SamHendry
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Hello everyone. Ok so I want to go hybrid on my s3 but I'm struggling to find a starting point. There is so much parts and work required and ££££ that I think about one thing,then another thing and it goes on and on!
This thread with the input from you guys I'm hoping will clear my head of all the uncertainties and give me a foundation to start plus help me better understand tuning the 1.8t beast! And who knows maybe it will help someone else.
Ok so a bit about the car. It's a s3 as I mentioned. It has the APY engine and when I bought it close to three years ago I wasn't blown away by it. It didn't meet my expectations. (From a performance perspective) The car I had before was a BM318ci and that was painfully slow, so was expecting a lot more from the 210ps s3 but was little bit dissappointed.
That had to change and I started with the essential maintenance first, cam belt, water pump etc. Once the borring stuff but important was done I started looking at the go faster bits, first thing was the Badger 5 tip V3 and s2000 filter. Then I got a revo stage 1. That transformed the car alone. Felt much quicker, could hear the turbo so much more!
Engine bay pic. With my scuttle panel duct taped haha
At this point I was showing signs of the 1.8t tuning bug and I couldn't stop. Next was a 3 inch down pipe and of course a FMIC, welly cooler was the route I went down, absolutely essential I would say the FMIC is, I did a track day once with smic and I'm sure my engine bay was hotter than the middle of the sun! Car was really slow as well!
I got into trackdays this year and after doing the engine mods above the car was ok in a straight line. Not the quickest on track obviously but hey not the slowest and good fun aswell but was suffering badly in the corners and the brakes were shocking.
Bolted on a set of LCR brembos. 323 discs.
The I turned my attention to the suspension. I bought the car with lowering springs on standard shocks. Not a good combination I know. The ride was awful and they had to go. Went with a set of AP Coilovers, not the best around but handling is much better.
There was a lot of bushes that needed attention, rear trailing arm bushes were totally f@cked! Stuck on a r32 Arb, that tightened the rear of the car plus I had to get rid of the seats, especially if I was gonna be doing more track days. And I'm glad I did! They weigh about the same as my house lol
Fitted club sports with 4 point harness
At knockhill earlier in the year. Not sure why my wipers are moving lol
More recent pic of the engine bay
Going back to the original question. I plan going down the AET 380 route. One thing I'm unsure about with regards to that turbo is the optional uprated actuator. Is it necessary? Can you utilise a standard one. As you've probably already guessed I'm a tad clueless so please educate me! I'm not trying to save money I'm just trying to understand.
What about rods? Anyone using non RD on here? My car will be mostly used for B road blasts and a good few track days a year so if I can get away with non RD then great, will be lighter on the wallet. But I like the idea of fit and forget so could go down the RD route.
Regarding rebuilding the engine. The head will be sent off to machine shop. Not sure whether I'm gonna stick with standard exhaust valves or super tech. I won't be doing insane track mileage nor road mileage so might be ok on standard valves?
I have loads more questions but I think I'll leave it at that for now haha
Thanks for reading, if anyone wants to add anything then please do!
Sam
This thread with the input from you guys I'm hoping will clear my head of all the uncertainties and give me a foundation to start plus help me better understand tuning the 1.8t beast! And who knows maybe it will help someone else.
Ok so a bit about the car. It's a s3 as I mentioned. It has the APY engine and when I bought it close to three years ago I wasn't blown away by it. It didn't meet my expectations. (From a performance perspective) The car I had before was a BM318ci and that was painfully slow, so was expecting a lot more from the 210ps s3 but was little bit dissappointed.
That had to change and I started with the essential maintenance first, cam belt, water pump etc. Once the borring stuff but important was done I started looking at the go faster bits, first thing was the Badger 5 tip V3 and s2000 filter. Then I got a revo stage 1. That transformed the car alone. Felt much quicker, could hear the turbo so much more!
Engine bay pic. With my scuttle panel duct taped haha
At this point I was showing signs of the 1.8t tuning bug and I couldn't stop. Next was a 3 inch down pipe and of course a FMIC, welly cooler was the route I went down, absolutely essential I would say the FMIC is, I did a track day once with smic and I'm sure my engine bay was hotter than the middle of the sun! Car was really slow as well!
I got into trackdays this year and after doing the engine mods above the car was ok in a straight line. Not the quickest on track obviously but hey not the slowest and good fun aswell but was suffering badly in the corners and the brakes were shocking.
Bolted on a set of LCR brembos. 323 discs.
The I turned my attention to the suspension. I bought the car with lowering springs on standard shocks. Not a good combination I know. The ride was awful and they had to go. Went with a set of AP Coilovers, not the best around but handling is much better.
There was a lot of bushes that needed attention, rear trailing arm bushes were totally f@cked! Stuck on a r32 Arb, that tightened the rear of the car plus I had to get rid of the seats, especially if I was gonna be doing more track days. And I'm glad I did! They weigh about the same as my house lol
Fitted club sports with 4 point harness
At knockhill earlier in the year. Not sure why my wipers are moving lol
More recent pic of the engine bay
Going back to the original question. I plan going down the AET 380 route. One thing I'm unsure about with regards to that turbo is the optional uprated actuator. Is it necessary? Can you utilise a standard one. As you've probably already guessed I'm a tad clueless so please educate me! I'm not trying to save money I'm just trying to understand.
What about rods? Anyone using non RD on here? My car will be mostly used for B road blasts and a good few track days a year so if I can get away with non RD then great, will be lighter on the wallet. But I like the idea of fit and forget so could go down the RD route.
Regarding rebuilding the engine. The head will be sent off to machine shop. Not sure whether I'm gonna stick with standard exhaust valves or super tech. I won't be doing insane track mileage nor road mileage so might be ok on standard valves?
I have loads more questions but I think I'll leave it at that for now haha
Thanks for reading, if anyone wants to add anything then please do!
Sam