What did you do to your Polo today?

K04 is laggy yes, but larger turbos are even laggier...

Ok, so lets say you get a gt28 for 7k, it's still a great deal more than 2.5k and lets not forget that most people will go striaght out and get a retune. So if you take out the fact that they are already getting a tune, doesn't it make sense to buy a K04 for (under 1k) and then choose the K04 tune to go with it. So effectively the K04 is only costing you the price of the turbo and and labor to put it in. And this is the point I'm trying to make!!!

If you want to be a dyno king, get a gt28. But you can't argue that a gt28 isn't expensive compared to a K04, and you can't argue that the K04 is laggy because as coreying says, the gt28 is even worse. And as I said before, in the lower rpm range where you drive everyday the K04 actually makes more power because the gt28 is still lagging.

May I also ask, if a gt28 is so great why don't you have one already?

I think a GT25 would be more suited.

Thanks for the encouragement folks :) One mod at a time its more enjoyable that way.

Well, I did cost it. I dont think i would try to get that much power for a fwd car. I think that if you are going to add lag, may as well get some serious power from the spend. If we say that the k04 adds 20kw and the gt28 adds 100, does that make sense? Also I think you'd have to cap the boost to a number that won't strip cogs.

I'm trying to have a conversation, not attack you, I'm offering info and opinion, but as I've said, I don't have first hand experience either way. I talk to mechanics who do these installs for their guidance.

What do you get for 2.5? Where can you get a K04 for under $1k? Does that include injectors, fuel reg, etc? Is it a BW turbo? Does that include install? Which tune will you use?

Got my K04 from ECS. No worries, but my point is that a K04 upgrade, when your getting a retune anyway is actually not that expensive. And is much more in reach of most people than a real BT.

I agree, much cheaper.

Can you comment on the other qns? I'm intrigued by how cheap your upgrade is...

it comes down to what you want, how you to want to drive your car.
if you use it as a weekend car and go to dragstrips and circuits, you better of with something like a GT28RS or bigger maybe if you want that.
if you use it as a daily car and do alot of rolling starts from 3th and 4th gear or so, you might be better with tuned KO3s hybrid or K04-001.
but, even if you have a GT28 for doing rolling starts it's still cool.
you opponent is thinking he is winning, and than comes the power :-p
it's what you want to do with youre car.

about the costs, GT28 is expensive, but if you do alot by youreself you can keep the price down.
K04 is much cheaper and in my opinion, nicer to drive as a daily drive.
and my personal choise of a bigger turbo would be IHI VF34 ;-)
spools up from 2500 untill the red line. delivering a whooping 350Hp-450nM on 1.8T!
but it's safer not to run on full boost, to much torque you polo can handle.
i wold let it be custom mapped to about +-300Hp and 380nM with a nice flat curve :-p:-p

Sorry to hijack the thread here but does anyone know if the KO4 turbo used in the APR kit is a Borg Warner or KKK? Are there any differences apart from brand as prices vary. Thanks

Borg warner is the brands name, KKK is turboseries.
APR does use the same turbo's, but i believe they have a Hybrid version of it.

APR use a BW, if it's not BW, then it's a knock off designed to similar spec. I'm sure some of the alternate's are pretty good, but there is likely a reason they are cheaper.

There are lots of K04's on EBay, most of them are not BW.