95 Tsi AWD auto-x for next season

[Dstratt01]

Bought the car a while ago but it was put on the backburner due to another project I had in the works. Now it is my priority and gets all the money I can budget for it haha. So the plan is to do the Stage 1 upgrade path to put it around 300hp + some other goodies.

I bought the car non-running last year for $500 just to help out a friend who needed cash to move. So it sat for about 6 months outside my house before I decided to give it a shot. 101,000 miles, auto tranny, leather int. I got the car running after new plugs, wires, battery, alternator, wheels, tires, and all new fluids. Still didnt run quite right though. Boost leak test found a HUGE leak. Fixed that and now it runs pretty well. Starting off the build with the “free path” to make sure it gets its full potential before modding. So far I have almost finished the free path and am starting the stage 1 path.

Purchases/ installs so far
Pacesetter header
Carbon-ceramic brakes
DNA front strut bar
Megan 3” Down Pipe
SRS 3” Catback
Megan ported O2 housing
14b turbo swap
turboworks j-pipe and install kit
Megan rear strut bar
Triple Pillar Pod w/Boost gauge, Volt gauge, Oil pressure gauge
manual boost controller
Injen Intake w/ K&N filter + adapter
Prothane poly bushing kit for entire suspension

Engine bay is torn down for the 14b swap. After the 14b swap is done I will be redoing the vacuum lines for the boost gauge, mbc, injen intake, 14b lines, and redo the bov setup (its kinda rigged). Goal for the build is a hard launching automatic, 300hp roughly, and can hold a corner pretty well. Weight reduction has already started but has a long way to go. Bumpers are being removed, air conditioning is about halfway removed, interior is next. I will be stripping the rear seats and belt assemblies, then eventually replace the fronts with 5 point racing seats. Ive been researching the auto tranny mods and will be going with a different torque converter for starters. The suspension components will keep getting modded after the first round of testing. Strut bars are installed, prothanes are going in next.

First day in the garage for starting maintenance

After the new wheels and tires

After the first cleaning of the engine bay

Tear-down for the 14b swap and air conditioning removal

First round of goodies. 14b, prothane kit, triple pilar pods, pacesetter, srs catback, megan downpipe.

still waiting on the 14b j-pipe and install kit, Injen intake, and need to find a new exhaust housing for the 14b, mine is cracked beyond repair.

Gonna start redoing the vacuum lines before installing parts so that I have some extra room in the engine bay.

Did find that Im having an issue with the pacesetter header. That was one of the first things I installed. After the first round of exhaust leaks (I thought it was due to the crappy gaskets they sent with it) I put new fel-pros in it and they lasted about as long as the crappy gaskets did. Heres a pic of the aftermath.

Anyone else having problems with their gaskets blowing out? Or is this something I am just over thinking?

I cleaned out the intercooler with some gasoline. It helped immensely.
Before:

After:

Plus I found that the fan blades had been melted from the turbo. Im gonna do some slim fans to keep them a little further away from the turbo.

Here's the cracks in the 14b housing as to why I had to ditch it. It had about 5 more deep ones in the wastegate side and a few more surface cracks on the outside of the housing.

 

[952g63t]

I was looking at the same header. What do you think about build quality? May want to go with a flexible header gasket.

 

[Dstratt01]

The header itself seems like its pretty well built for the price. I would not recommend even putting in the gaskets they send to even test it. Mine lasted a little over a week. Im also not quite sure if it is slightly warped due to the fact that I have blown out 2 sets of gaskets now. I guess you can say you get what you pay for on this one. It was relatively cheap ($120 i think). Its your call.

EDIT: and make sure to get the polished one not the black one. The geniuses at pacesetter decided not to put header paint on it so as soon as it gets hot it flakes off immediately. Thats why mine looks like shit in the picture above.

 

[Dstratt01]

Made some progress on the build this weekend. My j-pipe kit came in and so did my Injen intake. Still cant complete the 14b swap yet though since I am still waiting on a new exhaust housing. Once that gets here it will get sent to a rebuild shop in Fort Wayne and then it will get installed.

Finally got the old exhaust off and the new 3" turbo back exhaust on. Took way too long to get the old rigged one off since all of the crap the PO used was rusted. Looks pretty good and except for the clearance on the drive shaft near the diff is pretty close. Im gonna weld on a piece to the exhaust with a different hanger set up to give it a little better clearance.

Then I got the cleaned up intercooler put back on with the lower piece of the j-pipe kit installed.

Now I am waiting to install the injen intake until the turbo is complete. But I also did get my triple pillar pod with oil pressure, boost/vacuum, and voltage installed. Wires are all tucked but havent been hooked up yet. will most likely get done this weekend.

 

[Dstratt01]

Rebuild kit came in and during the rebuild I made a BIG mistake. Here's a word of advice: dont try rebuilding a turbo if you are sleep deprived. I accidently used the wrong torque specs. instead of 100 inch pounds i used 100 foot pounds. Big mistake which has now brought a hault to the whole project.

 

[Dstratt01]

Finally finished the turbo install but I still have a few things to fix before it is 100% functional. Need to finish wiring all of my gauges, install a ball and spring mbc (running a bleeder style right now), do a boost leak test, fix the exhaust manifold leak, and a slight oil leak at the turbo stainless line. Other than that it is running and driveable for the first time in almost 2 months. pretty exciting stuff. Also bought a 2g eclipse spoiler and installed my 2gb talon front bumper. Im loving the way it looks now with everything slowly coming together.

Then I took her out for a little photoshoot around town with the new bumper on.