got the VR6, any easy mods?

[S3 rich]

...like induction kit? superchip? go faster stripes??!!

any suggestions??

how do we stand on de-cat pipes, or is that a bit naughty??

dont want to go mad & spend any money!





Richard

[Dr G]

Most of the easy stuff gets you noise alone - but a properly fed cold air intake kit does emit a lovely, lovely bark.

Cams and a Schrick intake manifold (££&#163 really unleash the beast.

A lower final drive lets you tap into the potential that VW so cruelly pinched.

[Tino]

Get an induction kit. Even the cheap ones are worth it just for the noise!! you may lose some power, unless you get a decent one with a cold feed(CDA etc) But these tend to be a bit dearer. You'll also use more fuel just to listen to the bark of the engine at high revs!!

[JonRB]

Tino said:

Get an induction kit. Even the cheap ones are worth it just for the noise!! you may lose some power

Sorry, but anything that loses power or performance is not an upgrade, it's a downgrade!

The VR6 engine is expensive to tune well. You can make some reasonable gains by changing to a large bore thottle body, fitting a proper cold air feed induction kit and having a rolling road remap. You're probably looking at around +15 bhp for that if you're lucky.

For proper gains you're looking at the dual-tract inlet manifold (called the VSR / VGI), Schrick 268 deg cams, high compression head gasket, a more agressive remap to Super Unleaded and, if you're really flushed, a Big Valve Head. On the 2.9L Corrado VR6 engine as opposed to the 2.8L VR6 in everything else, you're looking at a maximum of around 240bhp Naturally Aspirated.
You're talking of thousands of pounds to get to that though.
My own Corrado VR6 is at this point but without the Big Valve Head or the air filter - I'm running a standard airbox at present because I don't like induction roar.

If you're prepared to look at forced induction then you probably get more bang for your buck. Around 275bhp is attainable for around £5k with a supercharger conversion and a turbo setup will get well over 300bhp. But the bills mount up pretty quick there.

The engine also responds well to reboring and there are VR6 engines bored out to around 3.1L around these days too. But again, we're talking big bucks.

So going back to the original question of cheap upgrades, you're looking at thottle body, induction and remap. And I'd suggest something like the BMC CDA with cold air feed if you want any actual performance gains. Don't waste your money on an ordinary air filter that "sounds nice" but actually does nothing.

Edit: I agree with Dr G - a lower final drive does help (I have this on mine) but does mean that you drive down the motorway thinking you're in 4th gear.

Edited by JonRB on Thursday 1st November 16:08

[Dr G]

JonRB said:

Edit: I agree with Dr G - a lower final drive does help (I have this on mine) but does mean that you drive down the motorway thinking you're in 4th gear.

Edited by JonRB on Thursday 1st November 15:01

Depends on what you want from the car I suppose, GTIs always had relatively low gearing. My MK2 is doing about 4000 revs at 80.