Biggest boost for the 1.6 - which upgrade?

R

rlc2010

Member
What would give the biggest boost for the 1.6FSI?

  • ECU Remap
  • Carbon intake kit
  • High flow exhaust & cat system
  • Other (please specify...)

trying to prioritise my next upgrades. I need a catconvertor anyway as mine's on it's way out, but regardless of that...don't know which upgrade to spend my hard earned cash on first.

my primary aim is better & smoother 0-60 without having to redline it (not that I'd do such a thing)
 
Basic stuff...

Regular change of oil, gearbox and engine, regular oil, air and fuel filters. Also sparks kept clean. Lighter wheels, correct tyre pressures, weight reduction in the car where possible, no air con or fans being operated and no audio if possible. Cleaning of throttle assembly, run 98RON fuel. Slightly wider tyres on the rear to assist with the grip.

Additional stuff...

Increase the volumetric effiency on the inlet tract. Reduce bends in the exhaust piping. Take steps to increase the rev limit on the engine to get more power, not limited to weight reduction on the flywheel, crank lightening and balancing along with the corresponding balancing of the valves and pistons. ECU Remap may be worthwhile however gains will be limited and probably not worth the cost.

In short, either get the TDI 90 if you want a high output engined A2 or sell up and get a car with a bigger turbo charged engine (petrol or diesel)

The FSi is simply not worth the cost if you are after something a lot faster in my opinion.
 
rlc2010 said:
What would give the biggest boost for the 1.6FSI?

  • ECU Remap
  • Carbon intake kit
  • High flow exhaust & cat system
  • Other (please specify...)

trying to prioritise my next upgrades. I need a catconvertor anyway as mine's on it's way out, but regardless of that...don't know which upgrade to spend my hard earned cash on first.

my primary aim is better & smoother 0-60 without having to redline it (not that I'd do such a thing)
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I have done and doing the same thing! :)
 
If you want to make significant performance gains buy another car. Seriously. The amount you would have to spend on major mechanicals for really not much real world improvement its just not worth the money or effort I would say. If you want to get big gains in an A2 get a 90TDi and remap that.
 
Try the German A2 forum, I am sure they will have done whatever can be done money no object to get more performance from an FSi. You would probably be better off doing an engine transplant using a 1.8T or 1.4TFSI otherwise its trade it for a 90TDi and a remap.
 
If the engine went pop and you decided to do a rebuild then I could understand doing some mods to bring the rpm's up to 8 or 9k to wring every last bit of power out of the engine. In all seriousness, whilst the FSi is a nice std engine, compared to a mapped TDi that has the flexibility of a turbo, you will be fighting a losing battle. Not to put you off though. If you manage to find the magic formula to make the car a bit more zippy, do share your experiences. I know from when I was talking to my mapper friend that an ECU remap on a 1.6 is not much to talk about round the campfire. His words were that it was not worth doing, but he would do it if paid to, but suggests it is not worth the money. Take what you will from that as he is effectively talking himself out of a sale for his services.
 
That's a shame...not really after massive gains(although that would be nice), just a "bit more", know what I mean?

If I could squeeze an extra bhp out of it, I'll be happy to be honest
 
rlc2010 said:
scott: u trading in then? the changes you've made...do they make noticeable difference?
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I thought it was allot quicker but I had a race with Pammy and his standard 1.6 fsi and im only a bit quicker in the higher gears but bearing in mind I have an inlet manifold problem ,clutch is going and need to be re filled with gearbox oil If it makes any difference, although once I have all that fixed I am going for a super chip, then that will tune the sport cat/exhaust and induction kit and hopefully I will get a bit more than the average 9bhp from a standard remap. the fsi will never be a monster but I am happy with the sound and improvement of it so far. I would like to go on a track day and have a proper drag race with a standard fsi and a mapped tdi and see how I do because on the roads theirs allot stopping its full potential.

If you or anyone want to fit an induction kit to your fsi, you have to buy a universal air filter and then the best thing to do for the piping (took me along time looking under the bonnet of every car that came in at work for a compatible one:D) is to buy the air box tube from a skoda fabia 1.4tdi its a direct fit and sits the air filter right behind the headlight.

Thanks

Scott
 
The best you can realistically expect with a reasonable budget is to replace things on the car with higher performance parts and change the fluids often to keep the efficiency of the car up. Shocks go, then replace with FSD. Air filter needs changing, then replace with a green / foam / panel filter. Clean the throttle assembly to make sure it is not full of crud. One thing you may want to look at is a baffled catch can so that the crankcase breather is not venting into the inlet and leaving residues on the inlet valves and blanking off the EGR valve and code it to not open the solenoid. This may help you get the cleanest air into the inlet and help the engine have the chance to up the timing as best as possible under load.
 
Pummy said:
The best you can realistically expect with a reasonable budget is to replace things on the car with higher performance parts and change the fluids often to keep the efficiency of the car up. Shocks go, then replace with FSD. Air filter needs changing, then replace with a green / foam / panel filter. Clean the throttle assembly to make sure it is not full of crud. One thing you may want to look at is a baffled catch can so that the crankcase breather is not venting into the inlet and leaving residues on the inlet valves and blanking off the EGR valve and code it to not open the solenoid. This may help you get the cleanest air into the inlet and help the engine have the chance to up the timing as best as possible under load.
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I for got to ask you do you no of any performance inlet manifold I can get seeing as myn need replacing???
 
It is unlikely. Can you explain what the exact problem is with your inlet manifold? And also what your proposed solution is?
 
The garage said replacing it, im not sure what it exactly is, I paid a garage to clean it but it didn't fix it:mad:
 
Try Awesome, if anybody knows of one they will, and come to that what if anything can realistically be acheived with the FSi engine.

I know we have all probably been there when young, buying a car without research but you would have saved yourself a lot of hassle and wasted time and money if you had asked these questions before you bought the car. These days with the Internet and so many forums there really is no excuse, however each to their own and good luck and all that, maybe you will prove those old experienced seceptics of us wrong.........
 
scott said:
The garage said replacing it, im not sure what it exactly is, I paid a garage to clean it but it didn't fix it:mad:
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I would push them to explain why a replacement would correct the issues you had. I have not seen the posts from you but I would garner that this was not the solution to whatever issue you had.

As I understood a port and polish "may" give you a bit more flow but it all comes down to how much air the pistons can realistically pull into the chambers and allowing the ECU to pump in the appropriate fuel.

The traditional tuning methods could be used but the cost far outweighs the benefits.

I will be tinkering with mine over the coming months more as a hobby and pastime rather than for out and out performance so will post up what I get out of it. If you have access to a K-line reader, one thing you could do is to measure the MAF flow rate before and after any breathing mod to see if that gm/s measurement increases or not.

As always you know I am down the road so if you think of something and need a second opinion, get in touch.
 
Adrian888 said:
Try Awesome, if anybody knows of one they will, and come to that what if anything can realistically be acheived with the FSi engine.

I know we have all probably been there when young, buying a car without research but you would have saved yourself a lot of hassle and wasted time and money if you had asked these questions before you bought the car. These days with the Internet and so many forums there really is no excuse, however each to their own and good luck and all that, maybe you will prove those old experienced seceptics of us wrong.........
Click to expand...

I would still have brought it, I had no intention of tuning the engine when I brought it but had it for a year and then thought why not, being a bit of a boy racer:D. I never heard of an a2 before and I saw one for the first time and said Im getting one! and I went and got one, only thing I do wish I looked into was getting a better spec'd one eg full trip computer,Bose, leather, sport, but didn't realize these options apart from leather at the time but thats all I would change if I could go back.
 
Pummy said:
I would push them to explain why a replacement would correct the issues you had. I have not seen the posts from you but I would garner that this was not the solution to whatever issue you had.

As I understood a port and polish "may" give you a bit more flow but it all comes down to how much air the pistons can realistically pull into the chambers and allowing the ECU to pump in the appropriate fuel.

The traditional tuning methods could be used but the cost far outweighs the benefits.

I will be tinkering with mine over the coming months more as a hobby and pastime rather than for out and out performance so will post up what I get out of it. If you have access to a K-line reader, one thing you could do is to measure the MAF flow rate before and after any breathing mod to see if that gm/s measurement increases or not.

As always you know I am down the road so if you think of something and need a second opinion, get in touch.
Click to expand...

The thing is I had It cleaned and It didnt fix it so the only other solution is replacing it, and just remembers its something to do with the flaps jamming???
 
Searching the forums I found mention of one manifold that had a plastic rod that is operated by a solenoid.

The possible issues you are seeing as I can tell are

1) A sensor fault with the manifold pressure value being implausible
2) The plastic rod in one manifold snapping thus not allowing the ECU proper control of the pressure
3) The solenoid not operating correctly and "creeping" again not allowing the ECU to control the pressure accurately.
4) One of the inlet pipes having a small leak throwing out the measurements.

The only issue that is costly would be 2 as the inlet needs to come off and repaired / replaced.

Can you get your mates to do a scan and pull up the error code? If not, give me a shout and we can see what error codes you have on the engine as I have been lent a reader so pop round and I can run a scan for you. (Give me a bell if you want to pop round now as I can do it for you)
 
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