A3 2.0 CR170 project

[tjg]

So I like the stage 2 rawtek/malone setup on my sportwagen so much that I bought a '13 A3 to go CR170 Stage 3 with.

It's a titanium/sport package, so pretty rare for a TDI A3.


Here's my shopping list. The green is what I've purchased already, the grey/lined out is stuff I no longer need, and on the right column you can see the prices:

Combing through all the info (on TDIclub) covering the CR170 swap, here's my full list of what I need:


-Gaskets
--8x copper pinch nuts: N90200201
--Oil return line gasket: 03L145757Q
--2x oil return line o-rings: N90715601
--Oil return block copper seals - unknown part number, I didn't replace
--EGR manifold gasket: 038131547A
--EGR intake gasket: 069131547D
--Exhaust manifold gasket: 03L253039B
--Downpipe gasket: 1K0253115T

-CR170 Turbo
-Turbo Inlet Pipes

-EGT Spacer


Here's the various parts so far:


Turbo, Gasket kit, inlet pipe, EGT spacer from tunemyeuro/aarodriguez

EGT delete and braided oil line from Darkside:

I have the Transmission tuner on order from Malone, should hopefully ship soon.



I'm going to order a Rawtek downpipe, but unfortunately they don't offer a full exhaust for the A3. Minor inconvenience.


I also have on order an oil change kit and the turbo lube coming from IDparts.com

 

[Macradiators.com]

A lot of money spent to have a slow car.
Usually we spend less for 260+ hp.

 

[tjg]

A lot of money spent to have a slow car.
Usually we spend less for 260+ hp.

True that it's never going to be "fast".
I'd argue though that if you look at it holistically the improvements in power, fuel economy, and simplicity are worth it for the price.

I mean $3000 is what... a set of lightweight wheels and coil-overs?


The amount of money I'd spend on my 2005 S4 to get that percentage performance increase is considerably more.

 

[AU_Bug]

I'm going to tag on to follow this thread as I've got the same car with a Malone Stage 2 and DSG tune, Rawtek turbo back exhaust and EGR delete.
Always interested in seeing what others are doing.

 

[tjg]

So I ordered the Rawtek exhaust/downpipe and the turbo lube has shipped as well.


Today I loaded up the Malone DSG tune:

Interestingly, Malone now offers the ability to get the tune via tunzilla.com rather than the old method of sending them the stock tune and them emailing you the malone tune. Flashzilla is nice because not only is it instant turnaround, but you can pay with a credit card (and get the rewards points... aka how I paid for my CR170 turbo).

 

[AU_Bug]

Quick question, why did you get an egr delete kit when it is part of the Rawtek exhaust? Or, at least it was on mine!?

I'm guessing it is for the boost gauge line tap?

 

[tjg]

Quick question, why did you get an egr delete kit when it is part of the Rawtek exhaust? Or, at least it was on mine!?

I'm guessing it is for the boost gauge line tap?

While I have the turbo off I'm going to take the opportunity to pull off the EGR cooler. So the dark side race pipe was a natural progression (instead of just putting a block-off plate for the low pressure EGR).

And aside from a small performance improvement, it does leave open the opportunity for a boost gauge

 

[AU_Bug]

While I have the turbo off I'm going to take the opportunity to pull off the EGR cooler. So the dark side race pipe was a natural progression (instead of just putting a block-off plate for the low pressure EGR).
And aside from a small performance improvement, it does leave open the opportunity for a boost gauge

Gotcha!

Just for reference, I got a Banks Super Gauge to monitor multiple parameters and it is great.

 

[tjg]

So I have everything except the tune (i believe)


Rawtek down-pipe, mid pipe and resonator:

and everything aside from the turbo:

I somehow wound up almost two install kits from tunemyeuro...



In that picture I have:
Oil Filter
Oil
Plenty of copper O-rings for my magnetic drain plug
Turbo inlet piping
EGT spacer
Manifold Gasket
4 x tunemyeuro EGT block off plates
1 x darkside EGT block off plate
1 x Rawtek EGT block off plate
2 x Brass coolant elbows
1 x aluminum coolant joiner
1 x Darkside braided turbo feed line

2 x tubes of turbo primer lube
1 x tube permatex copper
1 x darkside race pipe with o-ring and bolts
12x Copper Pinch nuts N90200201
1x Dampner Gasket 03L145117C
1x Oil Tube return line o-ring N90978801
1x Oil Tube Return Line O-Ring N90715601


I also have a BFI stage 1 trans mount insert that I'll install as well. My goal is to knock this out next friday, giving myself saturday in the shop in case I need it as well.



Most of this job is going to be taking parts off, and once I remove the EGR cooler, the turbo removal and installation should be super easy, barely an inconvenience.

 

[tjg]

Got over halfway done today.


Car loaded up. I decided to bring my roller-stool so I can sit with my arms over my head for hours rather than stand for hours.

Everything laid out at the shop:

Here's the coolant lines to the EGR clamped. There's going to be a decent amount of coolant spillage even with the lines clamped. Be extra careful when you pull the cooler out so you don't pour coolant on your face...

Since I never found a really good image of how the coolant lines are connected when deleting the EGR cooler, here's one. When you get underneath and look at it in person, it makes sense. I didn't have to cut the hoses at all when connecting them up. I'll triple check tomorrow to make sure there's no kinks.

Here's a picture of the new turbo mounted. The CR140 heat shield fits, but only uses one stud. The stud layouts on the manifolds are different, and the CR170 uses a different heat shield.

The DIY shop here closes at 4pm. I worked from 7:45am to 3:30 pm. Cleaned everything up and I'll finish up tomorrow.

Currently I have the new turbo in and torqued down, the oil feed and return lines hooked up, and the EGT (with spacer) mounted.



some notes:


---The turbo, even with the EGR cooler removed, is a PAIN to get out. Significantly harder than the DPF. It was to the point where I was questioning whether or not it actually came out of the exhaust tunnel or not. A pry bar helps a lot with the bits of heat shield that get caught on various studs and turbo bits. I also removed the hot side heat shield from the turbo which gave me a bit more breathing room. The final thing that helped the turbo come out (whether it's coincidence or not) was tilting the engine forward. (The dogbone is disconnected from the engine/trans when removing the DPF).
Installing the new turbo was a bit easier... took about 4 minutes to get it into place rather than the seeming eternity it took to remove the old one.


---I didn't have to use the darkside braided oil feed line. I was able to get the stock oil feed line unscrewed and gently pushed out of the way without damage. I'll double check it tomorrow.


---I primed the turbo with 1.5 bottles of turbo lube. It's easier to fill it via the oil drain hole on the bench. I then put the plastic plugs back on the feed/drain holes for installation. This results in a mess when you pull the plastic drain line plug to install the turbo drain. However I don't really see any better way of doing it. Tomorrow I'll clean everything up so I can see if there's any leaks. I still plan on disconnecting the injectors and cranking it a bit to further prime the turbo.



---This isn't clarified in any of the guides I've seen, but you won't need to use the turbo damper. The plastic intake adapter mounts right up to the turbo intake.



To top everything off... I have this waiting to be put on:

I'm having Import Doktor in Louisville install it next week. I don't have the tools to lock the timing and I know where my mechanical comfort level is.

 

[JordanLee]

This is a great DIY guide with good tips to help others out (including me in a few weeks) thanks for the info.

 

[tjg]

Glad you find it useful.


Does anyone know an easy way to remove the EGR pipe without having to remove the intercooler pipe and coolant lines? I may just cut both ends off. Though it seems the interference point is the bracket that mounts it to the block.

 

[turbobrick240]

Cool. You'll be the first person I know of to install dual CP3's on a tdi. The hpfp install is quite a bit easier than the cr170 install, I think you're selling yourself short.

 

[JordanLee]

Glad you find it useful.
Does anyone know an easy way to remove the EGR pipe without having to remove the intercooler pipe and coolant lines? I may just cut both ends off. Though it seems the interference point is the bracket that mounts it to the block.

I loosened off the plastic piping so it had a bit of give and it was a mixture of rotation and a pry bar to weasel it out. It was very difficult for me as well. Even removing the 2 copper nuts was a complete chore. Otherwise if you can fit a small die grinder in there and remove it in two pieces it would be quite easier.

 

[tjg]

I loosened off the plastic piping so it had a bit of give and it was a mixture of rotation and a pry bar to weasel it out. It was very difficult for me as well. Even removing the 2 copper nuts was a complete chore. Otherwise if you can fit a small die grinder in there and remove it in two pieces it would be quite easier.

I have it zip tied out of the way right now. I'll go in with a dremel and cut it later.




Everythings finished.
Changed the oil, checked the intercooler piping for sludge (only a few drops of oil), and gave everything a good once over.
Tune loaded fine and I unplugged the injectors to crank it over and build oil pressure. Probably not necessary given the amount of lube I put in there, but it can't hurt.

I started it up and raised the lift to check if there were any obvious leaks from the turbo feed/drain. So far no leaks or drips.

Here's a view up of the finished back side of the motor (you can see how beat up that heat shielding is from removing the turbo):

I installed a BFI Stage 1 dogbone insert. I've seen it recommended by other people building on these chassis, due to this version of dogbone being weaker?
Anyways, I'm glad I went with stage 1 because there's a fair amount of vibration when in reverse. The quick loop I took around the shop wasn't bad however. I'm sure the mount will break in a bit as well.

The Race pipe up front was a pain because it's not obvious where the back bolt is on the EGR. I had given up and decided to try to remove the ASV first, because the three bolts on the ASV are obvious. Well the lower ASV bolt passes through the EGR body and bolts to the manifold.

here you can see the bolt on the bottom of the back side of the EGR:

Here you can see the head of the bolt on the right, and the tip of the bolt on the left of the bottom of the assembly:

And here's the head of the bolt where it sits against the ASV:

I took the wagen over to the shop this morning. I'll have my wife drop me back off at the shop in a bit so I can pick up the A3 and take it for it's first real drive.

Notes:

--You're going to have a decent number of free plugs in the engine bay after this. I went through after everything obvious was reconnected and counted the loose plugs. That matched up with the number of loos plugs I had in my take-off pile so I'm reasonably sure that everything is plugged in. I don't have any CELs so I think I'm OK.

--The two vacuum sensors you remove when removing the DPF are not going to have ANY hoses going to them if you do remove the DPF and EGR cooler.

Question:
--I was planning on having the rest of the exhaust (from the rawtek mid-pipe back) made out of 3" stainless to match the rawtek setup. If I were to just cut out the muffler and weld in a 2.5" straight pipe, would I be losing any performance vs completing the rest of the exhaust?

 

[turbobrick240]

A 2.5" exhaust won't be anywhere close to a restriction with the cr170 setup.

 

[Kevinski4]

Got over halfway done today.




---The turbo, even with the EGR cooler removed, is a PAIN to get out. Significantly harder than the DPF. It was to the point where I was questioning whether or not it actually came out of the exhaust tunnel or not. A pry bar helps a lot with the bits of heat shield that get caught on various studs and turbo bits. I also removed the hot side heat shield from the turbo which gave me a bit more breathing room. The final thing that helped the turbo come out (whether it's coincidence or not) was tilting the engine forward. (The dogbone is disconnected from the engine/trans when removing the DPF).
Installing the new turbo was a bit easier... took about 4 minutes to get it into place rather than the seeming eternity it took to remove the old one.

The turbo isn't supposed to go in/out the tunnel. If you unbolt the passenger side axle from the transmission flange and hold the axle up and forward against the block, the turbo will drop right out the bottom between the back of the block and the subframe.

 

[tjg]

The turbo isn't supposed to go in/out the tunnel. If you unbolt the passenger side axle from the transmission flange and hold the axle up and forward against the block, the turbo will drop right out the bottom between the back of the block and the subframe.

I had thought about that and tried it a little, but I guess I didn't give it enough of a chance. If I were to do it again, I'd probably just completely remove the axle. It's a minimal amount of extra work for more space.

 

[JordanLee]

Any more updates to this thread? I wish you had a stage 2 Malone tune on beforehand so you could give a well rounded review of the jump from 2-3 rather than 0-3 lol. I got my CP3 in a few weeks ago and the turbo is next. Either the CR170 and Malone Stage 3.5 or a GTD2060 and stage 4?

You’ll love the mechanical gear pump whine on the CP3...

 

[tjg]

CP3 install went fine, though I didn't notice any jump in fuel mileage... and I can't hear the mechanical whine of the fuel pump over the sound of BOOOST.


My sportwagen is still stage 2, I can definitely say this is faster.

Is it truly worth going to stage 3 if you're already at stage 2? I can't give a definitive answer on that... I'd be inclined to say no unless you need to replace the turbo anyways. Stage 0 to 3 though is a definite yes.

 

[Slickslyder]

So I like the stage 2 rawtek/malone setup on my sportwagen so much that I bought a '13 A3 to go CR170 Stage 3 with.

It's a titanium/sport package, so pretty rare for a TDI A3.


Here's my shopping list. The green is what I've purchased already, the grey/lined out is stuff I no longer need, and on the right column you can see the prices:

Combing through all the info (on TDIclub) covering the CR170 swap, here's my full list of what I need:


-Gaskets
--8x copper pinch nuts: N90200201
--Oil return line gasket: 03L145757Q
--2x oil return line o-rings: N90715601
--Oil return block copper seals - unknown part number, I didn't replace
--EGR manifold gasket: 038131547A
--EGR intake gasket: 069131547D
--Exhaust manifold gasket: 03L253039B
--Downpipe gasket: 1K0253115T

-CR170 Turbo
-Turbo Inlet Pipes

-EGT Spacer


Here's the various parts so far:


Turbo, Gasket kit, inlet pipe, EGT spacer from tunemyeuro/aarodriguez

EGT delete and braided oil line from Darkside:

I have the Transmission tuner on order from Malone, should hopefully ship soon.



I'm going to order a Rawtek downpipe, but unfortunately they don't offer a full exhaust for the A3. Minor inconvenience.


I also have on order an oil change kit and the turbo lube coming from IDparts.com

I am curious to know what that black cylinder thing is next to the Darkside egr race pipe? I see it in some kits but not in others.

 

[tjg]

I am curious to know what that black cylinder thing is next to the Darkside egr race pipe? I see it in some kits but not in others.

That is a rubber cap that fits over the "warm air intake" port on the lower back side of the airbox.
It was up to me to figure that out on my own because whoever I talked to at darkside about it didn't know either.

 

[Slickslyder]

That is a rubber cap that fits over the "warm air intake" port on the lower back side of the airbox.
It was up to me to figure that out on my own because whoever I talked to at darkside about it didn't know either.

Gotcha... ya it kinda threw me for a loop. I just installed an S&B cold air intake so I won't have to worry about the stock air box. There was a flexible heat shield hose attached to an aluminum "L" shaped air duct that pointed right at the exhaust manilold... not sure what the purpose of it was but I took it out due to rattling around.
Ya I'm waiting for my Rawtek exhaust to get shipped (February they are saying) then install. I'm going back and forth as to do a cr140 hybrid turbo or not.

 

[mikerob97]

Realize this is an older thread, I am in the process of installing the CR170 on my 2014 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDi, and notice that the stock exhaust manifold heat shield does not fit on the CR170 exhaust manifold. Does anyone know the part number for the CR170 heat shield? Does anyone install the heat shield for the CR170 upgrade?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[tjg]

The CR140 heat shield works.
But for the CR170 shield, that should be pretty easy to find either through ebay or the vw/audi parts catalog

 

[mikerob97]

The CR140 heat shield works.
But for the CR170 shield, that should be pretty easy to find either through ebay or the vw/audi parts catalog

Thanks for the note.

I should have been more clear. The heat shield that fits around the exhaust turbine on the CR140 will transfer to the CR170.

But the heat shield from the exhaust manifold on the CR140 does fit the mounting points on the CR170.

See the picture below.

Question - Does anyone have the correct part number for the CR170 exhaust manifold heat shield?


Thanks,
Mike

CR140 - Notice the location of the exhaust manifold studs mounting point for the heat shield.

CR170 - Notice the location of the exhaust manifold studs mounting point for the heat shield. This heat shield will not fit.

 

[tjg]

Yea thats what I meant. I just used that one stud to mount it. I may have trimmed/bent the left part a bit to get it to clear the far left stud on the manifold, I can't remember.

In the 30k miles since the swap it hasn't moved or loosened


Ypu can see it mounted in this picture:

 

[mikerob97]

---This isn't clarified in any of the guides I've seen, but you won't need to use the turbo damper. The plastic intake adapter mounts right up to the turbo intake.

In your quote above, the part on the left is replaced with the part on the right, correct? The sensor is not reused. And no CEL from the plug that will not be connected to the sensor?

Glad you are still monitoring this thread - it is good to have someone to bounce questions to...

 

[tjg]

In your quote above, the part on the left is replaced with the part on the right, correct? The sensor is not reused. And no CEL from the plug that will not be connected to the sensor?

Glad you are still monitoring this thread - it is good to have someone to bounce questions to...

I want to say yes...
Its been a few years since I did it, so I'm a bit rusty and I'm nowhere near the car to check

 

[tjg]

I want to say yes...
Its been a few years since I did it, so I'm a bit rusty and I'm nowhere near the car to check

I'll say that it makes sense once you get in ther