installed a Turbosmart BOV on my Vortech kit
 

I am not affiliated with turbosmart. I just want to share my experience with the kit.

I gave into my inner ricer after I found a good deal on a slightly used Turbosmart blow off valve in the classifieds. I wanted to get more blow off sounds from the car, but nothing too outrageous. After conferring with the former owner and some members here, the Turbosmart unit seemed to fit the bill nicely.

The Vortech kit comes with a blowoff valve, but leaves much to be desired in quality and sound. Performance wise, it seems to do the job, but if you want more fast and the furious bling, replacing it with a better aftermarket BOV is what you need.

Unboxing the kit, it comes with the blow off valve, some shims, two hose clamps, and the port cover or blanking plug. The blanking plug is there if you want to make it a full bypass unit, but who wants to do that anyway? It screws in where the horn is on the port, making it a single port BOV.

Looking closely at the valve, construction is top notch, it is made from billet aluminum which greatly upgrades the dinky plastic valve which came with the Vortech kit.

The cover can be rotated to adjust the spring preload on the valve. Fully tightening the cover will increase the spring and loosening it will decrease the spring load. Now this is where thing got a little iffy. If I wanted to loosen the spring load, the cover would extend and with the stock BOV clearance being so tight already, the valve would hit the engine block. So my only option was to keep it fully tightened to get the extra clearance.

Install was pretty easy, I just had to take the Vortech airbox off to give me extra room to work with. HRTROB installed his without removing the airbox, so it can be done, I just wanted to have more room to work. I had to cut the hose a bit so the turbosmart unit would clear the engine block, not a big issue. Install took me around 30mins taking pics along the way.

Overall, I like how this upgrade turned out. The car gives that noticeable whoosh sound when you release the throttle, but not obnoxious enough to scream "look at me!" Which was exactly what I was going for. So Vortech owners thinking about doing this mod, it's easy enough to do and gives more sound with better quality from the stock valve, I highly recommend this kit.

Thanks to @Amalgamo for the great deal and to @HRTROB and @DJCarbine for the info!

does yours come close to the heater hose? i run the same one and i have like 3mm clearance and i can already see rub marks

:thumbup:

Awesome dude. You put the final nail in the coffin for me to get one of these.

Ill add this to the FAQ

I like it! Nice write up :)

sounds good - now tighten up your damn airbox cover lol

@F1point4
I thought you have the Maxflow BOV? The turbosmart really comes close to the block around the same clearance you say. Mine does not come close to the heater/radiator hose though. I'll check again tom and report back.

It's as tight as it can be! It still does that! For some reason I cannot get the damn screws to stay put!

:lol: Have you tried loctite?

Not yet. The screws are kinda different though, they don't have threads.

Try some fasteners from lowes or a hardware store I'm sure you could find something that will work. This is what I did.

Thanks bro!

It should sound interesting while in gear. Would like to hear running along the road in gear. It may not be a simple purge. It could be long and drawn out.

The maxflow got obnoxious. I only truly loved it when I shift passing people on the track. LOL.

Mine pretty much sounds like yours

With the spring set properly, it'll sound just like any bypass valve on a supercharger. You can hear a faint constant whirr when you coast or just maintain speed on the road (aka stay out of boost). Exhaust usually covers it up depending on how fast you are going. Mine does except for when I actively try to listen for it. IMO when it vents it is no louder than the stock bypass that vortech supplies. If you are running a stock exhaust I imagine it would be pretty apparent.

Edit: I wanted to clarify all the above is when you are out of boost. When you vent while in boost, it does make a traditional BOV noise which is louder than teh stock Vortech

Nice one Tye! Yup I was able to install mine without removing the airbox. I found that there was enough space behind the airbox to work on it.

I also got the optional soft spring for the Turbosmart BOV. I noticed that the stock spring was kinda stiff, and would stay closed at cruising speeds (10-50 kpa of vacuum). I figured this would increase fuel consumption, since the ECU will be in closed loop, and with more air going into the engine because the valve is closed, it will have to pump more fuel to maintain 14.7 stoich. With the softer spring, the valve opens at 20 kpa of vacuum

What's the part number for the spring rob?

The part number is TS-0203-3001 "Kompact Blue Blow Off Valve Extra Soft Spring". Got mine from Amazon

Thanks bro!

i really like the sound of it. if you dont mind me asking, how much was it?

my box does the same thing!

Got it for $130

Man I would love to have that sound on my Kraftwerks SC.

So i just ordered mine. @Tye300 do you think if I get one of these bad boys it would solve the clearance problem?

1in 90deg silicone coupler

http://www.hps-siliconehoses.com/med...er_black_8.jpg

It could. I was thinking if I should get a longer hose when I was currently working out the problem. Using that 90 degree coupler is a better idea, if you could angle the valve away from the block. It's just things are pretty cramped in there that I can't tell you clearly if it would work or not. Worth a shot though. I'd gladly follow suit if you make it work.

Cool. I'll give it a shot. Can't hurt to try lol. My bpv should be here in a couple of days so I'll snap some picks


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So I got mine in the mail yesterday. The stall was pretty quick but I thought it was odd that I didnt have any clearance issues. I was able to have the adjustment spring either completely tight or loose and it would not rub 0_o

I dont know if it has to do with how much I trimmed off the hose. What I did notice, thats been bothering me, is when the valve is venting at partial throttle I can here a low pitched wind noise that sounds like air blowing against something hollow. (This is aside from the whoosh of the bov) I know its hard to describe. My guess was the air venting and blowing against the outside charge pipe or the airbox. I need to mess around with it more and find the exact cause of the noise.

If you blow air into an empty water bottle it kinda sounds like that.

Are you running the dual port setup with the breather filter on one port and the horn on the other? I had the same low-pitched wind noise when I was running dual port with the horn facing the chassis rail or whatever it's called. I'm guessing that the sound is prodced by the air from the horn blowing onto the chassis.

Right now I've been running either the filter or horn (depending on my mood) facing the center of the car and the other port (facing the chassis rail) blocked off with the blanking plug. Haven't heard the low-pitched sound with this setup

Thats exactly what I wanted to hear. :D

Maybe if I end up getting that 90deg coupler I can point the horn away from the chassis and still keep both ports functioning. Whats the difference in sound between running horn only or filter only?

:thanks:

Filter only is as quiet as the stock bypass valve. Horn only is just about the same, or maybe a tad louder than dual port, when it goes "whoosh" :)

Which specific BOV is it? It looks like they have a few in that Series...
http://www.turbosmartdirect.com/Prod...ompact-Series/

It's the kompact dual port 25mm.
http://www.turbosmartdirect.com/Prod...Port-25mm.html

Reviving an oldie here! I just installed my turbo smart on my Vortech. Is everyone pretty much running this on fully closed/hard? I have been adjusting it but it seems like once it's adjusted toward the soft way it's letting out air even at soft deceleration. What I don't like at full hard is the little bit of chatter after the initial woosh unless you shift and keep pressing on the gas. Any thoughts?

set to tight and getting some compressor surge. loosen it up a bit and it should get rid of that. when its set to soft it will let air out cause its still building up some pressure.

Is the softer spring required with this? Or can you just instal the unit and call it good? And any issues this far along?