Planning a Product Review on XS Power & SSautochrome products - need some tips

TERBOLASER · 01-23-2006, 02:36 AM

After I receive tips from the members, I will post this as a complete Product Review in the Tech Guide.

Alright guys.... My fellow dsmers.... This is for all of yall out there that are like me in college. Either a broke college student or husband who has to ask his wive if he can buy a car part. I've been a memeber of this forum for quite a while now and I have seen alot of stuff said about companies on ebay. Some people sayinig "Company A" is awesome, then others in the same thread say the same company is complete trash. Then they will flame each other over which is better.... But usually none of the dsmers in these threads have ever dealt with these companies on ebay that they are talking about, nor do they have any tangible proof to back up their claims. Which to me is all just misinformation and just hear say. Makes us just as bad as those honda boys we hate. L.O.L.

Sooooo....... I took it upon myself to do a review on probably the two most disputed ebay sellers of what most would consider the high end ( what should be pretty expensive) parts of the motorsports industry. Particularly XS power and SSautochrome..... Yeah I know I went against what probably 68 percent of dsmtuners members think or believe about XSPower and there little bro SSautochrome , but it had to be done and somebody had to do it and I'm willing to take a risk for the dsm Community just to document it.

Why you Ask?????? Well its very simple.... everyone ( not bashing them because I love them But usually our wisemen) likes to say "You get what you pay for" when it comes to less expensive Ebay parts. But do you ever stop and think " What if I'm getting less than I payed for" when buying a name brand part? To me it has to be observed. And its for this simple reason " I Wear out Nike's just as fast as a pair of Walmart throw-backs" so Why pay more if its not needed. No one wants to pay more than something is worth.

Now on to the relevant point of this topic.... What did I buy on ebay from XSpower???? I purchased a T3/T4 57 trim floating bearing turbo (.50 A/R .63 exhuast) that came in a kit along with a Externally gated equal length manifold, a RFL BOV, and a 40mm external wastegate aswell as the oil lines and fitting for turbo. So early morning last thursday on the 19th of January I won the auction and avoided the buy it now price of around 680 plus shipping and won it for 550 plus shipping and tax for a total of 615 bux shipped to my door. I paid at nearly 3 or 4am on the 20th and recieved my order the next day at around 4 pm-5pm. So the shipping is fast I'd say. I'm happy about that. I wish there was more email contact but I don't know how much contact you can really have via email if you get the person their order in under 24 hours. So I think thats negligable.

Especially since they included a bunch of extra parts and accessories and upgraded my wastgate from a 40mm wastegate to 46mm.

SO THE ORDER CAME FAST.... BUT AT WHAT COST????? " The Inspection"

Okay so now the part where yall get to see what I recieved in the order with detailed pictures on a day by day basis. So first I'll tell yall that everything came and was undamaged and all accounted for as well as some extras. The extras include and Evo billet Fuelrail, the Upgraded 46mm wastegate, 5 silicone couplings with 2 t-bolt clamps each, and a wastegate dumptube. Now today I'm just gunna show a general picture of each item and then all the stuff in the kit. sorry there wont be that much detail today Im tired and have a 9am class tomorrow.

This first picture is of the RFL BOV.

The next is the 46mmwastegate with two flanges and the adapter seat.....and then the free dump tube.

This is the free Billet Evo fuelRail.

The Equal length manifold external gate setup.

The free Couplings and clamps

Okay what you all been waiting for

the XSpower T3/T4 57 trim

And this is just the kit as a whole. layed out on the floor in the room.

Okay sorry if I had any gramatical errors its about 4am right now finishing this off and I have class in 5 hours. But thats all for today Thanks for all those that are reading this
Its going to be basically a blog but an Important one.

NEXT POST WILL BE " THE INSPECTION" Part II of XSpower & SSautochrome "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly"

Thanks one more time to all the dsmers reading post comments thoughts whatever, no bashing all things said will be taken into account if they are valid.

Thomas91169 · 01-23-2006, 03:10 AM

good luck, did you already clock the turbo? its pointing to the pass side on the first turbo pic, then its pointing down on the last with all the stuff.

i look forward to seeing how all these parts last and a serious review of them. hurry up and get them on the car and running for real.

Killa_dsm · 01-23-2006, 03:19 AM

This should be a very good topic! Good luck and I cant wait to see the results!

yangtech · 01-23-2006, 08:12 AM

i can't wait for the result either...

1993eclipseGS · 01-23-2006, 08:18 AM

Hopefully everyone can stay on topic without bashing and this thread ending up getting closed.

99gst_racer · 01-23-2006, 08:26 AM

Not trying to be a Nazi or anything, but this is not the place for product reviews. We have a specific forum for this. Please post your review here. I will, however, leave this thread open for questions, comments, and general discussion.

evers310 · 01-23-2006, 08:43 AM

I'm definitely looking forward to this.

A few questions... how does the quality of the header appear to be? How good are the welds? They look good from the pic but it's hard to tell. Also, what are you going to use for an O2 housing?

95redgsx · 01-23-2006, 08:47 AM

looks like decent stuff , I to am on a tight ass budget and will probably pick one of there t3/t4 manifolds to mount my gt40 to . for 200 bucks I'll give it a try

tbTalonES94 · 01-23-2006, 09:10 AM

I used an SS autochrome 34mm external wastegate for a few thousand miles. Took a beating and never gave a fuss. I still have it actually. Probably still works fine.

TERBOLASER · 01-23-2006, 11:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas91169

good luck, did you already clock the turbo? its pointing to the pass side on the first turbo pic, then its pointing down on the last with all the stuff.

i look forward to seeing how all these parts last and a serious review of them. hurry up and get them on the car and running for real.

Yea man I already clocked the turbo and have it set up with the oil ports in there proper locations and then so the turbo can be routed properly.

Uhhh I,m not gunna rush things to get them on the car. although I have every thing I need minus a fuel pump and radio for the car. I think rushing a project is one of those things that gets over looked and then when a kit like this destroys its self on start up the tuner always like to blame the parts when he is at fault for taking short cuts. So It wont be this week or the next that the kit goes on ...Im gunna plan in detail the set up and get those last few parts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by evers310

I'm definitely looking forward to this.

A few questions... how does the quality of the header appear to be? How good are the welds? They look good from the pic but it's hard to tell. Also, what are you going to use for an O2 housing?

the quality looks impressive so far in looks department. Welds are all good and well laid consistently. The main issue with the header and only issue so far appears to be the manifold to turbo flange is warped so I will get it planed so it will be flat. ( cheap fix still accepptable. Although I am working on some way to add more support than the manifold has. Mind you I have a heavy ass T3/T4 57 trim to put on mine so im just not taking chances I'm Pretty sure the manifold can easily support a stock or medium sized mitsu turbo). all in an all not bad so far if you dont mind taking a few extra steps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 95redgsx

looks like decent stuff , I to am on a tight ass budget and will probably pick one of there t3/t4 manifolds to mount my gt40 to . for 200 bucks I'll give it a try

Just support as much weight from the turbo as you can and take that load off the manifold. Should be fine

Well let me tell all of yall the schedule for me writing and updating this thread. Its will be on an every other Day schedule during the week and If I get to it on the weekends.

So I'll be posting Tonight, then again on weds, then again on friday. Weekends are up to me depends on how much home work I have.

Thanks for all yall that are participating in the thread and thaks to the moderators aswell.

danyz250f · 01-23-2006, 12:48 PM

I have their turbo, manifold, o2 dump, and fmic. I think it is great i have ran the Turbo, manifold, and dump for like 2,000 miles and no complaints, except i didnt clean off the headers when i started the car for the first time and they have fingerprints permenently burned on them.

TimG · 01-23-2006, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TERBOLASER

I think rushing a project is one of those things that gets over looked and then when a kit like this destroys its self on start up the tuner always like to blame the parts when he is at fault for taking short cuts.

I'll start out by saying my buddy has one of these equal length manifolds on his car and it has worked for about a 1000miles with no issues. But being mechanical engineers, we wanted to figure somethings out about it.

The easiest and crudest test brought to our attention that the flanges were made out of mild steel and the manifold runners were made out of stainless steel. A magnet test revealed this. If the magnet sticks to the flanges but not to the runner tubes, the design of the manifold hasn't changed.

The issue? Stainless steel expands at a different rate then mild steel when subjected to that much heat. The welds tend to crack under all the loads of heating and cooling down at different rates.

But, I have never PERSONALLY seen one fail but then again, I have a buddy with one so we'll see how long it will last.

The good news? I believe they will replace the manifold if it cracks within a year of the buy date.

Ludachris · 01-23-2006, 01:23 PM

Actually, this post should go in the Product Review section in the Tech Guide. I'll copy it over.

1993eclipseGS · 01-23-2006, 01:28 PM

You should take pictures and make right-up's for the tech guide section, For people that might be installing these parts or the like, Down the road.

TERBOLASER · 01-24-2006, 08:19 PM

Okay guys the inspection Well everything has been slowed down because I need a walbro 255 and then My tuning apparatus aswell. But never the less Im still checking the parts so Ill give yall the pictures of the BOV taken apart and then the manifold. 1 problem encountered so far. ?????? The manifold to turbo flange is warped( it isnt flat) it has a slight curve so Im going to get that to a machine shop and have them re plane it so it will be flat perpendicular to the bolt holes.

There is one more thing Im dabbling the fasteners given to hold the turbo to the manifold. I cant really find the proper torque settings for them if I tried . I cant determine the grade of the bolt on the SAE gradings scale. or even know there tensile stregnth so Im not going to use them Ill go and pick up some proper fasteners this week.

anyways here is the design of their BOV the RFL style.

horn screws into main body. ......(below) is thethe pressure side of the BOV that has to be sealed. Its sealed with a o-ring Normal.

yeah now this is it Completely taken apart.

No on the top of the BOV they used a what seems to be silicone or sometype of soft plastic washer to seal the Vaccumn nipple to the top of the BOV.

The next set of photos are the piston and spring assembly and the under side of the BOVs cap. It should all be self explanitory spring goes inside piston, piston goes in sleeve cap screws on to compress spring yadda yadda yadda.

the last part the inside of the sleeve. this is wear I decided to apply gracious amounts of lithium grease. As to not follow the same course as I last did with the last RFL BOV.

Ohh yeah a word to the wise when they purchase a turbo from xs power be sure to properly clock your turbo so that the oil inlet and oil return ports are where they should be
inlet on top and return on bottom. Im pretty sure there are plenty of people who just turn the compressor housing so that it points the needed direction with out any regard to the oil ports. Then bolts it on and hooks up the lines etc. If you DO that your liable to have a OIL pressure issue inside the turbo because your flow coming into the turbo is higher than the flow of oil coming out. so make sure you do it right so you dont have a smoking turbo ont he first day.

it should ook like this:

And for your enjoyment since the turbo is pretty big itook into consideration that this thing may lag. so I must attempt to force as much heat in to the exhuast housing as possible. the more heat I put in the exhuast housing from the motor the more efficient it will be ( less lag) at spooling more heat = more energy remember A turbo isnt a simple generator it works off the thermal expansion of hot gases( what sum like to call superheated) . SO I wrapped the manifold (will wrap the exaust housing as well) in thermal wrap to lock in heat. and here is the first wrapp. Any ways to me this is all theoretical its just basic knowledge making an assumption but its an assumption I believe in. *****Thats the only reason leaning out the fuel lowend spools your turbo faster because it produces a hotter burn. But my theory is to reduce lag with out haveing to run dangerously lean. but Blah! here is the manifold wrapped. ( some body correct me if Im wrong Im only 20 years old im not expected to know this one.)***

Any ways anyone have anyquestions or comments on the parts things to look at things they want to see of the parts the next time around im gunna talk about the manifold.
But please throw ideas out there people.

Livid · 01-24-2006, 08:44 PM

I have that BOV and I like it alot. Not good if you don't like it loud though. P.S. thats a hell of a price for that kit!!!

44pirate · 01-25-2006, 06:26 AM

I found that the stock O2 housing bolts worked perfect for turbo to maifold flange. The short ones of course. They are the right grade, length and what not.

TERBOLASER · 01-26-2006, 05:39 PM

Well I cant say that it is exactly legit( what I was doing witht he clamp lol) But I used a t bolt clamp on my beater and managed to snap the bolt in the clamp. I was putting silicone couplings on the exhaust to couple together a 3 piece exhuast on the ae86 beater. and one just snapped at what i would call half tention. but it broke at the "T" end. In my opinion it was a weak clamp the way it broke. but we will see how the other 9 clamps hold up. I'll post pictures of the clamp later on today.