matteb90

hi. ive got a few questions that im looking to get advice. Im looking to gain more power for the b7 that i currently have. any advice what i should get or do. i bought it off a guy who had already changed the air intake to k&n. as well as going straight pipe w/o mufflers. sounds nice without the mufflers but am i losing power just from not having back pressure?

Caseyj955

The exhaust backpressure rule applies to virtually all gasoline street driven vehicles. An exception would be the presence of a turbo charger which provides plenty of backpressure, and also to a degree acts as a muffler. Even though generally bigger is better for turbo back exhaust you will hit the point of diminishing returns. it's only a 2.0 it really doesn't need monster exhaust to perform correctly.

Cold air intakes; I was going to get one for mine but most of the folks and a couple tuners I spoke to said the power returns are negligible at best, at least on our Audis. I'll bet it sounds cool to hear the turbo though. I'm only on my 2nd 2.0 TSFI and from my limited experience with this engine I believe the best way to add some power without breaking the bank is a good ECU reflash/tune like those from APR and other vendors, that should run about 500. I got mine chipped when the tune was on sale, pretty happy with it. I'm going to add a test pipe to replace the cat since I'm hundreds of miles from any place that requires emissions testing. The guy in CO that did the work on mine says he has to remove his test pipe and fit the cat to pass emissions, then back to the test pipe.

I'm still learning a lot about these cars but I will tell you one thing I know for sure. If you are going to start adding power you might want to budget for an upgraded clutch at some point. I had a CO shop install a lightened flywheel, S4 clutch and new rear main seal and it set me back about $1600. From what I've read the factory clutch is good for only marginally more than the stock 2.0 puts out.

What is your budget and what do you want the car to do? Is MPG important? From what I've read you can go up to about 400hp or so without really even breaking open the engine. You can google the upgraded HPFP, injectors, big turbos, FMIC etc etc. If I'm wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected by one of the many here that know more than I.

To get some better answers you might add the year and trim level of your car, also AT or MT, and if it's a Quattro. Good luck.