All right folks, i just got back from a night of racing on the main strip and i have to share my experiance with my new turbo and compare it to the 4 turbos i have had in the past. I hope this helps someone when it comes time to upgrade there turbo!
First of all the car: 1995 Eclipse GST. Currently has 181,xxx miles on the shell. i have owned her for the last ~4 years. The motor: 6 bolt 2 liter, 9:1 compression wiseco pistons, 1G big rods, ARP hardwear, 1G stock head and intake manifold ported to match a large 1G TB, 2G ported exhaust manifold, MAFT with 3" MAF in blow thru setup with dejon UICP pipes and Greedy FMIC and 2.5" LICP, 3" turbo intake pipe, 2.5" downpipe, 2.5" test pipe, 3" Thermal R&D catback, 190 LPH pump with 650cc FIC injectors w/ stock FPR, stock compute only tuning with MAFT and retarding the base timing 4*.
Tuning: Boost/EGT/Wideband gauges, Palm Datalogger, MAFT's 4 knobs and thats it!
The install: I got the turbo off the classified section, $390 with SS AN oil return and oil feed, it has a mitsu hot side, so it bolted on to my manifold and o2 housing no problem but thats where the "bolt on" part ended.
Issues i ran into during the install: the turbo is a downflow so i had to come up with a 90* bend to make it connect to my LICP. Now if i was a good boy and ordered a 90* elbow i could have avoid the following hassle, but i'm not and i need everything now now now! I went to a muffler shop and they bent me a 2.5" 90* elbow to match my LICP and i resued the coupling i used on my t25/t28 to connect the elbow to the turbo. The big problem was the fact that the huge elbow had big clearence issues with the stock fan. i have to cut about 1.5" off each fan blade, and then cut most of the lower part of the fan shroud off to fit the elbow, again, this might be avoided by uing a 2" little elbow that you can get from most DSM shops. also an issue was the wastegate acuator: it has all 'up in the fan shroud! i just cut a little section out and its a tight but nice fit! So i guess my biggest problem was stock fan clearance, but nothing a grinder and some ingenuity couldn't take care of!
The T04E housing is huge! Most of the resear i did said i would have to dent the water pipe, not the case here! I was using a 1G turbo water pipe and actually had to grind on a small tab on the compressors housing and then grinf a small part of the tube that has the stock turbos water feed coming out of. i know its hard to under stand, but i just had to grid .1 mm off of each to make the setup work.
Overall the install was not a "bolt on" job but nothing major! I made up for the fan cutting by making sure the fans run on there highest setting whenever the computer turns them on, not matter what setting the computer wants. Search for this mod, its very easy and only requires bridging two wires on the fan's harness. It pushes a ton of air and is a temp fix until i can get some slim line fans.
Tuning: first we setup for 14 PSI to base line and make sure everythinbg was good. 14 PSI felt Okay, but nothing worth writing home about. Of course no one should buy this turbo for 14 PSI!
Slowly turned the baby up to 17 PSI and it felt GREAT! The turbo is slow to spool but feels awsome at 17PSI. I hit 17 by 4000 RPM with the poor tuning the MAFT alone offers! base timing was at the stock 5* advance and we only saw knock after a few back to back pulls. most runs ended in the 17* advance area.
Now we turn it up to 20 PSI. BADASS! this turbo pulls so much harder then the Big T28 or Big 16G could DREAM of! But i was only getting 10* advance, so i knew we where knock pretty badly! I added alittle more WOT gas and retarded the base timing down to 2* advance. Next few runs we saw 20-21 PSI with 16* advance on the logger and the bitch pulls like a raped APE!
Adding more gas would not bring the timing back so i finally took out another degree of stock timing to get 18* advance at 6800 RPM in 3rd gear and the car is pulling so hard i can not tell you how good it feels! I Mean we ran down a GTO with exhaust! Thats a badass 6 liter power plant i had nnot idea we where gonna pull a fender on a 400 HP GM
Now, being a FWD the turbo lag is a dream come true! the power isn't a shock at 3k RPM like the 16G or T28, it slowly moves into boost and then just rips! For rubber i have BFG Geforce 2 KDW's on 17" Konig Imagines 225/45/17 (yes, they rub!). But honestly, the lag is great and really helps make the FWD more consistent! once the turbo spoos life is GOOD and the scenery just blurs on by from 4-7k RPM!
This is all with poor tuning! Yeah the MAFT sucks at tuning and once i get my DSMLink, this turbo will be even more nasty!
Turbos i have had in the past:
T25: Nuff' said, bitch sucks!
14B: As a young DSMer the 14B was a great upgrade from the T25 but was a pain to install for the extra 30 HP i got (need 2G install kit).
Big 16G: I upgraded the 14B to a 16G within a year an i love the good 'ole 16g! I won't waste time telling you about it, but its a good turbo!
Killer T28: After my 16G died i got a really good deal on a Killer T28. Super easy to install, the T28 was a great mid range daily driver turbo, but it had NO topend pull! even at 23 PSI it was lacking punch. I would say the 16G and t28 where equall in power, but the t28 offered up the power at a mid range and the 16G had better topend (but the t28 just hit hard at 2800 RPM like the 16G couldn't!) Fun FUN turbos for around the town driving a making little rip here and there!
However, i had lots of wheel spin with the t28 because the powe came early in the RPMs and hard. This isn't a problem with the 50 trim!
The t04E turbos are nasty! i don' think i would want a more laggy turbo (wouldn't be fun to daily drive, sure it is vary streetable, but just not fun like the t28 or 50 trim is). The 50 trim is laggy to the point i don't rip it as much as i use to with the smaller turbos. But when i do rip it i don't miss the small turbos at all!
I made 330 WHP with the T28 @ 23PSI+MAFT, and the 50 trim blows it away. I have to be in the 360-380 WHP area at this point! As soon as a get a chance i will dyno her with and without DSMlink (if i have it by then!)
Overall: Lag is much more noticable, but i'm down with it on my FWD. Topend is killer! I MEAN KILLER!
Tonight we couldn't even find a car to race with us that had a chance! We killed a modded LS2 GTO, modded 350Z, modded trans am (not a WS6), and the only thing that hung with us was a street fighter 1100 CC yamaha bike. Blew away a 750 GSXR on the highway and got mopped by a 1300 GSXR 'busta.
Only thing in Ronanoke worth racing is damn bikes with the 50 Trim!
Tuning side note with my 9:1 CR: Only problem is alittle knock in 4th gear and having the base timing pulled back.These are issues that can only be solved with DSMLink and i can't wait! Later this week im going to get some 100 oct. race gas and try her out at 25 PSI!
Life is good and i will never look back at little turbos like the 16G! Lag sucks but the wait is well worth it and works out well on my FWD.
Thanks for reading my Book!
~William
First of all the car: 1995 Eclipse GST. Currently has 181,xxx miles on the shell. i have owned her for the last ~4 years. The motor: 6 bolt 2 liter, 9:1 compression wiseco pistons, 1G big rods, ARP hardwear, 1G stock head and intake manifold ported to match a large 1G TB, 2G ported exhaust manifold, MAFT with 3" MAF in blow thru setup with dejon UICP pipes and Greedy FMIC and 2.5" LICP, 3" turbo intake pipe, 2.5" downpipe, 2.5" test pipe, 3" Thermal R&D catback, 190 LPH pump with 650cc FIC injectors w/ stock FPR, stock compute only tuning with MAFT and retarding the base timing 4*.
Tuning: Boost/EGT/Wideband gauges, Palm Datalogger, MAFT's 4 knobs and thats it!
The install: I got the turbo off the classified section, $390 with SS AN oil return and oil feed, it has a mitsu hot side, so it bolted on to my manifold and o2 housing no problem but thats where the "bolt on" part ended.
Issues i ran into during the install: the turbo is a downflow so i had to come up with a 90* bend to make it connect to my LICP. Now if i was a good boy and ordered a 90* elbow i could have avoid the following hassle, but i'm not and i need everything now now now! I went to a muffler shop and they bent me a 2.5" 90* elbow to match my LICP and i resued the coupling i used on my t25/t28 to connect the elbow to the turbo. The big problem was the fact that the huge elbow had big clearence issues with the stock fan. i have to cut about 1.5" off each fan blade, and then cut most of the lower part of the fan shroud off to fit the elbow, again, this might be avoided by uing a 2" little elbow that you can get from most DSM shops. also an issue was the wastegate acuator: it has all 'up in the fan shroud! i just cut a little section out and its a tight but nice fit! So i guess my biggest problem was stock fan clearance, but nothing a grinder and some ingenuity couldn't take care of!
The T04E housing is huge! Most of the resear i did said i would have to dent the water pipe, not the case here! I was using a 1G turbo water pipe and actually had to grind on a small tab on the compressors housing and then grinf a small part of the tube that has the stock turbos water feed coming out of. i know its hard to under stand, but i just had to grid .1 mm off of each to make the setup work.
Overall the install was not a "bolt on" job but nothing major! I made up for the fan cutting by making sure the fans run on there highest setting whenever the computer turns them on, not matter what setting the computer wants. Search for this mod, its very easy and only requires bridging two wires on the fan's harness. It pushes a ton of air and is a temp fix until i can get some slim line fans.
Tuning: first we setup for 14 PSI to base line and make sure everythinbg was good. 14 PSI felt Okay, but nothing worth writing home about. Of course no one should buy this turbo for 14 PSI!
Slowly turned the baby up to 17 PSI and it felt GREAT! The turbo is slow to spool but feels awsome at 17PSI. I hit 17 by 4000 RPM with the poor tuning the MAFT alone offers! base timing was at the stock 5* advance and we only saw knock after a few back to back pulls. most runs ended in the 17* advance area.
Now we turn it up to 20 PSI. BADASS! this turbo pulls so much harder then the Big T28 or Big 16G could DREAM of! But i was only getting 10* advance, so i knew we where knock pretty badly! I added alittle more WOT gas and retarded the base timing down to 2* advance. Next few runs we saw 20-21 PSI with 16* advance on the logger and the bitch pulls like a raped APE!
Adding more gas would not bring the timing back so i finally took out another degree of stock timing to get 18* advance at 6800 RPM in 3rd gear and the car is pulling so hard i can not tell you how good it feels! I Mean we ran down a GTO with exhaust! Thats a badass 6 liter power plant i had nnot idea we where gonna pull a fender on a 400 HP GM
Now, being a FWD the turbo lag is a dream come true! the power isn't a shock at 3k RPM like the 16G or T28, it slowly moves into boost and then just rips! For rubber i have BFG Geforce 2 KDW's on 17" Konig Imagines 225/45/17 (yes, they rub!). But honestly, the lag is great and really helps make the FWD more consistent! once the turbo spoos life is GOOD and the scenery just blurs on by from 4-7k RPM!
This is all with poor tuning! Yeah the MAFT sucks at tuning and once i get my DSMLink, this turbo will be even more nasty!
Turbos i have had in the past:
T25: Nuff' said, bitch sucks!
14B: As a young DSMer the 14B was a great upgrade from the T25 but was a pain to install for the extra 30 HP i got (need 2G install kit).
Big 16G: I upgraded the 14B to a 16G within a year an i love the good 'ole 16g! I won't waste time telling you about it, but its a good turbo!
Killer T28: After my 16G died i got a really good deal on a Killer T28. Super easy to install, the T28 was a great mid range daily driver turbo, but it had NO topend pull! even at 23 PSI it was lacking punch. I would say the 16G and t28 where equall in power, but the t28 offered up the power at a mid range and the 16G had better topend (but the t28 just hit hard at 2800 RPM like the 16G couldn't!) Fun FUN turbos for around the town driving a making little rip here and there!
However, i had lots of wheel spin with the t28 because the powe came early in the RPMs and hard. This isn't a problem with the 50 trim!
The t04E turbos are nasty! i don' think i would want a more laggy turbo (wouldn't be fun to daily drive, sure it is vary streetable, but just not fun like the t28 or 50 trim is). The 50 trim is laggy to the point i don't rip it as much as i use to with the smaller turbos. But when i do rip it i don't miss the small turbos at all!
I made 330 WHP with the T28 @ 23PSI+MAFT, and the 50 trim blows it away. I have to be in the 360-380 WHP area at this point! As soon as a get a chance i will dyno her with and without DSMlink (if i have it by then!)
Overall: Lag is much more noticable, but i'm down with it on my FWD. Topend is killer! I MEAN KILLER!
Tonight we couldn't even find a car to race with us that had a chance! We killed a modded LS2 GTO, modded 350Z, modded trans am (not a WS6), and the only thing that hung with us was a street fighter 1100 CC yamaha bike. Blew away a 750 GSXR on the highway and got mopped by a 1300 GSXR 'busta.
Only thing in Ronanoke worth racing is damn bikes with the 50 Trim!
Tuning side note with my 9:1 CR: Only problem is alittle knock in 4th gear and having the base timing pulled back.These are issues that can only be solved with DSMLink and i can't wait! Later this week im going to get some 100 oct. race gas and try her out at 25 PSI!
Life is good and i will never look back at little turbos like the 16G! Lag sucks but the wait is well worth it and works out well on my FWD.
Thanks for reading my Book!
~William
