EpicTech's 2017 GTI Build

[EpicTech]

You could get the new switchpath exhaust… just saying.

 

[19birel]

Sweet ! So he has my same setup! Thats so cool and I think you should just get it. Obviously Im biased but like I said I did a lot of research achieving a setup that had good sound. You have heard it so you know. If I want to drive spirited I just turn the pops n bangs off. I have never had trouble with the law about my exhaust and I live in a town where they pull you over for not using a blinker. If you think about, a new coyote Mustang with modified exhaust is way louder, or even a stock Corvette is louder.

Yeah I should probably just bite the bullet and do it, I could always get a touring edition too for slightly less volume and have a nice balance.

I'm honestly not sure why i care about this car being loud, my daily has a IE dp and CTS catback Dammit it sounds like I'm adding more stuff to my growing mod wishlist haha

 

[EpicTech]

Yeah I should probably just bite the bullet and do it, I could always get a touring edition too for slightly less volume and have a nice balance.

I'm honestly not sure why i care about this car being loud, my daily has a IE dp and CTS catback Dammit it sounds like I'm adding more stuff to my growing mod wishlist haha

You already have a lot of mods on the car, and it looks like you have been all over the car already with upgrades, save for the the exhaust. Just get a AWE Touring, it will be quiet enough but you will hear it quite well above 4k. If its too quiet you can always convert to the track version, AWE makes conversion kits.

https://www.urotuning.com/products/...-vw-mk7-gti-3820-11012?variant=37965960118465

 

[19birel]

You already have a lot of mods on the car, and it looks like you have been all over the car already with upgrades, save for the the exhaust. Just get a AWE Touring, it will be quiet enough but you will hear it quite well above 4k. If its too quiet you can always convert to the track version, AWE makes conversion kits.

https://www.urotuning.com/products/...-vw-mk7-gti-3820-11012?variant=37965960118465

Yeah that might be the move once I wrap up a few other things on the list. The option to easily convert it to the track version if I want is enticing too

 

[EpicTech]

So moving right along I noticed the GTI's do not have a battery voltage gauge and the built in boost gauge did not read right. You have to subtract like 14.4 from whatever it said to get the real boost pressure. Both of these issues were annoying the crap outta me, so I had to fix that. Obviously I shopped around and eventually landed on Prosport digital Evo gauges for boost and battery voltage. At the time, I did not know what I know now, so it screwing with my ambient temp reading was a out of site, out of mind thing. Anyway, some install pics:

 

[EpicTech]

Time for a shift knob !!

Spoiler alert: I wasn't happy with this look overall. More on that later...

 

[EpicTech]

Around this time I started really digging into how to squeeze a little more airflow. I don't remember what mileage exactly that I was at, but it was somewhere around 40k miles. I also like induction noise and bov sounds. So with that in mind, I did kind of all at once:
Turbo muffler delete
CTS turbo inlet elbow
Turbosmart BOV (the 50/50 recirc/vent version)
Cobb SF intake system

 

[EpicTech]

After another 15k miles or so, it was mid summer and the Texas heat was really kicking. Time for an intercooler upgrade!! I didnt research much other than to make sure that the Mishimoto kit was competitive with everything else. I really wanted the DO88 or Wagner, but only had Mishimoto money. and Mishi is what I was used to getting with proven reliability anyway.

 

[EpicTech]

So with all this extra air coming in and the Mishi IC fighting the Texas heat, I was seeing some decent improvement in power. What was next on the list? Well, with 60k miles on the clock and having run some 58k of that at Uni stage 2 power, you guessed it.. clutch time. Surprisingly enough, the clutch was not slipping yet. That being said Im the kind of driver where I am in the powerband and in the right gear before I hit it. The shop that did the clutch was amazed as they were by now, familiar with my GTI and knew it was fairly quick. They could not believe I had driven that many miles on tuned power with a stock clutch. "It's ok," I told them, nobody else can believe it either.

I am a HUGE fan of ACT clutches. Despite reading rave reviews on here about Southbend clutches, I am a creature of habit and tend to buy what I know works and what I have had experience with. My built Supra was an ACT clutch car, and my Civic, and my RX7 and my ... you get the picture....

Got the VW9 HDSS kit (450 tq)- complete with SMF, TOB, pressure plate and disc. It was crazy the difference in how the pedal felt with this clutch. Chatty at idle, but I like them like that.

 

[EpicTech]

Setting a reminder here that my next part of the build is where I had to bail on the Rotiforms and get something stronger. Cast wheels and bad roads over the course of about a year and half lead to me having to replace 3 rotiform wheels over that duration. It was getting ridiculous and was already limiting where I would and would not drive. Particularly driving back home. It was a point in time where a lot of road construction was going on there. With that being said, I knew a wanted a wheel that was a at least JWL rated, and I wanted something that would flow well with the car. I landed on the BBS CO after a LOT of back and forth between those and spending more for custom spec Work T5R. In the end I decided I wasnt ready to commit to a wheel offset, what with having tire rub and all and afraid I would order wrong. I ordered the BBS's in 18x8 ET44, for those wanting to know.

 

[EpicTech]

Somewhere around this time frame I added roof rack carrier bars and a Charactere front bumper add on and side skirts. Right after that was dyno time. The kit was pretty good and I eyed it for a long time before purchasing. Ultimately the kit was destroyed one day when I got caught in a bad storm driving home from Louisiana. I really should have had it professionally installed because the 3M stuff I used just wasn't strong enough to hold. Anyway here is what it looked like before the storm carnage:

I got the carrier bars because I wanted to get back into bike riding. I wasnt a fan of the wind noise though.

Shortly after that look was completed was when my buddy hosted a big dyno day at his shop. I was still Uni Stage 2 and already had a good idea of what my numbers were. Support your friends kind of thing I guess, so on the dyno it went:

I have some vids of those pulls ( I think I had 4 or 5 pulls?) I can try to link one if yall want to see another 300hp GTI on a dyno lol.

 

[19birel]

The Charactere kit looked cool!

I hear you on the wind noise with those roof bars though- I have a set on my daily with a kayak carrier and bike carrier mounted and even with a fairing theres a lot of noise. With the radio blasting (realistically me 90% of the time) its fine but otherwise it becomes annoying. I like the look and use them enough on my daily but the GTI will never see a set of them on its roof hahaha

 

[EpicTech]

I really want side skirts again, but most of what I see are just extensions. Really want another set of the Charactere skirts, or Golf R.

 

[19birel]

I really want side skirts again, but most of what I see are just extensions. Really want another set of the Charactere skirts, or Golf R.

Theres a vendor on Aliexpress selling reasonably priced Golf R reps. I've found a few people running them and they seem to fit well.

I've been debating between those and a set of rep TCR skirts to cover my slightly buggered rockers

 

[EpicTech]

If you find a link before I do, lmk. I looked for a few minutes on Aliexpress and all I saw was the usual extensions.