Lettuce Build Thread, Fast Cars and Fast Women: Stage 2 and Beyond

[Allowencer]

Wow, that sucks. I feel your frustrations. The things our cars take us through emotionally I remind myself to look ahead and realize it will be worth it in the long run

[lettuce]

Took out my throttle body nozzle today and switched to a 20/80 meth/water blend. Figured I'm not going to be tuning for the increased octane of the meth, so I'm just going for max IAT/EGT cooling mode. Just got the 225ml/min nozzle now post-intercooler. Should cut my water/meth usage in half, get my A/F ratios back to a more manageable level, give me similar or better performance on my current tune, and allow me to use 0 degree washer fluid in an emergency, not to mention how much cheaper it'll be to run with the bulk meth and water I'm mixing on my own now.

Also I gotta say, I was super skeptical regarding everything I heard about the water/meth 'steam cleaning' my intake system. Then I pulled my throttle body and couldn't believe what I saw. Here's a before and after, a shot I took when installing the TB nozzle a while ago and a shot I just took tonight.





Pretty unbelievable to be honest. Really impressed.

Got some colder plugs coming in tomorrow, once I get those in I'll be able to really open her up and take some logs to see how it's running and fine tune it.

[poweredbyaudi7]

This is making me want to run meth more and more. Intersted to see what your valves look like.

[Allowencer]

ditto ^

Keep up the good work bro. Hopefully you can find root cause for some of the odd spark plug issues you've been experiencing.

[hyperunion]

Meth may be the way to go with our Di engines!!!!!!

[Party_Marty]

WOW!!! That is awesome, It seems like a healthy upgrade for the engine. I'm impressed!

[Slick_B8]

You promised women. The fuck are they?

[BMWManiac]

I would never buy anything from anyone or place call Alibaba....which translates to "thief" or "stealing." Surprised anyone would give themselves that name! I'm interested to see what you find out. Those plugs look ok, perhaps on the lean side, except obviously for your number two plug. Here is what I would do if you can....install all new plugs, go for a drive and rip into it....come home, pull the plugs, see what they look like. I apologize for not reading through the entire thread, but is your perhaps the spray pattern into the intake goes straight to the number 2 plug, which is why it keeps collecting gunk?

[lettuce]

I would never buy anything from anyone or place call Alibaba....which translates to "thief" or "stealing." Surprised anyone would give themselves that name! I'm interested to see what you find out. Those plugs look ok, perhaps on the lean side, except obviously for your number two plug. Here is what I would do if you can....install all new plugs, go for a drive and rip into it....come home, pull the plugs, see what they look like. I apologize for not reading through the entire thread, but is your perhaps the spray pattern into the intake goes straight to the number 2 plug, which is why it keeps collecting gunk?

Unfortunately this isn't new to the meth. My #2 cylinder has always been like this. This is from when I pulled them last time, before running meth

Pulled my plugs this weekend for the first time since around September. Here they are in order for cylinders 1, 2, 3, and 4:



And here's a closeup of #2:



lol

[asfastas63]

Wow that throttle body looks like a brand new part! I told myself I was going to be done after these last few things go on the car, but looking at W/M as something to prolong engine life is a convincing argument. I would love to see the affect prolonged w/m use has on keeping the intake valves clean. I would be significant.

[s4baby]

You promised women. The fuck are they?

None at all.

[Fastbke170]

Never buying anything from Alibaba again. Everything on there is cheap Chinese fucking garbage. This thing's hard as fuck plastic, way too dark (doesn't match at all) and looks like it was painted with a fucking sponge. Waste of my fucking time and money, should have just got an OEM Audi cover the first time.

If my airbag ever went off through this thing it'd just splinter into plastic shards and slice my fucking face open.

Sorry you got hosed 2x bro. I get color thing but even my original 4 spoke beige cover is hard plastic. I guess the little internal sections tear as the bag deploys. Well hope we never have to find out.

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

[lettuce]

I installed the ECS differential mount inserts today. Probably one of the easiest things I've installed on this car. I also swapped out my plugs to ones one heat range colder yesterday. I timed myself, took me exactly 10 minutes to get my tools out, pop the hood, remove, gap, and install all 4 plugs, get everything all back together and get my tools put back away. The differential mount inserts took maybe half an hour.



Before:


After:


I'll update this post with my official review in a week or two once I've had some time to drive on them.

And here are some pics of the rear diffuser/valence with the lip newly-painted Hyper Silver to match my wheels:

[Allowencer]

I like; looks great man.

I did something similar on my GP; had the rear and front lower fascia areas painted to match the rims color.

[s4baby]

Any thoughts on the inserts? Debating on going with ECS or 034 inserts.

[Dub_prime]

Any thoughts on the inserts? Debating on going with ECS or 034 inserts.

Ecs should make less noise but be slightly softer. They will both do the job though. I have the 034 and they hum at certain loads.

[lettuce]

I like; looks great man.

I did something similar on my GP; had the rear and front lower fascia areas painted to match the rims color.

Thanks. I like it, but I'm not sure if I like it better than black. I might buy some black vinyl so I can just switch it back and forth whenever I feel like it.

Any thoughts on the inserts? Debating on going with ECS or 034 inserts.

Pretty much what dub said. I have 034 mounts/inserts for my motor and transmission and just had these left to finish up the drivetrain. They do their job, taking care of the remaining sloppiness I was feeling in hard shifts while adding zero NVH. I would have gone with 034's but these were considerably cheaper and judging by the video they have on their product page, do a good enough job. These are probably a little quieter than those would have been, at the expense of some firmness.

I was not expecting the two rear-most inserts to be as soft as they are. I don't know why but I was expecting sort of a hard plastic, but they're fairly rubbery. Was a little put off by that to be honest but like I said, they work.

I'm going to give it a week or two of driving to really get a feel for how they perform, like I like to do with all things of this nature, before giving my official review, but I went for a long drive last night and so those are my first impressions.

[lettuce]

Well, it happened again on the way to work today. Good ol cylinder 2. The only thing it can really be at this point is the injector. Guess I'll be swapping those out this weekend.

[Allowencer]

Doh... you're attacking / troubleshooting it properly. Throwing this out there, if you pull the injectors and you can visibly see the seal(s) are toast, what now? I'd be armed and ready if I was you (have seals and installer tool handy/ready).

[lettuce]

Doh... you're attacking / troubleshooting it properly. Throwing this out there, if you pull the injectors and you can visibly see the seal(s) are toast, what now? I'd be armed and ready if I was you (have seals and installer tool handy/ready).

I have the new seals. Ordered two kits last time this happened, one stock kit and one GM kit with the viton seals. But I'm thinking they're fine and it's just a stuck injector. These cars are known for that afterall, what with the extended warranty (covered up to 125k. I'm at 126k. Rats). So I'm just going to replace them all at once and keep the 3 current good ones in case I ever need them.

I saw that $80 tool kit you posted in the other thread, but that still seems like a bit much for what I need (just that one tapered brass piece). So I'll try to find something cheaper but may just end up grabbing that one if I have to.

By the way congrats on the motor. I wasn't exactly surprised given your attention to detail, but it's always good to see things like that working out.

[Allowencer]

Ah ok - makes sense.

That link I posted for that tool, I ordered it last week. Should be coming in this week. I'll then pull the intake and do my injectors as it was one item I couldn't swap seals on

Thanks man. Now it's time to tune!

[lettuce]

wa wa wee wa

[b6Hate4]

Stock sized inject hairs?

[Dub_prime]

Stock sized inject hairs?

Looks like OE parts to me.

[b6Hate4]

Looks like OE parts to me.

Yeah you can see the vw logo right in the corner of the bottom box now that I look more closely

[lettuce]

Yeah you can see the vw logo right in the corner of the bottom box now that I look more closely

Yeah, stock injectors. Got em all swapped out, started it up, cylinder 2 still misfiring. Got out of my car to go get a flat head screwdriver to slit my wrists with and figured I'd try replacing the #2 plug before ending it all. Glad I did that because now it's running smooth again. Old plug must have blown up internally or something cause it looked fine, just wasn't working.

Now let's hope it stays fixed. If I'm driving and it starts doing this again I'm just going to close my eyes and press the pedal to the floor until it all goes away.

[pierreb]

I have a love/hate relationship with my cyl #2. Different issue than yours though from the sounds of it.

[lettuce]

Here are some pictures from today's work.

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've had the intake manifold off, so nothing new to show there, but I took a few snaps of the new injectors and the method I used to line up the helicoil threader in the head.





Installed two of the bolts on the edge and wrapped a string around them to get the vertical alignment set. Then just eyed the horizontal alignment. Came out perfect.

Also found a good lead for a possible culprit for the EPC light I've been experiencing at high speeds.



This vacuum hose in the rear of my intake was toast. Definitely had a boost leak. Makes sense as this whole problem started back sometime after I did 3 things: did the valve seals, meth injection kit, and water pump. So I already troubleshot/replaced everything that could have happened during the valve seal and meth install, but this would have happened while replacing the water pump. It's either that or I'm thinking it could have been triggered from high EGTs from a too lean/rich AFR from the meth, faulty injector, or 7 heat range plugs. Now that I'm running a 20/80 meth/water mix with one nozzle, have new 8-range plugs and replaced my injectors, I really hope this is taken care of.

Also I'm pretty sure it's literally impossible to install the #1 injector in the head. You have to install it in the intake then press it into the head. There is no way to get the wiring clip on there from the harness due to there being zero slack. The manifold has to be literally 100% on the head in order to get that clip on there, and then there's no room to get your fingers in there to connect it. So I had the other 3 installed in the head and the first one installed in the intake when reinstalling everything. That seemed to have worked like a charm. The last few times I reinstalled my intake the injectors all came out with the intake and I reinstalled them like that anyway so I'm sure it's fine.

Lastly, just a heads up. The new injectors and install kits have a different washer setup than the stock 09 injectors. The stock ones had a larger white plastic washer with 3 nubs on the inside of the ring, which sealed it against the head. The new ones don't use that, they use the smaller black plastic ring with the 3 legs that snap into the injector. This takes the place of those white washers, so discard them if you're using the new ones.

[Allowencer]

Nice idea on your alignment; good ole' school style.

Nice find on your vacuum line too.

Both outta make ya feel good now I bet!

[lettuce]

Nice idea on your alignment; good ole' school style.

Nice find on your vacuum line too.

Both outta make ya feel good now I bet!

I've learned working on this car to not count my chickens before they're hatched. Every time I think I fixed something it crops back up in a week. But I'm cautiously optimistic. At the very least, it's in better shape now than it was before.

[asfastas63]

How'd the valves/runners look compared to before the W/M install?

[lettuce]

How'd the valves/runners look compared to before the W/M install?

Great. Didn't grab a pic, but I could actually see the metal on my valve stems. They looked even better than they did right after I did the carbon cleaning.

[poweredbyaudi7]

Great. Didn't grab a pic, but I could actually see the metal on my valve stems. They looked even better than they did right after I did the carbon cleaning.

*sigh* you just validated w/m for me.

[poweredbyaudi7]

How did you know which nozzle to run? How did you know what mixture you need?

[asfastas63]

*sigh* you just validated w/m for me.

Yeah that's exactly what I wanted to hear!

[VNA4]

Now let's hope it stays fixed. If I'm driving and it starts doing this again I'm just going to close my eyes and press the pedal to the floor until it all goes away.

Ur Quote always makes me laugh, you are something Mister Lettuce!



Sent from my iPhone using Audizine mobile app

[lettuce]

How did you know which nozzle to run? How did you know what mixture you need?

3 parts research, 1 part trial and error. There's a giant 100+ page thread over on one of the VW forums that helped me a lot. On mobile so I don't have the link at the moment. I would consider reading through it basically a prerequisite for going on meth.

Edit: Here you go. All 221 pages of it.

[lettuce]

From the car show today.

[poweredbyaudi7]

3 parts research, 1 part trial and error. There's a giant 100+ page thread over on one of the VW forums that helped me a lot. On mobile so I don't have the link at the moment. I would consider reading through it basically a prerequisite for going on meth.

Edit: Here you go. All 221 pages of it.

I started to read that the other day...fml

[Justin B8]

Also I'm pretty sure it's literally impossible to install the #1 injector in the head. You have to install it in the intake then press it into the head. There is no way to get the wiring clip on there from the harness due to there being zero slack.

Learned that one the hard way. I managed to use a pair of pick tools to line it up and snap #1 injector plug on. Major PITA. as you say, the trick is to install the other three in the head, and #1 in the intake, with its connector already in place. After reading all of these threads about stripped/helicoiled intake threads, I was so paranoid about it, I removed the bolts and reinstalled them with anti-sieze - which I should have done in the first place.