PD150 to 1.8t Pancake Pipe Upgrade Guide

dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
I accept no responsibility for any accident/injury/running issues or increases in coolness that may result from attempting this upgrade.

Note - PD130 engines can also use the same upgrade - see below and check guides on uk-mkivs.



I've recently upgraded my standard PD150 pancake pipe for the larger, less restrictive 1.8t pancake pipe from the petrol Cupra/Cupra R and thought I would help others thinking of doing this with a handy 'for dummies' guide. I got the pancake pipe off SRS (Darkside's used parts sister company) and all the other bits off ebay.

Parts needed

1x 1.8t pancake pipe - cost me £20 from SRS
1x 51mm silicone coupler (150mm long trimmed to length) - £4
1x 70mm>60mm silicone reducer (125mm long) - £9**
2x 45-60mm jubilee clips
1x 55-70mm jubilee clip
1x 60-80mm jubilee clip - all the clips cost £3 per pair but only came in pairs

**For PD130 engines, replace the silicone reducer with a 60mmx150mm silicone coupler (£4). This will go straight over the inlet end of the standard SMIC with a 55-70mm jubilee clip.

Tools needed


Jack & axle stands
Flat head screw driver
Torx bits (for undertray)
1/4 inch ratchet handle
10mm socket
7mm socket
1/4 inch extension bar

Here is a comparison of the 2 pipes before fitting, the PD150 pipe is at the top.



As you can see the 1.8t pipe is deeper in the middle and also has a more flowing design rather than the sharp angles and narrower centre of the PD150 pipe.

You can also see in the photo above that the 1.8t pipe is a fair bit shorter than the original pancake pipe which is where the 70mm>60mm reducer comes in.

This is the 51mm coupler, it' a little long so needs trimming down to around 50mm or you can find a 50mm length instead, I happened to find this one for less than £4!



And this is the 70mm>60mm reducer, it will also need trimming down by around 5-7mm so as not to compress the intercooler inlet hose too much.



Before starting, I mounted the silicone coupler and silicone reducer on the 1.8t pancake pipe so I didn't have to worry about this while I was under the car. Also, I trimmed the silicone coupler to 50mm and took 5-7mm off the 70mm end of the silicone reducer using a small saw.

Place the 51mm coupler on the small end of the 1.8t pancake pipe and secure with a 45-60mm jubilee clip, hang the other 45-60mm jubilee clip on the pipe ready for fitment. Then place the 60mm end of the reducer on the large end of the 1.8t pipe and secure with a 55-70mm jubilee clip. Hang the 60-80mm clip off the 70mm end of the reducer:



Now to get under the car!

Jack the car up and place on axle stands, or if you have a friendly neighbour with their own pit in the garage use that ;)

First thing to do is remove the standard pancake pipe, To do this remove the undertray (using torx driver) and also the plastic inner arch liner. This comes off with a strong but slow pull, I found hanging off it did the trick! You should be able to see the standard set up like so:





Undo the bolt holding the pipe to the subframe (seen just below the pancake pipe in the above picture) using the 10mm socket and 1/4 ratchet with extension bar.

Then, using the flat screwdriver, lift off the C-clips on either end of the pancake pipe and pull the pipes out. One is red, this is the turbo outlet pipe, also known as the "red turbo pipe". The other is the lower intercooler inlet pipe. Leave these pipes in place and remove the pancake pipe.

Here are the 2 pipes again, this time with the silicone reducer on (before I trimmed it down):



A point to note, the rubber grommet on my 1.8t pipe was too wide for the nut to secure this in place so I had to swap the grommet and plastic washer/cup insert off my PD150 pipe on to it before I could secure it to the car:



PD150 above, 1.8t below.

With the grommets swapped over (if required), offer up the 1.8t pipe to the subframe and secure in to position loosely. It'll be obvious which way round it should go ;) Then, place the red turbo pipe inside the 51mm coupler ensuring a good fitment all round and tighten the jubilee clip using the 7mm socket. I used sockets on the jubilee clips because they allowed me to get a much tighter fit than using a screwdriver. When in place it should look like this:



Then move on to the other end. As can be seen below there is a decent gap between the pancake pipe and lower intercooler pipe. I initially considered trimming the intercooler pipe and just using this slid over the pancake pipe but it was obvious on test fitting that this wouldn't work!



Assuming you've trimmed down the reducer you should have no problem sliding the intercooler pipe in to it which you can again secure using the jubilee clip, tightened with 7mm socket.**

Once it's all fitted it should look something like this:



**For the PD130 SMIC, simply slide the 60mm coupler over the intercooler inlet and secure with a 55-70mm jubilee.

Check you have tightened up all of the jubilee clips and VOILA! You have now upgraded your pancake pipe :)

Initial impressions are a slightly earlier spool up, a slight increase in lag but a nicer turbo whistle and more power above 4krpm. I would suggest this mod simply to help the engine breathe better and especially if you plan on going BT or hybrid in future :)


It's worth noting that there is not a lot of clearance between the red pipe and driveshaft if your car is lowered:



Also there isn't much clearance between the pancake pipe and pulley at the bottom of the engine:



Try twisting/rotating pipes to use the tension in the silicone/rubber to angle the pancake pipe and red turbo pipe away from these parts.

I hope you've found this guide helpful and please leave me rep if it's helped you out :D
 
Last edited:

dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
No problem :D it's worth it for the £40 and hour or so it takes to do it. I do have a sight wear mark on the driveshaft now though, may have to try and secure the red pipe a little further away somehow :think:
 

Andrewcupra TDI

Resident Desk Jockey
Apr 30, 2008
3,282
2
in the mountains ( Wales )
i find most thinks works well with cable ties pmsl !!!!!!


good guide , Mark get on with it so when its time to do mine you will be dab hand and less tea breaks involved

plus half the time would be saved on mine as i dont have the under tray or side bits anymore , i ran over some stuff on the duals , the road kind of conviscaded those items off me :(
 
Planning on doing this mod at the weekend, any update on best way to stop the pipe rubbing? As like andrewcupra said I'm going to use cable ties to the best of my ability! :)


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dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
I had a tweak of the pipes a few weeks ago, it's just a case of twisting the red turbo pipe inside the silicone pipe so that the tension in the red pipe holds it clear of the driveshaft. Then just tighten the crap out of the jubilee clip!

Let us know how you get on :)
 

dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
Just a small update to this, unfortunately I blew a hose last week as one of my cheap eBay jubilee clips snapped right on the securing shoulder! I decided to replace all the jubilee clips with some proper JCS hi grip clips as Tuffty is using these on his big turbo S3 build and hasn't had any problems.

Also the 51mm silicone coupler from red turbo hose to pancake pipe looked a little ragged around the edges. I found a 54mm to 51mm reducer which is 76mm long so should fit perfectly with no trimming :)

I'm currently back on the standard pipe bit will be re-fitting the 1.8t pipe soon.
 
Easy to fit not sure on drive ability as it lasted 2hours before it blew other pipe aha so I've just bodged that side for now so trying not to boost much as mines running 2.5/3 bar boost


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Just a custom code remap must be aggressive :) and never blew a hose before but it was leaking quite alot. Fitted a boost gauge and it goes past and round the 2bar that's on the gauge. Fitted the gauge in my mates mk2 leon fr and it only boost to 1.7 so the gauge isn't faulty!


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dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
That must be quite aggressive, have you checked for sticky vanes or done a Mr muscle clean on your turbo? Mine used to go right up to 2bar (max) until I cleaned the turbo at the weekend and now I get a consistent 1.6 bar spike and 1.4 bar boost.
 

dgjdrummer

Part-timer
Nov 5, 2011
1,310
4
Wrexham, N. Wales
I didn't think mine was but it sometimes would hold boost steady and other times spoke quite badly.

It's not majorly difficult, just time consuming. You have to take the connecting pipe off the manifold to the egr cooler and spray in Mr muscle through a length of tube. Work the actuator a few times, leave for 5 mins, work it again and do this 4 or 5 times. Put everything back together, go for a run and wait for the engine to warm up before booting it to 4.5krpm to burn off any Mr muscle left in the turbo and see if ut makes any difference.
 
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