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Tony's Black GTI

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Got a bunch of work done over Christmas so here's the update. K04 is fully installed. Huge thanks to Jeff at HS Tuning for sending me out the sealing washer needed for clearance on the coolant return line. Everything went back together without any drama. I left the turbo heat shield off for a test drive so I could inspect for leaks...everything checked out.

I decided not to install the turbo blanket because I didn't like the lack of clearance for the wastegate actuator. There is no way to keep the actuator from pushing against the blanket and it seemed like the blanket would eventually tear. Not worth the potential hassle down the road.

All lines connected with out heat shield for test drive:



Engine bay back together and looking pretty. Not bad for 126k miles!:



I'm not getting into boost too much yet because of what sounds like compressor surge on my Stratified base map. Not sure if the noise is simply because of the DV+ but I'm going to wait for a response from Stratified before I push the car and do my data logs.


Switching gears a bit...A week ago when I drained the oil in prep for K04 install I noticed my magnetic drain plug had caught a bit of magnetic fuzz. the pieces looked like tiny wires rather than shavings so I suspected the cam bridge screen had broken. I pulled the upper timing chain cover and cam bridge to find I was correct:





I did this work on Christmas eve, coincidentally exactly 1 year after I replaced my timing chains. At that time I had elected to leave the cam bridge screen in place since it was in tact. Wish I had pulled it out.

I broke the rest of the screen out and reinstalled. I'm worried that the unaccounted parts of the screen are lodged somewhere and will cause oil starvation, but hope for the best. I'm going to drop the oil pan to check for debris and clean the oil pickup.



Few other things I managed to get done:

  • New tires mounted on the Detroit's. Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+'s.
  • Porsche Brakes have been squealing so I pulled the pads and noticed a ridge on the outside edge of the pads. It appears the pad is slightly larger than the rotor. I chamfered the edge of the pad to prevent this lip from forming again, cleaned and re-lubed everything before reassembly. Chamfered pad pictured on left, pad with wear lip on right.



 
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Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Good catch on the cam bridge screen dude. I feel a lot better not having it on mine.
From now on I'll definitely be recommending breaking out the screen to everyone that has the cam bridge out.

When I saw the metal on the drain plug my first thought was that my balance shafts were going...so I was happy to find the cam bridge screen broken. The lesser of two evils.
 

MLue1

Drag Racing Champion
From now on I'll definitely be recommending breaking out the screen to everyone that has the cam bridge out.

When I saw the metal on the drain plug my first thought was that my balance shafts were going...so I was happy to find the cam bridge screen broken. The lesser of two evils.
Thanks good tip.

I could be wrong but I thought there was another screen mentioned in other documentation that I saw.
 

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Thanks good tip.

I could be wrong but I thought there was another screen mentioned in other documentation that I saw.
There's a screen on each balance shaft but to get to them you have to pull the balance shafts out. So that means pulling the lower timing cover, timing chains, and then pulling the shafts out. As far as I can tell it's much less common to blow those screens out. Or at least the screens are less accessible and therefore less people are aware they blew the screens. Either way I'm going to leave things be and assume only my cam bridge screen has blown. I've already done all that work once (up to the point of pulling the balance shafts out) and am not keen on doing it again unless absolutely necessary.
 
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rawag77

Ready to race!
Hey Tony got a few questions for you:


1. Just want to confirm that you only need to pull the upper timing cover to remove/inspect the Cam Bridge, correct? No need to lock timing or mess with the tensioner?


2. If you don't mind me asking, how much was shipping/port/polish/coat on the K04 with SoCal? If you prefer, send me a DM. I had emailed them from their website a while back, but never followed up after they didn't respond.


I must say our cars are damn near exactly the same in mods. Good work!
 

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Answers in bold below
Hey Tony got a few questions for you:

1. Just want to confirm that you only need to pull the upper timing cover to remove/inspect the Cam Bridge, correct? No need to lock timing or mess with the tensioner?

That is correct. Getting the upper timing cover and cam bridge off with the engine mount connected is a bit tight but it can be done. You have to flex the oil dipstick guide tube a bit to pull it up between the block and the engine mount support bracket but I've managed to do it a few times without anything bad happening. You do need a special tool (T10352) to remove the N205 valve, and don't forget that it's reverse threaded. Other than that nothing special and it all makes sense when you're looking at it. Let me know if you run into any issues.

2. If you don't mind me asking, how much was shipping/port/polish/coat on the K04 with SoCal? If you prefer, send me a DM. I had emailed them from their website a while back, but never followed up after they didn't respond.

Ruben is very busy and doesn't typically respond quickly but I assume that's because he's working so hard! I bugged him with a ton of questions about wastegate cracking pressure calibration and he answered them all and kept me updated.

Port/Polish: $250.
Ceramic Coating: $50.
Return Shipping: $50.

Additional Info:

  • The Port/Polish price includes calibrating the wastegate cracking pressure to Borg Warner spec. This has to be done anytime the wastegate is taken off. SoCal Porting knows what they're doing and took care of it. I trusted them and didn't bother to check cracking pressure myself.
  • The ceramic coating comes fully cured so you don't have to do any kind of heat cycling when the turbo is installed.
  • Return shipping was pricey from California to Maryland. Ruben offered to provide some quotes but I told him just use whatever service he typically uses.
  • SoCal Porting had my turbo for 7 business days between receiving and shipping out. Ruben kept me updated along the way and apologized for taking so long. He said they were very busy when I had my turbo work done. I found that time frame perfectly reasonable.
  • Overall I'm satisfied with the experience and would recommend SoCal Porting.

I must say our cars are damn near exactly the same in mods. Good work!

Sounds like you have good taste :thumbsup:
 
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rawag77

Ready to race!
Thanks for the quick response. I'm sitting at 96k miles on a late 2013 build, and i'm hoping i have all the revised timing parts. Won't know for sure unless i check, so thanks for your notes. Looks like the tool can be had fairly cheap along with a new timing cover gasket.


As for the K04, you have any concerns about valve float? Since it's caused by back pressure in the turbo itself, my theory is that porting/polishing and coating the exhaust side will eliminate or greatly reduce that issue. I also like your idea of wrapping the upper part of the dp, which will increase flow as well.
 

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Thanks for the quick response. I'm sitting at 96k miles on a late 2013 build, and i'm hoping i have all the revised timing parts. Won't know for sure unless i check, so thanks for your notes. Looks like the tool can be had fairly cheap along with a new timing cover gasket.

As for the K04, you have any concerns about valve float? Since it's caused by back pressure in the turbo itself, my theory is that porting/polishing and coating the exhaust side will eliminate or greatly reduce that issue. I also like your idea of wrapping the upper part of the dp, which will increase flow as well.
You should take a quick peek at the cam chain tensioner via the inspection hole (late '13 build should have the updated tensioner) and use OBDeleven or VCDS to check chain stretch. I believe all MK6 GTI's have the older revision chain which is prone to stretching.

I figure I'll deal with valve float if it becomes an issue. I'm only on the third revision of my Stratified Protune and just starting to dial things in. Perhaps porting/polishing will help with the issue, not sure but your theory makes sense. Check out this post by APR that has some info on identifying exhaust valve springs that are known to allow valve float.
 

rawag77

Ready to race!
That’s the plan for when I check the bridge. VCDS timing was ok before I went stage 2. I need to check it again though.

Checked my valves a few months ago based on that post. Results were inconclusive. Lol. My valves weren’t listed. I might reach out to apr to see if they can identify mine.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
That’s the plan for when I check the bridge. VCDS timing was ok before I went stage 2. I need to check it again though.

Checked my valves a few months ago based on that post. Results were inconclusive. Lol. My valves weren’t listed. I might reach out to apr to see if they can identify mine.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Kinda figured that would be the case with the valve springs. In that post APR alluded that are many other color band options without conclusive data. Further along in the comments people mentioned valve springs potentially changing after the 2011 model year...don't know if that's true or not. Either way, sounds like APR is the best resource for this and hopefully they have more data points for a variety of color bands since that post in 2012.

Let me know what you find out. I'll have to check my exhaust valve springs soon...hopefully with conclusive results.
 

nevekd128

Ready to race!
Got a bunch of work done over Christmas so here's the update. K04 is fully installed. Huge thanks to Jeff at HS Tuning for sending me out the sealing washer needed for clearance on the coolant return line. Everything went back together without any drama. I left the turbo heat shield off for a test drive so I could inspect for leaks...everything checked out.

I decided not to install the turbo blanket because I didn't like the lack of clearance for the wastegate actuator. There is no way to keep the actuator from pushing against the blanket and it seemed like the blanket would eventually tear. Not worth the potential hassle down the road.

All lines connected with out heat shield for test drive:



Engine bay back together and looking pretty. Not bad for 126k miles!:



I'm not getting into boost too much yet because of what sounds like compressor surge on my Stratified base map. Not sure if the noise is simply because of the DV+ but I'm going to wait for a response from Stratified before I push the car and do my data logs.


Switching gears a bit...A week ago when I drained the oil in prep for K04 install I noticed my magnetic drain plug had caught a bit of magnetic fuzz. the pieces looked like tiny wires rather than shavings so I suspected the cam bridge screen had broken. I pulled the upper timing chain cover and cam bridge to find I was correct:





I did this work on Christmas eve, coincidentally exactly 1 year after I replaced my timing chains. At that time I had elected to leave the cam bridge screen in place since it was in tact. Wish I had pulled it out.

I broke the rest of the screen out and reinstalled. I'm worried that the unaccounted parts of the screen are lodged somewhere and will cause oil starvation, but hope for the best. I'm going to drop the oil pan to check for debris and clean the oil pickup.



Few other things I managed to get done:

  • New tires mounted on the Detroit's. Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+'s.
  • Porsche Brakes have been squealing so I pulled the pads and noticed a ridge on the outside edge of the pads. It appears the pad is slightly larger than the rotor. I chamfered the edge of the pad to prevent this lip from forming again, cleaned and re-lubed everything before reassembly. Chamfered pad pictured on left, pad with wear lip on right.




http://www.engineprofessional.com/TB/TB091917-1.pdf
lol
 

Tony48

Go Kart Champion
Did some random maintenance this weekend.

Throttle Body Cleaning and Intake Valve Inspection
First, I pulled the throttle body and cleaned it. Really don't think it was necessary but I wanted to check it out since it had not been cleaned and I'm at 127k miles. I was surprised to see that the TB butterfly flap doesn't seat like a typical TB. There is no lip that the butterfly seals against, rather the TB bore is smooth. Regardless, some acetone cleaned it up quickly. A quick TB alignment using VAGCOM and I was good to go. The TB was a pain in the ass to remove and install though. Before and after:





While the TB was off I sent an endoscope into the intake manifold to check the intake valves for carbon build-up. To view the valves you have to manually actuate the flapper arm with your hand. This is how the valves look @ 127k miles. A carbon cleaning was performed 53k ago at 74k miles. I'll probably get myself setup for walnut blasting and clean them again within the next few months.







Windshield Washer Fluid Filler Neck

Installed a new windshield washer fluid filler neck. I couldn't get over how ugly the old neck looked next to my new coolant expansion tank and found this neck for only ~$25. It's a bit extra but I couldn't pass it up ;) There's a pic further down of the overall engine bay so you can get a better idea of how it looks.





Boost Leak Testing

I built a boost leak tester and performed a leak test up to 20psi. This type of boost leak tester will provide the correct amount of air to hold your boost system at a constant pressure while you go around and find leaks. For anyone interested in replicating this design, a 2" PVC end cap fits perfectly in a 2.75" silicone coupler. If there's interest I can write up a DIY on how to build the boost leak tester and perform the test.

I tested at the end of the IE "stage 2" pipe and plugged the rear PCV return line hole using a 1in. x 25/32in. rubber plug (Home Depot part no.204273790) held in place by a huge set of channel locks. Not sure if it's necessary to block this line off but it doesn't normally see boost so I figured better safe than sorry. Surprisingly my only leak was at my boost tap on the intake manifold. Couldn't get it to seal 100% but it's a very small (negligible) leak now.



 
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Tony48

Go Kart Champion
How did you manage this? Did you buy a grille from another car and modify to fit housing of original? This turned out very nice.:thumbsup:
Thanks :thumbsup: Complete custom job that was a huge pain haha. You're correct I grafted the lower grille from a MK6 Golf into the frame/clips of a GTI necessary for mounting. It was A LOT of sanding, test fitting, filler, and more sanding.
 
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