Decided to give it another chance...

[phill1.8T]

Was considering selling the A3 this week, but ive decided to give it a chance, with the hope of getting somemore power out of it.

What mods can I do without spending serious cash on it? Other then a remap obviously. I plan on getting a remap, would it be better to get this done after doing a few mods parhaps, and get it customed coded to suit?

Its the 150bhp 1.8T engine.

Any suggestions?

 

[YX1010]

Goto superchips.co.uk and get a superchips ecu..that will give you about 35hp and 70nm torque.

Panel filter will give you 3-5hp (i recommend BMC)
Remus exhaust will give you upto 15hp
High flow cat / Removing cats will give you upto 8hp.
Larger turbo down pipe will give upto 2hp but will give you a much free-er spooling turbo.
Use 98 octane fuel.
Have a play with oils as well.. MOTUL seems to be popular over here with alot of success in turbo audis.

Personally id dyno your car first and see what hp/kw its putting out, then fix any problems that have been brought up by the dyno reading (if any) then do the Chip (then dyno and make sure air/fuel is all in order) then exhaust and filter and turbo down pipe (then dyno).

realistically you should be able to achieve 125-130kw @ the wheels.

Oh and all this should add upto:
Superchips ECU - NZ$1700
BMC Filter -NZ $220
REMUS Exhaust -NZ $1695
Turbo Downpipe -NZ $300

about NZ$3500 so if your in the UK about 40% of that total. so about $1600 .

Hope this helps somewhat.




Steve.

 

[j4jon]

From a power point of view a remap is the best bang for buck to get more power. You could also get a FMIC which although won't give you more power will stop it being lost on hot days,but they are quite expensive and to get the most from it you should prbably have it fitted before the remap.

I have a jabba remap on mine and would recommend them.

Don't bother with an exhuast (unless you want a different noise) they don't give any power gains, same with the air filter and the cats. (All poven by Ess_Three with dyno graphs.)

Once you have the remap, the other things to improve to help you get from A to B quicker are brakes and then sort out the suspension. (Springs, Dampers and Anti rollbars.)

 

[Tallpaul]

Hmmmm, could end up with a lot of contradicting info on this thread.

For what it's worth here's my 2p:

What budget have you got? How mechaninally minded are you? Do you want to be able to return the car to it's original condition at any stage?

If you don't mind spending a bit then here's what i'd do:

K03s Turbo (£250)
Milltek 2.5" Downpipe and Race CAT (£400)
Green cotton panel filter and 80mm Air Feed (£50)
Forge Motorsport Turbo Intake Pipe (£120)
FMIC (anything from £250 to £750 depending on how good you are with a spanner!)

Depending on how good with a spanner you are, you'll need to add garage labour to some/all of those prices.

Once all those parts are fitted you'll need to get a remap. Something like REVO won't cut the mustard as it isn't designed to work with the K03s on an A3. You'll need to go somewhere like Jabba; they won't give you a custom remap (not matter what anyone tells you), it'll be a Dimsport generic map but what they will do is alter the fueling and timing to match the increased boost from the K03s. Think of it like having the sleeves and trousers lengthened on an off the peg suit, rather going having a bespoke one tailored from scratch . People call that 'custom' but it isn't, the benefit is they'll do it in a couple of hours, it'll only cost £600 and your car will fly.

If you did all that i'd say you'd be looking at a genuine 210 - 220bhp & 250lb/ft at the flywheel.

Problem now is you'll have crappy brakes and lame suspension...

 

[DPM]

For the power your going to get from the standard turbo after a remap all those things above aren't really needed. I'd get a Forge TIP before the remap then consentrate on improving the handling of the car.

 

[phill1.8T]

I have upgraded the suspension, Eibach springs on bilstein shocks, seems pretty good if you ask me!

Much better then my polo gti on coilovers!

K03s Turbo (£250)
Milltek 2.5" Downpipe and Race CAT (£400)
Green cotton panel filter and 80mm Air Feed (£50)
Forge Motorsport Turbo Intake Pipe (£120)
FMIC (anything from £250 to £750 depending on how good you are with a spanner!)

That sounds like a good route of action, I had no idea the turbo was so cheap!

 

[Tallpaul]

I have upgraded the suspension, Eibach springs on bilstein shocks, seems pretty good if you ask me!

Much better then my polo gti on coilovers!

K03s Turbo (£250)
Milltek 2.5" Downpipe and Race CAT (£400)
Green cotton panel filter and 80mm Air Feed (£50)
Forge Motorsport Turbo Intake Pipe (£120)
FMIC (anything from £250 to £750 depending on how good you are with a spanner!)

That sounds like a good route of action, I had no idea the turbo was so cheap!

£250 would be for a used low mileage blower that had been inspected to ensure it was in good condition. Fitting would be extra, it can be done yourself but it's a tough job; even worse with the quattro system in the way.

A company called A & M Motorsport specialise in sourcing and supplying them.

 

[Tallpaul]

and on the subject of your suspension (sorry to go off topic)....

have you got any pics of how low it looks?

 

[phill1.8T]

Ill get you some when I get the 18s on, it still sits quite high on 17s, well, not high, but there is an arch gap of a finger or 2.

 

[Tallpaul]

Ill get you some when I get the 18s on, it still sits quite high on 17s, well, not high, but there is an arch gap of a finger or 2.

i'd prefer to see it on the 17's as that's what i'm sticking with.

 

[Ess_Three]

Panel filter will give you 3-5hp (i recommend BMC)

No it won't.
You'll get nothing...
Even with a 4" cold air feed into a modified airbox...I dyno proved nothing. (OK...on an S3)

Remus exhaust will give you upto 15hp

I got nothing. Dyno proven.

High flow cat / Removing cats will give you upto 8hp.

I got nothing...again dyno proven.

I tested individually and compound...and saw equal figues or a gain of 1-2 BHP & lb-ft on a dyno with a 2% tolerance...that's not a gain...that's the difference between a warm engine and a hot engine.

I have NEVER seen ANY VAG car give anywhere close to these gains...

 

[phill1.8T]

i'd prefer to see it on the 17's as that's what i'm sticking with.

Thats the day it got done, its probably settled since

 

[Tallpaul]

I'm not 100% on the configuration of the downpipe and CAT on the A3TQ, maybe someone can enlighten me?

On the S3 it's a dual downpipe/CAT configuration that it proven to be unrestrictive on the K04 (as mentioned).

On the A3T it's a stright downpipe to the CAT with a very restrictive bend and narrow pipework. Changing this for a 2.5" one (3" is probably too big for K03/K03s) probably wont give you any more bhp, it may open up a little more torque low down; however, it's main benefit is that it'll allow the turbo to maintain it's boost for longer in the rev range. On my Leon Cupra i found this meant that gearchanges could be made at 5500rpm instead of 5000rpm. £400 is expensive so i think people should be clear on exactly what they would be getting for their money.

This may not apply to the A3TQ as i know the downpipe is differant.

 

[YX1010]

No it won't.
You'll get nothing...
Even with a 4" cold air feed into a modified airbox...I dyno proved nothing. (OK...on an S3)




I got nothing. Dyno proven.




I got nothing...again dyno proven.

I tested individually and compound...and saw equal figues or a gain of 1-2 BHP & lb-ft on a dyno with a 2% tolerance...that's not a gain...that's the difference between a warm engine and a hot engine.

I have NEVER seen ANY VAG car give anywhere close to these gains...

That is weird.

As i have a dyno plot form a month ago ..and the only change i made was the exhaust (includign cats etc) and air filter and fuel, a slightly improved map (to fix air/fuel ratio) and i got 25kw @ the wheels difference from my last dyno plot 6 months ago.

 

[Tallpaul]

That is weird.

As i have a dyno plot form a month ago ..and the only change i made was the exhaust (includign cats etc) and air filter and fuel, a slightly improved map (to fix air/fuel ratio) and i got 25kw @ the wheels difference from my last dyno plot 6 months ago.

As you've altered 4 variables how do you know which, if any, were responsible for the increase?

It's also fair to say that no 2 dyno's are the same, even the same dyno can give differant readings on 2 differant days.

Would be interesting to know what differance optimising the air/fuel ratio alone would have made