Sam's build thread

[Sydneykid]

Gary, do you know much about circuit Italia, the one thats being built up next door to Ringwood. Fences are up, they've turned a lot of soil , trees cleared etc and one part of its layout has been laid. I was surprised to see how much they'd done in the last year after it had being stalled for so long.

I know about as much as you, stalled for long time due to "environmental complaints", now it seems to be back on track (sic). Probably similar to the circuit down at Shoalhaven which was stalled due to some rare flower being found, coincidentally in the middle of the circuit. Of course when they got the botanical experts in they found heaps of them growing everywhere down there. But it has effectively stopped work until yet another costly environmental study is done. Then they will find some rare frog or something and around it goes.

Cheers
Gary

[metalhead]

Worked out why my car has been running like a dog (particularly at starting/idle/cruise)...



New set of Bosch injectors installed, now running better than ever.

[sambb]

Sorted. Itll feel a hell of a lot crisper now you'd think.

[metalhead]

Just a little! I didn't realise how bad it had been for a long time.

[sambb]

Gary whats your experience/feedback/opinion of Kumho V70A's K60 medium compound. I'm seeing 205's pop up quite cheap. Not as wide as I wanted for the circuit but worth considering?

[Sydneykid]

Gary whats your experience/feedback/opinion of Kumho V70A's K60 medium compound. I'm seeing 205's pop up quite cheap. Not as wide as I wanted for the circuit but worth considering?

Sorry, although they have been around for 5+ years I don't know anyone who has used them. I do recall that there is some trick with speed and load ratings on some sizes, so I'd suggest checking that.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Had a quick squiz at the charts and the speed and load ratings in the sizes I'm looking at matched those for A050's so I should be good there. The set of mediums (K60 compound) I've found are only 205/50/15 though so I have to weigh up if I want to stay on the 205 path for circuit stuff really. There's also a 225/45/15 set. I'm waiting on finding out the build date of those. They'd be better yes but on 7in rims they'll be puffy I think. Some tyres aren't as wide as they say on the tin so I'm trying to find out if V70A 225's are closer to say an A050 215 in which case I might give it a shot.

[Sydneykid]

Plenty of guys run the 225/50/15 A050, which is 235 mm wide, on 7" rims. They are a baggy carcass and work a bit better on 8" rims, but it's not night and day. On 7" rims we prefer the 215/50/15, which are 229 mm wide. As a comparison the 225 in 16" is only 227 mm wide. The sizes on tyres is more a guideline than a concrete measurement.

Cheers
Gary

[sambb]

Ok so I finally have all the bits together for the conversion from hydraulic cam timing belt tensioning to manual tensioning. I'll do this when I tackle the leaky water pump within the week hopefully.
So the reason for the change from hydraulic to manual tensioning comes from a combination of things really. When my wife was in NY she brought home some IE (Integrated Engineering) bits for me so I had half the kit already and looking through the literature it seems that there have been plenty of hydraulic tensioner failures in the past. The factory it seems on the 1.8L 16V KR series engines transitioned from manual set/manual tensioned belts , to manual set/auto tensioned on the 2.0L ABF 16V and then to hydraulic tensioned on the 1.8T 20V and the main impetus for this was to try to eliminate incorrectly tensioned belts, extend service life on the belt/tensioner and for quieter running. Well from what I can gather, the early KR series manual tensioners basically never failed but as time went on and the tensioners became more and more tricky the failures increased. Most of the motorsport prepped crate 1.8T's come with the KR 1.8L 16V manual tensioner (inc hydraulic damper delete) so since I track mine I figured why not.

This is the IE 06A billet bracket/idler roller that bolts in place of the hydraulic tensioner/damper that you remove when you do the conversion. Their bolt was non high tensile stainless for some reason so I replaced it with a longer 12.9 high tensile.
Here is the standard OEM tensioner roller stud/nut/washer. The stud is M10 in the head but an 8mm rolled thread so probably 12.9 tensile that the tensioner roller fits onto. It will work with the OEM roller and the 2.0L ABF 16V roller, but if you go to the fully manual tensioned 1.8L 16V KR roller then you need an M10 X 70mm 1.5mm pitch stud.

Here are the left to right: OEM tensioner roller, ABF 16V and the KR 16V. The ABF 2.0L 16V is actually available in the country. You can get it at VW but I got mine from Bursons as it was sold in the SEAT Ibiza Cupra sport 99'. The Bursons part# is TT09129. As you can see in the pic it needs a 7.5mm washer stack under it to elevate it to the correct height for use on the 06A BJX. Like the OE tensioner roller it is macro tensioned/positioned but whereas the stocker uses the hydraulic damper to maintain correct final tension, the ABF roller is automatically tensioned via internal springing. It is actually tensioned in the CCW direction. You'll find the procedure half way down in this link: https://www.clubgti.com/forums/index...sioner.279210/
The 1.8L 16V KR series part number # 051109243. Mine is an SKF germany number 307863B. It was never sold here so comes either in an IE kit form or you can get it from ebay or UK and US sites for about 90 bucks delivered. It too needs a 7.5mm spacer under it and IE make one part # IEBAVA6. It is a spacer that has the 10mm hole in the correct offset position and cups around the back of the tensioner to spread the loads better when it is torqued onto the stud. The KR tensioner is tensioned CW like this - very simple: YouTube
So basically i'll be going ahead with either of these non-hydraulic tensioner. If for some reason I cant get my stud out of the head then i'll go with the ABF one. If I can (I have some 10.9 high tensile M10 threaded rod on the way so I can make a stud for the KR tensioner) then i'll go with the KR tensioner. I like the idea of the bigger 10mm stud and the fact that the KR tensioner is completely devoid of any automatic tensioning device that could go turd - just purely manual. The down side is that it may need re-tensioning at some point but I've been told that the OE replacement belts are very stiff and rarely need that, the top of the belt is very accessible so that the 90 degree twist can be checked regularly and i'll be doing my belts at half intervals anyway probably since it gets tracked a fair bit.
The whole kit can be bought here: IE 06A 1.8T Manual Timing Belt Tensioner Kit - Timing Belt Kits - Timing System - Performance Parts - TT 2000-2006 (MK1 - 8N) - TT - Audi, but I strongly suspect that you can do this by modifying the hydraulic tensioner/damper assembly and retain its idler roller without having to buy the IE bracket, and source the tensioner roller cheaper and like I did you can easily make your own M10 stud provided you can get your hands on rolled high tensile.

[sambb]

Alright you've convinced me Gary. 215 /50/15 makes perfect sense. The 225/45/15 (they have 225/50/15 too) V70A's are 2-3 year old new shelf stock from the kumho Sydney dealer. I'll have to weigh up the age and whether running so wide on the 7in rims will kill steering feel. If I am to run 225 on 7in rims, if you ignore rolling diameter, the 45 would be the better sidewall to run for that rim yeah?