Last Day

Last day of the APR sale!  Do it! Now! Here is a dyno chart from APR.  As always, take provided dynos with a grain of salt.  This is horsepower and torque at the flywheel.  Realistic wheel horsepower figures are around 215-220.

R-Line Fog Grills

This is a picture of the R-Line fog grills from Europe.  You can get them from places like oemplus.com or ECS Tuning I think.  The center grill is from a Jetta.  They used to cost about 70 bucks, but the price has gone up.  Now they cost about 125 plus shipping from Oemplus.  Just another option for people wanting to change up their front end.  Combined with a the Jetta upper shield, I think it’s looks a little sleeker than the standard honeycomb.

Nothing to See Here

Just a pic of the ol’ whip and the awesomeness known as stock exterior.  Can’t leave today hangin’.

VAG COM

If you are anywhere close to a Volkswagen enthusiast, you need to go grab yourself a VAGCOM.  It’s basically a cable that allows your laptop to communicate with the proprietary VAG interface on your car.  It allows you to customize many different electronic functions on your car.  For example, you can kill the DRL’s, the nanny chimes and dings, and enable remote window controls.  More importantly, it  allows you to diagnose problems that may occur down the line without having to go to a dealer.  Definitely a plus.  Unfortunately, the dealers are mostly apathetic to your concerns, especially if it involves free work, aka warranty.  I picked mine up used for a great price.  They are a bit pricey new, but still totally worth it. Visit Ross-Tech.com for more information.

Don’t bother to get the fake ones on eBay.  They don’t work with the software.

AWE Vent Mounted Boost Gauge

The AWE vent gauge was one of my earlier modifications.  A boost gauge is another essential mod to this car, especially once you start modding a little bit.  The most important reason for having one isn’t so much as to know what your max boost is, it’s to find out whether you have a problem somewhere along the line.  Knowing whether or not you’re losing boost pressure can help you figure out what is going on with your engine.

There are countless options for siting a gauge.  AWE’s sits on the aforementioned driver’s side vent.  Eurojet’s upcoming solution also sits there.  VMR has a gauge that sits in the center stack vent.  New South has one that locates on the steering column.  For aesthetics, I think the vent gauges look the cleanest.  The New South gauge is cheaper than most but its placement on the steering column just looks plain ugly to me.

Edit 7/29:  I added a stock photo from AWE’s website to show how clean this thing looks.  I recommend purchasing the AWE gauge if you can.  Installation was easy enough thanks to precise instructions.  If you need help, you can ask your friendly neighborhood forum- i.e. golfmkv.com, or vwvortex.com

5/25/2011

There are now countless variations of the vent pod gauge.  The best way to get a feel for them is to search the forums for some information.  The AWE gauge is still my recommendation and the gauge is now purely electric, eliminating any buzz that mechanical gauges might have.

EuroJet PCV Fix

This is the Eurojet PCV solution.  It is essentially two pieces of silicon with a machined aluminum check valve.  The check valve ensures that boost does not leak out of the intake manifold and into the crank case.  It also supplements the stock check valve.  It does what it needs to without any frills.  However, the flow of the check valve is not really known.  The stock pcv valve goes from open to closed with hardly any pressure.  Eurojet’s valve is stiffer.  I’m not saying that this is necessarily a problem but it is different from the oem valve’s operation.  For those who want a pcv fix that allows the pcv to function as intended (route crankcase vapors to the intake under vacuum) this is the fix.  Volkswagen has released newer, updated revisions of the oem pcv valve but failures can still occur under higher than stock boost levels.

I still feel that the newer catch can solutions are still your best bet for fixing boost leaks involving the pcv system.  It’s a little more maintenance (having to empty the can out) but it helps keep the intake tract a little cleaner.

Cam Follower – 66,000 Mile Update

About 10,000 miles on follower

I’ve put about 10,000 miles on this new follower.   The picture doesn’t show too well, but you can barely make out some wear in the center.  I wasn’t expecting it to look that good.  That’s great news for me.  Other people haven’t been so lucky.  Oil has been Lubromoly 5w-40 the entire time.  Now that I’m chipped, we’ll have to wait and see whether that affects anything.

Forge Diverter Valve Picture

Just another picture.  This is a Forge part from the BSH DV kit.  This thing is huge.  And also very well made.

BSH Stage II PCV Fix

VW has managed to create a rather unreliable pcv system on this engine.  They typically fail on chipped cars but failure is common enough on stock cars that  VW has a TSB out for it.

This part replaces the VW front pcv system completely and limits the amount of oil going through the intake manifold.  Why limit oil ingestion?  The biggest reason is that with direct injection, no fuel washes over the intake valves to clean off any oil.  Oil eventually just builds up on the intake valves and causes poor airflow and misfires.  This applies to many direct injection engines.  The pcv system is now routed through a catch can as well, separating fuel, oil and water vapors from the pcv tract.

Why is it good for your engine?  Basically it keeps your intake valves cleaner, removes vapors that can possibly dilute the oil and prevents them from reaching the combustion chamber.

There are numerous manufacturers coming out with pcv catch can systems for the FSI engine.  Eurojet has a very nice one coming out, as well as Forge.  You can’t go wrong with any company, the car just needs one.  I’m looking at the Eurojet one myself, their milled can just looks too sweet.

Heres the BSH Can.  This is the first generation one and it no longer looks like this.  It now has a metal side fitting and integrated drain valve.

They have a Stage I system which provides assurance against PCV failures and separates the intake valves from the oil vapors.  However, oil vapors and what not are still flying through the pcv system.  I’d still recommend the stage II if you have the cash.

1/20/2010 Update:

Several companies now also sell a vent-to-atmosphere setup or VTA.  This removes the recirculation completely, but vents out into the open air.  The can has a small filter opening at the top and vapors vent out here.  It can smell if you’re idling around and may leave a small area of condensation around the can.  It’s not for everybody and is definitely not emissions legal.  There is also a debate as to whether or not the engine performs better with vacuum drawing vapors out of the valve cover and crankcase.  Personally, the smell and mess it makes in the engine bay is not worth it.

5/25/2011

As these cans put on the miles, I can tell you that they are not the end all fix to the carbon buildup problems that direct injection engines have.  They may in fact make little difference to the amount of deposits.  However, they do keep oil out of the intake tract and prevent some of it from being burned in the combustion chamber.  They also replace the failure prone stock pcv valve.

BSH Pendulum Mount

BSH Pendulum Mount

Overview

This is BSH’s pendulum mount, also known as the dogbone mount.  It replaces the stock cast unit with a stronger anodized billet piece which features polyurethane bushings and stainless steel hardware.  It also includes an insert to stiffen the subframe mount as well.

Installation

Installation is easy provided you have a breaker bar for the subframe mount bolt.  That thing is in there tight.  Other than that, it is a very straightforward unbolt and replace procedure.  This is the easiest of the three mounts to replace.  The two other mounts must be replaced as a pair.  Only the pendulum mount can be replaced as a single piece.  There is an installation manual on the BSH website but it seems to be down at the moment.  Here is an excellent one from the golfmkv forums.  Installation

Impressions

I’ve had the mount on for quite  a bit now.  It attaches at the bottom of the tranny case and links to the subframe.  This keeps the engine from rocking back and forth under throttle.  Build quality is great.  It is black anodized aluminum and comes with stainless hardware.  BSH isn’t known for pretty bits but I’ll say this piece is rather beautiful to hold.

NVH is very close to stock and after it all settles in you won’t be able to tell you changed it in terms of vibration.  Engine response feels much better because there is less of that rubber band effect when putting your foot down.  Wheel hop is also reduced.  This also supposedly makes shifting in a manual transmission car a little quicker but I can’t comment as I have the DSG transmission.

Overall

This is an excellent addition to the car the most owners should make.  There is practically no NVH penalty and the part is cheap in terms of mods.  The part performs its duty well with excellent fit and finish to top it off.  Highly recommended and one of my favorite mods.

BSH Pendulum Mount aka Dogbone Mount