MRC500 - Let the work begin

[Doug_S2]

double post - doh - too much xmas juice

[h8cak]

Any more new leon? Hows it driving?

[s4woody]

well i have also got a 1 piece light weight flywheel and a light weight pulley set..my intake pipes are the same size as your,s but mandrel bent not welded..
i was thinking of also getting the dwnpipes changed so there,s no pre-cat chamber..
my deck heights will be done aswell as a fully lightend and balanced bottom end including flywheel and clutch assembly..
so if it dnt hit 500bhp it will atlease idle so smoothly that i can amuse people with the balancing 50 pence on engine trick..

[Dippy]

Not sure I understood exactly what work was done to Leon's car (not surprising considering the fragmented nature of this thread and the vaguely humorous off-topic posts which deserved every bit of DavidT's wrath ) so can we have a summary?

[S4TAN]

vaguely humorous off-topic posts

Vaguely?? Cheek! Some of them were bloody funny IMO ... !

[GrahamS4]

I think the summary is (my interpretation, I may well be wrong), which covers the important parts is:

Leon opted for parts of the MRC500 conversion. He did not buy the MRC500 conversion.

Leon did a write up on an MRC500 conversion he did not purchase.

Leon is is not entirely happy he does not have 500BHP.

I am not on anyones side, nor although it might seem do I ahave an issue with Leon, nor anything to do with MRC!

However I think it has been clear from the outset (well, when Leon said he was keeping his exhaust anyway) that the full conversion wasn't what was undertaken and I am not sure why anyone is surprised at the outcome. For the work done, which I am pretty sure the customer knew all about, I think the results sound great.

[S4TAN]

Shouldn't this post now be renamed to "Not Quite MRC500 - Let the work finish" ... ?

[ZeroK66]

I think the summary is (my interpretation, I may well be wrong), which covers the important parts is:

Leon opted for parts of the MRC500 conversion. He did not buy the MRC500 conversion.

Leon did a write up on an MRC500 conversion he did not purchase.

Leon is is not entirely happy he does not have 500BHP.

I am not on anyones side, nor although it might seem do I ahave an issue with Leon, nor anything to do with MRC!

However I think it has been clear from the outset (well, when Leon said he was keeping his exhaust anyway) that the full conversion wasn't what was undertaken and I am not sure why anyone is surprised at the outcome. For the work done, which I am pretty sure the customer knew all about, I think the results sound great.

Graham I think you should go back and read through all of my posts again and re-summarise a bit more accurately.

Have a look in the VAG-Com forum to see a little snippet of things so far... I will be back soon with a full update. Thanks to xmas travel and family in the car I have not been out in the car alone once - so frustrating!! Should get that much desired chance after the festive break - I cant wait. Not sure I am brave enough to bury the throttle though... the roads are cold & damp.

Merry crimbo everyone

[GrahamS4]

It was a bit quick, but I was a bit peeved with some of the digs (from others) in this thread at the work you have had done.

A far better way I could have put it (it was Christmas eve, do you think I was sober?) was:

I don't believe Leon has had the full conversion. Not sure if he is intending to finish it straight away, but sure he will soon. So no quite reaching the power target is no surprise and the outcome is exactly what both parties were hoping for I believe (from what I have read).

I think you have come accross as dissapointed at times, perhaps understandably with teh level of excitement, but sometimes it isn't really clear if you are pointing a finger or where. Again, hands up if I read it wrong.

Well done, top job.

G.

[Mik]

2nd....and its kinda obvious that you wont get all that power with stock downpipes, decat'ed or not...

Should be a nice car with 470 though.....am impressed

Mik

I think the summary is (my interpretation, I may well be wrong), which covers the important parts is:

Leon opted for parts of the MRC500 conversion. He did not buy the MRC500 conversion.

Leon did a write up on an MRC500 conversion he did not purchase.

Leon is is not entirely happy he does not have 500BHP.

I am not on anyones side, nor although it might seem do I ahave an issue with Leon, nor anything to do with MRC!

However I think it has been clear from the outset (well, when Leon said he was keeping his exhaust anyway) that the full conversion wasn't what was undertaken and I am not sure why anyone is surprised at the outcome. For the work done, which I am pretty sure the customer knew all about, I think the results sound great.

[ZeroK66]

Well... an update so far.

My biggest concern when I got the car back was that as I had lowered the compression ratio... was running big port tubular manifolds along with large diameter inlet plumbing that I would suffer with a very flat car till about 3-4k & that it would be a bit of a pig to drive around slowly. Bearing in mind that my car had knackered K03's... I am VERY impressed with the low RPM driving of the car. I can hand on heart say that it is better to drive now than what it was previously. The turbos spool up around 1.5k and are delivering useable boost around 2k. When pottering along in a high gear (motorway) and you feather the throttle - the turbos are quick to provide boost and the car leaps to action! It is really not laggy at all. Anyone concerned about tubular manifolds and lowered CR runing the driving experience... you are welcome to see how my car behaves.

I have not had chance to do a FATS run or anything similar yet. At times I put my foot down and I think the car does not "feel" that much quicker. Truth is the kick as it comes on boost is obviously better (Although Doug assures me there is a BIG jump to come once I have the exhaust done) - the real difference is when you keep your foot planted to the floor the car pulls like a deamon possesed right through to the limiter over 7k. There is no let up of power. To me this is the best of all worlds. It gives me the kick of a turbo car along wtih the long power band of an NA car. It is a real hoot to drive now.

I cant wait to see what it is like once it can breath easier with the exhaust upgraded. I only hope there is no loss in bottom end power once I have larger downpipes fitted. Watch this space.

Only a couple concerns at the moment:

The FMIC is a tight fit behind the bumper. It is a beast and offers awesome cooling as Mihnea has proven. Downside is that it does cause the bottom of the bumper to flex and sadly mine has cracked either side of the FMIC. Luckily you cant see it as it is on the underside. The bumper has also popped off the sides on the fender, but Doug is going to sort that out when I take it back in next year.

The fuel consumption is rather poor. Now before you all start flying off the handle and saying well why have you got a 500HP car then, why not buy a diesel - what I mean is off boost driving on the motorway I am only seeing about 240miles out of a tank and when cruising at 90MPH my MPG gauge shows 15ish rather than 20-25 as it did before. I was getting 350 miles from a tank previously on the motorway. I am not sure what I will get around town, but I expect the loss will be relatively equal. I know lower CR & larger injectors would reduce my economy, but I didnt expect nearly a third difference.

All in all the car is a real hoot to drive. Took me a few days to pluck up the courage to just bury the throttle... but the car (bearing in mind I have ESP) is as much a pussy to drive as before. There is no drama at all, the car is as confidence inspiring as ever. Cant wait to get the down pipes sorted & the Inlet manifold on and unleash the final few ponies.

I will come back once I have done a FATS run and a 1/4 etc.

[jeffw]

You'll probable find that the large injectors have not been taken into account with the DIS. You need to work out how much fuel your actually using and then get Mihnea to adjust your DIS to reflect this. 350 Miles @ 25MPG is 14 Gallons (63 Litres) which is more than I've ever put into my car.....50-53 L is when my fuel light comes on. You'll probable find that your doing around 22-25 on a run....providing your not hitting the boost too much !

[rolskii]

[quote="ZeroK66"]Well... an update so far.

The fuel consumption is rather poor. Now before you all start flying off the handle and saying well why have you got a 500HP car then, why not buy a diesel - what I mean is off boost driving on the motorway I am only seeing about 240miles out of a tank and when cruising at 90MPH my MPG gauge shows 15ish rather than 20-25 as it did before. I was getting 350 miles from a tank previously on the motorway. I am not sure what I will get around town, but I expect the loss will be relatively equal. I know lower CR & larger injectors would reduce my economy, but I didnt expect nearly a third difference.[quote]

Im getting about same dude ....... could push it to 300miles per tank on motorway... just.....
I am sure about the mpg/litres way... doesnt matter about the DIS... just do a full tank against the trip/DIS equation........
seeing as the DIS readout goes on the level of the fuel in the tank .... I am not sure it is equated any different way, its basically the rate of fuel delivery, over the amount left in yr tank, it would be nice if the DIS could be calibrated ...... but if you think about it... its gonna re-calibrate to a worse readout .... seeing as were talking about adding extra fuel delivery into the larger injectors, higher flow etc... so yr DIS is going to indicate worse rather than better .........

[jeffw]

The DIS reading (MPG and miles left) is not worked out by the level in the tank.....it's worked out by the ECU from the amount of time the injectors are working....hence with larger injectors the DIS reads lower. Mihnea can adjust this reading.

[S2tuner]

Hmmm, this is weird because I have adjusted Leon's injector scaling, but apparently it isn't quite right yet...