From Standard to K03 to K04 + Rebuild

[AdzCM]

Couple of pics I forgot to add. Shows how clean the engine is...also bit of porting done to the gt inlet manifold.....

[AdzCM]

So, got it all finished last week, started it up, ran it up to temperature and it all seems fine ... still have a standard rocker cover bolt on its way, so will replace the temporary middle on as soon as it comes....





Pretty happy with the way I piped the turbo to the intercooler...





Then got the exhaust and downpipe modified to fit with 2 lambda bosses welded in for the standard and wideband lambda sensor....it is nicely tucked into the tunnel and doesn't hang low anywhere...bad pic, but you get the idea...



Then a few pics of the car at the height I intend to keep it. Much better height for the roads around where I live. Still handles great, wheels don't foul on the arches and it still looks good...Liscence plates are just to get me through m.o.t. but will be fitting the pressed plates again because I think they're awesome.

[AdzCM]

Have driven the car about 40 miles so far. All seems ok. Bit worried that I'm not running it in correctly. I'm not going above 2000rpm and I've read countless times that I should at least do a few bursts to about 3500rpm to get the piston rings to seat properly.

What do you lot think?

New accelerator cable came sourced by VW Heritage. For those of you that think they are hard to get, you can still get them from them anyway...

Had to replace it, as the plastic ribbed bit on my old one had worn, and the little metal clip occasionally slipped. Conveniently at the times when I really could have done with it not slipping [overtaking etc.]......

Old:



New:



Its a perfect fit

I need to set the ignition timing and get the idle and fuelling set properly to pass emissions. M.o.t. is the 18th, but I'm ringing up every morning to try and get a cancellation because driving this car again has been long overdue! Will keep you posted...

 

[Etches]

So so nice this man some right work has gone into it! Needs to come to tatton and/or leeds!

[AdzCM]

Thanks man, only just noticed this comment haha. Would love to got to a few shows but its finding the time to get over to the mainland.

UPDATE:

Failed the MOT [18th July] due to battery failing so I couldn't complete the test. On the way home it kept popping out of 5th gear so I assumed an adjustment of the gear linkage was all that was needed. Got home and realised it wouldn't come out of fifth gear. After loads of fiddling about, I got it free and tried to set the linkage but couldn't manage to get 5th gear no matter what.

Took it out the next day and there were terrible grinding/chirping noises coming from the gearbox. So took it to the guy who fitted my LSD and left it with him. Came back and he told me that 5th gear was done because he forgot to put gearbox oil in it.......LOL good times!

Searched for about 2 months for a 5th gear getting much appreciated advice from guys on here. Eventually found one and took it to him. Turned round and said it was the 5th gear synchroniser ring and synchronising hub/locking collar. What a Moron...... Went onto clubpolo and found a guy who had what I needed, who posted it asap and It only cost me like £25.....

Finally got the gearbox sorted [with gearbox oil this time] free of charge as expected! Booked MOT and had to wait another 3 weeks for that [23rd October] .... FINALLY it passed!

[AdzCM]

Got bored of the wheel colour very quickly. Had them that colour with the last wheels and something just isn't right this time. The black centres don't look right.

So sprayed them a different colour. Will post pics later...

[Jester]

Great thread this, nice work.

Looks awesome on the above pictures, what are the specs on the wheels are they staggered?

Crazy situation with gearbox..who was that guy

[AdzCM]

Its a little dark so the pics aren't the best, but you get the idea

Got my inspiration from Etches G40. They look awesome! Black wheels on a white car is the only way to go IMO. Thought they would make mine look a little 'meaner' which I think they do!

Will probably get better pics up later at some stage!

[AdzCM]

Great thread this, nice work.

Looks awesome on the above pictures, what are the specs on the wheels are they staggered?

Crazy situation with gearbox..who was that guy

Thanks mate

The wheels are 8J and I had them spaced at the back, but they stuck out far too much and I wanted to lower the car a bit more, so did away with the spacers. If I could do it again, I would have got something a little narrower. 8J but measure over 10" across the wheel and they are a bit wide. I may change them if I get too much wheel spin once mapped, since the tyres are stretched a bit. Probably can't have the look I want if I'm to put down the power I want.

Oh and the guy was a friend of my dad's. Usually really good with what he does. Must have had a bad day!

[AdzCM]

I've done just over 800miles now relatively trouble free, apart from the alternator is acting up. The battery light stays on for a bit about a minute after start-up. There is a little bit of alternator belt squeal at low revs and on down changes. The lights brighten up as I rev and it idles like crap sometimes and cuts out occasionally when pulling up to lights/junctions etc.

Must be getting worse as my a/f gauge used to read solid 14's at idle and while driving off boost. But with lights on, its drops to a solid 13. Turn the lights off, and it goes back up to 14.

I've tightened the belt as much as I can. Going to see if that was the problem, otherwise ill need a new alternator.

[AdzCM]

Did a bit of research and was put off using the main vacuum source from the inlet manifold to power the actuator.

The K03 as you know has a hose barb fitted to the compressor housing used for the actuator source.

Rather than tap the compressor housing, I fitted one of these:



Came with a handy little too to cut a hole in the silicon pipe connected to the turbo and its good n air-tight.

[AdzCM]

Also, red actuator spring came in the post, uprated map sensor is on its way and REMAP is booked for next week

Should be well into the 200bhp's

I'll be recording the whole process via GoPro

Cannot wait!

[physicsfool]

Coming together very nicely

[AdzCM]

About time I updated this a bit...

Spec was:
- K04
- BVH
- 250kPa MAP sensor
- 77mm Forged Wossners
- Ported GT inlet manifold
- 51mm TB
- EV6 315cc Injectors etc.

First off, the mapping was a nightmare. The mapper didn't have an EPROM emulator to start with but the thing is, he didn't need one the last time he mapped the standard engine to 170bhp with 17.5psi on a K03. He couldn't get it to fuel right at all. There just wasn't enough fuel no matter what he did. He said I should just get an adjustable FPR and tune it that way.
So I fitted one and we put it on the hub dyno. Ran the K04 it at 16psi and adjusted the FPR until my a/f gauge showed it having loads of fuel. It made 201bhp and 174lbft in 3rd gear. Couldn't get it to dyno in 4th whether it was his dyno or my Quaife diff??
It was quick, but the dyno graph was crap to be honest. Had flat spots and had nothing after 6000rpm.
The peak boost of the K04 was 4000rpm. So a power band of 4000-6000rpm wasn't that great.
Drove it like that for a while. One problem was, in order to have enough fuel throughout the rev range, it was seriously rich at idle.

When I say it was quick, it was only as quick as it was when I had the standard engine at 170bhp. It was actually much quicker at 170bhp because it would pull past 140mph in no time, whereas this time it struggled to pull 135mph [which took ages compared to 170bhp]. So ££££'s put into it since 170bhp and its slower. Brilliant!

Posted the graph on here, and gathered from everyone who commented, that in order to get more power from the K04, I would need to increase the rev range. To do that safely, I would be better fitting uprated con rods. Wasn't in the mood to start taking a 1500k mile old engine apart to fit con rods. Plus, If I did get more power, I ran the massive risk of wrecking the gearbox. And how much power is too much power. A bad running 201bhp was hard enough to control with a Quaife diff. Had to learn how to drive the Polo all over again. The diff pulls you all over the road if the road surface is bad.

So with all this in mind, I went back to the K03 setup and refitted the standard FPR. Ran 21psi and got a chip from Andy. IT STILL WOULD NOT RUN! Completely lost as to why it wouldn't work.
Lot of back and forth messages with Andy to try to sort it. Cannot thank him enough for that. Top man.
Long story short, in the end he asked me for the part number of the 315cc injectors. He got back to me and said that the EV6 style injectors [the ones I had fitted] have caused problems for him before. They have a wide spray pattern compared to the EV1 style injectors, which have a narrow spray. He reckons what could have been happening was, the EV6 injectors were spraying onto the walls of the inlet manifold, and gushing in rather than spraying into the cylinders in a fine mist [correct me if I'm wrong Andy].

He said change to a set of 315cc orange top EV1 style injectors and sent me the part number. So I did, and the car ran perfectly!

This I a lot of writing and its not even half of the problems. I tried to shorten it. Was with my mapper on 3 separate occasions for example. I've been trying to sort this car for about 6 months. Finally, things are looking up.

I am now at the stage where I can hopefully get it mapped.

Adrian

[AdzCM]

When I fitted the K03, I made sure to move the air filter. Before, it was up round where the standard air box sat. So it was just sucking in hot air and whats worse, it was in line with the catch tank filter. So most likely sucking in the fumes from that too.



Also cut out the restricting parts of the grill. Has to be better positioned here than where it was before. Sure, its closer to the turbo, but when your'e driving down the road, it will be sucking in loads of cool, clean air.