Any harm in supporting mods first before addition to power mods+tune later?

So I like to upgrade slowly and be a savvy shopper when it comes to my car parts. I shop for used and cheap deals lots of the time when looking for upgrades. Car is a 02 ALH with 195k on it currently in mostly stock form. My plan is to eventually clean and upgrade parts as I can until its time for bigger ticket items (i.e. Turbo, downpipe, injectors, new clutch). I currently have a 11mm IP installed after my stock took a crap around 186k.

I have been keeping my eyes open for new parts on the cheap and was looking to do some supporting mods. I have a guy who bartered a PD intake and race pipe for cheap. I would like to clean this up nicely and put it on the car. I also been looking at getting one the IloveTacoTaco SMIC and I have a 1.8t pancake pipe I got for like $4 I would like get hooked up on the car.

Is it acceptable to upgrade these items as supporting mods now and do the bigger items down the line and tune then? It just harder to plop down a fat sack of cash for everything at once. Not going to effect anything negatively if I do these mods now, and tune later... right?

Cheers


(down the line I have a set of pp764 injectors I am getting from a buddy for free, Id like to get a deal on a 17 turbo down the line, and probably a buzzken downpipe in the furture)

Go for it. I have seen a 17/22 on a stock tune even. The only concern is if you do anything that would set a CEL like that race pipe etc and need an emission test.

Richard

i should add that a bigger turbo will be a bit laggy on stock software.

Richard

If you reduce the pressure loss through the pipe you can increase the boost without damaging the turbo.

your turbo is currently pushing air through the high loss intercooler and pipe work , meaning your Turbo is pushing 23lbs of psi to make 15 psi at the intake.



A upgraded smic would be a good 1st mod , the stock ic has a pressure drop of about 4 psi , a good upgraded smic has a pressure loss of 1 psi.

I have read the 1.8t pancake pipe is not ideal , they sell aftermarket pipes that fit in place with the right bends to fit in place of the lower ic pipe. they cost about $175 .. a person can piece together one for a lot cheaper. Main thing is , is to use round pipe in place of the oem contoured pipe.


after the ic and pipe work are corrected you can benefit from the psi reduction buy installing a 3 bar map to boost the psi up about 4 or 5 psi without the ECU knowing about it.
Combined with bigger nozzles .205 or .185 (up to you) it will make more hp with less smoke then just a .205 nozzle upgrade.

Do you have any data to support the part in bold below?

GT Beetle said:

If you reduce the pressure loss through the pipe you can increase the boost without damaging the turbo.

your turbo is currently pushing air through the high loss intercooler and pipe work , meaning your Turbo is pushing 23lbs of psi to make 15 psi at the intake.



A upgraded smic would be a good 1st mod , the stock ic has a pressure drop of about 4 psi , a good upgraded smic has a pressure loss of 1 psi.

I have read the 1.8t pancake pipe is not ideal , they sell aftermarket pipes that fit in place with the right bends to fit in place of the lower ic pipe. they cost about $175 .. a person can piece together one for a lot cheaper. Main thing is , is to use round pipe in place of the oem contoured pipe.


after the ic and pipe work are corrected you can benefit from the psi reduction buy installing a 3 bar map to boost the psi up about 4 or 5 psi without the ECU knowing about it.
Combined with bigger nozzles .205 or .185 (up to you) it will make more hp with less smoke then just a .205 nozzle upgrade.

Click to expand...

Using google I found a thread where a person tested the ic system with ports for connecting a psi gauges to the turbo outlet , the pancake pipe each side of the ic and the upper hard ic pipe that leads to the intake.



every hear how Corporations build failures into mechanical parts so they do not last a 100 years ?

i can only guess that the stock ic system may of been developed to wear out the turbo or to de tune hp.

I do have this link https://fr-rtuning-shop.co.uk/ths-vw-golf-mk4-1-8t-intercooler-kit.html , I cannot find the thread with the tests .. yet.
Maybe someone else can find it..

You need to scroll down the link to the part on the psi loss..


from linked article:

The 1.8T MK4 Golf platforms utilise a small side mount intercooler as standard, which provides adequate cooling for a stock car. However once boost levels are increased, either by ECU remapping or the introduction of a bigger turbo, the stock cooler is unable to maintain low intake temperatures. Once the air intake temperature gets too hot, the engine ECU will retard the timing and lower boost levels to maintain engine's safety.

The Golfs existing intercooler system is designed around the fact that the turbo outlet and inlet manifold on the same side. Traditional single pass intercooler's are not suited to this set up and result in long lengths of extra pipe work (often under the car). The only effective solution for a front mounted cooler is a twin pass cooler.
The other part of the charge air system which is restricted is the flat boost pipe inside the wheel arch (appropriately nick named the "pancake pipe")

I have not been able to find the vw psi test , it either had a lot of pictures in the thread or it was a video .. I will find it yet.

I will try google images then youtube