i know this may have been covered before but i thought i would ask as big turbo kits are always changing,and new kits popping up from over the pond.whats the best way to go,garrett,holset,ihi? tubular manifold,cast,equal length? who would you recomend to supply and fit a kit.the tt shop can supply and fit a garrett gt2871rs kit with cast manifold for £3995 including mapping,and fpr,maf,injectors also custom ally boost pipes which is good i think. i can get a similar kit from the states supply only for about £1400-£1600,i dont fancy fitting it on my drive in the cold. that said the mapping and fitting would cost me about £1200 or so.that makes £3995 from the tt shop look very tempting.i dont want to do the internals just yet and i want to keep power to around 350bhp what do you reckon guys?

Think for "mild" big power, IHI is about the most useable. Worth a PM to Leeboy as he ran a 300bhp - 320bhp IHI setup for quite some time.

first things first, the stock internals wont handle 350bhp.

having had the gt28 setup. i wouldnt reccomend it for a daily driver. its got no low down power as it takes a while spool up. but thats my opinion hence my decision to remove it and downsize a tad.

if you want to go down that route, then get the kit from the tt shop. its up to them to make sure it fits and runs properly then.

other wise, as above the ihi kit would be my choice had i had the chance to go for that again.

Edited 31 March, 201016 yr by andyrew

Get a GS Racing GSR HX30: http://www.g-s-racing.com/products.html for £450.

It's a hybrid Holset HX30.

If you're worried about it being too big you can get much smaller Holset turbos (HX25/27 for example). Im sure GSR will do hybrid versions of those too.

I am a bit biased though! If you want any info about the Holsets let me know.....

You haven't said what you want it for. Daily driver, track, both? I would also say that the 2871 is kind of annoying for a daily...

having had the gt28 setup. i wouldnt reccomend it for a daily driver. its got no low down power as it takes a while spool up. but thats my opinion hence my decision to remove it and downsize a tad.

It also did not do very well on the road against a certain modified Mk1 Octy vRS I could mention that still ran a KO3s

What about MHI? I see nobody has mentioned them.

My mate has an MHI TD04 on his 1.6 MX-5 and it's pretty good fun! Although he blew the head gasket the other day........

Holset use the MHI core on their smaller turbos, and just use different compressor and turbine stages to suit. For example the Holset HX27 has the same core as an MHI TD04.

Definately look at keeping it around the 300-320 mark if you don't want to uprate the internals.

At that level of power the brake calipers need to be uprated too, so you're looking at another £500-1000 for a set of 4 or 6 pot calipers

I was going to go ihi however turbos are expensive and cannot be repaired sooooooo been thinking about a td04 mitsu turbo upgrade, greddy do a kit with a hybrid tdo4 and jabba and jbs supply their manifolds with the correct flange iirc.

For the kind of powr you and i are looking for these seem to be better turbo setups that dont suffer as much lag as some of the 'big' gt turbo setups are meant to.w

I have the GT28 set up and it was built by JBS and I too would agree that it isn't as quick as you think if you want to use it as a daily. Dont get me wrong once spooled up it goes like stink but in a traffic light race situation (short distance) you arnt going to be pulling away from a smaller turbo'd car.

I'm currently putting my car back to standard and swapping my engine & turbo for a standard vrs engine & k03s turbo with a stage 1 map. So if you are thinking of a highly modified set up, my engine will be up for sale soon and will be a bargin for someone thinking of going down this route. The Turbo is already provisonally sold but everything else will be available.

thanks for the replies everyone.i think i may go for the gt2860 as the car will be a daily .that should give 320bhp ish and still spool up a bit better.all out power is'nt the main aim.the car has 280lb/ft of torque now with the stage 2,and its great for getting by muppets at 50mph,so more torque is really top of the list for my driving style.350lb/ft +is the target i spose.i would like to take it on a few track days afterwards though.

thanks for the replies everyone.i think i may go for the gt2860 as the car will be a daily .that should give 320bhp ish and still spool up a bit better.all out power is'nt the main aim.the car has 280lb/ft of torque now with the stage 2,and its great for getting by muppets at 50mph,so more torque is really top of the list for my driving style.350lb/ft +is the target i spose.i would like to take it on a few track days afterwards though.

GT2860 on 1.8T is a good choice - give us a shout if you want a good map for it.. I love them

thanks for the replies everyone.i think i may go for the gt2860 as the car will be a daily .that should give 320bhp ish and still spool up a bit better.all out power is'nt the main aim.the car has 280lb/ft of torque now with the stage 2,and its great for getting by muppets at 50mph,so more torque is really top of the list for my driving style.350lb/ft +is the target i spose.i would like to take it on a few track days afterwards though.

Save the big bucks and go for a KO4 and equal length manifold, every day car with shed loads of useable power and torque, give Des ThePelletWaggler a PM and get an honest opinion from the owner of one of best modded Mk1 Octy vRS's on here.

GT2860 on 1.8T is a good choice - give us a shout if you want a good map for it.. I love them

lol i think this is one of the worst setups for the 1.8t. laggy as feck 320bhp you can get near this with a hybrid k04 but without the 4 days of lag...

p.s there will be a big turbo kit coming to the market very soon wich will be your 300+ bhp with k03s lag ( not alot) awaiting for kit to go onto a rhd engine to be tested big company aswell and will be half the price of any kit in the uk

Turbo lag is kinda nice though (in a strange way)! I love BT cars with a 'punch you in the back of the head' power surge!! :p

Check out this animal: http://fliiby.com/file/313652/g3w6eymqk2.html

It's incredible when the turbo kicks in!!!

But yeah in reality lag does suck. Too much lag really can ruin a car. A lad at work put a big old turbo on an old Polo coupe, and the lag is dangerous. No power, then suddenly everything at once and the car tries to kill you!! It's nuts!

p.s there will be a big turbo kit coming to the market very soon wich will be your 300+ bhp with k03s lag ( not alot) awaiting for kit to go onto a rhd engine to be tested big company aswell and will be half the price of any kit in the uk

ASDA? *slaps wallet*

p.s there will be a big turbo kit coming to the market very soon wich will be your 300+ bhp with k03s lag ( not alot) awaiting for kit to go onto a rhd engine to be tested big company aswell and will be half the price of any kit in the uk

Is it who i think it is?

I'm not to impressed with them as they talk to much without coming up with the goods.Not too much testing and now there manifolds cracking.I was going to buy one as well.

lol i think this is one of the worst setups for the 1.8t. laggy as feck 320bhp you can get near this with a hybrid k04 but without the 4 days of lag...

Can't agree with you to be honest Clive, although of course, it all depends on the map

first things first, the stock internals wont handle 350bhp.

having had the gt28 setup. i wouldnt reccomend it for a daily driver. its got no low down power as it takes a while spool up. but thats my opinion hence my decision to remove it and downsize a tad.

if you want to go down that route, then get the kit from the tt shop. its up to them to make sure it fits and runs properly then.

other wise, as above the ihi kit would be my choice had i had the chance to go for that again.

Oh yeah the GT28 setup that my 328i kept up with! It made nice noises though

The IHI vf34 seems to be a popular setup for stock internals. The one i drove was very usable, and the on-board boost controller meant you could crank it up for short bursts when the mood took you

Oh yeah the GT28 setup that my 328i kept up with! It made nice noises though

The IHI vf34 seems to be a popular setup for stock internals. The one i drove was very usable, and the on-board boost controller meant you could crank it up for short bursts when the mood took you

yup thats the one mate. its all coming out. ive had enough. lol. to be fair it was an old graph so god knows what it was running on the day. not a great deal as everybody seems to remind me. lol.

was an interesting drive home though

iam trying to keep the nice noises though. lol

Edited 1 April, 201016 yr by andyrew

Funny how people including myself are going back to standard

after running big turbos. Problem with Gordon Brown Britian is that

there's too many cameras and do gooders. IHI set up is well worth a

look, good torque a minimal lag. I've got a uprated engine for sale

should you wish to make the most of any big turbo set up.

yup thats the one mate. its all coming out. ive had enough. lol. to be fair it was an old graph so god knows what it was running on the day. not a great deal as everybody seems to remind me. lol.

was an interesting drive home though

iam trying to keep the nice noises though. lol

andy dont worry the new setup will make there cars look sloooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww

was an interesting drive home though

It would have been, had you pulled over and let a certain KO3s past you , yes, even at those speeds

quite a few split opinions there.the k04 does appeal,they are almost the same price though,once you take into account mapping,fitting,parts availability and so on.esspecially if you get it from jbs,their k04 is £1300 odd just for the turbo.