26/08/17 *post 262* Toyotec's 'JENVEE'. The 6 speed era

Apex Festival May 11th 2014. The real test of engine/gearbox and brakes durability

After the road trip, the car ran very well. It was subjected to the usual daily 60-70 one way trip with no issues. With this confidence established, it was taken to Apex festival where track sessions were booked to tackle the Lydden Hill Circuit.

As the day before -May 11th was reported to be wet, I left the track rubber home in favour of using the road tires (Rainsport 2). During the time the car was having work done to it, the Carbon Lorraine RC6 pads arrived!
So I took those with me as well as the DS3000s along with the spacers. I also looked at the calibration and discovered a mistake in the high rev high load section of the calibration which may have been responsible for my broken ring. This was quickly corrected to ensure calibration and engine durability.

After meeting Chris Palmer to collect the Club Gazebo and gear



on site, the road pads were swapped over to track pads.

So which one?


Yup, I was eager to try the RC6 pads.



So on they went, note the disc had hardly any signs of wear after the trip the Wales.



This time we will see how the discs fair after my sessions.

It might have been a bit chilly but, the track was biscuit dry and it only took a few laps for my Rainsports to soon feel like rubber bands in corners, as big beat's picture demonstrates.



Tire blocks did start moving about and melting as well.



Regardless, I adjusted my driving and that drawback did not stop me from enjoying my day. I did my 4 sessions without incident.
Subjectively, the RC6 brakes worked nothing like the DS3000s that I was accustomed to. The Carbon Lorraine parts were very progressive, making trail braking quite easy as well as instilling lots of confidence for late braking. You knew how hard to push before lock up. Not that you would need to. Plenty to retarding force long before that point and work as soon as I went out on track from new. No bedding in required, No stabbing of the pedal to bring up to working temp! The pads performance was repeatable over many laps.

At the end of the sessions, the brakes were swapped back to road pads. Before swapping it was observed the brake disc now looked like this.





Now that is what I expected!

Engine was pretty much happy as well at the end of the sessions and able to rev to the 7300 rpm unimpeded .



It was a very enjoyable day at Apex as I was able to:

• Adjust my driving style to make progress with tyres that had limited sidewall stiffness.
• Validate the engine and gearboxes had no issues with plenty of pulling torque.
• Validate the brakes disc and pads where not overheating.
• Drive the car home and run on the daily commute after.

But!! We are not done yet.....

I like to experiment. I did not say if the spacers were removed in the swap to road parts...

That is because I put them back behind the wheels to drive home and see if the ring that sits on the hub would be concentric enough to stop the spacer introducing wheel vibration.

Sadly they did and I had to stop and remove them

It did not take long though!





Once removed the vibration was gone and car took myself and Jerome home without any more problems.



Looks like it is reliable again, just as a Golf MK2 should be

In the next segment;

• JENVEE gets some lighter wheels as well as some alternative sticky rubber.
• I start to trial fit a second set of throttle bodies made up.
• The car has a minor prep for the Club GTI Blyton track day.
• JENVEE tackles Blyton park.
• We then go on a road trip to Hull.

Stay tuned Stay optimised.

 

JENVEE ABF 16v Gas n Gears 6 Speed gearbox fitted. My thoughts.




It has been a while that I have taken time to write about my own developments. Mainly as I have been busy volunteering on here to keep this place relevant along with having a life. It is hard work but I must love it!

Remember that atlas grey Golf of mine, a practice what you preach example of "how to ABF your MK2 Golf"?

Well since the last time I updated my thread, several developments both to car and driver have transpired
It is a process that is constantly evolving, even though I have not been as active reporting.

This summary quickly brings us up to date.



My young son has been professionally racing a kart that I spanner and manage as a privateer. This development and all it's challenges has changed my attitude to trackdays - a non competitive sport and as a result of having nothing to prove, win or lose ( except crashing the car!), this has made me become very relaxed when participating.
As the driver of a track biased car, I have learned to be a bit more smooth and progressive on a race track.
My confidence has grown and I do not mind some backend movement.

To make more progress on track, I needed to extend the the engine speed where maximum torque occurs. So I shared my thoughts with HPR on here and carried out some specific top end enhancements which seemed to result in the desired effect. I use CTM performance to carry out specific engine cylinder head work I do not have time to complete.
Their work aligns with discussions Hugo and I have
These updates to the engine, allowed the original ABF inlet plenum to be retained and for road and everyday use, little little torque was lost sub 4000 rpm and torque was extended and increased in magnitude to 6000 rpm. The engine rev limit was increased to 7600 rpm as a result.



Some challenges were encountered running large camshafts with a 3.5kg flywheel, however I managed to fettle the cam set points, base throttle position and mapping to work around this challenge, without upsetting engine performance in the speed load envelope.

To prolong engine life, I needed top gear cruise speed to be more relaxed, without sacrificing acceleration. Our Hotgolf of Gas n Gears was visited and the old 020 was updated with a longer 5th to calm the revs down at 70mph. However with a very short 4.25FDR, this was not enough at cruise as an indicated 70 was at a pretty high 3700 -3800 rpm!



By fitting a 4.25FDR to what was once a GTI 020 gearbox, I had created a few challenges for myself in order to keep the car a proper all rounder and sleeper.
I should also add, Mart had made all the custom linkages for the gearbox, including the shift relay and weighted linkage. Gearbox shift quality was the best you could ever have out of an 020 making the engineering challenge even greater if a change was required.

With all car related challenges, there are solutions. Some more expensive and less reliable than others. My approach to these tasks is to use parts bin components where possible and thanks to VWs modular approach, I looked to their 02S range of gearboxes to solve the challenge that arose. This way user error risks are reduced.

Getting out a spreadsheet and filling it out with a profile of my vehicile's acceleration, I was able to shortlist at least 40 02S gearboxed to come up with a set of cogs that suited my pretty angry ABF motor.
Excellent! Then I waited for the right box, the one with very similar gear spacing as my 020 + the 6th to pop up.



With the *right gearbox in hand, I then started to plan how to get it fitted to the car. Oh it is like any other 02A/02J conversion, I hear you say. In fact it is not. Subtle changes on the outside of the main gearbox casing meant shifter brackets and gearbox to chassis mountings are different. Plus there is no speedo drive as later MK5 platform cars used to ESP/ABS module to determine vehicle speed. So I discussed these differences with hotgolf and we hatched a plan and the gearbox was delivered to him.

Please note, each application and user ability is different so my ratios and spacings are not disclosed.

My 020 gearbox was fitted with a Quaife ATB. The ATB was vital to my improving track day experience as I was able to power into corners much sooner that an open diff.



I have driven many vehicles, working in the field as an aftermarket tuner and I do remember several of those vehicles had Wavetrac diffs. Once such car was a Corrado that I drove on track. I absolutely loved the ability of getting on the throttle much earlier than mine and achieving desired track position. So I wanted this feature into my own car and as I had a Wavetrac diff on the shelf for bolted cup flanges, it was destined for my new 6 speeder.



Two weeks later, I had a hybrid 02J/02S and JENVEE was going to be a 6 speeder. However it would take a few months to get the gearbox fitted to the car as life's priorities got in the way.
Good thing is I know a lot of folk in this trade, so with everything single component pre purchased and collected in a large parts bin, I planed my attack with Darren Francis of VW Enterprises to drive in as a 5 sp 020 and drive out as a 6sp 02J/S of one Friday evening.

Component list that I had acquired before the swap was:

• 02J 4.5 kg flywheel
• Flywheel bolts
• Clutch cover, M7 bolts and Clutch
• G60/Corrado/Passat front engine mount + bolt ( why did I use this? As the engine elevations remains as the 020 installation)
• Used Bosch Mk3 16v Gear reduction starter motor and 2 long bolts.
• Gearbox mount and bolts
• MK4 6 sp shifter and cables
• 8N TT cable ends.
• 8N TT 02J short shift.
• MK4 cable bracket and 3 bolts.
• MK2 1.3 speed cable
• MK2 1.3 manual clutch cable
• Seat/transporter manual clutch actuator and bolts.
• Clutch fork and clutch release bearing.
• The hybrid 02S/02J gearbox with Wavetrac diff.

Within 3 hours a team of 3 of us had the gearbox fitted to the car. And with fluids all topped up I hit the road for home.

Initial impressions, coming from a 020 with a short FDR and light flywheel just 3 hours earlier.

• Engine with its big cams had a much stable idle no engine calibration changes
• Fast decels to a stop had less undershoot
• Gearbox with the short 8N TT throw took less effort
• Acceleration in 1st not as nippy as the 020
• 6th engine speed at 70mph cruise was ~ 3400rpm
• Some crunching in 4th observed*
• Starter crank speeds a little slow*

*With regard to the crunching, I pulled the box the day after and drove up to hotgolf. Martin went out of his way to make time to inspect once again. He has so much patiences with these things.
He showed me one of the single ring synchros on these gearboxes that are present on 3rd to 6th. These have a coated surface that allows them to brake the gear to be selected.
The synchro rings are fairly expensive and are a dealer only option.
The synchro of 4th looked to be in good condition, though Mart thought the distance from 4th gear was maybe was maybe a little to close. We replaced both 3rd and 4th synchros just incase and reassembled.
*Starter ring gear was wire brushed and a smear of copper slip placed on the gears.

The gearbox was reassembled to the car and all bolts and fasteners were torqued up.
After putting brains together a day before at the shop, Darren of VWE and myself came up with a little bracket that allowed the use of the reverse switch even though a cable clutch was utilised. I had broke the switch in the shift tower. So when I visited Mart in Wales, he supplied another and with a MK2 reverse switch

Now the starter fired up at the a faster crank speed - tick!
Reverse lights worked - tick!
I then took it out for a drive and boy this thing was bit too much for the public roads!
That Wavetrac thing allowed even earlier application of the throttle into a bend
Significant progress could be made in gears 3rd to 5th!
Each gear selection was effortless.



I booked a trackday at a track where I could subjectively gauge if there was any progress - Brands Hatch



At the track, the gearbox changes come into their own. In fact it was sublime! That Wavetrac thing does work much more progressively than my old Quaife 020. Power can be confidently applied much more earlier in corners such as Druids and Clearways. As said I am a bit more confident to throw the car around and was able to roll up and pass more powerful vehicles like the many pesky trackday Clios and even an ITR DC5 in track guise.
A super day at the Open Track event.

Shake down complete. Bring on Curby!

Thanks for reading.

Ed.

 

Great update Ed! Something I'd love to do with my own car.

For someone who has a standard open diff, and does mostly b road hooning, would you say that the Wavetrac is a good call or might be too much of a jump?

 

Hey Tris.
The Wavetrac diff was a progression for my track day experience and a case that I had it on the shelf for the 6 speeder. For 'B road hooning' it would be difficult for me to full enjoy my car without getting arrested, let along properly evaluating any diff lol.

 

Not sure what car you `hoon` around in but you don`t require a `diff` to enjoy yourself ... on public roads.

 

Andrew sums it up better than me really.

 

To lift a quote from the Bible, "let he is without sin cast the first stone"

I have a mk2 gti. And yes sometimes I drive it in a spirited fashion, on quiet country roads where there's no other traffic or pedestrians about.
But also now I am starting to do the odd trackday.
My question stands, does the more aggressive bite of a Wavetrac, which is so useful on track, become a hindrance on the public, minor roads.

 

Oops ... apologies if I inferred something derogatory, was not my intention. I was recalling the excellent performance of my standard Mk2 GTI 16v on public roads (guilty as charged).

 

That's OK
Mine isn't stock anymore, a bit lower, a bit firmer, and more powerful engine waiting to drop in. I'm concerned if an aggressive plate diff would be too much of a handful on a primarily road car.

 

No. Subjectively it is absolutely fine as I also use my car as a daily. On a track into an apex and today at Curby I had no problem keeping the tightest line.

 

Thank you for sharing this post - it's really helpful.

I'm hoping to fit an 02S in my Mk.2 Scirrocco. It's currently running an ABF mated to an 020, but I'm wondering if you might be able to help me find a source (or part numbers) for the above parts? That is the Seat/Transporter manual clutch actuator (+ bolts) and the fork/release bearing you used?

Also, once you re-housed the 02S in the 02J casing, did you replace the speedometer sender unit directly with the original 020 1.3 speedo cable drive gear? It seems incredible that it would fit straight in!!

Many thanks,
Dave

 

Hi Dave.
I had the Seat 02A /Transporter 02B clutch system in my stash when I did that conversion years ago.
Mart or Hotgolf/Gas N Gears did the marrying of 02J bellhousing to the 02S along with rebuilding of the box to his standards.
Clutch kit is nothing special, just a standard kit for a Golf 3 VR6.
I fitted the gearbox, bolted the Golf 1.3 Gemo Speedo cable and it just worked. I expected it to as we all knew what we were doing.

 

Is that speedo cable you have also too long? I mean, it is attached on the rear of the gearbox and needs to go up only, but the cable I have is terribly long. Is there a shorter version available perhaps?

 

This is an old thread and that speedo is still on the car, some 10000 miles later. Remember we here in the UK are RHD, so the speedo takes a path from the right to the left.
I have always Golf 1.3 RHD speedo cable for the MQ250 gearbox with no issues that I know of. My Wolf R 16vT uses the same, as does my MK1 Cabrio 20vT and MK2 24v V6. All use 02A/J/S MQ250 gearboxes.

 

It works fine it's just hanging around due to the overlength. Also for a RHD car it would be way to long. I can measure it this afternoon.

 

Not sure what you are running in your LHD car presumably. Golf 2 1.3 RHD cables is what we use for those types of conversions here. I do not know what length is the Gplf 1.3 LHD equivalent.

 

From the firewall to the gearbox end it's 105 cm. Then there's another 20 cm in the parafan and the last few cms are in the dash.
I don't know but sounds like 50 cm from the firewall down (so 75cm in total) should be more than enough. Unfortunately there is no number printed on.

Edit: This is one is from a Golf 1. Do you have a number og the 1.3 RHD one?