DZLBUG's Silver Arrow 2000 GLS TDI

[Yello_jellybean]

LOL!!

[DZLBUG]

I was screwing around last night and took a crappy cell phone video of my side-exit mufflerectomy and put it up on youtube. It is pretty ghetto, and the cell phone really doesn't do the sound justice...it really distorts the sound and makes it sound more droning than what it actually is. I hope to see if I can get a better vid with my wife's digital camera...I would have used that but she is down in Chicago with a friend.

Take a look:
YouTube - VW TDI Side-exit Mufflerectomy

Plus you can hear my horribly noisy Fuzion HRi tires that I can't wait to get rid of. I apologize if you hear any heavy breathing, allergies are kicking my arse right now and I feel like Jabba the Hut.

[Flatliner]

Nice ride, looks good

[DZLBUG]

More misc. snapshots. One of these days I'll have the car cleaned up nicely with more mods done and I'll get some pics with a good camera. My brother wants to sell me his Canon DSLR to me so he can buy a better one, sounds good to me but I need a job first.

Lots of work lined up for the car:
- PP520 nozzles on freshly cleaned and calibrated injectors, ready to pop in.

- Custom steering wheel with black alcantara and perforated leather. It is actually bugasm99's old steering wheel that his brother did. Very nice.

- CAT fuel filter setup ready to go in

- 5 speed swap parts all in hand, including a SBC Stage III clutch, Dieselgeek Sigma 5 short shifter, and Audi S3 shift knob/boot.

- Will be ordering up a Whitbread 2.5" 304 stainless downpipe (no cat) to hook up to my Whitbread Weedburner exhaust.

- If all goes well I will be sending my ECU off to Rocketchip for an RC3+ tune with EGR delete while I am swapping the transmission. Yay for more power and no more CEL! Will bump it up to RC4+ or RC5 when I replace the turbo with a 17/22.

- ABD Cup bumper ready for paint and install. I hope to fit it while I have the car apart for the transmission swap. Then I can get it painted and installed sometime later.

- Eurojet SMIC sitting on the shelf, waiting for upgraded intercooler piping. Will probably install anyways (with stock piping) when I swap the transmission.

- Need to wetsand and/or repaint the Take5's I bought. Inserts will be Satin Black. Bought another set of inserts from Evanrude. I'll either paint them some shade of silver or I could end up reselling them. They need to be ready to go by spring, tires will be 215/55/17 General Grabber UHP, which is the same 26.3" diameter as my 205/70/15 snows and very similar diameter to the 215/60/16 Yokohama Geolandar AT/S tires that are going on the 16" rims.

- Other maintenance items (again, probably with the swap): tie rods, ball joints, TT LCA bushings, SEAT Leon Cupra R rear axle beam bushings, rear brakes and either 10mm spacers or 'vert springs to take the rake out of the suspension.

So I will be a busy boy over the winter...should be fun.

Anyways...I was saying something about pics. Lots of random stuff. Renee and I took a trip up north to Grand Marais and I took some pics at a scenic overlook on the Gunflint Trail. Also snapped some pics as I've been out in the field, working with my Dad. I think you should be able to figure out what is what.

[CoriBug]

You have a long to do list but it looks like fun. Nice pictures, I especially like the last 3.

[BEETLETHIS]

nice!!!

[pm22071985]

Originally Posted by DZLBUG

Lots of work lined up for the car:

- Custom steering wheel with black alcantara and perforated leather. It is actually bugasm99's old steering wheel that his brother did. Very nice.

- CAT fuel filter setup ready to go in

- 5 speed swap parts all in hand, including a SBC Stage III clutch, Dieselgeek Sigma 5 short shifter, and Audi S3 shift knob/boot.

- Other maintenance items (again, probably with the swap): tie rods, ball joints, TT LCA bushings, SEAT Leon Cupra R rear axle beam bushings, rear brakes and either 10mm spacers or 'vert springs to take the rake out of the suspension.

So I will be a busy boy over the winter...should be fun.

Sounds like alot of fun stuff. Your gonna have a completely diffrent car when its all said and done.

Look forward to a review of the Leon Cupra axle bushings, need to do it myself and can't find much input on them.

Does the SBC stage 3 setup flywheel still have the TDC mark?

[vibelife]

I love the car! I love the tails, but I am on the fence about the lift thing. Why is that again?

[Kuplamies]

I like those farmland pics

Cool harvester there and the field is looking so smooth.
Good soil, I bet...

[lolabug]

TDI FOR THE WIN 8D
Looks cleeeean!

[DZLBUG]

Brought these home from Discount Tire last night and put them on the car. 215/55R17 General Exclaim UHP, same 26.3" diameter as my 205/70R15 snow tires. They are mounted on the used Take 5's that I got for dirt cheap. Painted the inserts with Duplicolor Graphite Metallic wheel paint, restored the wheel finish with rubbing compound, polish and lots of elbow grease, and I even touched up the center caps where the black had faded. Masked them off and shot them with Krylon Plastic Fusion Satin Black. The end result are wheels that are a solid 8 out of 10. My old Rial wheels are being sold to a local TDIclub member for his wife's NB and the proceeds are being applied to my tire purchase.











Nice tires so far. Quiet, ride nice, very grippy. Did very well in the heavy downpour I went through today. I was going 70 with no issues, if I would've had my old tires on it would have been hydroplaning at 50.

I think I've stretched the transmission about as far as it can go. The car should be going under the knife on Friday night for the 01M-ectomy. Lots of other stuff happening at the same time. I'll try and take pics (sorry but I only have my cell phone camera to work with) along the way and will fill everybody in when it is all done.

Some of you may remember me mentioning that I got rear-ended by a woman in a Durango back in January. The bumpers matched beautifully (another advantage to the lift) and very little damage was done. Can't even see it from 5 feet away. I had a little bit of delay in dealing with it due to some bad events in my personal life...but on Monday I got a check in the mail for $810 from the woman's insurance company for the repair and car rental. But instead of fixing the minimal damage, I will be getting my ABD bumper painted ($250) and I will install it. I will also be sending the ECU to Rocketchip for RC3 and some other goodies will be bought with the remainder of the funds.

I can't wait to get all the work done, the car is going to be a beast when I'm through with it.

[pm22071985]

About time you got some crap done !!!
Looks AWESOME !!!!
Now get to work on the abd bumper & 5 speed swap and take some more pics !!!

[windie809]

Your take5's look great!

[VW Lady Bug]

Lookin' good! I like your wheel choices - I'm a 5-spoke fan too. And definitely diggin the side exhaust - any problems with scrapeage with it going under the rocker panel/side skirts?

[DZLBUG]

With how much my car is lifted, no I don't have any clearance problems with the exhaust. You might be able to get by with it on a stock height car, just watch out for tall speed bumps.

I'm pumped to finally get this work started on the car. I've been "going to do it" for far too long. Looks like I might have a couple days off next week. Which is good because it will give me more time to work and it will be less days that I have to drive my truck to work. Going from 40+ mpg down to 10 mpg (if I'm lucky) is going to suck.

[DZLBUG]

Some pics from the weekend. Not going to go into a lot of detail as it is past my bedtime. Not as productive of a weekend as I had hoped, but still knocked out a fair amount of work.

Fitted the Eurojet SMIC, definitely NOT plug and play. Had to do some considerable sawzall work to make room for it. Had to get creative with the mounting tab to get it to line up. Ended up stressing/fatiguing it and the aluminum was starting to tear apart. Wrapped some of that quick steel putty stuff on there to brace up the distressed mounting tab. Still need to get a longer piece of hose for the lower intercooler pipe. Used some heavy duty adhesive back felt pad (meant for furniture) to pad the intercooler from the cuts I made and from the skid plate mount post. Still need to refit the intercooler ducting to ensure good airflow through it. Will be installing a vented fender liner from a Turbo S.

Got the new bumper fitted, a little bit of minor work needed...but it fits quite well. Back of turn signal just barely hits the intercooler, shouldn't be an issue. Handling the bumper/fenders with no help...don't recommend it. I'm glad I taped things up as well as I did. That will be going out for paint this week.

Did some thinking/scheming of how to build a rally/light bar. This new bumper will make it easy. Some KC daylighters with an HID kit should work well, but would only be used on dark and lonely country roads. I don't just want to see the long-legged rats (whitetail deer)...I want to singe the hair on their ass. Also trying to figure out how to mount my Micro DE fogs. I have a good spot picked out, though the power steering lines on the driver's side may be in the way. A 3000k HID kit will be installed in them, those fogs really perform well with the hid kits surprisingly. Also did some preliminary planning for the airhorn install I have mentioned previously.

As for the 5 speed swap work, I've been working on that too. Got the exhaust and shields out. Interior is mostly apart so I will get the shifters swapped out tomorrow (well today actually - as long as I have the day off of work. New downpipe/muffler have been fitted so they are ready to go. Axles are ready to come out. Have a few things moved out of the way under the hood. Hope to get the trans out very soon, that is my next goal.

ECU is getting sent off to Rocketchip this week for RC3. New PP520 nozzles on freshly cleaned, calibrated and balanced injectors are ready to go in. This car is going to be quite peppy and will be looking good when I am done.

Now that I've BS'ed way more than I intended, here are the pics. Pretty self-explanatory stuff.



One of my supervisors/helpers:




Stock intercooler:


The inspector is on the job:

[wawalker]

I need a license plate that has "ADD" on it.

Looking good.

[DZLBUG]

Thanks Bill. My (soon to be ex) wife laughed at me when I got them, she picked up on the ADD connection before I did. I wasn't too pleased with the new plates myself, but mainly because I hate the new style that MN went to. The older ones were stamped (at the prison that is about 4 miles from me) and the letters were blue. These new ones are printed only, and the letters are black, they look cheap if you ask me.

I liked the old ones I had on my truck, still have them on the shop wall. EVL-525

I'd like to get personalized plates someday. Possibilities:

GOTSOOT (credit to Growler, though I thought of it before I saw his plates)
SOOT U
SOOT IT
GOTTORQ
TORQ IT
GOTSMOK
EVL BTL
GOT TDI
TDITORQ
TDI PWR
19 TO 1 (compression ratio - actually 19.5:1)
MPGEEZ

Any other suggestions?

[pm22071985]

Originally Posted by DZLBUG

Fitted the Eurojet SMIC, definitely NOT plug and play.....

Handling the bumper/fenders with no help...don't recommend it..

Did some thinking/scheming of how to build a rally/light bar...

That is a roomy garage, uber jealous.
Your the third person this weekend that said Eurojets SMIC are a pain.
Dont go invisible with the light bar, I want one.
I messed with the votex bumper by myself, I understand how much of a pain that can be.

Originally Posted by DZLBUG

I'd like to get personalized plates someday. Possibilities:

EVL BTL

Go EVL, pics look good.

[DZLBUG]

Eh...my garage sucks. The one that is attached to the house that is. This is the shop, aka Men's Crisis Center, currently known as the He-Man Woman Haters club - see (soon-to-be) ex-wife.

The shop is 24'x32' insulated and sheetrocked. In-floor radiant heat, through the wall A/C (will cool it down to 60 or below on a 90 degree day), cabinets and counter space, fridge (may turn into kegerator), couch, recliner. Wired for ethernet (though I don't need it with my wireless network), telephone and cable TV. About the only thing it doesn't have is a bathroom, 2 post lift and a scantily-clad female shop assistant with a willing personality. I have a piggy-bank fund (with only a few pennies at the moment) that will go towards a 42"+ HDTV for the shop someday.

I'll try to not have the light bar be vaporware like so many others, its on the back burner for right now but I'd like to make it happen this year. Pic of one of the mounting points highlighted is below, same spot on the other side as well. As you can see, the ABD bumper really makes this easy. And the bumper will also make it easy to install/remove if I make it like I plan, since I can reach up from underneath, even with the grill mesh in place. Stock or Votex bumper won't be so easy, and will require holes to be drilled.

Essentially what I plan is this:
1" or 1.5" steel tubing. Mount will be made out of slightly bigger diameter pipe than the main tubing and will bolt to the car. The light bar will then slip into these mounts and secure with a lynch pin of some sort. The light bar itself will come straight out, then make a 90 degree bend up that is angled 45 degrees towards the centerline of the car and brought up so that the pipe will be level with or slightly above the actual bumper support area (right above the license plate). Once to that height it will bend 45 degrees again to go horizontal. That should make it so that the light bar won't get in the way, and the centerline of the lights should be slightly lower than the centerline of the headlights. Again, just a scribble below to illustrate.

I'm going to try to do a rough fabrication with conduit or something else easy to work with. Then bring that to a fabrication shop to get the final pieces made. Then have them powdercoated with a black wrinkle finish. There is a fab shop/powdercoater in the small town that I work in, so I'm hoping to get it done there. We'll have to see if anyone else is interested, and should divide up the cost equally.

I'm not going to deal with wiring or actual light mounts, there are readily available aftermarket solutions for that. And that way people can configure it how they want. For me, I'm thinking 2 6" Daylighters with HC3 HID kits in them. There are some examples out there on teh internets that look like they have turned out very well with good output. This isn't meant to be something that is used in traffic anyways.

Let me know what you think.