Is it worth tuning a B9 A4?

Is it worth tuning a B9 A4?how much power can be produced from this popular German 2.0T quattro?If you're considering upgrading your B9 A4, one of the first thoughts through your mind might be "Is it worth it?"The B9 platform is comfy, quiet, and fast enough for most. But as any car enthusiast knows, enough is never enough. Everyone always says they'll just do Stage 1 and leave it alone. Then, before you know it they've got the motor apart and are searching marketplace for a daily driver while they finish building their daily driver.We acquired our Development A4 to see what we could push the EA888.3B 2.0T engine to. Knowing that it has slight differences to the 2.0T commonly found in the sportier S3 and Golf R, we were curious to find out if the B9 A4 was an untapped powerhouse, or just a sheep in sheep's clothing.It wasn't long before we had our Stage 1 91oct and a 93oct tune files validated on our good old (not very good) Canadian fuels. 93oct gave the 2.0T a nice bump in power, getting it to 269whp/313 lbft, which wakes the car up quite a bit from our dyno tested 218WHP and 246 lbft. With no hardware upgrades required, this is arguably the best value mod for this platform.Stock Base: 91oct 218 WHP / 246 lbftStage 1 Results: 91oct 263 WHP / 285 lbft 93oct 269 WHP / 313 lbftMoving on to Stage 2 Development, we decided to go with an economical hardware upgrade as well as sticking with Shell 93 Octane since we know that this fuel would give us the best performance. With the addition of a CTS Turbo high-flow cat, CTS Turbo Intercooler, and upgraded intake/high-flow filters, we achieved a maximum of 286 WHP / 340 lbft during testing. The power delivery is still smooth and even though there is a fall off with the small stock turbo, the car still pulls nicely throughout the RPM range. Nothing to be mad about when you're hauling the kids to hockey practice or dipping out for a carton of milk and some eggs. With nearly 100 lbft more than stock, it gives you plenty of oomf when you need to cross the dotted lines and get around the slow moving traffic to arrive at your PTA meeting on time. And for a very reasonable investment of about $1400 CAD for the needed hardware. Stage 2 is quit fun and snappy to drive with the quick spool of the stock IS20 turbo.But we want more!Stage 2 Results: 93oct 286 WHP / 341 lbft
How far could we push it with Stage 3? We were already starting to run out of fuel during Stage 2 development. We know that the A4 comes with an IS20, and we wanted to see if a Hybrid version could get us closer to what is achievable on a Golf R / Audi S3 with their larger IS38 turbocharger. The B9 A4 uses a smaller fuel pump than a GTI or Golf R and so to make sure we would even have a hope of pushing enough fuel through the EA888.3B and get it closer to the 300 WHP / 350 lbft mark, we knew we had to upgrade the fuel pump as well as the turbo.We worked with our Polish friends at Perun Turbo and used their IS20 hybrid which utilizes IS38 wheels machined to fit the stock housing. A simple install and very cost effective upgrade. For Fuelling, we did a little ETKA research and decided a Golf R High Pressure fuel pump (HPFP) and vacuum pump would be the best upgrade and also keep things simple on the install side. We also upgraded spark plugs to NGK RS7 plugs (06K 905 601M). After some revisions we had the pump dialled, and fuel pressure was logging nicely. Now we could turn our focus back to tuning. However, even with the fuelling upgrades, we still found ourselves limited by the OEM injectors. With no viable upgrade options, we decided to settle on a safe and reliable tune which would give us a total of 303 WHP / 354 lbft, only slightly more than the Stage 2 setup. With a larger turbo, you could fetch even more, but you'd have to mind the fuelling as the injectors are going to limit your fuelling.
Stage 3 Final Results: 93 oct 303 WHP / 354 ft-lbFinal Results:

Stock 91oct 218 WHP / 246 lbft

Stage 1 91oct 256 WHP / 292 lbft

Stage 1 93oct 270 WHP / 317 lbft

Stage 2 93oct 286 WHP / 347 lbft

Stage 3 93oct 303 WHP / 354 lbft (IS20 Hybrid turbo)

So, is it worth tuning a B9 A4?Until there is more development in tuning the MPI setup that came stock on these cars in Europe, us North Americans will have to come to terms with the current limit of what is achievable on the EA888.3B. But it depends on what you really need out of your A4/Q5/Allroad. If your car ticks all your boxes and you just need a little bit more sauce, you'll definitely be happy with a nice bump in power from either Stage 1 or Stage 2 upgrades. But if you think you're the type of person that will fall down the rabbit hole and keep wanting more and more, you may find it's better to exit the A4 platform and slide into an S4 platform. The 3.0T is very tuneable and has a ton of aftermarket support already. And there's plenty of room to keep pushing the 3.0T Turbo V6 past the 350HP mark.For now, we're happy to help you with either decision as we offer tuning options for a wide range of models.2.0T EA888.3B Tune Catalog