Topping out at Stage 2+?

[The_Hawk]

Sounds interesting, what's the power/torque increase for a stage II? give or take?

I'm wondering if the intercooler and intake alone would provide much of the same benefit anyway in reducing heat soak and maintaining power on a stage I?

[gavs]

It largely depends on the tuner Aaron, the new tune I'm hoping to get installed next month when I get some time is around the 180kw mark in stage 2 form, I'm not sure what apr offer.

[The_Hawk]

I haven't looked into it just get gavs so don't know. I figure I want to to some supporting mods before I do much else.

That and intercooling will help with Australian temps and exhaust will... well sound more awesome


I should do some videos with sounds of the intake with and without the tune switched on then some comparisons with the DV installed.

mmmmmm:

[spare]

Good point about the Polo in the USA! Same is true of the A1 I think. Does make sense why so much of the development for this platform came out of Brisbane and was co-opted by APR internationally!

Out of interest how did you get the HP IC and Exhaust? Have you had them stored for ages or someone over in WA had them on a shelf?

I'm not bothered in hindsight, after hearing they were discontinued I really hammered down on the research and I'm really happy with the Wagner FMIC on paper, and of course you can't go wrong with a full Milltek system, despite the cost. But if everything had of been on the shelf in Bris a couple months back I very well may have 'drunk the koolade' and just gone HP/APR everything. My final result should be an interesting mix!

Basically just after I got the tune done around Feb this year, I noticed that some of the parts had started dropping off the site. So a little bit after that I got into contact with APR Australia trying to chase the Intercooler as at that point that's as far as I wanted to go (but you know how it is with the modifying bug), and they suggested for me to try a few workshops which they had done recent shipments out to.

So I done just that, called a few of them, and got lucky, someone had an Intercooler for a customer that was meant to get it installed over Christmas, but had to pull out for one reason or another.

Then a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to go full stage 2, and was all ready to go with the other brands to complete the upgrade (Milltek exhaust, VWR intake) but thought I'd try the quick call around "just in case". So started phoning some workshops on the east coast just from the APR Dealer list page, and then got lucky again when I came across an unused HP/APR Turbo Back system, and a used (only a few months old) HP/APR CAI!

Just got the call about 2 hours ago, from the delivery guys saying it's being dropped off tomorrow morning!

The Milltek is meant to be an absolute work of art though, so I would have gladly paid for one of those bad boys. The HP exhaust, the official writeup says: "The system incorporates a 200 Cell Metal Catalyst compliant to Euro IV emission standards with a built in heat shield to protect delicate engine bay components from radiant exhaust heat." which I'm not sure if is a standard thing with the other exhausts or not?

[jimmedy]

Sounds interesting, what's the power/torque increase for a stage II? give or take?

I'm wondering if the intercooler and intake alone would provide much of the same benefit anyway in reducing heat soak and maintaining power on a stage I?

It's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question.

Back when APR carried a lot more kit for these engines, they had some more dyno graphs and general info on the respective product pages.
I didn't save any of them at the time now they're hard to find. But they'd post a dyno for example of runs with:
Stage 1 tune
Stage 1 tune + CAI
Stage 1 tune + CAI + IC

All these bits (and bits from different brands) interact with each other in interesting ways..
CAI might give you.. I dunno.. for example's sake, 10kW on top of your Stage 1 tune.
IC might also give you 10kw on a Stage 1 tune.
But combining CAI+IC might give you 22kW because the sum is greater than its parts, or, they could give you 18kW because sometimes life sucks and you get diminishing returns :p

I didn't dyno my car before I went stage 1, so I'm judging each of my upgrades by the 'feels good' / 'sounds good' factor when I put my foot down

Your point on heat soak is spot on though. Even it it were for little to no power gain, the CAI and IC are going to keep your engine healthier if you're driving in a spirited fashion during our summers.

[mmmRacer]

Looking forward to your results Jimmedy

I have a Fabia RS with pretty similar modes.

2012 Fabia II VRS Estate - APR stage 2 tune, Custom 2.5" turbo back full stainless exhaust with ceramic coated dump pipe, Harding Performance Cold air intake, Wagner Tuning Competition Intercooler, GFB DV+ diverter valve, Braille B2317RP battery, Eibach pro kit springs, Bilstein B8 shocks, Harding Performance F+R ARB, Super Pro bushes, DBA T2 slotted rotors, EBC Yellow Stuff Pads, Enkei RPF1 17x8 et.35 with 235/40R17 Yokohama AD08R tyres.

So I will be interested in see how my CAVE motor compares to your CTHE motor. On the dyno I was getting 140kw at the wheels. Maybe in the future if we find a good solid turbo upgrade we can go to APR as a group and ask nicely for a tune. But from experience a LSD would be ideal to have first.

[jimmedy]

Basically just after I got the tune done around Feb this year, I noticed that some of the parts had started dropping off the site. So a little bit after that I got into contact with APR Australia trying to chase the Intercooler as at that point that's as far as I wanted to go (but you know how it is with the modifying bug), and they suggested for me to try a few workshops which they had done recent shipments out to.

So I done just that, called a few of them, and got lucky, someone had an Intercooler for a customer that was meant to get it installed over Christmas, but had to pull out for one reason or another.

Then a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to go full stage 2, and was all ready to go with the other brands to complete the upgrade (Milltek exhaust, VWR intake) but thought I'd try the quick call around "just in case". So started phoning some workshops on the east coast just from the APR Dealer list page, and then got lucky again when I came across an unused HP/APR Turbo Back system, and a used (only a few months old) HP/APR CAI!

Just got the call about 2 hours ago, from the delivery guys saying it's being dropped off tomorrow morning!

The Milltek is meant to be an absolute work of art though, so I would have gladly paid for one of those bad boys. The HP exhaust, the official writeup says: "The system incorporates a 200 Cell Metal Catalyst compliant to Euro IV emission standards with a built in heat shield to protect delicate engine bay components from radiant exhaust heat." which I'm not sure if is a standard thing with the other exhausts or not?

Ah! I was sitting on my hands a lot of this year waiting for an APR sale that never came, flipping through the product pages on the website sometimes twice a week then one day, as you said, parts started dropping off the site! HP CAI, IC and exhaust all disappeared in quick succession!

I wrote to HP/APR and got 'discontinued sorry'. The idea of ringing around dealers didn't occur to me til much more recently.

I suddenly got a serious case of FOMO and booked in for my Stage 1 tune and ordered the VWR CAI which was still available. I also took the plunge on the DSG remap.

I thought I'd be doing all this Stage 2 stuff bit by bit over a couple of years actually, but within weeks of my Stage 1, the AU$ dropped 10c in a couple of weeks and I made a few sacrifices and got all the parts locked in at reasonable, if not great prices.

I figure I can drive around with a dumb grin on my face while I pay off this little splurge

[jimmedy]

Looking forward to your results Jimmedy

Wagner Tuning Competition Intercooler

Oooh, you're the only other person I've seen to bring a Wagner into Aus (I'm sure there's more, just haven't seen any).
How do you find it? Not only that, you got the Competition one too. I took a long time to decide on which of their two I should get.
I read about 8,000,000 forum threads of people arguing the relative merits of 'Bar and Plate' vs 'Tube and Fin', but eventually I found this on the Wagner Germany site and picked the 'Competition' one too.



Along with everything else we have picked a very similar parts list, hey?

I haven't tackled brakes yet. I'm outta money thanks to the pile of bits going on the car next week.
I'm tossing up if I just do uprated pads and race fluid, or I go for the Tarox 323mm 6 pot kit. In either case... not until well into 2016.

[spare]

2012 Fabia II VRS Estate - APR stage 2 tune, Custom 2.5" turbo back full stainless exhaust with ceramic coated dump pipe, Harding Performance Cold air intake, Wagner Tuning Competition Intercooler, GFB DV+ diverter valve, Braille B2317RP battery, Eibach pro kit springs, Bilstein B8 shocks, Harding Performance F+R ARB, Super Pro bushes, DBA T2 slotted rotors, EBC Yellow Stuff Pads, Enkei RPF1 17x8 et.35 with 235/40R17 Yokohama AD08R tyres.


So I will be interested in see how my CAVE motor compares to your CTHE motor. On the dyno I was getting 140kw at the wheels. Maybe in the future if we find a good solid turbo upgrade we can go to APR as a group and ask nicely for a tune. But from experience a LSD would be ideal to have first.

mmmRacer, your car sounds like quite the potent little beast! What's your thoughts on the GFB DV+?

I suddenly got a serious case of FOMO and booked in for my Stage 1 tune and ordered the VWR CAI which was still available. I also took the plunge on the DSG remap.

While on the topic of all possible upgrades, how do you find the DSG Tune?
It's something I've contemplated for ages, but just finding hard to part the cash with at this stage.

[spare]

Back when APR carried a lot more kit for these engines, they had some more dyno graphs and general info on the respective product pages.