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Tony's Black GTI

GoodTimesIndeed

GoodTimesIndeed

Go Kart Champion
Tony48 said:
I really wanted the Accessport for the flexibility in being able to switch between tunes for emissions purposes. I don't expect I'll have any really significant power gains over an APR K04 tune. Plus it's cool to try out an e-tune. Stratified also told me they think they'll be able to code off the G611 radiator identification sensor so that's pretty appealing to me.

Would certainly be interested in comparing with your car!
Click to expand...

As with other APR tunes you can still switch between tunes via the cruise control stalk or the APR app if you have an iPhone.

Either way, will be cool to have a custom tune thats different then what everyone else is running.
 
BringerOdeath

BringerOdeath

Ready to race!
Tony48 said:
Well, here's the update on my big update :rolleyes:

I ordered a CTS K04 a few weeks ago and had it shipped straight to Ruben at SoCalPorting for a port/polish and ceramic coat. Just received the K04 and it's looking mighty fine. I'm following the trail blazed by HYDE16 in his K04 Porting thread. Unfortunately it will be a minimum of a few weeks until I can install this thing as I'm waiting on a base map from Stratified...yes, I also decided to ditch APR and go with a Cobb Accessport and Stratified ProTune. After speaking with Jared and Alex at Stratified I'm excited to begin the tuning process! The K04, Accessport, Turbo outlet pipe, and all gaskets/hardware will stay boxed up in the garage for the time being.

So, I'm going K04 at 125k+ miles!
K04 flickr album is here. I'll be adding pics as things progress.




















Click to expand...
Man! I wish I had my k04 cermaic coated and ported.... :p That looks awesome and it's never too late for k04 ;). I am up to 78k on my car which isn't too bad for 7 years of being a daily driver
 
Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
GoodTimesIndeed said:
As with other APR tunes you can still switch between tunes via the cruise control stalk or the APR app if you have an iPhone.

Either way, will be cool to have a custom tune thats different then what everyone else is running.
Click to expand...
I know it's possible to switch between tunes but I like the idea of having a tune that can be modified if I decide to go direct port WMI or something in the future. An APR tune would have done what I need but I like the future proofing of the AP and an e-tune. More than anything I wanted to try something new!

I've also read many mixed reviews of the APR K04 tune. Many people are super happy with it and have put down great numbers. Some others say it's peaky and not great for daily driving, not much power down low, etc. I'm sure it comes down to what version of the tune you have and many other factors. Working with Stratified means I can tell them I want a nice, smooth powerband even if it doesn't make the highest peak numbers. We'll see if my hopes and dreams for this tune are actually fulfilled and the e-tuning process is worth it!
BringerOdeath said:
Man! I wish I had my k04 cermaic coated and ported.... :p That looks awesome and it's never too late for k04 ;). I am up to 78k on my car which isn't too bad for 7 years of being a daily driver
Click to expand...
I figured that this will be my last turbo on this car so I might as well squeeze what I can out of it. Plus it's easier/cheaper to get it ported now as opposed to after it's been installed.
 
Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Couple random updates from over Thanksgiving...Got my LED puddle lights installed and coded. The lights themselves are straight from China and I had no issues dremeling out the side mirror housings and fitting them. The color temp is a little towards the bluish side of white but I can live with it. At the same time I started working on retrofitting the passenger mirror "Dip on reverse" feature that euro GTI's came with from the factory. Still working on figuring that one out (with some help from BringerOdeath) but had to do some depinning of connectors to repair a few wires and fish the harness through the mirror assembly. Good learning experience since I hadn't previously used wiring diagrams for much other than quick reference. Door panel removal/reinstall is a piece of cake now that I've done it about a dozen times :rolleyes:. Wiring harnesses got the full cloth tape treatment for OEM quality and to prevent door rattles.

















Next, spent a day and a half working on dad's MK7. Put in an RSR clutch and new DMFW. This was a bit tricky since he has a factory LSD that has to be dealt with. That involved removing his 3" downpipe to get the necessary clearance and making a specialty tool (aka 6mm hex bit welded to the end of an 18" piece of 1/4" rod) to get the passenger axle flange removed. PITA but it all went pretty smoothly once we had those things figured out. Also pressed out his front control arm bushings to replace them with SuperPro poly bushings and swapped in some Emmanuele Design lowering springs.








Lastly, I picked up a spare hood from a local junkyard. It had a nice message from what I can only assume was the previous owner's ex girl/boyfriend....





A few mins with the block sander took care of the obscenity.





And temporarily hung on the garage wall until I have some time for it. The plan is to use the hood to learn a bit of bodywork. At the minimum I will be pulling/filling the dents and priming. Toying with the idea of filling the hood notch and going badgeless front grille just because I can. I'm pretty indifferent to badgeless grilles on our cars but may end up doing it for the bodywork practice. I have to figure out what people typically do with the badge notch in the front bumper though!


I still plan on vinyl wrapping the car eventually so I may not end up fully painting this hood Deep Black Pearl, but would like to, if only for the painting practice.





K04 install coming soon...waiting on a base map from Stratified and a free weekend to install. I just filled out the tuning form and sent in a preliminary data log. In the meantime I have new engine/trans/pendulum mounts to install before K04 since my stock mounts seem pretty tired at 125k miles.
 
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Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
034 Motorsport Street Density Mounts and ECS Pendulum Mount have been installed. I kept my 034 billet dogbone insert installed as well. All new TTY hardware to suit.

Impressions:

  • at 125k miles the stock engine/trans mounts weren't flopping around like a fish but they were definitely worn out.
  • When I started the car for the first time after install I noticed a very slightly deeper, more aggressive noise from the engine. Sounds good.
  • Vibrations/noise at idle are unchanged in the cabin! A/C on or off doesn't matter. I was pretty excited for this.
  • Vibrations/noise while driving are unchanged!
  • Vibrations/noise upon clutch engagement from a dead stop is very slightly more noticeable than with the billet dogbone insert only. I mean VERY slightly. Definitely not anything an unknowing passenger would notice. Based on what I've read, I expect vibration to decrease slightly as the mounts break in and my clutch/gas action becomes used to the change.
  • The car definitely feels more planted and shifts smoother. Engine movement during shifts had gotten pretty bad in the last 20-30k miles. There's still some when accelerating aggressively but it's way more manageable.
  • Overall I would say comfort of the car actually INCREASED by installing these mounts. There's no more uncomfortable engine shifting feeling between shifts. The 1-2 shift had always caused an unavoidable lurch but now things are smooooooooothhhh.
  • I actually thought these mounts would have stiffened the engine up a bit more. I was worried about NVH so I took a safe route when deciding between the 034 SD mounts and BFI Stage 1 mounts. I'm now thinking that the NVH would have been manageable with the BFI mounts but who knows....it's a completely different type of mount so hard to compare without actually trying them out. Depending on how things feel moving forward I think I'll try out the Racingline VWR subframe mounts.
Overall I would highly recommend this mount combo to anyone for a daily driver. As with anything, time will tell for longevity.

Not much to photograph when installing these but here ya go:





 
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riceburner

riceburner

Autocross Champion
Agreed on all points with the mounts!
 
hbrown0509

hbrown0509

Go Kart Champion
The VWR mount is a good upgrade. You’ll get some added nvh in the beginning but it tones down over a while and this is coming from a DSG owner. A good improvement over the metal insert as this the upgrade path I took.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
hbrown0509 said:
The VWR mount is a good upgrade. You’ll get some added nvh in the beginning but it tones down over a while and this is coming from a DSG owner. A good improvement over the metal insert as this the upgrade path I took.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Glad to hear it! I've got a spare subframe lying around that I grabbed from the junkyard. Sometime in the future I'll powder coat it and press in the VWR pucks.
 
hbrown0509

hbrown0509

Go Kart Champion
Tony48 said:
Glad to hear it! I've got a spare subframe lying around that I grabbed from the junkyard. Sometime in the future I'll powder coat it and press in the VWR pucks.
Click to expand...



Not sure if still they are still on sale but USP Motorsports has them for $190. Normally around $238.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Mid-way through K04 install updates:

  1. Turbo came out pretty easily using the abundance of install guides available. However, I had one big problem.....
  2. I was very unhappy to find my driver's side exhaust stud was broken off. From the rust on it, it must have been broken off for some time. To make things worse, it was broken off a few millimeters recessed into the head. I managed to remove the stud after 8hrs of work...tried a few methods and what ended up working was building the stud up with a MIG welder and welding a bolt to that. This doesn't sound that difficult in theory but the stud is in an awful place to work on. Welding on the stud required laying on the engine (protected by a moving blanket), having someone hold a mirror and light in the correct position, and maneuvering the MIG gun via mirror carefully to get the correct angle (the area the gun had to fit was far from ideal and prevented an optimum angle). Then welding blind because there's no way to actually watch the weld puddle in such a small area. Because the stud enters the head at an angle I had to carefully grind away the excess weld to allow the welded bolt/stud combo to complete a full revolution without fouling. Hard to explain but maybe the pictures will make sense. After about a dozen tries at welding and and continually shearing the bolt off the stud at the weld I managed to get a strong weld and remove the stud. Overall an extremely frustrating day but I'm glad to report the stud came out without having to remove the head.
  3. After all that I ran into my next set of issues. The CTS turbo kit doesn't come with replacement banjo bolt washers for the coolant supply line to turbo, or coolant return line to turbo. The coolant return line to turbo requires a special, thick washer to provide necessary clearance of one of the port plugs on the turbo body. That special washer is now an obsolete VW part and can not be purchased. I have sent an email to Clay @ CTS and am hoping he can provide the correct washer. Otherwise I'll have to double up washers or attempt to slightly bend the banjo fitting. Not ideal scenarios.
  4. As of now the car is sitting without a turbo installed while I try to source the correct hardware that CTS failed to provide...
Turbo out:




Broken stud:




Here you can see how far the bolt is recessed. Plus some grinding scars from previous attempts.




What finally worked:




Swapping lines:



New coolant overflow tank while I'm at it:



Painted the downpipe from flange to flex with VHT exhaust paint to prevent corrosion and wrapped with DEI titanium:


 
O

omer333

Passed Driver's Ed
An exhaust bolt broke on my car back in October. While I thought it made the car sound like an old Beetle, I knew I'd have to get it fixed. A local shop went through the same trouble after they figured out where the exhaust leak was coming from. They put a new stud in, I just hope that if I keep my car long enough to go for the k04 swap, that I don't have to replace the head.

Keep up the good work on your car.
 
Tony48

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
omer333 said:
An exhaust bolt broke on my car back in October. While I thought it made the car sound like an old Beetle, I knew I'd have to get it fixed. A local shop went through the same trouble after they figured out where the exhaust leak was coming from. They put a new stud in, I just hope that if I keep my car long enough to go for the k04 swap, that I don't have to replace the head.

Keep up the good work on your car.
Click to expand...
BudgetPhoenix said:
The dreaded snapped driver stud lol. At least you didnt remove the head or engine like some people did to get that stud out.
Click to expand...
Not sure why the driver's stud so frequently breaks on these cars. Must be something to do with the design and heat cycles of the exhaust manifold. Regardless, it's a huge PITA and not something I was really prepared for. Just glad to have it out :D

Ideally I'd like to replace all the studs but I'm being a bit chicken....don't want to snap another stud and go through everything I had to go through with the driver's stud.

I'm interested to see if fixing the stud changes the sound of the car. I didn't have a super noticeable noise and it actually didn't look like there was much of an exhaust leak, if there was one at all. My LTFT has been a tad high over the last 20k miles (would a leak at the exhaust manifold cause this?) but nothing I was overly concerned with...maybe 1.09-1.12 each time I checked.
 
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