[preacherboy]

For those of you who have been following along with my progress, today I picked up my car after doing many many things to it. As you know, I had a "ghetto" prototype turbo setup but the problem was it wasn't running right. I was using an Apexi SAFCII for fuel management and the car would run like crap until it warmed up, in fact it was so hard just to keep the engine from dying on cold starts. And the boost was unreliable, half the time, the engine would sputter instead of accelerating at full boost. So I set out to fix the problem by replacing the SAFC with a stand alone (Haltech), putting in a return fuel line, Perrin fuel rail, and fuel regulator plus since the clutch was slipping so badly I decided to get a Clutch Masters Stage 3 while I was at it. Well as the tuning shop was working on my car more problems arose, specifically, the manifold was cracked like crazy (I'll post a pic later), the fuel pump died at high temps so that had to be replaced, one of the ignition coils was bad, most likely because of the top mounted turbo's heat, plus a couple of other miscellaneous things. The best solution was to replace the prototype with a new Greddy kit which would mean I would get a new manifold and new turbo plus being able to use the piping that came with the Greddy kit.

So now FINALLY it's done! I'm sure there is still more to do, performance wise, if I wanted, but after spending over $7000 I think I will stop! (Before my wife kills me!! ) A good chunk of that money went into diagnosing my old setup as well as removing its components to make way for the greddy kit.

I have attached two pics, one is a dyno comparison (the two dynos don't have the same scale and I'm too lazy to replot each one) and the other is an engine bay pic comparison.

The turbo is currently maxing out at 135 hp with a max boost of 5 psi.

As a final word, for those in the DFW area who want to turbocharge your car, I highly recommend Alamo Autosports. As for the people who originally made the prototype, Real Performance Motorsports in Lewisville, I can't say much.

BTW, I'll be putting my old Apexi SAFCII and the unused Emanage that came with the Greddy kit for sale, probably on ebay. Let me know if you're interested.

 

[Jsapata]

How much do you think you WOULD HAVE spent if you went with the Greddy setup to begin with?

Also, looks great with the new setup.

 

[DTRAIN619]

That's a night and day difference! (For the better!!)

Honest question: Was it worth it?

 

[preacherboy]

How much do you think you WOULD HAVE spent if you went with the Greddy setup to begin with?

Yes it would have been a little cheaper, maybe by a grand or so. But I did add a bunch of things that the Greddy kit did not include and I went with a stand-alone ECU as opposed to a piggyback.

Honest question: Was it worth it?

If it keeps performing like it does, then definitely YES.

And I agree that it does look better than before!

 

[Jsapata]

If you still would have spent 6k on the Greddy kit did you already have most of the turbo parts when you had your "ghetto" setup?

I am asking because I think its an interesting possiblity (for me ) and would like to know what $ range you think someone else would end up in if they purchased the kit and had a shop similar to the one you ended up at install it.

 

[preacherboy]

If you still would have spent 6k on the Greddy kit did you already have most of the turbo parts when you had your "ghetto" setup?

I am asking because I think its an interesting possiblity (for me ) and would like to know what $ range you think someone else would end up in if they purchased the kit and had a shop similar to the one you ended up at install it.

The only thing that was salvageable from the "ghetto" setup was the larger injectors, the intercooler, the exhaust, and that's about it. I also had an upgraded fuel pump but that had a problem so they had to replace that.

Not sure if that was what you wanted to know...

 

[Padanky]

Looks much purdier now, good job!

 

[xjeepguy]

That is sharp. Definately a vast improvement. Congrats man, no more fuse-pulling!!

 

[FrankenScion]

Cool, I hope it works out long term too.

Are you going to the show at Scion of Lewisville on the 16th? I will probably be there and would love to see it.

 

[preacherboy]

Thanks for the kudos guys.

FrankenScion, I won't be able to come out to the show on the 16th, got church all day man.

But I heard there is a meeting on Fridays in Grapevine, I'm going to try to stop by there in July sometime.

BTW, the latest dyno was done in blistering Texas heat, mid-90s to 100, I'm sure in cooler weather the power will increase. Texas is weird. Still not used to the temperature extremes of winter and summer.

Dang I just noticed I put the same date for the new dyno and the old dyno. The new dyno was done yesterday on 6/29, not 1/31, hehe.

 

[808envygreenXB]

nice setup!! as long as you like it...thats the main thing

 

[ctruss]

What injectors are you using?

I am fabricating a turbo setup on my xB using an SAFC II. I figure if I use the right size injectors all I need the SAFC for is to cut a little fuel at idle to avoid the CEL.

And you are right about the top-mount turbo ruining your coils. Why did they put it way up there? The turbo will fit between the head and the firewall.

Look for pics on my setup soon.

 

[FrankenScion]

What injectors are you using?

I am fabricating a turbo setup on my xB using an SAFC II. I figure if I use the right size injectors all I need the SAFC for is to cut a little fuel at idle to avoid the CEL.

And you are right about the top-mount turbo ruining your coils. Why did they put it way up there? The turbo will fit between the head and the firewall.

Look for pics on my setup soon.

Did you scrap the supercharger idea?

 

[preacherboy]

What injectors are you using?

I am fabricating a turbo setup on my xB using an SAFC II. I figure if I use the right size injectors all I need the SAFC for is to cut a little fuel at idle to avoid the CEL.

And you are right about the top-mount turbo ruining your coils. Why did they put it way up there? The turbo will fit between the head and the firewall.

Look for pics on my setup soon.

I think the injectors were one of the items that they salvaged from the old setup. Those were 28.8lb/300cc injectors. I don't know about what brand and stuff. But about the top mounted turbo, I'm not sure why they put it there. Some people seem to think that top mounted is a good idea. But I do know heat was a big issue with it up there. I had to replace my hood liner with something that could handle the heat because of it, and parts around the turbo looked like they were beginning to melt!

Anyway, again, I'm really interested to see if your tuning shop will indeed be able to use the SAFCII with our ECU.

 

[preacherboy]

How Bad it Was!

Here is how bad it was. If you look at the pics below, the 1st pic is from the turbo side while the 2nd pic is from the manifold side, basically the shiny parts of the end of the pipe is all that was holding the turbo in place, the blackened carbon parts were the cracked parts. Glad this thing didn't fall off while I drove it!

Another problem was that the oil bleed hose that they made was too small in diameter, so what happened was that the oil was backing up into the intercooler.

 

[preacherboy]

Old Clutch

Here is the old clutch, only had 24K miles on it. Do you guys think anyone would buy it?

 

[cz3ch]

Here is the old clutch, only had 24K miles on it. Do you guys think anyone would buy it?

No.... probably not... when a you can get a new stage I-3 clutch so cheap and install it yourself...

New=better Sorry

 

[preacherboy]

Yeah I'll probably put it on ebay anyway, who knows, someone might pay a few bucks for it. Of course the shipping will be more than a few bucks since it is heavy.

 

[ctruss]

See, I think the SAFC II can work with our cars, it's a matter of how you use it.

I am planning on tweaking my turbo setup by playing with injector size. Once I get the correct injector size what the ECU does will be all I need for fuel management. The main reason I am using the AFC II is to cut fuel it idles because the ECU doesn't know how big the injecotrs are. At all other rpms the SAFC II will have little or no effect on the fuel system. In theory this should allow me to use the SAFC II with now problems.

I think.

 

[Simplyscion]

hey...that aeromotive fuel pressure regulator looks real familiar
Glad to see you got everything worked out now with the car. Enjoy the boost, it is verry addicting