January 2012 (Update)
Happy days! I am chuffed to be able to say that I have got my car back and that it is driving beautifully! How I have missed it. Now, whilst I don't want to tempt fate I will say that the car is really 'together' now. It's driving well, the newly rebuilt Sachs are an absolute joy and it sticks to the road like glue.
Here's the story...
I made arrangements with Matt (Matt Bentley of Track Group, not Matt from TDF) last week so that I could pick up my Trophy on Saturday (yesterday). As they were closed for the weekend he kindly agreed to meet me there around lunchtime. Sure enough, I turned up as did Matt a few moments afterwards. We had a good chat and he detailed the work that had been carried out as well as the various checks and diagnostics performed to ensure that all was well within the engine and its running. After the chat he handed over the paperwork and dyno graph (which I'll post up below) and I started the fairly lengthy trek back home to Wales.
The drive home was fantastic. I didn't go mad but naturally I had to ensure I got my fill of ITB goodness as it had been so long since the last time... I think my good lady probably thought I was a bit mental but even she was smiling as I floored it through the tunnels on the way home *embarrassed grin* It was the first time I'd really properly driven it with the new filter solution (and with it making
decent torque / power) and it sounded the mutts nuts. Talking of the "good lady", I really must thank her for letting me have her Type-R for the last few months, for putting up with my moaning and for coming along yesterday so that I had transport between Wales and Kimbolton!
So... where is the Trophy currently at?
As briefly mentioned in a previous post, no major problems were found in terms of pistons, cylinders, valves or any related components. A thorough look at the engine had confirmed this. Likewise, the head work that had been carried out last year was spot-on and there were no problems there. As for the leaks, these had been fixed and the leak down test and compression test found nothing out of the ordinary. A few test drives along the way (during the repairs) appeared to confirm that there was nothing else much wrong apart from the rather bad leaks.
A quick look at the compression test and I did notice that it was down a bit (across all cylinders) compared to the results I got from them last year - but they are not out of the ordinary. The results can be seen below:
As I say, the compression is a little bit down but it's pretty consistent across all 4 cylinders with a variance of only 0.5 bar. The upshot of this (the low compression) is that I'm losing somewhere in the region of approximately 5-6bhp and the same amount of lbft torque, so not major by any stretch of the imagination.
Matt (TDF Matt) had agreed to take a quick look at my car after the work was done to ensure that it was running well from a map / tuning perspective. He knows the car well having carried out the work previously along with the remapping. He put it on the dyno a few days ago and the results are shown below. The map appears good although the peak power is down a little bit compared to last time (but I'm not going to worry aboutit). The most important thing, and what I am interested in, is the torque spread. Whilst I'm no expert, the torque seems pretty good (certainly from a driver's perspective!) and comes in nice and early. With the instantly responsive throttle it is sooo much fun to drive. Ok, so the turbo and diesel boys may laugh at the torque levels but for a 2.0l NA petrol I'm not complaining.
Here's the power graph:
And here's the AFR graph:
As mentioned, it's a little disappointing in that the figures are a bit down due to the low compression, but it's driving amazingly well (which is the main thing). I can't be too disappointed considering I'm still running parasitic aircon, catback and standard internals and standard cams. I'll be keeping the 100-cell sports cat but the others will be upgraded in due course. Sadly I don't have a freakishly strong F4R engine in my Trophy but it seems healthy now.
In celebration of the Trophy's return I decided that it would be celebrated today by having a Sunday roast at a favourite pub / restaurant with my better half. Truth is, I only really suggested it so that I could have a quick blast out and grab a couple of photos for the album. They aren't the best photos but here you go (sorry about the crap colour, I should have calibrated my monitor first)...
Oh - the Sunday roast was good. But the drive to and from the pub was even better.
Cheers!