For sale £9,500ono Leon Cupra K1, Shark Performance Mapped 350bhp 496Nm

Hi, thought I better start a thread but first a little about me and my history in cars. I've had a few including mine and the missus cars over the years. I've had a Mk2 Golf with a 2.9VR6, electric Recaros, corrado rear seat, BBS RM's, spax coil overs, Audi twin pot calipers with 280mm discs plus a few other bits. I was 22 when I got this and loved it. 184bhp at the wheels.

My next car was a Audi S2 this again didn't stay standard, porsche 4 pots on front, S4 V8 300mm rear set up, mapped,H&R's, fully polybushed and about 5 sets of wheels in the space of 3 1/2 years., RS2 front bumper,exhaust with decat so it spat flames on gear change about 280-300bhp. Gripped very well. Ha ha

At the time our lass bought a Mk1 TT, don't laugh but it was a great little car and quite fun, many people did wounder how I fit in it been 6,4 and 18stone but they are quite big really inside. As a again I fitted Leon cupra r splitter honeycomb rear valance and 3 bar grill to the front with a set of Mk4 golf R32 rims.
We both sold our Audi's to put a deposit on a house and bought a Octavia Mk1 VRS. This has been a great car so far and I still have it,again not standard. Simota carbon induction kit,shark remap,forge split-R valve,Jetex car back exhaust,and audi S3 winter wheels and tyre. In the 4 year we've MOT'd it, it's only ever need front wish one bushes! £12 in 4 years isn't bad.

This is where the Leon Cupra comes into play, after been in the house 18months we thought it was time for another car, we both agreed on the Mk2 Cupra. She likes the looks and I like the potential of them. After 6-8months of looking for the right spec'd one and traveling up and down the country looking at a few,we found one. 150miles from home but looked good on the pictures, guy seemed ok and had a nice few mods. Xenons, Miltek turbo back with sports cat, stage 2 Revo, forge twintake induction kit, forge dump valve and good history. It was up at £10.5 at first them came down to £10k managed to get it for £9k which I was happy with. This is the beast after a good clean the first weekend I got it.

When I pick the car up it would seem that the cam lobe had never been changed so the second weekend of having the car I fitted a new cam lobe, new bumper grill and shampoo'd the interior. Also had the Cambelt and water pump done as soon as I got it as it hadn't been changed.


The week after I went away on a stag do and lent the car to a friend for the Revo stand at fitteduk show. I noticed the car was over fueling slightly so asked if he'd look at it and sort the setting out for the full potential of stage 2 as the guy I bought it from said he had turned down the power as it had a a clutch put in it. My friend turned the power back to stage 2 and it ran great for TWO DAYS, until the HPFP failed. This ended up in melting and piston and destroying the engine after only 3 weeks of owning the car! To say I was gutted was a understatement. Had a think about what I was going to do with it, options was brake it but would have never got my money back, replacement engine but I would have still had to rebuild the turbo and many other things. So I came to the decision of rebuilding my own engine to a higher spec and make it pretty much what I want it to be with in reason.

So the big build has started! Plan is to rebuild the engine with a high spec.

Parts a have so far are:-

Wossner 83mm pistons
ZRP uprated conrod
New mains
New thrust washers
Serviced and cleaned injectors
Recon'd Turbo
Full victor rienz head set and bottom end set
Poly bush dog mount front and rear
Brand new R8 coil packs
ECS magnetic sump plug
New pick up pipe
New spark plugs
New dual mass fly wheel
Plus many more new stuff stashed in the garage.

This is what happens when there's not enough fuel in the bores.




After two nights on the after work the head was off and that's the results. Not pretty at all.

This was the worst one.

And so I started collecting new parts for the build.



And this is what the engine bay looks like at the min.

I'm just waiting to hear from the machine shop and they are honing the pistons in, the worst bore had to have a liner put in it was that damaged. Should hopefully have it back this weekend. I had to buy a big parts washer/degreaser to clean up a lot of things like the oil pump and flush out all the oil lines just incase there and bits in them from the piston. So that's pretty much of what's been going on over the last few weeks with my car.

Plans for the car in the end are to have TT RS front brakes with a 4 pot set up on the rear as I already have a set of bran new R8 handbrake calipers and run at stage 2 plus and then I can go hybrid or big turbo in the future if I decide too with this set up. Wouldn't mind some Pro race TD's too, but money is getting spent on the engine first ha ha

When I received the rods I check the weights to make sure they were all matched and they was spot on.





Oh and my brand new R8 handbrake calipers, they came with brand new pads too.

Yeah it wasn't nice after three weeks it going bang. I was running the standard HPFP on stage two. I was talking to a good friend of mine and he said that it would have done the major damage in about 30 seconds.

I should hopefully have the block back next weekend so I can start to rebuild it, I will take lots of pictures as it will help a lot of people of in the future if you ask me(hopefully)

I picked up a few more parts this weekend from the dealers. But I have connection so I managed to get parts at cost plus 5%. But still managed over £250.


A couple more pictures of what I have already too.




I'm sure there'll be something I missed when it comes to the rebuild, I need to get the new spark plugs which is no biggie really.

Other than that I've been cleaning parts in my new degreaser/parts washer I had to buy.

This is the crank after it had been in there for about 7 days, I put fresh fluid in the washer and cleaned it again as I don't want any swarf in it at all, if I can help it. My plan is to put in Millers running in oil and fresh filter then turn it over for about 25-30mins by hand to get the oil through all the engine and then drop it out. After that I will put fresh running in oil and new filter again as I don't want anything to go wrong after spending all this money as our lass will kill me

Not at all buddy, for just the bare block to be honed would have been £50 but I had it rebored to take a 83mm piston and the company I used in Bradford have only charged £80 a bore plus they honed the bores after the bore. But I had to have one of the bores relinedas the liner had a tiny hole in the top so that put another £100 on the bill which I didn't think was bad really. The place is called ACE recondition Bradford. Really knowledgeable blokes and only charged £210 for the head work, they skimmed, decoked,put 3 new valves in(I supplied 1 as they couldn't get one and they knew I could get one) lapped them in, cleaned it and rebuilt it. It was worth me messing with it for that sort of money. In total the head and block work has only come to £390+
This is the head before it was sent off to them.






I helped a mate fit his new wheels on Saturday so thought I'd sit one on the car to see what it looked like. They are MTM Bimoto's 9.5jx19" Et 25.


I managed to get the oil filter and housing off but it took a lot of force and it had been put on by an idiot! Really tight!


This is what was left of it, the filter has done its job quite well all the silver on the oil is metal dust from the piston.


Thinking of selling my forge twintake induction kit and buying a Revo one to keep it all the same as I'm getting the Revo PCV delete kit.

I'm thinking of painting the block crackle red when I get it back at the weekend.

Yes or No? What do you lot think I should do?

The block is already black as standard just thought it might add a bit of colour to the bay and it won't be in you're face as most of it is covered. So they'll only be a bit of colour poking through.

The filter was stupidly tight. Wouldnt mind it says the nm to tighten it too on the bottom, which is 25.5nm.

PM me a offer mate.

Well this was the offending item that cause the damage but as you can see from the pictures before they all have detonation marks on them from it running too lean.

As you can see it got that hot it has taken the coating off the rod.


Well I picke the block and cylinder head up last Friday and spent 3 hours washing the block out to make sure it was clean of any swarf.



The block nicely bored to a 83mm piston and clean!



I need to strip down the head now and get that in the parts washer and fit all new valve stem oil seals. It had 4 new valves put in at the machine shop so it's pretty much ready to go once I've cleaned it.
I also had to order a few more bits from SEAT, there is so many stretch bolts on the engine it's stupid. I ordered new oil squirters to so I know they are good, but they are on back order and I don't know how long for? I ordered ARP head and mains stud kits. Got them from AKS Tuning at a brilliant price and really fast delivery. I tried a few other place before hand and it was a 3 week waiting time on them but lucky AKS had them in stock so got them the next day. Cheapest place by a long way too. Cheers AKS


I've been looking at PCV delet kits and catch cans, really like the look and fittings on the Intergrated Engineerings catch can set up but is there any one in the uk that stocks them?

Should I delet? Or and fit a catch can? Any recommendations would be great.

Been a busy weekend on the car, got a load of stuff from Seat agin and another £400 spent. I had a few extras stuck on though.

Got myself a replacement armrest as the car had one at some point but all I had was the screw holes from it


I also bought a New grill to match my bumper grill.


I managed to get the head stripped down on Saturday afternoon to give it a good clean and make sure there is no swarf in there.


After about an hour it was totally stripped and ready for a dunk in the parts cleaner.

So Sunday came and i got started on the block with the great help of a very good mechanic who is 5h1t hot. We started on the block with fitting brand new oil squirters from the dealers and fitting the rods and pistons. All clearances were checked with plasti gauge. I used ARP main bolts and ARP rod bolts.







And there in with new shells and mains! The engine will be better than a Seat factory engine plus it will be able to take the power easy enough. So if/when I decide to go big turbo I can with out having to worry about.


I'm waiting for PSI to get back to me about a Intergrated engineering catch can set up and a couple of other stuff from Seat.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been waiting on parts from Seat and slowly making progress. I stripped the cylinder head down to give it a right good clean to make sure there was nothing in it.

I pulled all the old valve stem oil seals before it went for a dip in the parts cleaner for a few days to degrease it. A real pain in the ass to get them off best thing I found was a pair of big pliers.


Even though the cylinder head had been cleaned the inlets still looks a little grubby but a lot better than they was. Still I went at them again with break cleaner and a toothbrush.

You can see all the crap that came out on the rags.

I also cleaned all the tappers so I know they are working right. The keen ones out there will notice there is one missing, it was a little sticky so it soaked in the parts clean to make sure it was cleaned out properly.

I started to rebuild the head, I also bought a another new tool to get the new valve stem oil seals seated right. Pretty good for what it is. It came in a set with a set of pliers and various different size ends for different seals.

The seals sit over the shaft and sit in a recess at the bottom.

I used this too as it magnetised the end of the screwdriver so I could place the collets on top of the valve. Brilliant bit of kit and one of the best £5 I've spent.

I promised I'd be in the house for 9pm so had to keep it, that means I only got half the valves in tonight.

Well Friday night I built the cylinder head up. but first I needed to give it a proper clean using all the brushes to make sure. I forgot to add this eariler


After a good clean I started to fit the valves,springs and collets. I use Redline assembly lube so it's not a total dry start on the first turn of the key. The less wear the better, this mixes with synthetic oils no problem and doesn't clog the filer.

I also run oil from Lucas through the tappers after they had been sat in oil for a week so they had oil in them. It's very thick and mixes with synthetic oils no problem without clogging the filter too.


Afte this I lubed up all the seats for the camshaft with redline assembly lube and sat the cams in and fit the end seals.


Then I fit the ladder cam cover with sealant, all torqued down to the right amount like everything else. The cam were lock in position so the cam timing chain could be placed on and the cams timed up. As the last thing I need is for the timing to be out after spending all this money in the bloody thing.

This was then all ready for it to be mounted on the block. It felt like I was getting somewhere after this stage.

turboboy said:

Bad luck with the hpfp but well done for taking it in your stride. Looks like its going to be a perfect engine can tell you have an eye for detail.

Click to expand...

Cheers buddy I just want it right after what happened.

Well it was a very productive weekend, first was to fit the balance shaft oil pump and time it up to the crank so it wouldn't shake its self apart when running. The balance shaft pump is held on with strech bolts so they was all brand new. There is about 4 different sizes used just on this.

After this was all sorted it was time to mate the head to the block after it's been off a while, we fitted ARP head bolts. This was a big moment for me as it started to look like an engine again and my goals were getting closer.



Well to say I was happy at this point was a understatement
We got the cams timed up to each other, these were checked and double checked to make sure it was right. So Saturday night I left it looking like this,fitted the air con compressor and new Loba HPFP.



Then I was back on it on Sunday for a few hours, fitted a new timing belt and got that timed up also fitted the aux belt.

Monday night I cleaned the inlet manifold out and left it to dry overnight, still got to get that fitted with the injectors and new seals. Tonight I cleaned the oil and water hoses out that go to the turbo and fitted them and placed the newly recon'd turbo on the cylinder head. It's not fixed in place yet, just sat there to make me feel better.

Tomorrow I'm in Scotland for work so got an early start so don't know if I'll get the inlet manifold built up and on tomorrow night. I'm hoping I will as I want to get the engine back in the car this weekend really



This pretty much brings me up to date.