Stock muffler

[pologti18t]

If I am not mistaken the characteristics of a intercooler for a diesel car is different to a petrol one. Simply because a turbo diesel is on boost for far longer proportion of the time. Having an intercooler with high thermal mass is detrimental for turbo diesels.

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_109423/article.html

[Buller_Scott]

thanks pologti18t for that link- interesting reading! deffo gonna play it safe on that front until ive learned more.

thanks alot to vwgti, spec83, bubu, sharkie, rhys and any others for all the info- this is hugely valuable. i know that there are certain differences between my car and your guys' that might change the game a little, but the info is farkin great!

interesting what you say about heatsoak, rhys- i've never tracked the pog, and i dont drive very aggressively in the city (middle lane, sticking to the limit, no matter what pressure from assholes behind me), and the only time i ever thrash it for pure pleasure is up the hill to buller- but as vw gti said- during winter the base of buller is always around -2 to 8 (middle of winter to spring) deg celcius, getting colder the higher you go ..... funny how the major reason for which im doing my mods, also provides colder air temperatures by default- my decision to make there.....

sorry for hijacking the thread- cant help my curiosity (when i had my vr6 i was so fuggin' clueless that i thought that a way to get abit extra power was to get upgraded spark plugs and new cams, instead of simply making sure im running good oil, better air filter, better tires, and maybe exhaust).

and out of respect for the founder of this thread- yes, down pipe is definitely a confirmed on-the-cards mod for me, too.

[Spec83]

Glad we could all help.. I have found this to be one of the most informative forums I have ever been a member of..

With regards to the exhuast, we have gone over many times the fact that once chipped, the gti cannot make much more power from bolt on intake/exhaust mods due to the turbo's design (e.g. it is sm-all). The down pipe and then an intercooler would be the only two mods you would consider after a chip IMHO when using the stock turbo...

I say this because at 1bar of boost, the stock turbo is just as efficent (as is heat output transfered to the intake air) as it is at the stock 0.5bar setting. If you ran higher than 1bar for prolonged perioids then an intercoler might be an advantage.

The $150 spent changing the rear muffler would be better spent on getting a new downpipe made