GTI MK7 build - need advice

[ZerKia77]

Hey guys,

First of all, I apologize for my english if it's not perfect as I'm not a native english speaking person.

I own a GTI 2016 MK7 DSG. I recently got into some trouble with my engine. I have knocking in my engine and from analysis it seems to come from a connecting rod bearing. Not sure to as to where that comes from since the car has had very regular oil change (7000kms) and im scared to touch the throttle when the car is cold.

I am looking for some advices as to what to do next considering i have some plans for the car in the near future.

I'm looking at putting some more power into the car, around high 400 to low 500 WHP would be my goal. I would like to achieve this on pump gas since here in Canada we have high quality 94 octane at the pump and I know it would most likely need a watermeth kit to achieve these numbers to my understanding.

For my engine trouble, should I just replace the faulty parts, so the Rod bearings and maybe some other seal/bearing and call it a day or would I be better off building the engine. I have looked at some stuff and my main concern is that if I start in putting forged parts, it won't end.

Can the stock parts handle those kind of numbers?

Can the DSG also handle that ? I understand that torque is what breaks our car and I would have the car custom tuned in a safe way.

I would like to hear from some of you guys if you ever had or heard of connecting Rod bearing in our engine.

Thanks for your time and dont hesitate to ask me stuff if i missed details.

-Karl

 

[swifty1]

Hey Karl,

First, for the power, these are the parts you need to upgrade:
- intercooler
- low pressure fuel pump
- add multi port injection
- high flow downpipe
- big turbo
- custom tune

A good tuner should be able to get you 450 WHP and 420 ft-lbs with pump gas and a big turbo. Some WMI should get you the rest of the way to 500. They will have to limit the boost to keep the rods in one piece though, and you wont be able to rev it out to 7200 safely or make more than 30 lbs of boost.

A stock, factory built motor could take that level of power, but it is a gamble. Do you think your mechanic can build a motor better than Volkswagen's machines can? Probably not, so a rebuilt engine is likely to be more fragile than a factory built one. For that reason, I would probably want to build the motor anyway. It will be essentially the same price, and you will have a stronger setup.

For a built motor, you could probably get away with just the following:
- forged rods
- forged pistons
- new bearings and rings (need aftermarket bearings)
- should probably do crank bearings too
- replace all gaskets and seals
- new timing kit
- might as well do upgraded valve springs

most of the cost of the build will be labor and all the OEM stuff you have to replace, which is money spent anyway since you already blew the motor. Its not that much extra to add some extra safety.

With a built motor, your tuner can turn it all the way up.

 

[ZerKia77]

Hey Karl,

First, for the power, these are the parts you need to upgrade:
- intercooler
- low pressure fuel pump
- add multi port injection
- high flow downpipe
- big turbo
- custom tune

A good tuner should be able to get you 450 WHP and 420 ft-lbs with pump gas and a big turbo. Some WMI should get you the rest of the way to 500. They will have to limit the boost to keep the rods in one piece though, and you wont be able to rev it out to 7200 safely or make more than 30 lbs of boost.

A stock, factory built motor could take that level of power, but it is a gamble. Do you think your mechanic can build a motor better than Volkswagen's machines can? Probably not, so a rebuilt engine is likely to be more fragile than a factory built one. For that reason, I would probably want to build the motor anyway. It will be essentially the same price, and you will have a stronger setup.

For a built motor, you could probably get away with just the following:
- forged rods
- forged pistons
- new bearings and rings (need aftermarket bearings)
- should probably do crank bearings too
- replace all gaskets and seals
- new timing kit
- might as well do upgraded valve springs

most of the cost of the build will be labor and all the OEM stuff you have to replace, which is money spent anyway since you already blew the motor. Its not that much extra to add some extra safety.

With a built motor, your tuner can turn it all the way up.

Thank you for the detailed answer.

Yeah, this is most likely the way im leaning to. It would be the safest option and support more abuse or further goal with the car.

I would most likely be able to skip some of the labor as I'm able to do most of the stuff myself. The car is alredy at a stage 2 tune with unitronic so I have some of the parts around the engine already.

I was looking into IE for the engine parts. Any recommandations for those? I believe Mahle is a leader in solid engine parts, correct me if im wrong. I found that there are not many performance engine parts suppliers in Canada

Thanks and have a great weekend.

 

[JerseyDrew77]

Thank you for the detailed answer.

Yeah, this is most likely the way im leaning to. It would be the safest option and support more abuse or further goal with the car.

I would most likely be able to skip some of the labor as I'm able to do most of the stuff myself. The car is alredy at a stage 2 tune with unitronic so I have some of the parts around the engine already.

I was looking into IE for the engine parts. Any recommandations for those? I believe Mahle is a leader in solid engine parts, correct me if im wrong. I found that there are not many performance engine parts suppliers in Canada

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Continue to do some more research because IE just rebrands engine parts. Building the block is not for the faint of heart and isn't cheap when done correctly.

 

[ZerKia77]

Continue to do some more research because IE just rebrands engine parts. Building the block is not for the faint of heart and isn't cheap when done correctly.

Yeah for sure, I want to do it correctly. I know that there is a lot to do when building the engine and luckily for me I have people around me with a lot of experience with that stuff.

I will def. continue my researches and take my time with the process. I will try to document everything in order to help out the ''next me'' out there

 

[swcrow]

Continue to do some more research because IE just rebrands engine parts. Building the block is not for the faint of heart and isn't cheap when done correctly.

Seriously…. Listen to Drew here…. Just read his build thread…. Research done