corbypete

How far can the 8L A3 1.8T engine be pushed stock?

I'm seeing bolt on ECUs and turbos ranging up to 350bhp... surely the engines not this strong?

Im thinking of to begin with, an induction kit, uprated oil pump, sports exhaust to start

Then either a turbo or ECU upgrade

Now, theres a 200bhp ecu, and a 225bhp upgrade, and a 350bhp turbo. I presume an intercooler would also need to be ordered about the same time.

How good is the clutch/gearbox? What do you think the engine can take without any engineering?

I want to reach the best performance i can achieve without replacing the whole car, naturally. I also dont want it to blow up in a week of tuning.

Thanks in advance, its a real struggle to find any real tuning info on the A3 other than sales websites.

After all this ive got big plans for a nice bodykit, lambo doors, s3 brakes, sports suspension, leather sports seats.

ABarthol

Does the 8L have the same 1.8T as the GTI and A4?

If so, you can get an aweful lot of power out of that engine on the stock bottom end.
Before you buy the induction, oil pump, exhaust, buy a chip. Easily the best far bang for the buck with that motor. Adding a good Turbo back exhaust is going to get you quite good numbers.
APR claims about 220 hp with just a chip and exhaust. http://www.goapr.com/Audi/images/dyno_a4_stage_ii.gif

Over in the VW world, you can find a bunch of info on the tuning of that motor here: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zeroforum?id=27
I don't know if/what differences there are between the A3 and the Golf at that point, but there a lot of tuning info out there.

Most of the readers here are A3 8P owners, so for us, it's either the 3.2l or 2.0T, and it seems like the 2.0T is a whole 'nother beast, from the 1.8t.

Hope that helps.