Making more power?

So I'm new to the tdi's. Basically, I want more power as any other 16 year old would. Yes the car is in good condition, timing belt is good, oil changed when it should be, maintenance is up to date, so thats all good. I want to make some more power! Probably around 130hp. The thing is, the car has 460,000km and I want it to last to somewhere around 600,000km (370,000miles) and even longer if it will Whats the best way to do this, but not sacrifice a lot of liability? Im doing an EGR delete (won't be a problem where I live), and straight piping from the cat back. Ill be cleaning manifold and intake ports at the same time. That'll be my first little mods. Im planning on getting some gauges as well (egt, boost, and oil pressure) Now I know ill probably need a new clutch, heard good things about south bend clutches from kerma, so that will probably be my first choice. Now, getting to around 130hp. Whats the best way to do this? can I be good with just nozzles and a tune? or do I need more, like bigger turbo, pd150 manifold, full straight pipe, etc..
Also, how long do the turbos normally last in these alh tdi's? Don't think mines ever been replaced and 460,000km seems like a lot for one.
Anyways, any advice is appreciated, thanks.

Contact Malone tuning or Kerma. They will put you in the right direction for the power goal and let you know what hardware is need for that. 130hp is very easy to achieve.

A tune would get you close to your goal and is the logical starting point.
Nozzles plus a tune will get you there and beyond but then you'll need a clutch, too.
130 hp shouldn't require any more hardware beyond that. Enjoy the ride!

You could start saving for a turbo and nozzles, one tune and be done, I love my setup but it's not cheap but I've got 326k miles and I've been tuned and powered up since about 275k and shows no signs of engine wear, suspension is another thing to consider, my LCAs were toast when I almost doubled hp and tq and the torque steer was barely controllable not to mention tire wear

Take a good long hard look at the suspension first and if it shows no signs of wear go for it...

Lastly ask yourself if you think you'll want more power down the road...if you do it's cheaper to save and buy a little more than you want once and not have to try and sell used parts and loose half or more that you spent on the parts new

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Yourbuddysatin said:

Contact Malone tuning or Kerma. They will put you in the right direction for the power goal and let you know what hardware is need for that. 130hp is very easy to achieve.

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will do, thanks!

flee said:

A tune would get you close to your goal and is the logical starting point.
Nozzles plus a tune will get you there and beyond but then you'll need a clutch, too.
130 hp shouldn't require any more hardware beyond that. Enjoy the ride!

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Thankyou! would you suggest going with kerma for tune and nozzles?

WildChild80 said:

You could start saving for a turbo and nozzles, one tune and be done, I love my setup but it's not cheap but I've got 326k miles and I've been tuned and powered up since about 275k and shows no signs of engine wear, suspension is another thing to consider, my LCAs were toast when I almost doubled hp and tq and the torque steer was barely controllable not to mention tire wear

Take a good long hard look at the suspension first and if it shows no signs of wear go for it...

Lastly ask yourself if you think you'll want more power down the road...if you do it's cheaper to save and buy a little more than you want once and not have to try and sell used parts and loose half or more that you spent on the parts new

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I thought about the turbo, eventually I'm sure ill get one but for now ill stay stock. Nozzles, tune, and clutch will be first from info I've read and what other guys have said on here. I will take a look at the suspension tomorrow though, thanks for mentioning that!

Rocketchip Stage 3 will dyno at 125/225 no problem. No other mods needed. And with that amount of power increase you won't need a clutch unless you matt the accelerator in 5th at 60 MPH on a cold day. Assuming, of course, your clutch isn't worn out, which yours probably is.

A good strong tune alone is a great way to mod these cars. It'll have little, if any, impact on component life. I have two ALHs: one with a lot of mods, one with a tune only. The tune only car is still a lot of fun, and isn't short on power. It'll run up to 100 MPH pretty quickly and keep pulling.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Rocketchip Stage 3 will dyno at 125/225 no problem. No other mods needed. And with that amount of power increase you won't need a clutch unless you matt the accelerator in 5th at 60 MPH on a cold day. Assuming, of course, your clutch isn't worn out, which yours probably is.

A good strong tune alone is a great way to mod these cars. It'll have little, if any, impact on component life. I have two ALHs: one with a lot of mods, one with a tune only. The tune only car is still a lot of fun, and isn't short on power. It'll run up to 100 MPH pretty quickly and keep pulling.

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Okay thats great to hear! Thanks for the info. And yea I'm not sure about the clutch, yes, its got a lot of km, but it doesn't slip any even at WOT. That could very well change tho when more horsy's are introduced

"And yea I'm not sure about the clutch, yes, its got a lot of km, but it doesn't slip any even at WOT. That could very well change tho when more horsy's are introduced"

Get more clutch than you think you need, I'm a big fan of the Southbend Stage 2 Endurance. And I'd like to point out that IBW,
(IndigoBlueWagon) of IDparts.com supplies these, and offers injectors and balancing service for same.

Jeff of Rocketchip does great tunes, can be hard to reach at times.
From all reports Malone is very timely, and Canadian, ehhh.

Suspension is another frequently overlooked aspect, guessing here
you have an elderly ALH. Again, IDparts has some great kits that
are worth every penny IMO. Take some time to read the "What is handling thread". There's a lot of marketing BS around that sells
a lot of expensive "improvements" that do anything but improve real
world performance. Do you want Go, or Show?

I'd recommend doing the suspension BEFORE you add the power.

Have fun!

Rrusse11 said:

"And yea I'm not sure about the clutch, yes, its got a lot of km, but it doesn't slip any even at WOT. That could very well change tho when more horsy's are introduced"

Get more clutch than you think you need, I'm a big fan of the Southbend Stage 2 Endurance. And I'd like to point out that IBW,
(IndigoBlueWagon) of IDparts.com supplies these, and offers injectors and balancing service for same.

Jeff of Rocketchip does great tunes, can be hard to reach at times.
From all reports Malone is very timely, and Canadian, ehhh.

Suspension is another frequently overlooked aspect, guessing here
you have an elderly ALH. Again, IDparts has some great kits that
are worth every penny IMO. Take some time to read the "What is handling thread". There's a lot of marketing BS around that sells
a lot of expensive "improvements" that do anything but improve real
world performance. Do you want Go, or Show?

I'd recommend doing the suspension BEFORE you add the power.

Have fun!

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Alright, thanks for the info, ill definitely look into the suspension

Subscribed.

I always forget about rocket chip! My bad fellas.

If the OP is sticking with a stock turbo (or even a VNT-17) with nozzles a Stage 2 Endurance clutch is overkill. I have a Stage 2 Daily in my Wagon, which is making about 140/260, and it's never slipped. Not even close. And I have our own Quiet clutch in my tuned '99.5 Golf, and that's never slipped. I agree it's not nice to have to replace clutches twice, but the OP will be fine with a G60/VR6 or even a stock quiet clutch with an SMF.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

If the OP is sticking with a stock turbo (or even a VNT-17) with nozzles a Stage 2 Endurance clutch is overkill. I have a Stage 2 Daily in my Wagon, which is making about 140/260, and it's never slipped. Not even close. And I have our own Quiet clutch in my tuned '99.5 Golf, and that's never slipped. I agree it's not nice to have to replace clutches twice, but the OP will be fine with a G60/VR6 or even a stock quiet clutch with an SMF.

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good to know, thank you

I'd personally do nozzles before a tune, that'll give you a taste of what's possible. 205-216 sections should be fine, you might need to raise your injection quantity a bit to keep bottom end smoke reasonable on 216s.

Mec evo or Giles @ performance diesel injection would probably be your cheapest options on this side of the border. Concept1 and CTS also have a no name 205 nozzle that's made in Italy that a lot of people have had good results with.

Sach vr clutch should be fine but agreed a south bend would be ideal for future proofing.

I love my SB S2E, light pedal and holds the tq

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Upgrading to .205 nozzles will give a lot more oomph and possibly not kill your FE either. By doing the nozzles first, it saves one step when getting a tune, and possibly moving to a Stage 3 tune after will provide a huge noticeable difference in power.

Interested in reading what you end up doing. I'm in the same boat but a few less miles (355K). Previous owner did replace the clutch before I got it, but otherwise all other components are original including the turbo.

I have a 2004 Golf BEW I just got Stage 1 done on, 469K kms, Strong and healthy engine but everything is stock. Clutched slipped a little bit the first couple days but it must have burned off some flywheel glazing as it's been fine since. I'm still planning on a new one in the near future.

We have been around 120 HP for about 300k of the 360k on the ALH - all on the original clutch. I have owned a VR6 clutch and flywheel for all of that time, but not even sure if I can FIND it anymore. Car has always had very sticky rubber and driven pretty hard, so I am not one of the OEM clutch/DMF haters.

Sorry that this will be counter to everything that has been posted above. If you want the car to last as long as you're hoping, without dumping a lot of money in fixing things that break and go down a slippery slope of mods, leave the car alone.

Unless you're independently wealthy at 16 then more power to you (literally and figuratively ). Hey I get it, I was 16 once too and every bit of money I earned from my pretty decent job working at a computer store went into buying meals at school and upgrading my 386SX-16 Heaven forbid that I'd be responsible for paying for gas, insurance, payments, maintenance and repairs on the car I got to use...

TDIMeister has a point. My son has an '02 Golf, his second TDI. We bought it with 265K miles on it, one owner, mostly well maintained. He's insisted on leaving it stock, although he doesn't drive it gently (running at 85-90 on the highway isn't uncommon for him).

It now has 373K miles on it and has only required routine maintenance. The only thing we did was replace the injector nozzles with one size up (.205s) because the orignals were shot and his injection pump seems to be a little weak. If you drive the car at 70 it'll get 50 MPG. And it's trouble free. Head's never been off, finally replaced the original clutch at 330K miles.

He's a student and constantly broke, so low cost transportation is essential. This car stock fits the bill perfectly. He's happy to sacrifice some performance for longevity.

Thanks for all the replies guys! Ill let you know how I make out with things. May be a couple months as I need to pay for some other things at the moment, but ill be definitely be starting with egr delete, nozzles and then ill get a stage 2 tune a little later. Ill have to drive it easy for a while until I can afford a clutch Im heavy into dirt biking too, have a 2011 yz450f so money has to get thrown at that to keep it running as well. It may be a slow process, but it will be fun for me and ill learn more and more as I go on. Thanks again guys!

buy the $20 MPPS clone cable and learn how to do the tuning side yourself
It is actually surprisingly hard to break anything with the stock injection hardware.

Great advice so far, both for moar powar but also for saving your money.

One thing I'd add to your "need moar oomph" list is better brakes. If you're gonna be faster, you gotta be able to stop faster too.

This implies better tires, which are the ONLY thing between all that power and the road.

Bottom line: speed costs. How fast can you afford to go?

I'd suggest buying the clutch first, then suspension, then nozzles and tune...

It's like why some car people insist on painting their classic car first because when you get it running you'll never paint it...

Set a good base for power then add power.

Not my car, do what you want but I've been there and ran out of money on my initial build but I expected it and bought a clutch before buying anything else, I knew me and didn't want to run around trying to figure out how hard I could push it before the clutch slipped, dual mass flywheels have been known to break and cause catastrophic damage to the transmission case.

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"I'd suggest buying the clutch first, then suspension, then nozzles and tune..."

Take it from guys who have done this, ^. It's the right sequence IMO.

WildChild80 said:

dual mass flywheels have been known to break and cause catastrophic damage to the transmission case.

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only very early ones
the 03 will be a sachs DMF

way I look at it, the suspension's good enough for the VR6 (though poly LCA bushings are a very nice upgrade, as is filling the motor mounts with urethane to stiffen them up) and the brakes are leagues better than most any car that dodge put a 440 in.

ETA: and a slipping clutch can be driven around just about indefinitely, just don't lug it into boost.

[486] said:

only very early ones
the 03 will be a sachs DMF

way I look at it, the suspension's good enough for the VR6 (though poly LCA bushings are a very nice upgrade, as is filling the motor mounts with urethane to stiffen them up) and the brakes are leagues better than most any car that dodge put a 440 in.

ETA: and a slipping clutch can be driven around just about indefinitely, just don't lug it into boost.

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Yes a slipping clutch can be driven but if you've got a heavy foot nothing good will come out of it, my beater car in Italy was a Seat Leone with an almost non existent clutch, gasser and you couldn't drive in 5th it was so bad, but if you're looking to make more power you've got to put it to the ground otherwise it's braggin rights but not really as you're not really doing anything with the power...you added expensive parts to have a clutch slip...yes I know it'll hold a little more power than stock but if you ever want to actually use the potential of a stage 2 or better, good luck and watch the tach or listen for the slip... whatever

and assuming the suspension isn't clapped out it'd be fine for minor power but it's likely that the LCAs are cracked and will start bouncing around when the torque comes in and that'll just wear the front tires on the inside and cause some very erratic tq steer, again, been there got the VW t-shirt... everyone said do the suspension first...maybe someone will listen... again not my car

As for the poly bushings, I like the TT bushings better than the super pro street firmness, the poly don't feel as firm as I'd like. Not sure of the durometer of them and don't really care...my stock 2000 has the TT bushings and my modded 01 has the poly. Most of the front end has been replaced on both cars, the modded car didn't get ball joints but everything else is new

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