Just out of interest, does anyone know what differences there are between the two engines apart from the map?

Edited 10 March, 201412 yr by nickcoll

Not sure but my guess would be that firstly it has a different ECU map which is probably linked with a better intercooler?

I've seen in a Seat Leon forum that the clutch is the same.

According to a topic on an A3 forum the difference between the 150ps and 184ps is that the 184ps has bigger injectors and a different ECU. So to retrofit you'd have to replace the injectors and probably just remap / chip the ECU.

Surely the turbo is slightly bigger too?

Apparently not, the turbo and engine are the same, the only different part numbers are for the injectors and ECU.

Seems like a great opportunity for someone to offer a package deal for upgrading the 150PS engine if it's that easy!

perhaps but swapping out injectors will usually require a custom remap; still, not impossible.

You mean like the remaps that various companies specialise in? I do know that it is much harder with the latest generation of ECUs because of the encryption - maybe the ease with which an upgrade could be achieved otherwise is one of the main reasons that the ECU is so much better protected than it was previously. However I am pretty sure that this issue has already been overcome, so there doesn't seem to be any fundamental reason that an upgrade could not be offered by someone.

Once your warranty is up you could just crack open the ECU and program it or swap it for a different / better ECU. I think the problem they are facing at the moment is that they can't reprogram them via OBD port and need physical access which didn't used to be a problem and people could just remap and switch back whenever they wanted with ease.

Once your warranty is up you could just crack open the ECU and program it or swap it for a different / better ECU. I think the problem they are facing at the moment is that they can't reprogram them via OBD port and need physical access which didn't used to be a problem and people could just remap and switch back whenever they wanted with ease.

Shermo, it really isn't that easy...

 

You can't just crack open the ECU and program it.  The encryption on the current generation of ECU's of many current cars from all manufacturers is proving to be so far impossible to crack.

 

You can't just replace the car's ECU with a different/better unit.  They just don't exist.

 

The ECU in the new Octavia is physically much easier to access than the previous generations, as it's located in the engine bay, and not under the scuttle boards as per previous generations.  Taking it out and opening it isn't the problem.  Getting a computer to talk to the ECU is the problem, because of the encryption. 

 

Hope this helps to clarify matters (don't you all wish you'd just bought the vRS instead now?)

 

Damian