VW Golf GTi Engine Rebuild Overhaul

July 17, 2020  •  2 Comments

After the APR K04 performance upgrade, I had to do an engine overhaul and rebuild, which was completed in end of February 2020. Karl, Isaac and team rebore the engine block and replaced a slew of components, including:-

  • Wossner pistons (for all four pistons)
  • Conrod and main bearings
  • Timing belt
  • Water pump
  • Oil pump
  • Pressure control valve (PCV)
  • High performance spark plugs (NGK BKR9)

The whole new bundle with labour costs me around RM13,900.00!

After a run-in period of 5,000km I had the car dyno tested again (but please take note that from mid-March there was a Covid-19 Movement Control Order (MCO), so since I hardly got a chance to drive my car, as we had to work from home, it took me a while to cover the required distance). Below are the results dated 18 July 2020 (this is the third dyno test) :-

VW Golf GTi - Dyno TestVW Golf GTi - Dyno TestPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

After engine rebuilt / overhaul.
APR K04 HPFP Intercooler Stage 3.

iPhone 6s Plus - 13.6

As you can see from the above graph:-

- the red coloured line is the original test before K04 upgrade,

- the blue line was after the K04 upgrade,

- the orange line was after the engine rebuild.

After the engine rebuild, there is a noticeable difference in surge by as much as of 50 Nm in torque at around 3,200 rpm, with a strong pull from as early as 2,500 rpm until 5,200 rpm. In fact, there is also an increase in power by as much as 30 PS at around 3,200 rpm, and certainly a good boost of power from 2,700 until 5,200 rpm. Compared to the original (although I already had done Stage 2 upgrades), I improved about 70 PS and 98 Nm! So now, my car has a max of 281 PS and 412 Nm (which is more than the Renault Megane RS at 280 PS and 390 Nm)! What can I say, the car just feels really, really good  。^‿^。


VW Golf GTi Turbo Performance Upgrade

December 03, 2019  •  Leave a Comment

As of this writing, my Golf GTi is almost 13 years old, and although it is working fine, I felt it was about time for me to get a new car.... However, in order to purchase a new car that is much better, it would be a very pricey consideration. I'll let you in a secret - my dream car would be the new Renault Megane RS, a beautiful and very sporty hot hatch. Unfortunately, that will set me back an easy RM300K but that would give me a 1.8L turbo providing 280PS and 390NM of driving pleasure controlled via its unique 4-wheel steering system. Sadly, with a 5-year bank loan (I don't think I could get a longer term as I'll be retiring then), I'd be chained tightly around the neck for a crazy repayment of RM5K per month or more! That's like buying an iPhone 11 Pro practically every month!

So, I guess buying a new car was out of the question.... I could buy a 2nd hand car and do it up, but the thought of buying a used car and the hassle of going through the purchasing process irked me.... Then I thought, hey, I already have a used car - my current one! Yup, it's in very good condition, and I certainly know the owner's (me) driving habits.... So, why don't I just give it a boost in performance and maintain it the usual way, I reckon it could last for another 10 years, insya Allah.

Hence, instead of putting a down payment of RM30K for a new car, I'd used the same amount (well, around RM27K), to bring new life into my current car! The last time I did any performance modifications was over 10 years ago, and it made a lot of sense to follow through with APR Malaysia to inject the needed speed. Karl, who successfully did the Stage 2 mods the last time, recommended the following upgrades:-

  1. APR K04 Turbocharger system + OEM Bosch Injectors
  2. APR Intercooler
  3. APR HPFP High Pressure Fuel Pump
  4. APR K04 ECU software ugprade
  5. NGK Laser Platinum PFR8 B Spark Plug

Note: My VW Golf GTi is a 2007 2.0L Turbo MKV FSI. It already has the following mods:-

  • APR Carbonio CAI Cold Air Intake
  • APR 3" Race Downpipe
  • APR Stage 2 remap

Performance Upgrades to VW Golf GTiPerformance Upgrades to VW Golf GTiJalan PJU 1A/3J, Ara Damansara, Selangor.

APR K04 Turbo + Injectors
APR Intercooler
APR HPFP High Performance Fuel Pump

Approx RM26K.

FinePix X100 - Digital Camera FinePix X100 Ver2.10


Standard - DxO PhotoLab 2.2.2

It took about a month for the parts above to arrive from USA after making the order, then Karl and his assistant Isaac plus technical team took around 4 days to install and test the entire system. Actually, it was supposed to take only 2 days, but there was a misfiring hitch that needed a while to troubleshoot, and was finally pinned down to one of the new injector being faulty, which Isaac replaced with a new and working one.

Performance Upgrades to VW Golf GTiPerformance Upgrades to VW Golf GTiJalan PJU 1A/3J, Ara Damansara, Selangor.

APR K04 Turbo + Injectors
APR Intercooler
APR HPFP High Performance Fuel Pump

Approx RM26K.

FinePix X100 - Digital Camera FinePix X100 Ver2.10


Standard - DxO PhotoLab 2.2.2

Also, a few other components needed to be replaced as they were discovered to be worn out, such as the cam follower, ignition coil pack, charcoal cannister, and air filter. By mid afternoon on 23 November 2019, all was completed and after a quick test drive, I was left smiling from ear to ear.

Performance Upgrades to VW Golf GTiPerformance Upgrades to VW Golf GTiJalan PJU 1A/3J, Ara Damansara, Selangor.

APR K04 Turbo + Injectors
APR Intercooler
APR HPFP High Performance Fuel Pump

Approx RM27K.

FinePix X100 - Digital Camera FinePix X100 Ver2.10
Standard - DxO PhotoLab 2.2.2

Mind you, before the installation, we had dyno'ed the car, to get a baseline of it's current performance stats, that is about 211PS and 314NM at the wheel, which is pretty good considering its age. A week after the installation, we did another dyno and the new output is a screaming 279PS and 386NM (on RON95 fuel)! Eat that, Megane RS...

VW Golf GTi Dyno Test #2

Having driven my upgraded ride for a week, which included an outstation spin, all I can say is, "Wow!" Although I didn't do any 0-100 km/h test runs, without a doubt, not only is it significantly quicker and much more responsive, it does so with incredible smoothness with way less effort and it seems to be pulling strongly right till redline, where before it would run out of breath past 5,000 RPM.

Below are the before and after dyno charts. Notice that the K04 graph is very smooth while the before graph (incorrectly labelled "stock" as it really is "stage 2") shows a rather jumpy and unstable curve. That could be due to anything from old spark plugs to an aging turbo unit and certainly means that the new K04 system has been installed and tuned properly and is performing remarkably well. In any case, after 3,000 RPM, there is a sudden surge in power and torque with a total jump of about 68PS and 72NM from the previous setup!

VW Golf GTi - APR K04 Dyno ResultsVW Golf GTi - APR K04 Dyno ResultsPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

-

You must understand, the standard, stock GTi is no slouch, so when Karl warned me that I must replace the existing braking system to a more stopping set (to be done another time...), he wasn't joking. I mean, this thing just rockets and doesn't seem to know when to slow down! Below 2,500 RPM it potters smoothly like before, but floor the pedal in Sport Mode, and you've unleashed a powerful beast bent on burning rubber on the tarmac, and leaving its stock rivals in a state of shock.... It's furious, unrelenting, and stupidly fast.

I like it.... very much ;-D

VW Golf GTi - APR K04 - Quick Test Drive

Enjoy the rest of the pics....


Drobo 5C with new Power Adapter

December 30, 2018  •  Leave a Comment

A few months ago, my Drobo suddenly stopped working. In fact, everytime I switched on my computer system, the entire house would trip. I thought it was the UPS that was short-circuiting, so I bought another, only later to realise it was not the UPS that was faulty. Thinking that the culprit was the Drobo, I called up Shashinki where I had purchased it from, and was told to send it to them for repair or replacement (it was still under warranty).

I didn't want to courier it to them, so when I had an outstation trip, I decided to drive down all the way to Skudai, Johor and deliver the Drobo by hand. Upon arrival at the shop on 29 Oct 2018, I met Dr. Koh King who is the man behind Shashinki, and he pointed out that most likely, it was the power adapter that was at fault, not the Drobo unit itself. Unfortunately, he said the adapter was not covered by the warranty, so I left the adapter with him, and over the next couple of weeks, he had tried to get hold of a new one, but it took so long that I finally decided to buy it online from Amazon on 17 Dec 2018.

To my surprise, the new power adapter from Amazon arrived on 31 Dec 2018 instead of the estimated 15 Jan 2019, and after plugging it to the spare UPS and connecting it to my PC, the Drobo 5C was alive again, and backing up all my datafiles successfully. Actually, the Drobo was out of action for so long that it auto-detected its firmware and dashboard software had to be updated to the latest version, which it performed promptly. Below you can see it straddled on top of the two UPSs.

Drobo 5C on top of APC UPSDrobo 5C on top of APC UPSPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Drobo 5C with new power adapter is now working and plugged into APC UPS.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
Standard - Capture NX-D 1.5.1 W


Speedy EVO SSD

June 11, 2018  •  Leave a Comment
My PC is over three years old now, and it's time for a mid-life upgrade.
 
So, to give it a quick performance boost, I decided to purchase and install a new solid-state drive (SSD).
This took in the shape of the new 1TB Samsung NVMe M.2 970 EVO SSD. Phew, what a mouthful! Touted to contain the latest tech that can result in high-speed read/write performance, which after installation I had tested to produce approx. 3,542 MB/s for read and 2,490 MB/s for write! Compare that to the SSD it replaces which is the 128GB Samsung mSATA PM851 that maxes out at 400+ MB/s.
 
Samsung 970 EVO SSDSamsung 970 EVO SSDPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD. RM1,672.
Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 PCIe Adapter. RM252.
Total plus shipping from Amazon, USA = RM2,127.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
 
Actually, it doesn't replace the existing SSD; you see, the Dell Area 51 R2 does not have a M.2 slot to install the new SSD. So, the only way to put it into my PC is to have a M.2 PCIe adapter. After some reading, I opted for the Angelbird Wings PX1 that contains a unique heatsink design to dissipate heat. Since the 970 EVO is a single-sided SSD, I could make use of the two provided thermal pads to sandwich the SSD in the heatsink. It was quite easy to install the SSD into the PX1 and later plug it into a spare x16 slot in the Dell (the other two slots were taken up by the dual nVidia GTX 980 in SLI configuration - this pair might later be replaced with the new rumoured nVidia GTX 1180, but that's another story for later....).
 
Samsung 970 EVO SSDSamsung 970 EVO SSDPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD. RM1,672.
Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 PCIe Adapter. RM252.
Total plus shipping from Amazon, USA = RM2,127.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
 
Allah swt must be kind to me, as this whole installation and setup process worked the first time with no hitches whatsoever.

Before commencing with the SSD upgrade, I did a full system and data backup. Having done that, with the PC switched off, I plugged in the PX1, and restarted my PC and confirmed through Windows 10 Device Manager that the new SSD was recognised. I then proceeded to install the latest Samsung NVMe driver as well as Samsung's Magician and OS Migration software. Magician reported the SSD was working as expected (I used this to test its performance) and then initiated the cloning process using the Migration tool. Once cloning was completed, I restarted the PC and checked the BIOS that automatically detected the new SSD to be in the first UEFI bootable sequence. After Windows 10 was up, which I instantly noticed a faster bootup time, I ran Disk Management that showed the 970 EVO was online while the older SSD was offline (this was due to a conflict in Disk ID - as expected after successful disk cloning). I then shrunk the volume of C: drive to about 200GB and turned the remaining space to D: where I would copy all my data from the existing HD, which would later become my backup disk. I also deactivated the older SSD as I was not going to use it anymore.
 
Samsung 970 EVO SSDSamsung 970 EVO SSDPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD. RM1,672.
Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 PCIe Adapter. RM252.
Total plus shipping from Amazon, USA = RM2,127.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
 
To ensure everything was working fine, I ran all my programs including games such as Dragon Age Inquisition, and noticed a much faster speed when loading mission data! Using HWInfo, I noted that the SSD temperature averaged around 50C which was nice and cool. All in all, a smooth and more responsive experience with the Samsung 970 EVO.
 
Samsung 970 EVO SSDSamsung 970 EVO SSDPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD. RM1,672.
Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 PCIe Adapter. RM252.
Total plus shipping from Amazon, USA = RM2,127.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
 
Samsung 970 EVO SSD Performance TestSamsung 970 EVO SSD Performance TestPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. 1TB NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD. RM1,672. Angelbird Wings PX1 M.2 PCIe Adapter. RM252. Total plus shipping from Amazon, USA = RM2,127.

Safe and Sound - the Drobo 5C

April 06, 2018  •  Leave a Comment
Over many, many years, I have been backing up my computer system and data by using external hard drives. I would make both system images and data backups on multiple drives and end up having a stack full of them in my room. Finally, I decided to go RAID...actually BeyondRAID...and bought the Drobo 5C. It's a Direct Attached Storage (DAS) device that can hold up to five (5) internal drives that can be of any capacity, speed or brand.
 
Drobo 5CDrobo 5CPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

DAS - Direct Access Storage. Backup System.
RM 2,280.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
Standard - Capture NX-D 1.4.6 W

It just so happened that I had five of these 3.5" 3TB external drives, which meant I could fill up the Drobo nicely. So what I did was cracked open the Western Digital and Seagate enclosures and stripped out its hard drives, which I then inserted into the Drobo. This saved me from buying new internal drives as I was able to reuse these older ones.
 
Drobo 5CDrobo 5CPJ Home, Lorong Utara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

DAS - Direct Access Storage. Backup System.
RM 2,280.

NIKON D700 - Ver.1.03
 
It worked like a charm, and after enabling dual-disk redundancy that allowed two drives to fail and still provide data protection, I silently copied over all my computer data to the Drobo.

It's so easy to install and setup, and a great relief that my backup system is more resilient than before and I manage to declutter my work environment at the same time.
 
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