I've been doing tons of reading of all sorts of turbo setups lately.
Up until recently I'd been keen on something like the JBS K04 based offerings, Frankenturbo, etc.

From giving the Polo a bit out at Lakeside I found myself wanting so much more top end. Having heaps of grunt down low is nice around the street but I don't give it much around town and if I do I ring it out anyway! I've always been worried about turbo-lag and moving the power up the rev-range, but now I'm thinking I might like it. I think it would give it more of an NA style power-band which I miss.

That being said, I don't want a pig, ie: nothing, nothing, nothing, EVERYTHING!
The K03 at the moment has a brutal little kick around 2200rpm and then not much else after 3500-4000rpm.
I've been looking at the GT2860R which is reported to come in around 3200rpm and continues up. It's rated around 290-330whp.

Getting to what this thread is really about; General consensus is that once you start approaching 400Nm of torque you need to look at rods (Does anyone know if this is wheel or engine?). I don't mind this, but it's a little inconvenient unless I time it right with the missers holidays to do a short motor swap.

To make the conversion more manageable I was thinking of getting everything together, turbo, manifold, new DP, air intake, injectors, etc and fitting it up. I could then run an adjustable external wastegate and keep the power to a standard internal safe limit ..Then, when the missers end of year holidays come around next year I can swap in the stronger bottom end and re-map it for more boooost!

I've been thinking about it a fair bit and I think this would be the best long-term option. Obviously having to get it mapped twice isn't financially ideal but you've got to work around what you've got


Is there anything I'm overlooking? Any educated opinions to help me along?
I could take this to VWvortex where there's a lot doing similar but there's a lot of ..interesting people over that way...