8V S3 Tuning Thread

[geefunk1978]

Nope I don't have a vbox.
As said before, dyno figures are meaningless, there are so many variables on different dyno's. It's how the car drives and the quality of the mapping that makes the difference. My car could've got 320bhp on a different dyno standard, which means it would now have 380bhp on that dyno.
Here's some more photos anyways;
S3 Slideshow by geefunk1978 | Photobucket

 

[RobH_S3]

Ok so got the car back... The exhaust looks properly evil, defo sets the back of the car off nicely and looks very aggressive.

The exhaust sounds very deep when just cruising and comes alive when on boost with some loud cracks on gear changes. Does sound totally different to the milltek one.

The exhaust made 29hp over standard. I will be confirming this on statllers dyno at some point as this seems ALOT. Currently just have the cat-back fitted as they needed the 3ins downpipe as a jig as they only have one at the min. But not fussed as there doing us a titanium exhaust shortly once they have finished developing the electronic valve for the cat back.

Pics to follow tomoz and a vid will be on there website soon!

 

[Aran383]

Ok so got the car back... The exhaust looks properly evil, defo sets the back of the car off nicely and looks very aggressive.

The exhaust sounds very deep when just cruising and comes alive when on boost with some loud cracks on gear changes. Does sound totally different to the milltek one.

The exhaust made 29hp over standard. I will be confirming this on statllers dyno at some point as this seems ALOT. Currently just have the cat-back fitted as they needed the 3ins downpipe as a jig as they only have one at the min. But not fussed as there doing us a titanium exhaust shortly once they have finished developing the electronic valve for the cat back.

Pics to follow tomoz and a vid will be on there website soon!

Looking forward to hearing it! Is there much drone?

 

[RAPS3]

Looking forward to the car arriving in June............yawn....... then I'm all over this

Keep the development going

 

[geefunk1978]

Ok so got the car back... The exhaust looks properly evil, defo sets the back of the car off nicely and looks very aggressive.

The exhaust sounds very deep when just cruising and comes alive when on boost with some loud cracks on gear changes. Does sound totally different to the milltek one.

The exhaust made 29hp over standard. I will be confirming this on statllers dyno at some point as this seems ALOT. Currently just have the cat-back fitted as they needed the 3ins downpipe as a jig as they only have one at the min. But not fussed as there doing us a titanium exhaust shortly once they have finished developing the electronic valve for the cat back.

Pics to follow tomoz and a vid will be on there website soon!

29bhp seems a lot, was that for cat back only or turbo back?

That seems to have took them a long time to half finish the job?! Milltek were absolutely brilliant and worked their ***** off to get it all done in a week and half!

Be interesting to hear how different it actually sounds compared to the Milltek! We need to meet up and compare!! Where do you live?

 

[J6YAK]

Ok so got the car back... The exhaust looks properly evil, defo sets the back of the car off nicely and looks very aggressive.

The exhaust sounds very deep when just cruising and comes alive when on boost with some loud cracks on gear changes. Does sound totally different to the milltek one.

The exhaust made 29hp over standard. I will be confirming this on statllers dyno at some point as this seems ALOT. Currently just have the cat-back fitted as they needed the 3ins downpipe as a jig as they only have one at the min. But not fussed as there doing us a titanium exhaust shortly once they have finished developing the electronic valve for the cat back.

Pics to follow tomoz and a vid will be on there website soon!

The fact you say it sounds very different to the Milltek appeals to me as to be honest I was a little disappointed in the noise of that (sorry gee funk) I thought it sounded too tinny!! I prefer a deeper note which it sounds like you got with yours, can't wait to hear it!!
Is yours a res or non res?

 

[RobH_S3]

Its a non res, they said the resonated was really quiet so tuck it out. It is really deep though maybe a little too deep I haven't decided yet. Anyway they made some videos so I expect there'll be up on there website at some point. Ill get some pics today.

 

[geefunk1978]

does it vibrate the car? Mine did to start off with but it's settled down now.
Honestly the video you've heard does not do it justice, it definitely doesn't sound tinny in reality.

 

[nervus]

Also dyno figures a practically meaningless for anything else other than a ball park figure.

It's all about vbox times faaaaar more accurate way of measuring performance.

Too true! Also, relation to WHP is totally inaccurate unless using 4WD rollers!

 

[J6YAK]

does it vibrate the car? Mine did to start off with but it's settled down now.
Honestly the video you've heard does not do it justice, it definitely doesn't sound tinny in reality.

I guess it's not the same as hearing it in the flesh is it. I'm sure it sounds good.

 

[DPG87]

Milltek sounds pretty good, I suspect it'll sound a lot better in person though! I had one on my civic type R a while back, it was a cracking system, nice deep note on part throttle and a really aggressive sound on WOT

As I am new to VAG tuning, I see all these crazy figures being quoted from simple mapping (versus NA tuning), all of which seem to vary significantly between companies....

what sort of ballpark figure could you expect from simple breather mods (e.g. exhaust/decat or sports cat and intake) plus a map? 370-380 for both bhp and torque?

My S3 comes in May, quite excited at the prospect but it will be a daily driver so I don't want anything too 'mental' for driving to work...

 

[RAPS3]

Thats the really good thing about these engines - they can be tuned to +350hp and still remain very drivable, smooth and unless you give them some - then you wouldnt even know they were mapped or tuned to death.

 

[DPG87]

Yeh it felt very refined on the test drive and other forced induction cars I have been in (recent builds such as the new Focus RS - although not as refined as the S3 of course) are much more drivable than highly tuned NA, my civic is not a daily at all now and is way off the kind of power the S3 has

I'll keep my eye on this thread for developments!

 

[RobH_S3]

Milltek sounds pretty good, I suspect it'll sound a lot better in person though! I had one on my civic type R a while back, it was a cracking system, nice deep note on part throttle and a really aggressive sound on WOT

As I am new to VAG tuning, I see all these crazy figures being quoted from simple mapping (versus NA tuning), all of which seem to vary significantly between companies....

what sort of ballpark figure could you expect from simple breather mods (e.g. exhaust/decat or sports cat and intake) plus a map? 370-380 for both bhp and torque?


My S3 comes in May, quite excited at the prospect but it will be a daily driver so I don't want anything too 'mental' for driving to work...

Intake, exhaust and a map should be easy 400hp

 

[DPG87]

That's impressive, any traction issues with that kind of power? Does the 8V have an LSD as standard?

 

[RobH_S3]

Traction issues... No mate it just goes its 4wd, although I don't have 400hp but I know people running way more than 400hp through a haldex with no issues apart from maybe whiplash.

No lsd but HPA are bringing out a competition controller no eta on that though.

 

[DPG87]

I knew it was AWD but I wasn't sure how it would handle that kind of power (well torque mainly)! Glad to hear it though

What's the competition controller? ( pardon my ignorance) basically just an electronic ATB?

 

[RobH_S3]

No makes the haldex permanent and loads of other trick stuff. Basiclly its a remap for the 4wd to react like you would want it to in a race car.

 

[DPG87]

Ahhhh!! Very cool stuff! I'll need to get some research done before I get the car as this is my first VAG car so it's all new compared with the Honda/JDM tuning

Cheers

 

[RobH_S3]

I would say HPA for all things haldex and s-tronic as they are technical partners with borg warner who manufacturer the stuff for VAG.

Haldex controller - Haldex Performance Controllers | HPA Motorsports, Inc.

Ill be going with the stage 3 s-tronic map when I get a remap and some more mods done DSG Performance Tuning | HPA Motorsports, Inc.

 

[DPG87]

Thanks for that, much appreciated! I'll take a look into it, (unfortunately) I've got it for the mrs to use daily so I need to be careful to ensure that the car runs (almost) stock when she's just driving to work but does what I want when I'm in it on weekends, tough balance but hopefully I can get a good compromise

 

[RobH_S3]

That's the best thing about these cars you can tune the hell out of them and it still drives like normal when pottering around in comfort mode.

 

[DPG87]

That's good to know, I guessed it'd still be very refined , certainly within the limits of what I expect to do with it but it's good to hear from people who own the car that it's still fine for daily driving even with such big power, unfortunately the civic - which isn't known for being the most refined anyway - is extremely raw now, heavy clutch etc, huge throttle body so accelerator is on/off it's not comparable to the S3 to be fair though at near half the price, I opted for the DSG box so I'll be looking into the HPA and Haldex options!

 

[RobH_S3]

A map, resonated exhaust and intercooler will be 400+hp and she would never notice, same with the HPA gear. Intakes will obviously sound like darth vaders in the glove compartment no matter the car, although the S3 is well sound proofed.

Youd have a mind blowingly fast car with all that. I would say sub 4 secs to 60 and around 8 secs to a 100mph when pushing on easily.

 

[DPG87]

Lol I take it I takes are all open cone then? That wouldn't be ideal! Intercooler sounds a better option, that would be insanely quick! Getting quite excited at the prospect now

 

[RobH_S3]

If she wanted she could humiliate you in your civic, then just go back to pottering around like noting happened.

Yeah pretty much all open cone ill probably not go there unless theres a quiet one out there. Keeping this one under the radar. Will also be getting the resonator put back in on the exhaust.

 

[DPG87]

Lol quite probably haha new K24 high compression block going in soon,350NA horses isn't too bad

Do you find the non-res too loud?

 

[RobH_S3]

Its not crazy loud but ive decided I just want the extra power without too much noise. It looks evil I think that's enough for me.

 

[geefunk1978]

Is it a lot louder than my Milltek then? I don't think it's loud at all anymore when pottering about just a nice burble. It makes me grin massively everytime I gun it tho still, will never tire of that!

 

[RobH_S3]

No its only 4db louder than standard but its just really deep and therefore quite boomy in the cabin. Still its a development exhaust so ill relay this back to them to maybe change it to been a little less deep. Ill still be going for a resonator though ive 100% decided on that.

 

[geefunk1978]

When's the titanium exhaust going on then? That might sound a bit different again if it's thinner tube. I don't do any miles hardly, only do a 2 mile commute so non res is fine for me! The valves work really well on it, that might be the issue with yours if the valves aren't working?

 

[RobH_S3]

The valves are still in development my catback has no valves. The Ti exhaust will be decat as you cant weld ss to Ti and the cats are ss. It will hopefully have valves if theres no issues and a resonator to keep it quiet. As its decat I would say the cracks on gear changes will be loud but im happy with that, maybe even flames haha.

 

[pat15312]

Having a decat will free up a few more horsepower but will be a fair bit louder also

 

[Fiddie]

Haldex Performance Box is very interesting!!!!

I'd like to see any video of this controller working

But I don't see if it works on Haldex 5. Do it?

 

[moffe]

There is no controller yet for Haldex gen.5

 

[geefunk1978]

De-cat is also illegal so I don't know how they get away with that for type approval? They could sleeve the cat into the exhaust system.
Sounds like their development department isn't quite as advanced as Milltek's as the first thing they sorted was the exhaust valves as they wanted it to be as OEM as possible. Wonder what the other exhaust manufacturer's are coming up with?
It must be ****** loud though with no resonator, no cat and no valves!!! Basically a straight through pipe!

 

[DPG87]

I'd imagine they will caveat the decat for "race-use only" - and then sell it to anyone who wants it, like every other company, unfortunately the gains from de-cat are generally so good that its hard to pass up, cats create flat spots and choke the flow, "sports cats" generally fail anyway, I like the idea of titanium it sounds epic! Does anyone kow how the valves affect flow?

Out of interest has anyone had their stock S3 on the dyno to check that it makes the claimed power before they start modifiying it?

 

[illingworth22]

What are the tolerances for the S3 DSG Box? How much Torques can it handle?

 

[Fiddie]

What are the tolerances for the S3 DSG Box? How much Torques can it handle?

+1

 

[geefunk1978]

yep had mine on the dyno with 300 miles on it! Made 280bhp and 396Nm, so down on standard power but up on torque. That was at Shark and they've got a Bapro dyno and it's very accurate.