Now back on Summer tyres thankfully. So from the Winter alloys and tyres....

To the Summers...

Looks great! But where is the Škoda logo on the rear wheel? It looks as if the front one has a logo but the rear one doesn't?

Nice stealth wagon.

Doesn't look like a VRS killer does it!

Looks great! But where is the Škoda logo on the rear wheel? It looks as if the front one has a logo but the rear one doesn't?

Just awaiting delivery of it. Only three turned up initially.

Just awaiting delivery of it. Only three turned up initially.

Tsk Tsk Tsk... and you took a photo on the side with just the one badge! Lee!

Ive just realised I didnt upload the later KO4 Stage 2 dyno graph so here it is for your viewing pleasure!

And a graph showing the standard 1.8TSI dyno overlaid with my one.

Thick black line = Shark Performance 1.8TSi K04 power

Thin black line = Standard 1.8TSi power

Thick red line = Shark Performance 1.8TSi K04 torque

Thin red line = Standard 1.8TSi torque

Impressive! Still shows the K04 needs a bit of rpm to build up its torque. How does that feel driving?

Turbo lag?

And double the wheel bhp must be noticeable

Impressive! Still shows the K04 needs a bit of rpm to build up its torque. How does that feel driving?

Turbo lag?

And double the wheel bhp must be noticeable

The truest sense of how it feels could probably be best guaged from the second dyno plot showing both the standard 1.8TSi torque curve and mine. Its got more at every point, even low down. When the first map was done (in a slight hurry due to the time constraints I placed on Ben in fairness!) it wasnt impressive down low and was a world away from how it pulled with the stage 1 map in place and the standard IHI turbo. Now its been back for three full days of further tuning... its fantastic. You feel it building from just over 2000rpm and it is once again a pleasure to drive to work, pootling around the 2,000rpm mark in each gear. Fuel useage is exceptionally good also now as there is so much low down torque, you just dont need to rev it. However.... its a lot of fun when you do!

Sounds like a perfect result than Lee - nice one

Most, most impressive Lee and I'm sure highly / hugely enjoyable; you'd even give the 'Interceptors' a run for their money if you dared.

On the other hand you'll be hearing a plaintive cry in a moment from Scottie of "The engine cannie take any more Cap'n"

Guy

PS> Makes my brake upgrade of (re)fitting Ferodo DS2500s onto my 312mm discs all seem a bit pathetic.

104% increase in power, 71% increase in torque.. yowzers!

104% increase in power, 71% increase in torque.. yowzers!

I'm pleased someone's done the maths for me! That's quite an increase and a lot to expect on standard internals. Remember however that the block and most internal components run more power in other VAG applications of the 2 litre tsi. I already have one friend predicting its possibly too much but I've modded many cars in my time and this one feels spot on. It's NEVER ever pushed from cold, always left to cool down after a spirited drive and sees an oil and filter change every 5000 miles with the best quality oil. The only thing that's so far 'let go' is a single coil pack but these seem to have failures occurring even on standard engines at lower than average miles. I did pick up some R8 coil packs last week which a lot of the Americans say is the way to go on KO4 conversions. They certainly won't do any harm.

Very impressive Lee (and rob on the calculations ).

Sounds like an absolute beast. Funny enough, I was talking to Richard yesterday and mentioned that I had our 1.8 over the weekend and was impressed with it (if a little thirsty, or maybe that's me being tight) but definately needed a bit of right foot to get it going.

Nice work

Very impressive Lee (and rob on the calculations ).

Sounds like an absolute beast. Funny enough, I was talking to Richard yesterday and mentioned that I had our 1.8 over the weekend and was impressed with it (if a little thirsty, or maybe that's me being tight) but definately needed a bit of right foot to get it going.

Nice work

Yes, agreed. In terms of out and out performance, the standard car doesnt feel amazing although it is quicker than the 170tdi when pushing them both side by side.... (dont ask for details of how I came to this conclusion!) The 170 'feels' quicker though due to the higher amount of torque available just as low down. You need to let the 1.8TSi rev all the way out to see its advantage in performance terms. The flexibility of the standard unit is the thing I like - peak torque at just 1500rpm flat all the way to 4500rpm then power beyond that. Id really urge anyone to get a Shark stage 1 remap on the 1.8TSi - its such a different thing afterwards its unreal and Ive had a lot of stage 1 maps on various cars in my time! Its worth noting that I also gained a couple of mpg when I did the stage 1 Shark map when taking it easy and now with the KO4 in place, its like its lungs are even bigger and it really doesnt have to work at all in moving you at sensible speeds.

Something for the weekend...

R8 ignition packs...

'cos red ones are faster?

Lol - of course - what other reason makes any better sense? I've been reading up on the coils and the spark plugs (using different gaps) with KO4 conversions on the TSi and in the US it's commonly regarded that this is the upgrade to do to avoid premature failure. APR in the US actually highly recommend these when buying the APR KO4 kit.... usually I take what I read on US forums with a pinch of salt tbh but I lost a coil pack when the conversion was done on the car and that was at 32k miles. I picked these up for less than the standard ones and they are supposedly made of higher quality materials and therefore cope a lot better. Apparently. Oh, and they are red of course!

for the same reason, I have my eye on a set of those for when I get a job again and have enough cash to finlly get my K04 Conversion!

Great thread!

So, finally, a review of the overall car.

 

Firstly, why the wait to do the review? So many elements got changed at once I didn’t want to do a review based on just a few miles on the road ie the drive home or just a few days after! I was also keen not to do it whilst still in the full on ‘oh my god, it’s the most amazing car in the world’ rose tinted blur I usually suffer from when picking a car up after its been ‘played with’. Theres also things that are impossible to answer after a short timeframe ie has it used any additional oil? (The answer to which is 'no')

 

Its now covered over 4,000 faultless miles so here goes...

 

To most readers of this project thread, its no massive surprise to learn that I wasn’t 100% blown away with the initial result of the K04 turbo conversion. The hardware was 100% but I just had slight doubts over the mapping. I absolutely must say at this point that I have really high expectations and many would call me a pedant when it comes to my cars.

 

On the flip side however, I wasn’t sure if my concerns were realistically placed in this instance. When you take a bigger turbo and attach it to a smaller capacity engine than its ideally intended for, the end result is going to be a slightly laggy experience. I knew this from the off. Then again, the low end drivability of my previous stage 1 Shark Performance map was simply unbeatable in this respect so I was comparing it to what I had experienced over the last two years with a small factory turbo and the best stage 1 software – again, not really fair I guess.

 

When the original conversion was done, I gave Ben a strict time frame to work to as I needed the car back within a week. With hindsight, and knowing that my ever increasing ‘to do’ list (including new brakes, suspension components, a complete set of Polybushes as well a service amongst other things) I should have known things would be exceptionally tight at the end. The outcome was that all the hardware upgrades were done to an exceptionally high standard, (thanks mainly to Mark for that) but it meant that the time left for mapping the car was pretty negligible and this was the first K04 converted 1.8TSi that had been done. Ben did ask for more time with the car and I could see that he really wasn’t 100% happy to let it go out of the door without more time on it but we agreed on a return visit in the near future. It was totally safe but not quite as ‘refined’ or overall as capable as I’ve come to expect from (finished) Shark Performance maps.

 

The main problem I had with the map, in fact the only problem, was the lack of grunt right down low, particularly if you were cruising in a high gear at low revs. Pull from 2,000rpm on the stage 1 map and factory IHI turbo would have been instant and fairly effortless in getting up to speed. Now however, it felt very flat and required a gear change to fifth or fourth depending on how much acceleration was required. And when driven like this, there was always enough acceleration for any situation!

 

Roll on a month or so later and the car is returned to Mansfield, again with another list of bits of having been completed, this time, all the bits for a stage 2 upgrade consisting of an ITG air intake and a Miltek 3” downpipe and sports cat with further map work. Having spoken to Ben and Mikko, they both felt that there was further potential in the standard K04 setup with map fettling but they said if I was hoping to get closer to the low end performance of the stage 1 map and standard turbo then it may be wise to think about the stage 2 upgrade for the K04. The downpipe would provide any remap with the best possible ingredients to work at its best when spooling that bigger turbo. The advantages of the ITG cold air intake are seen mainly at the top end.

 

So, after having the stage 2 hardware fitted and a further three full days of dyno tuning completed, with 4,000 miles under its (cam)belt,  what is it like?

 

It’s very good. Very good indeed. It’s now been refined to the point where I don’t miss the low end pull of the Shark Stage 1 and factory turbo combination anymore. The additional three days of mapping brings the car further along than the initial K04 conversion did imo. I have to make it clear, these statements don’t reflect a difference in ultimate outright performance, just the low end spooling that’s so important to me in everyday town based driving situations. As a consequence of the remapping I’ve found that my fuel economy has benefitted greatly, presumably as there’s now more low down torque and therefore I don’t have to use the revs to keep things on the boil. During my 10 mile stop/start commute cycle I now regularly see 35mpg which is pretty spectacular as its actually slightly better than the Shark Performance Stage 1 map on the standard turbo (which in turn was slightly better than the standard factory map!). So, the mapping work is now 100% perfect and I couldnt be happier. It pulls from very low down, stays strong through the mid range and revs out with power all the way to the red line.

 

In terms of overall straight line performance its a real Jekyl and Hyde car thats as capable of returning quite brilliant mpg trundling down to the shops for the weekly shopping as it is to hanging off the back bumper of a BMW 650i from 2nd gear all the way through to three figure speeds...

 

So now the engine and map are 100%, what’s the rest of the changes done to the car?

 

 

Coming soon:

 

Porsche NSBBK front setup.

 

H&R Front and Rear adjustable roll bars

 

Polybushes

 

The 'overall' Shark experience.

Great write-up Lee. Really comprehensive, whilst showing what the 'real world' results and differences have been.

Impressive stuff.

Good it's all wrapped up in a discreet body too.

awesome, really great do all car this, would love to see the faces of some performance car drivers as a Yeti goes snorting past, lol.

Impressive stuff.

Good it's all wrapped up in a discreet body too.

Agreed. Its simply the best sleeper Ive had and it catches everyone out....erm, I mean it wafts around with no interest from others.

 

awesome, really great do all car this, would love to see the faces of some performance car drivers as a Yeti goes snorting past, lol.

It really is a do it all car. As a family, we love it. As a driver, I love it.

 

The usual thing that I get is the 'second take' look... down the bypass on the outside.... guy in the Porsche on the inside is nailing it as he sees me coming up and looks to his right when im along side....  looks back to the right a few seconds later and the look of disbelief makes it all worth while as Im still there.   They usally then change their posture from leaning over the steering wheel to a more relaxed sitting back in the seat one and are probably left wondering either:

 

a, what's that all about!

 

b, whats the hells wrong with my Porsche! 

This is great Lee.

Just waiting for you to do stage 3 next...... :lol:

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Stage 3 on the 1.8 TSI is possible IIRC........