MeTsU's 9N3 TDi - Sooty from South Africa

[MeTsU]

Hey everyone,

I'm Matteo. I drive a 2005 Polo 1.9TDi Sportline. I'm based in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. I recognise a few names from a couple of the other forums. I can't believe it's taken me this long to register and post here, but I look forward to learning loads more and chatting with you all.

Without further a due, let me post up the biggest updates from my S.A thread on VWClub.

I took delivery of my 2005 Polo Sportline 1.9TDi, which I named Sooty, on Friday the 4th July 2008.

I need to get around to hosting new photo's, but here are some from when I first test drove her. Please excuse the dirty car. I haven't done much to her. The theme is OEM+.

There's only been a few changes since I bought her. I installed my Eibach 25/30mm springs that I purchased from the chairman of the VW Club of SA back in Oct last year. I picked them up from him the night before I moved back to Port Elizabeth. Thanks again mate for bringing them down on your journey to Durban. They were fitted within the week I got back. I need to upload some updated photo's ASAP! I'm currently running my Rockford Fosgate 9320 headunit, still incredibly happy with it. I was assisted in getting the cubby that goes below my HU (thanks ), as my 6CD changer was removed due to being faulty. I'll probably add in the rest of my sound in the next coming weeks or so - LA Strike 4.400 amp & RF P2 12" - all of this was carried over from my Mk2 GTi. At a later date, I'll look to a decent set of splits. I might change my enclosure and sub too, as boot space is a major problem with the Sportlines.

As some of you might know, VW announced a recall on just under 5000 Sportlines, due to turbo failure. So Sooty was booked in and her 60k service and turbo campaign was done at the same time this past Monday - 20/04/2009. Was happy with the service I received from Market Square VW in Unitenhage. I did discover they damaged my battery cover, so that will be sorted in due course.

I've slowly become more and more interested in detailing, and after meeting a few enthusiasts, I started my kit in Durban. It's slowly grown and I've now got some decent odds and ends. Once Sooty's had some repairs done, I'll be giving her a couple hits with my Makita rotary, Menzerna SIP and FF, and I'll top it off with Chemical Guys Top Coat and Collinite 476.

Now that the turbo's done, there's a few things lined up to be done, one of which will be decat. As for the other mods...we'll have to wait and see.

Good things come to those who wait. I want to take my time and enjoy things!



I'm loving the new turbo and map. Far too many guys were stressing it was a detune, but hardly so. The spool up feels ever so slightly slower, maybe 100RPM, but the power is far more linear now as she pulls all the way to 4500RPM - used to fall off at 500RPM earlier. Soon it'll be time to Dimsport her, along with other supporting mods.

Here's a couple shots I took yesterday with my mobile. Please excuse the dirt, just thought I better post a few "updated" photos.








I thought I'd list the changes done externally, and add photo's as we go along.

* Matt black badge up front
* Debadge at the rear
* PGTi side skirts
* OEM Gloss Black B Pillars
* Ichiba 15mm wheel spacers and 45mm wheel bolts

[MeTsU]

A quick photo of my DevilsOwn Water/Meth Stage 2 dual nozzle setup.



Here's a quick shot of her on the rollers - excuse the dirt, was raining too...



This has been a plan in the works for a long time. I can gladly say I'm really happy with the way things have turned out.

I'll scan the dyno sheet shortly and post - I'm just pissed off 'cos the printer was running out of ink and causing all kinds of fong kong. Atleast the plot itself is clear.

The config used on the progressive controller is the everyday start position. Had I started spraying a little earlier, you would've seen her spool a lot earlier.

1st run she made 103Kw & 330Nm with the WMI inactive, run 2, which was done 30seconds later, WMI active, she made 114Kw & 360Nm.

So that's an 11Kw & 30Nm gain.

[MeTsU]

Here's my dyno plot. As mentioned previously, their printer was playing up and started to run out of ink and go all fong kong

Don't ask me why my test 3 results are printed twice either, but test 2 (WMI inactive) was 103kw & 330Nm.



This is how she used to look:


Then this happened:


And now she looks like this:


Made a noticeable difference from 80km/h onwards. She pulls really nicely on the freeway now. I'd like to get to the dyno, to take a look how blocked the cat was - didn't look too bad, seen a lot worse.

[MeTsU]

Here's a quote from my original thread - POSTED - Mon 3rd Aug 2009:

Well, this past weekend was serious fun! Saturday was the Marque, Historics & Classics, Super Karts, Formula V and the new series I took part in, the Clubmans Hatch Series racing.

After deciding only a couple days prior to Saturday to take part, I took care of the necessary paperwork and was super glad to have made the cut off. Saturday morning, we headed off to the track at 06:30, got ourselves setup and cars cleaned for the day. I missed the Warm Up session, due to the cue for registration and scrutineering being long and moving slowly. A little bleak, I knew I had to concentrate during Qualifying, to make it all come together, and together it did come - I did my fastest time of the day - 1:21.5.

Ecstatic, I knew I was going to have to push hard, to keep on top of my time, due to the class being handicapped - we have a 1.5% margin on lap times during races according to our Qualifying lap.

Race 1 - the line up on the start line was a little long winded due to confusion, from a few guys who didn't qualify, namely, the Ariel Atom, an 1800 sidied Golf, S3 and R31 Skyline. Being handicapped, we were started at intervals. With no real tussles, besides playing with the Atom and 1800 Golf, I went on to do 1:21.7's. I think I surprised the two, as they had me on the straight, but in the corners I stuck with them. The Ariel, is definitely not setup correctly, and it's easy to see.

Race 2 - now a little more organised, we started easily and the intervals were now correct, with us all finishing together on the start/finish. I went on to have an awesome battle with a Golf V GTi, the 1800 sidied Golf and the S3. We all got very busy, but respecting each others abilities, things went smoothly and I didn't have to worry about any rubbing. I went on to do 1:22.5's.

I had an awesome day, and will definitely do it again! But, I will admit, the bug has bitten, and I want to do better and better. My previous best was 1:25.1, so a 3.6s drop was way more than I expected. I think with more practise, I'll be smiling. I'm hunting the Polo Cup TDi time of 1:19.

We've got the AMSC Trackday coming up on the 16th - times won't be comparable, as they done by hand. Never the less, looking forward to showing what TDi power can do.

POSTED - Tue 11th Aug 2009:

Unfortunately, I only had two photos taken of me on the track, and I only took a few in the pits. But here's the two I've got.





I'll hopefully have more photos to post next week - this Sunday is trackday. :twisted:

POSTED - Thu 13th Aug 2009:

I purchased a cheap boost gauge, just to use as a reference from stock to Sooty's new Vitamin D shot. For those of you that aren't sure - remember I'm at the coast.

I saw spike of 1.5bar and constant of around 1.4bar in stock form.

Now with the Vitamin D (Dimsport - Trevor's intermediate map), I'm seeing spike of 2bar and constant of around 1.8bar. Swopped over the gauge to another make (both cheap) and this showed 0.1 higher across the range.

Changed out the oil today, I've done around 7800km's since she had her 60k service. I thought it was a good idea to freshen her up after the WMI has been running for a good few thousand km's now and she's worked hard on a few occasions. Now she's pretty much ready for the trackday on Sunday.

I'm enjoying the new feel. :twisted:

[MeTsU]

It's funny how one gets used to the way their own vehicle looks. I'm so used to the stance now, with the 15mm Ichiba spacers, feels like I need more! I won't though - all she needs is to go a LITTLE lower. My control arms are parallel already. Here's a couple photo's I took very quickly at the last Sports Car Club Trackday on the 16th August 2009:







What do you guys reckon I should do upfront? I wanted to go GTi headlights, but I've been putting it off. I'm thinking maybe some Laminx? I've got an idea or two which should make her look a little more aggressive. :twisted:

[MeTsU]

Here was one of the highlights of the Motorsport calendar for me:

It's been a while since I have updated my thread, not that much has happened mod wise, but I'll post the new host of photo's from the inaugural running of The Knysna Hillclimb that we attended a couple months ago (30th October to 1st November). Over 6000 spectators came to watch over the two days or racing.

Considering it was the first time this event was held, 47 competitors came from all over S.A to compete. The finals narrowed it down to 21 cars.

The course was a 1.85km 168m climb. My fastest time for the weekend was a 55.8s. :twisted: I won my class - which was Turbo or Supercharged Cars from 1601cc to 2000cc.

Here are some photo's from the event.

Here's the pre-event media: CARToday

Here's the post-event media: Motoring.co.za and TopCar.

And here are the official results from ZATiming.co.za.



I've posted up a few photo's here from the professional photographers, and hopefully this weekend I'll finish compiling the DVD of all the images, videos and scans etc from the weekend.















Here's a link to the album by l'Atelier Photography.

[MeTsU]

Please excuse Sooty in these photo's - looks rather scruffy being so darn dirty. This rain has been a bit of a pain lately, but at least we've had some rain I suppose. Firstly, here's a photo of what Sooty looks like on the track wheels - a set of 15" Golf 4 TDi wheels, as used in Polo Cup. This set used to belong to a Polo Cup car, as you can see, LOL.



I made some time to get around to finally giving my San Marino's a serious clean. I did a three step process to clean them up and finished them off by waxing them with SmartWax RimWax. I must admit, I'm rather happy with the level of cleanliness as they were rather stained. They are not perfect and being a perfectionist means I'll be doing them again soon, but I have a few ideas roaming around my mind.







I decided to use the left over black vinyl from my Volkswagen Racing signage on my windscreen to give Sooty a little over the top murdered look. It is kind of the look I've been moving towards over the past couple months, I just haven't had the time to get the correct Lamin-X tinting I would like to use, and seeing there's no stock in P.E, it makes things a little irritating.











Please excuse the rather scruffy photo's, I took them just as a reference. We applied the vinyl in a rush and it's been removed already.

[MeTsU]

It's been a very very very long time coming. After battling to find Lamin-x in Port Elizabeth and having a number of people tell kiao stories over the phone, I decided it would be easiest to just purchase online from Autostyle and have it sent down. I must admit, I was rather unimpressed when I open the package from the courier, only to find that one of the two rolls of Gu-smoke Lamin-x had been squashed. I would've expected them to have placed the film inside a tube document holder. So after placing the two sheets of film on glass and putting a weight on them for a couple days, they were ready to be installed. Please excuse the dirt.

Lens cleaned up, misted with solution and ready to apply the Lamin-x:


Before and After:


End result:

[MeTsU]

As you will see below, it set in motion a mod I've been wanting to do for ages - dewiper. Please excuse the dirty car, I was too excited to dewiper, than to wait and wash Sooty, prior to doing the mod.

Start off by removing the cap and exposing the nut. Loosen and remove the nut, and spray a lubricant to assist in the removal of the wiper arm.



Remove the plastic nib on the tip of the metal wiper arm shaft, which will allow you to pry off the wiper arm a little easier. Note that it will be pretty difficult to get the arm off, so take your time.



Open the boot and remove the two screws that reside in the two handle sections on the boot lid panel. Start at one end by prying the panel away from the boot lid. Metal v-clips have been used, so a firm tug will be needed to remove the panel. Once removed, the wiper motor is exposed.



Disconnect the wiring harness that powers the motor, as well as the fluid supply pipe. Loosen off the three nuts and the motor will now fall away from the boot lid.



The rubber grommet will now be exposed. Remove the grommet and clean the area thoroughly. I used some of my Menzerna IP for my rotary and polished the glass by hand, to remove the stains and dulling from scratches.



I did a few test fits, and after deciding on the best method to seat the glass blank-off, I used Sika's Sikaflex-Drive (used to installed windscreens) as an adhesive for the blank-off.

Here is the final product. I still need to apply amount of Sika's Sikaflex-Drive around the small ring, to neaten up and ensure that it is 100% leak proof, but other than that I'm pretty happy with the new look from the rear.





You will also notice my new rear black badge, which I worked on when I did my front badge again, after it started to look like it had chicken pox, during the beginning of Jan 2010.

Ciao, Matteo

[MeTsU]

Before:


After:


Not quite the same angle or the same wheels, but gives a good enough idea. I forgot to take before photos in all my excitement. Took us most of Saturday to do, but we did a few extra bits and pieces too.

Here's just a few quick words before I shoot out to work.

I believe Koni have a really great piece of kit here. I am incredibly impressed with the quality and workmanship of both the dampers, as well as the springs.

Steve from Koni SA is a great chap and I'm really happy with the service I have received from him.

Height wise, this is going to be perfect for my application. I'm running with 20mm's thread left on the front and fully down at the rear. I'm going to keep the positive rake as this allows me to stick with a little over-steer. As opposed to having Sooty sit level and start to experience under-steer, the lower you go at the rear.

I started setup with the dampers set at 50% and I was really shocked as to how comfortable it was (more comfortable than an Ibiza Cupra). We started to notice a little rubbing over the larger bumps and after going into a couple corners more aggressively, it became evident that the spring rate is not going to be sufficient for my application. We set the dampers to 100% and tested again, better results but still a bit of rubbing when pushing. Even on 100% firmest, it's more comfortable that I imagined it would be.