So I have a 2005.5 a4. I have had the stage 3 jhm turbo kit on since October. Mods besides the stage 3 kit are: AWE front mount, JMH testpipe, stasis catback, JHM stage 1 clutch with lightweight flywheel, and recently installed JHM water/meth kit. I have roughly 10,000 miles on the kit so I figured its time to give the community my impressions. The kit went on my car with about 107,XXX miles on the clock. I was pretty up to date on my maintenance when the kit went on. Timing belt, water pump, valve cover gasket, n75 valve, oxygen sensor, and thermostat where all done within the last 10,000 miles.
I did not personally put the kit on. I had a friend of mine do it since I am not the most mechanically inclined person and he has a lift and all the tools necessary to do the job. From what I was told the installation was very straight forward the included instructions were a big help. So the kit gets installed and JHM recommends not to go over 5,500rpms until they get some logs. So you will need access to a vagcom cable if you want to go about things as recommended. I had never used vagcom before but jake gave me a quick tutorial on how to perform logs over the phone. Big shoutout to jake and dru for all of the help they have given me. Dru has been my go to guy for pretty much anything related to my car. These guys really help the community and are pushing this platform to new heights.
So I performed a series of logs and sent them to dru. Be aware that these logs are performed in third gear and you need to take it out past redline, which had me moving around 105-110 mph, so you will need a place to do this safely. Dru gets back to me and tells me that the car looks good but we missed something on the install. The upgraded fuel rail was not put in. The fact that they were able to see that was huge. I'm in pa, on the other side of the country from JHM, and they were able to tell me something that was missed. So having these logs performed really saved my ass. I do another set of logs and dru tells me that my low pressure fuel pump is looking a bit weak. Keep in mind most of our cars are gonna have near 100,000 miles, so this is why JHM wants these logs. They want the kit to perform, but not at the expense of reliability. So I replaced the pump and now things are good to go.
Now I don't have any other experience with other big turbo kits on our cars, but I can say I am really enjoying stage 3. Power starts picking up around 3,000rpms and by 3,500rpms your around 15 psi. Then around 4,000rpms your at full tilt with about 20-21 psi and it will hold 20psi until redline. It pulls like a train compared to the K03 which tends to fall on its face after 5,000rpms. Although I hear the JHM tune for the stock turbo actually manages to make some power up top. I did not have a JHM tune on my stock turbo. The stage 3 kit really does transform the car and continues to put a smile on my face.
The launch control is pretty awesome as well, it really gets the car moving out of the hole. Your out of first gear in a flash so 0-60 time is improved upon tremendously. Top end is greatly improved upon as well, as you would expect with a big turbo. I have only had the car up to about 130mph but is has plenty over power left to keep it moving past that. What is also great about the kit is that you can drive the car completely normally if you chose so. Besides the sound of the new diverter valve (which I have fallen in love with lol) you would never even know the car has a turbo upgrade. Of course the car does have a bit of lag, but it's really not bad. You just learn to drive the car a bit differently. And when I say lag it's not like the car is useless out of boost, it's just not making a lot of power down low.
Just to put things in perspective, I can say that I have absolutely walked a 370z and he had a big jump on me. I was neck and neck with a newer 5.0 mustang, we never got a good pull together but from what I could tell we were pretty close. The gas mileage with the stage 3 also seems to be improved, if you can mange to stay away from the redline. Just a couple of days ago on a short commute home I recorded 37 mpg, this was a new record for me. Another time I was heading into philly from the suburbs, which was about an hour drive for me, and I saw a consistent mpg of over 30.
Already being pretty happy with stage 3 but always looking for more power, dru turned me on to a water/meth kit. So I purchased the meth kit and put it on last week. I used my washer fluid tank as the reservoir. Dru was able to answer my questions about the install even on the weekend, again this just goes to show you that JHM customer support is second to none. Now here in pa it has been in the upper 90s for a couple weeks. With the meth kit installed the car pulls harder than ever, even in this heat. If you plan on purchasing the stage 3 kit, you should plan on getting the water/meth kit as well. It just makes it that much better. It feels like the car has a more aggressive tune with the water/meth. It pulls so hard up top.
So all in all I love the stage 3 kit and having someone like dru at JHM to help me with all of my needs related to the turbo kit is a huge deal. I was gonna run the car at waterfest this year but I got there to late and the strip was closed. I will be recording some quarter mile times in the coming months and will let you guys know how I do.
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Originally Posted by jamerican1
. Since you have experience in logging what JHM what. Can we hook up one day at your convince and I can log my car to get my JHM KO4 tune 
. Id greatly appreciate the help if you can spare it
member Ktish. But we was unable due to the tiptronic kickdown. But since suggested not to fully depress the gas pedal to the floor. I logged with another 
. I can only risk my DL but so much
. In this state you get arrested and your car impounded for that type of 
. The only code I have is from my 034 motor mounts due to not plugging a resistor into the harness, and a code for the GFB DV+. I contacted them and they told me that it sometimes happens and me to install the stock spring back to eliminate the code. But the spring that came with the kit supplies better 
that was such a mistake. 
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