I bought a second hand TT which has a simple ECu upgrade, KN air filter and the Cargraphic escape, it was done in Gemballa Germany and the papers say it has 480hp (crank).

Turbo pressure is at 1 bar with some occasional peeks (overboost) at 1.1 bar. still have stock turbo and stock DV.

I am thinking of going further, but I really question the reliability as I want to keep the car for at least 50000 miles (80000 Km), and do not want to end up having to replace all the internal parts of the engine !

Initially was looking at either the EVO stage 4 kit (604hp) or the AWE tuning kip (585 hp with 92 octane gas). but aftre doing some research over here i saw that some guys were saying that with such kits I could forget about realiability for that long, so what advice would you give me. forget about leave at 480hp, or maybe a version in between, but then is it worth it if its only to get just a couple of hps more.

WHat did you guys do for engine upgrades and how long have you been driving with it with no engine problems (specify miles of Km at the difference is huge)

We use 98 octane gas over here in europe (live in Belgium)

Thanks in advance for your advice !

 

I disagree. I ran 25K miles on the stock clutch on the Stage 4. EVO and us were the first to crack the 600 mark on staged kits and have since sold hundreds. The stage 4 not the GT is a very stable kit, runs very low afrs and has a respectable boost levels. In most cases nothing other than headers, exhaust, turbos, program, filter and BOVs are needed. Optional things are nice, but many run without issue. Most of the time you hear of problems is due to improper install or a wrench without an understanding of the car. There are a ton of cars running around with a load of miles at this level without a single problem. Not to mention the kit can run in our heat ans 91 octane without any sort of knock issue.

Other kits will need to have internals, not the original stage 4.

 

GIAC stage IV... 20K+ miles.. ZERO issues....

 

GAIC Stage IV, only 6,500 miles but with significant track mileage, no problems.

 

I'm racing a stage 3 (stock headers) EVO GIAC without problem so far. We're heading to Putnam Park (local track)to do the PCA National Race this weekend and expect the engine to run perfect once again.

3 races so far without issue.

Rick