Hey fella, sorry my inbox as been full and I had your email yesterday but worked a 12 hour shift and was poo'd when I finished.
Thought it would be better to reply on here so people can add to it and I know someone will use a "search" button one day and this will be enough for them to know what to do lol.
To be honest in comparing the panel filter with drilled box and a induction filter there isn't much differeance as long as you have a good air feed to the induction filter and it never caused me any problems as long as you keep on top of the cleaning it will last for years!
Before thinking of cams, headwork or even a map/flash ecu, I would recommend to sort the air filter (either of above) exhaust system a nice 4-1 manifold the TSR manifold is pretty much impossible to find here let alone to you in Australia. If you have a very good and knowledgable custom exhaust company then that might have to be better option for you!
I always thought that no more than 2.25" was ideal for an N/A engine but my new system is now 2.5" but thats because of the power the car is running now and it needed more flow. But if you are going for a 2.5" exhaust it could be easier to use the Mk3 Ibiza Cupra 1.8T 20v aftermarket exhausts.
Along with the exhaust system and manifold would recommend a decat pipe, made hell of an improvement to mine! You may loose bottom end torque but the 16v isn't really known for that and you will gain at the higher range of the rev's and it will rev a lot quicker!
With the throttle body there is a taper inside before it goes to the butterfly, I had the taper machined out to increase the internal diameter of the throttle body. Dont have to worry about the butterfly being too small after this as it tapers towards the butterfly and then opens back up to the full diameter at the buterfly so machine that tapper just increases the throttle body internal diameter heance more air flowing
Once you done that don't bother with the mapping/flashing the ecu yet! Go for a shorter final drive taking it from 3.67 to 3.94, shortens the ratio of the gearbox and makes it feel like you've add 20bhp match this with a lighten and balance flywheel as the oem one weighs a stupid amount.
Here's a link to everything you need to know about the 3.94 FD! Clicky, click
Add an ATB diff to the box and you have a very good handling car to! And I could do another eassy on handling! lol.
Reason why i said not to have the ecu mapped/flashed yet is because if you thinking of cams and headwork this would be the best time. But with the stock ecu you can't go any more than 268 degree cams, I was told that 260 was the limit for the ecu and it won't pass the MOT but mine did with 268 cams but did involve a bottle of fuel cleaner and a blast up the motorway before testing the emissions
If you don't want to do the cams and headwork then give a remap/flash a go I guess.
Think thats it for the engine unless you want to spend more you could keep with the N/A engine like I have and fit throttle bodies or go to the dark side and go for forced induction in either the turbo or supercharge form!
But if you want to spend that kind of cash then you would be better off buying a Mk3 Ibiza Cupra thats breaking buy the whole car removing the engine and varies bits and do a 20vT conversion then sell off what you didn't use from the donar car and make some cash back! Roly and Martin M are the ones to ask about that part
Hope this helps, I'm off now to get a can after that write up
Thought it would be better to reply on here so people can add to it and I know someone will use a "search" button one day and this will be enough for them to know what to do lol.
To be honest in comparing the panel filter with drilled box and a induction filter there isn't much differeance as long as you have a good air feed to the induction filter and it never caused me any problems as long as you keep on top of the cleaning it will last for years!
Before thinking of cams, headwork or even a map/flash ecu, I would recommend to sort the air filter (either of above) exhaust system a nice 4-1 manifold the TSR manifold is pretty much impossible to find here let alone to you in Australia. If you have a very good and knowledgable custom exhaust company then that might have to be better option for you!
I always thought that no more than 2.25" was ideal for an N/A engine but my new system is now 2.5" but thats because of the power the car is running now and it needed more flow. But if you are going for a 2.5" exhaust it could be easier to use the Mk3 Ibiza Cupra 1.8T 20v aftermarket exhausts.
Along with the exhaust system and manifold would recommend a decat pipe, made hell of an improvement to mine! You may loose bottom end torque but the 16v isn't really known for that and you will gain at the higher range of the rev's and it will rev a lot quicker!
With the throttle body there is a taper inside before it goes to the butterfly, I had the taper machined out to increase the internal diameter of the throttle body. Dont have to worry about the butterfly being too small after this as it tapers towards the butterfly and then opens back up to the full diameter at the buterfly so machine that tapper just increases the throttle body internal diameter heance more air flowing
Once you done that don't bother with the mapping/flashing the ecu yet! Go for a shorter final drive taking it from 3.67 to 3.94, shortens the ratio of the gearbox and makes it feel like you've add 20bhp match this with a lighten and balance flywheel as the oem one weighs a stupid amount.
Here's a link to everything you need to know about the 3.94 FD! Clicky, click
Add an ATB diff to the box and you have a very good handling car to! And I could do another eassy on handling! lol.
Reason why i said not to have the ecu mapped/flashed yet is because if you thinking of cams and headwork this would be the best time. But with the stock ecu you can't go any more than 268 degree cams, I was told that 260 was the limit for the ecu and it won't pass the MOT but mine did with 268 cams but did involve a bottle of fuel cleaner and a blast up the motorway before testing the emissions
If you don't want to do the cams and headwork then give a remap/flash a go I guess.
Think thats it for the engine unless you want to spend more you could keep with the N/A engine like I have and fit throttle bodies or go to the dark side and go for forced induction in either the turbo or supercharge form!
But if you want to spend that kind of cash then you would be better off buying a Mk3 Ibiza Cupra thats breaking buy the whole car removing the engine and varies bits and do a 20vT conversion then sell off what you didn't use from the donar car and make some cash back! Roly and Martin M are the ones to ask about that part
Hope this helps, I'm off now to get a can after that write up
