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K04 vs GTX2867R - Which one?

vdubnick

Drag Racing Champion
^

K04's I agree can hang with most of the cars you'll come across on the street. I do disagree about it being useless in 3rd, good tires, some stiffer mounts and an lsd will fix that :)

^
oh... it was shit without LSD... but after, i still break loose easily in first and second, even without dumping the clutch... plus side now is both tires spin, and it still pulls, not a complete loss like before.

i know better tires will help, but i really was surpised how easy it still breaks loose around 4500-5500 in second.
 

ghost135i

Passed Driver's Ed
you planning on selling the stock turbo? i’m in need of one
Assuming you’re talking about the GTI. I am not planning on selling any of the stock components sorry. I am keeping them all to put the car back to stock when I eventually sell it.
 

Francoleon91

Drag Racing Champion
theres no comparison. k04 will make 350 (at most) for about 1 second then fall flat on its face, the gtx28 will make upwards of 450+ all the way past redline.
 
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Francoleon91

Drag Racing Champion
For back roads and around town Stage 2 is perfect. It only falls on it's face on the highway. K04 really shines on the highway. As far as cost per HP K04 is hard to beat. Actually all the stages are hard to beat, I enjoyed the journey all the way through each one.

I am gonna have to totally disagree with this Gonalt..K04 is great for around town and deff does not shine on the highway, in fact that's exactly were it falls on its face. Take a look at this graph, red is my old k04 file vs the blue which is my current GTX setup. Look were the peak torque is with k04, 329wtq at 3826rpm then it just starts to fall down.. k04 hits hard for about 1.5 seconds then its shot so imagine your on the highway.. unlike the gtx were it just pulls wayyy further and doesn't stop. OP, take it from someone whos done, stage 1-2, ko4 and big turbo.. dont waste your money on a k04 and get yourself a gtx28. if your worried about lag and driveability around town then the gtx28 is the way to go since its a closer spool to k04, I drive a gtx3071r and even that is fine for driving around town.

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tdream1

Autocross Newbie
^^^^
I'm much happier with my 2867R over the K04. It feels just fine around town and back roads. It totally shines on the highway.
 

GolNat

Autocross Champion
I am gonna have to totally disagree with this Gonalt..K04 is great for around town and deff does not shine on the highway, in fact that's exactly were it falls on its face. Take a look at this graph, red is my old k04 file vs the blue which is my current GTX setup. Look were the peak torque is with k04, 329wtq at 3826rpm then it just starts to fall down.. k04 hits hard for about 1.5 seconds then its shot so imagine your on the highway.. unlike the gtx were it just pulls wayyy further and doesn't stop. OP, take it from someone whos done, stage 1-2, ko4 and big turbo.. dont waste your money on a k04 and get yourself a gtx28. if your worried about lag and driveability around town then the gtx28 is the way to go since its a closer spool to k04, I drive a gtx3071r and even that is fine for driving around town.

View attachment 191816

Idk maybe it's my tune. I have been Uni since stage 1 and my K04 is too much for tight back roads around me. It's certainly still fun but you can't open it up like you really can on the highway (compared to stock turbo). I'm sure big turbo is fun as hell tho. You really can't go wrong with adding power to a GTI.
 

ghost135i

Passed Driver's Ed
I am gonna have to totally disagree with this Gonalt..K04 is great for around town and deff does not shine on the highway, in fact that's exactly were it falls on its face. Take a look at this graph, red is my old k04 file vs the blue which is my current GTX setup. Look were the peak torque is with k04, 329wtq at 3826rpm then it just starts to fall down.. k04 hits hard for about 1.5 seconds then its shot so imagine your on the highway.. unlike the gtx were it just pulls wayyy further and doesn't stop. OP, take it from someone whos done, stage 1-2, ko4 and big turbo.. dont waste your money on a k04 and get yourself a gtx28. if your worried about lag and driveability around town then the gtx28 is the way to go since its a closer spool to k04, I drive a gtx3071r and even that is fine for driving around town.

View attachment 191816
Thanks for the info. I honestly was not worried about the drivability or lag on a bigger turbo setup. I mostly am concerned with reliability. I already have a car with a big turbo on it, and bought this one as a daily so I can baby that one.... Although I have heard from many people that with good tuning a gtx28 should be fine, I’m not totally convinced I guess you could say. Maybe you could chime in with your experience.

I’m ideally looking for something that’s turnkey. Something I don’t have to worry much about when I want to hop in it every weekend this upcoming winter to drive two hours one way to snowboard, and do other lengthy trips through the year.
 

GIACUser

Master Wallet Mechanic
Thanks for the info. I honestly was not worried about the drivability or lag on a bigger turbo setup. I mostly am concerned with reliability. I already have a car with a big turbo on it, and bought this one as a daily so I can baby that one.... Although I have heard from many people that with good tuning a gtx28 should be fine, I’m not totally convinced I guess you could say. Maybe you could chime in with your experience.

I’m ideally looking for something that’s turnkey. Something I don’t have to worry much about when I want to hop in it every weekend this upcoming winter to drive two hours one way to snowboard, and do other lengthy trips through the year.

I have done stage 1, 2, 2+, K04 and now EFR7163. I differ in opinion and feel the K04 which I drove that way for years was enough power and extremely reliable and there are plenty of off the shelf tunes available. I will agree that a K04 certainly doesn't feel like a nearly 500whp setup but you can't run that kind of power on a stock block and expect longevity. You already have a track toy, so this one just needs to be quick on a daily basis and a well tuned K04 moves pretty well and has proven to be a reliable performer and good longevity. I decided to turn mine into track only toy, and I picked up a newer Audi for a daily driver. While it could be driven on the street it really belongs on the track in order to use the power. On the track I was already hitting 130-135 on long straights with K04 running a 100oct tune and It pulled well enough to redline.
 

ghost135i

Passed Driver's Ed
I have done stage 1, 2, 2+, K04 and now EFR7163. I differ in opinion and feel the K04 which I drove that way for years was enough power and extremely reliable and there are plenty of off the shelf tunes available. I will agree that a K04 certainly doesn't feel like a nearly 500whp setup but you can't run that kind of power on a stock block and expect longevity. You already have a track toy, so this one just needs to be quick on a daily basis and a well tuned K04 moves pretty well and has proven to be a reliable performer and good longevity. I decided to turn mine into track only toy, and I picked up a newer Audi for a daily driver. While it could be driven on the street it really belongs on the track in order to use the power. On the track I was already hitting 130-135 on long straights with K04 running a 100oct tune and It pulled well enough to redline.

Love the EFRs! I have a 7670 on my other car. I couldn’t have said it better... “While it could be driven on the street it really belongs on the track in order to use the power.”, that is the conclusion I came to with my other car. I’d hate to get to that point with this one as well.

There comes a time where you just have more power than you know what to do with or are even able to use in 90% of circumstances. There is a happy medium that can be reached for a daily driver that I will try to get with this car. At the moment I am thinking K04 + aux fuel injection to have a nice amount of power and also benefit from valve cleaning lol. I will keep thinking about it though and considering the opinions that are added to the thread.
 

mars2

Ready to race!
^^^^
I'm much happier with my 2867R over the K04. It feels just fine around town and back roads. It totally shines on the highway.

Are you guy' driving in 3rd or 4th gear on he highway?
Because in my mind a turbo with later spool and hp at higher rev is not good for highway unless you drive +150MPH.( 150MPH is the power rev range of that turbo in 6th gear)
For me a GTX2867R is a B road turbo where you rev each gear to red line and are most of the time in 3rd or 4th gear max in 5th gear in small stretch of straight line between curve's. It's also a track turbo.

But Highway!!! NO why drive in 3rd gear or 4Th when over guy's can drive same speed as you in 6TH just cruising? Or are you really driving 150 MPH on highway? or is just to burn more gas and drive at high rev same speed you could do with lower ev and 6th gear?
When I 'm in Germany I drive a lot at +140MPH but no speed limit their. It's the only place where I can see advantage of such Turbo on highway. Otherwise it's on B road that those bigger turbo shine. Rally style driving :) specialy on French Alps roads that is where big turbo is so much Fun.
 

Thumper

Autocross Champion
There comes a time where you just have more power than you know what to do with or are even able to use in 90% of circumstances. There is a happy medium that can be reached for a daily driver that I will try to get with this car.

Eh, it's not about what you NEED most of the time, when you need it it's better to have it. ;)

Many a time merging off a cloverleaf with some idiot in a Prius doing 35mph in front of me the massive power tap on the R with Stg3 turbo and especially the RS pushing over 500hp with the E85 has allowed me to avoid catastrophe joining highway traffic traveling 70+.

Heck, you can't even "use" all the power of Stg1 on the highway, how much power does it take to drive 70MPH? lol

It all comes down to cost, longevity concerns, and depends on if you have track toys or other fun cars or not. A guy with just the Golf in the garage may have different desires for the drive than a guy who also has a 911 in the garage. (y)
 

ghost135i

Passed Driver's Ed
Eh, it's not about what you NEED most of the time, when you need it it's better to have it. ;)

Many a time merging off a cloverleaf with some idiot in a Prius doing 35mph in front of me the massive power tap on the R with Stg3 turbo and especially the RS pushing over 500hp with the E85 has allowed me to avoid catastrophe joining highway traffic traveling 70+.

I can relate haha definitely the best feeling in the world to open it up when you need to or have the opportunity to.

It all comes down to cost, longevity concerns, and depends on if you have track toys or other fun cars or not. A guy with just the Golf in the garage may have different desires for the drive than a guy who also has a 911 in the garage. (y)

This is kind of the spot I’m in. I already have a car making massive power that I will be bumping up soon with some fueling changes. So I don’t particularly NEED to squeeze every drop of power I possibly can out of the Golf. Do I want to? Sure, who wouldn’t? Leaning towards K04 at the moment just due to longevity. If I gather substantial data of people dailying gtx28s for long periods of time, not just one or two edge cases, I may go that route.
 
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