The Project Pad

To some its just the sidewall. To others its crucial for a nice stance while still remaining functional. I find great satisfaction out of walking out to my car and seeing it sitting just right each and every day. With these wheels, I won't stop until its perfect. They are certainly the nicest I've had thus far.

I dont hate stretch, I actually sorta like it on some rides, but it seems like a conflict of interest on your car.

you are shooting for how much hp? even in the short term with the holset... 350whp? and you want to run a narrower tire than audi saw fit for a stock 217chp, comparatively cushy suspended car?

I probably wont break 275 whp with my lowly 20vt and I'm stuffing the biggest tire I can under the rear fenders (235/45-17), and I'm probably going to cut them sooner than later so I dont have as much camber as I do. plus if I do that I might step up to a 245/40-17 in the future.

To put it simply, thats what the S4 wheels are for

They only have 235's and 225's on them, but thats plenty with quattro if you ask me...unless you are in the rain. Also, I'd rather break the tires loose than break my 016 I'll get bigger tires when I feel like I can afford and have time for an 01E swap. Plus, spinning all four is FUN!!!

The reality is that these wheels will not be for daily driving status. They will go on when I go to shows, when I have photoshoots, and when I just feel like it. Otherwise, I like the S4 wheels.

Trust me, I LOVE having as much tire as I can fit (the 255's were awesome). In the future (when I can afford it) I intend to go as wide as possible. Eleven or more inches in the back is my goal. That will require some pretty respectable tire. Its a give and take situation!

IMO, it's a shame to see a wide wheel go to waste with a narrow tire, but whatevs. I leaves the stretchin' to the emo kids and rolls the way I rolls.

I am with Jonanthan, I really don't like the stretched look. I like the tire to be even with the rim, or even roll over the edge some, as well as keeping the whole shebang flush with the fender..The whole stretch and pole thing reminds me too much of the vortex MK4 crowd, with an 8" on the front and an 11 on the rear--which is cool on a rwd muscle car, but looks totally out of place on a fwd vw..My wife made me this gif below that I used to have as an avatar on a couple forums, but I caught so much heat for it I took it down LOL..Loxx if you are going to run an 11" might I suggest cutting the flares from a V8 and grafting them on?
FWIW, several witnesses watched me do donuts on dry pavement last year in my grey car, and it has 255's all the way around!! That was on smooth newly-paved blacktop though--I tried to duplicate it on older porous concrete and the car shot forward like it was launched from a cannon hahaha...

Oh, BTW Chris, those are HAWT!

Just for the record, I'll say the stretching has a lot to do with avoiding rubbing while still having the wheel lip flush with the fender.

Anyway, I don't think the V8 fenders would be needed to fit 11's. With the 10's from the Porsche I could have fit about another inch inwards. Maybe not with it as low as I like it however. Anyways, I'd like to do something with the fenders. I'm kinda hoping someone makes some custom fenders out of metal at some point. That would be awesome. If not, maybe I'll just have the fenders completely custom made with metal. Who knows if I'll even bother with that kind of thing though. It all depends on where life takes me. I may be happy with it just the way it sits and take my concerns elsewhere on the car. Its just stuff to think about!

I just cant wait to get this manifold!!

Went out to test the car for misfires after receiving D585 coils. I discovered that the misfire was still there (unfortunately) and then had a nice little case of unintended acceleration due to a broken throttle cam. FML

Installing new firmware now to see if that might be the culprit.

So now firmware is 1.1.67

Car runs again. This will be nice because I get to use VEMStune to tune instead of crappy megatune.



btw if anyone has a nice throttle cam they want to sell or if anyone makes them, etc. please let me know. I need one like whoa and I dont have $140 to spend on the one from 034 (although I might end up having to do it I spose).

Chris, do you know of a place that sells 3 piece wheel halves cheap?

You mean like barrels?

I really dont know...though I'd love to know. I wouldn't mind having some RS lips and barrels. I'll keep a lookout for you. All I know of is rbwheels, but thats for complete wheels...not barrels as far as I know but I'll look.

loxxrider wrote:So now firmware is 1.1.67

I just got that FW on the weekend. It seems really nice but I still cant drive my car so...

Yeah load-based dwell is nice and I haven't played with the vemstune much, but so far I like it

ShavedQuattro wrote:Chris, do you know of a place that sells 3 piece wheel halves cheap?

Tunershop.com sells halves, Kodiak makes custom lips/barrels, Schmidt will make lips for anything pretty much. Depends what wheel its for.

And FWIW a slight stretch, such as the 205/45 on an 8 really cuts down on sidewall flex. I noticed when i went from a 225/45 on a 7.5j to my current 205/45 on an 8j it felt more planted.

Chris,

Did the new firmware fix the misfire problem?

I have to tune the car from scratch now. Gotta calibrate the O2, redo my VE table, and a few other things before I can make some pulls. I also need the throttle cam before then unless I rig it up somehow lol.

Ahh, gotcha. That really sucks about your throttle cam, ha. Are you still able to drive it, or is the car parked for now?

It only takes about 20% throttle to get it stuck unfortunately, so for now its parked. I can throw some electrical tape on it and I'd trust it for a long trip or something. I just want a more permanent solution soon!

Ya, thats for sure! Pretty unsafe to run electrical tape, ha.

Sorry to ask a repeat question, but i forgot where i talked to you about this. Where again did you buy your turbo?

Yeah, well the tape isn't really under any stress other than holding the little piece in place. Once the piece is held onto the rest of the cam with a little bit of clamping force from some kind of source (like the tape) it takes all of the load from opening the throttle itself. Its not so bad, but yeah...its not like I'm going to keep it that way lol.

I got it from Goldfarb and associates. Just look up their website, find the phone number there, and give them a call. They are best over the phone. Just call and know what you are looking for. Either Holset H1C (have to make sure its the big housing one), Hx35 or Hy35. Hy's come with 9cm wastegated housings. Hx's often (but not always) come with 12cm wastegated housings which can be swapped onto the H1C's. H1C's come with 16 and I think some 18cm ones.

Awesome! Thats the info i needed! I think im gonna end up going with the Hx35 cuz of the 12cm housing. I should be able to get that around 150$, right?

I think they are up around $180 at Goldfarb now actually. Not sure on that though. You can find them other places for $150 if you are lucky. Guys on the Dodge forums sell them sometimes. I'd also check out vortex. Thats where I got my 12cm housing. It only took like a day and someone hit me up about it.

Just make sure to ask them how much shaft play, verify that its a 12cm housing, that there are no cracks in either housing and thats about all you can do. If worse comes to worst, you can always get a rebuild kit from cummins for $50-$80.

OEM finish vs my finish...



Spent about 4-5 hours tonight sanding the second one. Its ready for polishing tomorrow (today). Its going to be even better than the first.

Started retuning the VE table for this firmware. Its pretty fun learning more and more along the way, but scary to go WOT on a table I'm writing (with a little guidance). Tomorrow is d-day to see if this new firmware will help with the misfires. If not, next step is a huge ground cable from the engine to the chassis so see if that helps.

Oh and the current topic in my Controls class is PID tuning. Its pure awesomeness to be learning about something so relevant to my interests in cars.

Also got some time in the machine shop today to make more rings for people doing coilovers and think I might start making headway on the strut mount spacer things soon.

Wow, those wheels are looking really nice! What are you going to do as far as the centers go? Gold?

I'm still undecided, but 90% sure gold. I want to go with something more radical, but these wheels are classy, and deserve a classic finish AND I want to put them on my dad's car and I doubt he'd want bright blue or green or something on his car. The good thing is that both of the cars are white.

I've always wanted to do pearl white centers, but that would clash with the alpine white on the E36 and I dont think it would pop the right way. I'm very open to other opinions!!