Malone Stage 2 Installed

It took the full spectrum of emotion from belligerent frustration to pleading but I managed to convince the local post office to give me my ECU five hours after closing after they didn't deliver it. I got home and got the whole car resembled in 30 minutes. I did leave off the security collar cause it's crap to begin with (weight reduction?). Anyway, the test drive...

After warming the engine up, I took off a bit aggressively from a stop sign. Around 2/3 throttle, the traction control kicked in, hard. Never had more than a chirp from the Pole Positions without intentionally trying to break them loose before. Getting onto a 6 lane road uphill I surged the engine because the throttle limiter which keeps you from revving past 2k is gone, there's so much torque, the perceived 800 RPM cutoff seems to be gone as well. The engine makes so much more torque off idle that I think a very significant percentage of the added output is there. After that took it easy pulling through 3rd and 4th. Nothing dramatic, can't actually feel a difference just putting around. Then did a few 2k-4k RPM pulls at WOT. Nothing dramatic there either, just got through the gear much quicker. Turbo spools a bit quicker and the throttle response is much better, but overall, the whole change is very subtle on the butt dyno.

And then you look at your gauges and realize how fast you're going. Honestly, if feels about like you're in one gear lower than you actually are give or take a bit. Only one real disappointment actually... no Malone sticker to put under the TDI badge...

One thing I could be imagining, but it seems the valves are taping quite loudly at very low RPMs, like running up my driveway, and they didn't do that before.

Good stuff, nice to see another modded JSW in the Houston area

Probably the injectors making the noise not the valves. Mine are loud, they can be listened to by pressing a stick (or anything rigid) to the part you are trying to hear and press the other end to your ear.

interesting to see how the MPGs end up being. Also, I thought most stage 2s had DPF removal... did you go this route? Also what was the estimated output quoted for the stage 2?

simoco said:

interesting to see how the MPGs end up being. Also, I thought most stage 2s had DPF removal... did you go this route? Also what was the estimated output quoted for the stage 2?

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Interested to see how reliable this flash is. IF it proves to be decent and does not require removal of the emissions then I will most likely get it once my warranty runs out next year.

So excited to see how ToeBall makes out with mpg. I really need to find my car some extra power. I love the fact that I can drive my car like I stole it and still get between 42 - 45 mpg! Sometimes power is OK, yet others it can't seem to get out of its own way! Warranty be damned, I'm read to go, just stuck between vendors.

ToeBall it seems from your first write-up that you're happy with the 'off the line' performance. That is 1/2 my battle. I'm also loving that the 800 rpm cut-off is gone! Amen. What is the power band like at say 1900 - 2800 rpm. I find myself on the freeway at 75 - 80mph at abut 2000rpm (thinking I'm in the boost sweet spot), and I go to pass, and find I really need to plan better, or shift to 5th gear. I'd love better 'roll-on' throttle response with a bit more boost.

Many thanks, AA

Oh I'm happy with it...

I can't expect to have realistic fuel economy numbers because I'm having quite a bit of fun so it may take a bit for me to settle down. Despite that, I seem to be doing about the same on the freeway, maybe slightly better, but it's to close to guess with the variance in driving style. On street, about 5 mpg loss though so far... SO WORTH IT!

The biggest thing I can warn you about based on my observations is that there's a larger delta in instantaneous millage from very minor changes in pedal pressure. I fully expect that cruising out of town in low traffic with the cruise control on, it'll do better than before. Other than that, I don't expect better millage. We'll see in time, though, fuel's getting winterized around here too loss of mileage form that too.

Nice upgrade! How many miles did you have on your ride before you put in the tune?

Whats the "800 RPM cutoff"??

Sounds nice! Doesn't the Malone Stage 2 recommend no DPF?

I'm interested in eventually having my car tuned, but it will most likely be one of the last things I do, for a few reasons.

Looking forward to hearing more feedback from you as spend more time with it and put more miles on it.

Did you ever have the EGTs limit the power? I've heard that if you push it long enough the temps will climb and then null and void the chip/mod to save the turbo or other bits from melting.

I tihnk it's def time for a pyro gauge on that beast!

Any chance you wanna meet up sometime and do some pulls side by side to see how it is compared to stock, just some 30-70 on the highway and some red light 0-45 stuff possibly? I wanna see how you pull on me.

ToeBall, do you have VCDS or access to it? I'm curious about boost, fuel rail pressure, EGTs, etc.

whats stock boost numbers to chipped numbers?

Stock maximum boost (sustained, not peak) is in the neighborhood of 22-23 psi. I am very curious to see what kind of boost Malone's tunes are running.

chirishboy said:

Nice upgrade! How many miles did you have on your ride before you put in the tune?

Whats the "800 RPM cutoff"??

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Just a hair over 16k miles. The 800RPM cut off is a debated upon software quirk that makes is feel like the engine just turns itself off if you bog it down to 800 RPMS even for an instant. Some people swear it's made up but I've stalled mine more than once because of it.

sportwagen rick said:

Sounds nice! Doesn't the Malone Stage 2 recommend no DPF?

I'm interested in eventually having my car tuned, but it will most likely be one of the last things I do, for a few reasons.

Looking forward to hearing more feedback from you as spend more time with it and put more miles on it.

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He does. My DPF is intact though. The big issue is that it's possible to run the engine so much harder that if you hold high speed for long periods of time the DPF can clog. Since the vast majority of my driving it in town freeway, that's not likely to be an issue for me.

740GLE said:

Did you ever have the EGTs limit the power? I've heard that if you push it long enough the temps will climb and then null and void the chip/mod to save the turbo or other bits from melting.

I tihnk it's def time for a pyro gauge on that beast!

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I'm planning on adding gauges to it eventually, I just need to find a pod I like. I would like to have boost, pyro, and oil pressure.

Mark_Seis_JSW said:

Any chance you wanna meet up sometime and do some pulls side by side to see how it is compared to stock, just some 30-70 on the highway and some red light 0-45 stuff possibly? I wanna see how you pull on me.

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Sure, I always like talking cars. Just not this week as I'm actually sick, but as soon as I feel a bit better, definitely. I work 5:30 to 1:30 in the Phoenix Tower at Buffalo Speedway and 59 feeder. We can meet up for lunch or something if you want. Once I'm feeling better I was gonna ask my dad to do a couple of side by side pulls since he's got a 2010 Golf TDI which is on the high output side and my 2010 JSW TDI was on the anemic side (drove them both back to back to compare).

Pelican18TQA4 said:

ToeBall, do you have VCDS or access to it? I'm curious about boost, fuel rail pressure, EGTs, etc.

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I could jump on the VCDS finder and see if anyone in the are wants to go for a spin and do some logging. Again, once I'm feeling better since I really don't want to share whatever it is that I've got.

Pelican18TQA4 said:

Stock maximum boost (sustained, not peak) is in the neighborhood of 22-23 psi. I am very curious to see what kind of boost Malone's tunes are running.

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Oh I am too. It's definitely a clean mod, but the turbo doesn't sound any different. The engine makes it's rumble down lower but it sound the same at higher RPMs. I think he backed off above 4k RPMS to maintain good EGT's. Butt dyno suggests better performance if I short shift around 3800 RPMS than going to redline. I'll have to borrow a GTech and run some tests.

Toe, have you considered water/meth ?

I hear the truck guys are having great success with it. They get more power, MPG, and less regen cycles (Cleaner DPF).

First, I want to thank you for posting your review of your new tune! It's very exciting to hear, and I'm eager to find out about more and comparing it to a stock car.

Second, I hate you. After resigning that I don't want to mess around with my car until my warranty expires - therefore giving more time for tuning to develop also - I now read this and get all giddy. Enjoy it, I'm jealous.

The water meth works. I added it to a BMW M roadster I had & added an RNS suprecharger to. I then put a smaller pulley on to bump up the boost. At the same time I purchased a kit for the water meth injection.

If you use the turbo Blue Windshield washer fluid or just look at the % of meth in it to keep it from freezing, if I rember it was about 17%. It was a ideal mixture. The kit came with boost pressure switches you could add to the boost side to turn on the pump at the required boost. I used the windshield washer tank to feed the Sterling hP pump. It was quick and clean.

Toeball, Is the shop that did your tune the Malone Diesel in Dripping Springs, TX?

What? No, http://malonetuning.com/

ToeBall, thanks for posting your impressions of your ECU upgrade. I'll be considering a ECU mod once I've had my Golf TDI for a little while. It's also nice to see people mentioning Water/Methanol injection. I've been running it for over 7 years on my Lancer Evolution with great success. The key for a great running car using Water/Methanol injection is to have your car tuned for it and a good fail safe provision to guard against engine damage.

Now that you've had stage 2 for a while, is there anything else you can add? How did the flash affect your fuel consumption?

I've been under the weather for the last couple of weeks so I haven't been driving as much as I usually do but I've definitely lost some millage in town, but I also definitely use the power quite a bit. The car isn't a sports car, it never will be, but it does feel like it came to life. On the freeway I find myself to have drifted up to 80 without noticing, the throttle is much more sensitive, so I expected the millage to go down from that, the car is no longer attenuating my throttle inputs for fuel economy. Based on the numbers I'm seeing on the instant millage, I expect that getting out of town and using cruise would actually get an extra couple of MPG out of it, but, honestly, I bought a TDI because I intended to drive the car for 30k+ miles/year, not because it gets 500 mpg. I don't mind giving up some mileage for grippier tires, and I don't mind giving up a couple of MPG for this flash.

The car has changed sounds a bit since the initial flash. It seems to have gotten a sightly louder rumble and the exhaust note has gotten noticeably deeper. I'm noticing active regens more often. The early morning cold engine under light throttle shudder is still there but it's significantly softer than it was.

Your review was much appreciated, hope you get better soon!

Two tankfuls down so far, pretty much everything I've stated is still holding true. Fuel economy has definitely gone down, but that could still be because of the change to winter fuel (same with the sound change and more regens for that matter), Basically, I don't think I'll have any way to get objective before/after numbers since while I was down, everyone started adding kerosene to their diesel fuel, like they do every year. Additionally, I find myself using the extra power regularly. It makes traffic much easier to dodge. Let me clarify this point, the car is not super fast, but it is much more fun to drive, and it is significantly quicker than stock.

I took Mark_Seis and his wife for a spin Friday night. The car with 2 extra people in it ran about like a stock JSW with just the driver, so for a rough idea of the performance difference, get a couple of friends to jump in the car with you and go for a spin.

Slo, no I haven't considered Water/Meth, I really am not on a quest for ultimate power here. This is supposed to be my daily driver. A car to enjoy, but which is durable and reliable. Whenever I actually get around to it, I'll probably just build a GTM kit or something as a weekend play toy and, lets face it, a TDI will never be able to keep up with a 2,300 lb car with a 427 V8 under the hood.

Thanks for the feedback. Good to hear you're putting the extra power to use.

ToeBall said:

...I'm noticing active regens more often...

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More regens would make me concerned, but that's just me. Sounds to me like you might get your DPF deplete sooner rather than later!

My 1220 LB. play, toy car is in the trailer behind my JSW.

Just to chime in here, I also have the stage 2 malone tune.

I noticed I would always get a regen after driving home from his house (I went stage 1 then stage 2 and soon stage 3).

However, I haven't noticed a regen since then. I have 25k on mine now.

I thought I noticed the engine was a bit deeper sounding, but who knows really.

The power is really great, a nice step up from factory for sure. traction is an issue even in 3rd gear. When my wife drives it she burns out all the time (she drives a manual honda fit). I tend to take it easy in 1st, let it smoothly shift into 2nd, and then lean into it, and it goes like stink.

vinistois said:

Just to chime in here, I also have the stage 2 malone tune.

I noticed I would always get a regen after driving home from his house (I went stage 1 then stage 2 and soon stage 3).

However, I haven't noticed a regen since then. I have 25k on mine now.

I thought I noticed the engine was a bit deeper sounding, but who knows really.

The power is really great, a nice step up from factory for sure. traction is an issue even in 3rd gear. When my wife drives it she burns out all the time (she drives a manual honda fit). I tend to take it easy in 1st, let it smoothly shift into 2nd, and then lean into it, and it goes like stink.

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So your thinking about going stage 3.... I take it you will need the DPF delete for that. Is that something Malone will do also if you go that route, or is that something you need to handle on your own?