Discuss: VW has relocated the turbo on the new Golf GTI's and R's

[3carmonte]

Went to the Tampa Auto show yesterday and in talking with the rep there and I learned that the Golf GTI 2.0L and the Golf R 1.8L turbo's have been moved up to the place of the exhaust manifold on our cars. He said that this is an improvement that reduces turbo lag. So then another dude (visitor) comes along and and doesn't like that because of some exhaust heat problem he is imagining is going to impact the turbo. What do you think? Doesn't BMW for example put their dual scroll turbos right off the heads exhaust?

 

[SuperSkyline89]

All the big German V8's are running hot-V setups where the turbo's are shoved inside the V, practically on the exhaust ports. There will be more heat sure, but that just means they design the turbo's to withstand it. The wonder of engineering. It does improve response, it's why the new AMG engines are getting so much praise from automotive journalists.

If you took a "normal" turbo and put it there it will probably be adversely affected by the heat. But that's only because it wasn't designed to be run that close to the engine. Change the material of the turbine on the hot side, add more cooling, maybe some custom shielding, and probably more things I'm not thinking of, and there's absolutely no reason it would be less reliable than a "normal" turbo. More expensive probably, but not less reliable.

That guy at the show is forgetting one very important fact. Smarter people than him design these things. People like that are always so quick to shit all over new ideas, if we relied on them we'd still be living in caves.

 

[donjuan1jr]

I mean this isnt new news...

The exhaust manifold is integrated into the cylinder head and theres cooling jackets around the runners. This is done for power and emmissions purposes, seems to work great....turbo lag is reduced as well. I think moving back to an electronic wastegate is the bigger issue, we replace turbos for those failures all the time.

 

[3carmonte]

It sounded like an improvement to me too. I love the intellect in this forum. I have learned so much about the car in here. Oh, and on these 2015's...the body style changes aren't an improvement IMHO.