rado 20vt conversion

[GRAND'ADS 0]

hi all , my name is ads . goin bald at twenty two earned me my user name !! :scratch:im a mechanic and have owned my 89 1.8 16v for a couple of years now with a full respray by a mate for dirt cheap got it lookin respectable with some fk highsports an some ratty seventeens i decided to sell it ! but after advertisin it on ebay an not gettin more than a grand for it decided to keep it an go for the very popular 1.8t the car has now been off the road for about a month due to a f***ed ring gear meanin push startin nearly every day !!!! :mad2: so far i have all the old subframe an engine out , iv jus disconnected all the wiring from the fuse box ready to go to qpeng after such a good review from alot of you guys , i also cut the scuttle panel??? out to go for the minimal look , sourced an picked up a vr6 front subframe with 288mm brakes , wishbones , rack an a.r.b . i initally went for five stud hubs because i bought a set of 9x16 keskin kt1s that were five stud so after refurbin three of them pickin up the hubs showed the wheels to be 5x112 !!!!!!!!!! transporter size !!!!!!!!! gutted . anyway gonna get as many parts powder coated or stove enamalled as possible to keep it all as clean as poss! however ..... what i do need help with is engine , lookin on the forum an keepin my ears open i havent found the very sought after bam , only a bloke who wanted 2200 cos it had done bugger all miles ! is a gt28 gonna bolt on to the 150 engines ? and am i gonna be lookin at the same 270 ish bhp that im hopin for ? bearin in mind im doin this as i go on the same as everyone else im sure ! a shoestring ! ha , but hopin to do as much of it as possible outside on a gravel drive !!! also has anyone got an intercooler that fits behind their grill and goes down to the number plate recess ??? i have drilled 8mm holes through the recess an would like an intercooler that can fit that space ?

[20vt 10]

Hi mate, i'm just in the middle of doing a 20vt conversion using an AGU engine from an A3, i'm also using qpeng for the conversion. Just a few things from your post. If you want to run a different turbo to OEM then i would ring qpeng first to confirm they have a map for the setup you want as AFAIK they only supply ecu with maps to run a std setup. You say you want to run about 270 bhp i'm sure that if you find a BAM and using qpeng you'll be pretty close to that figure anyway especially with a decent front mount intercooler so may not need to spend out on a new turbo.

[Rob_B 0]

hello mate and welcome.

sounds like you know where you are heading with your conversion. the qpeng set up works very well and is an easy solution to the engine swap. Ben at qpeng is very helpful aswell. he has just made a map for my mate who has a gt28rs on a BAM engine, but it needs tuning on the car.

270bhp should be acheivable with one of the engines with a K04 on. you could get any engine and bolt that turbo (plus injectors etc) on and get the same results.

so i wouldn't be so concerned about getting a BAM engine (unless you really want a steel crank) as they seem to be silly money. most 20V engines are going for good money at the moment so i would probably take what you could get!

well there are a few of us with 20v turbos in norfolk, so give us a shout if you need some help

try http://www.ec-dc.co.uk

[GRAND'ADS 0]

cheers for such a quick response lads ! thanks for your advice ! from what you guys are saying im thinkin a 150 bhp engine with a ko4 turbo ,as i think i can get one of them pretty cheap , but what else do i need to change other than injectors ? also does anyone konow anything about the six speed box that is out of the mk5 fsi or gt that fits straight in not like the six speed in the mk 4 . I cant use my original box cos i snapped the front of the cast whilst encounterin broken front engine moun ! i have ordered a pvw that apparently covers it ?? thanks for the support too ! its been received well as my two dubhead mates have pissed off travellin round the world !!

[20vt 10]

Hi mate, unfortunately it isn't just as easy as changing the injectors. When i looked into it i found that with the K04 you need to change exhaust manifold, oil & water feed & return, fuel rail, and fuel pressure regulator. But it the engine itself is strong enough to take the extra power. Might be worth looking for an agu engine or similar with a K03 and trying to source a K03s turbo as this just bolts straight on without the need to change anything and will give you an extra 30bhp to start off (before mapping). This would be the cheapest way of getting a bit more power out of a cheaper 20vt engine.

[Rob_B 0]

you would need to change the exhaust manifold, and change the oil feed and return pipes. to be honest, most people selling their K04's sell the whole set up as they tend to go bigger turbo, so the K04 stuff is no use to them. whichever turbo set up you choose you will need to modify the oil pipes as they are mounted to where the rear engine mount needs to go (not used on mk4 golf).

i read the the mk5 gti 6speed box is the same size as the G60 box, so should fit straight on. would be nice to have a six speed box, but i would imagine the mk5 one to be quite expensive as its new. if anyone can get a cheap one i will try though :)

i run the K03s turbo on mine and it makes 220bhp on the rolling road with 230 torques. its no slug. was going to go K04 originally, but the turbo is not the best thing in the world, and runs out of puff at high rpm. its obviously quicker than mine, but not by a massive amount.