Comments on intended path for VE/2003 Wagon

First, history and current.

Car is close to stock but had a set of larger injectors (.205s I think; was full injectors, not just nozzles) put in at ~30k miles and has been "just driven" since. Original MAF still reaches over 900 no problems, no flat spots in the acceleration, original turbo and clutch. No problems (yet) with the fateful DMF rattle; I can detect a bit of throwout roughness though, so eventually I'm going to have to drop the transaxle. Currently 155k (miles) on the clock. The car is notably faster than my friend's sedan that is bone stock (and has been providing lots of smiles the entire time.) EGR is turned down via adaptation but still connected and build-up is there but not enough for me to pull the intake; there's no notable problems with airflow.

Timing belt replaced twice, last time about 10k ago or thereabouts (full kit, including all rollers and water pump) by myself. Timing is set right near the upper boundary. Current injector balance looks like this fully warmed-up:



One outlier in #4 but it's not horrible. No driving or operational problems. Engine is quiet, smooth and runs great. I can provoke a bit of smoke under the right atmospheric conditions and hard acceleration but it's more of a haze than smoke.

I was going to give the car to my kid for her 16th birthday and had been thinking that for the last couple of years, which is (mostly) why I hadn't done anything more to it. The problem is that I'm unable to find anything I like better to replace it with never mind that it still looks (inside and out) and runs damn good for a 10 year old car, so guess what - I'm keeping it and will find something else for her. Rear shocks and such are on the menu soon along with a bunch of minor stuff, then it gets fun.

I couldn't resist the "tacotaco" SMIC on eBAY at his price, and bought and installed that. It made a notable difference in IATs, especially at cruise and a bit of a difference in power, especially in the midrange (I'm going to back and check the stock intercooler I have on my shelf; it might have had a slight leak -- or it might just be the better charge cooling, given that I am in Florida and it's damn hot right now.) Now I'm thinking that (1) I'm probably going to find myself on the wrong end of a DMF problem eventually and (2) once I do the door is wide open.

So my thoughts are this:

1. Stick DLC 1019s in there; while the car has no operational problems at present I have no clue what the pattern looks like on the injectors, and they do have 120k on them. Play hot-swap and be done with it; I know my current injectors are working ok as the car's running fine so there should be no core issues. Looks like I can do that including balancing for about $500 (after the core is returned.) Have those set for "Flow 2" ("low smoke for tuned vehicles") in anticipation of....

2. When the DMF craps (or if I do #3 and "make Sachs cry") replace the clutch with a South Bend Stage II "Daily" to get me up to ~325ft/lb of torque holding capacity. End of potential clutch issues which leads me to....

3. Put a Malone or Kerma tune on the ECU, probably Stage II. If/when the stock VNT-15 dies consider the 17/22 upgrade as a replacement. I already have the SMIC upgraded but would need to improve the piping; there's a reasonably-inexpensive kit available for that intended to work with the 17/22 however.

I suspect that Nozzles + tune means I smoke the stock clutch, which is why I didn't do the tune a long time ago -- and I've gotten away with the nozzles now for 100k+ miles, so it appears that path "worked" and yet has provided me with a very nice bump up in performance without any sacrifice in drivability.

Thoughts? With a stock ECU am I going to get anything beyond the .205ishes that I have in there now or am I basically buying refreshed nozzles on a PM basis at this point?

Nobody's got thoughts on this one?

You might want to think about an eventual goal to consider buying parts toward. For example, I'm not sure if the DLC 1019's you're talking about are what you'd want with a 17/22. Most people run PP764's. You'll also want to be sure that's going to be enough clutch for the job as nobody likes doing that job twice. If the plan is to stay with the stock turbo then the nozzle and clutch choices would probably be just fine though. A tune likely would make your stock clutch slip as well.

Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out -- buy once instead of twice. And I definitely don't want to pull the transaxle more than once if I can avoid it.

I expect that a tune would make the stock clutch slip, which is why I just put the injectors in ~6-7 years back -- I wasn't willing to pull a perfectly-good stock clutch. Now it's a stock clutch with 150k miles on it.

Why the 764s .vs. the 1019s on the nozzles, assuming that right now I still have the stock VNT15 in the car and until it shows signs of distress I'm likely to keep it (even with a tune)?

I've done the first part of this -- I went with the DLC 1019s from the usual suspect, balanced on the hot-swap program. I ordered them set to the "nicest" (best economy) flow setting. Shipment was immediate; I literally had them one business day after ordering and about a half-hour after they were delivered they were installed and running.

The timing jump when I replaced the injectors was massive -- the engine went from right up against the top green bar in the timing checker to off the bottom of the acceptable range. There's no way you can do this without VCDS to reset the timing and get acceptable results. 15 minutes with the torque wrench and VCDS put the timing back where it belonged.

IQ jumped up immediately as well. I was able to adapt it up to 5, but no higher (Pete recommended a higher value.) I decided against hammer-modding as I didn't feel like taking the risk of winding up with an injection pump seal leak and having to fix that, plus I was able to get into the acceptable range via adaptation. I had zero smoke there, and after driving it for a couple of days cranked IQ down a bit. I currently am running with IQ at 3.4 which produces a light haze on a hard pull from 2k to redline, but no heavy smoke and zero shudder misbehavior coming into or off idle. With the IQ around 5 hot starting was also a bit odd; it was almost like the engine was trying to start before injection pressure built as it would stumble on the first rollover a bit before starting; with it down at 3.4 ignition is immediate and that little oddity is gone.

Power is way up from where it was before. The difference is not subtle at all. I stuck the logger on and checked for potential boost spike problems; it's all good. I do have a larger (and better) SMIC (the TacoTaco one) in there and I had previously noted that made a pretty-material difference in steady-state IATs -- being as cheap as it is and as easy to install that mod is IMHO a no-brainer if you're going up in power output at all.

Economy is about where it was previously, but that mostly has to do with the nervous tick that I seem to have spontaneously developed in my right foot, closely aligned with the evil grin on my face. I may need to see a doctor about that...

No slip problems (yet) with the stock (Sachs) clutch.

I've driven a moderately-modified Jetta before and subjectively mine is now a bit -- but not all that much -- slower. I'd guess that output is up around 130hp where before I was around 110-115 with the previous nozzles; the modded one I drove was ~150ish.

Further changes (e.g. a tune) will probably wait until I either decide to or am forced to change the clutch out, as I suspect I can't go further without doing something there unless I want to buy a clutch "in duress."

Bang-for-the-buck on this move was good and the nozzles were due to be at least recalibrated if not replaced anyway.

As a follow 2003 Wagon owner that has been there and back, my 10 cents.

1. Stick DLC 1019s - Looks like you already did these, and it appears you are happy which is good. These nozzles aren't the largest out there, so they make a nice, lower smoke ride.

2. When the DMF craps (or if I do #3 and "make Sachs cry") replace the clutch with a South Bend Stage II "Daily" to get me up to ~325ft/lb of torque holding capacity. End of potential clutch issues which leads me to....Yes, SBC Stage II Dailys have been bulletproof reliable, hold a lot of power and are a joy to drive. Newest designs at your favorite vendor have the floating clutch disc that is "quiet" or "silent", whichever you prefer. No more SMF chatter.

3. Put a Malone or Kerma tune on the ECU, probably Stage II. If/when the stock VNT-15 dies consider the 17/22 upgrade as a replacement. I already have the SMIC upgraded but would need to improve the piping; there's a reasonably-inexpensive kit available for that intended to work with the 17/22 however. Over the years I have learned that I prefer Stage 2 tunes with the new-style VNT-15 turbo. It is a blast to drive, picks up speed quickly and fun to rev. You can drive it hard all day and it doesn't care, plus you (or your wife, girlfriend, friend) won't blow it up. Regardless of claims, the VNT-15 is still the most responsive turbocharger you can get. Unless you have the money to spend and are determined to get huge power out of the thing at any cost, sticking with the 15 turbo is the way to do.

Thanks....