1.8T guys: Let's talk upgrading turbos :)
My thoughts on my B5 A4 1.8T, and what to do to it to get it out of the friggin 15s. I've been thinking and reading for the last few months about what to do with my car, and I've come up with this. Read on.
Let's say you were going to move up to a different turbo. You browse your options online for a bit and you narrow it down fast. Searching your local tuner shops you find that there's plenty of KO4 kits available, but say you don't want to do a kit because you know you've seen KO4s sell for about 700 dollars or so and I think I can do it myself cheaper...can I?
Let's price out a Ko4:
Ko4 turbo: ~720 dollars on a few random sites
Software: Neuspeed and GIAC are the popular choices among most people, but we'll say GIAC since it's the most aggressive choice according to the general population with KO3s. We will assume they follow suit with their KO3 programming. According to GIAC's site, it's 600 dollars for the software...91 octane, "60-70hp", "75-85 tq." No information about larger injectors, but custom software is popular.
Misc: You need a few more things to get going...but bare minimum is the actual turbo, an exhaust system which we will assume you already have, a 3bar fuel pressure regulator (~80 new) and the software.
Generally I've noticed you see about 240HP at the crank over the 200HP on a chipped car. That's usually with a few extra bolt-ons too. Worth it? Well it's bolt-on, that's sure. But that's the only advantage it seems.
Now let's say you get disappointed in the Ko4, and start browsing again. GT28RS turbo comes around next, but you know at about 1200 dollars just for the actual turbo things are going to get too expensive for your taste, especially without much software surfacing and becoming available to the public.
T3/T4 Hybrid seems to be popular among the tuning crowd, but as soon as you see the thing you realize why we don't see them on our cars generally. You wouldn't want to wait a week to spool... :)
Next stop, T-28 land. This is where things could be promising. It's not too big, not too small. You'd need:
Exhaust manifold
Turbo to Cat adapter
the T-28 turbo obviously
New injectors
Some kind of software
Misc crap like hose clamps...etc
You can get a exhaust manifold made up if you have some people around you into FI...I know a guy locally that'll make me something for under 300 dollars. Not the log style, but a long pipe style.
The turbo to cat adapter would have to be fabricated, it would not be incredibly difficult to figure something out, or expensive.
The T-28 turbo would run you about 750 if you hop on ebay and stuff. They're not like a lot of turbos that are only for our engines so you can get them cheap a lot of places.
Used, just a quick search my friend did pulled this up: http://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=817102
And a new standard T28: http://store.yahoo.com/cheapturbo/garrettt28.html
So we'll say you get the exhaust mani for 300 made up custom. The turbo runs you 700 dollars, and you fab up a few parts to get it onto the cat and whatever. It ends up costing another 100 dollars for misc crap you need throughout the install.
Now you need injectors and software. Although I did not contact PES or GIAC about software costs and what size injectors are preferred, we would have to assume.
Well, discuss I guess.. What are my flaws in the plan, maybe you find something cheaper...etc. I may have missed something, it's 4am and I'm getting retarded :O
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My name is John.
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