dieseltechMK2tdi
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2004
- TDI
- 96 b4 glacier blue and just picked up a 98 jetta tdi 120,000mi, Edit: i still own these and about 35 other VAG group TDI's mostly pre common rail/DPF
So here goes, normally I have always run the good old tried and true VNT-17/22 On previous ALH TDI‘s that I have owned and was always happy with power/performance. Anyway I recently picked up a 2003 golf that needed an engine and a bunch of other work. I had a spare stock engine that I went through and freshened up. New cam and lifters, new rings and a quick Hone. With Covid and not working a whole lot I didn’t have a whole bunch of money to spend so I held off on getting a turbo as I had a low mileage Stock vnt-15. So I did the 15 and .216 injectors, FMIC, stage 2 tune that spiked around 21psi but stayed at 18 which I know is too much for that little 15, but I knew enough to keep my foot out of it And TRY to not beat on it so much until I saved up some money for a better turbo. I also kept the stock restrictive exhaust system on with catalytic converter until I upgraded the turbo because I knew that would help save that little baby turbo. I tuned it to run clean with very little smoke only a little puff before boost and a very slight haze under full throttle. The car ran great, that thing would rip the tires loose in second gear on dry pavement And you could get a little squeal out of them in third gear around 23 to 2500 RPM, so what I’m saying is it was decently quick. Yeah so much for not beating on it. That lasted all of about five minutes. Fast forward a year, Saved up enough money and bought a legitimate Honeywell/Garrett VNT-17. As my guy no longer makes the 1722. There’s a few places that will custom make them but want astronomical amounts of money. So I slap the 17 on there. The turbo easily makes 20 pounds of boost and I’ve got plenty of fuel. I also put a 2.5 downpipe without cat and 2.5 exhaust system with magna flow muffler. My problem is the car is so slow now, you can’t even get the tires to spin in the rain, I have no codes. All of my readings and everything is the same, so I put the stock 15 back on and it’s “fast”again. Thought I got a bad turbo. I checked the adjustment of the actuator and compared the vacuum readings to the original one that worked well and they are identical, so I contacted the manufacture. They agreed to warrantee it out. Got another one. Put it on the car and same thing, the car is a dog again. Are these turbos just **** and I should go with the S7 turbo that people are talking about? I was tuning these things back in the day and I have not kept up with all the latest technology as what I had worked for years and never gave me any issues. But this is annoying that I can’t keep up with traffic. How can you just changing the turbo make that much of a difference. I didn’t even touch the tune or anything else., you would think a bigger turbo would be better? Back in the day when I was putting turbos on everything known to man. We took the baby stock small ones off and put bigger ones on and always had lots of smiles but I guess not this one..What are some other options for turbos nowadays?
