G_Power

Hi all,

For those of you with G60's that haven't yet checked for boost leaks Do it now! It's easy to do and (if you have a big leak like I did) could make a massive difference to the power, driveability and enjoyment of your car.

I'd already checked for leaks from the charger exhaust outlet to the throttle body using some 50mm PVC waste pipe fittings and a bicycle valve cut from an old inner tube.

I came up with this method of checking the entire system (I haven't seen it on a forum before so i thought I'd share). Take the PVC fitting you drilled and mounted the bike valve in, remove the air filter (leave the rubber pipe attached to the charger). Now push the PVC into the end of the pipe and use the clamp to seal it (see pic).

Now you can use a pump to pressurise the entire boost system. Initially I used my kite pump but the air was leaking out as fast as I could pump it in, turned out there was a huge leak at the S/C plastic silencer.

After I fixed the leak I was able to pump the entire system up (using a bike pump)to half a bar (you can see the air box hose expanding!) and it took several minutes to leak down to atmospheric. The system will never hold pressure indefinitely as it will leak past the rings

The difference in performance right across the rev range is huge! :dance:

My local tuner knows digifant but not G60's. Anything specific he must be aware of?

that was my concern. Oh well I guess it's back to smaller pulley and a remap. The way that VW have designed the G60 is baffling, a supercharger that essentially acts like a turbo :scratch: maybe it was cutting edge 20 odd years ago but now just seems well err... eccentric to say the least!

Matt I'm overseas would you recommend an off the shelf chip e.g. SNS (not sure what OCD offer) or a piggyback mapped on the rolling road (done locally obviously)?

Any advantages/disadvantages (apart from the obvious)

@ Redfox, some really good info there thanks.

@ Matt, You've hit the nail on the head!

The boost return is so the boost system is open as it has to be but this is also aids in some more mpg as the engine is essentially ran as an N/A until WOT

the car is essentially setup as N/A until WOT! I am quite happy to sacrifice some fuel economy to get more progressive power. (getting too old to drive around with my foot flat all the time :( ) Have you ever adjusted the boost valve? Do you think this is acheivable?

Have you tried any of the other chips prior to sns? What setup do you have?

By the time you add shipping and duty at this end the price difference is irrelevant (over 18 Rand to the Pound doesn't help either)

I'm more concerned about, future support and the no lag programming (is this real or just marketing BS?)

The garage that I would use for the tuning have been recommended by a number of independent sources and have a very good reputation on the racing and tuning scene.

What makes SNS so good?

@ Album56 that is exactly my concern, whilst the theory seems to have merit I don't want to bugger anything up in terms of driveability. Perhaps the only way this could be managed properly would be a modern fly by wire setup with the ecu controlling the boost valve. Outta my budget and level of expertise!

@ Riley - I'm not sure I agree when your at WOT but that's what got me thinking about adjusting the boost valve in the first place. Essentially what we are doing is taking an engine S/C setup where the engine can never (or rarely) use all of the boost available.

this means that most of the boost is being recirculated most of the time?

Then we go and stick a smaller pulley on creating even more boost that the engine cannot use?!? It just seems a very inefficient setup

What sort of gains do peeps see if they leave the pulley alone and just get a new chip?

Hi yeah it's a G60, well deduced :)

As for open circuit, closed circuit I haven't got a feck'n clue! I know a fair bit about engines but sod all about management.

It's going to cost me the equivalent of 170 quid to have a custom map made for my car with a piggyback chip on the rolling road.

Can you guys give me any advice about the pros and cons of going this route?

SNS advertise heavily about their 'no lag' programming. How do they achieve this and will any chip do the same thing?

No other comments on this?

So I thought this was as good a place as any to start listing the work/mods that i do to my C.

This is what I've been busy with so far... I don't have too many pics but I'll post some up when I get a chance.

Mechanical

A full service.

Full charger rebuild. Bearings, seals and apex strips from MaxRPM.de

Home port job on charger outlet, no idea what 'stage' but about 30% larger than standard.

Plastic boost pipe destroyed by battery acid, replaced with stainless steel pipe

I/C cleaned and pressure tested

New S/C oil feed pipe.

New front discs (nightmare to find)

New front brake hoses

Rear disc skim and full caliper rebuild

Subframe removed for painting

steering rack rebuilt (monumental PITA to refit)

New control arm bushes (Poly)

New Engine mounts (gearbox mount is a pig)

New tie rod ends

New ball joints

Complete cooling system flush (now running G12)

New thermostat and low temp fan switch

New blue and black temp sensors

Power steering flush

Lots of vacuum hose replaced (still got lots left to do)

Cosmetics

Spoiler motor rebuild

spoiler slider tubes rebuilt (internal pins were sheared)

passenger window motor rebuilt, plastic top cable housing stay replaced with a trusty hose clamp

@Sean Maybe that's a Durban thing? As far as I'm concerned they both count :smug:

@Krishen Ya (that's Ja to Sean) there are feck'n millions of the little buggers, it does make me laugh when you see one with rims and a zorst that are worth more than the rest of the car. A yearly MOT would see half of them off the road (shame they don't have that here).

The VW scene here is massive so most of the mechanical parts are easy to come by or have rebuilt (like my steering rack) and pretty cheap too :)

Ha ha that'll consist of several blokes standing around one car either :epicfail: or :drinking:

I see that "Ya" has stuck with you all these years...:)

Glad you had a good time when you were here, let me know if you're ever coming over this way again.

Good job, I wish I was better at taking pics of the things I do to my G60!

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses. Shes not much to look at right now (I'm sure you can imagine what a coat of 23 year old classic green looks like) but I'll take some pics and post them up.

@Swompy I actually live in Fish Hoek, were you here for a holiday? You're right it's a pretty nice place to live, actually it reminds me a lot of home it just errr rains ALOT less :)

To give you an idea how rare these things are over here, the guy that did the roadworthy (MOT) has been doing it for 40 years and this was the first one he's ever seen :shocked!:

That's pretty much what I was/am planning but more power comes from more air and fuel, if the charger is producing more air (even with the boost return deleted the excess air is vented to atmosphere) than the engine can use (apart from at or close to WOT) then surely reducing the amount of pressurised air that is recirculated will allow for more fuel which should give more power.

If I'm onto something here then it would potentially improve a setup that already has a smaller pulley (after a remap)

Thing is where I am these cars are feck'n rare so parts are impossible to get, no way I'm gonna mess around with something unless I'm sure it's gonna work

Hi guys, I'm from Ireland but now living in Cape Town, South Africa. Corrados are VERY rare cars over here (I have seen 2 in 11 years and now own one of them!) so getting a one owner G60 was pretty sweet. Actually the PO broke down in front of me and I stopped to help, we got chatting and next thing you know I'd bought the car!

It needs ALOT of love but I've got all the mechanical bits sorted, now it's just the interior and paint to sort out.

Cheers Joe

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this forum so go easy on me!

I'm from the UK but now live in Cape Town and recently picked up a stock G60 Corrado. I've been bringing it back to life over the last few months and have got to the stage of increasing HP.

Everyone seems to have good things to say about a smaller pully and chip as a starting point. As the engine uses more boost than it needs ,most of the time, would another way to improve HP not be to modify the linkage between the throttle body and the boost return valve? Obviously a chip/remap would also be required. At what RPM does the engine require more boost than the charger produces?

Have any of you ever tried this? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Would be interested to here your thoughts/experience.