1.8T Quattro mods

[urquhart]

Not long bought an a3 1.8T quattro and not sure where to start with engine mods. I already have a forge 007p dv. I was looking at a few shops and was thinking about a CAI, neuspeed intercooler pipe(that replaces the pancake pipe), a newsouth power gasket, and a race cat. After i fitted these i thought about getting the car remapped.

What are peoples thoughts on these or is there more worthwhile things i should do to start with?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Tallpaul]

Not long bought an a3 1.8T quattro and not sure where to start with engine mods. I already have a forge 007p dv. I was looking at a few shops and was thinking about a CAI, neuspeed intercooler pipe(that replaces the pancake pipe), a newsouth power gasket, and a race cat. After i fitted these i thought about getting the car remapped.

What are peoples thoughts on these or is there more worthwhile things i should do to start with?

Thanks in advance.

All depends on budget i guess but of the things you've listed, here's what i'd do and the order i'd do them in...

Remap first. REVO is £585 and will put you the right side of 200bhp.

CAI. A Carbonio is a nice piece of kit but ultimatley won't give any real performance gains but sounds great. A green panel filter and 80mm cold air feed is about £50 and is all you 'need'.

Power Gasket. Actually i wouldn't bother with this at all.

Race Cat. Best way to complete your remap but Milltek Race Cats cost £800 for the quattro.

Pancake Pipe. Again i wouldn't bother, from what ive read on VW Vortex, those that have replaced it haven't really seen any gains. That money would be better spent on a Forge Turbo Intake Pipe (TIP), not that that is essential either.

Beyond these, a Front Mount Intercooler is a good investment if you are on your way to even more power.

 

[DPM]

I'd go for a de-cat then the CAI then the remap. We can offer a custom remap for £500 suited to the mods on your car so it's best to make what changes your wanting to do before the remap. As for the gasket and Neuspeed pipe, i agree these are not needed. The only real power gain you'll notice is with the remap. Hope this helps.

 

[Corey]

Remap first. REVO is £585 and will put you the right side of 200bhp.

That is the price for the S3, A3 is £399+VAT=£468.82 inc

CAI. A Carbonio is a nice piece of kit but ultimatley won't give any real performance gains but sounds great. A green panel filter and 80mm cold air feed is about £50 and is all you 'need'.

If you want to suck hot air in and not gain any hp but waste money go with the CAi, a decent cotton filter in the stock box is good enough for your hp

Power Gasket. Actually i wouldn't bother with this at all.

Race Cat. Best way to complete your remap but Milltek Race Cats cost £800 for the quattro.

Pancake Pipe. Again i wouldn't bother, from what ive read on VW Vortex, those that have replaced it haven't really seen any gains. That money would be better spent on a Forge Turbo Intake Pipe (TIP), not that that is essential either.

Beyond these, a Front Mount Intercooler is a good investment if you are on your way to even more power.

After that it is the exhaust and the intercooler then you might as well go with the stage 2 software but you can do it in stages.

You may want to improve the brakes a bit also.

 

[urquhart]

A remap is on the top of the list. i was thinking of adding a couple mods and getting a custom remap from star performance.

I already have a BMC panel filter so if thats sufficient then i'll just rig up a cold air feed.

I did think the gasket and pancake pipe would give very low gains but they were relatively cheap, so think i'll forget about them!

I'd go for a de-cat.

I did notice the milltek cats were expensive for my car. if i fit a de-cat does this not bring up faults or error messages in the car? or can it be mapped to run a de-cat?

Thanks for the help folks.

 

[Corey]

If you DeCat it will never get through an MOT, you will have to put them back on each time prior to the test.
If you went for a cat back exhaust that will improve the breathing sufficiently for your hp gain.

 

[Tallpaul]

If you want to suck hot air in and not gain any hp but waste money go with the CAi, a decent cotton filter in the stock box is good enough for your hp

Could you explain how a CAI sucks hot air?

Also on what basis have you observed power gains from a panel filter? Or indeed any type of filter on a 1.8T?

 

[Corey]

Could you explain how a CAI sucks hot air?

Also on what basis have you observed power gains from a panel filter? Or indeed any type of filter on a 1.8T?

Watch your intake temps via VAGCOM

 

[Tallpaul]

My inlet temp sensor is situated after the intercooler. The only heat effect i ever see is heat-soaking of the intercooler itself (which happens alot). Unless there is another temp sensor i don't know about or that the AGU engine doesn't have?

I've logged g/s and inlet air temps (amongst other things) after every mod i've made. On the Air filter side of things i've tried the following:

Stock Panel Filter and OE air feed
Green Panel Filter and OE air feed
Green Panel Filter and 80mm air feed to lower bumper grill
Carbonio CAI

Never logged a significant heat differance except related to ambient air temp. Also the g/s airflow of all of those is identical, they almost perfectly overlay if plotted across the rev range.

Can't see how a carbon fibre tube connected to a filter that is directly infront of hole exposed to the front of the car can generate warmer air than having the filter in a big platic box in the engine bay?

something like a Dynatwist that sits in big metal tin, then perhaps that metal can heat up and increase the air temps?