Dear friends, I will be having a custom chip tuning (MaxiChip) by MaxiBoost Hakan Caliskan here to reach descent 240 hp levels. The head gasket is stock for the time being and I do not plan to replace it with a steel reinforced one (Cometic or Spesso) before doing a complete engine overhaul in the next stage (in depth examination of cylinders and valves, new forged pistons, maybe new forged con rods etc.), which will be at least a year ahead.

The question is, what is the healty (not overconservatively safe but reliable enough to keep the engine away from disaster) boost can an OEM head gasket handle? The Squadra chip limits the boost to 1.2 bars as also done by MaxiChip. However, as the chip is tailor made for my Q4, I may have the opportunity to raise this limit a bit more (such as continuous 1.1 bar boost with 1.3-1.35 bars of overboost) based on your valuable inputs. Your comments and feedback are really appreciated. Thanks.