You will want to build the motor if you are going Hyde16 route similar to what I am doing. You will not be just putting in drop in rods. Better to pull the motor once, build it properly. If not you may be pulling the motor over and over as many of the stock components will not be up to the task, not to mention you must already have 50K mi of wear on everything. Path forward is fairly straightforward if you want to go BT. Build a motor, add bigger turbo, add fueling system that can meet the demands of the new turbo, get it tuned. It is just very expensive. Even if you are starting with a KO4 car like I did that had some components I could reuse it is still a 12-15K in parts and I am not going as crazy as Hyde16 just shooting for 500whp. My car had a DSG and 74K mi on it so I dropped about 5K on the tranny in preparation new clutches, LSD, cooling system and custom tune. Then with that much power I upgraded my R brakes to Brembos.... then the suspension etc. you get the idea. Just adding 500whp to a car not designed for it requires a lot of other supporting mods if you want to use the power. I was K04 for 4 years and at 336whp it was I think the best bang for the buck and reliable as stock, not one break-down and plenty of track use.
My plan is 400hp-450hp tops. I thought that was simply rods. I need to do more reading then. Because you are right, I want to nail the motor stuff in one go.
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My plan was to go just rods but once inside the motor, the added cost of CP 83mm pistons was worth it to me to know that I had a freshly bored/honed block with tru-seal rings gapped properly. GIACUser is 100% right, it is very expensive. I get crap all the time about how my build took 2 years to build and no one has data or proof that it’s running reliably. Just today I shared logs to prove that my 27psi / 15 degree peak 93 octane pump gas file for the street was dialed in and showing a pegged MAF sensor reading.
There’s an art to meticulously planning a build, seeing it through, testing each addition little by little for reliability, tuning the ECU and fueling then understand why the ECU is doing what it’s doing. Granted, I had a ton of help and input from various people on the Eurodyne ECU software and TorqByte fueling MAPs but it was a long road of learning and worth it to me. I was in no rush, I have a busier job now, 2 kids, a new house, everything stacked against my “car time” and I still stay dedicated each day to improve something or plan for something to improve the build. I knew from the start I wasn’t going to bolt on a turbo kit and wait for other items to fail, I wanted it done from the start so I could never question hardware and focus solely on Eurodyne and TorqByte tuning. Just recently this has all paid off, I enjoyed smoking cars on the highway during my annual DubRun event without watching gauges or data logs. Just as I got comfortable with a street tune the car is already making progress for an E85 tune and max boost within the 7163’s efficiency map. Just need to get through winter now.
If you have the patience, time, dedication and $$$, I would highly recommend building your car in the following order:
-chassis (Tyrol front and rear collar kit, engine mount, trans mount, subframe mount)
-suspension (springs, struts, sway bars, control arm bushings, ALK)
-wheels & tires (weight reduction, wider and stickier tires)
-brakes (big brake kit, Golf R rear conversion or just Hawk HPS 5.0 pads all around, TTS/TTRS master cylinder, TyrolSport master bracket)
-clutch
-engine (rods and/or pistons, valvetrain, bearings, RMS, etc)
-turbo kit will include downpipe and intake modification
-fueling if needed (port fuel and/or direct port and post intercooler water methanol)
I’ve provided countless reviews for everyone to read up on and understand how each upgrade can affect these FWD and even AWD platforms. I’ve documented my entire build to date on IG in chronological order @becauseHYDE16). Ultimately, at this point, I’m able to turn up power, hold traction and scare the sh!t out of myself when I put the pedal to the floor.
