto bins it ran into...)




It needs shiny new wheels!




some black car in the way...

[McDub]

so i wonder whats wrong with the car that it's so slow... vortex tells me the intercooler clogs up with oil and needs to be cleaned out after a while. well vortex is always right so that's what i'll do.



Not a single drop of oil came out of the intercooler, clean as a whistle.
least i had fun learning how to dismantle the front bumper...

may aswell insect hoses and bushings...

fair bit of oil that seems to be dripping down from that turbo




hmmm control arm bushes looking a little worn, maybe time for ecs suspension refresh kit




been meaning to try and fix the circuit for my boost guage that needs a capictor to illuminate properly (stupid new south sepctrum boost guage, do not buy one)... look how i found the earth cable was earthed... interesting...




TO BE CONTINUED

[undisclos3d]

diggin it and lovin the wheels, pity about it being slow. Screw unitronic and get a giac? haha

[Speed]

Loving the wheels!
I should have mine going soon. Maybe you can compare yours to my GIAC and see what you think?

[McDub]

don't worry, unitronic has both left my car, and the country all together... will get there in a couple posts...


was going to get some pss9's in the group buy, but if fell through and i opted for the cheaper option of shock and springs instead (KYB AGX shocks with H&R sport springs)

shocks arrived courtesy of classy ebay...




had to wait almost a month for my ecs order...




the H&R springs, stage 2 front suspension refresh kit, 2.5" TB Billy Boat exhaust, strut bar, 10mm spacers for the rear...

[McDub]

after 8 months of trying to solve the low power issues (changing just about everything, i.e temp sensors, MAF, O2 sensor, TIP, D.V, N75, Throttle body, just about everything short of a new engine, new ecu or a new car all together), was finally decided it must be the unitronic software. Had it removed and refunded, not going into that any more, lots of headache...


So got it put on the dyno to make sure it was healthy in stock form... seems about right




Then got the exhaust put on at the same time because i was curious to see the difference on paper...




8 extra kw's, not too bad

[McDub]

Had pretty bad luck with the ECS order, other than having to wait 4 weeks for it, i think the downpipe has been fabricated wrong, and as a result i can see the lip sitting proud inside the flexible joint. Hopefully not causing any problems... though it touches the chasis and or steering colum occasionaly, and there's a fair bit of drone which i'm wondering if it's caused by this flow restriction...



also my 10mm spacers do not fit my replica wheels as the chamfer on the wheels is too small. not gonna increase the chamfer on the wheels, think i'll keep the spacers off, keep it legal. will be selling them soon i think

and the front strut bar physically does not fit!
fortunately they're sending over a new one, so if anyone wants to try and mod this one i suppose they can have it...



anyway enough whinging...

[McDub]

and so i finally got round to getting it re-flashed with a different tune.

went for Custom Code this time. Camden Gti (golf loon) loaded it for me just last week. They don't need to install any chip of any sort onto your ecu so that's a definite bonus. Am very happy with it, feels great to drive.




Put it on the dyno after about 5 days.

I was getting runs of between 110-117kw (seemed to increase with each run, strange for a turbo).
I tried both the N75J valve and the stock N75 valve. They didn't seem to make a difference looking at the results.

The last run gave the highest peak output (so much for heatsoak, suppose because it was cold...)

All runs had an AFR consistantly below 11:1, so a lot richer than you'd hope, but it seems to still make the power it should be making. Just hopefully in summer with hotter intake temps it doesn't go to the ****! Time will tell.



Boosting a bit higher than it probably should too. Hit 20psi on every run. Though on the road it seems to be more 15-18. Feels great though having all that torque.
Check out all the area under the curve!

[McDub]

and just a couple of miscelaneous pics

coldest temp the car has ever recorded, up in the blue mountains




and playing around with the LED light on my phone...




and now that's all up to date!

Getting the suspension put in by a local shop on Tuesday, will get pics of it then. The springs should sit it about 20mm lower than it is at the moment, should tidy up the looks a bit.

[Speed]

Wow! 117Kw.
I'd be pretty stoked with that.

Good stuff

[rikard1]

good read that is. so in troubleshooting the low power issue u built a tidy motor.