Affordable tuning options.....

[Horse Pop]

On a turbo engine, it rarely gets more cost effective than a remap.

[stevesingo]

zeppelin101 said:

stevesingo said:

RE Air Filters,

Are we saying the VAG group engineers with all of their resources have left easy power on the table by designing a poor intake?

Is the 197 intake the same as the higher performance variant? If so, it will probably be fine enough.

It would be easy to measure pressure drop on such an intake system. Find somewhere to tap in to in between the turbo and the air filter box and connect a vacuum gauge.

The OEM system is designed to do a job, at a target pressure loss in order to meet the target performance.

That isn't to say that it can't be improved in the aftermarket at some expense to the quality of the filtration.

Don't just assume that the OEM system is the best because the OEM designed it, they have NVH and packaging constraints to deal with. An open cone filter would never get past a premium OEMs NVH department, but it will offer less pressure drop.

I'm not assuming OEM is best, but nor am I assuming OEM is worse, which is the default assumption. It may have been in more cases than not 20yrs ago, but I suspect it is not so much in the 21st century.

[paps]

Sorry I've been "off grid" for the past few hours.
Thanks for all the suggestions, and an interesting side thread regarding the merits of aftermarket filters. I've gone for a panel filter in the existing airbox. I'm aware it won't transform the cars performance, but I am looking to make some basic changes that might play well with an ecu remap. I've thought about the induction kits and cold air feeds etc, but then I'll be blowing a lot more money than I'm comfortable with and making it clear to all that the car is modded. I don't want the engine bay to look at all different (could put off future buyers) and I don't want it to sound like a Max Power Nova with 'Zorst!
I want it to be unassuming and standard looking whilst having a little more poke.

I've responded to Noisey's PM and will wait to here from him on what they can offer.

Some tuners can offer a remap for £200. Whilst other "big brand" type tuners charge closer to £500-600. Why such a big difference; branding, advertising, licensing of the maps? Or is there a noticeable difference in the quality/sophistication of the map?

[BGarside]

Remap has to be the most cost-effective tuning for any modern turbo engine, shirley?

Filters, exhausts, etc. alone will not allow significant power increases in a modern engine without mapping to allow the engine management system to exploit them.

Not like the old days of mechanical wastegates when turbo boost pressure could be increased merely by removing inlet and exhaust restrictions and tweaking the wastegate adjustment...

Either remap or save up for a map later.

[paps]

Ok, I'm local to Banbury where Angel Tuning are based. They've got an offer of a remap for a flat fee of £250 if you go to their premises.
Any experiences of their work, reputation etc?

[JackP1]

Any vag i'd be looking at revo, although i know their prices can be more than what you want to spend!

[andy-xr]

1) I've never had anything sucked into my engine when I took the filter off and ran open carbs, though they were at the top of the engine
2) I've never had anything sucked into the engine from running a K+N replacement

I've also never really noticed any real power gains from any aftermarket system on it's own, I've had better induction noise adding a K+N copy with a stainless exhaust, which was made better with a Powerchip. I'm holding out now for bigger injectors and a better cam