118TSI 1.4tsi twincharge build

[pocketpunch]

Hello team.

I've posted several years ago about my jetta.
I know there are those who lurk forums from time to time and reread old posts about guys who have had projects and gotten somewhere but never posted an update..
I want to make sure that if there is even 1 person who is following this, that they have a comprehensive guide on tuning a twincharged Jetta the way I have..

I bought the car brand new from Barloworld VW for 19k (run out sale for 2014 models).
I originally wanted a grey, comfortline manual until the dealer stopped me in my tracks by telling me there is no manual option except for the base model..

Most people might overlook this preference and buy the upspecced model in spite of their original buying criteria.
I'm no ordinary buyer though.

I ended up with a candy white 2014 prefacelift (prefer the look) twincharged CTHD.

Now it's been 95K kms since I bought my car and have done several mods and lots of research over the years.

I understand that a 1.4L is a tiny engine and no-one should expect it to be a powerful adversary to say, a 2.0T.
However the S/C and T/C nature of this engine makes it an excellent performer who has more character than an outright more powerful engine.

So get to the meat of this post.

I have followed examples posted by several forums for various models who have the CAVD/CTH series engines.

Mods so far:

BC RACING BR type coilovers (7K Front springs) (6K rear)
Whiteline 24mm RSB with heavy duty adjustable endlinks.
NGK BKR7E spark plugs (copper version = more efficient and cheaper)
NGK U5002 coilpacks - have read that these will supply plenty of spark even for 1000hp RB26 builds.. for they will do for a 1.4
RTMG turbo inlet pipe
Custom air intake pod filter(3" to 2.75" silicone elbow to match oem supercharger hard pipe)
Stage 1 tune, boost set at 18psi - 130kw at wheels (dyno tested) (this was done whilst needing an oil change and pre several mods I've done since, probably up by a few KW since then)
2.5" catback exhaust pipe (kept stock resonator and muffler)
GFB DV+

And that rounds up the car so far.
It uses between 6.5-7.8L /100km depending on traffic and driving style.
The car handles miles better with coilovers but it can be slightly bumpy with the spring rate I'm running (wouldn't change it though)
I ran BKR8EIX plugs but they gave me misfires, even turning on soft limp mode once and the EPC light.
I now run BKR7E's until I need the 8s later on ... more on that later..


I have acquired the following parts in plans of chasing 300hp (and maybe further)

Awaiting install:

Wossner forged pistons
ZRP H Beam forged connecting rods with ARP2000 rod bolts
S3/MK6R oem intercooler
Hybrid OEM turbo from EuroCarUpgrades (rated at 300hp)
2.5" decat stainless downpipe
K03 oil restrictor (decat can lead to leaky turbo seals unless oil restrictor is used)


Wish list (perhaps one day)

Cat cams sport cam for the twincharger 260 duration
RTMG 420hp rated injectors (to avoid using WMI)
RTMG 380RS hybrid turbo
Golf R valve springs
Supersprint resonated exhaust system (for CTH Jetta)


That pretty much rounds it up.
I've collected knowledge and parts towards building an awesome daily, and I really mean that because I don't want to go too far with the build where I'll have issues.

The idea is to rebuild the engine using the 76.5mm pistons and not require a rebore.
New cam chain, tensioner and water pump to be done all at once.

Some tuners have been nervous about tuning the 1.4 with stock internals so I've decided to forge the bottom end for reliability.

The power increases are purely for overtaking flexibility and the mountain runs.
The upgrades internals will insure the engine can keep this up for years to come.

A lot of people may think I'm silly for spending all this time, effort and money into this little engine.
To me, it makes perfect sense because the jetta ticks my boxes for a family car which I will need soon.. so why not make it an awesome one?
Im not planning on buying another ICE car ever.. I'm simply going to wait it out until electrics are well established and readily available.

Until then..
I'll continue to make an awesome 1.4L with a fat torque curve and a good top end... as a personal farewell to internal combustion engines.
I always liked the Lancia Delta S4.. and since I probably can't own one- I'll make one of my own.

I'll continue to update this as the build gets underway.

[The_Hawk]

That's pretty amazing! I have read over the years people pulling crazy numbers from the little 1.4L and it looks like you're heading in that direction. Having the CAVD myself and running a tune it is a magical engine (until it's not) and the newer CTHD fixes (??) many/most of the flaws.

I'll be watching this build closely, although I have to ask. Given the amount of work you're putting into the engine, did you consider a full transplant to a 2.0L Turbo and MQ350 gearbox as an option?

[pocketpunch]

Thank you !
Yeah I weighed up doing this for a long time and was convinced that there wasn't a point.

I then started seeing just how quick these get around the 300hp mark (seeing as the Jettas are rather light for their size).

I thought about selling it for a mk7 Gti or a 6R or atleast engine swapping it if something went wrong one day.
The whole reason I want to stick with the CTH is due to its wonderful fuel economy when just chilling, and that awesome supercharger.

My dad has a MK7 Gti and I notice that they shortened the gears to give the car more low end pep off boost.
This is a cheap way to make a car accelerate harder but you will lose on economy and smoothness.

The charger helps the 1.4 chug up to speed with a genuinely fat torque curve, not gearbox trickery which I enjoy.

So yeah I thought about swaps but I think there is something special about these little engines and even though I'm never going to reach the big numbers a 2.0 can - 300 - 350ish up would be plenty for me.

Anything faster and I'll just jump on my Yamaha MT10 instead haha !

I'd be glad to help anyone out with part numbers or sources as that's the biggest issue I had when researching things.

I've even found a source for custom tubular turbo manifolds in case someone would want to mount a Garret GTX on one of these (people in Greece have 400+hp 1.4Ls with these setups).

[The_Hawk]

(people in Greece have 400+hp 1.4Ls with these setups).

I've read some of those! Crazy power.

Last time I went down this rabbit hole there wasn't many performance upgrade parts around for these since they aren't the performance model. I also don't believe the twin charger was in the US which also limits the audience a little.

If you haven't already found it, the Dieselgeek short shifter is bloody awesome and was my first mod.
Sigma 5 Five Speed Short Shifter for MK5, MK6 and MK7 — www.dieselgeek.com

I'm the APR Stage 1 and have the Forge CAI although it's not currently installed because it makes the car very loud (which I usually like) but wanted to quieten it down for some reason and haven't put it back in yet. Mine actually connects to the front grill in the same place as the OEM one, the pictures on their website look like the pipe goes else where now??
In case anyone is interested, here it the sound of the Stock Intake vs Forge Intake and with a GFB DV+.

Oh yeah, GFB DV+ kicks out some errors because the DV+ reacts differently that a stock one and the computer gets confused. I'm told this is normal and it doesn't actually show any CEL on the dash, only in VCDS.

I've also got a Poly Dog Bone insert sitting in a box, it was installed when I was driving the car on the track and I think it made a difference, but on the street it caused extra vibration through the car which caused things to rattle which drove me nuts so it came out.

I considered a down pipe and exhaust, but there wasn't anything available other than a custom job and even then the advice I got at the time was that the stock downpipe was pretty good, as was the exhaust, so there wasn't much if any gain to be had.

I also looked into intercooler upgrades, a front mount gives you something more visual vs upgrading to the S3 intercooler for similar performance upgrades in a stealth package.

Lastly, I've looked into the R8 Coil packs and adaptor plate, something which is probably the next mod I will do when I get some time and money available. This supposedly helps with misfires, which are supposedly more of an issue on the CAVD and something I've talked about before. It's apparently normal and not an issue, but I liked the idea of a stronger spark.

[jimmedy]

Great sounding build!

As a fellow twincharged CTH fan, I'll follow along with interest.

My little A1 is grossly over-capitalised, but I love it.

The best bang for buck thing I've done of all the mods in my signature? The SuperPro dog bone insert - for < $100 the transformation was amazing. It cleared up so much axle tramp (maybe not ideal for a family car... I dunno).

The silliest thing? The Quaife DQ200 LSD. Haha. I mean. It's great now it's in there but that was a $5000 journey I don't know if I could ever whole heartedly recommend to others.

I'm most interested in what you're up to with the internals and the turbo because that's the place I haven't gone.
The only things I still have on my 'one day list' are the 1.6l stroker kit:
Stroker Kit 1.4 TSI
and the LOBA 270 Hybrid:
LO270P 1.4 TSI Upgrade Sport Turbocharger - JBS

Of course then I'd also need a custom tune.
There's something to be said for pushing something to the limits of where it can go.

But... by this point I may as well have bought an RS3

[tyr382]

I'll continue to make an awesome 1.4L with a fat torque curve and a good top end... as a personal farewell to internal combustion engines.

Not sure what you mean by this lol?
Internal combustion engines are not going anywhere.




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[The_Hawk]

Internal combustion engines are not going anywhere.

There are plenty of players talking about an 'all-electric' future, although that may be delivered after hoverboards and flying cars... VW are in that camp following the whole Dieselgate thing, but when that future is may very well beyond our lifetimes.

One of the real wildcards in this future is when Europe (or other places) choose to and are able to adopt a more electric focus potentially leaving Australia with its different requirements behind and limiting our choices thanks to a lack of infrastructure. Consider if VW did go all-electric... can you? Or would you now be looking at a different marque?

[tyr382]

I don’t see internal combustion engines going anywhere considering synthetic fuels are on the rise.
Fuels that made from renewable energy and atmospheric Co2, in a way will make battery cars obsolete in my view.

Sunfire is making huge advancements in carbon neutral fuels using renewable energy sources. I really love where this company is going along with carbon engineering that is starting to make a competitive industry.

Unless Tesla adopts this technology, I can’t see a reason why they would even need to exist.

Shell is trying there best to hold onto fossil fuels and are making huge investments in natural gas that can make renewable more competitive.

Then you have the nuclear industry the rise with modular reactor technology’s.

So in all we are still gonna use petrol, just not from crude oil. Synthetic fuels are way cleaner and have huge performance gains.

Green Syngas - Sunfire

YouTube


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[pocketpunch]

Hopefully you're right and synth fuels are here to stay.
This car has served me well and all the work I'm planning on putting into it will be well worth it for me as it's a long termer.. That's all I meant.

Nothing has happened on the build so far, this virus business has put a stop to a lot of it.

I'm also planning on perhaps taking a different direction with my turbo setup.

If anyone is interested in a euro built hybrid turbo for the twincharger, I have a 300hp capable one which I want to sell to fund a garrett setup.

Never before used, and I'll be able to post a pic of it if there are interested parties.

You can run it with the stock cat, but you will need a new turbo inlet pipe from the supercharger as the turbo conpressor mouth has been widened.

Engine build work will be the first to go once the virus calms down and shops open up again, then hopefully upon sale of hybrid turbo (perun) I can grab the garrett and start a proper custom build.

Let me know people

[pocketpunch]

OK guys

Time for a post-lockdown Victoria update.

So nothing substantial has happened in terms of the build,
but I have gotten some new extra goodies and .. minor inconveniences.


So onto the good:

New VR alloy intake for the twincharger



VR R8 coil adapter
(they sent me bolts which were too short so need longer ones now)



I actually installed the ELDOR R8 coils today and re-pinned the harness using Blower's guides from the 1.4tsi forums.
The car ran great initially and after about 5 WOT pulls, I started getting some savage misfires at 4200rpm (right in the sweet spot of boost) and it even turned on the CEL.

So I reverted back to my standard coils and wiring until I start piecing the tune together.. it probably just needs a tune.
But I'm not willing to risk the engine with such strong misfires.

It did feel a lot nicer in the midrange and it up top while it worked fine though !


I was also looking at replacing the standard sad 16" wheels with rubber that was suited for this car.. 225/40R18.

I happened to be at a wheel shop and saw some nice bronze Ray's.. but at +$3000 it was more of a dream than attainable purchase.



I wanted something with a nice lip and a TE37 aesthetic.. so I dug around and found these AVID1 AV06 wheels.
I'll need to run an adapter and hub rings but I think it'll look just right on the Jetta.



They seem to be reputable, low-pressure cast rep wheels so I have faith they'll be fine for mountain runs (seem them on track cars without issues).
The colour is cool too, its a hyper-black which is a metallic black with what seems to be a silver pigment... reminds me of Kawasaki's H2 colour.

On the same top of aesthetics.. I went all out and got Maxton Design side skirts and rear diffuser extensions.
I haven't mounted the rear diffuser because the oem muffler is kind of in the way of the install - more on that later.

I also have an ebay spec 2015 facelift front splitter which I think looks the nuts.. but i'll get to that install when I do the intercooler.

A week ago, someone decided my car looked better with scrapes, so my passenger front and rear doors now have scrapes.. 6 years with flawless paintwork and careful ownership - erased by a 5 second parking noob who didn't have the decency to leave their details.

SO now I need to get the doors straightened and painted... at the same time, my boot is the only panel on the car that has swirl marks from washing (i try to avoid this as much as possible but its a daily car and gets dirty very easy).
I just happened to have order a carbon pixels duckbill spoiler (krotov) and when that rocks up, I'll get the doors done, boot repainted and the spoiler moulded in for a nice neat look.



Along with the wheels, I think the car is going to look fantastic for 2021... then we enter the engine build.