New to modding, can you help me review my build/upgrade path?

[Echo]

Intro
Hello! I've been reading around here for quite a while, so hopefully I've done a good job about answering a lot of the basic questions that have been answered before. I've struggled back and forth on if I wanted to mod my GTI or get a 5-10yr old Japanese import and mess around with that - but I've decided. Yesterday I roll-raced a 2017 Corvette Stingray from 70-100 and while I lost, I was very proud of how well mine kept up and now I want it to put down some more power and look great doing it. The car is a manual 2017 Sport with the LSD.

What I use the car for
This car is my all-arounder. I drive it a lot (daily driver status, though I have other cars I switch to sometimes) and can avoid most traffic, with a lot of driving being on the highway. This car is my 'road trip' car so the back seats do get a fair amount of use. I do a lot of tent-camping, encounter a lot of gravel roads, and I do live in a snowy climate. I have tracked and auto-crossed my other car, and eventually I will do the same with the GTI. Never for competition though, just for fun.

What I've done so far
Mostly cosmetic. Little tweaks here and there. I love following the Subtle Cosmetic forum thread here and have been inspired by a lot of it. Tint, subtle references to heritage, license plate frame. The biggest change being a completely upgraded sound system with sound deadening and a (removable) sub in the spare-tire well.

Goals
Mostly, I just want to make the car my own. I do not care about winning anything from a dig as I will rarely if ever launch my car. I love the idea of having a 'highway hero' as I drive through a lot of long and un-populated highways due to the travel.

The kinds of cars I'd love to be able to beat would be performance variants of 'normal' cars (v6 accords, v6 camry's), all other non-AWD hot hatches (Velositers, ST's, Si's, etc), and hopefully lower trim pony cars (non-V8 mustangs, camaro's, challenger's). Also my buddy has a 2007 BMW 325i and I want to be able to crush him lol.

What's important to me
NVH is big. I'll be driving this car for upwards of 10 hours at a time (though on rare occasions. I could put up with it, but I like keeping my passengers comfy.

CEL. I do not want this. If it comes on I want it to be because of an issue and not because of a change I made without the proper supporting mods.

Gas mileage. I don't want to take a giant hit here, preferably. I'm ok if it goes down some, but it would be awesome if mileage went up. Paying for higher octane gas won't bother me, but I don't want to stop at a gas station over and over.

Reliability. I understand you gotta pay to play but I would be more inclined to over-build (stage 2 components with a conservative 300hp tune) than to squeeze as much as possible out of the car. Basically I don't want to blow the engine. If my turbo goes I'll probably upgrade the turbo and internals at that point, but hopefully that's much later in the car's life.

Flexibility. Hopefully adjustable coil overs will solve all of this (raising it up on trips and winter, lowering for day-to-day where I know the roads).

Performance. I want the car to look cool, but I also really want something to be there to back it up.

*The Plan*
Performance, in-order

• Cat-back exhaust, possibly Remus - valve'd if I have to but hopefully not
• 034 Dogbone Engine and transmission mounts
• Clutch upgrade - ideally dual-mass to reduce clutch chatter
• Turbo inlet pipe
• Intake
• Stage 2 tune with downpipe and upgraded spark plugs

Performance, any-time

• Continental Extreme Contact DWS (when current stock tires wear out)
• Golf R Intercooler
• Adjustable Coilovers (SHS KW's) (when current suspension starts to get tired)
• Sigma 6 Short Shifter
• Clutch Assist Spring Removal
• ECS Clutch Bleeder Valve
• Stainless steel clutch and brake lines
• Rear sway bar

The Questions

• Are there any other amazing bang-for-buck or must have mods from what you have done?
• I would love to upgrade the shift-knob, but I really like the style of OEM. Is there anyone that makes an OEM+ version that looks the same but is weightier/made better?
• I love the Nogaro wheels, but I would also love going to 18" with slightly wider wheels to get it more flush. Is it worth all that money if I like the Nogaro's, or should I just get wheel spacers?
• NVH is important, but I really want to hear my turbo. However I've seen people complain about issues with Diverter Valve's and such. Is there anything I can do to increase turbo noises that doesn't effect how the car operates (like the turbo inlet pipe maybe)?
• Is the single-mass flywheel worth the additional chatter? Or can/should I stay with dual mass?
• Is there a better order to do my performance mods, especially to avoid CEL's?
• Any other advice for my mod journey?

Thanks!

 

[Diggs24]

You would roll all those cars with a JB4. Set it up with a clutchsaver map6 and you wont need any of those other mods. I just saved you a shitton of money.

 

[Hoon]

Golf R intercooler is crap don't waste your time, would recommend BFI mounts, they seem to hold up a lot better than 034.

 

[Diggs24]

Only other mod I'd recommend is a FMIC. The look cool and are awesome at keeping IATs in check in summer. Sorry, spent some more of your money...still way less than what you would have spent otherwise to be not much faster.

 

[sterkrazzy]

Your direction isn't too far from my own. My previous car was a mk6 I did a ton of mods to, and after driving the new R for the last week I want to keep it as comfortable and oem as I can while still making my own improvements.

I wouldn't get 034 mounts. I know that's one of the few things I can suggest. Everything else looks pretty good.

I'd also stick to a dmfw, but that's just me. I had a smfw in my last car and I'm not doing that again.

I just plan on doing little things like probably just an apr dogbone insert instead of a full set of mounts. A stage 1 tune with just a resonator delete instead of a stage 2 tune with a downpipe/turboback. A dmfw to retain a more oem feel. Maybe just lowering springs instead of coilovers.

 

[Echo]

You would roll all those cars with a JB4. Set it up with a clutchsaver map6 and you wont need any of those other mods. I just saved you a shitton of money.

Only other mod I'd recommend is a FMIC. The look cool and are awesome at keeping IATs in check in summer. Sorry, spent some more of your money...still way less than what you would have spent otherwise to be not much faster.

Are you saying that the JB4 + IC would be similar-ish in performance to all these other mods for much, much cheaper - or that I don't need to spend all that money to beat the cars I'm looking at? Those cars are just the bare minimum of what I want to be able to beat - basically it would be embarrassing if I lost to those cars after putting money into mine. So I'd be happy to spend a good amount more to hang with more powerful cars. The 'ceiling' of my upgrades being reasonably reliable without getting into upgraded engine internals/new turbo

Golf R intercooler is crap don't waste your time, would recommend BFI mounts, they seem to hold up a lot better than 034.

Oh ok good to know, I heard it was a great bang-for-buck IC but I'll be sure to do more diligent research when I go for this upgrade

I wouldn't get 034 mounts. I know that's one of the few things I can suggest. Everything else looks pretty good.

I'd also stick to a dmfw, but that's just me. I had a smfw in my last car and I'm not doing that again.

I just plan on doing little things like probably just an apr dogbone insert instead of a full set of mounts. A stage 1 tune with just a resonator delete instead of a stage 2 tune with a downpipe/turboback. A dmfw to retain a more oem feel. Maybe just lowering springs instead of coilovers.

You think the mounts aren't worth the NVH degradation? I have been back on forth on these, especially since I know I'm not looking for off-the-line performance.

For the SMFW, was the noise that bad or were there other significant downsides that make you stay away?

 

[Hoon]

Are you saying that the JB4 + IC would be similar-ish in performance to all these other mods for much, much cheaper - or that I don't need to spend all that money to beat the cars I'm looking at? Those cars are just the bare minimum of what I want to be able to beat - basically it would be embarrassing if I lost to those cars after putting money into mine. So I'd be happy to spend a good amount more to hang with more powerful cars. The 'ceiling' of my upgrades being reasonably reliable without getting into upgraded engine internals/new turbo



Oh ok good to know, I heard it was a great bang-for-buck IC but I'll be sure to do more diligent research when I go for this upgrade




You think the mounts aren't worth the NVH degradation? I have been back on forth on these, especially since I know I'm not looking for off-the-line performance.

For the SMFW, was the noise that bad or were there other significant downsides that make you stay away?

Stay with the stock mounts until you actually need mounts. You'll feel it as they degrade...I made it about 40k miles before I had to do them.

034s just don't seem to last. By 20k miles they have more slop than stock mounts.

 

[blaqsheep]

Oh ok good to know, I heard it was a great bang-for-buck IC but I'll be sure to do more diligent research when I go for this upgrade

Lot of labor to get the IC out, I wouldn't waste all that time just to swap it with a barely larger Golf R unit.

 

[sterkrazzy]

You think the mounts aren't worth the NVH degradation? I have been back on forth on these, especially since I know I'm not looking for off-the-line performance.

For the SMFW, was the noise that bad or were there other significant downsides that make you stay away?

I had 034 motor mounts with a poly dog bone insert in my mk6 and I honestly didn't mind the vibrations. Most people probably wouldn't even be able to tell it had aftermarket mounts unless I pointed it out. If you stick to a softer upgrade I think you'll be alright (like bfi stage 1). The dogbone insert is such an easy one it's always been one of the first mods I've done to my cars. It makes a difference in keeping the power down, but at stage 2 levels the dogbone insert might not be enough and once your tuned you'll want to do what you can to make all that power as usable as possible. This is why also why I'm trying to be a lot more conservative with this car, you can go down the rabbit hole pretty far with supporting mods.

The chatter with the smfw can be kind of annoying. Especially at drive-thrus and things like that. I didn't like how it changed certain aspects of the car. If you had the AC on you had to shift a lot faster because of how quickly the RPMs fell. The mk6 drove like crap with the AC to begin with and from what I've noticed the AC doesn't drag down the motor on the mk7 near as much as it did on a mk6. I can't tell if I'm driving with the AC on or off in my mk7, but with the mk6 it was very obvious. A smfw might behave differently than what I expect on a mk7 just because I'm going by experience with my mk6. There's also resale...it's not as easy to throw the oem clutch back in when you're ready to get rid of the car, and if you have a smfw in there people will definitely think you were racing around and beating on it.

I dunno, it's hard to put a finger on exactly what I didn't like about it. I just know that going on longer distance drives (like an hour or longer) I felt kinda beat up after driving that car with everything I've done to it. While with the new car I can drive for an hour and I'm unaffected. I just want to make it a little quicker and make the engine feel like it's not rocking around so much.

 

[blaqsheep]

Hold up on the exhaust. The factory exhaust sounds a lot better once you have a downpipe on, see how you feel. Looking at your goals, skip the mounts, get the 034 upper/lower insert. No need for intake or turbo inlet pipe. Get dedicated summer and winter tires, all-seasons are silly on a stage 2 car. Get a JB4 if you still have warranty or want a custom clutch saver tune - can always resell unit if you want to go for a flash tune. Don't bother with the R intercooler, get something larger. Yes to the Sigma 6 shifter and supporting clutch mods. SS lines are unnecessary. Rear sway bar is also a nice upgrade. Put some money aside for a clutch down the road, DMFW if you want to keep it a quiet daily driver that packs a punch.

 

[mk7_bk]

Cheap sleeper, buy in this order.

-1: do airbox mod (remove snowgrate,) also replace with k&n drop in Free/55$
-0.5: do clutch spring removeal, do clutch stop, do swirl value remove Free
0: 034 dogbone insert 42$
1. Downpipe W/ cat + spacer | cheap ebay | $300
2. JB4 set to map 6, there is another thread on that | used off here maybe $350
3. Clutch | $$$$ depends on which you choose
4. Intercooler (anything but stock) | ebay 300
5. Once you get all this, buy tires, stock ones are shit after 6 months


Fast, Reliable, and cheap, pick 2 because you can never have all 3

 

[anotero]

Only other mod I'd recommend is a FMIC. The look cool and are awesome at keeping IATs in check in summer. Sorry, spent some more of your money...still way less than what you would have spent otherwise to be not much faster.

They look cool when you can see them -- mine's black )

Talking of saving $: many tuners recommend stock spark plugs with their tunes, so may not need to upgrade them

 

[GTI Jake]

-Intercooler upgrade. Again, don’t waste your time and money on the R intercooler.

-BFI mounts. Start with just stage 1 dog bone mount for less Nvh, and of course disable the soundeckor. I’ve had my BFI stage 2 mounts over 70k miles issue free

-tires (OEM are terrible). Being in Ohio either dedicated snow and summer sets or a good set of all seasons. I’m originally from Youngstown and have had cars with both of those options. Separate sets are definitely the better method.

-jb4 is great if you’re concerned with warranty, but there’s so many great tuning options out there ranging from set it and forget it OTS tunes like APR and Unitronic to pro tunes via Mastero or Cobb.

-Downpipe. There’s no inspections in Ohio, so if you do a real tune (not jb4) cel won’t be an issue. If you do decide to try jb4 most have good luck with the Vibrant adjustable J spacer to defeat CEL

-clutch. DKM MS twin disk (aka stage 3). Plenty of headroom for additional mods, great feel, and I’ve been running mine for 30,000+ miles issue free

 

[anotero]

Hold up on the exhaust. The factory exhaust sounds a lot better once you have a downpipe on, see how you feel. Looking at your goals, skip the mounts, get the 034 upper/lower insert. No need for intake or turbo inlet pipe. Get dedicated summer and winter tires, all-seasons are silly on a stage 2 car. Get a JB4 if you still have warranty or want a custom clutch saver tune - can always resell unit if you want to go for a flash tune. Don't bother with the R intercooler, get something larger. Yes to the Sigma 6 shifter and supporting clutch mods. SS lines are unnecessary. Rear sway bar is also a nice upgrade. Put some money aside for a clutch down the road, DMFW if you want to keep it a quiet daily driver that packs a punch.

I think a good TIP is a worthwhile mod that doesn't break the bank.

 

[20ls01]

Ill touch on these things:

DWS is not a performance tire. Get a true summer tire if you want good traction
Sigma 6 Short Shifter - i like the oem euro short shifter especially for only $55
Clutch Assist Spring Removal - i prefer it on
ECS Clutch Bleeder Valve - waste of money, skip. Do the clutch delay valve removal.
Stainless steel clutch and brake lines - waste of money, skip
Rear sway bar - must upgrade. i have the eibach 25mm hollow and its great. Does not reduce all the body roll but much better than stock.