Nates Sabre Tuning 665bhp 558lbft RS

[robroy]

@nateodog

Christ… you could right a book with this ….interesting read but sounds very painful .

I had  a similar ordeal with my evo ?

[Nateodog]

@peters

 

NDE them? What does that mean?

 

i had when it went wrong started to question standard of work as it’s quite worrying

 

I was assured no apprentice etc worked on my car only fully trained technicians

a had asked the first time my car went there for photos of my build along the way so I can keep in my cars history, under no circumstances was I allowed any as photography was forbidden in the workshop , I did manage x2 pics of my forged pistons going in but that’s it no other strip down work or damage any thing , nothing at all

i wanted the old clutch back but didn’t get it

 

I asked for the old rod but wasn’t allowed it

 

I wanted the broken pistons but not allowed them

 

i only wanted them so I can make something from it and use as an ornament haha

 

my dads first viper engine is now a coffee table he made yea expensive but it doubles as a wine rack the bores are so big

 

 

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

@robroy

 

it was a stressful time because the whole time the car was there

 

yep I’m still paying for it

so Jan feb March April best part of x3 months £915

plus another day to collect so another

£200 gone plus fuel expenses etc so you can

see my personal expenses have started to add up

 

 

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[peters]

@Nate

I will test then myself for cracks or whatever with  (Non Destructive Examination or testing).

I don’t think Mountune are being transparent with the results of the investigation, i can stomach something going wrong if i can see see or have proof of the cause, but being so secretive doesn’t fill me with confidence.

I see it often in work when theres a problem and it usually ends’ up with something having been hidden.

Thanks for sharing all this by the way !

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Its back !

 

[Nateodog]

 

 

ah i have missed something out

here so when the car was nearing completion I kept booking days to collect the car and last minute having to cancel as car still wasn’t right etc in the end I lost x4 days and a hotel booking so

£800 plus the hotel booking of £93 out of pocket again asked for bonnet vents to be fitted not for free but I would of met halfway on the price I was refused did ask several times and got knocked back several times , the bitterness started to creep in there if im honest as none of this is my fault I wasn’t expecting any of these issues theres looking after someone but tbh all they have done is what I expected them to do I did get a discount on the m520 kit for my troubles but in time this wont seem like enough

 

so the new standard clutch went into the car etc and went to the rolling road so I can see results and it made 510.2 bhp and 500.5 lbft

the bill was settled £7400 but that did include some kw ddc coilovers so again I had a good deal on the parts

I took the car from mountune , under hard acceleration the car misfired not all the time but did quite a lot , I drove straight to sabre tuning at castle coombe and put the car on an independent dyno the car made 501.7 bhp and 420lbft

 

???? what?? 420 lbft yep wheres my 80lbft gone?…..

so intial pick up

 

has anyone wondered to themselves why there are no customer reviews to the m520 kit???

supposedly lots of conversions out there approx. 20 we only know of 7  but no reviews heres why.

 

when you first get the car your excited wow 520 hp I know its ps but your thinking its close enough this is gonna be a beast

 

it is quick your instant reaction is uh yea um yea it quick but is that lag? wtf it is weird to drive but it does go well, you have to relearn how to drive the car, honestly it is very different to a stage 2 car now , power delivery the way it drives is just so different 4 wheel/wheel spin in 4th gear in soaking wet on the m4 is a surprise and almost scary experience

 

please note you will see my views change quite considerably through this mini review if you like.

its quick but is it that quick? have I done the right thing?

70 mph cruise control the car surges on and off the power does the same at 50 mph( please note mountune have now rectified this problem)

1200 miles into the conversion which in real time was across one weekend for me the car keeps blowing a 10amp fuse keeps doing it no idea why I went through 53  10 amp micro fuses after weeks of investigation it was on the circuit which had the vct I , vct e, lambda 1 lamda 2 evap purge , afr

 

after talking with mountune they agreed to send the car to ford in Cardiff where they would investigate the issue so I didn’t have to travel all the way back up there. felt like they just didn’t want to see the car again.

car went into ford they had it 1 day then gave it back no fault found then it went through a load more fuses car went back to ford again but this time for 1 week o fault found.

they orderd a new evap purge valve to eliminate a intermittent fault on the purge valve car went back to ford 1 week later for a service and to have the valve fitted , service carried out no problem but valve not fitted because the mechanic had never fitted one before and the master tech wasn’t in that day .

 

FFS how hard is it to fit this fucking valve il do it my self so I took it home and yes fitted it myself in 15 minutes but alas same fault

mountune then sent me a secondhand lambda sensor so I gave it to ford they fitted it for me same fault occurs…..getting super pissed off now cant give a review because ive had nothing but issues cant do the video review I had booked cant do the magazine feature so frustrating.

inbetween all this happening I have had several revisions of the map. this started as my friend tamas also put his on litchfields dyno and it only made 464 bhp and 439lbft so naturally he was pissed and got a new map sent out , he then came to sabre tuning dyno and run the new map it made 508 bhp 484lbft  so a good noticeable improvement , I emailed and asked for the new map as mine was missing all that torque and I got it and booked it in for the dyno at sabre tuning.

 

this day I drove the car to work my partner took our other vehicle (shes drives the rs as a daily) whle at work I thought hmm ive done 3,000 miles now il just check the oil

1 to see the colour

2 to see if it needed topping up at all

 

I dipped the dip stick I nearly passed out I dipped it again and again frantically dipping and wiping not believing my eyes the fucking rage that came over me I almost blinded myself

THE FUCKING DIPSTICK WAS DRY

 

 

 

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

yes the dipstick was dry , i thanked myself for not driving to work like an asshole i just cruised enjoying the moment 65 70 mph it was a nice day i rang around and i found a garage that had 1 litre of 10/60 oil instock so i went over bought it and put it in, i once again dipped the dipstick again again again……… still nothing registering on the stick. fortunately i was only 12 miles from sabre tuning at this point so i rang them and asked if they had oil there 10/60 to which they replied yes so i gingerly drove over there so slowly i arrived all well engine sounds sweet very lucky im thinking.

we continued to put in another 2 litres of oil that plus my 1 litre this brought the level up to half way on the dip stick engine started well drove up the road no issues

still had the intermittent misfire so i took it upon myself to check the plugs the plugs i told mountune to replace while it was with them as they had done a few miles this was their ngk iridium plugs that are pregapped well no surprise is there the plugs are not new  the gapps are all over the place , i gapped them and sorted the issue but now i need to swap them out asap

 

thanking my lucky stars i had balance shaft delete oil cooler  etc as the car holds more oil than stock now actually started to think mountune didn’t put enough oil in when they rebuilt the engine etc  phoned them told them about oil issue was told it is normal to burn abit of oil on a forged engine etc etc etc i took it and continued

 

 

anyway time to test the map this day it dynod at 522bhp 484lbft  i was over joyed i couldn’t belive it then i found out it was only a peak figure and it hit it for like 100 rpm this obviously came at a price as the next day something be came apparent the cold start wasn’t right , now the funny thing was 1 week earlier tams had started to complain about his cold start and i didn’t have any issues and exactly one week later mine stared doing it lumpy wanting to stall , also the amount of black shit thats thrown up the back of the car was unreal so apart from the fuse blowing issue and the cold start problems and now im watching my oil like a hawk its kinda a tough time im starting to think im getting grid of this car im selling up il sell as is or back to stock i don’t care

 

December comes ( so we picked the car up from mountune at the beginning of October iirc ) (aug-oct) off the road again fucking joke

we go on a trip to Germany Belgium Austria etc cars prepped serviced fresh oil new plugs etc etc

i have been on the phone to MT countless times about his car is drinking oil more than petrol they are having none of it but have asked me to drive around in map slot 4 1 bar restricted boost which i done the car only seems to use oil under boost but that is also when i seem to blow the fuse? argh this is so frustrating.

jump in car me and the mrs full tank drive to dover 75-80 mph all the way no oil used

im not going to list the whole trip but in essence

every single time we stopped whether it at a service station or car park or hotel i checked the oil and the water , we bought the car new and in our ownership time the car has never ever used a single drop of oil or water

at every stop i have taken a photo of the mileage , the dip stick and the oil measured into a jug i stole from our kitchen to show how much i had to top up throughout the trip i had to take a 5 litre can of oil just in case on this trip that in itself is a joke.

 

i coverd 1945 miles and i used 2 litres of oil no water.

 

at this rate il never have to change the oil again but it does equate to £40 per month for oil which is just not acceptable.

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

i was advised by my friend barny that i should look online and see if they do an oil restrictor for my turbo and indeed they did he sent me links of forums that have already had issues with burning oil from the efr turbo range been doing it for years and there is a fix already in place for this it is commonly used on evos and in the states the focus st’s

i passed this info onto mountune who threw it out and said no that’s not my problem , so with very little being said to me and no real direction of what was going to happen i rang mahle in Stuttgart Germany and they put me onto their reseller in the uk where they told me everything i needed to know really

mountune pistons are slightly different to the standard spec we sell on the shelf  ok whats the difference the gudenpin is 0.5mm thicker to their spec right what else the material it is made out of is slightly different more mallable or something i know pistons are not measured in bhp etc but in laymans terms each piston is able to handle 150 -175 bhp

the tolerances are very tight very good quality etc  any issues i have with burning oil would be because of incorrectly seated rings, bore scoring or damaged ringlands.

 

i emailed mountune asking for their tolerances rings gaps etc and as useual no response

in the end i got so fed up i had to write an email saying they need to have the car back , i don’t want it back unless its fixed or they take off all the package and put it back to stock i really was feeling gutted about the whole situation

 

so i took the day off work again another £200 and dropped the car back up to MT HQ they gave me their mk7 golf demo/dev car as a courtesy car no real time limit as the faults they had to find were indeed difficult so first was the testing  they did an oil change measured amounts etc i instructed them to drive my car as if it were their own, there is no pint of pussying around i need them to find the fault i need them to be able to fix it and confidently, tbf Fred didn’t really want to give my car a hard time but i insisted  initially still no faults found, eventually they found the fuse blowing issue the rear lambda had bare wires and they think they  were touching the metal heat shield when accelerating causing a short, couldn’t be sure because it never blew a fuse the whole time it was with them  but  they replaced lambda.

next the oil burning issue as far as they are concerned the car does not burn oil. end of.

covered 800 miles no oil loss i instructed them to do more so he agreed to take it up to 1250 or 1400 i cant remember and in this time they had to topup 100ml which is totally acceptable.

the cold start took some sorting several revisions of map got the car back the issue continues

so after the testing, car was gone for another month or so loosing track of time here its like 9-10 months off the road at the garages

 

moutune fixed my car for free they even installed new wiper blades for me! i didn’t even know i needed new ones…they did not charge me for the courtesy car

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

the day i collected my car i took it down the road and i heard a massive flapping noise coming from under the car, they hadn’t fitted the left side undertray properly another job quality issue  ffs so my lambda had bare wires you were the last people to touch it no one else so who ever fitted it did or didn’t check it and fitted it anyway. my mind then races back through other issues conrod bolt coming loose or shearing off, the headgasket failiure / incorrectly fitted so theres a picture building

 

mountune have fitted an oil restrictor not because the car needs it but for peace of mind for me the stock turbo has a 4mm oil restrictor as stock and they have now installed a 0.7mm restrictor in BUT the car doesn’t need it as IT DOES NOT BURN OIL.

 

 

the car is back in my hands

i still have the shit cold start

im fed up

they cant fix my car

i don’t want to travel all the way back up there if i do they cant fix it

im still down on power and lbft

i don’t know anyone who has made 520/700

these are all the thoughts going through my head

my car on collection from mountune was now out of warranty not because it was 12 months old but because i had no finally completed 12,000 miles on an engine that didn’t need rebuilding for peace of mind they offerd a return service and inspection of my car within the next 5,000 miles

all sounds nice and good and tbf it was the right thing to do

however,

the map still isn’t right im not taking another day off work to travel up there

 

so sabre tuning please stand up

get this mother fucking car tuned right up

 

car went into sabre tuning within the week of getting it back

 

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

get car back from sabre tuning

cold start fixed

more power

more torque

better power delivery

hardly any black shit on the back of my car now from the exhausts

 

and from there that’s it your all up to speed ive probably missed something out you can read my thoughts and comments about the sabre experience further back in this thread.

 

ah I almost forgot.

 

OIL UPDATE

 

remember the restrictor I didn’t need that they fitted for my peace of mind?

 

the car has coverd over 6,000 miles now and not a single drop of oil used.

so what total and utter bullshit

 

 

 

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[turbo-tone]

Very interesting read this, sounds very painful and glad you got it sorted.

 

Out of interest what did Sabre do to fix the issues?

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Collins Cp2 map. Ramair induction. Mountune mud flaps. Scorpion Sports Cat. Scorpion Tracker. Wind deflectors. NB washer jets and shark fin aerial. EBC Grooved discs, YellowStuff pads. Airtec Intercooler, Miltek cat back with titanium tips. Collins quickshift. DSC Controller

[Nateodog]

@turbo-tone

did a custom tune on it, gave advise etc

turned off pdc  to help with the handling

gave me different power on the drive modes

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SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

ok slight change of subject!

 

so this week I have fitted the j9 performance headlight fill in blanks which look nice thank you! and the last piece of the puzzle for the gear selection bushings.

 

I have already got the shifter cable bushings and the shifter bracket to the gearbox bushings and these made a huge difference.

I have now installed the shifter base bushings which go inside the car not a bad job to be fair its not hard to strip it down and in total probably take about 45mins being generous.

the difference ? well it is just even more precise totally eliminates any slop from the set up so far very pleased I have a long trip coming up so il see if there are any downsides and report back.

 

today I hopefully receive some new water meth nozzles , I am going to try slightly smaller nozzles in the inlet (0.4b) and run a 0.5 in the boost pipe so back up to x5 jets and approx. 550 cc in total

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SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

Nozzles installed data logged all perfect very pleased

 

unfortunately a temporary new problem has arisen , I need new tyres I m awaiting stock to arrive so I have had my old pilot sports fitted back on the front, the torque steer is totally crazy and ruins the cars driveability , at first I thought these jets gave me a massive surge in performance ? then I quickly remembered the feeling when

i used to run these tyres can’t wait to get rid of them and get the PS4S back on

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SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Nateodog]

Just a few pics of the old vs new nozzles

you can see I opted for extended tip ones originally as I was unsure of the Mountune manifold thickness

each of these nozzles have a check valve and filter built into them

---

SABRE

666.6 bhp 99 oct & wmi

558 lbft

OEMeth installs

Aquamist

sabre tuning

Spec-R

J9-performance

funk motorsport

Hel

Owen developments

WP Pro brakes

HELIX Automotive

KW suspensions

Barney Build

Grant Motorsport

 

[Author]

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