We’ve all heard stories about, or experienced firsthand, when a car salesman talks you into a bad deal. So it’s nice to discover a situation where the tables were turned for a change. This was the case with Justin Giroud from Perkasie, PA.
Fresh into the working world, he made his first major purchase – a ’01 Audi TT quattro with the 225hp 1.8T motor. Upon inspection in the dealer’s lot, it was clear the TT had a few extra goodies: Bilstein PSS9 coilovers, Neuspeed rear sway bar, Forge diverter valve and a Milltek cat-back exhaust. The salesman had no idea about them, so after signing some paperwork and swindling the guy, Giroud drove home in this pristine, low-mileage, one-owner “pantie-dropper”, as the salesman called it.
Coming from a background of Mk2 GTIs, he was thrilled to learn what the 20v turbo motor had to offer. However, he didn’t leave it alone for long. In fact, Giroud started wrenching on the new car almost immediately.
Front bumper cut out to increase airflow to DIY FMIC
He started with a GIAC X-chip, H&R spacers and some other complimentary mods.
Unhappy with the K04-022 turbo that came as stock, Justin began piecing together a bigger turbo kit to satisfy his hunger. “I originally wanted about 300hp at the wheels,” Giroud said. “I figured it would give me enough to beat most of the cars in the area…” Eager to start building, he picked up some extra hours at work and did side jobs at his father’s shop, JG Transmission, to make the funds available. Within a few months, the teardown began.
The factory K04 was replaced with a Garrett GT3076 turbo on a Kinetic Motorsport log-style manifold. The owner then built a custom front-mount intercooler using a Garrett core and 2.5" aluminum piping, which a friend welded together. He then crafted a custom 3" downpipe and mated it to the existing Milltek exhaust for the time being. With its increased boost pressure, 630cc Siemens injectors were fitted and the ECU was flashed with a Unitronic narrowband 630cc file to get it running.
Giroud drove his TT for a few months, adding upgrades as he could afford them, including a B&M short shifter, SouthBend stage 3 clutch, custom 3" turbo-back exhaust and some engine dress-up parts.
RMR intake manifold and GT3076R turbo dominate heavily-modified 438whp 1.8T 20v motor
Just short of 75000 miles, the timing belt snapped, bending some valves in the process. Most enthusiasts would cry at a moment like this, and we’re sure Justin came close for a few seconds, but after coming to terms with the failure he put in a call to Bob Quindazzi at QED Power in New York. “Ever since I fitted the big turbo, I’d wanted to swap my head for a big-port AEB head,” he said. “And while the head was off, I decided to throw in a set of pistons and rods to beef up the bottom-end.”
Within a business week, the Audi’s new motor consisted of the stock crank, Scat rods, Mahle pistons and new bearings. For the top-end, the new AEB cylinder head recieved Cat’s 3651 cam set plus Supertech valves with uprated springs and ARP hardware to keep it all together.
OEM hood with custom vents aid airflow
Eager to see what the rebuilt motor would make, Giroud visited a local dyno competition hosted by JSC Speed of Montgomeryville, PA. After three runs on the Dynocom roller, the TT put down an impressive 371.3whp and 315.4 lb-ft of torque at 23psi. In fact, this was the highest in his class and Justin took home the first-place trophy. “The power was right where I thought it would be, but the torque was low because the computer kept retarding the timing,” he said.
As a Christmas present to himself, Giroud then purchased a large-port, short-runner intake manifold from RMR. After installing it, the owner became aware that the stock TT225 fuel pump wasn’t able to flow enough fuel in the higher rev range, so a Walbro 225 lph in-line pump was added.