20V CQ Tidy Up

[GazzaG60]

im sure it will provide a nice long good power delivery. everybody seems to rate them highly. mines a ole slug in comparison.

looks very nice. good stuff

[rynaqui]

Looks good . I think that the 450-550hp range is the sweet spot for driveability. I love the RS2 setup but am used to it and want more now as well

[Error404]

This is Darren's right after he swapped to the .82 hotside, but hadn't had the map altered for it, and running less boost then previously, so I think it will crack 500 if required. I spent a few extra quid on the billet wheel to try and get even better response. It shouldn't be far off an RS2 unit

[rynaqui]

That is definitely more than any RS2 setup I have seen even with the billet wheel, it looks good

[GazzaG60]

boosts a good k before mine for sure

[Greg_S]

Going to be keep an eye on the results of this as I have the MD157 at present but have always looked at the 357, rebuild cost to change is quite a bit so more likely to buy a new turbo when money allows instead. Looking forward to seeing how it performs on an S2

[andy10v]

It does look like a beast of a usable power band!

Greg I asked Craig at TDIturbos about am MD357

We can supply a new unit as follows 0.60 A/R Compressor cover 3" Inlet 2" outlet with GT3071 CHRA 0.82 A/R Turbine Housing (hot side) Audi Fitment which is basically the MD357 but new instead of using old turbine housing as they are all beyond their use by date now. Price would be £1025.00 + Vat and carriage. Delivery would be about 7-10 days from date of order

[andy10v]

What are you going to do for mapping Alex?

[david1980]

What power is the box good for and was the conversion worth doing again? How much did the prop cost to have done?

[Error404]

I'd agree with Craig, the old K24 turbine housing that came off mine was definitely past its use-by date has a big *** crack in it! Mine has cost me £1200 - about half to buy, half to upgrade and rebuild with new turbine wheel, hotside, CHRA and the billet compressor wheel. Its a new turbo now.
Not sure about mapping yet. Have been thinking about learning to do it myself, using aftermarket management. Its all quite expensive, but options on the Motronic are very limited.

Prop was about £100 to have it shortened and balanced. Box is great, much better than the 01E IMHO - very smooth. Ratios are short. With the rear diff and the T3 centre diff it drives more like a rear wheel drive car... sideways in 3rd in the wet Yeah its definitely worth the effort. Not sure on power, people seem to get on OK with supercharged RS4s so I guess its pretty capable.

[GazzaG60]

for sure learn to map. a man of your calibre will have no issue. its only like excel with a few variables. i learned from no practical experience just some theory and some experience using a wideband testing chips on my corradoG60 for snstuning in the early days. my first mapping was on an impreza. what i found its the tlc applied is a big part. tuners in general have little time to spend on your car in the allotted slot. the 80/20 rule. there are gains in econoy and power to be had. you will find you get addicted to the laptop a bit though especially in the early days. im sure you already know what the engine should be doing and how it sounds when its good. there are plenty of us who do this and most will help no end. base maps are available and a gt30 base would be a good start. injectors around the 600cc mark or newer spec squirters.

getting rid of the factory airbox and maf helps with space, airflow and doing jobs on it some like the airbox though, i like a big filter behind the IC. i can have the turbo off mine in very little time.

[Error404]

Cheers for the vote of confidence Gaz. I think the gulf between a =n average map and a really good one is huge.
As you say though a DIYer has a lot of time to tweak. I'm going to have a read of a couple of those books Dmitri recommended and see how I feel about it. Long way to go before I get there anyway

[GazzaG60]

its all subjective. ive seen maps from people who are supposed to be the best in their field, they ran like ****. especially in the early subaru days.

you hear good and bad about audi tuners too. some love em some would run away. the internet can make a break a tuner in seconds.

in reality i feel it takes a little stupidity to kill a car if thats what you worry about.try to understand the effects of compression and timing, stick to guidlines and safe methods with plenty of feedback from good equipment not crappy 20 quid boost gauges. be sure you can fuel the amount of air you can feed. use the conservative 1 degree per psi rule to start with. chekc items like plugs for tell tale signs.

i really believe the difference between a so called good tune and bad tune to a level has as much to do with time as anything. spending time on cold start, startup cold enrichment, cruise is a big thing. this is the majority of the map imo. the boost part at WOT is a very small part. the pro should get you to 80 leaving the 20 quicker. the last 20 takes time whoever you are on standalone.

i still run a very old vems version. based on megatune. megatune is used by lots of ecu's. id suggest downloading a megatune from vems.hu up to 1.44 firmware have a look around it. run the review function. it will walk you through the config pages. i can send you a map to load into it, wont be a perfect map, sure many others are ahead of me now but it will give you an idea of audi config in vems, easily.

in summary i think the definition of a really good tuner is really reputation based on experience. somthing that can go in an instant when a more popular view appears. i rememebr the days i was called stupid for running vems. its crap they said........most of the haters have run it since.

need not worry, many a mechanical expert like yourself get mental block at learn to map stage.

[PRY4SNO]

I'm pretty excited to run Vems myself.

For a long time I researched the options, Megasquirt/034/Motec/Emerald/Lugtronic/etc...

What sold me on Vems was the amount of support that's available. Everyone has a base tune to help you out with and there are awesome folk like Marc @EFI-Express who truly are experts at tuning to get help from if need be.

Since you aren't intimidated by wiring, why not save some money (about $1k US) and get the Econoseal ECU and do the harness yourself? That keeps the price almost ridiculously low.

[Error404]

I'm not sold on VEMS.. yes it looks like great VFM, but it seems like everyone who uses it is always waiting for some firmware update or other to get it working properly.
Anyways, there are lots of options