Resolved Forced Performance FP3150 Dual BB turbo installed!

[Ludachris]

Forced Performance will soon have this turbo available to the public. What is it? A dual ball bearing 50-trim turbo using the popular FP30 turbine housing (just like the FP3052 and FP3065). For those not familiar with the FP30 housing it's designed to match up to a Mitsubishi-flanged exhaust manifold and uses v-band flanges to connect the external wastegate and the FP O2 sensor housing (as the photos below show).

I'm using the ceramic coated FP Race Exhaust Manifold with the FP3150 turbo, the FP O2 sensor housing and FP wastegate dump tube for the Tial 44mm wastegate. Forced Performance supplies all of the necessary oil supply and drain lines, gaskets, and nuts and bolts. Since I'm not using factory coolant lines, nor did I have any laying around, I made up some SS braided lines and purchased some fittings online to make it all go together.

The install was pretty straight forward. I found that I had to do a little grinding on the front motor mount to allow clearance of the oil drain line. I also had to get a little creative with the coolant lines. I ended up cutting the water pipe and welding on a -6 AN bung and drilled out and tapped the nipples on the thermostat housing and used 1/4" pipe plugs for the ports that were no longer used and a 1/4" NPT to -6 AN male adapter for the coolant return line. I used a banjo fitting for the backside of the turbo which had a female 1/4" thread to allow for another 1/4" NPT to -6 AN male adapter to connect the -6 elbow.

I took the car out to the road course for a quick shake down and though I had a few issues I can say that the turbo spools very fast. I was only running about 18 lbs of boost and I was seeing full boost at about 3600 rpm. Now that's with very light tuning. I'm going to be playing with it some more over the next couple of weeks to get it ready for another test and tune track day. I hope to have all the kinks worked out soon for some Time Trials competition. I'll be posting more about that later.

Here are some photos:

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[DSMSpyder99]

thats a very creative way to hook up the coolant line HaHaHa. Looks like a great setup good luck out on the track.

 

[T9S1i]

ahhhh snap! ive been waiting to hear about this turbo since fp "hinted" about it in the announcement of their race manifold thread!

Very Clean install luda!

Let us know more about the turbo when you do! I want to see some numbers at the dyno and 1/4 mile track (even though those arent your main build reasons)

Good luck with the new setup man! I cant wait to get my hands on one!

 

[perley03]

ludachris:
take a look at this picture and please tell me what this is.

 

[wimploki]

Simply amazing...Wow! Drool

Luda, how much did it cost you for the whole setup? I'm thinking about going the same route.

Please post dyno #'s soon.

 

[Ludachris]

Simply amazing...Wow! Drool

Luda, how much did it cost you for the whole setup? I'm thinking about going the same route.

Please post dyno #'s soon.

If you take into account the SS line and fittings, turbo, manifold, wastegate, O2 housing, and other misc fittings the total gets up into the $2500+ range. I'm guessing the turbo alone will go for around $1400 or so when it's officially released. Anyone who owns an FP turbo will tell you the extra $200-300 (compared to the alternatives) for the turbo is worth it. You might be able to get a deal on some of that stuff used and many can recoup some of that cost when they sell their old setups. It's definitely not the cheapest option but I think it's the best option for what I'm doing (road racing) and it's actually not that much more expensive than the next best alternative setup when you do the math.

I'm guessing that this will end up being the strongest ball bearing 50-trim turbo on the market. Slightly more expensive than the ball bearing PTE 50-trim but it also has a less restrictive turbine housing that should help a lot with spool, power, and efficiency. I was going to go with a full Garrett housing if I didn't go FP anyway because the Mitsu turbine housings are known to be somewhat limiting. If you're on a budget they're decent, but if you're trying to spend a little more to do it right you should definitely go FP or at the very least full Garrett. With FP introducing their new exhaust manifold the FP turbine housing makes perfect sense.


perley03: that's a phenolic spacer that's supposed to insulate the manifold from the heat from the head to keep the intake charge cooler, and it also lengthens the runners a little.

 

[underradar92]

ludachris:
take a look at this picture and please tell me what this is.

Wood/Phenolic resin intake spacer. Who makes that one Chris?

^^^ Beat me to it. My Q still stands.

 

[project_tsi]

I believe thats the phenolic spacer for the FRH IM

 

[underradar92]

Upon looking around a bit, you appear to be correct Dan. Good call and thank you.

 

[perley03]

Ahh, thanks for the answer. Just was curious as to what exactly that was, and what it was made out of. Definatly looked like wood .

 

[Steve93Talon]

If you take into account the SS line and fittings, turbo, manifold, wastegate, O2 housing, and other misc fittings the total gets up into the $2500+ range. I'm guessing the turbo alone will go for around $1400 or so when it's officially released.

Ouch. Full T3 setup territory there. For $1399 you can just get a 3052 if you want to stay bolt-on and be quick spooling. If they want to sell these things, they'd have to be in the $999-1199 range. Just above the typical PTE/other bolt-ons, but cheaper than the FPGTs.

 

[AuntiesTSI]

Where did you get that banjo fitting from?? Looks very nice and clean.

 

[JOEY A]

Put this turbo close to the same price as 50trims and there going to sell out!

1K sounds good for a avg Dsmer...

 

[gsxtasy]

Being a 50 trim im guessing this flows around 49lb/min right? If thats the case why not just go with the 52? Just wondering.

 

[Boosted98gsx]

Because it's new, someone needs to test it, the risk is low with it being from FP, and Robert chooses his testers very carefully.

I have 1 question though, is that an E or an S comp cover luda?

 

[daren_p]

Being a 50 trim im guessing this flows around 49lb/min right? If thats the case why not just go with the 52? Just wondering.

50 trims are usually rated at 45 lb/min not 49, thought we all know there underrated (the GT series are as well) Why not go with the 3052, Im guessing more then likely because it appears his main goals are road racing & the extra spool of the 3052 probably isn't the best match for this (adds ~500 rpm to spool).

It looks to me to be an E cover. As for the price, I wouldn't think it would be quite $1400 as that would be more then their GT line. I would think around the $1200 mark would be a resonable price & I can say the FP quality is excellent

Ludachris: You have to let me know how long that Tial stays black. Mines only got abit over a months use & now its an ugly shade of orange/copper. I'm thinking the heat has caused it to change colour but I don't remember seeing anyone else's Tial changing this much. Don't know if mines defective but if I knew it would change colour this much I would have went with the polished version.

 

[Greg Collier]

Chris,
I noticed that you came directly off the engine with the FP turbo filter... I did that initially resulting in a constant "leak" battle. I ended up using a straight fitting (got rid of the banjo one) and put the filter in-line. When it leaked the oil blew on to the manifold creating a bit of smoke (just another thing to deal with when you're on the track)

 

[Black94DSM]

I had a black tial wastegate and it turned into a black cherry color in about 5k miles. Looked awsome!

Looking to hear more about this turbo. Looks great.

 

[DarthBulk]

Looks really good, Chris. I would keep an eye on the lower radiator hose, where it connects to the water pipe, though. You might not have this problem since you have the FP exhaust manifold, but on my setup (not too different from yours) with a DNP tubular manifold, that lower radiator hose connection gets dry and cracked in a short amount of time. I assume it is from the heat. I plan on getting a silicone hose like in Greg Collier's picture above.

 

[Ludachris]

Ouch. Full T3 setup territory there. For $1399 you can just get a 3052 if you want to stay bolt-on and be quick spooling. If they want to sell these things, they'd have to be in the $999-1199 range. Just above the typical PTE/other bolt-ons, but cheaper than the FPGTs.

This turbo has a Garrett Dual BB 50 trim Stage 3 CHRA. It might be cheaper than the 3052 I don't know I just guessed. You'll have to wait for FP to announce pricing. And even if they charge $1300 that's only about $100-200 more than the PTE BB turbos.

 

[Ludachris]

Put this turbo close to the same price as 50trims and there going to sell out!

1K sounds good for a avg Dsmer...

Well, the SCM5031RE is probably the turbo people will be looking at if they're considering this one and it usually sells for about $1100. I think the FP3150 is worth a couple hundred dollars more for the better designed turbine housing.

Can the average DSMer afford it? I don't know that the average DSMer can afford gas these days. But for the DSMers who want a ball bearing 50-trim designed for our cars without the limitation of the Mitsu turbine housing and without having to convert to a full Garrett setup, this will be a great choice.

 

[Ludachris]

Looks really good, Chris. I would keep an eye on the lower radiator hose, where it connects to the water pipe, though. You might not have this problem since you have the FP exhaust manifold, but on my setup (not too different from yours) with a DNP tubular manifold, that lower radiator hose connection gets dry and cracked in a short amount of time. I assume it is from the heat. I plan on getting a silicone hose like in Greg Collier's picture above.

I'll keep an eye out for that. I had no issues with my old DNP manifold, but it was also 2000* Jet Hot coated, which not many DSMers do.

 

[Ludachris]

Chris,
I noticed that you came directly off the engine with the FP turbo filter... I did that initially resulting in a constant "leak" battle. I ended up using a straight fitting (got rid of the banjo one) and put the filter in-line. When it leaked the oil blew on to the manifold creating a bit of smoke (just another thing to deal with when you're on the track)

It's funny you say this Greg, I had a little bit of an oil leak before the event. I tried tightening it up and it was fine. But I'm not too confident it won't come back. I'll probably run a straight fitting like you did to solve that.

 

[Ludachris]

Hey Greg, by the way, can you let me know which radiator hoses you used? I thought it was for the 2G but I remember you having an issue with the fitment of the lower one. I can't find where you posted about it though.

 

[Ludachris]

Being a 50 trim im guessing this flows around 49lb/min right? If thats the case why not just go with the 52? Just wondering.

Spool.

The power potential is greater with the 3052 but the 3150 will spool better. I might find that I need more power later but for now I want better spool and I think this 50-trim will put down better power than others on the market.