I purchased the car for 3,000 a couple years ago with 80k. I never really liked the body style on the passats but I was sold on the practicality. I appreciated the chassis/powertrain/driveline than the shell. After a couple weeks owning it I kind of fell in love with the heated leather seats and capacity. During the winter months it is an absolute tank in the snow. So I decided to keep it and make small improvements. Stock it felt slower than a prius. So first step was I needed to tune it. Started out maxing out the stock injectors between 17-19psi. Then 6 months into owning it I smack two deer within a month. Thats two separate deer hits within a month span.

So the insurance company cut me a check for more than I paid for it and I took the money and rebuilt it! One of the few perks of being a mastermechanic.



So what I've done:-----
-repaired most of the body issues including passenger rear fender rust = 500$

-oem turbo took a crap 6months after 18psi (intercooler end tank was leaking oil so that may have been a factor in overspinning turbine shaft and destroying the thrust bearing)
-sai and 3 inch downpipe -still trying to tackle the P0139 issue I have the rear o2 zip tied out of the way mainly because the ebay downpipe I used had the o2 located in a impossible to install position. = 60$





-ebay forge knockoff since the 710 took a crap = 25$ (works just fine)

-replaced intercooler = 25$ from salvage
-pcv cleanup
-found a decent ebay company for my ko4 hybrid- rebuilt with oem upgraded thrust bearing and seals = 225$ + 45$ for rebuild kit
 






Now oem ko3s is about 50.1mm on the big end and the inducer is 36mm(KO3S has a bigger compressor wheel than the ko4). As you can see the compressor is 51+mm and the inducer is 38+mm. Which isn't much but its better than nothing.

Now this next image is a huge reason why these ebay hybrids go so fast with high boost. The lower bearing set is what the ebay turbo came with. If you look you can see that there is only 1 oil feed and less contact area then the upgraded. Also the shaft bearing has no oil passages.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to replace the seal on the turbine side because the diameter is larger and the machined spot for it isn't wide enough.

Each of these turbos come with a data sheet confirming the center section was balanced on a vibration sorting rig. Which is pretty cool to see. So I tossed it in and gave it a shot. I had a feeling the wastegate spring rate would be higher but I wasn't sure how much. Ended up with well over 22psi (I don't have a boost gauge), and the car ripped but I don't have the fuel for it. Took it down to 12psi after I adjusted the PID. I'm really happy with my gamble.

I'm searching for some injectors 440 or 550 at a decent price since I'm on a tight budget so if anyone knows of a decent injector on the cheap let me know!!!

I thought I already coded it out via eskonf but I'll look over it again.

I actually was looking at those injectors the other day! I'll order them up and post some maf/injector duty logs to compare my gains. I had no idea how much of a joke the stock injectors were until I pushed it past 150% RL. 140-150g/s stock injectors were static between 19-21ms even with 4bar.

Hybrid ko4 currently has 15k on it and still running strong!! Can't wait to see what it can do. When I run out of compressor I would like to do a billet compressor upgrade   this company mamba makes compressor and housing kits. I'm eventually going to upgrade it to a 46x59mm wheel. I would like to keep shaft speeds down and extend its life a bit.

Once you unscrew the nut holding the compressor wheel you need to rebalance the CHRA, because the compressor wheel's orientation towards the turbine and shaft has changed.
So I don't see what you are on about with balancing.

The "reason" this turbo won't last long is because it's not balanced.

New 550cc injectors in thanks for the recommendation SB_GLI !!! I literally just took .08ms off stock TVUB which dropped the curve 25% at 14volts. KRKTE from .1052 to .0517. I only had 30 min of free time yesterday so I couldn't get a log in but it fired right up. Idle is very smooth so far. I'll get some logs in and post a comparison from the maxed out oem injectors.

krkte is calculation injection. you still need tvub injector dead times too. the ev14 have higher ms values then stock injectors