Next plans!!
I would like to blank off the egr. I am planning on just putting in a blanking plate between the egr pipe and the inlet, rather than removing the egr and pipe and cooler (which is a bit harder to get to on the BMN engine apparently), therefore keeping the engine looking stock as well. I would then get the egr mapped out (more on this in a minute).
I haven't taken any of the inlet pipes/manifold apart yet so have no idea how gungy and blocked up it is in there but have been reading about replacing the plastic manifold with the alloy manifold from the BKD (140) engine. I see that darkside developments have a kit for this:
http://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/products/ppd170-used-bkd-aluminium-inlet-manifold-conversion-kit.html The reason being that it gets rid of the inlet flaps and the plastic manifold which is fitted to the BMN (170) engine. I am thinking that rather than trying to clean what's on the car already I might as well replace the inlet manifold at the same time as blanking off the egr and getting it remapped.
So, to the remap. There is a rep up here in Shetland for Celtic tuning who has very good reports from several people. I contacted him and spoke for a little while about the options and he was very helpful. I enquired at first just about getting the egr mapped out which he said would cost £200. He said that if I went for a stage one remap as well as the egr delete then he would charge £250. I really wasn't looking for more power than the standard 170ish as that is more than I've had in any car before and is more than enough for the roads/my driving style etc. However if I am to go ahead with the egr delete map it would be rude not to pay only an extra £50 and get it unleashed a bit more.
Celtic tuning claims that their stage one map will take the car to just over 210bhp and just over 300lb/ft which sounds pretty good and not going to be putting too much more stress on the original parts (turbo,clutch etc). There are no rolling roads to test the car before or after on up here. Like I said I'm not that bothered about getting every last drop of power out of it so even if it's only going to get me a bit extra and smooth it out more then I'd be happy with that.
https://www.celtictuning.co.uk/component/ctvc/volkswagen/golf-mk5-1k-2004-2008/diesel/2-0-tdi-pd-167-bhp-2004-2008/stage-1?year=2007#t3-contentI have heard horror stories of pretty much everything written above... celtic tuning (like most tuning companies I might add) have some bad reviews albeit mostly not recent reviews. I have read that removing the egr can in fact have a negative impact on the dpf... I have also read of people who have said that having had their car remapped had a negative effect on their dpf and that it did a lot more regens than before it was remapped. Removing the dpf is now illegal as far as the MOT is concerned and I am not wanting to remove it. Yes, you can open it up, gut it and weld it up so that it looks stock but I'm not interested in going down that road.
When I asked the celtic tuning guy about the dpf issue he assured me that their maps are made to run as clean as possible to keep emissions good and to stop their being trouble with dpf's etc. He followed this up with "lots of black reek out the exhaust isn't a good advert for the company" which is of course right. haha.
I hope at least a couple of you have managed to read this far and might offer some advice on the subject.
Thanks,
Chris