XUD + BOOST + WIN

[cwspellowe]

That's it, i'm converted. Bit of an essay this but I just felt like expressing my, erm, expressions.

Ok, where to start? I've always been a petrol head. Can't beat a V8 rumble or the scream of throttle bodies. And before today, the only cars i've ever driven have been petrol, with the exception of my asthmatic Transit 85/250 that has an electronic limiter to 70mph although god knows why, it barely even makes it to 65.

Today I went and threw caution to the wind and sent the Estate for it's MOT. No idea what the drive would be like, or fuel economy, boost leaks under load, state of tune, what crap was lurking in the bottom of the fuel tank, a complete unknown. Imagine someone saying "here's the keys for that car over there. Take it to its MOT. It might pass, might not. It's been sat dormant with no engine or suspension for 6 months and it's just been fitted with an engine that may have a warped head. And here's the thing, if it doesn't pass, you can pretty much kiss goodbye to that romantic weekend you have planned this week".

Fills you with confidence, right?

Nerves ran high as I slowly rolled it off the drive, backwards too to soften the pain of the sound of several things grinding around behind me. What I can't see can't hurt me, good philosophy. A sideways glance out of the wingmirror to make sure I give the curb plenty of room reminds me that 9" wide wheels don't fit on 306's. Not normally anyway.

Clunk the doubly shortened gear change into first, slight revs, and away we go. Nerves still there and i'm not sure what of more; the impending MOT or the drive to the station. Hopefully the extra 1" ride height will allow some suspension movement to make things more.. bearable?

Down the bottom of the street and round the village. 2nd gear. Sunken manhole covers seem to make a nice loud thud as they're traversed, maybe stay away from most of them. Lots of patch repairs around the place too, bang bang bang but nothing too bad, not like yesterday, not like when they were static. No bouncing, dampers seem to be controlling rebound ok. Up the hill to the top of the village, onto the main road.

Indicate right, roads are quite, rush hour is over. Should I? I probably should. No point being scared to rev it given the fact it's going to cover 800 miles in a week. Rather something breaks in the village than outside Manchester or, even worse, southern england...

Hold the revs, first gear, drop the clutch, BANG! Launches out of the side street and down the main road. Second gear comes too soon, almost pointless having first. Probably shouldn't have hit third at the revs I did in a 30mph limit. This doesn't feel standard though. This feels.. impressive. Boost gauge reads 18-19psi and holds it to 4.5k rpm. Not bad for an engine that just had the headgasket replaced and a custom FMIC. Only internal mod is the LDA grind and not a hint of smoke.

The avoidance of pot holes becomes second nature, and the sheer grip from the 350+lb springs and camber make it drive like it's on rails. Yes it's bastardly low but, combined with the GTI suspension parts, it drives better than the Sundance.

WTF?

Figured i'd take the scenic route to the MOT, up the motorway. Banged it up to 4krpm in 4th and saw the temp gauge climb so backed off. Soon as I did though it dropped back to bang on 83deg. Looks like the head's holding and the thermostat's working, that manual fan switch can stay off for now.

Pull in to the MOT station, hand him my keys, go for a walk.

An hour later, he hands me an A4 bit of paper declaring NOTHING went wrong, nothing to even advise me of. Three hours later and insurance paperwork is printed and the Post Office has my money.

10 hours later and i'm loving every minute of DTurbo ownership so far. Well played little estate, we got there.














/bored

[darrenjlobb]

lol....and thats just a stage 1 xud.....

Bolt a big blower on it and sorted pump, and you will be wondering why you have been farking around for petrols for years for!!

A high blown xud @180hp will do 50mpg, walk a '6 everyday of the week, and be about 4 times as much fun to drive....

[ginge191]

Too much to read at this time of the night, but by the looks of things, that car has been totallly worth it!

glad to see you enjoying the XUD toys

[cwspellowe]

Didn't even know it was a stage 1 til I drove it! Needs some work done tomorrow I think. Darren if it's not smoking i'm guessing more fuel? But it's peaking at 18psi so would appear to have been wound already right? So where to start? Wastegate, max fuel or gov?

[Stephen]

Nice read, Glad your enjoying the Xud fun! Miss my 306 every day, but i still have an xud in my life

And congrats on it passing!
Loved your gti6

[Eeyore]

good to hear it all went well and cant wait to see this at FCS! This really is a projec that i wish i was doing myself but itd be copying if i did the same now This makes me want more dturbo in my life!!!

[darrenjlobb]

If its clean at 18psi up the max fuel some until it hazes...

[cwspellowe]

Cheers bro, makes all the work the last few months worthwhile.

The thing i'm most in love with is that I put about 5L in using a jerry can which turned the fuel light off, been driving around all day/evening and the fuel light only just came back on, the GTI would see me pootling around yet the XUD had me flooring it every time I got a smooth piece of road. Fuel economy is crazy for the amount of fun you can have!

Also the turbo noise. it's actually scaring people at the side of the road! De-filtered at first as having trouble keeping the filter connected with its current routing, but it even dumps when you back off the throttle. Or at least whooshes. I'm not sure, but it sounds epic.

Strangely had a lot of thumbs up from people around town too.

[darrenjlobb]

Welcome to the world of diesel boost.... Try not to get to addicted...its a bad habbit but you know it makes sence

[ginge191]

you seriously cant beat the noise of a de-filtered, 'high' boosting turbo

[cwspellowe]

Hell no. But on the motorway at cruising speed I can still hear myself think. Love it.

[mark_airey]

Welcome to the world of diesel and boost and yes it is addictive.............

tuning works like this, add more fuel until it smokes, then add more boost until the smoke goes away and repeat...........once you reach the limit of the turbo fit a bigger one and carry on until it shits its self then buy another engine for £100 and start again

[ginge191]

^^^^^^^^^^

that is pretty much as accurate as you can get :clap:

[cwspellowe]

Makes sense. Just the fact it's boosting to 18psi without touching the wastegate, can't figure out what's already been done as no tell tale signs on the parts.

More fuel tomorrow then

[mark_airey]

Makes sense. Just the fact it's boosting to 18psi without touching the wastegate, can't figure out what's already been done as no tell tale signs on the parts.

More fuel tomorrow then

add more fuel and see what happens, if you just get more boost then the wastegate could be stuck closed,

but yeah thats about as hard as it gets, fit a manual boost controller and then all you need is a 13mm spanner

[Jenkosowls]

nothing more satisfying than something you've built you've tweaked you've tuned that why xuds are so full of win everything is so driver orientated and you can feel every difference you make iv dropped the t25 on mine and even though it's got a major gasket leak you can still feel the potential there!

[cwspellowe]

Yeah already having rude thoughts about a GT2056. Hmm, bonus due at work soon...

[Ruan]

Well, it'd be rude not to?

Don't worry, you'll soon be addicted to rattly, old, french, indirect injection diesels before you know it... They just have something about them...

You can't buy character...

[Mattcheese31]

this thread is win . . .and 18-19 psi is not enough . what turbo is on there anyway?

fcuking repping the XUD bruvva . . . . . :romance-grouphug:

[bigcheez2k3]

I think this is appropriate then

[cwspellowe]

Tis a T2 matt.

Dunno what came over me last night, got all emotional

[Toms306]

Haha, oh dear.

I must admit, although I'm not a fan of XUDs, I can otally see where you're coming from on the feeling of achievement of doing it yourself.

Only thing is, how did you find confidence so fast after doing all the work??...............I was driving below 1800rpm and no further than 10 miles for days after fitting my 150 turbo. And I'm still thinking all the time 'I done this, what if I didnt tighten X enough or forgot to put X back'.........I'm still taking the NAD if I go further than 15miles atm!

[strictly_perv]

I know how you feel, felt the same after putting the 1.9 in my 205, was pussy-footing around for a few miles then thought it needs a ragging. Then coolant started pissing out :roll:
You wait till you get a big blower on there! I drove my brothers stage 1 306 and it's, well, pretty tame to say the least.

[Ruan]

With big turbos and pumps, they turn into totally different animals.

[Mattcheese31]

Tis a T2 matt.

Dunno what came over me last night, got all emotional

get it wound up to min 25psi and fuel to match then . . . .

[Dum-Dum]

You can see why were all so addicted/passionate about them now.

Hoping I get my expenses this month as thatll nicely cover my turbo and some other bits.

[C.A.R.]

Just don't get all derranged into thinking that turbo diesels are better than Petrol powered equivalents to drive.


oops, too late

[WiNgNuTz]

lol....and thats just a stage 1 xud.....

Bolt a big blower on it and sorted pump, and you will be wondering why you have been farking around for petrols for years for!!

A high blown xud @180hp will do 50mpg, walk a '6 everyday of the week, and be about 4 times as much fun to drive....

I just HAD to sig that Darren!

Mr Pellowe...top work sir, wish i had the balls/knowhow to have attempted a project like this, and extra kudos to you for getting all so right that you got it through an MOT without even an advisory! :thumbup:

I so wish i could be at FCS to see the car in all its glory, but unfortunately ive got to miss out this year. Maybe another time! Until then, welcome to the world of XUD + BOOST!

[Dave]

Glad you've seen the light!

[bongo]

Great opening post, really well written and would love to have an XUD again to tinker with if space permitted as I loved driving my old one and the mechanical aspect to it but unfortunately not enough space.

Still find it funny that highly tuned diesels are compared to standard 6s though, especially considering that you can pick up a mint 6 for £1k that benefits from all the improved handling features as standard. Definitely more than one side of the coin to the argument.