K04 Turbos

This wasn’t an upgrade I particularly wanted to do. I had enquired about the possibility of replacing the standard KKK K03 turbos with the K04 version, as fitted to the RS4, but was put off by the cost.

That all changed, when back in November, my right side turbo again started making loud and disturbing noises. Three trips to the dealer later, and I was informed that it was a damaged turbo, and that due to the ECU remap it wouldn’t be covered under warranty.

I decided that if I was going to have to replace the turbos anyway I might as well get the bigger ones. A call to AmD revealed that a revised RS4 turbo was in the pipeline, as KKK had been having “manufacturing difficulties” with the previous version. I would have to wait a few months to get them.

The turbos finally arrived in January, and were sent off to Turbo Dynamics in Dorset for a bit of tweaking. Strength and reliability were their main objectives. The tweaks included trimming the impeller blades to avoid overspeeding, improving the oil seals, and optimising the air flow through the unit. Then it was back to AmD for fitting. It took them about three days in total. Here are some pictures taken during the work, click on the image for the larger version. Thanks to Scott at AmD for taking most of these!

Closeup of right turbo and Deathstar clutch

AmD encountered a problem whilst fitting the K04s - the turbo intake is much larger on the K04 than the standard K03 unit. This held up the work for a while, until some custom manufactured versions were produced. As I have not seen this requirement commented on anywhere else, it seems unlikely that anyone else has attempted this conversion.

The ECU has not yet been programmed for the extra boost, so this dyno plot is not for the finished project. It’s more like Stage 3+ at the moment.