Why did I Decide to change Remap

I've had bluefin now for just under two years, originally bought as i was based over in germany and it was the easiest way for me to map the car.

Ive used it from stage 1, stage 2 and then stage 2+, I loved stage 1, but ever since installing stage 2 onwards i have not been 100% on its efficiency. Ive always had my doubts that it was performing at its best. Plus at the time there had been quite a few instances of people having issues with bluefin stage 2.

This led to a paranoia(sort of) about it running crap, which was confirmed when i did a bit of testing against an eqivalent spec REVO'd car. which absolutley annihalated me. This led me to install stage 2+ and the HPFP. now if you read up on that for any remap, you here about these enormous increases in the midrange and massive performance enhancment.

what increases did i feel. Well it was a definate improvment over stage 2, and it sorted out the huge drop in power i had in stage 2 guise, but i wasnt bowled over about it, and in a way i felt a bit let down after all the promising stuff i'd read about stage 2+ maps.

Also bluefin is not setup for your car as other maps are, its just a generic map, so if you have any additional mods such as a TBE instead of just DP, or different types of air intake etc, then it wont make the maximum benefit of the mods.

The remaps id considered

I consider bluefin to be a jack of all trades, master of none TBH, so i wanted to go with a Vag specific tuner. This left REVO and APR. Now trying to find info or maps on APR stage 2+ K03 TFSI cars is not easy, unless you trawl the american forums who have these over exagerated pereformance figures.

So i decided on REVO, until I started reading up and speaking to ben from shark performance(AKA shark_90)

He was cheaper than REVO by quite a margin, but more importantly it would be set up on the road in real world driving, whilst I was there so i could get it set up just as i wanted. Then Ben had his car put on the rollers @JKM and pulled out some extremely competent figures there very similar to what the REVO stage 2 cars were achieving.

As you can see from his graph here it holds on to the power very very well managing to plateau above 250hp from 5000-7000RPM, Now i liked the figures there and decided I was willing to be the guinea pig for stage 3 code.

to be continued:(

Been waiting for this post.....

Your number plate is on the first image by the way.

So carrying on from above. I went had it done today:thumbup:

The Procedure

Basically i turned up with the bluefin installed, ben then took it outwith me riding shotgun:eek: along with the laptop to do logs on the bluefin to see how it was running.

from the passenger seat i seemed to notice more and even more so when ben pointed it out, was that the bluefin was very strong in first and second, but then seemed to become erratic and stutter when pressing on. usually around the 4.5k and 5.5k rpm range. he descibed as very strange. and not a very smooth delivery. We then did all the logs on the car, and heading back home.

we then took bens car out whilst we were waiting, and it undoubtably was better setup, extremely easy and progressive to drive.

To put it into perspective if AMDs dyno figures can be trusted the bluefin stage 2+ was putting out 277bhp 305IBft, and bens only 260bhp 295Ibft. yet bens was much much better(especially when it is one stage below and has no uprated HPFP:eek:)

we then uploaded the new map on the car, went for a drive to let it adapt, before we took logs, and as i said earlier

SH!T THE BED:eek:

:D

It was massively improved, And that was just the first edit of the map. we did some more logs, discussed what our thoughts were and what we would like changed, adjusted the map, and repeated this process over the course of the afternoon.

To Summarise

bens car was alot better than mine in bluefin mode, but my car now feels alot more powerful than bens in the midrange and holds on to it very well.

The delivery of it is absolutely fantastic. It feels so smooth and linear in comparsion to before. It also pulls like an absolute train. Its feels non stop.

This is the feeling i was expecting to get when i went from bluefin stage 2 to stage 2+.

So to get this feeling when going from a bluefin stage 2+ map to bens stage 2+(stage 3) was a shock. It goes to show how rubbish the previous map was and how well shark perfomances map is.

Im absolutely over the moon with the results, and now love the car again.

What figures is it putting out

TBH we dont know for sure im off to a RR day on the 28th. But im not bothered about it to be honest, i just love the way it drives. I believe it will get some commendable results, but this is all about the delivery.

Whats next

Next in line now is an intercooler and CAT back exhaust which is exciting cos this car is an absolute weapon now.

then next year after my diff and brakes are all shiny and fitted ill be back with ben to have water methanol injection fitted and a map to reap the benefits will be going on.

Been waiting for this post.....

Your number plate is on the first image by the way.

its ok mate, when i moved back to UK and re registered my car i got a new number plate. thanks though:thumbup:

On another note. Ben is sorting out all my before and after logs so all you techies can have a look and compare.

Sounds terrific

Steve

Sounds terrific

Steve

You're looking for a new car, aren't you Steve ?

Could always get an Octavia vRS

Dammit Si, I'm even more certain that I'm going to be underwhelmed when I finally get the bluefin stage2+ map on there.

Need a better paid job.

Dammit Si, I'm even more certain that I'm going to be underwhelmed when I finally get the bluefin stage2+ map on there.

Need a better paid job.

speak to ben mate. Its very competetively priced.

how do you rate your bluefin. Similar experience or better??

I thing similar would be accurate.

Pleased with Stage2 at first but kept getting a DCT error thrown to do with one of the sensors.

They then sent me a new map, the one I'm on now, which did sort out the DCT problem but seemed to lose a lot of torque right at the bottom of the rev range.

The bum dyno also agrees completely with your observations: power at the mid range is addictive and feels miles away from stage1, but it just seems to trail off near the top of the rev range.

Once I've sourced a pump, I'll get that and the S3 intercooler stuck on the car and give the stage2+ map a try - might think about another map when the car fund has replenished itself a bit if the Bluefin isn't up to scratch

well i have now sold my R32 brakes, therfore I have the money to either get a cat back exhaust, or the intercooler.

What do you reckon peeps. the biggest gains will come from where???

IC or intercooler

Running at what your car is, I'd personally go for the intercooler just to cool things down a bit

I'm getting 15 degrees inlet temp @ 6k with 6 degrees outside temp so not worth it for me. Measure your inlet temps and decide then.

Running at what your car is, I'd personally go for the intercooler just to cool things down a bit

that was my initial thoughts, however i had absolutely no heat soak yesterday after repeated power runs, also its winter so cooler anyway.

both wil be bought before summer no doubts. just which one now.

twintercooler brand new ebay £450

non resonated cat back £400-450

I would go for the exhaust, you already have the cat so the restriction is the system. Provided the inlet temps are ok but saying that inlet temps may drop a little with the system due to quicker air flow?

thats a fair point as well

Hi Simon

go for the exhaust. Do you already have another downpipe without the primary catalyst? These let the turbo run better because of less backpressure.

The exhaust will give you instand power, the intercooler only helps to have the power longer under hot conditions.

You will not feel a difference with the intercooler, but you will if the exhaust is better.

*edit* OK after posting I could read your sig, so you do already have another downpipe. ( <- looks better than writing DP:rofl:..... )

yeah just need to add the cat back to be full exhaust system. what are the gains available by bolting on a cat back??

How much the gains will be, I honestly dont know. Depends on how restrictive your original exhaust is and how derestrictive the new exhaust will be.

But one thing is sure, derestricting the exhaust will give you a better response and more power. And even if the power gain isnt that much, IMHO the gain in driveability will be noticed.

The intercooler will not do anything like this. It will make the engine more powerfull under (very) hot conditions, the engine management will not turn the power down due to too hot intake temps, as under the same conditions a car with std intercooler might do.

But how often does one use his car under such (extreme) conditions? If it is so hot, you probably will also be driving with the AC on, or you will rather be sitting outside with a cold beer.

i think im decided on getting the Cat back exhaust now. then after xmas ill do the intercoolers. thinking of replacing the std one with an S3 then bolting a twintercooler to that. The cold air is your friend, lol

Sy, I'm really pleased you're happy with the map. How does it feel now that it's adapted a little more?

As the winter will help with your inlet temps (not that we had any heatsoak issues at all) I'd suggest getting the exhaust first, and doing the intercooler later on as things warm up a little bit in the spring.

Sy, I'm really pleased you're happy with the map. How does it feel now that it's adapted a little more?

As the winter will help with your inlet temps (not that we had any heatsoak issues at all) I'd suggest getting the exhaust first, and doing the intercooler later on as things warm up a little bit in the spring.

Absolutely loving it now. it has definately got better as its adapted, if it wants to carry on like that ill be more than happy lol.

cant wait to see what this is going to be like with all the extra mods i have planned. (cat back, S3 IC and twintercooler, uprated IC and Discharge pipes) with all that and wate methanol injection and a tweak on the map i reckon we can break well into the 290bhp region.

A few of my mates who drove it bfore have commentated on how much better it is now.

Need to find how much for a non res miltek now or a pipewerx cat back. cheapest wins, lol

Si why are you going for the Twintercooler?

Why not remove the OE FMIC and fit another good quality thicker one which will actually fit the intake hole? You will have less lag plus the OE one won't be doing much anyway beause it's behind the new one if you know what I mean.

Si why are you going for the Twintercooler?

Why not remove the OE FMIC and fit another good quality thicker one which will actually fit the intake hole? You will have less lag plus the OE one won't be doing much anyway beause it's behind the new one if you know what I mean.

I'm with you on that one. S3 intercooler is spot on, more than capable and cheaper too.

If you really must then fit the S3 cooler and give generously to charity.

Si why are you going for the Twintercooler?

Why not remove the OE FMIC and fit another good quality thicker one which will actually fit the intake hole? You will have less lag plus the OE one won't be doing much anyway beause it's behind the new one if you know what I mean.

have you ever been in a car with a twintercooler on and experienced this said lag that people talk of.

Ive read about it many times however it always seems to be people who have a FMIC and not the twintercooler who talk about this lag????????

Ive also read twintercooler reviews were people have talked of crisp response and improvements, not increases in lag.

IMO the twintercooler makes sense. It provides a lot more surface area than you would get by adding an S3 IC. It also is mounted below the std intercooler(below the number plate) and doesnt cover the std oem one by to much

On top of that the standard intercooler and S3 for that matter have a big radiator thing bolted to the front of it, reducing the amount of air directly hitting it.

price wise they are similar when bought new. S3 from JKM incl the new pipe id need to buy is £405(ish)incl Vat. the twintercooler can be had for £450 incl vat.

to be honest, im going for the twintercooler out of ease of fitment, and taht you dont need to strip the whole front off to fit it. just the bumper.

If i see a second hand S3 IC pop up ill snap it up no question. An IC is An IC at the end of the day.

Also if it does provide a little more lag, it woudnt be to bad a thing, it'll help traction possibly.

Edited 16 November, 200916 yr by simonskerton

I was thinking of something more like the abd intercooler. Have you looked at the ths cooler, if the graphs are to be believed it has excellent cooling.