Golf MK2 16v ITB MS: Project Chronicles

[smudge]

Hi all, i have had my Golf a few years now and I would like to add her to the forum here, ill try and update progress as and when.

Stage 1

The Golf has been running MS1 Extra for over 2 years now and in that time she has gone through a few changes.

It all started with and engine change to a 1.9L 16v KR, i decided to run ITB's and MS to help increase her pace. The ITB's were taken from a GSX-R motor bike, they taper from 48mm to 42mm at the butterfly. I used the standard KR lower manifold chopped down, runners were ovaled and welded on with a take of for the brakes and brackets for the fuel rail which is VAG, taken from a 1.8T engine and has its own fuel rail.

I used all stainless fastenings.











The bodies themselves are individual and bolt together, I needed to space them with some ali i spun on the lathe to 88mm - same as the injector spacing and fuel rail. The injector holes on the ITB's were blocked up with some cut down bolts.

Nice straight runner was good for the inlet track,







The throttle linkage needed to be altered and rewelded to work with the stock cable, tho' this needed modding too.





PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BLUE HOSES WHERE TOO LONG AND IMPLODED ON IDLE SO DO NOT USE!

I ran EDIS, a F*rd coil pack and external trigger wheel and VR pick up.







I made a backing plate from Ti,



And lowered the radiator by dropping the cross member.





Fitted an ITG filter and all was good.





The car itself had a bit of a restore, I had her respryed, and added all new parts, HR coil overs and anti role bars, G60 brakes new lines etc and some seats.







ECU lives in the glove box.



I ran the car like this for over a year, she worked very well on track.

She made 179bhp and 149lbft, map was smooth and she pulled well throught to 8000rpm.

[smudge]

Stage 2

OK, after some track action the engine started to loose oil pressure and before she hit the dust i decided to pull her and replace. At the same time I decided I would update the hole install as I was never that happy with any of - it especially the wiring. The dyno results showed that there was potential for more power but the engine was being stricked.

Firstly i decided to run a serpantine belt, better than the V belt, at the same time i made a new trigger wheel and VR bracket.





I made a new wiring loom, all new wires and connectors.









And then set about chassing some more power and torque, reading up inlet track length is key to torque and power, to short or too long and you will loose power. Mine was too short, idealy i was after 350mm or there abouts from valve face to trumpet end. To gain more length I had to angle the ITB's to clear the bonnet.





Porting the manifold.











I then set about fixing the ITB's to the manifold better than just silicone and jubilee clips. I made up some clips to hold it all tight and in place.





Next up was the filter plate, I wanted to space it a little,









I then made some carbon fibre trumpets and filter plate.

[Paul_VR6]

Looks good! Not MS related but watch that front crossmember, we ate one just like that, it doesn't like wheel hop at all! We used 2x3" box steel for the new one and it holds fine at 240whp.

[smudge]

Thanks for the tip but it is just the rad support that has been modded and it has run fine for two years on track and road without any problems.

I had the head rebuilt at the same time with all new valve guides etc.







I have used ARP head studs, almost cost the same as the VAG head bolts but can be reused.



All bolted back together using the washer bottle as a catch tank.







I have always had a wideband fitted but i decided to add a gauge to help tunning on the road.



And decided to move the sensor to a better location.



Also fitted some bonnet catches.



The car started on the first try but was not running well, the tax and MOT was also due so i had her towed to a good well know garage Streamline in Wandsworth London where Eddie could get his hands on her.

At the garage the car was running but would bog down under any load making it difficult to drive, also the RPM signal to MS was spiking when reved more then half throttle. The guys managed to get her through the MOT and balanced the ITB's and played with the map, I drove her home but she was clearly not right, the RPM spike was cuasing the ECU to dump fuel and retard ign thinking it was hitting the rev limlit when in fact it was only at 2k!!!

I fitted a new sheilded wire to the VR sensor and changed from EDIS to wasted spark, Eddie at the garage added new thryristors and that sorted the problems with the RPM. The car was now driveable but was still bogging down underload and now the ECU water temp was over reading and moving around, it was not a ground problem was i moved the grounds a few times to now avail. I went out mapping the car, the bodding down was due to a lean mixture and was cuarsing the ITB's to backfire and spit flames!! this melted my filter and nearly cuarsed a fire Once bitten twice she i took back to Eddie at streamline for some dyno time so he could sort out the map for me. Otherwise I felt I was going to do some damage to the engine.

An evening of tunning took place on the rollers.







The injector pulse was fluctuating around and was making it hard for Eddie to get a stable idle, bit of head scratching and it was down to the high water temp readings retarding the injectors, that sorted tunning proceeded. The TPS signal was now being a problametic and was moving around at low RPM to, we moved the grounds to the battery and this sorted the CTS issue but the TPS was still noisy up to 2k rpm! I was now really wishing I had not messed around and renewed the wiring seemed all i had done was make things worse!

Anyway Eddie managed to put a OK map onto the car for now, she reached new levels of power that has made all of the hard work worthwhile, putting out 184bhp and a impressive 163lbft, But there is more to come, the adjustable cam sprocket can still be adjusted, the bellmouths were not used and there where some dips in the AFR that can be ironed out, overall I was very happy to finish at gone midnight and the results of the extra torque is what i was trying to achieve with the new manifold.







Got the car home that night and as pulling in the drive she dropped to two cylinders! Did not think much of it then but the next day she was hard to start and again was only running on two cylinders, I norrowed it down to the coil pack and ordered a new on, old one was cracked, new coil and leads fitted (standard VAG and Ford coil pack) she started first time and worked a treat, at the same time I added a 20uF capacitor and it together they have worked to stop the noise the TPS was getting, car now drives very smooth again and feels great, looking to get her back onto the rollers soon now that the problems have been ironed out. Hopefully some more power and bigger spread of torque will be obtained over the last RR session.

[mbaye]

very very nice work
Mbaye

[smudge]

The other night me and Eddie headed off for some road tunning, but first spent a long time trying to balance the ITB's, every time Eddie thought he had it no 1 was out of balance even tho it was drawing in the same amount of air as the other three. We tested for leaks but there were none, Eddie wipped the plug out and it was black and wet, changed the lead but that made no difference so I managed to find some old old plugs that where going to be binned, fitted and it solved the problem and gave us a much better idle.

Out on the road Eddie drove and I mapped the fuel bins, Eddie the master would pull over from time to time and work his majic balancing out large parts of VE tables, he also spent time refining the throttle responce and the TPS related fueling to inprove driving on the road. The WOT and other higher load bins where already mapped on the dyno and showed good AFR readings as to be expected.

Half way through we stopped off at Eddies friends had a good noise around a MK3 VRT that Eddie will be mapping and a 4 wheel drive MK1 with R32T! That will be fun I took up the driving seat and Eddie road shot gun refining the map and config. The car drove well, the torque felt grear pulling hard in third from low down, 2nd gear is wild all the way to 7k, power felt smooth and roar, the ITB's sounded fantastic it was good to be back behind the wheel.

Finished mapping at gone midnight well over 4hrs I had a go in Eddies MK3 VR which is standard except suspension, the engine has been mapped by him and is close to 200bhp with simular torque. Throttle respoce was very good and the car pulled really well but most impressively handled like it was on the rails, all the development he has put in has been well worth it.

Next up is some hard whare tweeks and then back to the rollers for the final development.

[smudge]

Have not had a chance to get to the rollers yet and im still working on the hard whare tweeks, but for the mean time I did a little road calibrating and smoothed out the throttle responce and other bits of the map, car felt alot nicer to drive. Over the weekend I popped down to Castle Combe VAG track day and spent the afternoon on track, car ran very well all day the day was great fun, the highlight was being chased by a MK2 VR6 with 210bhp and 190lbft stripped and running simular hardware specks to mine, he could not catch me and when i was really pushing i was edging away on the straights. But the water temp was getting a bit to hot at 110deg so i had to ease of a bit. Anyway new radiator and oil cooler have been ordered to cure this minor problem.

This was the cars shake down after the engine work, pleased to say she was leak free with healthy oil pressures all day