The 1.8t engine - experiences?

[swgti]

My mate is thinking of buying a little project car and currently top of his list is either an S3 (8L) or Mk1 Leon Cupra R (must admit I'm a bit temped too). Most cars he's looking at are knocking on for 80-100k miles so just wanted to know of anyone's experiences with this engine. Is he looking at a money pit or if well looked after are they fairly bullet proof?, is there any major faults he should be looking out for? Also what would be the issues with re-mapping etc?

Thanks

[Tfsi_Mike]

Alex (VrsAlex) is the guy to speak to, his Ibiza CupraR build was a weapon   

[Bazgti]

Literally bullet proof. Had a 1.8t GTI and an Anni. Other than the cambelt n water pump i had 7 years of pretty
much fault free driving.

[GrayMK5GTI]

The 1.8t is a fine motor. Loads of big power ones about, the big port and strong bottom end ones are the best to go for! These are the 225bhp models. They are good for 360bhp without a rebuild 

[vRSAlex]

The 1.8t is a fine motor. Loads of big power ones about, the big port and strong bottom end ones are the best to go for! These are the 225bhp models. They are good for 360bhp without a rebuild 

225bhp models were all small port.  Only the ADR, AEB and AGU were large port.  None of them really have a strong bottom end.  Rods love to bend all over the place.

I still get involved in a few higher bhp builds.  Currently doing two 2.0 stroker builds with ported large port heads.  Both looking to run over 500bhp.  I do off the shelf 1.8T big turbo kits.

One of the builds:

[Tfsi_Mike]

 

[Dave J]

I loved my 1.8t in my old golf. Went through many stages of tune - standard 150bhp for about 30k, then a Revo map to about 190bhp. After that I went all out and had a K04-023 turbo from a TT/S3 fitted - 260+ bhp.
No issues at all, other than the waterpump failing, which is a common fault. Even through those states of tune, it never needed topping up with oil (unlike my ED30!).

The engine was better than the chassis though. Still, I enjoyed it on many trackdays and a trip across Europe.

Mine was an early 1.8t - the AGU engine code, which had the large port head and a throttle cable. Later cars had issues with coilpack failures, and issues with MAF's were quite common.

[GrayMK5GTI]

The 1.8t is a fine motor. Loads of big power ones about, the big port and strong bottom end ones are the best to go for! These are the 225bhp models. They are good for 360bhp without a rebuild 

225bhp models were all small port.  Only the ADR, AEB and AGU were large port.  None of them really have a strong bottom end.  Rods love to bend all over the place.

I still get involved in a few higher bhp builds.  Currently doing two 2.0 stroker builds with ported large port heads.  Both looking to run over 500bhp.  I do off the shelf 1.8T big turbo kits.

One of the builds:

Ahh my bad. Thanks for sorting the facts

[munkyboy]

Miss my leon cupra everyday absolute amazing engine and drive also a bullet proof engine

[th3_f15t]

One of the builds:

P*rn... If you weren't an admin I'd report it.

[cupra_ahhh]

I've have the non turbo and the turbo (225) versions of this engine, and they never missed a beat. Everyhting has been mentioned already so can't really say more, they're tunable ad bullet proof. Good solid engines.