It's upgrade time. Need insight.

[dr1ftx3]

Ok, it is definately time for me to get an upgrade seeing as my last was about 5 months ago. This time its the big stuff. Unfortunately I'm torn on how to prioritize the parts i'm looking at. Mind you, right now I have $900 and in about 2 weeks i'll have about $1200 to spend. What i'm looking to upgrade is:

Evo3 16g (possibly GT)
Exhaust Mani
SAFC
550's
190lph
Front mount

So what should I go ahead and do with my $900 right now, I was really leaning toward the Tchargers.com Turbo deal ---->(Evo3 16g GT + Ported GT exhaust Mani + 2g install kit) for $700, but some people are skeptical and say that I should definately be getting a front mount first. But if I get the turbo now, i'm going to have to sit around and wait another month to get the money for the fuel upgrade and such. I need to make this decision soon, so I need a little help guys...

 

[ilikespeeding]

Ok, it is definately time for me to get an upgrade seeing as my last was about 5 months ago. This time its the big stuff. Unfortunately I'm torn on how to prioritize the parts i'm looking at. Mind you, right now I have $900 and in about 2 weeks i'll have about $1200 to spend. What i'm looking to upgrade is:

Evo3 16g (possibly GT)
Exhaust Mani
SAFC
550's
190lph
Front mount

So what should I go ahead and do with my $900 right now, I was really leaning toward the Tchargers.com Turbo deal ---->(Evo3 16g GT + Ported GT exhaust Mani + 2g install kit) for $700, but some people are skeptical and say that I should definately be getting a front mount first. But if I get the turbo now, i'm going to have to sit around and wait another month to get the money for the fuel upgrade and such. I need to make this decision soon, so I need a little help guys...

Then you could sell the exhuast mani, turbo, and pipes for about $200. Then you'd have $500, just enough for a DSMLink.

 

[kenamond]

If you can afford the turbo and mani, get that first. You can run stock boost until the other cash comes in. And you can do the turbo/mani swap while you wait. The SAFC/injectors can be installed, but you'd have to tune them to the stock turbo while you waited on the new turbo. You could also do the intercooler first, but that's not going to eat up all of your $900, and the piping may be wrong for a stock T25 (not sure).

You might want to ask around to find out A) if the port job on your evo3 will include wastegate porting and B) if you're asking for boost creep problems down the road with your intended setup if you don't get the wastegate ported. Much easier to get the port job done right before you install the turbo

 

[dr1ftx3]

Ok cool, thanks for your insight. Right now I definately can afford the turbo and mani, so It seems like that might be a step in the right direction.

 

[kenamond]

Another thing that complicates this that I didn't think of last night is that the evo3 will not mate to the stock IC piping (pretty sure - double check this). If that's the case, you may still have to wait. I doubt you want to buy the conversion piping for stock IC placement just to replace it when your FMIC comes in. Maybe you could use some cheap radiator hoze or something. I'm just not sure now

If you're going to park your car until everything is ordered, I'd still get the turbo/mani first, then the FMIC, then the SAFC/injectors.

 

[Dream On]

I say get all the supporting stuff first like your fuel upgrades, then do the turbo and IC last. I like to buy my upgrades and install stuff just once. This way you don't have to get different piping for the intercooler and stuff like that. I think you should just keep the 2g exhaust manifold and get it ported. That would save you some money as well. People have run 10's with that manifold, and if you're just running an Evo 3, I don't think you'll need anything more. Just my opinion though.

 

[Slippi84]

The thing you want to try and do is buy parts that you won't have to uprgrade later and try and buy supporting mods first. If you buy a 16g kit you need to make sure you have a way to adjust your licp from a t25 outlet to a j-pipe. You shoudl really tell us your goals as they wil factor into what you buy. If you want 350whp then I would get water injection and forget the fmic. if you want something like 400whp or up i would get a walbro 255 first with rewire kit and the 16g kit. That should put you at $800, save the 100 you have left when you get the other 300 get pick up some 750's or so of tuners and get a eprom chip. That way you can still drive your car and boost to 15psi without timing issues you would have with trying to tune big injectors with just a safc. Not to mention a eprom chip is cheaper then a safc and will make your car run like stock. 16g kit + fuel pump w/ rewire + 750 injectors + eprom chip = good fun

Now that is all a good idea IF and it's a big IF you have a eprom ecu. Now if you don't have a eprom ecu then I would stick with more like 650 injectors and get the safc cause 650's are doable with a safc. That's also assuing you have a logger to get a base tune with. As you can see there are so many variables and options that's why saying I have X amount of money and need all this is not usualy a good idea, I put my car down said I wanted this amount of power and just kept researching and buying the supporting mods I needed and when I found the turbo at the price I wanted I bit the bullet and spent the doe.

 

[kenamond]

And if you port your own manifold, you might also decide to get the unported evo3 and port it yourself. That way, you can properly port the wastegate to avoid future creep problems (evo3 is notorious for this with a 3" exhaust).

I just ported my mani/turbo/O2 housing, and it's a bit of work but not too ambitious. If you don't have the required tools, though, it can add up to ~$130 (vice, die grinder and burs, dremel, bits, and sandpaper).

Do your homework, too, before you decide.

 

[dr1ftx3]

Well the thing is, I'm going to be needing the car for daily driving-Always. So there is pretty much no option of me parking the car while I do installs and the like. Basically I just need to either do parts that will work in steps or buy it all over time and install it all when its there. I'm looking to make only about 300 to the wheels, nothing extraordinary, the car will be daily driven. I just picked up an SAFC, pocketlogger, and bezel for the safc for $350. Now the question is, should I go ahead and do the Tchargers.com deal with the mani for $700 or buy an unported evo3, do it myself as well as port my own mani, which I can tell won't be very easily done for me. OR, should I just go out and buy a FMIC right now so I don't have to worry about bolting up issues in the future.

 

[Slippi84]

Well the thing is, I'm going to be needing the car for daily driving-Always. So there is pretty much no option of me parking the car while I do installs and the like. Basically I just need to either do parts that will work in steps or buy it all over time and install it all when its there. I'm looking to make only about 300 to the wheels, nothing extraordinary, the car will be daily driven. I just picked up an SAFC, pocketlogger, and bezel for the safc for $350. Now the question is, should I go ahead and do the Tchargers.com deal with the mani for $700 or buy an unported evo3, do it myself as well as port my own mani, which I can tell won't be very easily done for me. OR, should I just go out and buy a FMIC right now so I don't have to worry about bolting up issues in the future.

I checked out your profile and the big thing your lackin which is huge is exhaust. You have no idea how big exhaust is on these cars. You should get a full 3" turbo back and walbro pump. With those two things and what you have you can tune your t25 to some respectable power for the amount of money you will have spent.