IH786's LCR BBT K04 - Full spec list on page 1!! / Colour change - Finished?

ibizacupra

Jack-RIP my little Friend
Jul 25, 2001
31,333
19
glos.uk
Interesting choice on clutch ingredients, i'm in the same boat but am swayed to sticking with dual mass also but a bit worried about pick and mix but cost is a big factor. Your clearly handy with a spanner.

SAChs paddle drive plate we use Carl.. on stock dual mass/LUK cover
in 400bhp+ quattro's.. all ok so far a couple of years on
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
You've had a rough time of it!

Its not been fun but I think its slowly moving in the right direction:D

Good stuff, will have to pop by and see how this performs sometime ;)

Yep definitely come down when its sorted :D

Interesting choice on clutch ingredients, i'm in the same boat but am swayed to sticking with dual mass also but a bit worried about pick and mix but cost is a big factor. Your clearly handy with a spanner.

As Bill said he recommends the Sachs paddle on OEM DMF and Pressure Plate. I went for a very similar setup with mine - just swapping the Sachs plate for a Helix one.

Main reason for this was it was cheaper - although price of Sachs one has now gone down...
 
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Dec 25, 2009
1,531
1
Took some time to read over your thread and boy you have had a hard time with this, just bear with it and remember all good things come to those who wait. ;)
 
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IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Weekend has arrived so time to do some work on my car :D

Got the new actuator sent to me from CR Turbo.

Was just going to swap it over but Dan (beachbuggy on Audi-Sport) told me to fit a spacer between the actuator and the bracket as the reason it failed was the rod is at an angle, it needed to be straight out at 90 degrees.

He fitted a spacer to Prawns actuator:

A652798F-EB76-44F2-9F9E-806D2A7026A4-5478-000004A790DEC475.jpg


So i did the same on mine - just used a washer to get it positioned in roughly the same position as in the pic.

Getting to the actuator is a bit tricky - removed the TIP, chargepipe and heatshield. Its a bit fiddly but not as hard as last weeks job (clutch)..

Happy to report that the new actuator is fitted and the car no longer overboosts :funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk::funk:

Running at actuator pressure until I sort out the WMI (next weeks job) and I set up the tension spot on so its boosts to 12PSI and no more.

However as this car hates me with a passion - I did come across something which has ruined my day:

20130216_151842_zps5538b31f.jpg


Cracked manifold :censored::censored::censored::censored:

For the past two or so weeks the car has made a noise as if the exhaust was blowing - certainly more noticeable since the SMF was removed.

Now I put this down to my decat pipe. It was a bit of a bodge job and I used cheapo ebay gaskets - which I noticed were blowing a few weeks after the remap.

I took them off and used just exhaust paste. That didn't last long either (unsurprisingly) so it is blowing again. I have ordered some decent quality gaskets and they will be fitted next weekend.

I never expected the manifold to be cracked. It is a V2 which has had extra welds done to it, and I am running with the support bracket on the turbo.

So what next?

After all the problems I have had most people would have given up by now. But i'm not going to!

I could make loads breaking it - but then what car would I buy next? Something else that I would end up modifying and spending even more money on!

The car has had far too much time and money spent on it to give up now.

So plan is to sort out the final few remaining issues (wheel alignment and re fitting the WMI) and not touch the manifold until the summer...

I just can't be bothered to do it now. I will have to remove the head - I struggled loads fitting the manifold when it was on the engine stand so there is no way I can swap it over when its on the car!

Also will get the turbo checked over by beachbuggy. He found a few issues with Prawns turbo - mainly it had the wrong thrust collar fitted and would have failed if left as it was.

So there we have it - just when you thought it couldn't get any worse - it does [:@]
 
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wild willy

Full Member
Aug 4, 2003
2,323
0
Wales
I feel for you mate :(but applaud your attitude. Don't let it grind you down the car will be sorted soon enough. I have a reinforced V2 also so i guess the clock is ticking, but i run wmi so maybe it does help. On a different note ask Forge for a price on one of their k04 actuator brackets as it is angles and positions the actuator arm parallel with the turbo wastegate movement.
RE replacing the manifold, it is a **** but doable to replace it from underneath the car. The down pipe and turbo must be removed but full access to nuts is available. Any one who can handle a 02m clutch install on his own will handle the mani swap its just needs patients and some.:rolleyes:
 
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ibizacupra

Jack-RIP my little Friend
Jul 25, 2001
31,333
19
glos.uk
It is a V2 which has had extra welds done to it, and I am running with the support bracket on the turbo.

well one upside it did'nt crack on the welds..
:shrug:

Can you get a mig weld torch at there in situ to point and squirt from weld in to help cap the crack?
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
I feel for you mate :(but applaud your attitude. Don't let it grind you down the car will be sorted soon enough. I have a reinforced V2 also so i guess the clock is ticking, but i run wmi so maybe it does help. On a different note ask Forge for a price on one of their k04 actuator brackets as it is angles and positions the actuator arm parallel with the turbo wastegate movement.
RE replacing the manifold, it is a **** but doable to replace it from underneath the car. The down pipe and turbo must be removed but full access to nuts is available. Any one who can handle a 02m clutch install on his own will handle the mani swap its just needs patients and some.:rolleyes:

Cheers mate - I'm not going to give up on it yet :D

I was running WMI until around 5/6 weeks ago. The crack must have started around 3 weeks ago as that is when the blowing noise started.

But I was driving the car very slowly as I had the actuator problem too. So EGT's should have been low :confused:

Will have a go doing it on the car without removing the head. Unfortunately I lack patience and have fat hands so the head will probably be coming off!
 
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IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
did you use the supporting brace to brace the turbo mate ?

Yep was running the support bracket and even had the welds reinforced. Thought I had all the bases covered and it would be fine but sadly not :(

well one upside it did'nt crack on the welds..
:shrug:

Can you get a mig weld torch at there in situ to point and squirt from weld in to help cap the crack?

Have you seen any others crack in the same place Bill? Hope V3 lasts longer!

Was thinking of getting someone to weld it but the crack appears to have spread around the back too - wish I had noticed it sooner really....
 

wild willy

Full Member
Aug 4, 2003
2,323
0
Wales
Looking at the crack and others i have seen, they are all horizontal and not random. We know that the collector pipe is the hottest part of the manifold but i think the reason they are breaking at this point is it is the weakest part of the manifold and under most strain from the expansion process and held relatively static by the bracket support. When i fitted my manifold i had a few mm clearance to the bulkhead heatshielding but once up to temp it was rattling like a bugger against the heatshield bracket on the bulhead and dented it a little too. I recon these things expand at least 6mm+ in all directions which i feel despite having a degree of play, the turbo support bracket will prevent full vertical movement. The direction of the crack is consistant with inadequate play in the support. I'd rather see an arrangement similar to the one used for the down pipe (hanger and high temp rubber etc).

As a temp measure you could try a mickalor hose clip or similar to keep gases in.
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Hey guys - 18 months since I last posted so thought it was time I did a 'little' update.

Hard to remember everything that has gone in since then but i will do my best to fit it all in!

So last Feb 2013 and my v2 mani has cracked. What to do next?

Well i ordered the v3 manifold - only to find out at that time that the v3 doesn't flow as well as the v2...

So the question is, do i risk the v2 again or shall i go for the more reliable but poorer flowing v3?

The answer (for me) was...



A V2 which again was welded up in the usual places, and further welding to replicate the v3 'tabs'.

There is no way it will crack now......

Also decided to take car off the road for a while so I can get the bodywork seen to. Practically all the panels are scratched and dented so its long overdue!

In the meantime here is my new German whip:



A 535i (borrowed from my bro) - even worse on fuel than my LCR but i don't care! Very entertaining in the damp - well actually its bloody lethal!!

By now my v2 was blowing badly, getting worse day by day - on the plus side it made removal very easy:







Fitting the new v2 was difficult but not impossible. Ended up cutting and grinding a few spanners to make the job more easy.

The most difficult job was getting the rear oil pipe on the turbo lined up - was a real mofo!

In the meantime I also got the turbo rebuilt by Dan at Beach Buggy Turbos (BBT)

I can't remember the exact spec, but its one of only 5 that he did. Think one made 350ish brake, so was really excited to see what it made on mine!

Car was buttoned back together and started up - all good but then a huge oil leak :censored:

Turned out that stupid oil pipe had been chafing on the side of the block (must have been doing it for a while) and eventually worn through the braiding.

New pipe fitted and now the car is ready for its respray!!
 
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IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
OK - as you can see from my post - I do EVERYTHING to my car myself, because I enjoy it and it saves me money and i guess I don't trust garages to do a proper job!

But unfortunately I can't spray a car so on the recommendation of a friend I sent my car off to get its respray done.

In the meantime I decided to do a few things to make my car stand out from the crowd:





FR front grilles - only £15 from the bay (bargain)

Nothing to exciting, few people have done that before. But the next thing may be a little more marmite:





Hmm very bright!!

Next I did the 'bigmouth' mod to the front bumper. You have to be brave and be prepared to really hack the bumper up to get it to fit.





Also bought some Team Heko wind deflectors and continued the custom theme with:



Net result was a car that looks like this:





Absolutely delighted with the way it turned out. IMO it looks great and the love has really come back in a big way :funk:
 
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IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Also sorted a few other odd jobs out at the same time, such as:



New LCR fuel pump (Niki at R Tec h noted the old pump was struggling a little when I had it mapped so it was long overdue.

Also had issues with my WMI. The check valve on the AEM kit was siphoning off overnight so I fitted a solenoid and wired a one off switch in the dash:



Also found a nice place to fit my WMI light. It flashes when it is injecting the meth:





Got a blank for the 'airbag off' light and carefully drilled and glued the light. Looks great!

Also relocated the oil cooler as it was fouling the bumper in the original position:



Meant I had to remove my bumper bar.....
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Ok all is well...... for about a week.

Felt something was up, so I checked the mani and noted the following:



The bloody v2 has cracked again, after only a week :cry::cry::cry:

By this point I was soo p'd off it was unreal.

So I decided enough was enough, back to basics:



Until there is a decent RELIABLE and well flowing K04 manifold out there, its staying standard.

Real shame to strangle the BBT hybrid, was almost dying to see what it was capable of, but I will have to wait [:@]
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
So by now we are in the summer time of 2013, near enough this time last year.

Car is running fine, but definitely feels slower than before. No doubt due to the standard exhaust manifold.

Here is the engine bay as it stood back then:



 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
However the problems didn't stop there.

Was running the polo top caps and poly bush top mounts, kept noticing a knocking noise over bumps, and then noticed this:



Argh!

So out they went and as a stop gap I had to fit the standard top caps:



Not good!

So I ordered these fancy things:



How do they compare to the polo caps and polybushes?

1000 times better! No knocking, car feels more planted. Also had an annoying steering wobble at mway speeds, could never get on top of it.

Once I binned the old stuff and fitted the new mounts the wobble went :D
 

IH786

Full Member
Apr 8, 2004
396
2
Birmingham
Few more jobs I did was to remove my catch can and vent to atmos, also changed my filter for one I found off a car I was breaking.

Also removed the 007p and fitted a new revised OEM DV:



(Pic taken before I changed the top mounts)
 
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