Hi Everyone,

This is my first post. I have been coming here quite alot getting advice just never created an account. Today my Mk1 VRS is getting custom tuned. I have done the following modifications. I fitted everything bar the Turbo and the Miltek exhaust. I am no professional just a general diy mechanic. I want the car completely OEM on the outside but running decent power.

 

K03S Hybrid Turbo
Miltek 3" Turbo back exhaust
Forge Diverter valve with 23psi yellow spring
Ebay special catch can
Pro alloy front mount intercooler

Ram air induction kit
NGK R Platinum plugs PFR6Q

APS 265L Fuel Pump
Bosch Green Giant 440cc injectors
SAI\N80\N249 Delete

Serviced car with 5w-30 Fully synthetic oil, oil filter, new N75 valve, new fuel filter. 
TIP is standard as well as the MAF Sensor. Ive not changed the TIP as tbh i have read it can be quite a pain going under and over the car to fit it onto the turbo housing.

I will post graphs later this evening but i did buy the car completely standard and RR she made 173.3hp@5706rpm with 255nm@3000rpm. Its done 77k genuine miles, solid underneath apart from the rear subframe but ive bought a new one and will be doing a complete suspension and brake overhaul at a later date.

I am not chasing numbers but with the above modifications do you guys think i should be hitting over the 240hp mark??


 

I would recommend dropping the forge DV and sticking with a new OEM version, and places like R-Tech do recommend having a oversized/supersize tip to push more air in. The only problem now is finding one which I’m trying to do. I believe SfS Performance still have them but I believe they’re £175.

Back from the tuner. He did say the same to go with a oem diverter valve. I'm a little disappointed in the figures but he says the turbo was maxing out. Its a fully rebuilt k03S so maybe its the actuator thats at fault? 
I think i am just going to enjoy the car for now and look at getting a K04 Turbo 2nd hand get it refurbed, get a K04 Forge Actuator, 3" MAF and Oversized TIP to suit.

 

Anyhow here is the results but again its all new to me but was expecting more then 220hp.

 

 

If the Turbo has been rebuilt, I would expect it to have a new actuator. I’m not clued you on all this myself but 280-295lbft and 225-240BHP seems to be the going rate with a stage 2 (depending on setup).

 

A lot recommend not to use a K04 and go with a K03s Hybrid, I’ve been trying to do some research into as it’s something I’d like to do at some stage. There’s loads of topics on it so I’d have a little snoop around.

 

2 hours ago, Scott_Turbo said:

Back from the tuner. He did say the same to go with a oem diverter valve. I'm a little disappointed in the figures but he says the turbo was maxing out. Its a fully rebuilt k03S so maybe its the actuator thats at fault? 
I think i am just going to enjoy the car for now and look at getting a K04 Turbo 2nd hand get it refurbed, get a K04 Forge Actuator, 3" MAF and Oversized TIP to suit.

 

Anyhow here is the results but again its all new to me but was expecting more then 220hp.

 

Hmm, I would have thought you'd get more than that as I got only 8hp less on a standard car with a custom remap from RS Tuning in Leeds.  Having said that, I'd had the car from new and it only had 25k miles on the clock so everything was still quite new.  

I did manage to blow my first turbo with a cheap remap and no rolling road session. it turned out the actuator was dodgy and let too much boost through so in turn I guess they can go the other way an not let in enough.

Like you, I also fitted an ebay special catch can a few weeks back in the same place as you have.  Mine's slightly different, does yours have the 19mm internal diameter outlets on the on the can?  I have yet to have a look in mine as it's only done about 300 miles since fitting it so I thought I'd leave it another couple of hundred miles before I check.

Back in 2004 my 53 plate Vrs Mk1 Octavia was completely standard except for the AmD custom remap. Running on Shell V-Power which was 98 octane IIRC back then it made 193bhp and 190lb/ft standard on the high octane fuel and after a few runs on the rolling road to fine tune everything it made 230bhp and 230lb/ft with 7,000 miles on the clock. With all the stage 2 mods you have done I would expect to see more like 250bhp and 260lb/ft unless something is preventing it from achieving those figures.

Simililarish setup to mine apart from I haven't done anything to the turbo and I'm running standard injectors. I do have an oversized TIP though and quite an efficient set of intercooler pipework which flows really well. Mine runs 225bhp and 260lb of torque on a Jabbasport map. I could probably go and get the map tweaked and get a bit more out of it but it drives nice, the power delivery is good and predictable and most importantly, it's reliable so I'm leaving it alone.

 

 

 

Thanks for the replies everyone. The only think i can think of is when i had the turbo fitted the mechanice at awesome gti said you could move ever so slightly the hotside and the coldside of the turbo. So if you grabbed the turbo and twisted it there was a little bit of movement. He shown me but didnt want to tighten the bolts up more incase they snapped so whether that is the issue. Ive read some posts on here and with a hybrid ko3s i should be hitting 250+hp? Or is it hit and miss?

Just manage to dig out the invoice for the work done on the turbo

There are the only pics i could find of the turbo before i got it fitted...even with the standard tip i would of expected to make more then 220hp but guess i should of fitted an oversized tip before taking it to the mapper 😞

Depending on where you are I’d go see Niki at R-Tech or Will from VRS Northampton, get a second opinion.

13 hours ago, niceyellow vrs said:

 I could probably go and get the map tweaked and get a bit more out of it but it drives nice, the power delivery is good and predictable and most importantly, it's reliable so I'm leaving it alone.

 

Same here. Mine is supposed to be running 235bhp and 301lb ft (with a graph to back it up).  I had considered going and having the map faffed around with to get more bhp, but then it drives really well and has been in this state of tune since 2013.

 

11 hours ago, DeanVRS20VT said:

Depending on where you are I’d go see Niki at R-Tech or Will from VRS Northampton, get a second opinion.

 

That's who set mine up and I'm quite happy with it.

There’s a meet in Coventry this Sunday, if any of you can make it, it would be good time to check out other peoples mods and get some ideas/feedback.

I’m hoping to make it if I’m free!

15 minutes ago, DeanVRS20VT said:

There’s a meet in Coventry this Sunday, if any of you can make it, 

 

I'm free this Sunday but it's a seven hour round trip so might have to give it a miss.🤣

I should of just gone to see Niki at R-Tech in the first place. 

 

The meet is a five hour round trip for me so will have to pass i’m afraid.

 

I am thinking next on shopping list will be a BBT K300 turbo, oversized tip, then hand over to Niki to work his magic. Better get saving

30 minutes ago, skinnyman said:

 

I'm free this Sunday but it's a seven hour round trip so might have to give it a miss.🤣

 

19 minutes ago, Scott_Turbo said:

I should of just gone to see Niki at R-Tech in the first place. 

 

The meet is a five hour round trip for me so will have to pass i’m afraid.

 

I am thinking next on shopping list will be a BBT K300 turbo, oversized tip, then hand over to Niki to work his magic. Better get saving

Ah that’s a shame, it’s a 4 hour round trip for me, but think I may take the red one to stretch legs.

 

Keep is updated Scott, maybe make a project topic in the projects area? 👍🏻

Yeah will do mate. It’s not gonna be anytime soon but this is the 3rd vrs ive owned and dont plan on ever selling it. Who knows maybe one day the mk1 vrs will shoot up in value?

1 hour ago, Scott_Turbo said:

Yeah will do mate. It’s not gonna be anytime soon but this is the 3rd vrs ive owned and dont plan on ever selling it. Who knows maybe one day the mk1 vrs will shoot up in value?

I think both me and @skinnyman are hoping this!

Mapper got back to me today with some

good info id thought i would share with you all...please see below. I went over every hose clamp this morning and they are all secure so i can only put it down

to the turbo being the root cause here.

 

Hi Scott,

 

Boost you are peaking at 1.1 bar and this drops to 0.9 bar.  This is with the Duty cycle of the N75 valve at 90-95% across the RPM range.  With this sort of duty, a normal K03S would boost well over 1.5 bar initially.  

 

Boost is controlled by the ECU by varying the duty cycle.  95% is the most it can run.  AFR is at 11.8:1 on boost.  All is good here.

 

You are down on boost.  Either you are not making the boost, or you are making it and losing it.

 

If you are making it and losing it then that's a leak.

 

If you are not making it then these are the possible causes:

 

1. Turbo design.  The turbo design is not working and isn't allowing it to make boost, or the boost it does make is ineffective.  Obviously you can rule this out on a stock turbo but not on a hybrid which had not been tested.

2. Blockage.  An exhaust or intake blockage stopping air flow.

2. Damaged turbo, one or both of the wheels may be damaged, the exhaust housing maybe cracked or not sealing in some way.

3. Wastegate not sealing.  This can be from the wastegate penny not seating, being damaged, or it could be the actuator is damaged or very soft not pressing the penny properly.  I have seen a lot of turbos that have had wastegates not sealing properly.

4. Too much boost getting to the actuator.  The N75 works by stopping the actuator seeing boost.  The higher the duty cycle, the less boost the N75 allows to get to the actuator, and so it opens the wastegate less and you run more boost.  If the N75 doesn't stop boost getting to the actuator you will run less boost.  This has it's own sub causes:

4a Faulty N75 valve - however boost is changing with respect to duty cycle so this suggests the valve itself is ok.

4b - Boost/Vac pipes which connect between the N75 and the turbo, intake and actuator are not sealing/leaking/damaged.

 

With the turbo having an unknown history and having play in it, this is what I would be looking at.

Rick