[carter840]

I was wondering if anyone has ventured into performance upgrades for the 3.6L gasser. I have noticed Malone tuning offers an ECU upgrade as does APR tuning (in Germany).

I ask because I love the quality of my Touareg (it just feels well built), but I do often wish for better throttle response and more HP.

 

[PL69]

From my research Unitronic has some good gains on the 3.6 VR6, if I ever decide to keep mine for some time I will probably go with them but honestly hesitating because I do a lot of city driving and live in the hills and the mileage is not kind of bad..

 

[FSJ Guy]

For the VR6 and V8 gas motors, I've always felt that the tunes were fairly pricey for the (relatively) minimal amount of gain your get. I'm not expecting to gain 75 ft-lbs of torque, but at the same time, I'm not expecting to pay over $500 USD for just a 20 ft-lb gain, either.

 

[Grifnsqest]

Do some basic exhaust modifications by chopping off extra mufflers/resonators. Replace them with your preference, either Magna flow or Flowmaster. Any local muffler shop can do it on the cheap for your.

Move on to your intake setup. Either gut your intake box and drop in a nice panel filter, or do a basic custom setup yourself. It's simple to order the correct silicone elbows that allow you to position a cone filter in the fender well. Then you just need to block it off from the engine bay, which quite a few of us have done with great success.

As far as tuning, yes... the price per horsepower isn't the best deal on the market. But, if you are looking for that lil bump in throttle response and some more top end power, a tune will accomplish that. Nothing neck breaking... but an increase in power is out there.

I chose Evolution Motorsports for my tune for a couple reasons... they are local and available for any custom tweaks. They were also the best option available for the 4.2FSI.

 

[JVAN]

I myself have put a custom intake with cone filter.
Along with a Malone tune I think.(forgot)
Taken out the secondary set of cats.

And I've switched oils to Liquimoly Leichlauf high tech 5w-40, I also added their CeraTec too.

With all of that I've seen some nice gains and overall a better running vehicle.

 

[Spiegelglatt]

Yes. Here you go:

HPA FT740 Twin Turbo Golf R | HPA Motorsports, Inc.

Looks like block teardown with all new bits...but after you are done you will be over 700 hp...would be a fun project. Would be a riot to drive every time!

just takes money...

 

[JVAN]

Yes. Here you go: HPA FT740 Twin Turbo Golf R | HPA Motorsports, Inc. Looks like block teardown with all new bits...but after you are done you will be over 700 hp...would be a fun project. Would be a riot to drive every time! just takes money...

Oh yeah, I looked into this actually.
They are just down the road from me.
Unfortunately they stated that they don't have a kit specifically for the 3.6l VR6 and if I actually wanted one, I would be looking at a price somewhere in the range of $50000 to $75000 to install.

 

[[email protected]]

trade for a V8

 

[JVAN]

I wish I had found a v10, but there so rare to see in North America.