Agreed, the GTRS is more expensive, but might as well do it right the first time. I'm still going to keep my options open though, not ruling anything out except probably the K04 haha. You got me thinkin way to much... But I've also been looking into making it a little cheaper - porting stock exhaust mani, ebay tip etc but unfortunately that damn turbo is expensive!!!

 

I've actually considered getting my stock exhaust mani ported and running that with the FT, so the stock turbo support brace can be reinstalled (and it makes the turbo/mani far more accessible). Do you know how much it costs to have it done?

 

Not a clue. I know there are people that have attempted it themselves, but seems sketchy. I'm going to look around some more and see what I can find. There's a couple machine shops that I know of that I can ask.

 

RaceTec Engineering shows that they offer this service:
Racetec Engineering - PNP
But I see no mention of price. I'm contacting a guy from the B6 forums over at Audizine about this too.

 

Awesome. Keep me updated!

 

The guy on Audizine told me this: $200 for clean-up of stock mani (which would smooth out flow), "Stage 1" which is a mild porting is $250, and "Race" is $300 which would have the most material taken out. Then add shipping.

Sounds like a lot more money than I was anticipating

 

Wow no joke!
Definitely going to look into having it ported locally.
Problem is that the machine shops I have talked to all want to see it in person off of the car, which is understandable.

But those prices you have above --- are they from Racetec or another source? Frankenturbo manis are sold at 200, and I'm not a huge fan of the ATP mani at 350, so for 300 bucks that would still be tempting. Hopefully I can get it done for cheaper locally.

 

There is a guy on Audizine who ports/polishes in his spare time. Those are his prices.

 

Hmmm interesting.
Gonna do some more research before I commit to anything here.

My plan for now is to wait until next month when I have 3 weeks off for vacation to start with my build. I'm going to do all the supporting mods I can without getting the turbo, and hopefully by January I'll be throwin in a GTRS or FT
College kid on a budget here...

What's going on with your car now? Saw you were doing some crazy tablet stuff with your deck? How's that working it seems like quite the project...

 

Sounds like a good plan! To me it almost feels like the GTRS is calling my name... mostly just because I'm curious how it spools compared to the FT and to see if my gas mileage would improve (since in my daily commute I RARELY go beyond 2psi).

My car hasn't directly been receiving any love lately. It's sad, needs to be thoroughly cleaned inside and out. I've spent all my time working with my Nexus 7 tablet, learning the ins-and-outs of Android to make this tablet work how I want it to (charge through USB while hosting USB devices like flash drive and USB audio DAC, which currently is barely possible). Then there's the hardware side of things: modifying a spare prefacelift radio cage and trim, and creating a support structure to adequately hold the Nexus 7 while allowing it to be easily/rapidly removable. All-in-all it's been way more work than necessary but should make for a legit entertainment system when complete!