Rotrex powered R32

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Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Monday 26th October 2015
quotequote all
Had a day out at the Comrades of VAG meet @ AMD Essex yesterday. I got mugged in to running on the rollers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ-NM7OhFY0

Thanks to DougalR for getting the video, my ears were ringing for an hour, think the noise cleared the workshophehe.

A frame from the video is now my desktop wallpaper


Also ran the car at the GTI Festival@ Santa Pod a few weeks back. Did 8 runs with the best being a 12.07 for the ¼ mile.
Which isn’t bad considering it I didn’t remove any weight and had ¾ tank of fuel.


I found a video showing a couple of the runs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AEfvgiRsf4

Zombie

1,586 posts

194 months

Monday 26th October 2015
quotequote all
Just read this thread through from start to finish, and I mean that, I've not scanned though it.

Very nice job sir. And I say that as an alfa fanboy with a dislike for golfs...

I've been thinking about a rooters for my gta but I've been put off by the cost (mostly) and reports of them being costly to maintain. Wondering what your thoughts are?

aka_kerrly

12,415 posts

209 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
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Zombie said:
reports of them being costly to maintain. Wondering what your thoughts are?
Not in the slightest, a Rotrex is a sealed unit & has it's own standalone oil supply unlike a lot of convention superchargers. As a result you only have to change the oil every 2 years/50k and that's it.

Compare that to a roots or G-lader type charger that needs to be stripped/rebuild as the scroll tips need replacing every few years at circa £500 a Rotrex is cheap & hassle free!!

Blue: That dyno video is great!

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
quotequote all
Zombie said:
Just read this thread through from start to finish, and I mean that, I've not scanned though it.

Very nice job sir. And I say that as an alfa fanboy with a dislike for golfs...

I've been thinking about a rooters for my gta but I've been put off by the cost (mostly) and reports of them being costly to maintain. Wondering what your thoughts are?
So far I have done nearly 19,000 with the Rotrex C38, prior to that it had the smaller C30 which did about the same mileage before I upgraded. Both have been problem free, the C30 even survived water ingestion.

As aka kerrly said the Rotrex only needs an oil change every 2 years.
I do annual oil & filter change, at the same time as the engine oil service as it seamed the right thing to do. The only downside is the Rotrex oil is quite expensive @ £100 for 1L, fortunately the system only holds 0.75L. Apart from that nothing else is needed.

martin mrt

3,768 posts

200 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
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I seen this car at inters, ironically I had read the entire thread from start to finish not long before

It sounded and went amazingly, knew it was this car because of the gear changes

The noise though, sounds like a bonkers naturally aspirated car, but it's charged, fantastic

Zombie

1,586 posts

194 months

Tuesday 27th October 2015
quotequote all
No too bad then even at £100/lrolleyes

Don't suppose you know of anyone who's fitted a magnetic clutch to one? - It's a daft idea I know, particularly as the GTA isn't my daily drive, but the Mad Max element makes it all the more appealing.

I'm sure the practicalities of bypassing the supercharger and intercooler won't contribute to that though....

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Monday 25th January 2016
quotequote all
Zombie said:
No too bad then even at £100/lrolleyes

Don't suppose you know of anyone who's fitted a magnetic clutch to one? - It's a daft idea I know, particularly as the GTA isn't my daily drive, but the Mad Max element makes it all the more appealing.

I'm sure the practicalities of bypassing the supercharger and intercooler won't contribute to that though....
Rotrex are tinkering with this on the C8T http://www.rotrex.com/Home/Products/New_Releases

I have often had the same thought as the charger adds quite a lot of drag to the engine. Flat out the Rotrex pulls about 50hp from the engine, we know this from the fuelling as there is enough fuel and air going into the engine to make 550Hp, whereas on the dyno it’s only making 501hp at the flywheel.

Minor update.

Car still running fine apart from a couple of minor issues

A few weeks ago I noticed there was a leak from the seal between the gearbox case and the mecatronic housing, so a new seal and housing were fitted as the old housing was rusting, tried to get a photo of the old housing, but I didn’t come out. Anyway managed to get a rubbish photp of the new mecatronic housing.

In hindsight I should have replaced the seal and housing before the gearbox was fitted as it would have saved time and the expense of wasted DSG oil

Had new rear calipers fitted as the old ones were sticking

Probably should have replaced the carriers as well so the match.

After driving the MKV around I decided I fancied adding the gentle red glow the interior illumination gives ant night, so I have also fitted the W8 interior light using the guide from here: http://www.users.on.net/~graeme86/w8/w8.html

Parts: 2x connectors, selection of repair wires & W8 light

For reference if anyone else wants the sunroof version of the W8 light in grey the part no is 3B7 947 106A 2EN and costs £75.15

Lit up in the dark



(Apologies for the rubbish phone camera pictures)

That’s about it for the moment, I’m just driving and enjoying the car. I’ll be taking it to the GTI festival @ Santa Pod in April to have another go in the strip to see if I can get into the 11s.

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Thursday 10th March 2016
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Had a day out at The Phirm today, my car joined 2 other FI R32’s they have in at the moment.

That’s over 1,400 HP lined up there, mine 501, middle one 400+, end one 520.

Must be MOT timewhistle


Mot failed first time due to blown brake light (blew on way to MOT stationbanghead) and fault with rear lights due to corrosion on the connector to the lamp holder caused by a water leak (common MKIV problem).

Gave the connector a clean and replaced the blown bulb, MOT passed.

Whilst waiting for the MOT this critter wondered into the workshop to see what’s going on.

They nicknamed it EOS and it seamed to like prawn crackershehe

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Monday 18th April 2016
quotequote all
Had a return trip to Santa Pod yesterday, which was great fun especially as I got a new PB of 11.83 woohoo


Favourite photo from the day, where I (right lane) raced against a mate and his R32 turbo (left lane).


Video of the race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEsdKnAQmns

The all important timing sheet


I plan on going back on a RWYB day to see if I can do better as was suffering with wheel spin even after dropping the tyre pressures.

Deanf

127 posts

169 months

Monday 18th April 2016
quotequote all
Another who has read the whole thread start to finish.
A cracking car and a credit to yourself.

10/10.

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Saturday 14th May 2016
quotequote all
Deanf said:
Another who has read the whole thread start to finish.
A cracking car and a credit to yourself.

10/10.
Thankssmile

Minor update

Over the last year or so the stitching on the drivers seat back rest had been gradually pulling apart and ended up looking like this


I found a car upholstery shop locally and got them to put a replacement panel in as the original had worn which was the cause of the stitching pulling out.

The new material is not a 100% match, but I’m happy with the result, as it was the best that could be done without re-upholstering the whole seat.

Had some trouble with an annoying oil leak from the gearbox, which we finally tracked down to the oil cooler.
The sealing surface of the oil cooler had started corroding


Replacement oil cooler

Hopefully that’s fixed it.

After going through the data logs from Santa Pod we noticed the timing was been pulled during the run causing a small loss in power. To try and help we are going to add an intake air temperature sensor by the throttle body. Also going fit a better water & meth system as the aquamist looks like it isn’t really up to the job.


Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Sunday 15th May 2016
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Thought I should add some data to better explain what’s going onnerd

The timing data is from one of my early runs on the strip, ideally the timing adjustment (KW stabilisation) should be up to a maximum of 6.


The cells highlighted in yellow show the amount of adjustment applied to each cylinder (1-6), I have added a column on the end to show each gear. The data shows that from the top of 2nd gear and through 3rd and 4th the timing was being pulled.
We think the cause of the timing pull was most likely from heat soak while waiting to get to the start line, as when the car was originally mapped all the timing was spot on.
The relocation of the IAT sensor and changing the WMI system should bring it all back to where it should be.

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Monday 30th May 2016
quotequote all
I started on the new WMI install today

The plan was to run the power feed for the pump from the front to the pump which will be mounted the boot.
After removing the sill trim on the passenger side so I could run the wire inde the edge of the carpet I found some mystery wiring which disappeared behind the carpet.



While tracing the wires I discovered the insulation under the carpet was soaking which lead to this


I removed the carpet to revealfrown

You can see how wet the insulation was in the driver foot well.

There was standing water under the insulation



The interior now looks like this


I found what the mystery wires connected to

Looks like one of the previous owners had a tracker fitted. When I bought the car over 10 years ago I was never given anything that would suggest I had a tracker fitted.

I also found £1.71 and 70euro cents under the carpetsmile
.

The carpet and insulation are now in the back garden drying out while I try and find the source of the leak.




TheLordJohn

5,746 posts

145 months

Monday 30th May 2016
quotequote all
Is there a new/aftermarket wire through the front bulkhead above the drivers footwell?
Water might be tracking down it and dropping into the footwell.

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Monday 30th May 2016
quotequote all
TheLordJohn said:
Is there a new/aftermarket wire through the front bulkhead above the drivers footwell?
Water might be tracking down it and dropping into the footwell.
One possibility I thought of is this junction box above the pedals

It’s where all the multiplugs are which pass through to the engine wiring, I had to open it up to add the connections for the gearbox.
When I reassembled it I made sure the seal and surface were clean as I was worried it might leak. Nothing was disturbed on the passenger side.


TheLordJohn

5,746 posts

145 months

Monday 30th May 2016
quotequote all
It'll be something like that.
Usually aftermarket, or people have disturbed OE parts.

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Saturday 11th June 2016
quotequote all
It turned out it was the sunroof drains, I had initially discounted them as they were working (water drained out when I poured water in the drain channels) however it appeared that the drain tubes had become detached from the grommets inside the bodywork.
With the carpets out the foot wells looked like this after the heavy rain last week
Passenger side

Driver side


I have now glued the sunroof drain tube into the rubber grommet

Secured the connection to the sunroof drain channel with zip ties

So far the fix has worked, the foot wells are dry.

On the plus side, after nearly 2 years of searching I have finally got a MKIV R32 DSG steering wheel.


Spotted it on eBay.de and through the powers of Google translate I did a deal.

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Sunday 19th June 2016
quotequote all
I have done some more work on the WMI install, due to the size of tank I have, there was no way it would fit under the bonnet. The only place it could go was in the boot, but I didn’t want loose any space in the boot.
I decided to put the tank in the side compartment where the first aid kit normally goes.


The tank needs some adjustment to get it to fit correctly


Started by trimming the fixing tab


After applying some heat I was able to re-shape the tank to get it to fit in the gap


Made a template out of card for a bracket to mount the tank



After a few hours work in the man cave the bracket was finished


The aluminium plate has been tapped for the Allen screws, which have been locked in place with threadlock.

Test fit of bracket, it has been made so I can still get to the back of the light cluster


The plan was to fix the tank to the bracket with wing nuts.


Unfortunately it didn’t work due to the wings hitting the tank, so had to resort to normal nuts.


Also fitted a breather (elbow in top of tank) so the tank can vent outside the car. The tube was routed down to one of the rubber bungs in the body which goes underneath the car.


Decided to mount the pump to the polystyrene tray in the boot, so drilled holes and feed bolts through for the pump fixings


Pump in place


All back together.


Just need to wire it up.

It was all going so well until I broke the fitting in the bottom of the tankbanghead


Now got to wait for a replacement before it can be finishedfrown.






Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Sunday 10th July 2016
quotequote all
DSG steering wheel now fitted, it needed a minor electrical modification to get it working.


Went to GTI international today, got my best ever time on the 1.4 milewoohoo


I’m really pleased, I think it can go quicker as I was getting a lot of wheel spin at the start, so maybe some tyre pressure adjustments or more grippy tyres will get it lowersmile

Blue32

Original Poster:

438 posts

168 months

Saturday 22nd October 2016
quotequote all
Update time again

At the last service some play in one of the front shocks was picked up. I ordered up a replacement set of original equipment Volkswagen Racing shocks and springs and got The Phirm to fit them for me.

New shocks and springs ready for fitting


Before, not looking in the greatest of condition although not bad for 13 years and 120k


After, looking allot bettersmile


At the same time I got the supercharger belt replaced as it was slipping. During the strip down we found one of the bolts that holds the compressor casing on had blown out, leaving an 8mm hole for boost to leak to atmosphere. The leak probably cost me a couple of tenths on the striphehe

On disassembly it was found one of threads had stripped on the compressor casing.


While it was in bits I got some pictures of the internals of the compressor side.


Blades in good condition, considering it has pumped water a couple of times


Compressor housing


The damaged thread was drilled out and repaired with a helicoil, unfortunately I didn’t get any pics as camera battery died. Anyway it was all reassembled and car is back up and running with full boost, just need to test it once the new belt has had a chance to bed in.

While I was picking up the new shocks and springs from the VW dealer, the parts guy handed me a copy of Volkswagen Driver magazine. They had used a picture of my car in the feature article for GTI international

I don’t get mentioned in the article, but it’s cool they picked a picture of mine, Must be some cloud9 for the MKIV R32 in the editorial teambiggrin