The Project Pad

lol I did that, but with coolant. Makes you feel like an idiot.

loxxrider wrote:lol I did that, but with coolant. Makes you feel like an idiot.

HAHA, at least it was with coolant!!! If you catch it before you get warm, your safe. With Oil = SCREWED! I would very much like to avoid such mistakes at this stage in the game. :dur:

I just took a peice of tape and wrote "OIL" on it and stuck it to the steering wheel.

40v4kq wrote:I just took a peice of tape and wrote "OIL" on it and stuck it to the steering wheel.

Nice call!

Call me paranoid, but it worked :wink: On second thought, a fire extinguisher is never a bad idea either for a first start. Audis and fire seem to go together LOL.

haha, I had my dad standing by with fire extinguisher when I started mine. Better safe than sorry!

extreme90path wrote:One down, one to go...

ok, im sorry to have to say it but those brake brackets really scare the hell outta me!

there is soooo much leverage and heat cyclign going on around the brake caliper, that i really really REALLY dont trust these

sorry to be a downer, but i had to say something

I dunno, as long as those welds have excellent penetration I dont see a problem with that bracket design. Double shear on the strut side makes that part nice and strong. Certainly no worse than what ECS was putting out a few years ago

If you are really really concerned about it, a couple of triangle gussets could be the ticket!

my2000apb wrote:ok, im sorry to have to say it but those brake brackets really scare the hell outta me!

there is soooo much leverage and heat cyclign going on around the brake caliper, that i really really REALLY dont trust these

sorry to be a downer, but i had to say something

No worries apb, I honestly appreciate the feedback. I have seen your welding work in your thread and I have to say, it's safe to say you have the skills to back up your questioning these.

SO in my defense, If I didn't have full faith in these brackets there is no way in hell I would run them. When I built these, I had access to a lot better welding equipment and I can assure you that the brackets have excellent penetration. I know looking at the mounting nuts, you might question the rest of the welds. But rest assured, the rest of the welds have excellent penetration. As for the rest of the construction, I designed these so that they 'pinch' the stock mounting points in order to provide more rigid construction. Also as Marc says, the double sheer design also helps out with the surface mounting strength. Another thing to keep in mind is that I didn't increase actual brake torque all that much with this new rotor set up, and with a side-by-side comparison, these bracket are WAY more beefy than the stock units. So I honestly believe this set up should work out A-OK. Lastly I will ditch these at the first sign of trouble.

Someday, I would like to redevelop this set up to use B5 S4 rear rotors instead of the Corrado ones; but that's awhile out yet. When I do that, I will have some adapters machined out for brake duty.

mr_aj_johnson wrote:If you are really really concerned about it, a couple of triangle gussets could be the ticket!

Here are my thoughts on that bracket. If it is going to break, it will break at the weld. I too like the "pinch" design and think it was a good move. I also agree with Marc that good penetration is necessary (this applies to many things in life). If you really want to make sure they are safe, heat treat them as this will increase longevity due to increased fatigue life. If they were mine, I might just do a cross section on a test piece of metal with similar weld and if the penetration was good, I'd feel good too!

I keep a sheet of paper on my dash with a checklist of critical stuff like that that has to be addressed before I put the car on the ground or start it. Thinks like tighten ball joints, oil, axle bolts, etc.

loxxrider wrote:good penetration is necessary (this applies to many things in life).

Well said my friend.

Another thing I forgot to mention is I actually made 2 additional ones that I wasn't happy with because I didn't think the penetration was good enough (and they didn't turn out square). So long story short, I used ones I was 100 percent positive where safe and strong. Please don't let the welds @ the nuts be representative of the rest of the welds. I had to turn down the amps a lot to keep from totally melting the nuts into oblivion. After words, I also ran a tap through both the flange surface and cleaned the threads on the mounting nuts. SO, if these do break/crack for whatever reason, I will gladly present myself to the Motorgeek world for complete and utter public humiliation... What is it they say? Pride cometh before the fall.

If you feel they're safe go for it...

I always put a bolt in the nut to be welded, keeps threads clean and the right shape.

Getting close, keep it up!

are they home depot nuts? do you hae the backspace to put an add'l nut on the back?

my2000apb wrote:are they home depot nuts? do you hae the backspace to put an add'l nut on the back?

Ya, I added an additional nuts just to be safe (I had to grind them down to fit), it's just not pictured and no they arn't home-depot nuts.

not trying to be picky, i jsut dont want to log on to see some catastrophic event

my2000apb wrote:not trying to be picky, i jsut dont want to log on to see some catastrophic event

Of course. I appreciate the feedback man.

Ok Ben. My car is driving. Your turn!!!

Audilard wrote:Ok Ben. My car is driving. Your turn!!!

WOOOT! Congrats man! I'm getting there!

Ok, update time. Before anyone asks, no the car isn't going to be running tomorrow as per my previously stated goal. Being short a computer, fuel lines, FPR, WG, AWIC set up and oil cooler will do that to a guy. BUT! I do have a half decent update with plenty of picture whoring as always.

I finished up my Intake piping and got it all mounted (minus cleaning off paint pin marks)...

OH and please don't mind the EBAY BOV.






I also am almost finished up with my turbo oil feed lines with my crazy home made adapter. (Thanks derracuda for picking up my feed line for me!) OH and my adapter goes from : Random metric -> Inverted flare -> NPT -> -AN. ... ridiculous.



Anyways... That's about it for now... here are some random pictures for the road.

Looks nice man, I got a similar knockoff greddy valve w/e though gets it done.

Hows the water/air cooler setup coming, will you be able to add ice to it if you wanted?

Nice Ben. Keep plugging away at it, but it already looks as if it should run and looks fast.

Nice Ben!!! Labor day drive planned?