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Golf 1.8 AT APR Stage 1 Diary

Woody_in_MN

Ready to race!
Location
Mpls, MN, USA
As reported in the gen topics section, I got a stage 1 APR tune on Wed this last week. I have had the golf for about 3 1/2 years, and about 31,000 miles. I thought I would start a diary to post my impressions since the tune.

Day of Tune 03.27.2019: On the commute home after the tune, I could not tell much difference as I loafed along in commuter traffic. At one point I needed to get around some traffic, and punched the throttle to about 3/4 open. That is when I clearly saw and felt a big bump in power. The golf reved and pulled much quicker than stock. Other than this the car drove normally with no error messages or any other hickups.

2nd Day driven 03.29.2019: I did my normal bank and grocery run. One thing I noticed about my daily driving style; nearly all my errand driving I stay under 3,000 rpm. Looking at the APR graphs the bumps in petform really show after 3,0000 rpm. As in day one, I only had one chance to open up the throttle; I was cruising on the highway about 60 mph, I put the throttle about 3/4 open and in a blink of an eye the golf reved up and shifted quickly and just as quickly my speed warning that I was exceeding 75 mph came up on my display. Beyond this, the golf drive normally.

More to come...
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
Following...looking forward to your impressions...also was involved/following your post over on the ******* forum. The Stage 1 tunes are great and I know you will enjoy it....it's amazing you get this much power for so little $$.
 

Woody_in_MN

Ready to race!
Location
Mpls, MN, USA
^^^

Yup. I remember you. Stage 1 is THE big bang for the buck. My Tuning shop told me as much. Honestly, if I had known more about the JB4 tune, I might have gone that route. But APR has been doing Tuning for a long, long time. So felt I made a good decision going with the 91 octane, 240 hp tune.
 

Woody_in_MN

Ready to race!
Location
Mpls, MN, USA
3rd day driving after tune 03.30.2019: Took the wife out to breakfast. Yeh, not really a good time to floor it. In the afternoon drive out to gas up the golf. Had one chance to drive a little agressively, and as before the golf reved up and moved out very quickly. What I am seeing is the tune shows itself not so much on rpm but on aggressive throttling. In short, the tune is really noticeable when driving aggressively.
 

MeltedSolid

Autocross Newbie
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
'15 Golf, e36 328i
I'm surprised you've been able to hold out for so long. Within 10 minutes of getting my tune I was already on an on ramp full throttle to redline and at the speed limit much sooner than I expected.
 

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
I'm surprised you've been able to hold out for so long. Within 10 minutes of getting my tune I was already on an on ramp full throttle to redline and at the "speed limit" much sooner than I expected.

Fixed it for you.


Within a few days, had it up to 145. Kept pulling too, but I chickened out since was on stock 15" tires and stock golf suspension.
 

MeltedSolid

Autocross Newbie
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Car(s)
'15 Golf, e36 328i
I mean, you gotta test out whether or not the 124mph speed limiter has truly been removed on a "Closed Course tm.". I didn't go too far above 130mph that first drive because my tires were only H rated at the time. New Mexico is a good place for this, if you ever go IS20, I can confirm that it still pulls pretty hard at 155mph.
 

Woody_in_MN

Ready to race!
Location
Mpls, MN, USA
4th Day after tune 03.31.2019: I think today was the day I really got a grip on how the tune impacted the driveability of the golf. Driving my 20 mile trip to Church with little traffic I experimented with various level of pushing the throttle. To me it seemed when I stomped the throttle 1/2 the pedal travel or more the tune brings the engine to life. Punching the throttle 3/4 or more, the golf really becomes a different car. Going through this experimenting I feel like I can control the power burst. At least for me stomping the gas pedal to the floor is for the track. Kind of unusable in traffic as the acceleration comes on so quicly. Short story, I think now I have a better sense of how to control the golf around traffic.
 

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
Have you loaded the car up with cargo or people yet? It will have to much more pep than stock when loaded up. Careful the brakes didn't get better. ;)
 

Sparky589

Drag Racing Champion
Just wait until you get some good quality summer tires and a dogbone insert. Makes it drive like a whole new car.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
The almost instant-on power/boost between 2-3K takes some getting used to...the IS12 is small and spools v. quickly. It's touchy.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

The Fed

Old Guys Rule
Location
Florida
It's all there if you search the "Internets".

Boost threshold

The boost threshold of a turbocharger system is the lower bound of the region within which the compressor operates. Below a certain rate of flow, a compressor produces insignificant boost. This limits boost at a particular RPM, regardless of exhaust gas pressure.

Turbochargers start producing boost only when a certain amount of kinentic energy is present in the exhaust gasses. Without adequate exhaust gas flow to spin the turbine blades, the turbocharger cannot produce the necessary force needed to compress the air going into the engine. The boost threshold is determined by the engine displacement, engine rpm, throttle opening, and the size of the turbocharger. The operating speed (rpm) at which there is enough exhaust gas momentum to compress the air going into the engine is called the "boost threshold rpm".
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
It's all there if you search the "Internets".

Boost threshold

The boost threshold of a turbocharger system is the lower bound of the region within which the compressor operates. Below a certain rate of flow, a compressor produces insignificant boost. This limits boost at a particular RPM, regardless of exhaust gas pressure.

Turbochargers start producing boost only when a certain amount of kinentic energy is present in the exhaust gasses. Without adequate exhaust gas flow to spin the turbine blades, the turbocharger cannot produce the necessary force needed to compress the air going into the engine. The boost threshold is determined by the engine displacement, engine rpm, throttle opening, and the size of the turbocharger. The operating speed (rpm) at which there is enough exhaust gas momentum to compress the air going into the engine is called the "boost threshold rpm".

Thank you for this, very interesting and yes, that's got to be what that surge in power is that I feel...at first I thought the tune was bad or I had a hardware issue. Unitronic and the local dealer here basically said "you've never driven a turbocharged car before have you?". ahhahaha
 

Woody_in_MN

Ready to race!
Location
Mpls, MN, USA
It's all there if you search the "Internets".

Boost threshold

The boost threshold of a turbocharger system is the lower bound of the region within which the compressor operates. Below a certain rate of flow, a compressor produces insignificant boost. This limits boost at a particular RPM, regardless of exhaust gas pressure.

Turbochargers start producing boost only when a certain amount of kinentic energy is present in the exhaust gasses. Without adequate exhaust gas flow to spin the turbine blades, the turbocharger cannot produce the necessary force needed to compress the air going into the engine. The boost threshold is determined by the engine displacement, engine rpm, throttle opening, and the size of the turbocharger. The operating speed (rpm) at which there is enough exhaust gas momentum to compress the air going into the engine is called the "boost threshold rpm".

From a driveability perspective, the turbo boost was always there, but after the tune the boost is so much bigger, and seems to rev out faster. Looking at the APR power graph there is improvement all through the band, but the biggest delta is around 3,000 to 5,000 rpm.
 
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