ABV intake dyno evaluation. Farewell. Toyotec's Golf 3 200ps VR6 'Der Ankor'.

Fitting the Hybrid ABV Manifold, Cam cover leakage concerns, brakes and cams. Part 8

Post 95 ABV intake manifold to a 97 AAA engine. What is involved.

As indicated in the last post, the manifolds were sent off to an engineering outfit to graft the flange from the 97 spec manifold to allow the adaptive VDO throttle.

At the time Fine Limit Welding was chosen to carry out the job.

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This was the result of their work.





After a bit of preliminary measuring, a clean cut was made to remove the old Pierburg footprint and replace with the VDO footprint.





Some sharp edges were left when the two parts were fused together.



Not a problem, that was taken care by this.



The internals of the manifold was then flushed in the jet wash and it was then fitted to the vehicle.





All done. ABV hybrid M2.9.1 manifold in an AAA M3.8.1 application.


NB EU market post August 95 Golf and Passat Syncro 2.9 VR6 did not need this modification

The annoying oil leak

Sadly, when the cylinder head was last fitted, after some miles had been accumulated the engine sprang a leak.

The leak seemed to originate from the area in the picture.



It was observed there was a dimpled area in the upper chain cover.



Unfortunately the new cam cover gasket did not match this shape when compared to the used ABV part.



As motor factors were not open when this repair was attempted, the old unit was used with sealant to keep the engine leak free.

More stopping friction arrives

Bill Brockbank of badger 5 also sent the DS3000 pads and those were to be fitted prior to the track day.





Why I chose the stock AAA 12v camshafts

I have been looking at 3 types of camshafts to enhance the performance of this build.
Schrick 0268 R1/L1681-00
Dougherty DC VL268S
Catcams 7607220

The ABV motor has some distinguishing mechanical attributes that are different from the 2.8 AAA or any other VR6 12v engine:

• Higher static compression of 10.5:1
• A larger inlet plenum
• Exhaust cam lobes that have a 8 deg advance compared to AAA cams, due to a 119 LCA ( Lobe Center Angle)

NB All stock cams have 220 deg duration @ 1mm lift and advertised duration of 254 deg CA.

Professional advise on the LCA difference, suggested the reduction of overlap from the 2.8 engine meant:

• Improved combustion stability at lower engine speeds
• Improved tip in response
• More low down drive torque to the 2.8.

My tests on std 2.9 engines have shown a similar torque characteristic to the 2.8 just more baseline torque. As I am after an engine that could have improved breathing in the 4500-5200rpm range and beyond to 7200rpm, it was decided to heed advise and use the LCA from the 2.8 but on aftermarket cams with a spec that suited my performance targets.

The cams on the VR6 12v suit each bank i.e. each cam is responsible for a cylinder bank and has intake and exhaust lobes. Cams advance or retard is dialed in by the factory at the keyway.
I have been in touch with all the cam manufacturers in my list and have shown them my current vehicle's WOT curve and what I propose. I have also explained the prep work that is being done to the engine.
At the time of writing, Schrick units were prohibitively expensive but were the spec that I desired to meet my targets. Power and torque in the right place, good idle quality and low speed drivability.
Catcams were a reasonable price but were fixed at an installation angle of 5 deg advance. This meant the exhaust opening at TDC would be large enough to cause a lumpy idle.
Custom work could be done by Catcams, so the keyway would be retarded 5 degrees to be similar to that of the Shrick's specs. The cost was 2/3's that of the Schrick.
After some coms with DRC regarding AAA 115 deg LCA vs ABV 119 deg LCA, it was suggested to use their DC VL268S camshaft. I remember driving a vehicle with this cam and liked the 16v character of the VR6 this type of cam was fitted to.
On checking the cam specs for the DRC cam, if was discovered the installation of this cam was just 1 deg retarded than the Schick cam above and at 1/3 of the priced shipped and cleared to the UK it was a no brainer.
Sadly attempts to contact DCR to make a payment failed and I decided to push on with the standard AAA 12v items instead.


Next
In part 9,
I begin assessing the effect the larger plenum had made on the engine's performance and start to tweak the engine calibration to match the hardware.
The car is tested at a Cadewll park trackday.

 

3 years on and I really should finish this thread.
The car is long gone, but I kept all my pictures and data on a drive which I have just found.
So we continue.

Hybrid ABV plenum on a 2.8 AAA M3.8.1 engine.

My first driving impressions of the 2.9 intake plenum manifold were:

• With the 2.9 intake plenum fitted, there was a marked difference in mid range punch, followed by quite a bit of audible detonation at full load.
• Logs indicated where this was occuring, and a after a few calibration iterations, this was corrected to just about tickle the knock controller at ~ 2 to 4 degs of spark correction on a sweep.

With the new calibration the car felt pretty good to drive with that midrange much stronger than any other 2.8 VR6 driven.
I was quite eager to test the car on the dyno to evaluate what the net sum of the cylinder head works would be at WOT.
We will return to that test later.

Cadwell Park Track day with a few Club GTI friends.



Part the reason for pushing through with this prep, was for a trackday that was booked with a few of the club members. I would also get to see what the car would be like at Cadwell, having visited the track before, when the car was on it's baseline engine with just an engine map.
It was a brilliant day, with the track a bit greasy in the morning, so I went out on my Rainsport tyres, then later in the day, swapping to Federal RSR rubber on the Solitudes. I also fitted the DS3000 brake pads, purchased from Bill @ Badger 5 prior to this trackday.



The day went very well with no issues and I had a fun time with the other enthusiasts that participated on the trip.


The engine just seemed to have some sort of extra girth in the midrange and I was now even more inquisitive to see where and how much the delta in torque was.

Good ol days with enthusiasts though !

Dyno evaluation.



One evening after work, I took the car down to our friends at Garage Streamline, to carry out some evaluation of my work.
After a few pulls. the difference was revealed why the car felt so strong at the top end.
I compared the result to the car as it was before.



Between, 3000 and 5300 rpm, I had gained on average 10 lbft of torque over previous, proving what I felt with the intake manifold modification was not a placebo effect. I was certain it was the manifold responsible for this delta, as the car was not noticeably quicker with the head work than before.
There was some work to do on fuel control as I could see the drop in torque at 5300 rpm could be improved.

Further testing looking at exhaust lambda demonstrated a significant shift in fuel control, leaner with the new intake manifold.



I returned to the dyno a few weeks later, after a few calibration iterations to retain road feel as well as addressing the leaner operation than before the new intake manifold. I ran the car and took some logs, made a new calibration and finally this happened.



From a stock car, picked up in Wales with just under 180 ps and 185 lbft to now a 200 ps and 210 lbft vehicle.
It did drive the best it ever did after this work was complete. It was what I think a VR6 12v should have always been.




Farewell to the Dragon Green MK3 Golf VR6. Hello 8L S3 Goodwood Green.

Der Ankor 12v VR6 and I have been through a journey I will never forget. It was the car I crashed the most in, over driven the most on trackdays, learned a fair bit of car control in, took our family 1000s of miles all over Europe, took me to work and back faithfully, met many enthusiasts with it, covered more than 70000 miles in it, and burnt enough fuel to warm this planet by at least 2 degs.
That MK3 just kept on giving despite some of the abuse it was put through.
It was a fun car that I was going to miss. It was getting long in the tooth and began to break items more regularly, becoming a money pit. I was after a new challenge as well, so I sold it. My 11 year old son asked the new owner for the the last ride in it. After that was complete we both watched it warble its 12v engine away, and R233SLU was never to be seen again.

Goodwood Green 8L S3.



It's replacement was this soon to be money pit. Yes, a downsized 210 bhp 4 cylinder



I missed the old VR6 engine though and the four cylinder of the S3, did nothing for me.

So I fixed that.



Car enthusiasm is a disease. So that 24v turbo story continues here

Ed.

 

I may make up a sticker of that

Great read as always.

 

Glad to see you at least took something from this thread.