This article is for those of you who are new to DSM's or turbos in general. I have added a section describing the proper upgrading process, and this article is now VERY long. It has lots of good inforation, and is intended to be read by those who are serious about learning as much as possible about turbos. This article is not everything you will need and you would be foolish to read this and believe you have a full understanding about turbochargers and the turbo system.
Turbocharger's are a method of increasing the power of an engine via forced induction. A engine makes a certain amount of power, and with each stroke draws in air which is then compressed, ignited and exhausted. This is how your car makes power. With the addition of a turbocharger, the power level can rise a huge amount, but only if it is done right. Turbochargers "boost" It compresses air and then pushes it into the engine. When it comes time for the ignition, there will be more air in the cylinder, and (if done properly) more fuel to compensate. More fuel and air in the cylinders will create more powerful explosions and give the engine more power. But how do we get this extra air?Turbocharger does it for us. The turbocharger is a fairly simple device, and has only a few parts. The housing, err...houses all the internal parts. A turbo is bolted up to your exhaust manifold, and then to a downpipe. Why the hell would you want a turbo in the way of your exhaust? Because it gets its power from the exhaust. A turbine is affixed to a rotating shaft and is positioned so that all the exhaust gases coming from the engine have to go through the turbo. Imagine how a steam boat works, hot air pushes against the wheel which moves the boat. The turbine moves in a similar way, the exhaust gases all travel through the turbo, and in the process spin the turbine over 100,000 RPM. After the gas has pushed through the turbine, it exits into the downpipe which is just a....downpipe connecting to your cat (if you run one). Now, spinning the exhaust turbine alone does nothing for power. This is where the other side of the turbo comes into play. The other side of the turbo has a compressor wheel, which compresses incoming air. The compressor wheel is attached to the same shaft as the exhaust wheel, but on the opposite side. So what happens when the exhaust wheel is spun? The compressor wheel will have to rotate along with it since it is affixed to the same shaft. Now, the compressor rwheel will take the incoming air (the "cool side of the turbo gets the air from your intake. Your intake runs directly to the turbo.) and compress it. The compressed air is then sent through your piping and one way or another ends up in your cylinders. As you can recall, the power is made by air in the engine, and the turbo forces air into the engine. The air is considered forced because it is more than your engine would take in with natural aspiration.
With the expansion of any gases, heat will rise, and this stays true for turbochargers, too. After the air has been compressed, it will exit the turbo into the piping to your engine and will expand in the process...the hotter the air the less dense your flow will be. This is where a wastegate and intercooler comes into play. A wastegate is essential for a modern turbocharged car. A wastegate regulates the amount (measured in PSI (pounds per square inch) or in bar (a ratio to atmospheric pressure. 1 bar is ~14.7 psi at sea level))
As long as there is sufficient exhaust to spin the turbines, the turbo's shaft accelerates, building more boost. A wastegate will open when he boost reaches a preset level. On DSM's it is 10-12 stock. The wastegate triggers, and a connecting arm will open a flapper, imagine if you will a small hobbits door or something similar. With this flapper open, some of the exhaust bypassed, which prevents the turbine from gaining speed, thus regulating boost.
Intercoolers are essential for most turbocharged cars, but are not fully NECESSARY for cars boosting very little (eg, Honda pushing 5~6psi doesn't need one but it would help). Since the gas has expanded due to the heat created in compressing the air, it will be very hot. If the air is too hot when it enters the cylinder it can ignite without the spark plug firing. This is bad for your engine and bad for performance. A intercooler is placed somewhere in the tubing from the turbo to the engine, usually midway. The intercooler then cools the charge by radiation of heat energy through the fins of the intercooler and with the cool air from the outside passing through the fins.. As the air goes through, it cools off and contracts, becoming denser. Denser air means you can squeeze more air into a cylinder, so when the air fuel mixture ignites, the power from expansion is bigger.
When you shift gears, the throttle body slams shut, not allowing any more air to enter the intake manifold for the duration of the shift. However, your turbo is still boosting because you still have exhaust flow. If the air were to exit the turbo, rebound off the throttle body and travel back towards the turbine, it would attempt to force the turbo's compressor wheel in the opposite direction that is was spinning. If air does make it back to the compressor wheel, it can cause damage to your wheel, or break it. The wheels are made of alloy's that are made to widthstand extreme temperatures, but are not fracture proof. The cure for this is a Blow off valve, or compressor bypass valve. A blow off valve is placed somewhere after the intercooler and before the throttle body. When you shift, the blow off valve opens and redirects any air heading back to the compressor wheel to the intake. BOV's can also be vented, which means instead of returning the excess air to the intake, it is simply vented to the atmosphere. On a stock car this can cause problems like stalling. The best fix is a maf translator and gm maf, but I will not go into these here. If you are stock, don't vent but if you do you may some problems.
This concludes the basics of turbocharger section of this article. Great sites to find out more on how turbos work.
www.howstuffworks.com
www.vfaq.com ----great site. It's a must
this site has some amazing articles! Do your research.......
Superchargers vs. turbos. Lots of people ask what the difference is. Superchargers run off your belt's, although to my knowlodge there is no supercharger for eclipses asides the 3g. Because superchargers need to run off a belt to turn their compressor, it saps power. Superchargers can take over 40hp just to run. Turbos do not sap ANY power. A supercharger will have boost at low RPM but it will only reach top boost at the top of your powerband because to reach the (commonly 8-10psi) it will have to have the engine RPM at a appropriate amount. Some of the more advanced superchargers will not have many of the problems mentioned above, but to my knowlodge on this subject (which is limited) all superchargers will take some power because they are run off a belt.
OK, it has been a while but I am on summer vacation and don't have much to do and my car is down
so I will add a section onto this article about upgrading (properly) your turbocharger for a DSM.
If you are new to turbos and dsms we should get a few things straight. Putting on a turbocharger does not increase power- at least by itself. Take, for example the Greddy 18g 95-99 4g63t (4g63 is the engine code for turbo eclipses/talons/lasers) turbo upgrade kit. Just by looking at it, I can tell that it is an utter waste of time and money. Heres the explanation: the turbo kit consists of a turbocharger, MUCH bigger than the stock turbo....roughly twice the flow in CFMs (cubic foot per min.) of the stock t-25. If you are a 1g E/T/L you are running a 14b turbo, which in compared to the t-25 is a beast. 14b flows roughly 400cfms versus the t25 290cfm. The kit also contains an intake pipe- and thats it for performance parts. It also contains necessary adapting hardware, oil feed and return lines, bolts, gaskets etc etc....Now, lets assume you do purchase this "kit" and put it on your car. You will lose all your low end torque....no more 10psi of boost at 2800RPM, get used to it, thats practically the only great thing about the t25- great spool. You now have twice the exhaust flow of your old turbo, but your cars exhaust, intercooler, ecu and fuel system are still made for a car that is pushing 290cfm. Starting to see how this presents a problem? You will have more back pressure from your constricted exhaust....imagine trying to blow as hard as you can through one of those tiny coffee straws when you really need a beefy jack in the box super wide shake straws to blow freely. A turbocharger is kind of a lung upgrade for your car, and must be compensated for with an exhaust system. Exhaust is the an essential part for a good turbo upgrade. Mandrel bent 3" is best, and there are more brands you can shake a stick at, so do some shopping. Now, lets say you have your exhaust- and your overpriced greddy turbo kit...good to go right? Wrong. Your car can shoot hot air out fast, but how fast can it suck it in? Not very well with the stock airbox. Time for a filter K&N F.I.P.K is awesome and cheap. Filter should be your first mod. Now all your breathing is taken care of, we can move on to other things. Fuel. As explained earlier in the into to turbos part of this writeup, when you push more air into your engine you need to add more fuel or you will end up with a lean air to fuel ratio which is bad for your engine and can cause knock, or detintion. Your car is flowing more air but no more gas is getting to your engine! If the turbo and exhaust are the respiratory system, the fuel is the...err brain fart but the system that moves blood around to where it is needed- in this case, the engine. The engine is really the heart of the car, so that would make the fuel pump the aortic pumps, its job is to get fuel to the injectors. The stock fuel pump flows somewhere around 100 liters per hour. This will not support much more hp than stock. Upgrading a fuel pump to either a walbro 190lph fuel pump (for 400 or less hp applications) or a walbro 255 or 255 high pressure (for higher than 400hp and insane hp applications) will allow you to get the proper amount of fuel to your injectors. (If you get a walbro 255lph of either type you will need to upgrade your fuel pressure regulator) Now you have plenty fuel going to your injectors, but, like the rest of your cars systems, the injectors were made for the stock turbo. The injectors flow 450cc of fuel per min. The injectors can be kept for while on a turbo upgrade....a very mild upgrade, and should support somewhere around 250 hp- @ 100% injector duty. Safely running injectors should be kept around 80%, it is OK to run then a little higher, but when you are running them over 90% they can fail, and will not close when they are supposed to and will dump excess fuel into the engine, which can cause problems. I don't know the limits of the stock injectors running on a 18g, but on my EVO III 16g, they max out at 101% when running a 3rd gear pull with dsmlink....time to upgrade I know, its coming...
Upgrading injectors is not as simple as just putting in bigger injectors. For 300whp on crappy 91 cali gas, 550s should support 330whp at a relatively safe duty cycle. 550s don't cause as many of the idle problem that larger injectors do, but if you do put on 650s or larger without compensating, you may experience idle and bogging and stalling problems. There are a few ways to cure this. The first, and probably most common, is to get a piggyback fuel controller, most commonly the apexi SAFC. This wires into your ecu and "tricks" your ecu into changing the amount of fuel that is actually going into your engine, you can add or subtract 50%. Tuning your fuel trims aren't simple, if you get any fuel controller you will need to learn how to use it properly or you can severely damage your engine. The second option, and probably the next most common solution, is to "chip" your ecu, but only if you have an EPROM ecu. A chip can be programmed to compensate properly for a change in injector size, as well as do a few other things. NOTE: VENOM PERFORMANCE CHIPS ARE USELESS. I won't bother telling you why, just don't get it. The third choice is again, only available to people with a EPROM ecu. The most cost effective way of tuning your engine, and a damn good product- dsmlink. It too, is a chip, but can be fully programmed by the user via a laptop or various pdas. www.dsmlink.com for info on the product and a way to tell if you have a required EPROM ecu. The last option, and the most expensive, but best (only for someone who reallllly knows how to tune a car) is standalone engine management like AEM EMS or others. Now, after you have properly compensated for the larger injectors, your work on the fuel system is done. We are almost done! A new bov will be required to run much more boost than stock levels, especially for the 2g. The 1g bov is a very good bov and can actually hold enough boost with the upgrade, but if you want to run over 18psi you should either "crush" it or get a new one. One last step, is optional but highly reccomended for good performance gains, a new intercooler either front mounted or a larger sidemount. The stock intercooler is small, and if I remember correctly, only 65% efficient. With a upgraded intercooler you can have higher efficiency, and a much larger cooling area. This will keep your air temps down without heatsinking (when your turbo puts out more hot air than your intercooler can cool) and allow you to run higher boost safely. For a small upgrade, like putting a 14g onto 2g, you only really need injectors and a fuel pump fuel tuning device and most likely an exhaust to run at 16-18psi all day long. But, no matter what, get a filter, its dirt cheap and helps. With all of the above listed, you can up your power substantially, up to 400 without worrying about the engine internals. A turbo upgrade can cost from 500-just about as much as you want to spend depending on the parts you get and the deals you get on them. One last thing, that really should be your FIRST things NO MATTER WHAT. Get a boost gauge. Yes, your car has one built in, but it horribly innaccurate. An aftermarket boost gauge is a MUST, no cheap ebay crap, get one from a good brand, no way around it. Also, get it installed by someone who knows turbo cars, often times mechanics don't install it properly- it will work, but will not be totally accurate. Also, a boost controller will allow you to raise the boost and make more power, but don't raise it too much or it won't be safe. I run ~15psi with lots of supporting mods and try not to keep my injector duty cycle at or below 90% when I am flooring it which usually means cutting off the throttle at 5700k
Some shopping advice on turbo
Before you go out to break your piggy bank you need to set your goals, do you want 300 whp 400, or more? If you are even thinking about 600hp, and you get a lot of information that you did not know already, hold off you are nowhere near ready, time for some SERIOUS homework before you go making that much HP. After you have decided how much hp you need to select an appropriate turbo. If you want 350whp, a turbonetics 60 trim is not the way to go. Bigger is not better- appropriately sized is better. If you put a 60 trim onto a car that won't be making over 350 hp you will not have spool for a long time, and won't actually get any good use out of the turbo because the 60trim isn't really made for a "dinky" 350 street car. I will cover turbos for up to 400 hp, but after that, you have way more research than this article can provide. I don't suggest you use this in single for upgrading your turbo, you should research as much as possible until you really understand how the turbo system works, if this article does it for you, great, but I expect you would want to ask some more questions to other dsmers to be on the safe side. Before you buy your turbo, make sure you know the differences in Garrett and Mitsubishi and hybrid turbos and how each one relates to your car. For 2g owners, putting on a Mitsubishi turbo will require some minor modifications to the intercooler piping and oil lines. Many install kits are offered and usually cost ~200
My SUGGESTIONS on turbos for desired HP levels.
250-275 hp a 14b can push this out, at 275 its pretty much burnt out. (Mitsubishi turbo)400cfm
275-300 hp a small 16g will push this. (Mitsubishi turbo) 500cfm
second option, for 2g owners, but IMO a slightly worse option than a small 16g, is a Garrett big t-28 turbo. 500cfm
300-375 hp big 16g 550 cfm. Also, a EVO III 16g is slightly larger than the big 16g and can make up to 400 hp, 550cfm but has some modifications to it versus the b16g.
18g will do 400hp, more top end power less low end. 600cfm
20g will have slower spool but great top end power, and can do more than 400hp but does 400 nicely. 650cfm.
50 trim is too big for 400 hp IMO.
I chose to bash the greddy 18g kit because it is very laughable and bashable. So, what if ignorance (lack of knowlodge due to no fault of your own....greddys fault really) led you to purchase the kit? All is not lost, but I would reccomend you get the remaining mods required to run a good upgrade turbo setup before turning the boost past stock (10-12psi) boost levels.
So, that is really it! Hope this helps you understand turbos and upgrading them. If something confuses you with this article, or something is just not very clear, PLEASE send me a PM describing the problem so I can attempt to correct it. It is also ~1am so there is a good chance I have forgotten some important detail, which is why you need to do MORE RESEARCH!
One last note, even though you can run a 14b on minimal supporting mods, you really really want to tune your fuel, thats how we get more power, not just by upping the boost. If you aren't looking for a massive turbo upgrade, just a small one to have more fun, the 14b is a great way to go, and a safc will be great for tuning your fuel.
*if any moderator can change the title as it appears under the tech system to the topic title that would be much appreciated.
Turbocharger's are a method of increasing the power of an engine via forced induction. A engine makes a certain amount of power, and with each stroke draws in air which is then compressed, ignited and exhausted. This is how your car makes power. With the addition of a turbocharger, the power level can rise a huge amount, but only if it is done right. Turbochargers "boost" It compresses air and then pushes it into the engine. When it comes time for the ignition, there will be more air in the cylinder, and (if done properly) more fuel to compensate. More fuel and air in the cylinders will create more powerful explosions and give the engine more power. But how do we get this extra air?Turbocharger does it for us. The turbocharger is a fairly simple device, and has only a few parts. The housing, err...houses all the internal parts. A turbo is bolted up to your exhaust manifold, and then to a downpipe. Why the hell would you want a turbo in the way of your exhaust? Because it gets its power from the exhaust. A turbine is affixed to a rotating shaft and is positioned so that all the exhaust gases coming from the engine have to go through the turbo. Imagine how a steam boat works, hot air pushes against the wheel which moves the boat. The turbine moves in a similar way, the exhaust gases all travel through the turbo, and in the process spin the turbine over 100,000 RPM. After the gas has pushed through the turbine, it exits into the downpipe which is just a....downpipe connecting to your cat (if you run one). Now, spinning the exhaust turbine alone does nothing for power. This is where the other side of the turbo comes into play. The other side of the turbo has a compressor wheel, which compresses incoming air. The compressor wheel is attached to the same shaft as the exhaust wheel, but on the opposite side. So what happens when the exhaust wheel is spun? The compressor wheel will have to rotate along with it since it is affixed to the same shaft. Now, the compressor rwheel will take the incoming air (the "cool side of the turbo gets the air from your intake. Your intake runs directly to the turbo.) and compress it. The compressed air is then sent through your piping and one way or another ends up in your cylinders. As you can recall, the power is made by air in the engine, and the turbo forces air into the engine. The air is considered forced because it is more than your engine would take in with natural aspiration.
With the expansion of any gases, heat will rise, and this stays true for turbochargers, too. After the air has been compressed, it will exit the turbo into the piping to your engine and will expand in the process...the hotter the air the less dense your flow will be. This is where a wastegate and intercooler comes into play. A wastegate is essential for a modern turbocharged car. A wastegate regulates the amount (measured in PSI (pounds per square inch) or in bar (a ratio to atmospheric pressure. 1 bar is ~14.7 psi at sea level))
As long as there is sufficient exhaust to spin the turbines, the turbo's shaft accelerates, building more boost. A wastegate will open when he boost reaches a preset level. On DSM's it is 10-12 stock. The wastegate triggers, and a connecting arm will open a flapper, imagine if you will a small hobbits door or something similar. With this flapper open, some of the exhaust bypassed, which prevents the turbine from gaining speed, thus regulating boost.
Intercoolers are essential for most turbocharged cars, but are not fully NECESSARY for cars boosting very little (eg, Honda pushing 5~6psi doesn't need one but it would help). Since the gas has expanded due to the heat created in compressing the air, it will be very hot. If the air is too hot when it enters the cylinder it can ignite without the spark plug firing. This is bad for your engine and bad for performance. A intercooler is placed somewhere in the tubing from the turbo to the engine, usually midway. The intercooler then cools the charge by radiation of heat energy through the fins of the intercooler and with the cool air from the outside passing through the fins.. As the air goes through, it cools off and contracts, becoming denser. Denser air means you can squeeze more air into a cylinder, so when the air fuel mixture ignites, the power from expansion is bigger.
When you shift gears, the throttle body slams shut, not allowing any more air to enter the intake manifold for the duration of the shift. However, your turbo is still boosting because you still have exhaust flow. If the air were to exit the turbo, rebound off the throttle body and travel back towards the turbine, it would attempt to force the turbo's compressor wheel in the opposite direction that is was spinning. If air does make it back to the compressor wheel, it can cause damage to your wheel, or break it. The wheels are made of alloy's that are made to widthstand extreme temperatures, but are not fracture proof. The cure for this is a Blow off valve, or compressor bypass valve. A blow off valve is placed somewhere after the intercooler and before the throttle body. When you shift, the blow off valve opens and redirects any air heading back to the compressor wheel to the intake. BOV's can also be vented, which means instead of returning the excess air to the intake, it is simply vented to the atmosphere. On a stock car this can cause problems like stalling. The best fix is a maf translator and gm maf, but I will not go into these here. If you are stock, don't vent but if you do you may some problems.
This concludes the basics of turbocharger section of this article. Great sites to find out more on how turbos work.
www.howstuffworks.com
www.vfaq.com ----great site. It's a must
this site has some amazing articles! Do your research.......
Superchargers vs. turbos. Lots of people ask what the difference is. Superchargers run off your belt's, although to my knowlodge there is no supercharger for eclipses asides the 3g. Because superchargers need to run off a belt to turn their compressor, it saps power. Superchargers can take over 40hp just to run. Turbos do not sap ANY power. A supercharger will have boost at low RPM but it will only reach top boost at the top of your powerband because to reach the (commonly 8-10psi) it will have to have the engine RPM at a appropriate amount. Some of the more advanced superchargers will not have many of the problems mentioned above, but to my knowlodge on this subject (which is limited) all superchargers will take some power because they are run off a belt.
OK, it has been a while but I am on summer vacation and don't have much to do and my car is down
so I will add a section onto this article about upgrading (properly) your turbocharger for a DSM.If you are new to turbos and dsms we should get a few things straight. Putting on a turbocharger does not increase power- at least by itself. Take, for example the Greddy 18g 95-99 4g63t (4g63 is the engine code for turbo eclipses/talons/lasers) turbo upgrade kit. Just by looking at it, I can tell that it is an utter waste of time and money. Heres the explanation: the turbo kit consists of a turbocharger, MUCH bigger than the stock turbo....roughly twice the flow in CFMs (cubic foot per min.) of the stock t-25. If you are a 1g E/T/L you are running a 14b turbo, which in compared to the t-25 is a beast. 14b flows roughly 400cfms versus the t25 290cfm. The kit also contains an intake pipe- and thats it for performance parts. It also contains necessary adapting hardware, oil feed and return lines, bolts, gaskets etc etc....Now, lets assume you do purchase this "kit" and put it on your car. You will lose all your low end torque....no more 10psi of boost at 2800RPM, get used to it, thats practically the only great thing about the t25- great spool. You now have twice the exhaust flow of your old turbo, but your cars exhaust, intercooler, ecu and fuel system are still made for a car that is pushing 290cfm. Starting to see how this presents a problem? You will have more back pressure from your constricted exhaust....imagine trying to blow as hard as you can through one of those tiny coffee straws when you really need a beefy jack in the box super wide shake straws to blow freely. A turbocharger is kind of a lung upgrade for your car, and must be compensated for with an exhaust system. Exhaust is the an essential part for a good turbo upgrade. Mandrel bent 3" is best, and there are more brands you can shake a stick at, so do some shopping. Now, lets say you have your exhaust- and your overpriced greddy turbo kit...good to go right? Wrong. Your car can shoot hot air out fast, but how fast can it suck it in? Not very well with the stock airbox. Time for a filter K&N F.I.P.K is awesome and cheap. Filter should be your first mod. Now all your breathing is taken care of, we can move on to other things. Fuel. As explained earlier in the into to turbos part of this writeup, when you push more air into your engine you need to add more fuel or you will end up with a lean air to fuel ratio which is bad for your engine and can cause knock, or detintion. Your car is flowing more air but no more gas is getting to your engine! If the turbo and exhaust are the respiratory system, the fuel is the...err brain fart but the system that moves blood around to where it is needed- in this case, the engine. The engine is really the heart of the car, so that would make the fuel pump the aortic pumps, its job is to get fuel to the injectors. The stock fuel pump flows somewhere around 100 liters per hour. This will not support much more hp than stock. Upgrading a fuel pump to either a walbro 190lph fuel pump (for 400 or less hp applications) or a walbro 255 or 255 high pressure (for higher than 400hp and insane hp applications) will allow you to get the proper amount of fuel to your injectors. (If you get a walbro 255lph of either type you will need to upgrade your fuel pressure regulator) Now you have plenty fuel going to your injectors, but, like the rest of your cars systems, the injectors were made for the stock turbo. The injectors flow 450cc of fuel per min. The injectors can be kept for while on a turbo upgrade....a very mild upgrade, and should support somewhere around 250 hp- @ 100% injector duty. Safely running injectors should be kept around 80%, it is OK to run then a little higher, but when you are running them over 90% they can fail, and will not close when they are supposed to and will dump excess fuel into the engine, which can cause problems. I don't know the limits of the stock injectors running on a 18g, but on my EVO III 16g, they max out at 101% when running a 3rd gear pull with dsmlink....time to upgrade I know, its coming...
Upgrading injectors is not as simple as just putting in bigger injectors. For 300whp on crappy 91 cali gas, 550s should support 330whp at a relatively safe duty cycle. 550s don't cause as many of the idle problem that larger injectors do, but if you do put on 650s or larger without compensating, you may experience idle and bogging and stalling problems. There are a few ways to cure this. The first, and probably most common, is to get a piggyback fuel controller, most commonly the apexi SAFC. This wires into your ecu and "tricks" your ecu into changing the amount of fuel that is actually going into your engine, you can add or subtract 50%. Tuning your fuel trims aren't simple, if you get any fuel controller you will need to learn how to use it properly or you can severely damage your engine. The second option, and probably the next most common solution, is to "chip" your ecu, but only if you have an EPROM ecu. A chip can be programmed to compensate properly for a change in injector size, as well as do a few other things. NOTE: VENOM PERFORMANCE CHIPS ARE USELESS. I won't bother telling you why, just don't get it. The third choice is again, only available to people with a EPROM ecu. The most cost effective way of tuning your engine, and a damn good product- dsmlink. It too, is a chip, but can be fully programmed by the user via a laptop or various pdas. www.dsmlink.com for info on the product and a way to tell if you have a required EPROM ecu. The last option, and the most expensive, but best (only for someone who reallllly knows how to tune a car) is standalone engine management like AEM EMS or others. Now, after you have properly compensated for the larger injectors, your work on the fuel system is done. We are almost done! A new bov will be required to run much more boost than stock levels, especially for the 2g. The 1g bov is a very good bov and can actually hold enough boost with the upgrade, but if you want to run over 18psi you should either "crush" it or get a new one. One last step, is optional but highly reccomended for good performance gains, a new intercooler either front mounted or a larger sidemount. The stock intercooler is small, and if I remember correctly, only 65% efficient. With a upgraded intercooler you can have higher efficiency, and a much larger cooling area. This will keep your air temps down without heatsinking (when your turbo puts out more hot air than your intercooler can cool) and allow you to run higher boost safely. For a small upgrade, like putting a 14g onto 2g, you only really need injectors and a fuel pump fuel tuning device and most likely an exhaust to run at 16-18psi all day long. But, no matter what, get a filter, its dirt cheap and helps. With all of the above listed, you can up your power substantially, up to 400 without worrying about the engine internals. A turbo upgrade can cost from 500-just about as much as you want to spend depending on the parts you get and the deals you get on them. One last thing, that really should be your FIRST things NO MATTER WHAT. Get a boost gauge. Yes, your car has one built in, but it horribly innaccurate. An aftermarket boost gauge is a MUST, no cheap ebay crap, get one from a good brand, no way around it. Also, get it installed by someone who knows turbo cars, often times mechanics don't install it properly- it will work, but will not be totally accurate. Also, a boost controller will allow you to raise the boost and make more power, but don't raise it too much or it won't be safe. I run ~15psi with lots of supporting mods and try not to keep my injector duty cycle at or below 90% when I am flooring it which usually means cutting off the throttle at 5700k
Some shopping advice on turbo
Before you go out to break your piggy bank you need to set your goals, do you want 300 whp 400, or more? If you are even thinking about 600hp, and you get a lot of information that you did not know already, hold off you are nowhere near ready, time for some SERIOUS homework before you go making that much HP. After you have decided how much hp you need to select an appropriate turbo. If you want 350whp, a turbonetics 60 trim is not the way to go. Bigger is not better- appropriately sized is better. If you put a 60 trim onto a car that won't be making over 350 hp you will not have spool for a long time, and won't actually get any good use out of the turbo because the 60trim isn't really made for a "dinky" 350 street car. I will cover turbos for up to 400 hp, but after that, you have way more research than this article can provide. I don't suggest you use this in single for upgrading your turbo, you should research as much as possible until you really understand how the turbo system works, if this article does it for you, great, but I expect you would want to ask some more questions to other dsmers to be on the safe side. Before you buy your turbo, make sure you know the differences in Garrett and Mitsubishi and hybrid turbos and how each one relates to your car. For 2g owners, putting on a Mitsubishi turbo will require some minor modifications to the intercooler piping and oil lines. Many install kits are offered and usually cost ~200
My SUGGESTIONS on turbos for desired HP levels.
250-275 hp a 14b can push this out, at 275 its pretty much burnt out. (Mitsubishi turbo)400cfm
275-300 hp a small 16g will push this. (Mitsubishi turbo) 500cfm
second option, for 2g owners, but IMO a slightly worse option than a small 16g, is a Garrett big t-28 turbo. 500cfm
300-375 hp big 16g 550 cfm. Also, a EVO III 16g is slightly larger than the big 16g and can make up to 400 hp, 550cfm but has some modifications to it versus the b16g.
18g will do 400hp, more top end power less low end. 600cfm
20g will have slower spool but great top end power, and can do more than 400hp but does 400 nicely. 650cfm.
50 trim is too big for 400 hp IMO.
I chose to bash the greddy 18g kit because it is very laughable and bashable. So, what if ignorance (lack of knowlodge due to no fault of your own....greddys fault really) led you to purchase the kit? All is not lost, but I would reccomend you get the remaining mods required to run a good upgrade turbo setup before turning the boost past stock (10-12psi) boost levels.
So, that is really it! Hope this helps you understand turbos and upgrading them. If something confuses you with this article, or something is just not very clear, PLEASE send me a PM describing the problem so I can attempt to correct it. It is also ~1am so there is a good chance I have forgotten some important detail, which is why you need to do MORE RESEARCH!
One last note, even though you can run a 14b on minimal supporting mods, you really really want to tune your fuel, thats how we get more power, not just by upping the boost. If you aren't looking for a massive turbo upgrade, just a small one to have more fun, the 14b is a great way to go, and a safc will be great for tuning your fuel.
*if any moderator can change the title as it appears under the tech system to the topic title that would be much appreciated.
