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From YourSITE.com Technical Features In the last installment of Project TT Coupe, we focused on enhancing the car’s interior. In keeping with the enhanced environment theme, it was now time to direct our attention to the car’s engine compartment. In addition, there’s been some fine tuning of our suspension through some additional changes in hopes of regaining the steering feel and response of the original MKI TT. This time, we finally achieved our goal.
Evan recently purchased a used TT and has been busy creating some exciting items for it. One of the first was an engine cover hardware kit. The kit consists of 52 pieces - 14 custom CNC machined aluminum washers, 16 stainless steel bolts, 8 custom CNC machined brackets, and 14 rivets, with washers available with or without the classic TT ‘dimples’. The kit is extremely well done with the height of the washers’ specific to their application. They replace all of the plastic fasteners and other hardware utilized to hold the two engine covers, front cowl covers, coolant tank cover and battery box cover in place with easy-to-remove 4mm allen head stainless bolts. We opted for the washers with the TT dimples. The install is simple and the included instructions were excellent. After installing the kit, we sat back and admired what great visual addition it is to the engine compartment.
However, as you can see in the pictures, with our Modshack Tuned VTDA, there was one location we felt we missed where the attachment bolts are visible next to the shock tower. Since this location is not visible with the stock airbox in place, these washers were not included in the kit. With this in mind, we opted to order a few more medium washers and stainless steel bolts, using them to bolt the VTDA to the shock tower in order to complete the look. With those items in place, we gave our friends at TTStuff another call and ordered up some Forge Motorsport covers for the coolant tank, oil cap and strut towers. These beautiful CNC machined aluminum pieces, complete with the trademark TT dimples, are a perfect compliment to 42 Draft Designs hardware kit. The covers come in either polished aluminum or a black anodized finish, and as you can see, we opted for the polished aluminum finish.
The coolant cap and oil cap pieces are covers which simply fit over the stock caps and are secured with small inset allen screws. While the coolant cap went right on without a hitch, the oil cap cover required that we grind off a bit of the OEM cap in order to make it fit. Apparently a switch to a slightly different cap in later models requires this slight modification. For installation, we simply took out the dremel and ground off a little bit at a time around the base of the plastic until the Forge piece slipped securely in place. The Forge items also included matching strut tower covers. The original plastic covers that come on the TT didn’t quite fit right over our KW Variant3 struts, which have the longer adjustment tab sticking up from them. We were initially concerned that the Forge pieces might not fit either, but a quick email to Forge assured us that there would be no problem. The strut caps simply screw on to the struts. We are extremely pleased with the results and look of the 42 Draft Design and Forge Motorsports pieces. They compliment each other very well and add a touch of class to the engine compartment. Also – if you look closely, you’ll notice some black SFS silicone hoses, T-bolt clamps and a Greddy RS diverter valve relocated to the front of the engine compartment. Those items are associated with the Forge Motorsports front mount intercooler we recently installed along with an MCPi Inc. DV relocation kit. We finally had the opportunity to dyno Project TT with these parts and will report back to you on the results in an upcoming installment.
Speaking of MCPi Inc., this company is also responsible for providing us with some new suspension components that were recently installed on the TT. The name MCPi, Inc. might conjure up visions of some large industrial company, but it is in fact the brainchild of fellow TT enthusiast Mike Phillips. As mentioned in the third installment of this series, one of our goals was to try and regain some of the steering sharpness and turn in response of the original MKI TT’s that was lost in the post recall suspension design. Since finding original MKI lower control arms is nearly impossible or ridiculously expensive, we originally opted to install Powerflex poly urethane bushes at the front lower control arms. While impressed with the improvements offered by the Powerflex bushes, after awhile we noted some harshness and vibration returning over time to the steering, especially on low frequency bumps. We figured this was probably due to the need to regrease the bushes and plan to do that along with our next alignment. In the meantime, unbeknownst to us, MCPi Inc. was working on something that would make the need to find original MKI lower control arms irrelevant. After suffering the same frustration in trying to locate original MKI lower control arms as other TT enthusiasts, Mike decided to take matters in his own hands.
The result was the creation of machined aluminum inserts that allow the use of the smaller original MKI lower control arm bushes. These inserts, named DEFCON, in reference to the “arms” race, are pressed into the front of the lower control arm in place the large eccentric bushes. There are four DEFCON levels, all including the inserts, along with varying types of front and rear bushes. DEFCON 1 is the stiffest of the group, which includes Powerflex poly bushes and MKII TT rear lower control arm bushes that are stiffer than the original MKI rear bushes. DFECON 2 is the same as 1, except that standard front MKI bushes are included in the kit. DEFCON 3 includes the softer MKI rear bushes so it is effectively an exact replica of a MKI lower control arm. Finally DEFCON 4 includes only the insert and MKI front bush and is the least expensive option. Each kit includes all of the required bolts for installation. You can even have them lasermarked to personalize them as well. These DEFCON kits can be purchased from Steve at the Modshack http://www.modshack.info/defcon.htm.
We opted for DEFCON 2’s along with our personal lasermark. With our DEFCONs in hand, we headed off to Stasis Engineering at Infineon Raceway to have the kit installed. While DEFCONs can be self-installed, you will need access to a press, something we didn’t have lying around in our garage. Stasis is well known for their SPEED World Challenge Touring Car A4’s as well as their braking and suspension systems upgrades, but perhaps less known for their excellent service department. In addition to the DEFCON install, we also had Stasis perform our 60k service, which included the timing belt replacement and a host of other items. After picking up the car from Stasis, the first thing noticed was that the car would now need to be realigned following the install. We did anticipate this prior to booking our appointment, and since Project TT hadn’t had a good alignment in almost a year, we knew it was due for one anyway. After having the alignment performed at a local shop, we headed off to one of our favorite roads to see if the DEFCONs were worthy of praise. In a word (or two), “hell yeah!”. Steering feel was greatly improved and the turn-in response is much crisper, almost like someone changed the steering rack to one with a tighter ratio. Honestly, we were shocked. In fact, it was something we had to get a bit acclimated with, because previous steering inputs had to be reduced in order to compensate for the changes to the car’s responsiveness. Overall, we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Another effect noticed immediately was that harshness and vibration were eliminated as well. Upon examination of the poly bushes we removed, we did note the lack of lubrication, but also the slight scoring of the sides of the bushes where they were actually rubbing on the subframe. It appears that due to the size and design of the poly bushes, the extra material on the sides of the lower control arm was actually binding a bit, which in conjunction with the lack of lubrication was the cause of our harshness and vibration. No such worries with the DEFCONS and the original stock bushes. It should also be noted that MCPi Inc. will also be teaming up with our friends as Streetwerke to provide DEFCONs to the Volkswagen R32 crowd as the R32 shares a similar suspension layout with the TT. It’s encouraging to see more well-established tuning firms such as Streetwerke teaming up with smaller companies such as MCPi Inc. to benefit the enthusiast community. In the next installment of Project TT, we will again dip into the Forge Motorsports parts bin as well as more of the offerings from MCPi Inc. and put Project TT back on the dyno at Streetwerke. Word also has it that MCPi Inc. has some new TT products in the pipeline and we look forward to seeing what those offerings will bring to the TT enthusiast community.
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