Making a list to see what people think are good/bad or worth doing anyway. I'm starting from the start of the combustion cycle!

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Pd160 intake, this is the first part of the cycle, wanting to do this upgrade for about £70? My previous vrs had this and my other vrs is quicker than my current one so feel it's part of the upgrade "package"

Which goes into...

Cone in a box air filter, wanted one of these for a while, thinking "drill the bottom of the airbox" or put the pd160 Intake on... Maybe both? Don't like normal cone filters and want to keep the airbox.

Which attaches to...

Upgrade MAF, I can't remember exactly so will search after this but remember people putting a bigger bore maf on, don't know if a different sensor will have upgrades or side affects.

Which sits inside...

Hard intake pipe, this is the hard rubber silicone pipe replacement for the plastic flexi pipe it has as standard.

Which attaches to...

The big metal intake pipe, this can also be replaced with a full hard pipe. I feel happy with this standard and don't think it will restrict anything so will blank off the crank breather flush and welded rather than the usual rubber cover. That and clean it while it's removed.

This goes into the...

Hybrid turbo. Still unsure on which way to go with this, second hand pd130/150 hybrid can be picked up for about £350 but... I think I will just get the xman garret pd170 hybrid turbo.

Which goes into...

Hard silicone boost pipes. I will be putting all metal and silicone boost pipes. I work beside an exhaust and pipe specialist which do any type of custom boost pipes. So 90% of it will be welded metal with as little silicone pipes and bends as possible.

Within the boost pipes has a...

MAP sensor or boost sensor, this can be upgraded to 3 bar and 4 bar I believe but sits inside the boost pipes to measure the boost.

These attach either side of the...

Front mount intercooler, I have a THS Seat sport upgraded front mount intercooler to go on, this will be fitted in the usual place but will keep the front bumper standard, apart from some X type mesh discreetly behind the bumper just to protect the intercooler slightly.

At the end of the boost pipes it goes into...

EGR valve. I will be keeping the egr valve to make sure I have the anti-shudder valve. My previous cars have had egr deletes which I hate!

The egr valve will be kept clean but... The exhaust side will be blanked off and remapped out of the system, so really it doesn't work as an egr only an asv.

This is bolted into place on the...

Intake manifold, will be thinking about upgrades... I've searched in the past and came up with nothing! People say passat and others say it doesn't work(advice?) If nothing els it will just be cleaned again and polished up... Possibly painted a nice colour (add extra horses init!)

This is held Into place on the

Cylinder head. This will all stay standard, don't plan on going crazy just yet anyway! Options could be to open up the inlets and outlets, fit performance cams replace valves and valve springs for upgraded ones. Further down the engine is pistons which can be replaced for upgraded ones but that's not for me either!

Other things on the cylinder head is

+50% or +80% injectors. Wouldn't know which ones to choose to be honest, would need more advice on this, but without a much bigger turbo I feel this is quite pointless, but still somthing for the future!

After the engine is finished it goes out into the..

Upgraded exhaust, I have a full piper exhaust on currently. It's straight through with no silencers, cat or backbox. I would like to add a sports cat to quietn it down a little or maybe add a backbox.

In the background the computer is thinking...

Remap. Will be getting a custom remap to remove things like the egr valve and add all the extras I get fitted.

So that's pretty much a quick dummy's guide to so performance upgrades. I might move this to the project part of the forum and tick parts off as I go or at least reply on here and post pictures.

Excellent list you've made, covers all areas so will be helpful for other members.

The standard injectors are good for 240bhp iirc

Seems like a very big list since I count only three things on there that make a blind bit of difference to performance; the turbo, the intercooler and the remap.

 

Hey, it's your money though...

No no, I agree... Well... Sort of!

A lot of the modifications are to 'aid' performance, make things nice and smooth, not have any majour restrictions.

I plan on having around 200 - 220bhp so not going crazy. Most of the things on the list are quite cheap also.

I would go with a GTB unit rather than a hybrid pd150/60/70 unit. Stronger and capable of more power in the future if you want it.

Which one would you suggest then and at what price?

I feel at 90,000 the turbo is due to be changed and using that as an excuse to upgrade. The pd170 hybrid seems the next step up without going crazy on money, around the £400 mark feel it's a good mix of performance gains, reliability and piece of mind having a new turbo and low price.

On hindsight over the years i would suggest you save your money and buy a better / faster car out of the box.

You will not add any value to your car so its literally money down the swanny

Edited 28 June, 201412 yr by BigJase88

Which one would you suggest then and at what price?

 

Either a 1756VK or a 2056VK

 

They will cost more but a much better turbo. The power delivery is different from a hybrid

 

Going from a stage 2 hybrid 150 running 220bhp to a GTB running 230bhp felt like I had gained ALOT more power. At the time I didnt know the GTB was only running 230bhp, I could have sworn it was running closer to 250bhp just because the power from the GTB seems to punch harder.

On hindsight over the years i would suggest you save your money and buy a better / faster car out of the box.

You will not add any value to your car so its literally money down the swanny

I'd like to agree but I'm yet to find another car I love as much as my fabia. Having had 5 of them now I feel It's the only car for me! I'm not doing it for profit so spending money on car parts doesn't bother me, knowing they don't drop in value much anyway.

go GTB series turbo, over any hybrid

Standard I take is good for around 210bhp. After that either pd160 intake or DIY job, or s2000 oem cone filter if you want super cheap option.

Turbo. Pd150 is good for 190bhp ish. I recommend these over a VC hybrid. GTB's are a great upgrade over older gt turbos.

4 bar MAP sensor needed over 2bar boost pressure.

Intercooler any decent sized intercooler will do. Standard size pipework is fine.

Gtb2260 or bigger think about bigger nozzles.

Everything else just leave stock.

For 220bhp just bolt a gtb1756vk and s2000 cone filter and upgrade the intercooler. Done. Oh and decent clutch.

I'm keeping the dual mass flywheel and oem clutch which will be a limiting factor I guess!

Any idea on power limits for a brand new Sachs dmf and clutch?

Really don't want to go down the solid flywheel ruite.

Had a quick search and people running around the 200 - 220bhp with standard clutch is fine. A few examples of people over 80,000 on the original clutch then add upgrades and it's still fine so a brand new one should be good for a while.

Depends on the map, a bad map will spike a standard clutch.

Team valley tuning will be doing a custom remap due to different upgrades etc anyway...

I'm keeping the dual mass flywheel and oem clutch which will be a limiting factor I guess!

Any idea on power limits for a brand new Sachs dmf and clutch?

Really don't want to go down the solid flywheel ruite.

Had a quick search and people running around the 200 - 220bhp with standard clutch is fine. A few examples of people over 80,000 on the original clutch then add upgrades and it's still fine so a brand new one should be good for a while.

Tbh there is no point in mapping the car around the standard clutch

Spend the wonga and uprate the clutch then map it. Completely backwards to limit thr car around the clutch

You may aswell stage 1 map it if thats the case

Guess I'll look into clutches closer to the time, I don't want it to be a limiting factor but don't see the point in putting a £900 awkward heavy clutch and noisey flywheel to stick to 220bhp when a standard one will work perfectly fine.

Jeez Jase, you're so unrelentingly positive!

 

So to sum up, your advice is to sell it and buy a new wheelbarrow or if he must tune it then get an expensive clutch and a spikey remap otherwise there's no point.

 

Can you not just bugger off to the bimmer forums and leave us proles to play with our ****ty little cars?  :p

Jeez Jase, you're so unrelentingly positive!

So to sum up, your advice is to sell it and buy a new wheelbarrow or if he must tune it then get an expensive clutch and a spikey remap otherwise there's no point.

Can you not just bugger off to the bimmer forums and leave us proles to play with our ****ty little cars? :p

Well if your going the whole hog of turbo's intercoolers and your dead set on it then imo you need the appropriate clutch to back up the rest of the hardware.

In my experience the standard clutch is at about full capacity on a stage one map and even then they can slip.

You dont have to have a spikey map to have 350lb/ft of torque on a bigger blower which is way beyond the capacity of the standard clutch.

On my hybrid fabia peak torque was at 3800rpm so goes to show that i for one didn't have a spikey map.

What experience do you have? You may have swallowed an a-z on car knowledge but you have no real world experience with your 1.4l lawnmower engine

You could of course try 220bhp with a torque limited 300lb/ft. But with the low torque they do feel quite flat until you get them wound up.

The most fun is planting the foot in 6th and knowing you have the clutch to back it up. The pull in 6th from say 40-50mph with awesome torque is quite fun if the car can take it

I agree with Jase, if you are going to do some serious work to the engine such as injectors and turbos it would be best to go for a clutch and SMF. This will be the best and longest lasting way of fully using your power to the maximum!

Sent some emails about a Sachs race clutch so will see

What experience do you have? You may have swallowed an a-z on car knowledge but you have no real world experience with your 1.4l lawnmower engine

 

I'm an automotive engineer, so about thirty years experience.

 

I'm not really a car enthusiast to be perfectly honest, working in the industry kind of knocks any interest out of you over time, my lawnmower is more than adequate for my needs and I have a bike if I want to go fast. The ex-wife got everything else, so there's that.

 

And I was poking fun so you and toxic can calm down and stop being superserious.

Still undecided on clutch and flywheel setup since no one has replied to my emails yet, more than likely going standard dual mass flywheel (if I get 10,000 mile out of it I'll be happy) and a Sachs race engineering clutch setup but...

have got my hands on a limited slip diff which should spice things up a little bit!