Hi guys =) new gti kid on the block!

[mashypz]

least you got there in the end mate! hmmmmm regarding the remap... i am thinking if i got more power I will try use it more therefor being less fuel efficent lol but i know this maybe the wrong way of thinking! is it actually more fuel efficient if i drive it sensibly. iv got the dsg if that helps. it will be doing alot of town driving rather than motorway.

Another question i got for your v-dubbers is that would you use v power fuel in these cars or just standard fuel, what difference does it make to the car apart from the difference in price! lol is there any information on this someone could point me to where i can find out.. i am a total newbie to a turbo charged car!!!

[th3_f15t]

OK, the basics as I understand it is this...

High octane (98-101) fuel actually burns cooler and longer in the engine compared to standard fuel (94-95). This leads to cooler temperatures within the combustion chamber which prevent unburnt fuel left behind or in other cylinders awaiting ignition to be ignited out of sequence, which allows the engine to fire in the correct manor which maintains power. Also, as a smaller amount burns for longer thus releasing the same amount of energy, less fuel is needed per explosion, or another way to think about it (especially in performance engines) is that the same amount of fuel will produce more energy as it is combusted. Hence why high octane is considered a "performance" fuel.

I've seen a few car programs test out the difference in the different fuels, and they mostly concluded that in everyday, small engined vehicles, you should use the cheapest supermarket fuels as there's no difference in them. However, at the power end of the market (engines like the 2.0T-FSI engine) there is a noticeable difference of 5-10 BHP (at most) in engine output. Figures quoted are from memory and at the time of writing, I can not confirm they are accurate.

From my personal experience, I've been running Tesco Momentum 99-octane fuel now for a few thousand miles, along with my stage one tune, and have found that when driving around town and on motorways, I'm seeing more miles out of a tank of fuel. It's so easy to drive sensibly as the power is available lower down the rev range and allows you to take a more gentle approach to town driving. Torque is available from as little as 2,000RPM and means you can drive well below the turbo.

However, hit a quiet B-road or bit of motorway and boy do you appreciate having a re-map. Not only is the 0-62 time slightly improved, but it's the 30-80 in third performance that never fails to put a smile on my face. Although I've moved my front brake upgrade up the priority list, as it's a little scary when a corner appears faster than you're used too.

Enough rambling. Hope this helped!

[mashypz]

hi, no worries! appreciate the detailed response. I think you may have convinced me on this! does anyone local want to meet up this week or next? Mike, it would be nice to find out what I will achieve if i see your red beauty before I finally decide. let me know if you guys would be up for this. I am 10 mins from lakeside or if there is anyother place where you guys normally meet i am down for this. It would be great to see other v-dubber gti's

[mashypz]

Oooo nearly forgot, picked up the car and 2 days later my first mod R32 hellas !

[Ninja]

Make sure you change your cam follower regardless of history. Not worth the risk for the sake of 30 quid.

[th3_f15t]

As said above, and it can not be stressed enough, but change the cam follower. Awesome GTI now offer the kit from ECS which includes new O-ring seals and bolts along with the VW cam follower which although costs £60, it's the best and safest investment.

General rule of thumb, anything to do with the valve train/cams/internal engine then sort it ASAP, and don't be shy with cash. Small investment now to save thousands on a new engine.

Links will be added later when websites decide to work.

As for a local Lakeside meet, there was talk of sorting one out however due to post Christmas fall out and bad weather, we've held off. I may start up a local meet thread soon so keep an eye out for that.

[missymckay]

a couple of questions, apologies if they sound a bit dumb. When you have the engine tuned do you need a different exhaust system to cope with the higher bhp?

Also, the cam follower, when I was in vw the other day I asked about it and they said there are several, is this a specific one?

One ofthe other guys was arranging a meet as I think most of us are near lakeside.

[Ninja]

VW are clueless. They said that to me. It's the fuel pump cam follower. Have a look in youtube and show them. They quoted me silly money. It's really a DIY job.

[th3_f15t]

It's far from a stupid question! Without going into detail, the basics are that if you tune and engine, you're effectively asking it to take in and produce more gas (i.e. fuel and oxygen in, exhaust gases out). Now, if the engine can not clear those gases very quickly, it can't perform as well, so a bigger bore exhaust will allow more gases to escape and quicker. This then leads to the engine being able to use more, and so on. The single biggest improvement you can make on the exhaust is actually the down pipe (which forms part of the turbo system) and the catalytic converter. The latter is the single biggest restricting factor to exhausting gases from the engine, replace this part alone with a sports variant and you'll see higher gains in BHP.

Again, normally best to team modifications up in pairs, so for every improvement to the input of an engine, you should try to improve the output. For example, my stage two tuning would involve an induction system (increasing airflow) and uprated high pressure fuel pump (increasing fuel). This leads to more gases being created in my engine, so to compensate this, I will fit a larger down pipe and sports cat, allowing the increased amount of gas to flow out the engine at an optimum rate.

As for the cam follower, the part number is 06D 109 309 C and you can buy the part on eBay for about £35. I would strongly reccomend buying this though;

http://www.awesomegti.com/car/vw/golfmk5/2-0tfsi-cam-follower-replacement-kit

About £10 more but you get the ECS tuning kit which wasn't available before, but I messaged Awesome GTI about it a few months back and now they stock it! It not only has the cam follower, but also the O-ring and bolts that should be replaced. I will re-do mine at 90K miles and use this kit. When I took my car into have it's stage one and there was a report of fueling problems, they asked me about the cam follower as it's a common area of fault. The guide I followed is this one;

http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102858

There are others out there of equal awesomeness. You really don't need to be put off by it and think it's beyond you. I really am just an amateur home mechanic myself but even I managed it!

I really need to stop writing essays...

[missymckay]

Thanks for the info on the exhaust system etc it makes sense. I currently have a warranty on my car so can't really do anything until it runs out as don't want to invalidate it and then I have a major mechanical issue lol.

I had a look online about changing the cam follower and there is no way I can do it, maybe you should start a training course for a fee lol

Just thought i'd post a pic of my car with my new colour coded vw badge