Hi, I do a lot of reading on this forum, and have been a member for a long time. But don't post much. I thought I'd start a thread of my Daily Polo 9N. With my G60 Syncro turning into pretty much a full resto, I needed a sensible daily. After a short spell with a cheap 306Dturbo I needed to be back in a VW. Lucky somebody at work was trading this car in and offered it to me at the trade in price. It needed new discs and pads and tyre's all round. Luckily i get 50% off Bridgestone tyre's. I ran it standard for around 4 months. I really like it, It's nippy, really good on fuel and handle's pretty good too. It's a TDI sport, with a 100bhp PD engine. And 5speed box. Here is how it looked on my roadtrip to a big aircooled show at SPA and then onto the Nurburgring, in the summer of 2009. Like a lot of people on here, I couldn't stop myself from modifying the car. The plan was to keep the car reliable, still have some comfort. But improve the looks and performance. I started first with the suspension and wheels. First a set of KW coilovers And then a Secondhand jabbasport RARB. And fitted some 928 Porsche wheels, which have been machined to look like old P slots. Fitted first with 40 profile rubber, but later changed to 45 profile Toyos (drove much better on these) The MOT was due at the start of 2010, the car failed on wishbone bushes. So I then changed to sunpro solid bushes on the wishbone and ARB. These bushes increase the castor, and also increase the dynamic camber. Fitting the bushes in the snow.
After a second trip to the ring, i realised I needed more stopping power. A few picture's from the trip. So onto the brakes I picked up a set of Porsche rear calipers pretty cheap. Refurbed them with new seals and fitted them. Full setup is, Fabia VRS Hubs/uprights. Leon Cupra R caliper brackets Porsche rear calipers Custom hoses Audi TT discs Trail fitting for clearance Alll fitted up, the extra paint wore off in seconds Old New I wasn't that happy with the performance, I first installed them with old pads. I ordered and fitted some uprated pads, and they now work great. Also fitted new discs and pads to the rear. One of the wheels i had fitted was quite badly buckled, so I picked up a spare and modded it to match.
So now onto the engine. I first ran it for around 10months with a home made tuning box. When I first lowered the car I fitted a shallow sump with a pressed steel bottom, just incase I did catch it. Old and new I then changed the airbox inlet pipe to a PD160 item, and modified the hole in the grille for it. I then picked up a second hand PD130 Turbo and injectors. But before fitting, changed my mind and bought a 150 hybrid Turbo. In prepration for the extra power, I bought and trail fitted a PD160 cupra intercooler. I then bought and fitted an uprated exhaust, It's a 2.5" downpipe and system designed for the fabia VRS. Old and new The tailpipe was a big oval stlye, and being for a fabia it was to long. So I chopped it off and fitted a single downbend. It is a single box system, but being a TDi, is still very quiet. it just whistles a little. Unless your giving it full throttle. One of the week points on any tuned TDi is the clutch and flywheel. So I fitted a single mass flywheel, and an uprated Helix clutch. I also fitted a sunpro solid dogbone engine mount bush Before and after With this solid bush and the single mass flywheel, there is quite a bit of vibration at idle, But nothing I can't live with.
Now onto the big power upgrade's Package from Turbo Dynamics, 150 hybrid turbo . I fitted the turbo, along with the front mount intercooler and a 130 inlet manifold with a EGR bypass. My plan was to run it like this until the mapping was booked, and I would then change to the bigger injectors. After fitting these parts and starting the engine, I had a terrible knocking noise. I scratched my head for age's trying to work out what the noise was. With no luck I swapped all the parts back, but still had the noise. So I stripped the cam and rockers off the engine, to start with the investigation. I found two tappets which had hardly any movement. I thought this was related to my problem, but later found it wasn't. I priced up replacing all the tappets and the cam shells, with new gaskets and stretch bolts. All this from VAG cost over 300, and it may not have cured the problem. Knowing that the PD100 engines are slighly weaker than the 130 and 150 engines, I decided to buy a complete 130 engine. So I bought a low milage Fabia VRS engine, it came with the injectors that I needed already fitted. After selling parts off the old engine, and the 130 Turbo off the new engine, it didn't end up costing that much. So I swapped to the new engine and fitted the new turbo and intercooler and parts in one hit. Started it up and it ran great no problems. It ran quieter and smoother than my old engine. After swapping the engine, I stripped the old engine. I found a small piece of stray hardened metal wedged in one of the pistons and had caused hell of a mess to the head and piston. I identified the part as half the cutting section of a set of electrical snips, Which snapped when i was working on the car. They snapped nowhere near the manifolds but it must have found it's way in. Sh*t happens, and I'll certainly be blanking my ports from now on, no matter how short a time there open for.
Now for the mapping. I went to Paul Murray of RS tuning in Leeds to map the car. I fitted a 130 MAP sensor, and he installed a standard 130 map, but with the calibration for a 100maf. On the first run it did 153bhp. He then tweaked the map and after a few runs, it made 236bhp and 400lbft of torque. But the 100 maf maxed out. So I went to a local GSF and got a 130 maf and fitted it. The final figure was 230bhp and 380lbft of torque. So far the car has been completely reliable and I still managed 60mpg taking it really easy on a motorway. The gearbox ratio's are pretty good, it rev's quite low in 5th, and still returns great mpg. I've since modified the RH fog light and refitted the trim. So there are not many clues to the power, and is quite a sleeper on the road. But really needs a LSD fitting now
Thanks guys, really happy with the way it turned out. From now on it'll just be slight tweaks, and use the car. Yeah I did thanks Trev. Back to the real world now.
thats huge power and massive torque for a small car, excellent work, is it finished or are you planning more, it looks fantastic.
All done now. Thanks Trev. I do have some more plans for the car. I would like to fit the 9N3 bluemotion front end. GTI seats. LSD Maybe change the wheels. And I've heard water injection works well on diesels. But with plans for a bigger house in the future, and Work on my G60 to do, I don't think i'll be doing any of these for quite sometime.
Nice! Bet thats fun to drive Where's the best place to get info on tuning the PD diesels - just got myself an A6 130 and want to up the power a little - will be going for a chip soonish, but wondering if there's anything else i can do without going nuts (and spending loads), like EGR removal, filters and so on.
Yeah it is great fun. But useless in the wet. The best place I have found for info is the TDI club. http://forums.tdiclub.com/ You should see nearly 180bhp on a 130 with a remap. At that level, I'm not sure if the exhaust, cat or EGR are a restriction. But you should be able to find out off that forum. Yeah I should do, I don't post there anymore, not that many people I reconise. I still go on and see what the people I do know are upto.
