Sam's build thread

[sambb]

Thanks Eddy. Looks like the way to go then. Kind f glad they are adhesive backed. The plain rubber ones that are in there are all over the shop. I was wondering how on earth I was going to get them to stay in place while I bolted it up. Ta

[sambb]

Picked up these babies today:



The flywheel is a 14lb ECS. It was brand new but I decided to get it refaced lightly cos it had a few tiny spots of surface rust. I was going to get it lightened but most of the advice was to leave it especially considering the near 100km round trip to work I do through Sydneys finest traffic jams.
The box has been rebuilt with all bearings (german ones), new 2nd gear synchro, gears given a clean bill of health, and best of all a Wavetrac. When I went to pick it up he was kind enough to fit the aftermarket pinion brace on the spot which needed a bit of fettling to sit flush and then checked that it had sufficient clearance between itself and the clutch release. The ECS bellhousing scraping tool should arrive before the weekend hopefully so that I can clearance the bellhousing.


So I've got another question. Anyone know the OEM spec gearbox oil grade? I need to order some oil for the box and I just want to check that the wavetrac specified Motul 300 75W90 is the same grade spec as OEM but I cant seem to find anything definitive on the web. The other oil wavetrac recommends is the Motul Competition gear oil for comp use. Its a 75W140 but the gearbox guy cringed at that and said that would be ok in a RWD diff or a FWD box with dog gears but he thought the synchros would struggle with that thickness.

[sambb]

Here's the pinion brace fitted.

So with the gearbox oil I was told by VW that the OEM recommended oil I need is part# G 070 726 A2 which replaces G 055 726 A2. Its $30 a litre. They couldn't tell me the oil grade (unbelievable!). I googled the part number and it came up as Ravenol MTF-3 which is SAE 75W - So there's no hot temp oil viscosity quoted. Does this mean it a 75 cold and hot? More confused than ever now. Need to track down diff and synchro friendly oil asap.

Redline MTL was 70W80 - I can't use that oil with the wavetrac cos of its friction modifiers but even still its much lighter than the thinnest recommended Motul 300 which is 75W90. any help appreciated

[sambb]

Told that it will be all good with the Motul 300 75W90. A hillclimber guy from Adelaide with a golf 4 has used it with no adverse affects to his synchros (at least in feel) so I'm happy to go that way. He said apparently you can get it from motorcycle shops too. Found a supplier near work in Sydney and should have it tomorrow.

[seangti]

I run Penrite Synthetic in mine, I think it's 75/90. Feels good. I did a gearb cable reset the other night, that's made it much better too. So definately do that - I regret not having done it sooner.

[sambb]

Alright feeling good about going 75W90 if you've had no shifting dramas. Yeah the shifter cable reset was a revelation first time I did it. This arvo I received the ECS bellhousing scraping tool for the 02J bellhousing on our gearbox. That was gifted to me courtesy of Seb from eurorevolution so big thanks for that on short notice. I also got solid bushes from there for the cable/shifter bracket mount onto the gearbox which should improve thing further. Can't wait to get this thing in!

[sambb]

can anyone help me with the torque specs/procedure for the driveshafts hub nut?

[vwthunder]

edit. sorry not a disco potato Gt2860 its a Gt2871 with the 0.64 exhaust housing. From what I can see there are hardware kits galore to run this turbo. I'd be interested but would want to hear from anyone who's run it on our engine in that guise to get a gauge on spool times, peak boost rpms etc cos despite being ball bearing turbos's I've read in a few places that they are not particularly quick spoolers.

A GT28 is a baby turbo, if you look on all the big turbo builds you wont see anyone running a turbo that small.
The GT2860 has been on cars since the MK4 gti came out im guessing so its a tried and tested package tho im sure most are going towards say a GTX2867 these days.
If you look at something like a GTX im guessing spool would be slower than a K03 but probably easier to drive as a K03 is like on and off, has nothing then everything and not progressive as a bigger turbo.
Im in the process of finishing up my GT2860 but worried that it is too small


Oh in regards to the LSD not sure if this can be used but i have heard of some people adding it to plate type LSD's
https://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=41&pcid=4

[sambb]

Thanks mate. Ends up I was actually given two turbos. One is Garret T28 off a GtiR Pulsar and the other is a GT2871 - the good one that has an Inconel turbine and a high nickel exhaust housing. I know that a Gt2871 is not considered to be a big turbo as such. If I was circuit tracking a car it'd probably be spot on. For what I do though I need a faster spooler than that - definitely not interested in a big turbo. My mech is a big fan of the new borg warners. He's was primarily a Nissan/Sr20/Garret man but has well and truly jumped over to borg warner for their EFR series of turbos. He's trying to encourage me to get one of those for their faster spool, flat torque delivery, the way that you can clock them to any position you need, their nice smooth wastegate ports etc etc vs the garrets. It isn't going to happen though as money is getting low.
So I've swapped him the two turbos for a garrett GT2554 which is more in line with what I need. He assured me that for what I do I'd be falling into lag holes everywhere with the next sizes up from that. Now I've just got to look at whether I could retain my standard ported exhaust manifold and run an adapter plate ie a down mount garret, or go with all those US kits and a higher flowing up mount. And also fundamentally I need to look at where it fits against the K04 options too. All very long term though. Cant beat a free Garrett though really to get you started down a path though.

edit: ive attached a couple of pics of one of these borg warner EFR's on a custom 4 into 1 equal length manifold that he built. Its an early little merc slk with the 2.3L 4 pot that was factory supercharged.

[sambb]

Alright so the rebuilt box complete with a wavetrac diff is finally in. Not going to lie it is a pretty mammoth task when you're doing it by yourself lying on your back under the car. No step is particularly hard its just that there are many many many steps from start to finish. I've now dropped 2 gearboxes and fitted one so if I ever have to do it again it'd be quicker, but to be honest if I was forced to do it myself again I'd probably just hoick the whole engine and gearbox out the front and do it that way. It'd be much easier that way I reckon.
It is just so dam hard manoeuvering the box in when its just sitting on a jack and whenever you feel close to getting it past the crossmember the angles have it nearly falling off the jack. I ended up dropping the coolant and taking off the bottom radiator hard fitting so I could clear that hose. Also lucky I still had an OEM engine mount on the drivers side and could put some pretty extreme angles on the motor to help. It was then lots of motor up, gearbox up, twist gearbox, lower motor again, raise gearbox etc etc do that a hundred times and you'll have it in - or at least that was my experience. You just have to be patient. I don't know how the guys that have done the bigger 6 speeds got them in.

The first 3 pics are of a bit of an issue with the forge TIP. The heater pipe absolutely wedges it squeezing it closed a bit just past the bend. If you look closely in the pics you can undo the bolt holding it to the block, pull the pipe out a little and refit with a spacer (I used a nut). That way the pipe doesn't crush the TIP. Worth doing cos as you can see in the pics it was really closing it up. Last pic is of the result afterwards.

So basically the car now has a rebuilt box with pinion brace, wavetrac diff, is single mass flywheel converted with ECS 14lb steel billet flywheel, Stage 1 ECS clutch/pressure plate, my vibratechnics east/west engine mounts in, shifter bracket is solid bush mounted to the gearbox, forge quick shift is on and a new rear main seal. Only thing I didn't do which i'll get to is changing out the rubber shift cable bushes for 42DD solid ones too.

There was a big hiccup though. The seriously only thing I didn't have a torque spec for was the driveshaft/hub nut. I torqued it up at home and then went down to my mechanic/engineer mates to give his 3/4 drive wrench back. After driving it a bit I thought I'll just check the torque again in case the wheel bearing has freed up. So when I went to check it it was looser so I went to nip it a little further to where it had been and it got looser not tighter. Luckily the nut did come out and it look stripped. Lucky break I thought as it didn't lopok like the driveshaft threads had let go. I had another nut on hand but when I went to thread it on it wouldn't even go on. Looking at the first nut it wasn't stripped at all. Its threads were full of stripped driveshaft thread. To say I felt like my guts were going to drop on the ground is an understatement. I'd just massacred a perfectly good driveshaft and now was going to have to do that job all over again. I was stranded at the mechanics (you cant drive without the hub nut torque or the wheel bearing will fall to pieces) so I had to walk home. Luckily a mate came to the rescue and lent me his road reg track car to get around in and by 6pm that night I had my spare driveshaft rebooted and another set driveshaft to gearbox flange bolts, seal and hub nut on order. $160 bucks later and a mornings work today and its all fluffy again but Jeez. Moral of the story is just because most cars take a lot more hub nut torque and everyone says she'll be right go nuts ALWAYS get the torque specs for everything. As it is the spec is 50Nm which is nothing with a 3/4 drive wrench then a further 45 degrees.

So I cant really give a review of the diff yet. I have a club level hillclimb on Sunday at Ringwood/Raymond terrace and have to bed the flywheel/clutch in properly with as many normal street kays as I can before I go nuts on it. So its been very pedestrian so far and will be until the light goes green on the line on Sunday. I can give some diff feedback then.

As far as the single mass conversion goes wityh the lighter 14lb flywheel it is smooth as you like, not prone to dying as you get off the clutch pedal at traffic speeds, doesn't vibrate, and does seem to rev up a little quicker. The stage 1 clutch - time will tell how that goes. Provided I let it bed in nicely (the hilllcimb on sunday is all second gear so only one full noise gear change) I think it'll be ok. The only thing is that the stage 1 pressure plate is very light - lighter than the stock dual mass. I've never ever been a fan of light clutches and have always preferred to have to need to use a bit of force through the bite point but it is light. I only hope that once the clutch gets a bit more bitey at the friction point once everything beds in that there will be a bit more feel through the pedal. I have also been driving my mates clio with a stage 3 race clutch which is cable too so it could just be that which is skewing how I assess it, but you get used to anything so its no biggy.

anyway that's that. 2 nights of work from kids bed time till 4am plus a morning to have all of the above done. (then another morning to fix my driveshaft f***k up). Feels bloody good though so can't wait to hit the track this weekend!