UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

well its about time i started writing my project thread, i take photos of everything ive done but never got round to doing it lol, im a mechanic by trade so ive done everythinf myself on my drive. hope you enjoy the read.

i bought the car 3 years ago completely standard from vw after i decided not to finish my mk2 golf 20vt project and sell the car, orignally planning to keep it as a daily drive with a few stage 2 mods i looked for the smallest car i could find with a 20vt and fell in love with this one after viewing it. not many optional extras only 'visability pack'. as time goes on the daily drive idea slowly goes out the window. it soon picked up the name 'dubsey' through friends and myself so that has stuck now too!




just a little thing to start fitted a stumpy c8 aerial:


then started to get the car ready for stage 2 mapping. a milltek full system, downpipe decat non resonated with the standard looking tail pipes:


also wanted to do some handling mods, so i fitted some ap coilovers. i rate them so much for a road car that wants to keep the comfort and inprove handling:




with stage 2 power still in mind, i decided to upgrade the brake. so i went for porsche boxster s rear calipers with a vag 312mm disc and mintex racing 1144 pads. neadless to say it now stops on a penny:








treated her to a clean a went for a winter spirited drive, rude not to get a pic:



still focusing on stage 2 i went for the forge motorsport fmic kit, with added map-tb pipe, a forge motorsport 007p diverter valve running yellow spring and forge motorsport turbo intake pipe:











the time came and i decided i wanted to change my wheels and tyres, found some rota grids which i thought was different at the time (before everyone fitted them to everything lol) and i paired them up with some parada spec 2 tyres:





after removing the n249, n112 and the sai system the time came for the stage 2 remap, so off to rtech i went where it had its full custom map! making 240bhp 241 ftlb, was very pleased with the car it absolutly flew!



after the remap shortly came time for new brakes so i went for somew brembo max discs and another set for mintec 1144 pads! i also decided to add a bit more handling and polybush the full car! i also bought some honycombe grills for the bottom half of the bumper:









so after around a year of ownership now and me and my friends decided to go on a nurburgring trip! went over the easter weekend. it wasnt my first trip as ive previously been in my mk2 golf. over the weekend i done around 8 laps as well as checking out the museum, go karting etc as i treated as a holiday as well. managed to find some pics on the net and my best recorded time was a 8.56 btg which i was pretty proud of, this also started the track addiction as i realised the potential in the polo! now im aiming to go back and beat my time when the hybrid build is finished:













come back from nurburgring and i was so pleased with how the car was i didnt really do alot for a while with it, untill some recaro cs seat come up cheap from a corsa vxr so i snapped them up and fitted them!:





i got hold of some 12000k hids after this and fitted them to light up the road on some night time hacks:



i had decided it was time to tart up my engine bay a bit, so off came the inlet manifold and rocker cover to get powder coated white, it looked so much better in my eyes:

before:


during:






after:


unfortunatley about a week later my engine detonated and destroyed the majority of it, shattered con rod, piston hit valves, oil squirter bent etc. luckily i had a agu sat in the garage still from the previously abandoned mk2 20vt project so i used this as a bare engine and swapped the bjx parts onto it including vvt to fit into the polo:







and with the agu engine now fitted, up and running i decided my air filter was looking worse for wear and treated the car to a nice jetex:





still with the track bug and using the car more of a toy i then decided to strip the back end right out!:





so i decided to sell my rotas and go for a lighter, more track focused wheel. chose team dynamics pro race 1.2 and mated them with some yokohama ad08 tyres:







also went for a rear brake upgarde, as the front lifted the back end so much it caused it to fish tail under heavey braking i went for some mk4 r32 rear brakes. now she just squats and stops. i also painted them red to match the brembos and keep the standard gti theme:







enjoying the track bug, went to forge motorsport action day at castle combe. loved every minute of it:



and also went to bhp show 2012 at lydden hill and enjoyed some track time there as well:







now id been enjoying alot more track i decided to go for a bit more power, and went for a k04-023 conversion, using a genuine k04-023 removed from a s3, relentless v2 manifold, badger 5 v2 tip, forge motorsport adjustable actuator, s3 maf, s3 injectors, pipercross air filter, lcr fuel pump, 3" downpipe and custom pipework to mate with the forge fmic kit:















i also relocated my battery to the boot and deleted the pcv from my breather system and used a oil catch can:





thinking about the added heat from the tubular manifold, i covered the bulk head in refecta gold:



unfortunatly whilst i was using the car in the waiting period to get it remapped, added heat down the back of the engine melted my clutch pipe from the fluid reservoir to my clutch master cylinder causing a fire. burning the fluid and everything it sat on, eventually melted the plastic fuel lines and undertrays. even burning the interior carpet and rear bench:





and so this started off my project as the track car! deciding to go all out, no expense spared. the repairs and build began. starting with stripping down the underside of the car, painting with new underseal and white stone chip. replacing the fuel lines and tank, brake lines etc:













with the underside now done i full stripped the inside, i got hold of a sparco touring carbonio so i bought some harnesses, side mounts and seat subframes and test fitted the seat:







i decided to remove all the sound deadening from the inside of the car, i found using a heat gun and a wallpaper scraper worked well as it peeled up like tar, then i removed the left over tar with a intensive tar remover:













carrying on with the weight loss, i cut the rear seat mounts out as they wont be getting used any more:















i then removed the dashboard in preperation as i had ordered a 6 point clubman rollcage from custom cages:



once the cage had turned up it was time to fit it! i left the upper door out creating a 'y' instead of a 'x' to make it easier to get in and out of the car:













also had to cut the dashboard for it to fit around the cage:









after this i plastic welded the cut air ducts to still guide air to the vents and blocked off what wasnt being used:









once this was done i turned my attention to the engine, removing it for a full rebuild and more goodies:







now the engine was out of the bay i could fully remove the air con:



after removing the air con i took some time to clean my engine bay, chassis legs and suspension turrets:





the engine strip then began, everything was removed taking the engine back to a bare block:















now the engine was stripped i sent the block, head and crankshaft to the machine shop. i had the crankshaft journals polished, cylinder bores honed, block decked, head tested and skimmed, valve seats re cut and supertech valve guides fitted. i didnt go for porting and polishing in the head as its a agu head so is big port:











i decided to paint my engine block as everything else was going to be fresh, sticking with the rest of the car i decided to go with white:





i then re fitted the crankshaft into the block, converting the main bolts to arp stud and nut and fitting acl race bearing and new genuine vw thrust washers, front and rear main oil seals, a timing belt tensioner and waterpump:











continuing with the bottom end i replaced the standard pistons and rods with pec rods and wossner pistons, with a standard compression ratio of 9.5:1:

before i could fit the piston rings i had to set the ring gaps:


new vs old:



pistons and rods fitted with acl race bearings and arp2000 bolts:





i then finished the bottom end off with a new genuine vw oil pump, chain and tensioner and a baffled sump:





i then started to rebuild my cylinder head, with a full supertech valvetrain:









i then converted the head bolts to arp stud and nut as well as fitting a athena mls 1.4mm headgasket before bolting the head on:







after bolting the head on i fitted a set of ADR n/a cams, a gates racing timing belt and timed the engine up:





once this was done it was time to get the simple part of the engine back on. rocker cover, exhaust manifold and auxillaries:









continuing i then fitted a cr turbos k04 hybrid, genuine oil and water lines:





whilst i was waiting for the clutch and flywheel to turn up, i decided to prep and paint the inside of the car so i was able to get it back together and in one piece again:

stripped and ready:


masked up:




primered:




painted:




lacquered and done:








i then got my dash and centre console flocked and re fitted my seat:





after doing this, i removed the airbag plugs and speaker plugs that wasnt being used. resistored them and re taped and routed the interior loom, p clipping it into place to keep it neat:





now my clutch and flywheel had turned up i could turn my attention back to my engine. fitting the clutch and wheel and a few other little bits:

lightened g60 flywheel:


sachs racing organic clutch:


i then got myself a quiafe atb lsd, fitted and rebuilt the gearbox replacing first and second gear as the synchros where worn:



i then removed the old contuite from the standard engine loom, and fitted loom braiding and loom taped it. keeping the loom tighter to the block and re routing it for a neater look, also moving the throttle body and air intake temp sensor plugs to the other side as ive decided im going to use a BAM style inlet with the throttle body on the gearbox side:



[imghttps://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/q71/s720x720/1001507_10151492509882021_678217610_n.jpg[/img]

now the gearbox was rebuilt and fitted i could refit the engine, but before doing this i made a full bulk head heat shield to for extra heat protection and also replaced the melted clutch pipes:





now it was time to re fit the engine:







thats pretty much how the car sits at the moment, ill be up dating thread as i go. feel free to comment =)

Wheyy! You eventually did it lol! that's some long thread! Can't wait till she's back on the road!

Love it dude, everytime i see this progress makes me think i cant wait to see it in the flesh on the road

Well done!

just ridiculous!
how did your engine blow up in the first place? was it running stage 2 at the time?

ryanday91 wrote:Wheyy! You eventually did it lol! that's some long thread! Can't wait till she's back on the road!

Ha yeah mate only took me all of last night! It's a bit brief in some parts but summing up the last 3 years got tiring lol! Me too ant wait to drive it now =)

Tony Boi 92 wrote:Love it dude, everytime i see this progress makes me think i cant wait to see it in the flesh on the road

Well done!

Thanks mate! Ill hopefully be back out in it soon =) but time will see I'd rather I done it right then rush it.

andyc315 wrote: just ridiculous!
how did your engine blow up in the first place? was it running stage 2 at the time?

Haha ridiculous in a good way? The crankshaft sensor failed at high speed, causing detonation. Replaced the engine with the agu and a new crankshaft sensor and all was fine =) yeah it stage 2 at the time. I think it was just unlucky as opposed to engine strength as the standard 1.8t bottom ends are good for 280-300 but that is limits

Cracking build!

Love the dedication in turning it into a track monster..

Hats off to you sir!

TomG wrote:Cracking build!

Love the dedication in turning it into a track monster..

Hats off to you sir!

Thanks mate =) more to update soon

another quick update...

shortened the bracket for my gear linkage cables by 10mm today to allow for the badger 5 80mm turbo intake as it was pressing ontop of them, it now sits nicely above them only just touching.

marked up ready to cut:


mounting tabs cut off and bracket now sitting 10mm shorter, little bit of prep work needed before welding:


tabs welded back in place:


ready to bolt back up, now sitting 10mm shorter:

Out standing work mate

some excellent work mate, and i take it your doing most of it on your driveway by the looks of it, dedication

Quality build, best read I've had in ages.

You should be proud, to continue with the setbacks you've suffered is impressive commitment.

VWindahouse wrote:Out standing work mate

rover220 wrote:Quality build, best read I've had in ages.

You should be proud, to continue with the setbacks you've suffered is impressive commitment.

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments and I'm glad you've enjoyed the read! Plenty more updates to come soon =)

ok so i havent updated in a while so heres a quick update.. found that the selector tower bearing casing had split causing my selection problems so this was replaced with a new unit from vw:



i ordered and started to have my inlet manifold custom made from badger 5, made to my spec with shorter runners to give the plenum room at the front of the bay, vac lines underneath and tb on the gearbox side:





i also ordered more goodies including a mishimoto alloy radiator, 2.5" alloy boost pipe kit, a toyosport "wellycooler" and a bosch motorsport 044 fuel pupe:











then started to fit all the new parts, first the alloy rad:







then once this was fitted i continued to size up and fit the fmic, using the standard crash bar so i cut a bit out of the back of it to fit the cooler behind it:









then i fitted the bosch 044, using the pump in line as well as the strandard in tank pump:





i then ordered and fitted a 3" blueflame catback system. this just leaves me to get a custom downpipe and decat to fit on the k04 and in the polo tunnel:







using this a rough idea of the route for my boost pipes, basically using a 225 route, i will start to cut and weld them once the inlet is fitted:



my inlet manifold finally turnt up =) :









so i decided to get this fitted, even if it was raining that wasnt going to stop me lol:



ordered a mocal oil cooler set up, i will be fitting this soon and deleting the standard heat exchanger so i will update soon: