K04 without tune

[Jeevan]

Hello guys,

I got an incredible deal on brand new K04 Borg Warner turbo. As my car hit 150k miles mark recently, I figured a new turbo will be a good maintenance item.

Will this be a plug and play item(this is the most important thing for me)? I have no intentions to tune my car for now, Do I have any advantages or disadvantages with K04 or am I going to run my car lean like a dumb fck?

It’s an auto tranny btw, shifts never go past 4K revs



Thanks



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[SurasA6]

Are you asking if a new K04 turbo is plug and play? If so hell no its not plug and play There’s a little bit more to it than that.

[MSq5]

Are you asking if a new K04 turbo is plug and play? If so hell no its not plug and play There’s a little bit more to it than that.

And, it definitely will require a tune.

[BeeSevenKyle]

You'll need upgraded injectors, a high pressure fuel pump upgrade, intercooler upgrade (maybe), and you will most certainly need a tune

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[EvolutionArmory]

No Borg Warner K04 will fit a longitudinal car as no longitudinal car came with one. Only transverse motors got them. Golf R, S3, etc. The compressor housing outlet is wrong. It will need modification. The DV hole isn’t there. Just 2 examples of why it doesn’t work without modification. You basically need to modify a K03 compressor housing for the cleanest conversion or weld on an outlet extension. That way doesn’t solve your DV situation though. You’ll need to get creative with the inlet piping.

You will absolutely need a tune and injectors to actually see any additional power safely. I ran my K04 on a stage 2 tune for a week due to scheduling with my tuner and babied it and I still went into limp mode every other day. Now you could probably run a K04 with the stock tune and it would run. No extra power. None of that matters anyway because you bought a turbo for a transverse motor.

You should ask these questions BEFORE you pull out your wallet. You got an incredible deal on something that doesn’t work without a ton of additional money thrown at it.

[Jeevan]

Looks like it’s a pass then. Thanks for the help


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[EvolutionArmory]

Looks like it’s a pass then. Thanks for the help


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So you didn't purchase it yet? Good.

The way you wrote your first post makes it sound like you bought it already. Got being past tense.

[Jeevan]

So you didn't purchase it yet? Good.

The way you wrote your first post makes it sound like you bought it already. Got being past tense.

I was about to but didn’t buy. There is a local guy here in Seattle offering brand new uninstalled for 800$


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[dalmation53]

if you don't rev your car past 4k rpms usually you might be better of woth jhm stage 1 tune. they tune the car for low end power and high end power. personally i do not have jhm but i heard great stories. the only thing is idk how much they put to the crank. maybe 260hp and 280lbs of torque? evolutionarmory probably knows and jake as well.

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[EvolutionArmory]

if you don't rev your car past 4k rpms usually you might be better of woth jhm stage 1 tune. they tune the car for low end power and high end power. personally i do not have jhm but i heard great stories. the only thing is idk how much they put to the crank. maybe 260hp and 280lbs of torque? evolutionarmory probably knows and jake as well.

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You can’t run a K04 on a stage 1 tune bud. It will overboost and it’s only supplying fuel for a K03 turbo. It’s dangerous.

[dalmation53]

I know that. i never said run a k04 on stage 1. i said he is better off getting jhm stage 1 meaning keeping his stock k03 and adding more power without spending more then $2k

You can’t run a K04 on a stage 1 tune bud. It will overboost and it’s only supplying fuel for a K03 turbo. It’s dangerous.

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[Jeevan]

I know that. i never said run a k04 on stage 1. i said he is better off getting jhm stage 1 meaning keeping his stock k03 and adding more power without spending more then $2k

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Yeah I will think about it. All I care about is nice low end torque from a dead stop which stock B7 lack. I live in apartments complex which is bottleneck for traffic and have to pass thru inclined driveway to get on to main road. My stock turbo lag is way too much to turn and merge into traffic.

Do you think buying a used stage 2 immobilizer deleted ECU with catless downpipe would be suffice for the job?


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[boostin20v]

The transmission lag is probably the biggest issue, not the K03....that said. Yes you can run a K04 on a stock tune, stock injectors, etc. You're going to get more airflow with a larger turbo but all the sensors etc will compensate. Should you run it on a stock tune....no, thats silly. Don't get a larger turbo with the intent to run it on k03 software.

[MSq5]

You can’t run a K04 on a stage 1 tune bud. It will overboost and it’s only supplying fuel for a K03 turbo. It’s dangerous.

Correct. The mass air flow calibration, AFR, and fueling will all be wrong. The fuel trims will be way off and beyond the ability of the ECU to compensate. I agree that it is likely to overboost and either boost cut or fuel cut or both. I doubt injectors will need upgrading, but the ECU must be tuned.

[lumberwood]

Turbo lag isn't going to go away with an ECU tune. Look at the graphs, it's still a steep climb to power-town that doesn't really hit until well after 2k rpm regardless of the tune.

3.2 motor would be a possible solution.