I've got some info for you all to mull around. Let me start out by telling you a bit about myself. I am a long time Audi/VW hobbyist/tuner/professional European car technician. I have built a bunch of cars using high quality parts and top dollar name brand pieces, this thread is not about that though. This thread will be about affordable parts, how they perform and the longevity of the parts.
I am in no way affiliated with XS Power/SSAC or any related company, I'm just a guy who likes to try stuff out.
First thing I got my hands on was the SSAutoChrome 1.8t B5 A4 quattro stainless exhaust. I excitedly received the exhaust from NC to MA in about 3 days, un-boxed it and was blown away with polished stainless goodness.
For the price point, I wasn't expecting anything monumental so I took a magnet to it. it stuck to the flanges and the hangers and THAT WAS IT! the rest of the exhaust was actually good quality stainless, good tube thickness and good looking welds.
I'm sure if you're reading this thread, you've already seen the indepth detailed installs of the exhaust so I'll just include a few pics.
Next was the XS Power FMIC kit. I found it to be the same quality as any of the other brands of mid line FMIC kits out there. The pipes are welded, the core itself is well built using cast end tanks and a bar and plate core. Here are some pics of when I unboxed it.
Pile o' parts
Hanging the core.
Had to make a block of plate for the map sensor port since I'm running an AEB.
Routing the pipes
All done.
all in all, the FMIC is well planned, fits good and seems to have made a difference in intake temps after a few pulls with no pressure drop even with the OEM k03.
Second on my agenda was the XS Power tubular manifold for the 1.8t with the XS Power K04-15.
Un-boxing the manifold was great, its all shiny and looks like its going to make your car super fast...lol
first thing I did was to check the flanges to see how flat the are....they were not even close. I had the flanges planed to flatten them out before installation.
you'll see in the pics, this manifold has an additional bracket to aid in supporting the weight of the turbo from the studs in the head....NICE TOUCH!
the install was typical, remove old, install new....now I run it everyday and play the waiting game to see what happens. I hope it lasts a good long time, I like it a lot. The exhaust has a nice lope to it at idle, I'm assuming due to the changed pulses by the tubes.
Here's a few pics of the manifold.
At the same time I installed the manifold, I installed the turbo.
I didn't take any pics of it because it looks just like every other turbo on the market. Seriously, It looks good. From what I was told about it, the cartridge is manufactured in the same plant as the Borg Warner stuff, balanced on the same machines and installed into a generic housing. I can tell from looking at it that it was balanced well.... same way as all full priced OEM turbo's Ive seen. The housing itself is clean, same as the other non OEM manufactures out there, Turbocharger Pro's/RP Turbo etc etc...its not the 2 piece epoxied stuff that you hear horror stories about all over the internet. Again, its more of a waiting game to see how this stuff holds up.
I have this stuff installed for about a week now, no problems. I will keep updating this thread with any problems/concerns/answers to questions and such over time. I will of course be updating if I have an component failures as well.
And just for good measure, here's my ride in all her glory so far....
Originally Posted by Oceanside
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