# My build is going to be rowdy! Slow build thread.



## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

This is going to be a progressive build thread! It should be fun. I'm probably in over my head. But to start, I am going to lay my plan out! I have all the engine parts but the filter housing. I'm waiting on the machine shop to get my block back to me so I can start assembly on it.

Engine:
-3.2 VR6
-AEM Infinity standalone
-Port and polish head
-CTS intake manifold
-Ebay log turbo manifold
-Arp main studs
-Stock head bolts
-JE 8.5:1 stock bore pistons
-Eagle 1200 hp rods
-New EVERYTHING bearings, gaskets, hardware. Not a single thing reused but cam gears.
-iABED oil filter housing
-Ebay GTX3582R
-Emusa wastegate
-On3 bov
-Aluminum tstat housing
-Stainless Crack pipe
-Southbend stg 4 4 puck clutch. Yikes, I'm scared.
-Undecided injectors
-Undecided fuel pump
-Ebay single surge tank. IE style
-Stock fuel rail with 6an fittings

Interior:
-All black interior swap.
-What isn't black will be painted or died.
-Getting the headliner wrapped
-AEM CD7 cluster
-Half cage
-Removing the spare tire hump to put my 5 channel amp and battery under there.

-Misc
-4 piston Brembo from a touareg 18z?
-Stainless ECS brake lines
-Stock strut mounts
-R32 rotors

Already done:
-Bilstien sport shocks/struts
-HR Lowering springs
-Powerflex black strut mount and control arm -bushings
-Three inch turbo back exhaust

A few random photos to get started, including a photo of the 1.8t that was in my TT previously.


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## gedu (Sep 2, 2021)

Alec's TT said:


> -4 piston Brembo from a touareg 18z?


Either you use Seat Cupra R 4 piston with Cupra disc or you can use Z18 6-piston front calipers, not the 4 piston rear calipers. Z18 rear calipers have way too small pistons to use as front brake.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

gedu said:


> Either you use Seat Cupra R 4 piston with Cupra disc or you can use Z18 6-piston front calipers, not the 4 piston rear calipers. Z18 rear calipers have way too small pistons to use as front brake.


I assume if they are good enough to be front calipers on a touareg. They should be good enough for the front of a TT!


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Did some fabrication over the last week. It isn't the prettiest thing ever, but it's going to be 100% functional. Also, once it's wrapped, you won't see my welds anyways!


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## fire88 (Jul 15, 2021)

It's decent job man, big job also.
good luck with everything


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Regarding brakes, check out using the DB9 calipers. That is the route I went up front, and then upgraded the rears with remans from an A6 C5. I bought the calipers from VBT and got the adapters from Creation Motorsport.









Pair of Aston Martin Front DB9 Calipers - 4 Piston Brembo (Pre-Reversed)


Brake upgrades from Big Brake Kits (BBK) to caliper carrier kits and upgraded discs and pads for Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and Skoda




www.vagbremtechnic.com


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

fire88 said:


> It's decent job man, big job also.
> good luck with everything


Thanks! I'll update as I go!


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Intercooler piping is all in place. Now i need to decide on BOV or DV? Does anyone think my old DV will be big enough for a GTX3582R or should i use the 50mm BOV that i have. The reason i ask is that i liked the sound of the DV dumping to atmosphere on my last build!


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## Spliffy (May 3, 2013)

Personally I'd go DV every time, but TBF I think the 'dump' sound sounds trashy , if I want a car that sounds like a flatulant elephant I'd buy some souless jap jobbie. However I seem to be in a minority , so if you like the sound of a BOV then go for it, your car so build what you want. Great thread, good luck with it and keep the updates coming.

Nick


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Enjoying watching this build. I've eyed the HPA kits, but too many projects to pursue one. Doing it from the ground up like this looks to be lots of fun. Someday perhaps when the other projects are done.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Spliffy said:


> Personally I'd go DV every time, but TBF I think the 'dump' sound sounds trashy , if I want a car that sounds like a flatulant elephant I'd buy some souless jap jobbie. However I seem to be in a minority , so if you like the sound of a BOV then go for it, your car so build what you want. Great thread, good luck with it and keep the updates coming.
> 
> Nick


The thing is that it will sound similar to a BOV. Being that I'm going standalone, there will be no maf and it will be vent to atmosphere. This is how it sounded on the 1.8t which was the same DV but vent to atmosphere.


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## Spliffy (May 3, 2013)

Lol that's exactly how I wouldn't want mine to sound 😃 But fair play to those that like it. In that case I'd probably just go with a quality BOV since you are venting to atmosphere anyway. The standard DV seems to be fine to some pretty high power levels , but a good BOV will probably give you more headroom for power upgrades.

Nick


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

What a gutting day it's been! Redoing alot of wiring that started off with 16 year old me doing stuff 12 years ago. Converting to a black interior. Removing the spare tire hump. Adding alot of sound deadening


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Looks like someone pushed the button - LOL!


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

What a weekend it's been. I removed the spare tire hump. I was expecting there to be a floor under it for some reason. Also started my push button ignition. The buttons are push toggles that have a red light. The left button will be standalone ecu power. The middle button will be accessory power. The right is Undecided. I ordered two blank buttons and the guy only shipped one. He's shipping the other one Monday. So no key needed! The lock will be removed from the column. Also i was half way through putting my block together only to discover my thrust washers are missing and i cant get new ones for a week. I think they got mis placed when my ex moved out a few months ago.
















































































.


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Per my prior post, looks like you've made the button a permanent item! 

Enjoying watching this build. Nice to see the lack of restraint. It's easy to get wrapped and not explore doing something different.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

You're absolutely right! No restraint. I don't even know what the goal is anymore 🤣


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## StuartDB (Feb 10, 2018)

How big is your charge circuit pipework? It only looks 50mm?


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

StuartDB said:


> How big is your charge circuit pipework? It only looks 50mm?


2.5 inches. 63mm.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Does anyone know what the pad/insulation on the engine side of the fire walk is called. Mine was torn to hell so I removed it. I would like to get ahold of a new one, or clean used one.


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## darylw357 (May 21, 2019)

Spare tyre hump? is that something the American versions have?


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## StuartDB (Feb 10, 2018)

Edit.. you are talking about the heat sheilding foil aren't you...


Turbo blanket?


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

This is what I'm after. Facebook found it. Hard to get tho.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)




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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

I did something wild last night. I need to finish assembling the long block this week. I found out my local car show is in 1 month. Soooo, it's crunch time.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

I'm exhausted. Engine is assembled. Lots and lots of sanding and painting done.


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

What's your weather like? We keep breaking 90, which for me is too hot to motivate on anything outside or in unconditioned garage.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Same. I have a window ac in my garage that's been on for 8 days straight. It's nice in there!! There was supposed to be 10 pictures with my last post! Sorry, about the order. The forum re orders them.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

The compressor housing fell after paint 😭


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

I wish these would upload in the order I select them! ECU is in and mounted. Power is wired to it. Now is the tedious part of cutting to length and pinning them into the oem connectors.


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Looking good. Having fun watching this progress.


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## Egypha (Mar 2, 2021)

It's looking extremely tidy  Plus I love how a cat photo sneaked in there


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Good news! My ecu was not fried from what was a stupid mistake. I sent it off to AEM and they replaced all the ignition coil drivers for $100. I couldn't get spark. When building my harness, I studied diagrams for 20+ hours. I missed that the 1.8t and 3.2 coils are pinned differently. I built my harness for 1.8t coils and plugged them into the 3.2 coils. Her is a legit first start, and then starts 2 and 3! 



http://imgur.com/a/qPXmxz4


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Good job! Wondering if you let the magic smoke out of electrical stuff is never a good time!


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

torqueit said:


> Good job! Wondering if you let the magic smoke out of electrical stuff is never a good time!


No magic smoke. I got lucky. I sent the ecu in for diag. They said it was fine, but the diag fee covered replacing the coil drivers! It's nice to jump in and start it at least. 80psi oil pressure and no knocks!


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## StuartDB (Feb 10, 2018)

So did they change the ECU to match your coil wiring? Instead of telling you to wire the coils differently?


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

StuartDB said:


> So did they change the ECU to match your coil wiring? Instead of telling you to wire the coils differently?


Negative. When I received the ecu back, I sat down and double checked the wiring. That's when I caught my mistake. I corrected the wiring before I plugged it back in. This did however mess up my pretty wiring job since some wires were a little short and others were now a little long. :/ 

The top is how I pinned the coil plugs. The bottom is how they should have been pinned.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Moved under its own power today! Backed out of the garage so I could do some cleaning. Getting some help on Facebook with tuning. It sucks there is no base tune to start with!



















http://imgur.com/a/4piWdNm


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## mk1chopper (Jan 14, 2021)

Might worth getting in touch with a forum member called tuffty on Audi-sport.net he has an 8l S3 which is now running a 3.2 vr turbo.


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## StuartDB (Feb 10, 2018)

Paul (Tuffty) will tell you to get an Ignitron ECU....  then the car will map itself 

What gearbox are you going to use?


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

StuartDB said:


> Paul (Tuffty) will tell you to get an Ignitron ECU....  then the car will map itself
> 
> What gearbox are you going to use?


Lol. I'm not changing from the AEM at this point. Wayyyy to much time and money has been spent on it. 😭

I have the same O2M that I've had in it for the last 4 years. I did an R32 swap in 2018. I'm afraid it's going to explode if I get close to my power goal. I'll have to figure something out then.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Please excuse my enthusiasm, but I think this is what we were all waiting for! This was just a snap for my friends, but I thought I would share. I have a bigger update to share this weekend! 



http://imgur.com/a/qu8s7xG


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## IPG3.6 (Sep 5, 2015)

Woohoo. Up and running (but needles don't appear to function?)


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

IPG3.6 said:


> Woohoo. Up and running (but needles don't appear to function?)


Not yet. I plan in getting a digital cluster, so it's low priority. Getting can bus working should make the tach work. I'm having problems with that right now though. No tach and no all wheel drive due to some sort of can bus issue. Just went for another rip with more than 20% throttle. It's going to be super fun!



http://imgur.com/a/X6aJeaN


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Here is a pretty big update. Had a pretty big setback with my standalone. (This was before i took the above video) I drove the car a few weeks ago and it would break up pretty bad at .5 PSI of boost and would not produce spark with any coil that wasn't the 19 year old oem coils. I tried 3 new after markets and an R8 coil with no luck. I managed to get in touch with an engineer of the infinity and found out that there are alot of revisions to it. I have a Rev 5 and on Rev 6 they change some resistors on the coil driver circuit from 1000 to 100 ohm. This caused the new coils to not fire from getting too little power. I bought some new parts and tools and sorted it out. I'm also getting a refund from AEM for literally not finishing the repair I paid for. Luckily it didn't cause me problems, but the chip that does coils 7-10, they never finished soldering down. It was fun to solder resistors that are half the size of a pen tip.

I've been tidying wiring up and hooking more stuff back up. It's a slow process. The day I committed to this, I took snips and just cut the whole harness in half for the front half of the car. I'm still fining out what some of the wires are for. Also since I deleted the ballasts, I'm rebuilding the headlamps which was not my plan for right now. I want to delete the reflector and do a clear corner. Check out the pics of how after market ballasts fit in the housings though. With the same bulbs, they are significantly brighter than with the stock setup.

Tuning is coming along nicely! I have a guy out of Texas doing it remotely. Tonight along we did 5 logs and he sent back 5 different revisions. It almost drives like it did stock, with the stock ecu. I'm beyond happy with how it's going.

AWD is still currently missing. I can't get it to work over canbus like it should. I made a map in the infinity that controls an output and I have it setup how I like it. Basically any time the throttle is over 20% and boost is at 0 psi or higher it activates. Now I'm just trying to decide how I want to implement it. My original plan was to install a powertrac insert and power the pump with the ecu and a relay. Someone pointed out a delay with the pump building pressure. It sounds like the pump is normally on all the time and the haldex controls a valve. My new plan is to power the pump and figure out how to control the valve. This should give me AWD when I need and want it, while being easily configurable.

Clutch problems. I couldn't find anything on TTforum about this, but there is a big thread on vortex. On the O2M with the plastic cap on the end, you can add a shim that is present on the newer transmissions. My issued was that the input shaft was moving in and out and cause the clutch to drag with the pedal to the floor. This is after a new master cylinder, bleeder, slave and slave shim. The vehicle was literally not drivable. It wouldn't come out of first or reverse with the clutch pushed in. I hope this helps someone. Here is a video of the input shaft play.



http://imgur.com/a/RtOJPyn


Here's a pull of the car running better. We made two more revisions after this pull.



http://imgur.com/a/N6lK92t


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

After 13 years if ownership with a gray interior, I have started putting the black interior in and it feels like a new house!


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## IPG3.6 (Sep 5, 2015)

What as if some components weren't soldered down! I"m glad that didn't lead to anything more serious!

Next you're also doing an audio install?


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Been awhile since I've checked in here. Great to see it driving! Looks like it's going to be a real blast. Don't cut yourself short on proper control of the Haldex after all the other work you've done. With all the power you're going to have, I'd get it working properly with the HPA Touchmotion.


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

IPG3.6 said:


> What as if some components weren't soldered down! I"m glad that didn't lead to anything more serious!
> 
> Next you're also doing an audio install?


Im glad as well. Been driving it every chance i get now!

Also, not a crazy audio install. The sound deadening is more for NVH from the engine/exhaust and road noise. I had a 12" sub and JL door speakers, all powered by a 5ch amp. I'm upgrading to Alpine Type R component speakers and a bigger polk amp. I'm Undecided what sub and amp I'll use though.




torqueit said:


> Been awhile since I've checked in here. Great to see it driving! Looks like it's going to be a real blast. Don't cut yourself short on proper control of the Haldex after all the other work you've done. With all the power you're going to have, I'd get it working properly with the HPA Touchmotion.


As much as I want to use a normal Haldex controller, I don't know if that's going to be possible with only a partial can bus. I'm in the middle of designing a controller using an arduino and a stepper motor controller. This will give me variable AWD percentage based on throttle. This would be pro active, instead of reactive like the OEM/HPA setup. And it's already a blast on wastegate pressure only!


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

Fixing alot of quality of life things along the way here!

Upgraded HID system in the headlamps ✅️ 
DIY fix to the failed ABS controller ✅️ 
Fix to the blend air doors and no more foam shooting from vents ✅️ 

Also when switching from my Grey door cards to black ones, I got to install my Alpine Type R components my awesome girlfriend had gotten me for my birthday. 

Sorry the photos never upload in order. In the trunk area I welded four carriage bolts to the floor pan. I threaded some nuts on them which make the hight adjustable. From there I mounted some plywood to which I can screw my main fuse holder too, both of my amps and my underglow controller as well.


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## torqueit (Jan 22, 2019)

Alec's TT said:


> As much as I want to use a normal Haldex controller, I don't know if that's going to be possible with only a partial can bus. I'm in the middle of designing a controller using an arduino and a stepper motor controller. This will give me variable AWD percentage based on throttle. This would be pro active, instead of reactive like the OEM/HPA setup. And it's already a blast on wastegate pressure only!


I hear you on this. I don't know enough about how it all communicates to say what it would take to get the partial can bus happy. Perhaps something to come back to after you've got everything else humming along.


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## IPG3.6 (Sep 5, 2015)

Blend doors fix - it's inevitable especially at this age. Hope you replaces the heater core while you were at it!


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## Alec's TT (Dec 9, 2010)

IPG3.6 said:


> Blend doors fix - it's inevitable especially at this age. Hope you replaces the heater core while you were at it!


I didn't as I didn't take the heater box out, or the upper dash. Should I kick myself now?


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## IPG3.6 (Sep 5, 2015)

Alec's TT said:


> I didn't as I didn't take the heater box out, or the upper dash. Should I kick myself now?


You'll find out somewhere along the lines I guess!!!


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