Best bang for the buck mods

[Brian]

The VW boards have me completely confused here. For every mod someone says they love there is someone saying it's terrible. I don't want to chip the car because i'm going to go with a bigger turbo by the end of the summer. Now with that said what do you guys think would be a good couple of things to get done. 3" downpipe? Some say the K&N filter is great and some say it sucks. Now this is the first time I have ever heard anything negative about K&N in my life. Should I go for a drop in? What air box "mods" are working? I would imagine just cutting by the passenger fender correct?

Last thing the dump valve/ BOV thing has me confused. Can you use a BOV on these cars or not? Is there a performance hit? The GFB dumps to atmosphere doesn't it? Any adverse effects because of this? I hear the stock DV leaks then I hear it's great lol. Honestly I mainly want a bit more sound from the super quiet engine adn to set myself up for the bigger mods in a few months.


Sorry for the million questions, but I had forgotten how long it has been since I had my last VW.....

[DnVr]

K&N cant hurt!
dp, test pipe and ex should be nice to get out of the way and cant hurt.
front mount would be nice!

[Brian]

Yeah definetly a test pipe. Are test pipes tripping a cel on these cars?

[02GTI1.8t]

Originally posted by 99SIVTEC
The VW boards have me completely confused here. For every mod someone says they love there is someone saying it's terrible. I don't want to chip the car because i'm going to go with a bigger turbo by the end of the summer. Now with that said what do you guys think would be a good couple of things to get done. 3" downpipe? Some say the K&N filter is great and some say it sucks. Now this is the first time I have ever heard anything negative about K&N in my life. Should I go for a drop in? What air box "mods" are working? I would imagine just cutting by the passenger fender correct?

Last thing the dump valve/ BOV thing has me confused. Can you use a BOV on these cars or not? Is there a performance hit? The GFB dumps to atmosphere doesn't it? Any adverse effects because of this? I hear the stock DV leaks then I hear it's great lol. Honestly I mainly want a bit more sound from the super quiet engine adn to set myself up for the bigger mods in a few months.


It depends on what turbo kit you gonna get, the apr stage 3 comes with a 3" downpipe so if your going that way it would be pointless to buy twice. Im sure the k&n filter would help a little, it cant hurt any. you can use some ss bov without getting a cel but a nice dv would work just as well and probably be cheaper. With a bigger turbo on the way youll definately need a better dv. If your just after the psssh sound, most intakes make a similar sound. They havent shown much of a gain though 5hp max, if you cut the outer edge of your airbox youll get much deeper sound and some psssh when you let off the gas. If i could afford a turbo upgrade anytime soon i would get, suspension to handle the power, better tires, forge dv, a nice 2.5" or 3" cat back exhaust which is a must for stage 3, possible a better intercooler, maybe a front mount if i could afford it. a stronger clutch to hold the power with a nice lsd. now remember some of this stuff isnt needed but thats what i would get if i had the money.

[nolimitsoldier]

Originally posted by 99SIVTEC
The VW boards have me completely confused here. For every mod someone says they love there is someone saying it's terrible. I don't want to chip the car because i'm going to go with a bigger turbo by the end of the summer. Now with that said what do you guys think would be a good couple of things to get done. 3" downpipe? Some say the K&N filter is great and some say it sucks. Now this is the first time I have ever heard anything negative about K&N in my life. Should I go for a drop in? What air box "mods" are working? I would imagine just cutting by the passenger fender correct?

Last thing the dump valve/ BOV thing has me confused. Can you use a BOV on these cars or not? Is there a performance hit? The GFB dumps to atmosphere doesn't it? Any adverse effects because of this? I hear the stock DV leaks then I hear it's great lol. Honestly I mainly want a bit more sound from the super quiet engine adn to set myself up for the bigger mods in a few months.


Sorry for the million questions, but I had forgotten how long it has been since I had my last VW.....

If you're gonna do a bigger turbo, than yeah, wait for a chip. What size of a turbo? The APR kits are nice, and since it comes packaged, the chip will work with it.

Downpipe makes a huge difference. I would go with 2.5 myself because I like a little faster of a spool, but the 3 is nice. I'd say APR is the way to go here. Most people reccomend keeping the stock airbox, but there are several intakes that work. A K&N drop-in is always a good bet, and you can cut out the underside of the box on the fender side. If you want to do a Cold Air, check out www.evoms.com. One's in the bay, like Neuspeed, are crap. Too much heat soak. You get a wicked turbo sound with the Evo intake as well.

I say the stock DV is crap. I chose the GFB hybrid valve over a Forge or Baileys for a couple or reasons. 1, it uses a metal piston. 2, it hold the boost better. and 3, for the sound! A Forge and a Bailey are nice too, but I like the way a turbo sounds, so I wanted to have more of it. One thing with a forge is that you might need to maintain it. And no, the GFB doesn't hurt the car with venting, as it's a hybrid valve and it's only excess boost that gets vented. A pure BOV is bad. I've seen exceptions to that, but that was on cars with FMIC's where the MAF is in a different location.

[Tsunami]

what VW site is this? I'm curious to scan the boards too, seeing as I'm in the market for a VDub.

[nolimitsoldier]

I forgot about the HKS SSQ valves. www.ecstuning.com and www.adrenalinmotorsports.com have kits that allow the HKS valve to work. I didn't go with that because of the price ($300 +)
and the sound. It's weird and high pitched. Mine was only 169.00 from www.ndauto.com

[nolimitsoldier]

Originally posted by Tsunami
what VW site is this? I'm curious to scan the boards too, seeing as I'm in the market for a VDub.

Check out www.vwvortex.com

[Brian]

Ok so it sounds like the GFB diverter, suspension, and a cat back exhaust are the main things to handle. Then possibly a front mount, and the turbo kit. Are there any other turbo kits coming out for our cars? I saw this one http://www.vwturbo.com/ Nice Price too.

Well thanks a ton guys, you cleared up a lot of things for me at the moment.

Tsunami check out vwvortex.com , 20vturbo.com is also pretty good. There are a bunch of others but i've been floating around those two a lot.

Time to go drill some holes I think :D

[nolimitsoldier]

Also check out www.jwelty.com, they have some product comparisons on the forum which is kinda cool. Their enter picture is cool too!

http://www.jwelty.com/jwelty-enter.jpg

[02GTI1.8t]

so far we have a couple kits out.
apr stage 3 (http://www.goapr.com/products/stage3_trans.html) a very complete kit which is very reliable uses only the best materials.atp stage 3 (http://www.vwturbo.com/ ) requires a fmic with the kit but also seems pretty nice, this kit seems to have soem slight problems with everything fitting righ but nothing too dificult, a guy on the vortex jsut got one and dynoed at 270 whp. dahlback kit (http://www.audituning.com/english/main.asp) they claim 420 hp but this kit is extremely expensive and they dont give any details about it. im sure theres some i missed

[nolimitsoldier]

The Dahlback stuff is AWESOME!!!They made a GTI w/ an A3 4-Motion engine/platform that runs 46lbs of boost and has 900 horses!!!

Another nice resource is www.18turbo.com. They have a tuning guide on there that is helpful!

[02GTI1.8t]

Originally posted by nolimitsoldier
The Dahlback stuff is AWESOME!!!They made a GTI w/ an A3 4-Motion engine/platform that runs 46lbs of boost and has 900 horses!!!

Another nice resource is www.18turbo.com. They have a tuning guide on there that is helpful!
yea that is a sweet car. they are opening a shop in florida real soon and that car will be there.:D im pretty sure its an audi 5 cylinder and quattro system, the only thing vw on it is the carbon fiber body.
http://www.audituning.com/galleri/golf/pic5.jpg http://www.audituning.com/galleri/golf/pic20.jpg http://www.audituning.com/galleri/golf/pic19.jpg
:eek: :eek: :eek:

[2000SiVTEC]

that car is nuts....must have cost a million dollars to make.

[02GTI1.8t]

Originally posted by 2000SiVTEC
that car is nuts....must have cost a million dollars to make.

nope, only a half million:D