Roomster 1.9 Tdi modifications

[Julian Edgar]

New intake....

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/arrowview-1.jpg

New muffler...

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/fitted-1.jpg

New intercooler...

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/intercoolernofoam-1.jpg

Custom reflash...

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/openerjpg-1.jpg

Forge short shift...

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/finished-1.jpg

Also: Vento 16 inch wheels, driving lights and scanning radio (it's a country car).

Soon to come: 312mm Audi TT front brake upgrade, manual climate control (I don't like the auto system) and rear sway bar.

[Greg Roles]

You're not THE J.E. associated with Autospeed are you?

I'm a major fanboi of that guy.....

[mikinoz]

Nice to see the 1.9 TFI getting some tuning love! Good on you.

[CanberravRS]

You're not THE J.E. associated with Autospeed are you?

I'm a major fanboi of that guy.....

I can vouch for him.. yes thats him.. And great to see your still being a real tweaker of cars Jullian.

[Julian Edgar]

You're not THE J.E. associated with Autospeed are you?



yes I write for AutoSpeed. We'll do a major series on the Roomster modifications this coming year.

[Greg Roles]

Well a huge welcome to the forums Julian, this is a big deal for me.

All my tinkering in the diesel section is largely due to your influence, and I'm stoked that the master tinkerer is in the house.

I've followed your work since the FF&R days, and have been drilling holes in perfectly fine cars ever since.

Oh and on that, I roughly calculate you are indirectly responsible for me blowing up several engines, turbo's, drivetrains, diffs and even being banned from my surf club back in my youth when I sooped the bejesus out of the rescue rubber ducky outboard for my mate who raced them. There's also the matter of all those many , many unused Jaycar parts.......you've a lot to answer for! : )

THANKS for all the fun mate, you've been an inspiration, and I've had SO MUCH fun over the years having otherwise ordinary looking cars that have performed well above their station, and upsetting all those in flashier cars at the lights has been worth every "BANG!!".

21st Centuary Performance is looking a little ratty these days, but I'm still leafing through it on my quest for diesel domination : )

Welcome!!!

[onyertod]

Good stuff. Thanks for posting. Roomster info is rare.

Is there anything worthwhile that can be done to get more out of the 1.6 petrol Roomie?

(Apart from leaving the back seats in the shed) : - )

[Julian Edgar]

Is there anything worthwhile that can be done to get more out of the 1.6 petrol Roomie?



I guess as a standard Volkswagen (etc) engine there are off the shelf mods avalable, but I don't know anything about them.

Some of what I am doing (or have done) to my car applies to all Roomsters - new horns, new headlight bulbs (in addition to the driving lights), coming new front brakes, coming improved rear roll stiffness, Vento 16 inch wheels with larger tyres.

[K1W1]

I can see the price of now rare used Roomsters increasing. Maybe the people who purchased the dirt cheap run out ones are on a winner. :)

[Julian Edgar]

New front brakes.

312mm slotted RDA discs, Audi TT calipers, Audi TT caliper mounts, EBC 'red' pads. (16 inch Vento wheels)

Initial impressions very positive.


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/wheeloff-1.jpg


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/frombeneath-1.jpg


http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2010/12/wheelon-1.jpg

[CanberravRS]

Ahhh i love it!!! Sweet, simple and effective.. Thats going to be one awesome Roomster.. did you want to show a bunch of us the vehicle at the drive day we have planned for FEB? There is a thread going about it.. its likely a Sat or Sun in mid to late Feb.. I think many of us would appreciate some insight into whats possible once warranty is over.

[Julian Edgar]

did you want to show a bunch of us the vehicle at the drive day we have planned for FEB? There is a thread going about it..

Sorry, can't find this thread

[CanberravRS]

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/f86/december-drive-day-nsw-act-owners-52034-7.html

[Julian Edgar]

On the road the brake upgrade results are excellent.

The brake bias is clearly more to the front, but this is noticeable only when reversing down a steep gravel driveway, where the fronts will ABS earlier than before.

The ability of the brakes to pull the car down from high speed with progression and feel is superb – vastly better than with the standard brakes. On a back road (hmm, I mean the track) you can drop from 150 to 60 km/h with literally a gentle push of the centre pedal – and do it corner after corner. In an emergency stop the ABS operates as it did with the standard brakes.

Downsides? There are some.

When the brakes are dead cold (in my normal daily drive I arrive at a roundabout after 30 kilometres of country driving that has had literally no brake applications at all) the pedal needs a distinctively firmer push. In normal urban braking that doesn’t occur (the brakes must retain some heat) and in spirited driving the pedal effort is clearly lower than with the standard brakes.

Each new disc has a mass that is 1.4kg greater than standard (interestingly, the new calipers and pads are 200 grams lighter than the old ones) and the Roomster is a car where the 1.2kg increase per side in unsprung weight can be clearly felt. When I went from 15 to 16 inch wheels, the latter fitted with larger tyres, I could feel the increase in unsprung weight, and the same has occurred with the new front brakes. The result is that over lumpy bitumen, the car does not ride as well.

Overall? Very impressive.

[monkeysrus]

Well done on the braking mods.

I have a set of EBC Reds to go into the Octavia. When i ran them on my previous car i found i required a slightly firmer push of the pedal on the first stop of the day then they were fine. During spirited driving they were much better at handling the heat then the stock pads. Stopping distances felt shorter too. Not sure why when the tyre is the limiting factor?

I also found then to be quite gentle on the rotors which is great for a aggressive pad. I had them in for 40,000k's before i changed the front pads. Front rotors were still ok.:)

[Julian Edgar]

Stopping distances felt shorter too. Not sure why when the tyre is the limiting factor?



Yes, it's an interesting point. After modifying quite a few cars' brakes, I think it's because you can brake so progressively to the point just before lock-up (or ABS actuation). In an emergency ABS stop (which I tested), the stopping distance was (of course) no different to the standard brakes.

[monkeysrus]

From EBC website:

'Tested at the UK Motor Industries Research Association (MIRA) in witnessed tests early Redstuff reduced car stopping distance in tests by almost 50 feet from 100 MPH offering a staggering 30% brake improvement.'

You get a higher friction coefficient with the reds and i assume much better control at higher friction points and for longer duration. Maybe this is a reason for better stopping distances? Would be interesting to get a proper explanation.

[Jarred]

Why did you choose Redstuff, over a perhaps more daily driver friendly alternative, ie Greenstuff. IIRC, They have pretty much the same hot temp rating, but better to use when cold etc. (just curious)

I've read more than a few autospeed articles before, and they're always great. I do enjoy them! WElcome to the forum too. Always nice to have good technical based thread popping up.

Did you think about running no muffler at all? (as opposed to a new one) What about the rest of the exhaust? Still standard?

I've got a mk 3 1.9 TDI that I'm getting on the road soon, and I'll be looking to get a couple extra neddies out of it as well. (along with various other upgrades ie brakes, susp etc)

[Julian Edgar]

Why did you choose Redstuff, over a perhaps more daily driver friendly alternative, ie Greenstuff. IIRC, They have pretty much the same hot temp rating, but better to use when cold etc. (just curious)

Mostly local distributor's advice - previously have run Greenstuff on a less hard-driven car that also had regen braking (turbo Prius)


Did you think about running no muffler at all? (as opposed to a new one)

I tried no rear muffler first. Too noisy for me.


What about the rest of the exhaust? Still standard?

Yes.

[whiteVR6]

Is the tune from Powerchip?

[Julian Edgar]

Yes the tune is from Powerchip. It was done live on the dyno in front of me, with all questions I posed answered in some detail. I thought the result was outstanding.

Disclaimer: it was done free of charge... part of a long (10+ years) history where in AutoSpeed stories I have been heavily ciritical of Powerchip. I asked them if they wanted to show what they could now do and they sure did do just that.

[gerhard]

The reason you haven't got shorter braking distance is probably due to the bigger rotors, heavier wheels and tyres creating longer braking distance, with the better pads restoring the status quo.

The greenstuffs would have been better choice, but as long as you are aware of the characteristics of the reds there's no real problem.

Have you still got the Pog GTI?

We should pair you with APMitchell - god only knows what the pair of you would conjure up together :cool:

[Julian Edgar]

The reason you haven't got shorter braking distance

I don't remember saying that? Stopping distances in normal use are far shorter than with the standard brakes. Emergency (ABS) stopping distances are the same (or thereabouts) - that distance is not really dependent on brakes*, but instead on tyre/road grip.

(*ie you need only sufficient brakes to lock the wheels)

The Polo GTi is for sale (very cheap!): http://tiny.cc/xweoh

[gerhard]

Yes, it's an interesting point. After modifying quite a few cars' brakes, I think it's because you can brake so progressively to the point just before lock-up (or ABS actuation). In an emergency ABS stop (which I tested), the stopping distance was (of course) no different to the standard brakes.


I don't remember saying that? Stopping distances in normal use are far shorter than with the standard brakes. Emergency (ABS) stopping distances are the same (or thereabouts) - that distance is not really dependent on brakes*, but instead on tyre/road grip.

(*ie you need only sufficient brakes to lock the wheels)

The Polo GTi is for sale (very cheap!): 2006 VOLKSWAGEN POLO GTI 9N MY2006 Private Cars For Sale in NSW - carsales.com.au (http://tiny.cc/xweoh)

Maybe I misread that bit :)

[Jarred]

Did you mention the power it's putting out?

(or did I miss that?)

[Julian Edgar]

I guess I wasn't very clear.

No brake upgrade will make a difference to the emergency stopping distance (ie with car ABS'ing), so of course my larger discs and different pads / calipers haven't changed that.

My normal stopping distances, where I am modulating the pedal, and including multiple hard stops made one after the other, are clearly much shorter.

[Julian Edgar]

Did you mention the power it's putting out?

Up around 20 per cent over most of the rev range.

[stevebucknor1]

I roughly calculate you are indirectly responsible for me blowing up several engines, turbo's, drivetrains, diffs and even being banned from my surf club back in my youth when I sooped the bejesus out of the rescue rubber ducky outboard for my mate who raced them. There's also the matter of all those many , many unused Jaycar parts. It is really amazing and outstanding.

[Ozsko]

Julian, do you stand by them Powerchip) in light of recent internet forum comments in other places? It seems very difficult to get a balanced view on this.

[Julian Edgar]

Julian, do you stand by them Powerchip) in light of recent internet forum comments in other places? It seems very difficult to get a balanced view on this

Yes:

AutoSpeed Blog » Blog Archive » In cooking chips, things have radically changed (http://blog.autospeed.com/2010/12/20/in-cooking-chips-things-have-radically-changed/)

[Julian Edgar]

Browser Warning (http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_112228/article.html)

Part 4 in the series

[Julian Edgar]

I find the acceleration figures a bit hard to swallow, times in seconds would be better, 76% reeeeaaaalllllyyyyyyyyy? hard figures 0 to anything would be better. Is Mister Besanko still in business?

Measuring the instantaneous accelerations at different rpm, as has been done in the article (and in fact throughout the series), is far more illuminating than normal measurement of acceleration times in seconds (eg a 0-100) because it shows exactly where in the engine rev range gains or losses are being made. *

The acceleration at the redline is indeed 76 per cent stronger than it was previously. In standard form there was no point in going to the redline as the performance was dropping off so rapidly. Now the redline is the appropriate max acceleration change rpm.

Re Wayne Besanko and PowerChip - I assume so, why don't you ask him? The results the company achieved on my car were exceptional.

(* and the gains and losses are being measured on the road under real-world conditions)

[Julian Edgar]

Best get it out there and do some real road acceleration figures.

As explained in the series, the acceleration testing was measured directly on the road. The dyno was used for tuning.


As you yourself said the OS guys have been at it for years so what was the object of the exercise?

To tune the car? I don't understand your point. The object of the exercise was to give the car better power and economy, by means of a reflash. That was achieved, with far better results than I expected. As clearly declared in the story, the Powerchip reflash was made at no charge.


So how about taking all the other tuning chips/tunes and trying them and then give us some comparative results.

Why? I didn't compare two or three different intakes. I didn't compare two of three different rear mufflers. (And, in the last part in the series, I don't compare two or three different intercoolers.) Instead, I carried out one modification in each area, and was pleased with the results. I didn't say that the Powerchip tune was better than other possibilities (how could I know?); I said the results were excellent.

[Jarred]

autospeed isn't motor magazine. Write to them and ask them to do a tune test!

Keep it up Julian, always interested to have a read of the stuff you're doing.

[Transporter]

autospeed isn't motor magazine. Write to them and ask them to do a tune test!

Keep it up Julian, always interested to have a read of the stuff you're doing.

+1 here as well. Much better than arguing whose chip or tune is better. :)

[Greg Roles]

If it wasn't for Julian, I wouldn't be half the tinkerer I am today. Rock on dude!

[Ozsko]

If it wasn't for Julian, I wouldn't be half the tinkerer I am today. Rock on dude!

A tinkerer who gives advice with no qualifications? There is a minefield I would not like to be in.

[Julian Edgar]

I still don't get why you went down this path

Oh well, as the series is very popular and the reader ratings are high, it seems lots of people DO understand why I went down the path... and they like it.

[Greg Roles]

A tinkerer who gives advice with no qualifications? There is a minefield I would not like to be in.

Guess you won't be PM'ing me for advice then? :P

[Transporter]

A tinkerer who gives advice with no qualifications? There is a minefield I would not like to be in.

And who exactly you're? (just asking).
Your profile doesn't reveal anything, so until you upgrade your profile with your qualifications and/or what you work as, I will delete all your posts that are a similar nature as the ones above.
The reason behind is simple, there are many in the forum that don't know much about the cars and they will get confused, that someone who introduced himself and shows what he does for living get questioned by some one with no qualification (you) at all. Don't you think? :?

[noone]

Nice thread. I don't think you have to be qualified to give advice, that's why it's advice and not a paid service. It's up to you how you treat that advice.

Just a quick comment on brakes, for my Polo GTI with same brakes, Bendix ultimate are quiet and very bitey. I wouldn't want to track them, but for daily driving, they are very nice. If still available, about $40 on eBay from local seller.

[Julian Edgar]

Part 5 - the last part in the series - is up: Browser Warning (http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_112259/article.html)

[brad]

interesting stuff.

It makes me wonder if the tune should be tweaked after the intercooler upgrade?

[kaanage]

Part 5 - the last part in the series - is up: Browser Warning (http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_112259/article.html)
Any chance you can provide an update after remapping to allow for the larger intercooler? I assume that you won't leave it in the slightly detuned state (which is probably helping reduce the fuel consumption).


It makes me wonder if the tune should be tweaked after the intercooler upgrade?
I certainly think it should, especially as the intercooler is probably the most difficult modification to implement. But I see it as having the most potential for performance improvement apart from the remap itself.

And I really have to wonder how much improvement there would have been vs stock if the car had been remapped and no other mods done. I suspect it wouldn't be much worse than what was achieved in Stage 4.

[Julian Edgar]

Any chance you can provide an update after remapping to allow for the larger intercooler? I assume that you won't leave it in the slightly detuned state (which is probably helping reduce the fuel consumption).



I am not intending to do any further work on engine performance.

[Julian Edgar]

To keep this thread up to date...

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/angled-2.jpg

Narva 225 HID lights

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/radio-2.jpg

New VW radio (does anyone know what I need to do to make it integrate with dash and turn on and off with key?)

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/scangauge-2.jpg

Scan Gauge - brilliantly easy and effective and cheap

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/swaybar-2.jpg

Whiteline rear anti roll bar - massive difference and all positive

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/opener-2.jpg

Pirelli P7 tyres - suprisingly cheap and at least as good as the Michelins I bought with the wheels

[Julian Edgar]

Development of rear roof extension...using corflute mock-ups. Intention is decreased drag.

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/firstwooltufttest-2.jpg

1 - attached flow from roof
2 - attached flow on roof extension
3 - separated flow

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/secondwooltufttest-2.jpg

Different design with side attached flow

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/multiple-2.jpg

Comparison of wake areas with and without angled roof extension

http://www.vwwatercooled.com.au/forums/images/imported/2011/09/DSC_0087-2.jpg

Apparently successful design to be made from something other than corflute!

[Transporter]

I like your mods, nothing over done... the way it should be.

[Greg Roles]

You'd need the bigger intercooler to make up for the spotties!:cookie:

[Julian Edgar]

You'd need the bigger intercooler to make up for the spotties!

Standard grille behind the spotlights is almost completely closed - ie it's a dummy.

[GoLfMan]

with the intercooler upgrade, where did you source a flange for the N75 sensor?

[Julian Edgar]

with the intercooler upgrade, where did you source a flange for the N75 sensor?

Sorry - don't check this thread very often!

I made it.