RTDI Part 2

3L3M3NT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
ever think about selling it? I am looking for an already O2M swapped MK4
It had crossed my mind a while back when I was dealing with my pain management issues, but now that I have a pain pump implanted to help manage my pain. I'm actually looking forward to getting the car back on the road and going to a few track days to see what it can really do when there's no speed limit.:eek:

The car is actually at greengeeker's shop right now getting things sorted out for this spring.:)

Granted for the right price everything's for sale;) feel free to send me a pm if you're serious.
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
The saga continues

When I saw Eric's car at 2016 TDIFEST with very little progress having been made I told him to haul it over to my shop and we could get it finally finished. Having driven my TDI Ranger over to Sturgeon Bay I was ready to rent a trailer and just haul it back but we decided to wait.

Anyway, she's now at my place getting all the little odds and ends fixed so we can retune the car with a Malone tune.



The wiring is pretty rough and needed quite a bit of attention...









Once I'm done with that I'll need to address this ill-fitting charge air pipe kit which seems to be rubbing just about anywhere there is a chance to rub:







More to come.
 

greengeeker

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Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
wiring fun

Well besides fixing the mess under the hood my first order of business was to figure out why the N75 didn't have power to it. I tracked it down and the fuel pump relay wasn't being triggered (which sends power to a number of fuses and eventually to the N75). Whoever wired the swap initially knew this since they did several things to unsuccessfully get around it... They wired around fuse 34 (literal cut wires at the fuse block and strung new wires all over the car) and installed a new fuel pump relay in the back of the car going to what used to be an added in fuel pump (now missing).



Well to figure out the wiring I had to go back to the wiring diagrams and really understand how the BEW and BJS (3.2 VR6) connectors compared:



Surprisingly there is quite a bit in common between the the two harnesses with the only major differences in how the fuel pump and/or power relays are triggered.
Here are the two side by side with a color coded column between the two denoting where they are same (green cell) and where they are different (orange). Should be noted that for a few of the different rows, it doesn't matter since they aren't using the same wires for two different purposes.



After digging around and doing some research I figured out that I could install the same power relay(100) in place of the smart fuel pump relay (409) and it would operate perfectly.





So I guess that I've found out is that to swap a BEW into a mk4 R32, all you need to do is swap over the engine bay harnesses, plug them into the same color connectors and replace the fuel pump relay with a dumb relay.
Here are some shots I grabbed during the fun which I thought were pretty cool and as an engineer I can appreciate the amount of engineering hours went into the design of this part.





 
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Shenandoah

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Jan 9, 2008
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Shenandoah Valley, VA
TDI
2005 Jetta Wagon; 2005 Beetle; 2004 Jetta; 2002 Golf (three of them); 2002 Jetta Wagon; 2000 Audi TT->TDI; 1999 Beetle
Greengeeker,

Excellent photos! I'm doing an ALH swap in to an Audi TT. I tried to get the fuel pump relay to act like the 109 on the VW diesels, but it just wouldn't trigger to turn on the 32, 34, and 43 fuses. I ended up wiring the 109 with the Blue wire going to the 87f Terminal and the Red wire going to 30. If I knew the 100 relay worked, I would have tried that! Thanks for the pictures of the open Micro Electronic. I was wonder how that looked inside.

Eric
 

greengeeker

Vendor
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Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
Hey Eric,

Yeah, the 100 relay works but it truly is a dumb relay....meaning as long as the key switch is in the power position (engine running or not) it will be passing power to those fuses. The implication of this is that the fuel pump will run all the time - normal operation as you know has the pump run only for a few seconds with the engine not running. I can go back and rewire the trigger for it and may do that so that the ecu still commands its operation.
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
Lots going on with the car. Had to spend some time getting this aftermarket bumper to fit somewhat well. Then dropped it off with a body shop to fine tune the fit, mount and paint.





Needed to get that done so I could drop the car off for exhaust. Then we can get going on the tune.

Fuel fill opening has been opened up and now working on the fuel sender(s). Apparently the car is only able to draw from one of the sumps and the fuel gauge is terribly inaccurate.

Gauge wiring is all back together. Another interesting endeavor where gauges were cross wires (three wires for a boost gauge...two of them going to the boost gauge and one of them going to a oil pressure gauge) and thermocouples were in the wrong pins for the gauge. That and it was an absolute rat's nest behind the gauges....untidy wiring stresses me out! Next is to find out if I can get the oil pressure and thermocouple adapter in there with the routing of the a/c lines and radiator hoses trying to occupy the same space. I'll snap some pictures of the gauge installation once it is all complete.

Rubbing boost hoses/pipes are fitting properly where I have room to make a difference. On the front of the motor it is just so tight there isn't much I can do to avoid the pipe from contacting something.
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
So. Seriously lacking on the update front.

Here are a couple pictures of the exhaust being fabricated. Ended up using a vband clamp on the end of the downpipe and extending the 2.5" straight back to the rear subframe. Once past this expanded to 3" into an Aero Turbine series muffler.

Eric had a really good plan on the tailpipe to achieve two things 1) no drone in the cabin at cruising speeds 2) no soot accumulation on the rear of the car. #2 is best achieved by having some sort of turndown tip. The car originally had an R32-style twin tip setup which exited flush with the rear bumper. Well apparently this resulted in a completely sooted rear hatch in short order. The major drawback to a turndown tip is you often risk inducing a drone inside the car. To alleviate this the tip needs to be turned so it isn't parallel with the ground. You'll see in one of the pictures the tip has been rotated around 30deg to avoid drone.











I don't know how to embed youtube videos (would love it if someone could help me out here!)

Car at idle:

https://youtu.be/22fMMjfYr4I

Doing a WOT pull:

https://youtu.be/RzlbqTNdrdw

It does have a really nice growl as the vanes open but it is actually really tame when you are just driving normal.

Here is a picture showing the rear hatch after having not been washed after MANY tuning sessions (ie WOT pulls on a closed course ;) )

 
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greengeeker

Vendor
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Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
While this car is a compilation of OEM components when it comes to installing just about anything onto the car you end up having to modify or fabricate many things to get them to fit.

One such example is the skidplate. While this might normally take <1hr to install a panzer plate on a normal car, I had to fabricate a new mount for the right side since the FMIC had the pipe trying to occupy the same space as all the available mounts currently offered by the many vendors.

The car also has an 034 poly dogbone setup which also meant the skid plate did not clear that bracket without some delrin bushings on the rear of the plate.











 

greengeeker

Vendor
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Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
Tuning

As can be seen in the video posted earlier, with the help of jfettig I installed a dual gauge setup so we could monitor both boost and drive pressures. Using this, I had to make several stop screw adjustments as the car was driving like a BRM does with a worn vane mechanism (big hesitation off the line, huge smoke cloud and then she goes). Anyway, tons of tons of logs were done with many iterations of tune tried to work out the MAF-based smoke maps. (the video is showing a very early tune...final tune and stop screw adjustment were much better)

Oh, stop screw adjustments are really fun on a 4Motion car BTW. As you can see I had to remove the axle and swing the wheel assembly out to gain access to the stop screw and actuator. :cool:






I'll take the time to mention that owning a car this heavily modified will almost always guarantee you need to tinker with something...in other words, for the fun you are trading off some level of reliability. The car has left me or jfettig stranded twice and almost a 3rd time.
1) Because of the pushed back radiator and ill-fitting hoses the radiator fan eventually wore through a radiator hose, draining all the coolant.
2) I went for a test drive after installing the fluidamper to see if I could notice any difference in the vibrations. Well after only SIX miles with the damper installed (using the bolts provided, torqued per instructions) I started hearing a really gnarly clanking which was rpm-dependent. I immediately thought the worst and thought rod bearing. I popped the hood and noticed the damper was wobbling badly. I was luckily very near an Oreillys and was able to purchase the tools necessary to tighten the two bolts still remaining. Some longer bolts, loctite and lock washers and it hasn't come loose since.
3) With the front and rear locked differentials every bit of power is put to the ground. I haven't been able to get the tires to slip whatsoever. Well when testing out a particularly strong tune I noticed a very sudden change in engine vibration at certain speeds. I quickly limped back to the shop to find that the the car had ripped the threads out of the engine mount. Helicoiled and she seems to be holding strong.





I'm VERY HAPPY this occurred AFTER I had installed the Panzer plate. Another benefit of a skid plate...prevents your engine from dropping out of the engine bay. :D
 

greengeeker

Vendor
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Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
Misc

A critical step that needed to be completed was hood pins for the non-OEM, CF hood.

Since you are locking down the front of the hood with very little adjustment step 1 is to align your hood as perfectly as you can before starting! I nearly missed this step but caught myself before drilling the first hole (measure eight times, cut once applies here).













Eric also had me install some incredibly comfortable race seats and harnesses. I never imagined these seats would be as comfortable for someone bigger than a 32" waist but you can drive all day long in these Recaros. Worth the money IMO.



 

greengeeker

Vendor
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Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
Misc, 2

Well, I'm not covering everything that I did with the car. That was captured in very extensive build notes sheet shared with Eric. It was a very cool experience working on this car. It gave me some insight into the upper levels of TDI performance...how much $ it takes to get there, how you have to modify each and every subsystem of the car to stand up to the rigors, and how much you rely on a small circle of capable people to keep a car like this in tip top shape. And even then you have to be prepared to shell out big $ when something breaks.

I hope Eric enjoys the car and gets it out to as many track days and GTGs as possible.





 

3L3M3NT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
My apologize for not updating this thread sooner:(

Photobucket embedded image fix inserted 2/7/2018.
Fix if you're using Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/photobucket-embedded-imag/ogipgokcopooepeipngiikdkpmcpkaon

Firefox Fix: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-fix/?src=api

Anywho, on with the updates.

With the help of greengeeker and a couple of my friends were able to get the car back to me in Sturgeon Bay at the end of September and needless to say they all really enjoyed driving the car and let me know that if I needed a place to store it for the winter they were more than happy.:D For some reason I don't think the car would stay put if I left them with the keys.;)

I snapped a few pictures of it, since it looked 10x better than when it was dropped off by greengeeker a little less than a year ago.








I was glad I got the car back when I did, since 2 weeks later I had everything setup for a track day at Road America to see how it could do with no speed limit and in a controlled environment.
Sadly the forecast called for rain starting around 11am and since they run rain or shine we made the trip. We got to the track around 7:30 with a heavy fog in the air, but no rain yet.

My driver went to the drivers meeting at 8 and unfortunately had to sit through what had to be the longest drivers meeting ever, so by the time he got out around 8:45 we still had to remove all the loose items from the car, get strapped in, and put our safety gear on. With it being our first time taking the car to the track things took longer than they should have so we ended up missing our 1st session with the intermediate group. We even tried to talk our way into the 1st session of the beginner group, just to get a feel for the car, but that fell on deaf ears and they sent us back to the pits to wait for the 2nd session.

While waiting for the 2nd session my dad and a friend showed up to help with whatever we needed. So we start getting ready for the 2nd session when it turns from a heavy fog to a light drizzle. My driver and I are thinking great...we're taking the car out for it's first laps on the track and the track is wet.:mad: The first couple of laps we took it easy to get a feel for things, as my driver got more comfortable we were passing cars here and there on the straight aways with the track going from damp to wet. For those familiar with Road America, on the carousel we had the back end step out on us a couple times while we were out there.

Session 3 had rain coming down the entire 20 minutes we were out there.

By session 4 we pretty much had the track to ourselves, since over half the guys there had called it quits for the day. The track was still quite wet when we were out there and then half way through we lost power, which I thought at the time was due to oil pressure, since the McNally gauge read ZERO! Come to find out that I forgot that the gauge wasn't hooked up, so it wasn't the lack of oil that caused our loss in power, but the MAP sensor wires had the insulation melted off and were grounding out.:( The MAP sensor wires were ran too close to the intake manifold, so they are getting zip-tied to the strut brace to keep them away from the heat.

Besides the wires getting moved, the car is getting a roll cage added at the moment to help save us if the car were to ever get in a roll over.

With the rain blocking the lens at times the videos aren't the best, but here they are.
Looking Forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fN6YUon5qI&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK3nxew5D7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yoz-EItfchI&t=1s

The looking back view is going to be less than ideal at times, but it's some great shots of us rolling coal.;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrEXrcuuTtA&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylpst6qxq-Y&t=3s

Again sorry for the delayed post, but hopefully in the future I'll do a better job of posting updates on the car.
 

3L3M3NT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Man...looks like fun. Wish I could have done a lap or two.
Yeah, it was a blast out there, especially when you're passing Porsches and other cars that are 2 or 3 times more expensive than the RTDI.:eek: Heck, we were hitting 120 on the straight aways in the rain and for comparison when I had my Jetta on the track the most we could muster on a perfectly dry track was 115, maybe 120 which goes to show you the RTDI has more in it.:D

If you're interested in getting some seat time, there are quite a few track days I'm interested in going to.;) The first track day I'm planning on going to is May 12th at Road America

Cool stuff Eric - having RA to yourself, even in the rain, is quite an opportunity.
It was kind of weird at first when there aren't other cars around you on the track, but it was great being able to run any line we wanted which came in handy when there was standing water on certain section of the track.:(

Admission is free for spectators;) Better yet would be to join in with the Audi TT TDI:p
http://lapstrackdays.com/

http://www.mvptracktime.com/index.html
 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
If you're interested in getting some seat time, there are quite a few track days I'm interested in going to.;) The first track day I'm planning on going to is May 12th at Road America
Didn't you say you needed to have some sort of licensing to drive on the course....basically prove that you aren't a novice race car driver. :eek:
 

3L3M3NT

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Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Didn't you say you needed to have some sort of licensing to drive on the course....basically prove that you aren't a novice race car driver. :eek:
Yep, you need to have a valid driver's license. Plus a little track time never hurt.;) There are 2 different companies that put on the track days. http://lapstrackdays.com/ has a little more of a relaxed guideline on who can drive me where http://www.mvptracktime.com/index.html has a more strict policy on who can drive while I'm riding shotgun.
So other than the May 12th track day which I already have a driver for, there are plenty of other HPDE days open with LAPS that we can go to.:D
 

greengeeker

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Cambridge, MN
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2002 Jetta GLS
Yep, you need to have a valid driver's license. Plus a little track time never hurt.;) There are 2 different companies that put on the track days. http://lapstrackdays.com/ has a little more of a relaxed guideline on who can drive me where http://www.mvptracktime.com/index.html has a more strict policy on who can drive while I'm riding shotgun.
So other than the May 12th track day which I already have a driver for, there are plenty of other HPDE days open with LAPS that we can go to.:D
Many moons ago I had a bit of track time. :eek:

 

cumminsfromthecold

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Oct 27, 2006
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HumCo
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'84 Toyota 1Z 4WD x-cab
Great thread, greengeeker. Watching with interest. Doing my best to blow up the 3.2 and get the swap started :D
 

3L3M3NT

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Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Many moons ago I had a bit of track time. :eek:
That works for me. Seriously, just let me know which LAPS event you want to go to and we'll make it happen. I wanna get in as much lap time as possible now that the car is up and running.:D

Great thread, greengeeker. Watching with interest. Doing my best to blow up the 3.2 and get the swap started :D
Technically it's my thread, but I can see how you would think it was greengeeker's since he quite a few posts in it from helping me out with the car.

What engine are you going to replace the 3.2 with? ALH? PD? CR?

Even though I've never ridden in a stock R32, you'll be amazed at what a well built TDI can do in an AWD car. You no longer have wheel spin in the first two or three gears, the handling is phenomenal, and you can still get 40+mpg if you can keep your foot out of it.:p
 

3L3M3NT

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Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Well Steve at TechnicalDieselInnovations strikes again. This past fall there was more and more soot building up under the hood until it got really bad after we fixed the MAP sensor wiring, we took the car for a spin when a plume of soot came from under the hood. :eek:

With me using the car primarily as a track toy, I decided a roll cage would be a smart addition, so with the recommendation of a friend I took the car to Trudell Performance in Green Bay, WI. Besides the roll cage I wanted them to take a look at the exhaust leak and this is where Steve comes into the picture... they got around to removing the exhaust manifold and turbo today only to find that a few nuts were loose on the exhaust manifold to the head. Then it goes from bad to worse...when they separated the turbo from the manifold they found that the turbo gasket was installed incorrectly.:mad:





Here's one of the loose nuts.


I'm not sure how the car made 263 hp/ 414 lb-ft with the turbo gasket blocking 1/4 of the turbine wheel. :rolleyes: Well hopefully after everything is back together it'll pick up some response and overall power without covering the engine bay with soot. :D
 

3L3M3NT

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Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Nothing to major to report at this time other than Trudell Performance had the interior removed from the car for fitting the roll cage. They also pulled the turbo and manifold due to the incorrectly installed gasket and the nuts coming loose that hold the manifold to the head causing a massive exhaust leak.

They found it was easiest to pull the turbo and manifold by dropping the subframe, which made it a great time to do a few upgrades with the subframe bushings and the clamp that holds the power steering rack to the subframe.

http://www.tyrolsport.com/suspension/chassis/tyrolsport-vw-mk4-solid-subframe-bushings/

http://www.tyrolsport.com/suspension/chassis/tyrolsport-solid-steering-rack-bracket-for-mk4-vw/mk1-audi-tt/





You can see how the gasket was installed incorrectly on the turbine outlet.


Another upgrade that was made while the car was sitting this winter was a ColorMFA was installed in the cluster. It's got so many features, it's a little mind blowing. Here's the list. http://colormfa.ru/en/

If you're interested in getting one, there should be another group buy starting in June/July. You'll need to contact Matt on Facebook, who puts together the group buy and can install it for you when it arrives, which could take 3-4 months.
https://www.facebook.com/ClustersbyLitke/?ref=search

What he started with...


During install...


Finished product...


 

greengeeker

Vendor
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Location
Cambridge, MN
TDI
2002 Jetta GLS
That MFD is awesome Eric!

Can't wait to see how the rollcage comes together. Are they going to use your kit? The whole thing or just the back half?
 

3L3M3NT

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Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Yeah, the ColorMFA is going to be an awesome upgrade for displaying pertinent information when out on the track and the latest firmware update allows for a shift light to be set, which is a huge bonus, since I'm not the one behind the wheel. Then the added fact that it can read and clear codes is just amazing in itself. :cool:

Here's how I initially learned about the ColorMFA for anyone that might be interested in learning a little bit for about it and what's required to make it work for cars not originally equipped with a MFD.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?8474369-Awesomel-cluster-upgrade!

The roll cage will utilize as much as they can from the Autopower roll cage that I purchased initially. They are going to modify the hoop that goes behind the seats, since it was setup for just the driver. With me getting transferred in and out of the car, they could build a full cage going forward, so it's going to be a 3/4 cage and by that I mean they won't be cutting any holes in the dash to run the cage along the A-pillars.

The plan is to have the front tubing follow the contour of the dash and then welding the bottom of the leg to the floor. Then the two tubes will be joined where the windshield meets the roof.

I was going to stop by today and take some pics after a couple of appointments I had in the Green Bay and Appleton area, but we ran into an accident on our way to Appleton from Green Bay and then by the time we left Appleton to head back towards Green Bay, the shop had closed. :(
I'm planning on making a trip to Green Bay to check out the car early next week, so I'll post some pics when I get back of the progress.
 

3L3M3NT

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Joined
Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
Well finally some more updates on the car.

Stage 8 hardware got installed to prevent the chance of an exhaust leak. Cool fastners I've never heard of. Go check them out at https://www.stage8.com/





Since they had to drop the subframe I had them install the solid steering rack bracket and solid subframe mounts from Tyrolsport. Yes I can see the control arm bushings are shot.
The plan is to go with IDF tubular control arms next winter.
IDF Tubular Control Arms


The plan was to take the car to Road America this past Saturday, but some unforeseen issues stopped us from being able to attend. So the shop is going to look everything over and make sure everything works as it should. They're also going to cover one of my track days coming up as a way to apologize for us missing the track day.
I'm sure you're sick of reading, so on with some more pictures.
Cupra R Lip got installed


The rear license plate finally got installed


If you look at the gas pedal, you'll notice the red pedal extension from Rennline to make it easier to heel/toe out on the track.


The roll cage is a work in progress.






Then last, but not least would be the new RS-30 Antigravity battery to replace the OEM battery that died over winter. talk about a great way to shave 40 lbs off the front of the car. Eventually it will get relocated to the hatch when the mounting kit for that battery becomes available.
 
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sardo_67

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Feb 15, 2010
Location
CT
TDI
2015 Golf SEL 6spd
cage looks great, you should add at least 1 cross bar though as if that rolls or has side impact i can see the cage tweaking to the side.

or a center bar at shoulder height for the belts to attach to.


do you plan on a dyno session to see what it makes now that the turbo seal is fixed?
 

3L3M3NT

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Jun 16, 2008
Location
Sturgeon Bay, WI
TDI
04 Jetta GLS TDI, 04 RTDI
The cage isn't complete at the moment, so some more tubing will be added :D

Yeah, I'd like to dyno it when the car has some time on it to make sure it's running 100%. I'm sure it will make a little bit more power than the initial dyno without the gasket restricting the flow of the exhaust.
 
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