It's a rare occasion to install or modify a component on a car without something going haywire. Maybe a bolt gets stripped or a fastener snaps in half; whatever it is, these things happen frequently in our pursuit for more power and personalization.
In et 10/06 we documented the technicians from GReddy Performance Products from Irvine, CA install its 1.8 turbo upgrade on Project Envy. After a full day of labor, the new TD04H-19T turbocharger was fitted, along with an improved downpipe, intake, airflow meter, injectors and other hardware.
Once GReddy proceeded to operate on the factory ECU, the afternoon turned sour. The existing Upsolute chip was oddly glued to the ECU and was damaged during its removal from the motherboard. We were unexpectedly left with a dead '01 Golf.
We kept the car with GReddy, giving the technicians as much time as was needed to repair the problem. We were confident in the company's ability and, sure enough, we received a call a week later to collect the car.
After the keys were handed back, we sat down with Benny Ishii, head of GReddy Research and Development, to discuss the resolution of the damaged ECU. "Thankfully I was able to repair the original ECU so we didn't need a new one," he said. "Normally, our kits include a ROM-tune or chip replacement; however, I wanted to do some testing with our E-manage Ultimate system. The piggyback-style system works by finding where the limits are on the car. It identifies the signals going in and out of the ECU and then modifies it so the car won't throw any check engine lights or go into limp mode.
"Our E-manage Ultimate isn't like most piggyback systems. We can adjust the injector duty cycle and cut the fuel directly. This allows us to install larger injectors without any injection timing problems. Once we passed the limiters, we were ready to tune the car."
Benny and his team proceeded to install a Profec B Spec 2 boost controller in order to raise the boost. Unfortunately, they still encountered problems with Project Envy. "There was a fuel delivery problem with the car," he explained. "At the suggested boost of 1.3-4bar, which we use in our later-model AWP 1.8 turbo kits, the fuel delivery tapered off at high rpm. We changed the fuel pressure regulator and fuel filter, but it didn't help. We suspected the fuel pump may have been faulty but we couldn't access it because of the car's extensive stereo system - we would have had to remove the entire system to reach the pump under the rear seat. Since this wasn't possible, we tuned the car to where the fuel would flow at 100%, which was 1bar boost pressure. The car reliably makes 205-210whp on the dyno. With a new fuel pump, we could see up to a 40whp improvement," Benny assured us.
Under the circumstances, GReddy made the best of Project Envy: a 60whp gain from the factory AWW motor with its faulty fuel pump. We're content with the results.
We'll thrash on Project Envy throughout the coming months and discover whether the extra horsepower is worth the enormous headache of removing the rear stereo system. No doubt, we'll eventually get under the system and change the pump to see what the GReddy big turbo conversion can really do. Stay tuned.