2009 VW JETTA TDI Performance Upgrades

2009 VW TDI Performance Upgrades are finally here! If you’ve been waiting patiently for the chance to modify your 2009 TDI, your wait is over.

True Volkswagen TDI enthusiasts have something to cheer about as new Performance and Upgrade product releases are here for the 2009 VW JETTA 2.0L TDI Sedan and Wagon. After Volkswagen’s decision not to manufacture 2007 and 2008 VW TDI’S, many TDI enthusiasts have pounced on the chance to buy a factory fresh 2009 TDI Jetta.  With no TDI vehicles coming off the VW assembly line for a few years, manufacturers of VW TDI upgrades had to turn their attention to other product lines.  Now, however, with the popularity of Volkswagen’s new 2009 TDI Jetta’s, upgrade and modification companies have taken note and are again giving car owners the types of Performance products they crave – products that until only recently had been reserved for older model VW TDI’S.

Performance Cold Air Intake Systems and Rapid Power Module’s, or “Chips” as they are often called, are two of the easiest, least expensive, and most effective upgrades you can make to your 2009 TDI Jetta. Diesel engines want cold air to breathe and properly atomized fuel to burn, and an upgraded intake and module will give your TDI just what it needs.  If you are interested in maximizing the full potential of your VW TDI, read on.

To give your Turbo Diesel more cold air, a high-quality choice comes from Advanced Flow Engineering, or AFE Power as they are commonly known. AFE has recently released a Performance Air Intake System for the 2009 Jetta TDI 2.0L with an impressive list of benefits and performance data. The system is 100% bolt-on, mounts to the lower airbox housing, and no drilling or cutting is required. After a simple 15-30 minute installation, you can expect air flow to increase 56% over stock. Horsepower gains average +10 at 3150 RPM, and expect Torque to increase by 23 lbs. at 3050 RPM.  The system comes with a high efficiency, low restriction air filter in your choice of either a Pro Dry S or a Pro 5R. Most people choose the Pro Dry S for ease of use with filter cleaning being a simple wash and air dry.

Performance modules improve TDI fuel economy and provide extra horsepower at the same time by improving the efficiency of the vehicle fuel injection system.  Performance market manufacturer and TDI stalwart Bully Dog now markets a “Rapid Power Performance Module” for the 2009 VW TDI Jetta which effectively improves fuel economy and horsepower. This module is a simple inline, between wiring harness, plug-in chip designed for safe and long lasting use. It is adjustable on-the-fly, allowing you to choose between three power levels; Stock, +10% and +15% horsepower via a simple toggle switch that can be left in the engine bay or installed within the interior of the vehicle for easy access. The total horsepower increase from this module on the highest setting according to Bully Dog’s Dyno testing is +25HP
and a torque increase of 30 ft-lbs. If you can keep your foot of the gas pedal you should even see some impressive fuel economy gains on a car that already gets remarkable mileage.

Combine the Performance Cold Air Intake System with the Rapid Power Module and you’ll see tremendous gains in horsepower, torque and economy; perhaps most importantly, though, will be the increased fun you’ll have driving your modified 2009 VW Jetta TDI!

VW TDI Performance – Building The Beast

We thought we would post a few articles that we have written in recent months to help some of you along that are just starting off.  If you have any questions let us know.

As with building up any vehicle for power, vw tdi performance starts with the basic modifications first. The vw tdi will get its biggest two gains out of a tdi chip or module and out of tdi injectors. Your average chip or module upgrade will give about a 20% power increase. A tdi injector upgrade usually yields about a 20% gain as well. If the right combination of tdi chip/module and injectors are used even more will be gained. i.e. (Van Aaken Smartbox & Van Aaken Smart Power Nozzles) Those are the most basic vw tdi performance upgrades.

Another basic vw tdi performance modification is the tdi exhaust. If you are going to increase fueling you will in turn increase EGT’s (exhaust gas temperatures). So to keep temperatures lower and to help increase performance of the vw tdi even more, one of two things can be done. One a mufflerectomy can be performed in which the muffler and resonator are removed and a straight pipe is put in their place. This opens things up a little and removes the baffling of the muffler so that the exhaust can flow more freely. The second tdi exhaust option is the aero exhaust turbine muffler. The inner design of the muffler works the same as a jet engine to increase the flow of exhaust even more than what a mufflerectomy does. The inner design splits the air via an air foil. The faster air moves through the center and the slower air moves around the outside of the air foil, the slower moving air then re-enters the main air stream through inlets that go down the sides of the mufflers inner cylinder. This recombining creates a vortex that lowers the tone of the exhaust and dramatically reduces back pressure by increasing the flow of all the exhaust that moves through it.

Increasing air flow into the engine will help more of the fuel to be combusted and to help extract more power out of each molecule of fuel. Most cold air intakes have a large cone air filter that is able to move up to 300% more air than the stock air intake system. This makes the cold air intake an important part of any vw tdi performance package, sadly though cold air intakes are not currently made for all the vw tdi models. Another modification that helps with air intake and exhaust is water methanol injection. Water methanol injection is also known as chemical intercooling. It has a three fold effect on the diesel engine. It cools the intake charge which provides for more available air intake and the benefits of a higher positive pressure ratio (more power giving fuel can be utilized safely without high combustion temperatures). Two, the combustion of water also adds power and three; methanol is also a high octane fuel that adds more power. Water methanol injection typically lowers EGT’s by about 200 to 250 degrees on bigger diesels and is slightly under that for the vw tdi.

So in conclusion, to be able to build a real beast the modifications must be made from the ground up. After these mods are made then a bigger turbo and intercooler could be added as well as upgrading the clutch and other components to help hold the added power.

The TDI Chip and TDI Exhaust are the beginning of any VW TDI Performance upgrade.- Nathan Young

TDI Performance Chip Package

A lot of our clients ask us what options they have when it comes to TDI Performance.  The thing that a lot of people dont know is that the options for diesel performance are usually the same whether it is VW TDI, Cummins, Duramax, Powerstroke or John Deere Tractor, to a certain extent at least.  The one performance mod that pretty much all electronically injected diesels share is the ability to be “chipped”.  TDI’s are no different, although there are a few different options the most popular tdi performance chip is the van aaken smartbox.  The thing that makes it the most popular is the fact that it installs in just ten minutes.  We have now combined the power and the benefits of the smartbox with the van aaken injector nozzles in a package we like to call the Van Aaken Power pack.  With these two tdi performance mods combined you are able to gain up to 50+ hp above stock, which might not sound like a lot but if you consider the fact that the TDI starts off with only 90hp I would say thats an incredible gain.

TDI Performance Review – Van Aaken Smartbox

Great news for all you TDI owners and TDI Performance connoisseurs out there! Van Aaken Technologies has just the product that you have been looking for. If you drive one the US 1.9L VW Diesel’s then there is no questions that you have been in need of a little extra power, sure the economy is great but why not have a little extra power while you are at it right. Van Aaken was kind enough to hook us up with one of their Smartbox TDI performance chips so that we could put it on our project vehicle and test it out. Here is what we think:

Why The Van Aaken Smartbox?

• 10 Minute Install- We have seen some easy installs, but wow, this one is a cinch. Since we made the install video for this tdi performance module we have had customers with no previous mechanic/performance experience reporting that they were able to install their smartbox in 6 minutes. You cant beat 20+hp in 6 minutes.
  
• Economy Gains- So if 40-50 MPG wasn’t enough for you how about 1-2 MPG More. In our performance tests with the Van Aaken Smartbox on the rare tank when we could keep our foot off the throttle we were able to see an increase or 1-2 MPG which some might say isn’t huge but when you have a much more enjoyable driving experience the increased diesel fuel mileage is sort of icing on the cake.
• Quality Product- We were very impressed with the overall quality of the product. The hard resin case of the smartbox is completely weatherproof and very durable.
• Does NOT Void Warranty- If your vehicle is still under factory warranty all you have to do is take the Van Aaken Smartbox off before going to the dealership and they wont be able to tell that it was ever there, it leaves no footprint or flags in your system to show it was ever there.

Why Not the Van Aaken Smartbox:

• Who Knows?- It was hard for us to figure out a reason why you wouldn’t want this tdi performance chip. The main reason we could come up with is if you are one of the more “Extreme” TDI Performance Enthusiast then you might be more interested in a more customizable performance upgrade like chipping which requires removing your vehicles ECM and sending it into a shop and getting it back a couple of weeks later and will most likely void your warranty. For some people those things sound like more fun than a 10 Minute Install, but for most of our clients this is the exact product they are looking for.