Upgrade The Wagon

Starting a new thread for my upgrade progression as it all comes together.



For those new, or those like me who forgot, I have a 03 wagon, manual swapped with the South Bend Stage 3 Endurance, and swapped in a 2000 engine with 324k miles, because that's just how I roll. I've already done all the tune ups under the sun I can find, already got the body work and misc repairs done.


So, as a refresher, here's the mods I plan to do.


BRM intake
VNT17/22
216 nozzles


Now those familiar with the BRM intake, it doesn't have the mounting bits for the EGR cooler. Being as I'm in Oregon in the metro area, I unfortunately have to pass emissions. So, I have a spare ALH manifold. I'm going to chop it up and have someone weld the mounts to the BRM intake. Waiting on the intake adapter from Malone. Soon as it shows up I'll upload a photo of it. Searching round the forums, I think I'm the first person who is going to be using a BRM intake WITH keeping the EGR functional. Am I crazy? Maybe. Will it be fun? Definitely.


Also looking around, if I understand it correctly, you can install ARP head studs without removing the head, without replacing the head gasket, by simply doing one at a time, right? I know I was against doing head studs, but seeing other people have good luck doing it that way, I think I'll bite the bullet and do it. I mostly didn't want to do it because I didn't want to pull the head off. Anyone else done it that way?


I'll also be installing a boost/EGT gauge. Past what I've listed, I don't think there's any other mods I need to do, past getting a 3 bar MAP sensor, and then having Malone redo my tune.


This will be fun y'all.

Nero,


I just came to the same conclusion on the ARP head studs.
Remove the valve cover and away you go, one bolt at a time.
Relatively cheap and ez for a significant improvement in keeping
the head on the motor. Searching the forums I found more than
one doing the job to fix head gasket leaks. I got none, but it sure
can't hurt with a serious increase in power.

Cheers!

Subscribed.
I'm swapping my sedan motor & trans into a wagon this Spring, maybe you'll give me some ideas.
Please include pictures

Nero I did ARP studs in mine 4-5 years ago. And that's the way I was instructed to do them was one at a time. And what boost gauge are you going to end up going with?

My feeling is if you're running enough boost to require ARP head studs you're running enough boost to bend stock rods. If the engine isn't losing coolant at 324K miles I'd leave the head bolts alone: The head and block have had a lot of heat cycles to get acquainted and I'd trust the seal that's already in place. Just tune the car to run 25 PSI or less, don't go crazy on fueling (PP520s w/11mm pump or something like that), and you'll be fine for a while.

IBW,
So if you're running higher boost pressures, does that increase

compression? My impression, rightly or wrongly, is that going
over the redline of revs leads to problems.
Cheers!

Jeff at Rocketchip says three things cause head gasket failure: boost, fuel, and revs. Timing, too, but you need timing to get revs so he thinks of them together.

I ran 26 PSI with a 17/22, a 6000 RPM tune, and 11mm w/PP502s for 120K miles. And I used the 6000 RPM on the track. All stock internals. At 265K miles I had ovaled bores, bent rods, and valve guides worn enough that you could wiggle the valve stems in the guides. And a very minor head gasket leak. But you'd never know unless you looked. I used about a liter of oil in 5K miles, no significant coolant loss, still was getting around 45 MPG.

Odds are if I'd run a little less fuel and boost and kept the revs under 5000 I would have been fine for longer. But it was worth it.

deathtrap said:

Subscribed.
I'm swapping my sedan motor & trans into a wagon this Spring, maybe you'll give me some ideas.
Please include pictures

Click to expand...

I swapped my engine about a year ago, I have photos of it if you'd like to see! I'll be uploading photos as I go, it's going to be a month or two long process. Mostly an adventure of making sure the wife doesn't get mad at me fore spending around $2k

Powerstroke9773 said:

Nero I did ARP studs in mine 4-5 years ago. And that's the way I was instructed to do them was one at a time. And what boost gauge are you going to end up going with?

Click to expand...

I don't know what gauge I'm going to use yet. Being as mine is a 03, the cupholders have been relocated to the center console instead of in the dash. There's still that blank panel there, I wonder if someone makes a rectangular gauge that will fit in there. Need to shop around.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Jeff at Rocketchip says three things cause head gasket failure: boost, fuel, and revs. Timing, too, but you need timing to get revs so he thinks of them together.

I ran 26 PSI with a 17/22, a 6000 RPM tune, and 11mm w/PP502s for 120K miles. And I used the 6000 RPM on the track. All stock internals. At 265K miles I had ovaled bores, bent rods, and valve guides worn enough that you could wiggle the valve stems in the guides. And a very minor head gasket leak. But you'd never know unless you looked. I used about a liter of oil in 5K miles, no significant coolant loss, still was getting around 45 MPG.

Odds are if I'd run a little less fuel and boost and kept the revs under 5000 I would have been fine for longer. But it was worth it.

Click to expand...

Currently I find myself hitting 5k rpms a lot because I'm not quite happy with the performance. Having a sticking turbo actuator that affects low end torque doesn't help, but that's another story



I don't plan on running it on the track like you did, I just want the available power when I want it. I'm not all that worried about the bottom end, as I have three spare blocks and heads I can build when that time comes. Can only do one major TDI project at a time. Currently I don't lose any coolant or any oil.


I have a set of DLC502's that I pulled out of the NB that I want DFIS to flow/pattern check. Are you saying I should stick with the DLC520's that I currently have in my car?


Definitely open to suggestions as I go, my overall goal is to get some good upgrades for occasional power, but maintain decent reliability. In town I don't drive it hard, it's mostly freeway.

DLC 502s with a 10mm pump should be nice.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Jeff at Rocketchip says three things cause head gasket failure: boost, fuel, and revs. Timing, too, but you need timing to get revs so he thinks of them together.

I ran 26 PSI with a 17/22, a 6000 RPM tune, and 11mm w/PP502s for 120K miles. And I used the 6000 RPM on the track. All stock internals. At 265K miles I had ovaled bores, bent rods, and valve guides worn enough that you could wiggle the valve stems in the guides. And a very minor head gasket leak. But you'd never know unless you looked. I used about a liter of oil in 5K miles, no significant coolant loss, still was getting around 45 MPG.

Odds are if I'd run a little less fuel and boost and kept the revs under 5000 I would have been fine for longer. But it was worth it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the details! I rarely see redline. If Franko6 gets his act
together, I'll have a head & cam from him one of these days. Jeff pointed out that with cam "improvements" one loses
torque albeit gaining high rev power, not particularly what I'm after.

I'm hoping to keep the car going to 300k, lol, only another 130k to go. 6-7yrs at the current rate of knots. Then do a rebuild.
We'll both be antiques by then. {)

I put the pop out cup holder in my 2003. (It will fit if you replace the blank panel)
Why are the studs stronger than the bolts? It would seem that both would be equally as strong.

I will say as for gauges I like mine over the steering wheel because I don't have to look far to see what my boost is doing it's right there in front of you. And of I had that empty spot I'd put a scan gauge in

i like the steering column gauge mounts for mk4s but also considered something like this as well:

https://pinchealsgarage.bigcartel.c...degrees-to-the-right-with-vents-on-both-sides

deathtrap said:

i like the steering column gauge mounts for mk4s but also considered something like this as well:
https://pinchealsgarage.bigcartel.c...degrees-to-the-right-with-vents-on-both-sides

Click to expand...

I actually saw someone at Cascade German who had one of those. Thought it was pretty neat. I think the P3 digital vent insets are pretty cool, but I can't justify paying $300 for it to only display one thing at a time.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Jeff at Rocketchip says three things cause head gasket failure: boost, fuel, and revs. Timing, too, but you need timing to get revs so he thinks of them together.

I ran 26 PSI with a 17/22, a 6000 RPM tune, and 11mm w/PP502s for 120K miles. And I used the 6000 RPM on the track. All stock internals. At 265K miles I had ovaled bores, bent rods, and valve guides worn enough that you could wiggle the valve stems in the guides. And a very minor head gasket leak. But you'd never know unless you looked. I used about a liter of oil in 5K miles, no significant coolant loss, still was getting around 45 MPG.

Odds are if I'd run a little less fuel and boost and kept the revs under 5000 I would have been fine for longer. But it was worth it.

Click to expand...

IBW,
Had a chat with my guru Dwayne this afternoon about head studs.
He concurs that disturbing the head, and the gasket, may not be the best idea.

Now when I get a rebuilt head & cam from franko6, no
problem, that would be the time for the ARPs.
Do that and a timing belt all at the same time would be the most
efficient, and I've got a rebuilt 11mm pump that will be going in.

This fall maybe, I'll give franko6 a nudge soon.
Then start on the block I've got sitting in the hallway, lol.

Like a said, the car's a work in progress.

Powerstroke9773 said:

I will say as for gauges I like mine over the steering wheel because I don't have to look far to see what my boost is doing it's right there in front of you.

Click to expand...

Here's another vote for the column pod. A glance down and I've got
speedo, rpms, boost & EGT. New South are working for me.

I spent a lot of time researching the head studs subject. Seems to be people thst have leaks, have a 50/50 chance of fixing it with head studs without pulling the head. The people who did it and didn't have leaks had zero issues over the course of years and several thousand miles. I'm going to take that gamble. If my head gasket leaks, well then I'll deal with it then. I have a spare head so it's no biggie.

I didn't have any leaks with mine. I did mine because of the new turbo I just replaced one at a time and did it in the same pattern you'd use as if reinstalling the head. And I have the McNally boost/ egt combo and love it it matches my stock cluster to a T it looks factory. Only problem I had was solved when I ran the wires to the block under the dash.

Powerstroke9773 said:

I didn't have any leaks with mine. I did mine because of the new turbo I just replaced one at a time and did it in the same pattern you'd use as if reinstalling the head. And I have the McNally boost/ egt combo and love it it matches my stock cluster to a T it looks factory. Only problem I had was solved when I ran the wires to the block under the dash.

Click to expand...

Care to share a photo of your gauge? I am open to ideas on how to mount mine.

Well we will see if this works. Drucifer gave me an insanely detailed how to on Tapatalk. So here goes nothing

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

Ok, so here's probably one of the cleanest ALH intakes you'll ever see! Only took me about 6 hours of running it through the parts washer, pressure washer, back to parts washer... You get it.. To clean 99.99% of the crud out. Also did the same for the BRM intake.


And as you can see, the BRM intake is totally missing the mounting holes for the EGR cooler. So what' I'm going to do is grab my handy dandy little sawsall and angle grinder and cut up said ALH intake to aluminum weld the bits onto the BRM intake.





And here we are almost all mocked up! Thank you cylinder head that had a physics issue! Just waiting for Malone's BRM to ALH adapter to show up for the EGR valve, then I can finalize the mockup and begin welding.

Rather than spend the time destroying the ALH manifold, I would rather measure and
cut some stand-offs from aluminum rod and drill/tap the holes. Probably quicker.
That way you have the original to check for correct stand-off and placement, etc.

flee said:

Rather than spend the time destroying the ALH manifold, I would rather measure and
cut some stand-offs from aluminum rod and drill/tap the holes. Probably quicker.
That way you have the original to check for correct stand-off and placement, etc.

Click to expand...

I thought about doing that. And I still might. It won't hurt my feelings if I cut it up, I have three spares. I'll see if I can find some aluminum stock before cutting it up.

Nero,
Here's the 5th gear you'll want.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-T4-Transporter-1-9Tdi-2-5Tdi-02B-Gearbox-5th-Gear-Pair-0-72-Ratio-33-46-/183283096596?hash=item2aac861c14


Trust me.

My trans 5th is already at a 0.76 ratio, would 0.72 be that much of an improvement? I also don't think I'll benifit from it as well, max speed limit around here is 65 most places, and my daily drive is max 55. I don't find myself using 5th all that much.

Ahhh, ok, the .756 is fine then. This neck of the woods when the limit
is 65, everybody's doin' 75mph. Road trips, which is where I put my mileage on, conditions permitting, radar detector on and WAZE running, I'll push 85. Car loves it and man does it eat up the miles.

I loved the .71 (technically .717) in may car. The replacement transmission in the car is from a PD so the difference is even more minor than with the older transmission, but the .717 was almost exactly 30 MPH per 1000 RPM. Really nice on the highway as I tend to run at about 80, which was 2600 RPM.

Dang, those are pretty clean! Looks like they just came off the line.

So, what are you having for dinner?

Also, I really need to get me one of those PD150s.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

I loved the .71 (technically .717) in may car. The replacement transmission in the car is from a PD so the difference is even more minor than with the older transmission, but the .717 was almost exactly 30 MPH per 1000 RPM. Really nice on the highway as I tend to run at about 80, which was 2600 RPM.

Click to expand...

GMTA (Great Minds Think Alike) {)


@Nyk, try Chris Korwan at this Facebook group. He imports a lot
of stuff from Europe, including 4motion conversions.


https://www.facebook.com/groups/1664109337218226/

I wish it were a PD150 intake, they have the mounting points for the EGR cooler. I picked up this BRM intake from a member on the private for sale here.

I wonder how long it'll take Malone to ship out my adapter...