I posted this on vortex, but since I have a Skoda, it definitely belongs in this forum:

So I finally got my drivetrain mods installed. Remember this is on Skoda Octavia AGU engine. It was the first time the mechanic installed a peloquin, but he had no issues whatsoever. He loves the O2J transmission, btw (O2J is my stock tranny). There's a local guy with a VR6 EIP package that does 480whp on an O2J.

The only thing he did notice was the stage II clutch had a difference of 8.4 mm somewhere. At first he thought it wouldn't engage fully, but after the install, there seemed to be no problems. He did, however say the flywheel looked remanufactured. I don't really care since it went on perfectly, and there seems to be no added vibration. You could sell me a piece of wood, and as long as it's balanced and does its job, I'd be happy.

The lightweight pulleys went on as well. The only issue we had with the pulleys was that I did need a new belt. No problem, got it from the shop down the street. There is a huge difference in the weight of the ECS ones vs the stock ones. The alternator pulley seemed to be the same diameter as the stock one, the power steering pulley seemed smaller.

First impresion (pulling out of the garage):

Wow! The clutch pedal seems way lighter. It also engages further up than the stock one (my stock one only had 8000 km). I like this since I always thought the stock one engaged too far down.

Hmmm... I don't remember the steering being quite so heavy. This is definitely noticeable, not so good, but WTH. It's all for a good cause, and I can live with it. Idle was fine and I noticed absolutely nothing wrong with the dimming of the lights or anything of the sort. In any case I knew before I installed the pulleys that there would be an effect on the power steering and I thought I'd see an effect on the lights at idle.

The engine seems to rev like a normal engine now. My biggest complaint regarding the 1.8T has always been the slow revving of the engine (I really hated it). People have blamed this stock unresponsiveness on DBW, but it's the stupidly heavy flywheel. Now it feels way more responsive. Not that it's crazy different, it's just the way it should be. I think people here have exagerated the quick decrease in revs when you engage the clutch using the new flywheel. I think it's perfect, and I find it hard to believe that you can stall the car easily. Learn how to drive man!

I took a drive around town, and although I had to take it easy to break in the new clutch, I found the car easy to drive in traffic. The clutch engages further up, but when it does, you can tell it's gripping. It's not a racing clutch that suddenly engages though. It's as smooth as the stock one. I also took the car to my most hated hill to do hill starts. HA! Soooo much easier. Before I had to pull the handbreak to spool up the stupid stock flywheel so I could let go of the clutch. Now it's just perfectly driveable. Easy hill starts.

I haven't had a chance to really test the peloquin, but once I get the fuel pump in there this week and log 500 miles, I'll let it rip around corners to see what's up with that. I got it for safety's sake anyway.

Conclusion: Driveability increased with these mods, with the exception of the power steering.

Stay tuned for some performance numbers soon.

Speedy G

I just felt a draught go past the top of my head

Speedy G

Are you talking about this? :confused:

The double mass flywheel on the RS is a little lighter than on the other 150bhp versions. don't know about the 4*4 octavias though, since their engines seems to be almost identical to the one in the RS. Still think the clutch in the RS is far to light and feels to weak...

/ Christian

What weight is your flywheel now? I understand that the std one is about 14kg, which is very heavy IMHO. Will I have problems with mine, IIRC its going to weigh about 6KG

Originally posted by Chrille in this post

The double mass flywheel on the RS is a little lighter than on the other 150bhp versions. don't know about the 4*4 octavias though

According to ETKA, Christian, the AGU (original non-DBW FWD), AUM (European FWD), ARX (4X4) and AUQ (RS) share the same flywheel.

More specs:

The flywheel is a 12 lbs supposedly VW motorsports flywheel. The original one was 22lbs, although I didn't bother measuring the weight of either.

The clutch is part of the ECS stage II kit, more info here . The clutch is good to 300 ft lbs of torque. I'll be needing it since I'll soon be at 24 psi (20 at sea level), and 35hp of NX nitrous.

As far as the peloquin, it's a torque biasing differential. I installed it because I plan on drag racing and people have blown their trannies to pieces thanks to the stock differential blowing up. I also no longer have to worry about doing burn outs every time I step on the gas on a curve. The differential always sends the torque to the wheel that has grip. The link on that site that shows what I got is this. You can get them in the UK as well. If you want a good explanation on differentials, go here.

Actually the Peloquin is the exact same type of differential than a quaife torsen differential. I got the peloquin because someone said it has better metalurgy and is less aggressive in biasing torque. It's also cheaper. The quaife site can be seen here.

Regarding the lightweight pulleys they can be seen here. They work like a lightweight flywheel only the effect is less. The weight that you take off the rotating parts is key for acceleration, although it may not show in the HP figures. Also they lower the speed of the alternator and the power steering so you do gain a bit of HP. That's why you can have the adverse effects.

Speedy G

Peloquin was a copy of Quaifes ATB diff as Quiafe did'nt patent in time.

Ooops, bit of a ****-up on the patenting front

Sorry, been watching too much Reggie Perrin.

Originally posted by DGW in this post

According to ETKA, Christian, the AGU (original non-DBW FWD), AUM (European FWD), ARX (4X4) and AUQ (RS) share the same flywheel.

Really? That's not what I heard from a v.a.g mechanic. But they have been wrong about things before...

I've rechecked ETKA. The flywheel with clutch for the AGU, ARX, AUM and AUQ engines is Part No 06A 105 264M.. Other engine models have a flywheel listed separately, but not those 1.8T engines for some reason. Perhaps someone else with access to ETKA can double-check.

i light my lightweight fly wheel - makes the car rev much better... sold the old heavy one to a slapper i met who had broke the original after fiddling with her box too much.

That'd be someone from Chay-tham then?

Nope