Diesel performance tuning

I

Ice2Cool

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Hey guys,

I have a Golf 5 1.9tdi and was looking to add a wee bit of vroom vroom to it. Does anyone know who does diesel chips in Jhb (good chips like REVO etc?)
 
I heard steves wasnt too good? Have u had a chip done by them?
 
ushir said:
I heard steves wasnt too good? Have u had a chip done by them?
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I'm not into souping my engine up beyond stock but a couple of colleagues are and they're all happy. Apart from one who ruined his 1.9 Polo's engine by going full-on whilst it was still old, no probs. Steves is expensive though.
 
Polo's have problems with their turbo's so chipping on them is shady. Thanks tho
 
ushir said:
Wow they quoted me R6500... too expensive IMO. Anyways, Im still thinking about this chip - I hear chipping causes black smoke on a diesel and thats a BIGGGG no no for me. Anyone here ever done any performance tuning on a diesel?

I dont want to do much I just want a little extra power - like 10%. Im from durban and Im not sure why but the altitude or atmosphere in jhb caused me to lose alot of power. I miss that little extra!
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It is a little more expensive than other brands...

The black smoke comment... errrrr
10% more power do a downpipe and de cat... more black smoke though:p
 
Ushir if you want to do a software upgrade on your TDI there are only 3 options you should look at. I have a mk5 1.9 TDI and have done all the research.

1) Dimsport (considered the best for power in diesel tuning by the majority of TDI drivers on vwclub.co.za)
2) FRC (Frieling Racing - also very good tuners. Can't go wrong with them and cheaper than Revo)
3) Revo (Very good but most expensive and not worth the money when you have Dimsport and FRC)

If I was in Joburg I would have gone with Dimsport hands down after seeing what Trevor has done for some of the guys in the VW Club. You can phone Trevor on 083 309 5033 or call Preggie at FRC on 082 788 1172. I'd recommend calling both for a chat because they are both very clued up. You'd be looking at about a 30% increase in KW and torque :) Both charge around R4k.

Don't go for one of these plug and play things. They are not as safe and some don't even change your boost at all but just add more fuel which is not good for a diesel vehicle. Downpipe and decat will not give you more power on a diesel like on a GTI. Max 2-3kw and some tuners would say 0kw! But it does improve airflow and your turbo should spool up a bit quicker. Its a different ballgame with TDIs. The remap is all you need to get around 100kw/320Nm.
 
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I wouldn't push a diesel engine past it's factory limit. It isn't designed to be a performance engine. (please don't post about the audi diesel that won the race, that one WAS designed as a performace engine!)

(neither is a 1.4 corsa light by the way - this is for all those guys in boksburg who think loading a little golf or corsa up with free-flo exhausts and 747 wings is cool. spend your money to get a better car)
 
I haven't done a remap but I have been in a Jetta 5 TDI with revo and a remapped Polo sportline. I've been too worried about losing my warranty but I've decided I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway and just load the original map before my next service.

Throttle response is better yes, more torque through the whole rev range (huge improvement!) and your 0-100 will drop below 10 seconds. The acceleration and highway overtaking improvement is hectic.

On a very aggressive map your car will smoke more because of the extra fuel. The leaner the fuel mixture, the less smoke you get. With normal driving you won't get more smoke but when you floor it suddenly yes there will be more smoke but its worth it.

To improve throttle response even more you can do an intake upgrade with Seat's 118kw TDI's intake, fit a K&N or BMC flat panel panel and then do your exhaust. That will give a much better throttle response but then you'd have to have your map reconfigured to make the most of the new changes.

Motorcade (motorcade.co.za) does a front mount intercooler kit for about R4500 and that will give you around another 10kw. Then the mods get really expensive. Turbos are PRICEY. With all these mods you'd have about 115kw at the very max. Whoever you choose to do your software upgrade, ask them what they will charge to update it if you do the intake/zaust/fmic because once the modding bug bites its hard to stop :)
 
Velenoso said:
I wouldn't push a diesel engine past it's factory limit. It isn't designed to be a performance engine. (please don't post about the audi diesel that won the race, that one WAS designed as a performace engine!)

(neither is a 1.4 corsa light by the way - this is for all those guys in boksburg who think loading a little golf or corsa up with free-flo exhausts and 747 wings is cool. spend your money to get a better car)
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Wrong. Every single turbodiesel car can 100% safely be tuned to give more power. For example the kp39 turbo used on some VWs, Audis and Seats has been used on cars that are stock around 100bhp up to 130bhp with different boost settings. Every model of turbo in cars has a safe boost limit and if they are not tuned over that they will be fine. Problems come when some tuners go over that limit. Diesel engines are much tougher and more reliable than petrol engines and you won't find a TDI anywhere that won't perform at least 15% better with a good tune completely safely.
 
Velenoso said:
I wouldn't push a diesel engine past it's factory limit. It isn't designed to be a performance engine. (please don't post about the audi diesel that won the race, that one WAS designed as a performace engine!)
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I semi agree, Diesel engines aren't really built for performance but they are usually overbuilt in comparison to a Petrol engine because Diesel engines need to deal with more knock & high compression ratio's. That said you can't get that much power from a Diesel engine simply because the rev limit is like 5000rpm, it doesn't help you have 600Nm torque but the car only revs to 4000rpm, also because of the need for heavy crank shaft, connecting rods, pistons, etc. to deal with the high compression and knock the bottom end and flywheel is so heavy on Diesel engines that it's a real pig when it comes to picking up revs.

It really just depends on the Turbo charger, hopefully VW sorted their Turbo problems, should be safe to increase boost a bit.

And it's not really fair comparing the Audi R10 TDI to other racing engines imho because it's got a Turbo, the entire reason Turbo's were banned before is because companies were using tiny Petrol engines (low weight) with large turbo's and making enormous amounts of power.

Velenoso said:
(neither is a 1.4 corsa light by the way - this is for all those guys in boksburg who think loading a little golf or corsa up with free-flo exhausts and 747 wings is cool. spend your money to get a better car)
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Petrol and Diesel engines are different, those 1.4 Corsa engines are capable of more, the guy from Motorcade.co.za up until recently was pushing 200kW atw with his Corsa 1.4 (only the rod bolts were changed, head was cleaned up, oil cooler & turbo added)

We both agree on the wings tho, those things are :confused:
 
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ushir said:
Wow! What an informative thread this has turned out to be.

Im at odds at which remap to get - Dimsport or Revo. Theyre both around the R4k mark for me (VAG Technik offering me 20% discount). With the Revo I can purchase an SPS unit for R2.5k extra which will allow me to switch to stock at my own preference.

Once I get a bit more milage on my car and the cat wears out I will do a De-Cat.

Im quite new to car modding so doing exhausts and FMIC's and larger turbos scare me a bit. I think as my car gets older Ill get braver.

I dont mind a little smoke, but I dont want to blind the person behind me if u know what i mean. Haha =)

For now I think im going to go with REVO because the dealer is near me, and REVO is a very trusted name whilst Dimsport appears a new name to me.
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Go with Revo!;)
Do the downpipe and de cat when you need more... find out (for me too) how much does Revo charge for a re map after you do a dp and de cat....
 
You won't go wrong with Revo. Dimsport is just more popular with Diesel VWs in the club because Trevor will tune your car exactly how you want it while keeping it reliable. The best TDIs in Joburg run Dimsport not Revo :) For more informed advice register on vwclub.co.za forum and ask there. You'll learn a lot.

Downpipe, decat and intake are worth doing if you upgrade your software and not too expensive. It will relieve turbo backpressure and take some stress off your turbo, improving airflow and turbo lag.

Keep us posted on what you do. I'm keen on seeing how mods change things on other MK5 TDIs.
 
Any pointers for a '04 320d E46?

Considering software mapping for my car.
Saw this thread and thought I'd post in here, rather than starting a new thread.
 
Ushir what's news with your TDI? Did you get it revo'd and if so what does the dyno say??
 
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