Zivman

iTrader: (19)

Oh ****, this thing is still in the works??? I thought all parties involved threw in the towel and cut their losses. PF has brought forth two essentially historic, nearly dead and buried builds in the last few weeks with this one and Chris'...

Would love to see dyno charts and/or vids rather more talk

taurran

iTrader: (18)

Threw in the towel? Dead and buried? No way is that the case.

This thing has been a non stop project for the past six months or so... Sure, it's taken a lot of time but there have been many hurdles not present on the average bolt on turbo kit build.

This is the last round of changes though... With the latest piping changes, we're going to push it for what its worth and be finished tweaking for a while. I'm hoping that with the current revised piping we can stretch the turbo to it's limits, which should be close to 700whp.

If it doesn't get us to where we're happy, power-wise, I'll unbolt the turbo on my own and get it rebuilt with a larger turbine wheel. However, I think the turbo we've got on the car now is going to be the perfect sizing for the 600-700whp range and retain a reasonably quick spool up.

Julian@MRC

iTrader: (28)

Basically at this point, its no longer a TurboNetics kit, other than the turbo right? I mean its completely custom fabbed by now.Wouldnt it have been cheaper and more efficient to make a custom kit right off the bat?

taurran

iTrader: (18)

Its totally custom piping with a Turbonetics turbo, wastegate, bov, and intercooler.

More efficient? Yes... Cheaper? I don't think so... We were originally setting out to find a way to efficiently upgrade the kit without changing too many parts. We quickly found that it's a number of issues limiting its potential. There still might be a more efficient way of upgrading the kit but I'm leaving that to others to figure out.

Truthfully, if I were to do this all over I would have gone totally custom. I think the main thing I'd change is mounting the turbo on the passenger side instead of the driver side.

Julian@MRC

iTrader: (28)

Right, just like I said..

taurran

iTrader: (18)

Hindsight is 20/20. But hey, I'll still have a custom kit, which is more than 99.99% of the people on this forum can say.

Julian@MRC

iTrader: (28)

Im just curious as to the expense of modfying existing pipes, then making new ones.Would it be cheaper to go from scratch?
The problem we find is the TN pipe where the Turbo flange mounts to, combines both exhaust banks which are at minimum of 2' each , into one small a$$ 2" connector just before the turbo.VERY restictive.Were guessing this is where 95% of the issues were in your build.

taurran

iTrader: (18)

That piping has all been upgraded now. It's as large as we can go and retain clearances on everything else on the drivers side. The main problem is that on that side of the motor there is little or no room to route an up pipe.

I dont think it would be cheaper to go from scratch as we had a design and routing to go off of with Turboentics' pipes. It would actually probably be roughly the same. Our final revision of the up pipe is not only larger diameter from manifolds to the turbo, but also very different in routing (and I believe different than the other ST's). Hopefully we'll see the gains from that on Monday's dyno.

As far as the diameter of the up-pipe... You can only go so large depending on the turbo. You want to keep it smalle nough to keep exhaust gas velocity high to improve spool, but large enough to flow for desired power levels. The inlet on the turbine is a big deal too, as it's not even that large on a T4 frame turbo. The piping we've got on it now is roughly the same size as the turbine inlet for a T4 turbine housing. If you go any larger than that you just make another bottleneck and probably kill spool time.

The huge 50mm open dump wastegate is also a plus. I expect it to sound awesome.

r0mey

iTrader: (35)

Craig let me be the first to say congrats. I know we may have butted heads in the past but I just have a couple of quick questions about your kit, time and income. I agree that having a custom 1 of kit is awesome especially when you make BIG power. But at this point i have to believe all things taken in to consideration. You had to pay atleast half if not double the price of just getting a standard 350z kit and don't forget the wait time either. With the standard kits there is minimal wait. Now I know you didnt pay "retail" but it still adds up. I am glad you are custom I am just wondering at what point does wanting to be custom become too much.

taurran

iTrader: (18)

Thanks, but...

I could still do a full custom kit for roughly the same, if not cheaper, as buying a PL kit (which is not out yet). I wouldn't buy a kit from them regardless with what I want to do. I'm just saying if I could do it all over again I'd take it to Performance Factory and we'd do something crazy custom that was neither like what I have now or what Power Labs is doing.

Julian@MRC

iTrader: (28)

Thats cool.Glad your happy with the outcome!!

taurran

iTrader: (18)

Thanks again, but I'm not going to get ahead of myself with this. I'll wait for the dyno on Monday/Tuesday before I celebrate.

With what I paid for this setup, I still came out paying on average what I would have going another route. And, even though its taken a long time, I have it before the other big ST kits are on the market.

The only reason why it's been cost effective has been due to the help of first and foremost - Jeremy at Performance Factory, and also Turbonetics. Jeremy has taken this project as a personal challenge and gone well above and beyond what any other shop would be willing to do to help make it right. Reggie and the rest of the guys at Turbonetics have been awesome at insuring we have the right turbos and parts when issues have arisen too.

I would NEVER recommend anyone doing this kind of upgrade without the support of a shop like PF, and also someone to work with at the turbo manufacturer.

At this point, we know the car is capable of at least 550whp on a moderate boost setting. I just want to know for sure that we can crank boost up and add some timing to make big power. 550whp is nice, but for all the work put in we want more...

taurran

iTrader: (18)

lol... I won't count my chickens before they hatch if you know what I mean. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I'd be happy with 550whp but more would be awesome.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

carfi179

iTrader: (11)

Pretty sure been asked before and I'm too lazy to read 49 pages, what EMS are you running with this built UTEC? HKS V-pro? Thanks and G/L with the built I'm sure it will be some sick power!

taurran

iTrader: (18)

UTEC for now. I'm still weighing my options for the future. The ProEFI is looking nicer and nicer but I'm going to wait for customer feedback on it.

Devil Z

iTrader: (6)

Why is that. Do you not like the design of the PL kit?

Nothing implied just curious.

taurran

iTrader: (18)

The PL kit looks great for its intended purpose. It's basically the same as the Turbonetics design with much larger components.

But, now that I see what Jeremy at Performance Factory and the fabricator we have are capible of, I'd still go custom. Production kits are made to require as little alteration of the stock engine components as possible. I'd do it over and relocate a lot of the engine bay components to make it work in a way that would allow for much larger piping to be routed.

Besides, I need something that was available 6 months ago. Powerlabs ST was not.

Audible Mayhem

iTrader: (48)

yeah guys, it has been a learning experience for sure trying to upgrade the old kit. i know now what i would do if i could do it all over.

we will have it back on the dyno here very very soon...


craig doesnt have a lot of money invested in this setup, we have definitely taken care of him so far.

updates soon!!

taurran

iTrader: (18)

Actually, mods, I'll unlock this thread when it's cleaned up. Locked.

r0mey

iTrader: (35)

thread open? since OT is gone craig? if not we can re close it