What's left to do? Not much, thankfully.

Today we buttoned up the intake side of the kit and trimmed the engine cover to fit over the new components.

The VF intake is simple, but effective. Utilizing a high-flow filter element, the intake is able to draw more than enough air to suit the bigger turbo. As you might imagine, an engine bay can get pretty hot during stop and go traffic, so VF incorporates a heat shield that properly seats against the underside of the hood when it's closed.

Believe it or not, trimming the airbox turned out to be one of the more time consuming tasks we undertook. Unlike past VW engine covers, the version used by the new GTI doubles as the factory "airbox" and filter element. As such, there's quite a bit of bulky plastic under the outer skin, and that needs to be trimmed in order to clear the new intake assembly. With dremel tool in hand, it was just a matter of measure, trim, measure, trim, etc. Keeping in mind that the goal here was to make the end result look as OE as possible, we trimmed slowly and only as much as absolutely necessary. We're quite pleased with the end result and more importantly, so is our customer.

With the installation now complete, it's time to put some miles on the car, data-log some critical factors and then go over all our work to make sure nothing is interfering with something else and that nothing has worked it's way loose. More on that next time...

Almost done.

Today we swapped out the mechanical rail pump for the VF high-flow version, as well as the new high-flow injectors. A few words about the pump and injectors: The GTI' FSI fuel delivery is radically different than anything previously employed by any volume manufacturer. For example, whereas most current fuel injection systems operate at anywhere from 45 to 120 psi of pressure, VW's FSI system operates at up to 1600 psi of pressure. As a result, the FSI fuel pump and injectors are also radically different than anything currently available on the aftermarket. What does that mean? It means that to increase the fuel flow to suit a bigger turbo, we can't just call up an aftermarket supplier and order up some "bigger" injectors and a high-flow pump. No doubt these parts will someday be available, but the fact is they aren't right now. VF has been working on these issues for over a year now, and their solutions meet the bigger turbo's requirements while maintaining an OE approach to the job.

Bleeding the fuel pressure from the pump before removal is critical, as the above-mentioned fuel pressure is enough to slice off a finger or worse. After the pressure is released, the removal and installation of the VF unit is quite simple - not so with the injectors, though. As the pictures illustrate, quite a bit needs to be removed in order to access the injectors. Once done, removal requires the use of a special tool specific to the VW FSI injectors.

With the last of the kit's hardware installed, we turned our attention to the optional intercooler. This part of the job couldn't have been easier, as the core fits perfectly and with almost no trimming to the stock front bumper needed, and all the connecting tubes and hardware also fit very nicely.

We finished the intercooler sooner than expected, so we chose to install the VF engine mounts. OE GTI mounts are designed with as much attention addressed to mitigating noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) as toward performance. The GTI has three engine mounts and these mounts are tasked with holding the engine and transaxle in place while effectively getting the engine's output to the front wheels. Simply put, the stock mounts are too soft to adequately handle the second part of the above job description. The VF mounts are machined from solid billet aluminum and integrate polyurethane bushings as a way of isolating NVH from the driver. It's a shame they're hidden by other components, as they're really quite impressive to look at.

You'd imagine a set of stiffer mounts would equal a pretty major compromise on the NVH issue in exchange for better performance, but this is a case of having your cake and eating it too. The VF mounts do transmit a little extra bit of engine noise into the cabin, but the effect is minimal. There is no noticeable added vibration at idle or at speed. Needless to say, we recommend these mounts to any enthusiast with a Mk5-chassis 2.0TFSI.

We ran out of time before finishing the entire installation, so next time we'll install the VF intake and trim the engine cover to fit the new components.

Today we begin disassembly and installation of the VF manifold and GT28RS turbo.

The work is pretty straightforward and thankfully there's a decent amount of room between the turbo, downpipe and the engine firewall.

Looking at the pics below, you can see the difference in size between the two turbos. The GT28RS is hardly a big turbo (it's best suited for smaller engines and with the 60mm compressor it will max out at about 360 crank horsepower [chp]). It's only when it's compared to the original puny K03 that it looks so mighty. Why has VW chosen such a tiny OE turbo? From their perspective (seeking 200-chp and zero turbo lag) it does its job and does it well. VW is well aware of the K03's lack of headroom and in fact they have larger turbos to use in their higher hp 2.0TFSI applications (S3, TT-S, 30AE GTI, etc.)

VF has chosen the GT28 turbo with 60mm compressor for its quick spool and efficient boost curve, and it is extremely well suited to this application. For those looking for even more power, the VF/GIAC RS/R kit will soon be available and that kit forgoes the 2860's 60mm compressor for the 71mm compressor found in the 2860's larger brother, the GT2871. In addition to the larger turbo, the RS/R kit comes with upgraded rods and pistons and is good for enough boost to yield approximately 400-chp.

Now that the bigger turbo is installed on the GLI, next up is installing the new fuel injectors, fuel pump, and whatever else time permits.

*We'd like to apologize ahead of time for the terrible quality of the pictures presented in parts of this project series. We were without our usual DSLR Nikon and had to make do with a very cheap point 'n shoot.

For this project we're starting with a customer-owned 2007 VW GLI 2.0T DSG Fahrenheit Special Edition. Yeah, that's a lot of words to describe one yellow 4-door sedan, but the car is in fact pretty special and happens to be just one out of only 1200 examples to be produced.

It comes to us with a mere 3,000 miles on the odometer, but those few miles were enough for our owner to know he needs (yes, needs) more than the 200-hp it comes with standard. Quite a bit more, actually.

The new 2.0T engine in this yellow GLI is a big departure from the old workhorse 1.8T that's served the enthusiast community so well. Not only is it 200cc larger in displacement, the 2.0T has a new 16-valve (vs. 20-valve) cylinder head and fuel is delivered directly into the combustion chamber via VW's FSI injection. Direct injection (FSI) allows for a more consistent delivery, so while making more power due to increased efficiency, the new engines also goes further on a gallon of gas. An additional advantage to delivering fuel this way is how it now cools the combustion process and allow for a higher compression ratio. In the old days, a turbocharged car from the factory rarely made it to the showroom with a compression ratio (CR) greater than 9.0:1. As an illustration of the effectiveness of the FSI process (along with modern knock sensors and engine management), consider that the 2.0T in this GLI comes from VW with a CR of 10.3:1.

Even with that relatively high CR, there's still plenty of room to up the boost and make more power without touching the engine's bottom end, and that's exactly what we plan to do.

We've worked closely with VF-Engineering and GIAC on the development of their RS/S and RS/R 2.0T big turbo kits, so it was only natural for us to use these products here. As a matter of fact, the RS/S kit we're using isn't officially on the market yet and there's even less data regarding the long-term effects of the RS/S's 330-hp on the DSG transmission. Our customer understands the risks involved in a beta-test situation like this and he's quite okay with his "guinea pig" role (the truth is we've made a deal with him that takes into account the fact that this GLI will provide VF and us with some valuable data and feedback).

The VF RS/S kit comes complete with everything needed to upgrade your transverse 2.0T from its tiny KO3 turbo and replace it with a much larger Garrett Turbo GT28RS item. New and better-flowing FSI fuel injectors are included, as is a new high-flow mechanical rail pump. The VF cast exhaust manifold is a quality piece and accepts either the GT28(60) or its larger sibling, the GT2871, as found in the even wilder VF RS/R kit (more on that later). Add a VF open element filter and tubing as well as all the couplers and hardware required for install, and that's pretty much all there is.

Because the GLI is daily driven in Florida heat and humidity, our customer opted for the VF-Engineering front-mount intercooler. This FMIC completely bypasses the stock intercooler and is advertised to fit behind the standard front bumper with minimal mods.

Making this much power is no good if you can't get it to the ground, so we'll also be installing an excellent set of VF engine mounts.

We're ready to go and the next update will cover disassembly and the installation of the "Disco Potato" (GT28RS).