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From YourSITE.com Technical Features In previous Project A3 installments, power upgrades that have been done to the car were detailed. One can throw power at anything, but if you cannot control that power than it is of no use to the driver. With a coilover suspension, rear sway bar, and bigger brakes already installed and covered, attention swung toward another area that requires control – engine and transmission mounts.
One popular solution for this involved replacing the mounts that held both the transmission and engine to the chassis. The factory mounts are usually made of steel and rubber bushings that allow a lot of unnecessary movement. This movement is engineered into the car to produce maximum ride comfort to the driver, though the down side of this is a lot of play or movement in these large pieces of hardware under more extreme circumstances. Engines weigh a few hundred pounds and transmissions are not that far behind, so once those masses are set into motion, they aren’t always that easy to stop. To keep that movement from happening to being with, you need components and mounts that are more rigid. The best solution would be to find a set of mounts that achieve a higher level of rigidity while still leaving a generous amount of play in order to retain some comfort. A manufacturer of just such a collection of mounts is VF-Engineering.
Best-known for giving naturally aspirated engines a boost with supercharger systems, VF has given quite a bit of attention to other areas of the drivetrain as well. Again, what is power without control? VF makes new engine and transmission mounts for several Audi, VW, Porsche, and BMW applications. They take their knowledge of how things work and develop billet aluminum mounts using polyurethane bushings to make problem areas of the car perform better than their original OEM pieces. There are benefits to using the aluminum and polyurethane constructions vs. the OEM steel and rubber. The aftermarket products help reduce weight, mass, and movement in the OEM pieces. Polyurethane is a much harder substance than the regular rubber mounts that Audi uses from the factory. However, even being more solid, polyurethane still allows some room for movement. With the VF mounts, you can reduce the unwanted movements of those major drivetrain components, effectively controlling the car better. If your engine is not rocking back and forth under hard gear shifts then it moves less. Less movement translates to a smoother feeling shift and also a physically smoother driving car.
Quoting the VF-Engineering web site: “The Audi factory mount is hydraulic and constructed from rubber vulcanized onto a steel plate. The rubber cavity contains a viscous oil which dampens shock and vibration loaded onto the mount via the transmission. Typically over a period of time failure occurs when the rubber cracks leaking out the oil. VF-Engineers chose to redesign this mount by eliminating the oil and designing the mount using a single piece of polyurethane instead of rubber. The new design is setup for longevity and stability.” VF makes the mounts for both the engine and transmission for a most thorough transformation. The VF kit consists of three total mounts. Two are engine mounts and one is a transmission mount. Complete info can be found at www.vf-engineering.com under their Accessories section. You have the choice of doing all three or just one if you prefer. The two engine mounts are the more commonly known upgrades, especially the “dog bone” mount. People call it a “dog bone” because the shape is not far off from the stereotypical dog bone. This is the lower rear engine mount that goes underneath the vehicle. The mount connects the engine to the chassis and prevents it from rocking forward and backward. Under hard acceleration where the engine changes speeds and rpms frequently there is a strong tendency for it to move or rock back and forth. The dog bone mount reduces this movement dramatically giving the car a less violent feel under hard driving and gives the driver better control over the cars actions. The second engine mount connects to the side of the engine in the upper area of the engine bay. Like the dog bone mount this side mount from the factory has rubber bushings. With the polyurethane VF mounts in place, that movement is once again reduced by a considerable amount.
The third and final piece is the transmission mount that controls the movement of the transmission. It is not uncommon that polyurethane bushings available in the aftermarket are usually so stiff that cause a lot of vibration to carry through from the engine to the steering wheel while the car is at idle. Fortunately, we’ve experienced little to no vibration during idle or slow acceleration, the places that would normally be most telltale. We’ve now logged about 2,000 miles on the car with the mounts in place, and the results have remained the same. Derek and the crew at Exklusiv Motorsports came through once again with the install and pictures related to the install. Complete instructions of how to do this can be found at www.vf-engineering.com. A few things to make sure to do while installing are simple but can be overlooked. All mounts are very straight forward and easy to install if you take the right precautions and do the steps in order. To relieve stress from the motor it is a must to dismiss some of its weight. To do this, the motor needs to be jacked up slightly using a floor jack or engine stand. Doing this takes some pressure off the mounts and allows you to unbolt them one at a time. If you do both of them at the same time, you run the risk of getting the motor of its axis and out of alignment. It is best to do one of the two side mounts at a time, removing one OEM mount and installing the new VF mount before moving to the other side.
The dog bone mount can be installed in just minutes using basic tools with the car on a lift. Basic tools are needed and a torque wrench is a must. Once all the supplied bolts are in place, VF recommends that you torque them to specific amounts to ensure they stay where they are supposed to. I can say that after driving around on a daily basis, including some autocross experience, that the car reacts and acts with more of a solid and natural feeling that it did before. It is difficult to tell just how much of a difference this made in the transmission mount because of how quick the DSG shifts, but there is a feeling of smoothness that was not there before. The engine rocking back and forth is nearly non-existent now and there is little to no vibration of the steering wheel. The overall quality of the mounts and their construction is most impressive. From the polyurethane and billet aluminum construction to the heavy duty bolts, the quality of these pieces is top notch. VF-Engineering is the brainchild of Nik Saran, a car enthusiast that started out by putting supercharges on VR6-equipped VWs back in 1996 in the UK. Since then they have worked closely with the OEM manufacturers and have gotten cars before they were available so they could develop aftermarket upgrades. These upgrades range from engine mounts to supercharger kits making huge amounts of power, and even their newly released turbo upgrade kits for VW, Audi, BMW, and Porsche.
All good things have to come to an end, closing from the Project A3 DSG mastermind... It has been one whirlwind since ProjectA3 got started. From the beginning we wanted the car to be an early leader among the A3s that would soon to be built, but had no clue just how far it would go. From being the first car in the US to unveil the newly released Nothelle product line to the coveted OEM S4 Recaro seats, Project A3 DSG has been a fun ride. I had never modified a car to this extent before. I had come close with a previous Volkswagen GTI VR6, though that car came to completion after 5 years of ownership. ProjectA3 evolved in a much shorter amount of time – from purchasing the car in May 2005 to the first modification of the S4 mirrors in August then to the six week span of when we heard the car would go to the SEMA Show until it was complete, it surely has come a long way. I am truly thankful to Fourtitude and its editor George Achorn for trusting me in the beginning to come through on this. I also want to send a huge thanks to all of the sponsors of the car and to those that have helped along the way. I have to give some of the biggest thanks to Derek and Paolo at Exklusiv Motorsports. You guys touched nearly everything installed on the car and the speed and workmanship of that the work was done in a top notch manner. I cannot thank you enough for the help you provided with on this project Special Thanks To: Exklusiv Motorsports www.exklusivmotorsports.com Tunershop www.tunershop.com Nothelle www.nothelle.com ECS Tuning www.ecstuning.com KW Suspension www.kw-suspension.com APR Tuning www.goapr.com Carbonio www.carbonio.com Oettinger www.oettinger.com Eurojet Racing www.eurojetracing.com VF-Engineering www.vf-engineering.com Falken Tire www.falkentire.com VAG Parts www.vagparts.com Custom Euro Plates www.customeuroplates.com Schmidt Wheels www.german-wheels.com/ Hillside Imports www.hillsideimports.com North American Motorsports www.namotorsports.com Evolution Motorsports www.evoms.com Neuspeed www.neuspeed.com Audi North Scottsdale www.audinorthscottsdale.com
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