The MK7.5 Saga: It's Turbo Time!!

Greetings BMPers! I know I am a little behind on updating the build. We've been fairly busy here with Black Friday and Holiday sales going on, and now that we are doing installations here, there are lots of cool cars coming in and out of the shop. My ultimate goal with this car was to go Stage 2 + IS38. I needed a downpipe and an IS38 turbo before we could upgrade the tune.

I ended up going with a 3.5" downpipe from Mabotech and the Shuenk IS38 Turbo. When the day of installation arrived, we uncovered an issue with the GTI. If you've been following my build, you know that the clutch was destroyed and I had the dealership replace the clutch with a South Bend Stage 3 Daily clutch. When they had the car, the rear main seal was not leaking, so they did not replace it. Now cut to installation day when Ryan AKA "Knowledge", our installation tech, removed the skid plate and noticed that my rear main seal was leaking. Fantastic!

There was concern that the leak may have damaged my brand new clutch. Not exactly the news I wanted to hear. So instead of a downpipe and turbo install, we now had to replace the rear main seal which is a very tedious process. Luckily we had the iAbed Billet Aluminum rear main seal and Liqui Moly oil change kits in stock, so the project could be tackled the same day.

When Ryan tore into the car, he discovered what caused the problem. Apparently when the dealership installed the new clutch, they didn't remove the old clutch material and clean it out. So that material worked its way under the rubber seal and warped it. We were lucky that we discovered the problem when we did, but it was still extra money out of pocket after paying a Volkswagen Dealership a lot of money to install the new clutch. For anyone wondering, I did call the dealership and they denied any liability. Typical.

Eventually the car was put back together, the new downpipe was installed along with the Shuenk IS38 Turbo. Then we loaded the Integrated Engineering Stage 2 + IS38 tune. We took the car out for a test drive. Ryan hammered on it a bit and then gave the OK that I could drive it. We took the car out and as impressed as I was with the Stage 1 tune, this took it to another level! The GTI is very quick and 2nd gear is just downright violent when you put your foot in it. In fact, it was a 2nd gear pull where we hit a small bump and something wasn't right. The car was making terrible sounds and started smoking so we shut it down quick.

After getting under the hood, the engine had so much torque that it tried to crawl out of the engine bay through the grill. The failure point was related to the dogbone mount. The engine shredded the radiator hose, serpentine belt, and one of the sensors. Replacement parts from a local dealership arrived and all was repaired quickly and we were ready to take it on another test drive.

It's hard to go through with a test drive and really get on it after your engine tried to leave your car. We ran it through the paces and it was still a beast compared to Stage 1 and this time the engine stayed where it should. It's been roughly 2 months since we did this upgrade. Driving this car daily is a blast and makes me smile every time I get on it. Also with the downpipe, new turbo, and tune, my COBB Titanium exhaust sounds even better. It's louder, but still has a great tone to it. Here are my updated sound ratings:

Sound ratings (1=factory exhaust and 10=our MK8 GTI with Milltek exhaust):

These mods are definitely worth the time and money. It's a completely different car. There is a YouTube video below of the installation process along with some exhaust clips. I'll also include the original exhaust YouTube video if you want to compare before and after the downpipe, turbo, tune upgrade. Language warning because your boy is a potty mouth. Until next update, stay safe!

-Zeb
Instagram: jewel.rnr

Downpipe, IS38, Tune install and exhaust clips:

Here is the older exhaust video if you want to compare: