Advice for someone whos pretty darned thick

[CJRamze]

Hi All,
I've been on the forums a while now, And I visited it regularly when I had my little 1.2 Ibiza.

I went then to a 1.9TDI sport rider and I've had it some time now, Initially the power jump was exceptional however I feel myself now longing for more power and all over a smoother ride.

I'm not 100% sure which section this goes in but I'm hoping this is the correct one.
I live in Cardiff at the moment in case people ask where abouts I live!

I'm also on quite a tight budget, but I will always pay more for quality than something that might damage my car!

Currently I have all round tints including front windows (Which someone on the forums thought were illegal, its not illegal to tint fronts but it must let 80% of light through.... I'll let you assume that mine are legal )
I've also had it de-badged by another forum member here who's a personal friend so god knows what his user name is.

I'm thinking about a remap (I'd like to hear your personal views) however I'm swayed towards P-Torque at the moment as someone called Andy has the same sport rider as me and he's at 158bhp

I'm looking at an exhaust system, I want something that makes my car roar like a caged animal but doesn't look like a bean can's coming out the back

I'm looking to lower the car but not so low I cant use speed bumps, and Not so low the ride becomes solid, as to be honest the roads round here are terrible.

I looked at a dump valve, As well I think they sound FANTASTIC however I'm told that Diesel engines work best under pressure and a Dump valve could or will lower my BHP drastically.

Are there any other mods that you would recommend?
I see mentions of an LCR Splitter? I like the looks of that, Are they easy to fit, bearing in mind I'm a total pillock.

And in before anyone says "Use the Search" I have and found hundreds of results but I'd like your personal opinions and inputs in this threat so that I can compare everything without trawling hundreds of posts.


Also, are there any Seat Users in South Wales here?

 

[CJRamze]

Also http://www.forgemotorsport.co.uk/content.asp?inc=product&cat=190104DV&product=FMDDV
Forge to a dump valve kit for diesel's, I know you guys are 99% anti diesel, but that one looks different to most do you think that it will be detrimental to performance like the others?

Cheers

 

[Muttley]

Diesel dump valves part 1:

Petrol engines have a throttle mechanism which controls the flow of air between inlet (turbo-compressor) and the engine combustion chamber, so as to keep the air-fuel mixture in the ignitable range while throttling the engine's power output. The mass of air taken in and fuel added must both be carefully controlled.

When you close the throttle on such an engine the compressor is still pushing air into the inlet and it suddenly has nowhere to go. The back pressure will inevitably slow the turbo down, and cause turbo lag when the throttle is opened again. The solution is to provide a pressure-actuated valve, which reacts to a difference in pressure between the two sides of the throttle, opening to dump the excess pressure to the ambient (dump valve) or back into the inlet (recirculating blowoff, which does a much better job by equalising the pressure on both sides of the turbo). Without this, throttles and turbos would have to be much more heavily engineered and throttle response would suffer.

So dump valves are about throttle response at gearchange and other sudden transient events, not about performance in the leadfoot top-speed way of thinking.

The need for a dump valve is a weakness of turbocharged petrol engines, putting another contraption in the inlet side which disturbs the gas flow and is a point of failure. I find it mildly astonishing that anyone should be proud of their car farting on the overrun. But then I have a diesel so I'm probably disqualified from having an opinion.

Diesel engines have no throttle. Power output is controlled by the fuel quantity injected at each stroke. Mass flow around the compressor-combustion chamber-turbo impeller loop is always uniform. This makes diesels much better candidates for forced induction.

A dump valve can only do harm to the performance of a diesel.

Turbo wastegates are not dump valves, they limit the pressure on the impeller (exhaust) side of the turbine to prevent the turbine from overspeeding when the engine's gas flow becomes too high i.e. at high rev's. The higher-performing VAG turbos use variable-geometry inlet vanes and have no wastegate.

There are "dump valves" for TDi's that are activated by the ECU, such as the Forge one. If fitted and adjusted properly they do not affect performance, they just make a noise. So you can fit them anywhere you like, wherever you want the noise to be heard best - say on the dashboard, or maybe on the roof.

Here endeth the first lesson

 

[CJRamze]

Thank you Muttley <3
I've also been looking at Xenons as my friend had a 1.6GTI polo with some and ever since I've longed for them! Are they very expensive? I remember looking once and almost passing out.

 

[tony19b]

Diesel dump valves part 1:

Petrol engines have a throttle mechanism which controls the flow of air between inlet (turbo-compressor) and the engine combustion chamber, so as to keep the air-fuel mixture in the ignitable range while throttling the engine's power output. The mass of air taken in and fuel added must both be carefully controlled.

When you close the throttle on such an engine the compressor is still pushing air into the inlet and it suddenly has nowhere to go. The back pressure will inevitably slow the turbo down, and cause turbo lag when the throttle is opened again. The solution is to provide a pressure-actuated valve, which reacts to a difference in pressure between the two sides of the throttle, opening to dump the excess pressure to the ambient (dump valve) or back into the inlet (recirculating blowoff, which does a much better job by equalising the pressure on both sides of the turbo). Without this, throttles and turbos would have to be much more heavily engineered and throttle response would suffer.

So dump valves are about throttle response at gearchange and other sudden transient events, not about performance in the leadfoot top-speed way of thinking.

The need for a dump valve is a weakness of turbocharged petrol engines, putting another contraption in the inlet side which disturbs the gas flow and is a point of failure. I find it mildly astonishing that anyone should be proud of their car farting on the overrun. But then I have a diesel so I'm probably disqualified from having an opinion.

Diesel engines have no throttle. Power output is controlled by the fuel quantity injected at each stroke. Mass flow around the compressor-combustion chamber-turbo impeller loop is always uniform. This makes diesels much better candidates for forced induction.

A dump valve can only do harm to the performance of a diesel.

Turbo wastegates are not dump valves, they limit the pressure on the impeller (exhaust) side of the turbine to prevent the turbine from overspeeding when the engine's gas flow becomes too high i.e. at high rev's. The higher-performing VAG turbos use variable-geometry inlet vanes and have no wastegate.

There are "dump valves" for TDi's that are activated by the ECU, such as the Forge one. If fitted and adjusted properly they do not affect performance, they just make a noise. So you can fit them anywhere you like, wherever you want the noise to be heard best - say on the dashboard, or maybe on the roof.

Here endeth the first lesson

Love the idea of a dashboard dump valve- it could be hooked up to one of those air freshener thingies for a real assault on the senses!

 

[CJRamze]

Also, Lights. What do you recommend? Saving for Xenon? or a good set of HIDS?
If so what are your recommendations, I heard good things about Phillips bulbs

 

[Muttley]

Most people with HID conversions are very pleased with them. I'm not convinced, I think they are a lot of work for something optically suspect, the HID discharge will be in the wrong place for the optical system set up to use a filament bulb. I'm happy with Philips Vision Plus, today I'd go for Osram Nightbreakers or Philips Extreme Power.

Please don't use "Xenon" as a shorthand for HID (if that's what you meant). I can't think what you might mean by Xenon if it's something different from both HID and filament bulbs. Xenon could just as easily refer to a tungsten-halogen filament bulb filled with Xenon, as many high-performance bulbs are. HID is a different kind of light source, a gas discharge a bit like a continuous spark.

 

[LoDa]

Remap is going to be your most noticable performance upgrade for £300 ish. I know there are lengthy discussions on what are the best remaps, Custom Code, P-Torque, Revo but no-one has been unsatisfied by having one done.

Cheap visual mods are:-
Polo rear wiper
Polo side repeaters - clear instead of egg
LCR splitter
Debadge
cap to cover key slot on drivers side
rear spacers - can help handling as well

First get a Green Cotton Air filter and start putting Shell V Power in it