V2 Blizzard25 Goblin V2 (#19) - 2015 Golf GTI 2.0T DSG

[Blizzard25]

Well I just put down the deposit on my V2. Like, about 2 minutes ago. Conveniently my account also got approved for posting right after that. So here we are, I'll give you the brief self introduction and the extremely limited scope of where I'm at.

Little bit about me, I've been working for HP Tuners for 8 years (also anniversary today, the stars are aligning). Exclusively software/reverse engineering, I mostly work on RE for Nissan, Infiniti, and Subaru. Favorite official thing I've done was adding the software mods for Subaru and Infiniti flex fuel, favorite unofficial thing I've done was create a reverse launch control on a ND Miata (don't ask why, the reasons are never good, but i do have a video of the first test of that feature). Only one interesting vehicle in my garage, my 2012 Mitsubishi Evo X MR which gets moderate track use but is built more as a daily driver (has a car seat and everything), I've got an electric drift trike I made from square tubing and terrible personal MIG welding on a cut in half kids huffy bike but also goes an unhealthy 55mph with no safety features, an Infiniti Q60 VR30DDTT (work development vehicle) and my wife's hybrid Kia Niro (I want to use her car as a donor just so i can tear it down never to look at it again). Moving on to the good stuff though....

This will be my first kit car, and I'm super pumped about it. I went back and forth between doing an Exovette C5 and this for a while, but in the end I decided this was the build I wanted to do more. Ideally I'd do both, but there's only so many cars I can fit in a driveway and my wife and I are also trying to justify getting a camper trailer soon, so priorities I guess. I ended up getting a "Runs and drives" condition GTI from Copart, after all auction/broker fees and shipped it came out to $5633, which for a GTI with 106k on the odometer I was pretty happy with. Car should be here sometime next week so first tasks on this list: tear everything down, sell the parts I don't need, get all the "freshen up" parts replaced. I'm definitely doing an IS38 upgrade so I'll be getting all that ordered too.

For now I'll just go on a reading binge through the forum admiring some of the builds, and I hope you enjoy the only build photo I have so far, my deposit order confirmation email. Also if you're near-ish the Johnson City, TN area I'd love to see your build in person!

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Congratulations on your decision to build a Goblin and welcome to the family! It's good to have someone new who has in-depth HPT knowledge (expect lots of questions once this becomes knowledge). Guess you will have to add VW - and GM - tuner knowledge to your experience. Great to have you!

 

[Blizzard25]

Congratulations on your decision to build a Goblin and welcome to the family! It's good to have someone new who has in-depth HPT knowledge (expect lots of questions once this becomes knowledge). Guess you will have to add VW - and GM - tuner knowledge to your experience. Great to have you!

Thanks! I'm really hoping for some news on the chassis assignment soon, but i know it will probably be closer to December. The wait is gonna kill me.

I can't promise I won't give you a blank stare if it's a platform specific question on something I've never worked on, but I'll do my best lol I'm racking my brain for features I can add to our VW line up simply because I'm getting this kit, the personal stuff I do on my cars rarely sees the light of day to the public but maybe I'll come up with something useful.

This is the kind of stuff that doesn't see the light of day though: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/nkxr...ey=wrsbnjsy83w4pyrngbjseijr3&st=bh4vq6nl&dl=0

 

[MeltedSolid]

With a launch like that you're ready to join us FWD VW people.

 

[Blizzard25]

With a launch like that you're ready to join us FWD VW people.

If you reverse launch a FWD car, does it become a RWD car?

 

[MeltedSolid]

If you reverse launch a FWD car, does it become a RWD car?

From experience, yes, with 911 weight distribution too. Worried about tearing the gear out of the transmission lol.

 

[aaronc7]

Hey, welcome.

I'm selling my C5 Z06 for my V2 project, I also contemplated the exovette, but it was still too nice to tear apart I think. Now I just need to sell it, but I've been kind of dragging my feet on that front.

 

[Blizzard25]

Got a little antsy today so I picked up an IS38 hybrid turbo (Shuenk IS48) off facebook marketplace for really cheap. I'm 50/50 whether I'll actually use it or resell it, but it'll be an option available i guess.

 

[Blizzard25]

Car still on the carrier...I'm told it's getting here Tuesday but at this point, anything is possible. I never have great luck with auto transport companies. However I did get one more part for the build, picked up an IS38 which is the turbo I really wanted, so now I just need to get the fueling side for E85 and I'll have what I need after the car gets here.

Hope everyone that went to Goblinfest is having a good time.

 

[Blizzard25]

Two big things, I got my chassis number assigned (#19), and the car actually arrived today on schedule. It was a reschedule, so technically not on schedule, but close enough. It's in much better condition than i was expecting, that was my first auction purchase so I was a bit nervous about it but (knock on wood) it seems fine

Two things on the agenda now. 1) Hook up the laptop and pull the OS from the ECM so I can start working on a flex fuel mod and 2) start the vehicle tear down. Right after a quick run around the block.

 

[Blizzard25]

So i'm vaguely remember now why i initially stopped working on flex, there are flex tables from the factory in these ECMs already, but they're all disabled. I know it's not as simple as just adding a sensor and enabling them, but I don't remember what the reason was. I need to do a little digging so I don't double up on work that's already been done.

 

[aaronc7]

So i'm vaguely remember now why i initially stopped working on flex, there are flex tables from the factory in these ECMs already, but they're all disabled. I know it's not as simple as just adding a sensor and enabling them, but I don't remember what the reason was. I need to do a little digging so I don't double up on work that's already been done.

View attachment 54082

It is as simple as flipping a couple toggles and wiring in a sensor. All of the flex fuel logic is already there but it only corrects fueling and doesn't have the ability to adjust timing or boost, etc

One of the toggles tells it that you're running a physical sensor and not using the virtual flex fuel algorithm. The second one tells you to not use a manual defined ethanol content and then the last one enables the broadcast of the PID for ethanol content.

 

[Blizzard25]

It is as simple as flipping a couple toggles and wiring in a sensor. All of the flex fuel logic is already there but it only corrects fueling and doesn't have the ability to adjust timing or boost, etc

One of the toggles tells it that you're running a physical sensor and not using the virtual flex fuel algorithm. The second one tells you to not use a manual defined ethanol content and then the last one enables the broadcast of the PID for ethanol content.

While timing and boost interpolation would be a pretty big part of flex fuel, there's another reason why it's not that simple. I'm aware it WORKS but there's a reason why it wasn't a releasable product as just "add in sensor and flip switches" on a software level that's unrelated to the tables that I'm searching through past messages trying to remember. If i can't remember I'll just start diving back in and eventually I'll come across it at some point, I remember it being kind of blatantly obvious

 

[Blizzard25]

It's bothering me a lot that i can't remember this lol but oh well.

 

[aaronc7]

I'd be really curious to hear what it is too. I have been running this for several years now and it seems to work quite well

 

[Blizzard25]

I'd be really curious to hear what it is too. I have been running this for several years now and it seems to work quite well

Well without the timing and boost that may have been related since that's definitely not something we'd release without but I'm talking out of my ass at this point not knowing what it was. I do know I'll have to add at least that since I don't really consider flex fuel to be truly flex fuel without timing and boost (among a few other table) adjustments.

 

[aaronc7]

No need to reinvent the wheel unless you want to. Free map switching, flex fuel patches exist for most common SW versions, which can add timing , boost/torque and other things. Also includes ECU based LC, NLS, RAL and spark based TC

 

[Blizzard25]

No need to reinvent the wheel unless you want to. Free map switching, flex fuel patches exist for most common SW versions, which can add timing , boost/torque and other things. Also includes ECU based LC, NLS, RAL and spark based TC

While i do see your point, all of this is free for me and in the end the cars I own are usually the cars I end up working on at work, so it's kind of a win/win here. Also building vehicle control systems is just as fun for me as building the car itself, which is why I'm in this industry in the first place, so I don't mind.

 

[Blizzard25]

Just spent about 2 hour on some low hanging fruit getting stuff out of the engine bay. There's so many crushed connectors from whatever the collision was in the front it was actually more difficult than i was expecting. I think that's going to be the most difficult part of this, I don't really want to cut anything up in the front but on this radiator I don't feel like I have another option. Which leads me to my next point...

Feel free to laugh at how dumb I am. Because my idiot self didn't bother checking fluids when the tow truck dropped this thing off, and i opened up the coolant reservoir for THE FIRST TIME today and this thing was bone dry. I was expecting low fluids, not Sahara desert dry. But then I thought about it for a bit, and the car has a crushed radiator, of course the coolant has leaked out, if I had thought about it longer than a tenth of a second that would have occurred to me. At least I didn't run it that long. Oil wasn't bad.

Also ordered some more low hanging fruit easy swap parts, Golf R coil packs, new plugs, replacement N80 purge valve (car getting an evap code which likely won't matter for the Goblin but i'm gonna replace it anyway)

 

[Blizzard25]

Does anyone know the part number or if you can even order this from VW? It's the connector that goes to the throttle body. The plastic snapped off when the radiator/IC assembly pushed back up against it. All the pins are fine, literally just the plastic broke and it was only still seated in there just because of the tension that was already on it, somehow was still operating fine. But i definitely need to replace it. Looking through the service manual I think it's a J338, but that's just the internal part, not the clip on connector which is the broken piece

Outside of that, just some more average boring tear down with some free time. I know all of you are super excited about these minimal tear down updates, but it's the only thing i have right now in the absence of anything else soooo.....