RS3 8V: One step at a time

[Leo-RS]

No, secondary cats barely give off horsepower gains. I had my 2nd cat Milltek replacement pipes specifically measured on the dyno before and after on my TTRS and there were no noticeable gains at all. The TTRS/RS3 primary cat is located close to the turbo exit at the top of the downpipe.

TTRS/RS3 downpipe below, this clamps onto the turbo exit so the exhaust gas is filtered through that meshing (primary cat)



Stage 2 needs that restriction gone, Stage 2 boost levels will send EGT's through the roof with it in place.

This is what the pipe looks like with cat removed (drilled out)..



Look how restrictive it is and hence my confusion on why the O.P hasn't removed his but claims to be Stage 2. (Litchfield terminology)

[fagin]

Hi Leo,
Some tuners provide different names. It's not an issue from my perspective as I look at the mods rather than the title of any tune.

I had no need to look at exhaust mods at this level of tune, hence why I haven't done any testing in this area. The secondary decats are all about the noise really. For me, at this level of tuning, it's about cost vs performance as well. For Stage 3 I will be swapping the DP since I will have no choice with the turbo I'll be putting on, else I would have liked to test how far I could go with retaining the stock DP. The rest of the system will be retained as I don't think it will be worth changing..... the stock system (cat back) appears to be very good.

I get your point about the VBOX stats but I have never hid the fact that these are with 1ft rollout enabled. It says it on the VBVERIFY graphs and also clear on the measures via DBSCANNER. Most magazines and testers (if not all) keep the 1ft enabled. If this has caused confusion then I apologise. There is much more "error" in figures when there is no correction for slope!

I was of the understanding that the RS3 you mention was running on a race fuel map with its seats removed. Full weight and pump fuel is where it's at. Regardless, I'm more than happy with the performance of mine with these simple mods. As a comparison, a friend of mine was running 11.3's @ 122mph at Santa Pod with his MRC Stage 3 8V RS3 on a TTE500 - 510bhp - (full weight and pump fuel).

We'll see what transpires for sure with Stage 3. Will be fun.

[fagin]

Things haven’t quite panned out as I had envisaged, but that’s always the risk when not going down the “off the shelf” route……

Putting it bluntly there have been some issues with being able to progress with the pre-production big turbo kit fitment. It has been suggested that the current manifold design may need some alterations made around the collector (which is where the five tubes meet for the turbo exhaust side). This will take at least 5 weeks to redesign and fabricate. Due to this, other competing workload and not enough hours in the day, I have been informed that it will be unrealistic to expect any real progress to be made on this until the Autumn.

Believe me, this is disappointing but it is what is it.

So I had a decision to make…… wait until the Autumn to start, and let’s be honest that could drift again, or take a different direction now. I chose the latter.

I don’t know how this will pan out, but until I try then I won’t know.

I have now decided to have a hybrid turbo created based on the OEM housing and manifold, so I have commissioned Litchfield and Turbo Dynamics to “crack on” with this.

I have done a fair amount of work with both of these companies in the past with hybrid turbos with really good results, so it will be interesting to see how this goes.

Ideally I never wanted to go down this route as this will fall well short of where I wanted the car to be powerwise, however, it’s more about the journey for me than any single result at any single point in time.

In some respects it fits better now into the Staged approach I prefer to take, being more of a Stage 3 conversion utilising the stock turbo frame.

Whilst I fully appreciate this has been done before by others, there are some ideas we’ve discussed to look at trying something slightly different to what is currently available.

I’ll still be keeping one eye on the big turbo development, but I won’t expect to be up and running properly with that until the next drag strip season. In the meantime I’m hopeful we can make positive progress with a hybrid unit.

I’ll update as soon as I start getting pictures and details back from Litchfield and TD.

[fagin]

Stock blower is now off the car and is sat with Turbo Dynamics, being prepared for the custom Litchfield Stage 3 spec for testing!

[dougle_turbo]

Stock blower is now off the car and is sat with Turbo Dynamics, being prepared for the custom Litchfield Stage 3 spec for testing!

Looking forward to the next update.

[fagin]

After what has been weeks (months) lol, my new Hybrid Borg Warner EFR Turbo has been done and is waiting for installation!

This has had extensive work to cram in a 7163 EFR core into the stock housing.

Cast inlet pipe and manifold have been ported.

Exhaust housing has been strengthened to account for the very large turbine.

Seals and actuator have been upgraded.

Can't wait until we test this.

Don't ask me how much power it will make.... we don't know! I'll find out soon though!!!

Core is capable of 550-600bhp, but it won't make that in this install due to the exhaust flow restrictions of the exhaust housing and manifold.

[fagin]

Slight misunderstanding of what was ordered and fitted. I've now got a full Miltek system on. Decatted and no centre resonators.

I'm going to see how this sounds.

Exhaust tips look good though!

The new VIS HPFP was also fitted this morning along with the NGK uprated spark plugs.

The car will hopefully hit the dyno tomorrow for initial testing.









Stock DP:

[fagin]

With the new exhaust system fitted:




Car had its inaugural Stage 3 run on the dyno this afternoon for logging purposes. The car made 430bhp on a short run to 5600rpm AND with only 30% throttle throughout the run.

This was literally for logging purposes and the real mapping work starts from here.

Can't wait to see what this turbo can do on a finished map with wide open throttle and the full rev range.

[MikeFish]

Nice work again. How long do they think the map development will take before we get to see it on WOT?

[MikeFish]

And what does it sound like now?

[fagin]

Nice work again. How long do they think the map development will take before we get to see it on WOT?

It's being worked on more this coming week. I hope to get some proper figures during this week.

More mapping was done yesterday morning, but it's all about ensuring the PID's are all setup at the moment and ECU is controlling as needed.

Yesterday saw 458bhp @ with under 1.2bar at 34% throttle opening.

Spool on this new turbo so far has matched what the stock turbo was achieving 1:1. Still plenty to do though.

The anticipated restriction will be exhaust gas flow, due to the OEM exhaust housing and manifold. Although the EFR core based on these results so far suggest it has loads left in it.... but we already knew how good the core can perform (all things being equal).

[fagin]

And what does it sound like now?

Don't know as I haven't heard it yet. Apparently it's louder than stock system, but sounds different.

[turboDean]

Good thread, was an interesting read!

Can't wait to see the final results for the hybrid.

[DavidRS4]

Bet it'll go like stink!

[marc1]

What diameter is the exhaust? Wouldn't 3" pipes all the way back give you better exhaust gas flow? The A45 had a 3" full exhaust from the factory to help get the power figures. It seems the recommend diameter for most turbo cars.