turbo advice

[lowvr 0]

i have an obd 1 mk3 vr with around 60k on the clock ... i want to go turbo! ... dont know how soon its gonna happen but i think its about time i start learnign some facts

originaly i was gonna charge it but i really think turbs the way forward now

just want some advice ...

who make the best kit? both quality and value wise

what sort of power is safe-ish to run on a daily car ( i do very low miles)

what do you think i am looking to spend

thanx a lot people!

[lowvr 0]

sorry about the massive pic trying to resize it now

[6potmkII 0]

depends on how much you want to throw at it and whos doing the work...

c2 kit doesnt look too bad, i reckon you could make your own kit for under 2k and have approx 300bhp.... thats if you carry out all the work yourself + the price for mapping

[FishWick 21]

"strictlydubs" on the Edition 38 forum are currently advertising their turbo kit @ £2,495 IIRC. It's based around the SPA turbo manifold and a Garrett GT32, which has the older journal bearing centre section, but with more modern GT housings and wheels. Nice turbo.

Their kit also comes with the Schimmel Short runner which is without doubt the best log manifold for the VR6, so the quality of this kit is good.

I don't personally like the SPA turbo manifold and there's no mention of a downpipe. There are better solutions out there, such as this ATP VR6 manifold and downpipe :- http://www.atpturbo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=tp&Product_Code=ATP-VVW-177&Category_Code=BCS

Safe power for a daily is a suck it and see thing until 3rd gear breaks :-)

I wouldn't exceed 350whp on a daily driver personally, and by daily I mean 40-50 miles each day.

My advice if you value your job, don't use a VR turbo as a daily car. I know a good 5 or 6 people with VR turbos and I am the only one that uses it daily..... and it lets me down regularly.....but mainly because of poor quality parts.....so my next bit of advice, don't cut corners!

[lowvr 0]

wel theres a few things i love about my vr ... the fact that i can use it daily comapred to a lot f these jap rockets that get rebuilt monthly

..the noise ...its not a noise really its music! ... i love it ! ... and just imagining that sound with the spool of a turbo and the echo of a dump valve ...wel lets just say i havent slept much this week lol

and finally i love the look of the engine...so i was thinking how to keep the look ..basicly not use the short runner manifold ..like the venom mk3

venoms new demo car looks really good ... but does any1 have a clue what its really like

i have heard nothing but great things regarding strictly dubs ...so i am very keen on their kit

what sort of problems have you encountered so far kevhaywire?

would you give up the turbo and its problems for a supercharger or is it really that good?

[Phat VR6 3]

what keeps breaking on them I want but want reliablity aswell. If its only 3rd gear carnt you put an R32 box on it. Ive hurd there good for 600bhp?

[Bobtrude 0]

I agree with "kevhaywire".

This kit seems real nice http://www.hgp-turbo.de/ but its expensive.

I would also recomend that you get a good oil cooler! Thats important.

I Have the atp kit stg2 on my vr and its to laggy and agressive, with that big t04e turbo.

Now that my turbo is broken (to hot oil:() I am trying to get a t3. I would like to hear the turbo spool under 3000 rpm´s

Also, I am making my dumpwalve return the air so I dont trick the MAF.To many embaressing moments when the engine shuts down;).

But all in all the Vr6turbois a monster! Its SO fast. I am spanking porsches, on a regular basis (seriously). And I love the faces of those A3 1.8(red)T.

PS: nice car

[lowvr 0]

lol sorry its bin a while been busy + net access has been limited ..router decided to give me problems

that was another thing i was going to ask whats the lag like ...

ive got a family member with a mk4 1.8t which is remapped and a few other things running about 210 approx ...ive driven it a few times and i have to admit i was impressed at how early the turbo kicks its ...i would like the vr's turbo to kick in quite early too..wot would be required to achieve this characteristic from the vr

[FishWick 21]

What problems have I experienced so far? Nothing bad really. Mine's been turboed a year now and I've done approx 10,000 miles. The only problems I've had have been plain bad luck!

Turbo 1 - Lasted 8000 miles, then something got sucked into it and wrecked the compressor blades, but it still made boost and worked OK!

Turbo 2 - Was dodgy from the factory.

Turbo 3 - Seems OK at the moment, done 600 miles on it with no probs so far.

The SPA Turbo manifold gave me grief with cracking and bad port alignment, but I had one modified and that's been OK since.

So nothing drastic really. The car was only off the road waiting for replacement parts but it's never actually broken down in use and I do 50 miles a day in it.

The Gearbox - The 02A can handle about 400hp, but I'd go to 350 to be safe. It's not so much the outright power than destroys the box, but rather shock loadings from regaining grip after a spin. So I would avoid hard acceleration over bumps or any other situation where you could lose and regain grip repeatdley, like 1/4 miles etc.

Treat it with respect and don't thrash it every oppurtunity you get and it should last.

As for lag, I currently run a GT35R, which has a big T04S compressor housing and lag isn't too bad. With the boost set at 15psi, it makes 5psi at 2800rpm and by 4000rpm it's making 12psi and then from there to 7000rpm it pulls like mad :-)

I did have a smaller GT30R on before hand and that spooled very early and felt like a 1.8T scaled up 3 or 4 times.....but it didn't have the top end shove of the GT35R and it would spin 2nd and 3rd a bit too easily in the wet.

I would also recommend some turbo cams (low overlap) as they make a big difference to cylinder filling.

As long as you use good parts , don't cut any corners and don't get too greedy with the boost, it should last you!

I would never swap back to a Vortech charger as they don't do anything until 4000rpm and the parasitic loads make the car feel slower than stock below 4000rpm, it's too linear and linear is quite boring imo!

The Rotrex I would consider as it boosts lower and harder than the Vortech, but I prefer turbos tbh.....much more characterful and lots more power, especially with a GT35, which can do about 650hp.

[MaidenVR6 26]

Ive been running 12-20 PSI all summer with 8.5:1,Peloquin and a TO4S 60-1. No issues what so ever. Just changed oil in my gearbox, and the old oil was fine. Sachs Race engineering clutch.

Well, ive had one issue, and that is a intercooler hose that has come off twice. Full boost, a big BANG! and the engine shuts off, with terrible smoke:) But no issues, just hocked it on and drove away. On the Kinetic kit that I have, there is a intercooler connection next to the gearbox. The hose connection there is to small, so a new hose is installed. Problem solved.

When it comes to mapping, im not sure if UK cars have a special ECU,but if its the same as all other Euro VR6s, you can get a chip from C2. Or even better, send your ECU to them for a upgrade.

We have done this to three VRT's this summer, and they all run perfect. "I asume" you have a OBD1 engine. If so you can run around 11PSI max. Because your stock MAF housing cant measure anymore.

But like kevhaywire says:

Dont take any cheap solutions. Get yourself a LSD diff http://thescirocco.com/peloquin.html and a clutch. Your stock clutch might hold 11 PSI fine.

My Sachs sport clutch was holding fine, until the boost was over 15 PSI. Now I run a race engineering clutch, and its really working well.

And get some stronger engine mounts.

Im not sure how it is with UK cars and turbo manifold's/downpipe's either. But if it is space, go for the 3" DP.

All the best,

MaidenVR6

[FishWick 21]

UK ECUs can't run a OBD2 C2 chip unfortunately, but sending them a UK ECU is not a bad idea though. Not sure about their OBD1 code and UK compatibility though.

That's not good your IC pipe blowing off! A turbo can spin itself to death if you don't realise and keep flooring it!

Good that yours has been reliable. I think they are generally as VR Turbos have been around for years. The US and Germany have perfected it. Sometimes you just get bad luck and things break unexpectedley.

[MaidenVR6 26]

UK ECUs can't run a OBD2 C2 chip unfortunately' date=' but sending them a UK ECU is not a bad idea though. Not sure about their OBD1 code and UK compatibility though.

That's not good your IC pipe blowing off! A turbo can spin itself to death if you don't realise and keep flooring it!

Good that yours has been reliable. I think they are generally as VR Turbos have been around for years. The US and Germany have perfected it. Sometimes you just get bad luck and things break unexpectedley.

[/quote']

The spinning was making me nervous, I tell yaa :-( I was just hoping everthing went ok. And it did. No smoke or no problems afterwards. And like you say, VR6 Turbo's has been around for a long time.

Buy what others has had sucsess with, and you should be good to go.

[Ciaran 4]

so what make is my best option for 350whp.

Do american kits fit british cars?

Should an mate of mine who is an ex evo/impreza tuner be able to fit one of these kits easy enough??

[Bobtrude 0]

Is there a way of knowing if any IC pipe is loose, other than powerloss and a broken turbo? I had a leek in my IC setup and i didnt feel anything, until my turbo broke that is. I was driving in 200kmh (in germany) for over one houre.