[boarderjcj]

I am part of the way through my desired mods for my TT.

I swapped out my stock struts and springs for some ISC N1 coilovers with camber plates and spherical bearings. See more info here: https://forums.fourtitude.com/showthread.php?6147279-Lowered-TT-ISC-N1

Installed a APR Carbonio air intake

APR Stage 1 ECU Tune.

Now for APR Stage 2: A Billy Boat (B&B) downpipe for A3 quattro/Golf R with cat in the midpipe, no resonator.

 

[boarderjcj]

APR Carbonio Intake

Brand new, what you get in the box:

Picked this up April 2013 from Roc-Euro.

Install is easy now and with the 2011+ MY TT (maybe 2010 too?) is no MAF to mess with, no secondary breathers. But it does leave a huge hole in the engine bay. Perfect for some chemical cooling apparatus perhaps???. But at first threw me for a loop... See my posts here for more info: http://forums.fourtitude.com/showthread.php?5805267-APR-Presents-the-Carbonio-Intake-System-for-the-Audi-TT&p=81343589&viewfull=1#post81343589

The carbon fiber (CF) is very thin. One ply in most areas. You can see light through the epoxy where no CFs exists. Light for sure, an extra layer of carbon fiber might have been a bit nicer, but then price would likely jump as well... oh well... it works.

I didn't quite care for the gap between the ram air bracket and the CF body of the air box...

So I cut some foam and put it in between...

It closed the gap up, and now maybe air will flow a bit better into the filter and maybe less debris.

This intake has been installed for about 20,000 miles now and is not filthy but certainly due for a cleaning.

I did remove all the components after about 20,000 miles to clean and I was sad to see this:

When I unscrewed the screws holding the ram air bracket in place, epoxy with some CF delaminated and was stuck to the rubber washer for both screws. I suppose the pressure/environment/vibrations will do that. The delam didn't effect anything reassembly or fit.

 

[boarderjcj]

B&B A3 Quattro/Golf R Downpipe for TT

Just took deliver of a 3" catted downpipe by Billy Boat B&B. The A3 quattro/Golf R downpipe fits the TT according to everyone I spoke with. And by everyone, I mean everyone but B&B. I never called (and just should have called but didn't...), but they never responded to any of my emails...

Construction is 304 stainless steel. Not aluminiumized steel which is garbage for north eastern vehicles exposed to silly winters and salt coverage.

1 metal cat, 200 cell in the mid-pipe section. With it in the mid-pipe, means I can swap out for a catless mid-pipe after inspections

Hilariously, the pipe was boxed in an APR box turned inside out!

Pipe took about 3-4 weeks from date of order to delivery. But, free shipping and no tax from Redline Motorworks. Cheers to that.

The pipe was heavier than I expected, but I wasn't entertaining the prices of Ti...

All the welds looked decent. Better than I could manage by hand at least.

Next step is install... once temps get above freezing that is...

 

[boarderjcj]

Thats... June?

You should notice a nice bump even without software, I did.

haha yea, this winter is brutal...

when it happens, should be fun!

 

[boarderjcj]

NEUSPEED Hi-Flow Turbo Discharge Conversion kit install

Yesterday, I installed a NEUSPEED Hi-Flow Turbo Discharge Conversion kit (Part Number: 48.02.74). Picked it up slightly discounted from HS Tuning.

As received photos, assembled (I could not resist assembling):

Aluminum to aluminum weld of the mounting bracket & and speckling of black on the ID (presumably overspray from the black coating process...whatever it is... feels polymerish not ceramic).

The billet turbo flange adapter is honestly... quite quite nice. Nicely machined. A tricky bit to machine too! This piece honestly is why this pipe costs $200+ the pipe and the coating... meh 50 bucks when you toss in a fully burdened labor rate on top of everything.

Rolled my car up some ramps.
Tool the belly pan off.
Jacked the passenger side front up a bit further. Took wheel off.
Then I followed the instructions sent with the part. They were bang on. Follow them exactly you will have no issues.

Initially, I assembled the billet adapter, silicon, pipe and clamps prior to getting in the garage... yea, won't work. Leave it all disassembled and follow the instructions.

Pipe is super light weight. I didn't weight the Neuspeed vs OEM but maybe there's a few grams saved... negligible unless you're a track nut looking for tenths.

OEM Pipe exposed.

OEM pipe removed looking up into turbo.

Neuspeed pipe installed. Clears pulleys no problem. Mounts rock solid.

No new sounds and hard to notice a difference or reduction in turbo spool up lag. Since the turbo in my car, 2011 base TT, is so small to begin with probably not surprising that its hard to notice. I probably should get around to installing a boost gauge so I can actually monitor boost...

 

[boarderjcj]

Stage 2 prep

In preparation for stage 2, I am taking some extra precautions by installing R8 coil packs and fresh spark plugs.

Ordered from HS Tuning: R8 Coil Packs OEM Part #: 077 905 115 T
Spark Plug - NGK Double Platinum Resistor Part #: PFR7S8EG

I suggest everyone double check your spark plugs. All 4 of my plugs needed slight adjustment to hit 0.032" not much though, they were all +/- 0.02".

The coil packs come in cardboard boxes and thus were coated in cardboard fibers. Blow all that junk off, then smear in to the connector end a bit of dielectric grease. I used a zip tie... don't use a cotton swab... you just mix in cotton fibers into the grease.

This is a diy install... But, un-clipping the existing coil packs was a pain. You will hurt your fingers! Use the tricks here if you need a bit more help.

Nothing much to see other than, now the coil pack tops are red and my engine bay is filthy from winter... Again, I didn't really notice a difference in performance. Currently, sans tune. But I blew a coil pack with my Stage 1 tune. So, hopefully I am bulletproof now.

 

[boarderjcj]

Going Stage 2

As shown in post #3, I bought a Billy Boat downpipe made for A3/Golf R. I finally had a chance to bring out to Roc-Euro for an install. I would have like to have done the install myself but without a lift and more importantly just a garage, Roc-Euro was the easier and MOST importantly fastest option.

Rolled the car up on to the lift then was back-filled by 2 S4's:

O2 sensors out:

Stock cat back muffler system out, stock downpipe+midpipe hanging (the coupling of stock catback to midpipe needed to be cut off, the bolts were frozen/rusted):

Driveshaft and stock downpipe+midpipe out:

Nasty 600 cell ceramic catalytic converter within inches of the turbo flange:

B&B downpipe and midpipe needed a few minutes of swage work to the mating ends round (as shipped condition was out of round/a bit square) and fit a bit better:

Exhaust port of stock turbo w/ 37k miles:

Rear end mounting point for driveshaft:

B&B downpipe in, no driveshaft:

DP and midpipe in with driveshaft (about 6 inches had to be cut off the midpipe. The TT might be a bit shorter than A3 and Golf R, just glad it had more than needed not less than needed):

Everything went pretty well except for this:

The mounting bracket welded on to the downpipe was not in the proper location. It was off set enough that reusing the stock brackets which mount into the empty holes was not possible. According to the install shop, this poor fitment is common across many brands which make downpipes for Golf R, TT's, and similar. It is not the end of the world, but certainly annoying! I plan to fab up an extension to the brackets so all the stock hardware can go back on.

 

[boarderjcj]

APR Stage 2 video

B&B downpipe+midpipe installed and APR stage 2 flash on. Everything sounds great! At 65-75 mph on the highway there is no drone, and sounds as near as makes no difference... STOCK. Above 3k revs things get different. Much louder inside and outside. On start up and idle, the noise inside is again quite close to stock. Outside the car, it is a bit louder but unless you knew what it sounded like before you wouldn't know.

Here is a nice little vid captured recently: Start up, a couple revs, launch control, fly bys.

 

[boarderjcj]

How does the stage 2 compare to stage 1. Also compared to stock in terms of acceleration? Any change with stage 2 fuel economy? I was thinking better economy because of the lowered exhaust backpressure and the ecu dumping less fuel to cool the engine.

First and first to second gear is better. By better I mean it feels better. And what I mean by that is, shifts and throttle response seem much smoother and have a better correlation to your foots input to the pedal. Stage 2 def. has more get up and go. It doesn't blow you away though. As evidence from driving my car stock and apr's dyno data, audi sandbagged numbers. So the gains really are not much. Launches feel a bit quicker but top end power over 5k revs in any gear is much more noticeable than the low end tq gains.

With stage 1 I saw 35 mpg on the highway (depending on terrain). So far, Stage 2 I've seen up to 33. But haven't gone very far (mileage wise) with stage 2 yet. Stock I could get up to 33 but not as easily as I could with stage 1 and I suspect the same to be true for stage 2 too. What I like is if, I really am gaining efficiency on the highway (just cruising) great if not the tune certainly didn't make things worse. More performance without any compromise ... Except for bank account haha

 

[boarderjcj]

After all is said and done, would you spend the $ on the DP and install again? Or further save for a K04 and install DP then?

Thanks.

If I wanted a k04, I would have just bought a TTS. Yes a k04 on a 2.0TFSI w/ valve lift can make a bit more power than a TTS... But again, I would have just bought a TTS if I wanted a k04.

This is my dd which I can get between 33 and 35 mpg when I keep my right foot light. So it can be quite jekyll & Hyde in that regard.

 

[boarderjcj]

OK, thanks for the insight, but I think you misunderstood what I was asking. My question wasn't to poke at you, not my nature. I have a TT, was thinking of getting a DP but also interested in a K04. Was wondering if your plans were to do a K04, would you wait till then?

I would have gone the TTS route too, but at the time it wasn't in the budget, and the TT was for my wife...

All I was asking is was it a good bang for the buck.:beer:

BTW, thanks for posting the thread. There hasn't been much discussion about the 2.0TFSI VL.:beer:

No worries... didn't take your q. as a poke.

I suppose if from the get go I knew down the road I would want to go Stage 3 (w/ K04) I would skip paying for Stage 1&2 software which would mean holding off on installing DP until Stage 3 as well. You could run a DP without software but your car would throw codes.

Skipping stage 1 an 2 you save about $600 (and maybe an additional $100ish if you are charged an install fee for the ECU software... ECU much come out get cracked open and touched off on). So $600-700 is the cost of your DP or nearly all of the cost of the larger intercooler you will need.

You can certainly start now with the cold air intake (if you haven't already).

And yea... no info on the 2.0 w/VL... lame. I also would like to see an update to the stage 1 and 2 software for this engine. I am pretty sure there is room for a ~5% improvement. I spent last weekend spanking the car up and down and around some hilly roads in the southwestern countryside of NYS for about 200 miles with A/C on. Car didn't have any issues. Still on original stock pads ($38k miles now) and they still have meat on 'em.

 

[boarderjcj]

Cool sounds good.

I have the APR Stg I and Carbonio intake, did that before the 5k service. At 23k now and finding that I am driving the car more and more since we bought a Q5 a couple weeks back. I ordered a set of wheels, as the tires are low. I found that you can pick up a K04 for under $2k, and get the APR software for existing customers for a couple hundred... I am surprised that there isn't more motivation, price cut, for existing APR customers.

Oh well. Thanks for the reply. IF my budget grows soon I will be getting some fun bits, if not, I will be waiting for the black Friday sales...

Sounds good... Definitely post up your mod-progress! No one has posted much of anything regarding these EA888 gen2 motors with ValveLift for the TT.

 

[boarderjcj]

With the car lifted... enough... I had another go at figuring out why my downpipe didn't want to mount properly to the front subframe.

The arm, welded onto the downpipe is angled properly, however it is set too close to the subframe. The triangular bracket needs to slot in between the downpipe mounting arm and the subframe. As delivered, the bracket sits behind the downpipe mounting arm (closer to the rear axles). Note the top of the triangular shaped bracket sits in front of the downpipe mounting arm... It should be behind.

1 or both of 2 things happened. Either the welded on mounting arm is indeed too long (is in the proper location... just too long) and or since this downpipe is stated to be made for Golf R and A3 Quattro... perhaps it is my own damn fault for this poor fitment issue. Despite folks stating the TT, Golf R, A3 quattro and S3 share the same downpipe geometry... I think this must be mostly true but lengths and spacing of other "items" must be different (slightly). But, given the chance to do over... I would likely still save the $400 difference over the APR downpipe, more than that for the Milltek, and generally uninterested cheaper aluminized steel used in the 42dd pipes (they can make 304L pipes but the cost is similar to APR).

On to my solution... hack the bracket up.

Close up. Note the spacer in between the bracket and the mounting arm, the gap is approximately 0.45" (or 0.405"... I cannot remember now).

Reason for doing this is as follows... this out this mounting point, the downpipe is mounted directly to the turbo flange and then to the midpipe which is suspended until it reaches the OEM catback exhaust system which is essentially on hangers. If by chance, I were to hit some debris in the road (large debris) it could potentially tweak my pipes enough to crack the turbo manifold. This secondary mounting point in theory would deflect some of that energy and hopefully not crack the turbo! maybe this is a silly concern... but the flex pipe on this aftermarket downpipe is VERY stiff. Not at all flimsy and is self supporting. Whereas, the OEM flexpipe region is so flimsy and flexible, the pipe almost folds in half on it's self if left unsupported.

Cutting out a section of this bracket did make the bracket less structurally sound... It does have some give now. And, I am getting some metal on metal vibration noise. Which is likely the spacer, bolt, nut combo which came loose because the bolt was just barely long enough to get thread engagement. Next step... 3D print a new bracket which fits... and use some teflon spacers/washers if needed.

 

[boarderjcj]

Drag Racing: 1/4 Mile Stage 2 2011 Audi TT

I made a 12.974 second quarter mile pass in my TT the other day.

It is my best quarter mile run to date... anyone have a faster base model TT with the EA888 gen 2 engine?

All the other runs from the night:

 

[boarderjcj]

So folks, I am starting to map out the next wave of mods (list below)... what else should/could I do?

*Bigger IC
The APR IC sounds pretty awesome, but the price isn't. I am likely to give the S3/TTS/mk6 :R IC a try.

*Meth/water injection
Meth/water injection is cool but the car would have to be able to adjust, on its own, to the increase in octane since no ECU map for anything greater than 93 AKI exists.

*TCU/DSG upgrade
TCU/DSG would be ncie but again... price. Maybe an APR sale will make it appealing enough.

 

[boarderjcj]

Curious how the DSG flash would effect those numbers. Being it's your DD, the DSG flash might be the most fun of the upgrades,

Yea, I agree. I am quite interested in the DSG flash. A Buffalo local TTS has done the DSG upgrade so I plan to touch base with him see how it is working out for him. It's just another $500 (on sale) to dump in to the car... With the mk3 release in the US looming and the 2.0 ea888 upgrades from APR starting to trickle out... mk3 is looking mighty tempting. I expect the TT to get a slightly more fettled version of the valvelift ea888 which is in the GTI and A3 which hopefully means more tq and power SOONER in the rev range.

 

[boarderjcj]

I need to get it to the 1/4. Lemme know when you are going next.

As I mentioned to you the 1/8 track seems slower this year by about .4 seconds for some reason.
FYI with the dsg flash I ran an 8.1 last week. Down from my 8.7 a few weeks ago. Also worth mentioning is all wheel tire spin at launch at the track.
8.1 beats my best last year of 8.2.
If last WED is any indication. I am running about the middle of the pack for what the motorcycles are running.

My go this Fri... not sure yet. Will let you know.

What RPM did you set LC to hover at? Stock mine sits around 3500, my guess TTS is same. For awd cars, is an optimal launch RPM @ the intersection of peak hp and tq?

Side note...LC in new 991 911 turbo holds around 5500 and sounds spitty and nasty!

 

[boarderjcj]

2011 Audi TT Front Sway Bar Link Install

Right... Finally a new update!

I finally had a chance to install my Whiteline front swaybar links.

"Change per buck" or to be agnostic to the rest of the world... "change per money" this mod oddly or not provided the cheapest change in character to date (for me). Long story short... these links resulted in a significant increase in feedback. Steering input feels much more immediate and responsive.

So the details...
I daily drive my base model TT and I live in the absolutely miserable city of Buffalo. Winters here are obviously the worst aspect of living in this portion of America and despite this winter being particularly horrible, even during quite mild winters the ice melting salt scattered all over all streets does nothing but challenge the anti-corrosion coatings/process steps applied to any & all components of your car.

Long story short, roughly a year ago I had isc coilovers installed. Yes, their cheap but effective... But yes still cheap so moving on. The sway bar links provided by isc are, for lack of a better word, crap. Adequate but crap (expected for the price...).

12ish or so months later, 4 nuts on the 4 studs of the isc provided sway bar links, they were corroded beyond comprehension. Structurally, the hardware was still sound, but service-ability was... Deleted. Nuts and bolts were seized.

Wrenching was attempted. I succeed in removing like of 1 nut from the 4 studs... And it was far from easy. The rest of the nuts, hack sawed off. A casual day in the garage fluctuated in & out of rust rage.

Once the damper bodies & sway bar were free, clear & ready to accept new sway bar links, install was a breeze.

Tightened everything up, measure and make sure links are basically equal length then go for a drive.

The steering input/feedback was akin to riding a road bike vs. A fat bike on snow. Initial feeling was: twitchy. Which imo, is a thumbs up! I have grown up in the video game era so I enjoy a bit of the "Playstation feel" which some journalists often talk down about.

The purpose of all this, ... Corner weighting. This shall come later this spring/summer.

Some pics:

Damn you you rusty ****ers... chopped!

I have installed rear sway bar links made by Whiteline as well. That install was a bit easier... but not trivial. The OEM sway bar links, the studs disintegrated. Upon attempting to turn the OEM links, the metal literally just fractured like glass. It made the removal of those parts a massive p.i.t.a.

Suggestions: If you live and drive in a corrosion high region... consider running a thread die over your rust ass threads. This may... help you remove the nuts and bolts required. Or... skip attempting to conventionally unscrew and just cut the rusty ****ers off.

 

[boarderjcj]

Brake job coming up this weekend.

New rotors (Centric blanks, OEM size) are still in transit to my door... but here's the good stuff. Ferodo DS2500 brake pads and RBS600.

My only concern is, where/what do I do with the OEM pad wear sensor? It is not obvious to me where it would go into on these Ferodo pads... Perhaps it will be obvious once I pull the stock pads off.

 

[boarderjcj]

I'm guessing your 3d printed solution is the best solution of all for the downpipe bracket fitment issue, but I ended up cutting the arm off instead of the bracket. With it cut, I mounted it to the bracket and am getting a buddy to come over and spot weld the cut piece back onto the dp in the new position.

I unfortunately have not had the time to design anything to be printed... but soon I hope.
The spot weld should do the trick.