Rotrex powered R32

[Blue32]

It’s nearly done

The build stalled for a while due to delays sourcing a suitable rear silencer, in the end a custom silencer had to be built.

The guys at The Phirm sent me some pictures on Thursday showing how the build has progressed

Custom rear silencer with Milltek jet tips



I decided to stick with the jet tips as it keeps the standard (ish) look of the car. The tips have been fitted with clamps so they are adjustable and can be easily changed to a different style if I decide to.

Centre silencer

There are no baffles inside, it just has a perforated pipe wrapped with steel wool running through the middle.

System fitted



Think I need to get the metal polish out to get a shine on the new rear silencer.

The system has been built with a removable section so a cat can be added for MOT time, the rest of the time it will run without any restrictions. Just in case it’s too loud there is provision to add a smaller silencer to the system.

I have also managed to get hold of a set of full FIS clocks from ebay

I have been after these for ages as they don’t come up for sale very often

I spoke to The Phirm on Friday, the exhaust build was pretty much finished, it just needs road testing which should happen on Monday. Hopefully I should get the car back sometime next week.

I can’t wait as it’s been a long 6 months

[Blue32]

broster said:

Looks good! What's different with the clocks?

Thanks

The difference is the digital display in the middle, the standard clocks have a half height digital display which just show the outside temp and trip computer info (mpg etc…). The “full FIS” display is a full height digital display which shows the radio station and satnav directions as well as the trip computer info.

[Blue32]

It’s done, road test completed with no problems. They just need to “refine the exhaust note” guess that means it’s a bit on the loud side





Just waiting for the its ready for collection phone call.

[Blue32]

Shenanigans said:

I can see the flames spitting out from the exhaust already :P

It probably will

There are two maps the ECU can use, clean or dirty. Up until now it has been running the “clean” map (due to still having cats), however now due to the de-cat it can run the dirty map.
The dirty map adds a bit of extra fuel and cuts the spark when using the launch control and no lift shift so it will pop and bang a bit like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5U3RPJ509Q

[Blue32]

Finally got the car back Wednesday, pickup was delayed due to a resonance in the rear silencer which needed resolving.
Tim added a stainless steel plate to stretch the skin of the silencer as it was flexing which caused the resonance

And their logo for good measure.

The system has a nice deep sound at idle, it’s a bit harsh when pulling away which should go once it’s got a few miles on it and the stainless wadding in the silencers is sooted up.
Once on the move it pops and gurgles nicely especially when lifting off the gas and is possibly quieter then the Milltek when on the motorway. There is still a bit of resonance at 40-50mph which hopefully should go once it is run in.

Overall I’m really happy with how it has come out Worst bit was the 2 page itemised bill that came with it

Next step is to stick it on the rollers to see what gains/losses (hopefully none) there are. Initial road test results where MAF readings were taken suggest it is around 496hp so it’s probably gained around 20hp by ditching the cats and improving the flow.

I’ll get some sound clips/videos up when the weather improves.

[Blue32]

After getting the full fis clocks fitted, I noticed they weren’t working properly.
At the top of the display it should show the radio station and when switched to navigation the display should show directions from the satnav.
No radio display

No navigation


After seeking advice, I found out that because my car didn’t come with the satnav from the factory it is missing the 3 wires between J285 and J503 that link the satnav to the clocks.


To get the display working I purchased some repair wires complete with pins to push into the connectors, the correct colour wires and some fabric loom tape to keep everything neat.


Connector built up to plug into the radio

New wiring taped up


More to follow…

[Blue32]

Well after 1 broken and 1 damaged trim piece I have got nowhere still can’t get the nav or radio on the display. Looks like I’m going to have to do a bit more reading….

gtrstill said:

I had a golf like this running 354hp... Totally built car

Probably (besides the 550hp Mines r32) my favourite car.

How yours goes with another 100hp is beyond me. Incredible mate.

Thanks, was yours supercharged or turbo?

I now have some before/after videos for the exhaust. They are only slow drives round the block, however they give a good idea of the differences between the Milltek system and the new custom system.

Milltek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQIK0nwo00A

New 3” custom system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UROQx9yTWMo

I forgot to add a bit of foam to stop the GoPro rattling in it’s case.

When the weather improves I’ll do better video and stretch it’s legs a bit

[Blue32]

Rgm racer said:

Shortly after the track day I took the car back to the Phirm to get some bits done, and we found this
Bank 1 cat

Bank 2 cat


Out of interest how did you discover this, was there an issue or certain symptoms that caused you to look and then you found it??

We found it when the cats were removed to start the install of the new exhaust. It wasn’t showing any problems at the time, but it wouldn’t have been long until it started showing emissions faults.


The gearbox broke on the way to work today. With the engine running it won’t go into gear, the clutch is working fine as once in gear the biting point is where it was before. It looks like something has gone internally
Had to get the care recovered, it is currently sitting at the Phirm so they can diagnose the problem.

[Blue32]

It turns out I was wrong, the gearbox is fine (thankfully) the problem is with the clutch even though it appears to be working properly.

Yesterday I paid a visit to Surrey Rolling Road with Tim from The Phirm (built the exhaust) to see what improvements have been made.

The car ran really well with a nice clean power curve, however to be honest we were a little bit disappointed as the power was about the same as previously seen before when running with the smaller bore exhaust and the restriction of cats.

The torque was up by around 10lb/ft across the rev range though so there were some gains. Unfortunately I don’t have the graphs to show as they are in the car which is in the workshop awaiting a new clutch.

We thought we had run into the flow limit of what the supercharger can deliver. To prove this, on the way back to the workshop we did some 3rd and 4th gear pulls whilst logging the airflow. The rev limiter was upped to 7500 as this would allow the SC to be driven faster and create more airflow. We went out and did more 3rd and 4th gear pulls, the result was a gain of 9hp! So there might be more in there yet….

Anyway, here are the videos from yesterday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUz5zP2BpcY&li...
Gopro mounded on the back, was hopping to capture some flames!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1d1NwALsBY&li...
There is a small flash at lift off from the rh exhaust @ 1:35 and again @ 2:12. I’m just waiting fro a friend to upload a video which has captured the flames.

[Blue32]

A fair bit has happened since the last update,

The clutch was replaced back in April as one of the metal straps, which support the cover plate broke which put the cover plate out of balance. The broken strap was the cause of trouble with getting it in gear.

Broken strap



This photo shows the marks on the cover plate where it was out of balance.


A couple of weeks later there was a bit of a rattle coming from the rear silencer, on removing the plate which was attached to stop the resonance we found a few cracks.

The rattle was worse when car was idling as the skin of the silencer was behaving like a drum. I guess the flexing fatigued the metal by the welds causing the cracks. The damaged section was replaced and the silencer was re skinned with thicker stainless and has been fine since.

The biggest change is the Rotrex C30 has been changed to a C38

Old C30


New C38


The main difference between the two chargers is the airflow each can deliver. The C30 is 0.37kg/s, the C38 is 0.55kg/s. The increase in air flow means it now gets to the 500hp which has eluded me for a while. The poor little C30 was unfortunately never going to get there.

Rest of the install






Apart from the hardware changes, only minor tweaks were needed on the ECU map. The rev limiter has been reduced to limit the boost as the engine still has stock rods, this has limited the power to around 500hp. With stronger rods 600hp would be achievable.

Less than 12 hours after the installation was completed I set off for a week in France, where I covered around 1160 miles.
Over the trip car was absolutely faultless, it happily trickled along at low speed in the Paris traffic in 35c+ temperatures and cruised on the AutoRoute’s happily at 130kph and returned a respectable 25mpg!

On the road, it’s a bit weird as the car doesn’t feel as fast, but it is quicker as there is more low down torque. The power delivery is a lot smoother and makes it feel like the engine is twice the size.

I have made a quick video to give an idea what the new exhaust and supercharger sound like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhoh4MdByh4&fea...

I set the launch control to show what it sounds like, but didn’t use it. I’m going to make another video with the camera mounted on the front to show how it sounds, as all I can hear with the windows open is the air hissing through the DV when cruising which makes it sound quite angry.

The car should be paying a visit to SRR for a power run in the next couple of weeks, cant wait to see the results

[Blue32]

chuntington101 said:

The SC kit looks like it belongs there! lol

Is the C38 the biggest blower they do? any plans on upgrading the rods and going twin blowers?

All the pipe work was custom built on the car to get the best fit, and to look as close to factory as possible.
The charger fitted is the C38-81, which was the biggest. Rotrex now make a C38-91/92 which is rated to 720hp.
The stock rods are supposedly ok to 500-550ftlb mine is in the mid 400s so should be fine, however they will get upgraded at some point in the future for safety.

Unfortunately there isn’t enough space for twin chargers.

DSharp said:

wow fabulous car. I was browsing here while looking forward to (hopefully) picking up a standard R32 this weekend, but you've made it seem a bit dull now

Loving the factory-look to the install

Thanks, the plan all along was to try and keep it looking as close to stock as possible. From the top it just looks like a cold air intake has been fitted
With the new setup in now have the option to put the lower grills back in to hide the boost pipes. This coupled with painting the IC black would make the car look completely standard

[Blue32]

Last weekend I paid a visit to Surrery Rolling Road to find out what the car is making with the new C38.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LBCNcpy9g8&fea...
The RR result suggested we weren’t spinning the charger fast enough, as the goal is to get it to 500hp. So yesterday I went back to the Phrim to get the pulley changed from 80mm to 70mm to increase the boost by spinning the charger faster.
With the smaller pulley the boost went from 15psi to 18psi and comes in allot sooner so the car now pulls better from lower down in the rev range.
Unfortunately it hasn’t all gone to plan, as the car developed a misfire on cylinder 1 and MAF failed on the way home.

Today I tried to get to the bottom of the misfire by swapping the coil packs between cyls 1 & 2, on start up the car still sounded like it was still misfiring. Before I could check which cylinder it was, I noticed a sound, which sounded like water hitting a high-speed blade

On removing the air filter and MAF I found this:

Yes that’s water sitting in the intake, that’ll be why the MAF has failed.

While I was stripping everything down (in the rain), I noticed water was running down the inner wing and pouring on the air filter.
After draining the water from the intake I decided to make a shield to stop the water from poring on the air filter.
Cardboard template


Aluminium cut & bent to shape

Fitted



Hopefully that should protect the air filter.

Once the MAF and misfire are fixed it will be back on the RR shooting for 500

[Blue32]

Flying machine said:

Really nice car there, you've started off the terrible process of me looking at my totally standard R32 through the kitchen window this morning and wondering, should I....

Couple of questions though, is it not possible to relocate the air intake to somewhere inside the engine bay as it seems that you've had recurring problems with its placement so low down close to the road.

Also, how intrusive is the fuel pump? I only ask as I had an upgraded fuel pump in an old MR2 turbo and found it really annoying! I also had methanol/water injection on the same car and found that to be of unknown value - what happens if you let the tank run dry?

Finally is insurance difficult with such heavy modification for an everyday car?

Thanks, to be honest I think you will probably have more fun with the car in standard form, as now it’s a bit too quick. Sometimes I wish I’d left it standard, then I put my foot down and realise what a monster it has become

Options for re-locating the air filter are limited, as there isn’t much space. With the previous setup the air filter was resting on the under tray, this time there is 3-4 cm clearance. I’m hoping the shield I made will stop any water poring directly on the filter which is what I think happened whilst the car was parked overnight in the heavy rain.
I’ll probably try and get a cover made to go round the filter limit any direct splashes and spray.

The new fuel pump is only slightly louder than the original, I can only hear it when there is less than ½ tank of fuel.
I haven’t noticed a difference with/without the water and methanol either. It not really needed, as the car has been mapped to run without it so if it does run dry there are no problems. Also the supercharger doesn’t heat the air as much as a turbo might.

Insurance isn’t too bad considering what I have done; I’m paying £800, which includes breakdown cover and protected NCB.

[Blue32]

MELLY-WRC said:

Just read this from beginning to end. That's some dedication you've had to this particular car. The quality and quantity of equipment used in this build is a real credit to you and it completely shines through in every aspect of the finished product. With they way you carry on with the project tho I don't think the word finished is apt lol. Fingers x'd you get those last gremlins sorted and get her back on the R/R for the new 500+ figure you deserve.

Cheers,
Melly

Thanks Melly. It’s sort of become a hobby, everything has been done to try keep the car as reliable as possible as it is my daily driver.
Allot of the credit should go to the guys at The Phirm as they have done all the spanner work on the car.
If all goes to plan, the misfire and MAF will be fixed on Friday, I’ll see if Charlie can squeeze me in for a quick run on the rollers as everyone is desperate to see what it will do.

Thanks
Kieran.

[Blue32]

This arrived today:

It's a forge supersize recirculating valve to replace the leaking valve. I think it might be a bit too big

[Blue32]

Test fit of DV

6 coil packs and 1 MAF later it's done it

I have now reached the limit of the current hardware, the injectors & MAF are maxed out and is running on the limit of the stock rods.
Towards the end of the run the AFR’s started leaning out hence the power drop at 6700-800rpm the rev limiter is set to 7200rpm. We are going to fit a 4.5bar fuel pressure regulator to keep the AFR’s in check at the limiter so it is safe to run on the RR and vmax etc..

Edited by Blue32 on Friday 20th September 20:53

[Blue32]

To cure the lean running I fitted a new 4.5BAR Fuel Pressure Regulator 2 weeks ago


4 BAR (left) vs 4.5BAR(right)


Last weekend had another dyno run at a charity RR day

Nice lick of flames at lift off, camera didn’t catch them too well.

The AFR’s are not shown, however they were checked during the run, this time all was fine so the new FPR has done the trick.

Anyone travelling past j9 on the anticlockwise M25 around 6pm yesterday might have spotted me sitting on the hard shoulder. Unfortunately the car ran out of electricity. So today after testing and determining the alternator was at fault I started stripping the front down to get it out.

The offending item, VW don’t make it easy to get

More bits removed for access


After removing:
Supercharger intake pipe, DV, MAF & engine breather,
Charcoal canister,
Screen wash reservoir,
Radiator fans + fan fix mod resistors (did this to get some extra clearance).
I finally got the alternator out


Now have to wait until Tuesday for the new one to be delivered. On the plus side it will give me an opportunity the tidy the wiring as the loom tape is peeling off. Also need clean everything up, as with the first supercharger install, I had to use lots of belt grip which has left a sticky residue over everything.

[Blue32]

While waiting for the alternator I cleaned up the chassis leg which is normally covered by the screen wash reservoir.


That’s better (sad, I know but it was bothering me)


I noticed where the screen wash reservoir was sitting it had rubbed some paint away

So I masked it up and gave it a couple of coats with a touch up spray


I also replaced the tatty badge on the intake manifold

Nice shiny new badge


I picked up the new alternator yesterday, only to discover A: it didn’t come with a pulley

And B: a special tool is required to remove pulley from the old alternator as it has a double spline, one to lock the shaft, the second to unscrew the pulley.


So after a trip back to the dealer to get the pulley swapped it was ready to refit.


Alternator back in position


Working


Whilst putting everything back together, I think I found what caused the alternator to fail. One of the cooling fans has burnt out, I had already fixed the fans a couple of years ago as the low speed had failed. Now the high speed has burnt out as well.

To be continued……

[Blue32]

I took the car to Vmax Quicksilver today, only got 4 runs in as on the 4th run the car started shedding weight. The plastic under tray from the front ripped off at 160mph, only noticed when I spotted it in the rear view mirror.

All the fixings have been torn out of the bumper and both wheel arch liners are damaged.

The track was slightly shorter this time, so I was having to lift off before the timing beams as the wasn’t enough space to slow down, so didn’t my previous best of 171mph

Anyway hear are a couple of videos
GopPro mounted on front grill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdZiHxu3uS8&fea...
Exhaust sound (think this is my favourite)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InNwpUTlgsU&fea...

[Blue32]

Dift said:

It might be worth putting a filter sock over the filter also (especially with winter on the horizon). Cheap, and stops water wetting the filter due to its hydrophobic nature.

http://www.knfilters.com/search/wrap.aspx

I used one on my Focus RS which had a large filter in a similar position.

For £20 it's a no brainer IMHO.

One of those was fitted at the time. So far with all the heavy rain we have had over the last coupe of days, the shield I made seams to have helped.

Couple more videos from Vmax
First run as seen from start line http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxD95zCo_Uc

The run where the undertray departed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7DUwVFakro&fea...