The Project Pad

Okay well I have a sort-of thread for this car but I had such a good time taking it down to Carlisle I wanted to start a dedicated thread so here goes

About a year and a half ago I got a package deal on a pair of 3.0l B6 A4s. One of them had been hit but had a good engine and this one was an early '02 so it has the FYF 01E and a minty body and interior but a wrecked 3.0l. I bought them, parted the other car in a weekend, sold everything I didn't need and ended up with a $350 01E equipped, super clean roller. Then I traded an ABA/16v and 020 trans for a complete AWM with harness which is the later wideband version, small port head internal water pump etc.

The car sat at my parents for a few months in the winter and when spring came I moved it to downtown Burlington so I could work on it at my house. The plan was a big turbo 1.8t as they did come in that chassis so theoretically parts should be readily available when needed. I figured a bad ass Southbend clutch, some rods, a big 'ol Holset, VEMS and I could make good power on the cheap in comfort.

Exhaust valves were the only thing I didn't do that I felt like I should have, but we'll get to that...

So over the course of 5 months I put this thing together. It still rocks stock suspension and brakes but I got some HP2s for cheap I'm going to put on. Almost all the fab work was done in my garage, all the TIG welding was done at my work (Rennline Inc.) but I built the header, engine and everything else in the tiniest of garages. My intake manifold throttle body flange is really the only thing I didn't do myself, and there are some hacks (catch can and turbo outlet elbow ) but overall I'm pretty happy with the result.

The list:
FYF 01E
VEMS standalone
Southbend custom 6 puck clutch and steel flywheel
AWM (now parts runner status)
Stock head/cams/valves
AEB Pistons
Scat rods
ARP headstuds
Walbro 460lph pump
Siemens 870cc injectors @4bar = 1000cc
Stock combo lines/rail (3.0l wasn't returnless)
Forge Splitter DV totally vented (junkyard find)
Home built divided equal(ish) length manifold
Holset HX35 7 blade- was stock 12cm, now .63 exhaust housing
Audi I5 wastegate
Stock intake manifold w/ VR6 TB flange
VR6 throttle body
CX Racing special gigantic intercooler
3" intercooler piping
3" downpipe -> 3" to diff -> 2x 2.25" home built $75 exhaust

Anyway, onto some pics!

Let's start with some good old 5cyl content: the $500 5k of win bringing the engine home


The shell losing it's 3.0l in the rents garage


Moved to my house! I live downtown and got really lucky and have a garage and relatively big driveway


Clean engine bay


Gromit with the 7 blade HX35

Manifold mockup




Custom 6 puck Southbend clutch and 17lb steel flywheel


Intercooler install

AEB pistons and Scat rods


Coming together!

These aren't really photoshopped except for a couple small grease spots despite their name




The 12cm was too laggy so I switched to a .63 Tim's Turbos hotside and it was much improved


And that's about where it sat until recently. I'm an idiot and didn't gap the rings on the first engine and they were Goetze. It had about 18k on it from September 2015-May 2016 and always ran well, but it had been losing power. My theory is the ring gap was too small and they ended up losing compression because it would smoke but much less when being beat (ie things expanding).

Fast forward to 8 days before Carlisle 2016.

I'm on my way home, minding my own business, and a Focus ST hops on the highway with me. So there I am, radio cranked, foot through the floor, in it to win it, he pulled a bit but I pretty quickly reeled him in and walked around him. Halfway through 4th the car starts losing power, but remember I'm in it to win it, so I bang 5th and complete the stomping.

So I ended up here


Luckily I had my AAA card, my 'basic' tool kit, a compression tester, and some beers. By the time the truck got there I knew #2 had zero compression and was VERY melty and that all other cylinders were low.

With Carlisle in 8 days and going out of town on a mini-vacation Friday-Sunday the obvious thing to do was build a new motor from scratch in effectively 6 days.

So the same night I blew the motor it was out

After discussion with Marc at Carlisle the diagnosis is that I broke a piece of exhaust valve off on #2 and let that cylinder run crazy lean which caused the crazy piston melting. The hole in the valve is almost perfectly above the melting



Ouch


It didn't actually melt the rod but there was melted piston all over it. I scraped as much as I could off and used my little belt sander to clean it up. The wrist pin bearing looked fine as did the mains on all the rods.

I work a 4/10 schedule so Thursday was my day off so I borrowed the (wonderful ) girlfriend's Prius C and found a new block and head from my friend Rusty who works at the local VW dealership. It's now an AWP block with AUG head, AWM cams and AEB pistons #partsrunner




More carnage from the old motor


Then the lady and I stopped at Jim's on the way back from vacation and grabbed a AEB block from him


Then I had a LOT of engines to build one out of

New head








The Tuesday before Carlisle the neighboring house burned down This is the view from my kitchen window- that's my MK2 and those flames are maybe 30ft from my garage/house

3 old and 1 new AEB pistons and reused Scat rods


My girlfriend did a LOT of the build including the majority of the deglazing/honing, installing/torquing rod bearings, putting the manifolds on etc. Jokes were had at Carlisle regarding a built motor with a feminine touch





So I finished building putting the motor together the Thursday before Carlisle and Dana came over at 5 that night. We dropped the engine first thanks to a missing pin in the hoist, and then successfully got it in the bay and hooked up. We got it running at about 12:30am, threw the front end together, drove it 100 yards up the block and back and said 'well, seems like it should make it 1,000 miles tomorrow morning.'


And it did! I changed the oil Friday morning, finished a couple minor things, and drove it 450 miles to Carlisle at 13psi. Everything looked good once we got there so the MAC valve got plugged back in, the oil got changed again and I ran it at 25psi the rest of the weekend and trip home and it ran PERFECT.


And all I can say is "oh damn"
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgLyD5k9OtM[/youtube]

Sorry for all the posts, but we're caught up now- thank you for reading along!

Hahaha damn is right!

Man, I didn't even realize what you went through to get to Carlisle. Another classic Carlisle story! Thanks for sharing that. I wish I would have had more time to discuss even though it's missing a cylinder.

loxxrider wrote:Hahaha damn is right!

Man, I didn't even realize what you went through to get to Carlisle. Another classic Carlisle story! Thanks for sharing that. I wish I would have had more time to discuss even though it's missing a cylinder.

Yeah it was one of those things where I just did't have time to post haha definitely a helluva thrash to get there though. And yeah the missing cylinder sucks but unfortunately it maked the most sense for this project. I did test fit a 5cyl block though

Lol epic.

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what a good time that Carlisle adventure was. Perfectly chaotic.

Great read, that was quite the adventure.

This thread needs more kill vidz

As Dana put it, this will definitely go down as one of the most "insane but not totally insane" Carlisle trips ever.

I'll try to get some more videos for now, but here's some brake boosting-fuel cut-flyby-coolness from the Carlisle return trip

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nANgTUsIQNM[/youtube]