Hi all,

I like many others have been following the various large turbo conversion threads on this forum for some time...

Something that I havent seen mentioned is the K04 turbo (one size up from our K03's)
I dont know much about them, but would that be a potential upgrade? Obviously it wouldnt offer anywhere near the power of large turbo's like the GT29rs and GT2560r etc, but some Golf GTI's fitted with K04 turbo's are producing just shy of 300bhp from just an exhaust upgrade, intercooler and remap..
Im just wondering if anyone knows if it would be a direct swap or if it would require some adaptors to be made etc.. The software side of things might need to be looked at too, but first of all would the K04 be a possible straight swap for te K03?

Is this the turbo that the Factory JCW uses?

Also - what is the next turbo up from the K04 - is there one?

 

Being that I came from the Audi world...K04's are widely used as a turbo upgrade on any of the VW/Audi turbo motors. They offer a decent upgrade and when tuned properly they can make great numbers are you mentioned with the GTI. I think most of the times they are pretty much a direct swap. They are also the stock turbo on the B5 RS4, so many of the B5 S4 guys used KO4's as their upgrade of choice. The K04 is still a pretty small turbo though, so they could produce decent horsepower gains without much sacrifice in the lag department. There also are KO3/KO4 hybrid turbos which are used in the 225 hp TT. It uses the compressor wheel of a KO4 and the turbine wheel of a KO3. This is to ensure faster spool up of a KO3, but with the increased pressure flow of a KO4.

I think the next size up is the K16, but I don't recall actually. I think the K16 is what 993 and 996 Turbo's used...and many of those guys would upgrade to K24's or a hybrid variation of the K24. Also you mentioned the GT25 being a large turbo...it's pretty small.

 

from what i have seen with gtis, the k04 would not make that much more power on the mini, you would get much more turbo lag with the k04....i think the sacrifice of the on demand power with the twin scroll k03 is outweighing the possible power gains of the k04. my friend had an audi tt that he changed from the stock k04 to the gt28rs and the gt series spooled 600 rpm sooner than his stock k04...i know the rpm woud not translate exactly to the minis application, but there are much better choices as far as bang for your buck goes

i have read the flanges are exactly the same k03 to the k04 so there shouldnt be any problem....but what does this all really mean we need a chip before we do any turbo upgrades


the jcw has different wheels but they wont release any data on what has actually been changed. but it will deffinatly move more air

let me add something here, the jcw turbo from what i have seen doesnt have a flow chart out yet, so we cant really compare them yet....i assume it flows more but im not sure

 

If the K04 would fit then it would be fantastic, because you can pick up a K04 turbo for less than $200 (£150) and it would be a great "interim" turbo until someone releases a tried and tested upgrade kit with ecu etc...

Alternatively the K04 might be so good that it is a better (and much cheaper!) alternative to the likes of the GT28s etc
Im definately interested and would buy one tomorrow on eBay, but first I need to do a bit more research to make sure the manifold inlet and downpipe outlet are the same, otherwise I am going to need adaptors which will push the price up etc..

 

the flanges should be the same, but definitely different cold side...you would have to make a new inlet hose and cold side outlet to the intercooler

its really not worth it unless you are running mega squirt on your own tune, we are still waiting jan

 

200$ for a K04?? I know audi people are talking 800 or so for the upgrade, which is a direct swap, and thats the turbo alone i believe... do you have a link?

and thumper, i also came from the audi world.. literally, audiworld forum which im still on lol, what did you drive? the b5rs4 is one bad *** machine. i ran the b5rs4 wheels on my c4a6 avant, thing was a tankkk lol

 

haha yea I used to be on AudiWorld...still browse it occasionally.

I had a B6 A4 3.0...I loved it. Wasn't as fun or nearly as fast as either of my MINIs but it was a great car. But I've been around many Audi's my whole life...in fact I was brought home from the hospital when I was born in an Audi 5000 haha, maybe that's where it all started! My brother in law had a B5 A4 1.8T at the same time I had my A4, he had a stage III GT28rs kit on it...pretty sweet car.

 

ha, another Audiworld alum / lurker here..used to have a B5 A4 avant. Still miss it sometimes, but the MINI is just more fun to drive, bottom line .

 

ah, b5a3 stg3.... my friend just sold his b5S4 stg3.. KO4/RS6 hybrids [twinturbo] EPL tuned, he's in the camera car...
and here on the way to the 'bristol run' in RI, caravan'd with gtrs3, ferraris, lambos, etcetc, you can catch a glimpse of me in the beginning of the video (i had 200 miles on her!! lol)

my brother's got the b6 a41.8T
chipped, injectors, exhaust, fmic, etc,etc, i still beat him =D
haha love the mini.

My father had an audi5000 till I was about 9 years old. lol, bought it new, lasted 15 yrs. amazing.

i do miss quattro though..

 

I believe the Neon SRT/4 cars have some sort of K04 turbo. A lot of those guys do staged upgrades and stuff. Hmm I'll call my local import tuner shop. I bet they have a K04 out of a neon hanging around.