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K04 Upgrade/Installation

152K views 0 replies 1 participant last post by  HermanH 
#1 ·
K04-15 Turbocharger Upgrade
DIY Rating:Moderate/Difficult AND Time Consuming
Time (real world): 8-11 hours

The K04-15 turbocharger is an upgrade to the existing KKK-K03 turbo
that come standard on 1.8T Passats. The primary difference between a
K03 and K04 is both the exhaust turbine vane and the compressor vane.
The profile for exhaust side can't be seen from the outside, but the
compressor side is very distinct:

K03 Compressor

K04 Compressor

For another perspective on the K04 upgrade, please click on this URL: http://www.europeanspeed.com/k042.htm

I purchased my K04 from Dynospot Racing. They carry both Eurospec and AWE Tuning's K04 kits.
The big difference between the two is AWE supplies spark plugs while Eurospec does not.
Both have all the gaskets and washers plus the 5 bar fuel pressure regulator (FPR).
The other big difference is price. Being a current GIAC customer, you do get credit towards
the K04 EMC upgrade. However, Eurospec was a couple hundred dollars less expensive.
The reason is: they use new K03 unit and replace the compressor and turbine designed
for a K04, to create a K04-15 system. The only question is: are the turbine and compressor
vanes sourced from KKK themselves or not. I do not have an answer to this.

Before You Begin:

* Read these instructions a few times and look in your engine bay and be
able to identify every part that you see here. If you can't ID the part,
ASK! Or consult your Bentely Manual/CD. Planning and familiarization was
the key for me in having a successful install.

* Never work on the turbocharger when it is hot. Chances are even if it
were just warm, the coolant and oil in the lines may still be very hot. I
suggest you work on the car first thing in morning.

* Also, plan around doing an oil change at the same time and plan on
having at least another friend to help in routing the oil return tube in and
out of the engine bay; it takes a specific path and prone to hanging up
very easily going in either direction!

* Also note that while I have broken this down into an orderly manner,
there's nothing that says that 2 people can be doing parts of this job
simultaneously.

* Set aside at least 6 hours. Realistically, that's how long it should
probably take a couple of amatures to do. Me and my buddy got the K04
swapped in within 6 hours and that included picture taking dinner and
other breaks. I spent another 5 hours the following day which also
included lunch, breaks, picture taking and testing.

Tools Required
3/8" drive ratchet
3/8" drive torque wrench
3/8" drive extensions of various sizes and universal joint
ÂĽ" drive ratchet
ÂĽ' drive extensions of various sizes.
8mm socket (1/4" drive.)
10 mm socket (3/8" drive.)
13 mm socket (3/8" drive.)
17 mm socket (3/8" drive.)
19 mm socket (3/8" drive.)
17mm box end/open-end wrench
19mm box end/open-end wrench
5mm allen wrench
6mm allen wrench
#2 phillips screw driver
Various flat head screw drivers
Pliers and Needle nose pliers.
Channel Lock pliers
Rubber Mallet
Turkey pan or other large pan

Additional Materials:
Various sized hose clamps from that can handle 5/8" down to 1/4" OD hoses.
Various sized zipties. Try to get those designed for outdoor use.
Your choice of oil & filter (filter pn: 06A-115-561-B)
G12 Coolant (pn: G-012-A8F-A4)
1 Gallon Distilled or Ionized water
3mm I.D. silicone hose (optional)
Your best buddy & :beer: (highly recommended)

Instructions:

1- Jack up the front of the car and put on jack stands.

2- Remove the belly pan.

3- Remove the oil drain plug and let all the oil drain out. At this time, you
can also remove/replace the oil filter. Do NOT fill with new oil at this time.

4- Back on top, remove ALL plastic engine covers and the inlet duct to the
air box.


5- Recommend at this time to remove and replace the FPR. Remove the
hose clip from the vacuum line and remove from the FPR. Pull the large
clip from the FPR and using channel locks, gently twist and lift the FPR
from the receptacle.



6- You may need to use a rubber mallet to tap in the FPR. It SHOULD be a
tight fit (after all, we are talking about combustible substance that could
cause a fire!) If you don't have a rubber mallet, use a soft piece of wood
and use it to cushion the blow of a hammer. Then reseat the FPR clip and
reinstall the vacuum line.

7- Back down, after all the oil has drained, plug up the drain hole and
torque the plug to 30 Nm ( 22 ft.-lbs.) In my case, I have a Pela 6000 oil
extractor so this part was not necessary for me to do.

8- While you're down there, use a 10mm socket and remove the two
10mm bolts from the turbo's oil return tube. Have something to catch any
remaining oil that might drain from the tube.



9- While still down below, find the spring loaded down pipe bracket and
use a 13mm socket to remove the bolt so the DP is free. This allows
enough movement for the cat to separate from the turbo later on.



10- Still down there? Ok, begin removal of the hoses to the intercooler
tube, the diverter valve. You'll need either an 7 or 8mm 1/4" socket or a
phillips screw driver for nearly all the clamps on this car. If your DV
signal hose needs replacing, now would be a good time to do so.

11- Back up top for some air because next, we remove the air box. This
allows all the room you'll need to work on the turbo. There is no real need
to take the box "apart", rather, we will simply flip it out of the way. Start
by removing the 10mm bolt that anchors the top of the air box to the
chassis.



12- Next remove the 4 phillips screws that holds the heat shield in place;
you need to remove this so you can remove the EVAP line that is
anchored to air box and leads to the pressure regulator valve. Once the
heat shield is removed, remove the two black Phillips screws to release the EVAP line.

13- Loosen the hose clamp and remove the intake hose from the air box.
Be careful nothing touches the now exposed MAF sensor inside the box.
Also, remove the N75 plug from the N75 valve (see Step 14 picture for
location). The airbox can now be flipped out of the way:





14- There are several hoses that tie the turbos intake hose; kind of
reminds me of a ginseng root. At the center of this is the N75 wastegate
control valve. This has 3 tubes, one of which goes directly into the intake
hose. The second goes to a pressure sensor from the casing of the turbo,
and the third goes to the wastegate acutator itself. You will need to
remove the two hoses that lead to the turbo. The hose clamps are a one-
time-use so you'll need to mangle these to release the hoses.



15- Remember that EVAP hose attached to the airbox? It leads into the
intake hose. I removed this from the EVAP line.



16- If you've done everything properly, the primary inlet tube can be
removed w/N75 valve attached, which provides much needed room to
remove the turbo.



NOTE: If you're upgrading the N75 to the N75H valve, now would be a
good time to do this.

17- With the pressure regulator valve detached from the EVAP tube, you
can begin removing the "oil deflector", where the oil supply line runs
inside of. Start with unbolting two 5mm hex bolts to allow the large EVAP
tube to move around; one 5mm hex bolt is located near the front/top of
the valve head, the second is towards the rear; refer to the pictures for
location.

Afterwards, remove the three Phillips screws that attach the oil deflector
to the EVAP tube

Remove the two 13mm bolts along the side of the oil deflector - one
towards the front, one towards the rear. The rear is a little harder to see
but it's there. Again, refer to the picture for general location. When all of
the bolts and screws are removed, slide/wiggle the oil deflector away;
this exposes the 3rd 17mm turbo mounting bolt.




18- Place a turkey pan or large tray under the A/C compressor; it would
help to have as large a tray as possible since coolant will drip from
multiple places below. Then, using a 19mm flare (or open end wrench),
remove the coolant return line. A lot of coolant will flow out of here. I
would recommend based on my experience, to allow the coolant to simply
flow out.

You can optionally just drain all the coolant; I didn't take a picture of this
but there is one drain plug at the water pump, and another in the
radiator. By draining from both, you should be able to drain all the
coolant from the block ( 7.4 quarts ).



19- Using a 13mm flare or open end wrench, remove the oil supply line.

20- The coolant supply line is easier to remove from the block rather than
at the turbo. You will need to follow the banjo bolt/hose to the hose clamp
on the other side; it uses an 8mm socket to loosen.

21- Just below the oil supply line fitting is a 6mm hex bolt that attaches
the turbo to the turbo-support bracket (refer to Step 18 picture). You will
need to use something like a long skinny pipe along with a long handled
6mm hex wrench; the bolt is a grade 10 so do NOT worry about going at
it with all your strength.



22- With all of the hoses either loose or removed, you can now remove
the three 17mm nuts from the catalytic converter (refer to Step 18
picture.) The one underneath is easier to remove if you have an 18"
extension and a universal joint. I had no problems at all with this setup.

23) Finally, remove the three 17mm bolts that hold the turbocharger unit
to the exhaust manifold (refer to Step 18 picture.) The turbocharger
weighs around 2 lbs. Be sure you're holding the turbo up when you're
unbolting it. Again, the second person will come in handy here. The tricky
part AFTER the bolts are out, is to have one of you go down under and
guide the oil return line up while the other person is lifting the turbo up.
Throw away all gaskets (oil supply, exhaust/cat, and exhaust /turbo).



24- With both the old turbo and new turbo side by side, begin removing
all of the hydraulic fittings from the hold turbo and transfer them to the
new one, keeping in mind to replace ALL crush washers as needed. Note
that the coolant supply line uses a bracket and 10mm bolt to hold it in
place.



25- My favorite part: assembly is the reverse of removal. Just saved me
some 20 steps of typing! Please refer to the Bentley diagram for all
torque settings. The only one that I didn't scan was the one for the oil
deflector; so here they are:

5mm hex bolts: 7 ft-lbs.
13mm bolts: 18 ft-lbs.

Also, thanks to passaturbonium, I would recommend you drip in some
motor oil into the oil supply fitting when the turbo is bolted in. A good
tablespoon should do it.



26- Once you've double checked your torque settings, it's time to refill the oil and coolant. Refer to the Bentley manual for the coolant but generally speaking, the G12 coolant is not premixed and requires a 50/50 mix of G12 and distilled water. The coolant takes awhile to fill since thermostat is
shut so be prepared to spend some time on this.

27- Go over EVERYTHING with your buddy to ensure everything was
buttoned down (belly pan, oil cap, coolant cap, engine covers, etc.) and that the torque wrench was used in everyplace possible, and all hose clamps are nice and tight.A word to the wise: although the torque on the hydraulic fittings seem rather light when compared to other engine bolts, the crush washers WILL do their job as long as you DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN them. This is a case where more is not better.

28- If you're replacing the ECM yourself, you should know already what to do: remove negative from the battery, open up ECM and swap out boards, button up the black box, reattach the negative battery post, and
perform the 2 minute TB adaptation drill.

29- Now, start the car and set your RPM's to 2,000 for 3 minutes. This is the routine for the coolant; you can have your buddy watch the coolant level during this time, and have him add coolant to the max. line. During this time, you will see tons of smoke emanating from the turbo and exhaust manifold. This is NORMAL. I had used Liquid Wrench to help unfreeze the bolts and nuts ahead of time so they're just burning off as the car begins to warm up.We waited until the temperature gauge went to
190 deg. Before we did the final top-off of coolant. We let the engine run for 15 minutes, watching for leaks above and below. Everything looked clean. When you're convinced it's not going to leak, take it for a spin. Do a few runs to 60mph and then check for leaks again. Note the new whine of the turbo! This one's gonna turn some heads! :thumbup:

Now relax and both of you can chug some cold ones :beer: :beer: :beer: while you discuss world peace and politics.

Post Mortem:
In the 2 months I've been running the K04, (6/2003 - 8/2003) it's
apparent that certain model year cars and associated 1.8T motors (AEB,
ATW, AUG, and AWM) require a bit more tweaking. I am not convinced the K04 "kits" are plug and play for every engine. The early motors, like the AEB motors, do not have a boost sensor at the intercooler as the later motors. This means that GIAC not only has different K04 programs for different octane ratings across the country, but different motors as well. Additionally, there was an injector change from the 210cc/min. the AEB motors have and say the AUG motors with 250cc/min injectors. This is very important in the programming of the GIAC chips.

I have run two different programs to date; I do not know what was in the "original" kit by Eurospec, but the car was sluggish below 3,000 RPM and then just comes on; more of a light switch effect. The next chip, filename PDK16, produced better results and much better drivablility; this program however, takes into account a 3 bar FPR instead of the 5bar that came with the kit, and 310cc/min. injectors. As of this writing, I have yet to run the PC_16 program, which I am told should be the right program.

The bottom line to the K04 install is, be sure the programming is correct for your engine setup. I still feel that fuel on the AEB motors, was inadaquate and required the use of a different setup. Fortunately, there are programs for this. Check with your K04 vendors for details. Programming is really the key to unlocking the full potential of the K04.
 
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