How reliable is a boosted FRS/BRZ?
 

I, like most of you, am very excited about all the turbo kits I see being developed and sold for the BRZ/FRS. When I look over the forums discussing these kits I keep seeing mention of 'reliability.' Something like, "it should reliably put down X amount of power with Y amount of boost." My question is what kind of "reliability" are we talking about when we boos this motor? Are we talking "reliable" as in it will get you around town for a few years until your pistons shoot out the side of your block at 40K miles? Or "reliable" as in you can daily drive it for 150K no problem? Something in the middle maybe? I have never tried to boost a car that was born NA so I am not sure what is to be expected.

No way to say for sure - but I'd say pretty reliable on the assumption that our first gen cars don't fart on us.
Suby cars as a majority are turbo'd and this car was intended for modding.
Toyoda laughed at this question according to a number of articles so I'm sure it'll go up a bit (at least the way the article was written).

I'll give you the honest answer you need to hear: No one is really sure right now.

It will take time for Toyota/Subaru to fix any glaring design/assembly issues, and it will take even more time for people to test the limits of the platform and see what is required in terms of internals and supporting modifications needed in order to run relatively reliable boost.

My only turbo car came from the factory that way, so I can't speak regarding the NA - turbo conversion, but it will came with its share of headaches, I assure you of that.

i wouldnt base the cars taste for boost on the other cars in the subaru lineup. things like di and the 12.5 cr bear more weight than the name on the trunklid.

i think were going to have to wait and see. when people start braking things, we will know how far it can go

We won't know until engines start popping. I was thinking about this today also and I rationalized that it was ok by looking at other cars at market.

The Hyundai/Kia's are using Di and turbos. Why can't we?

I think it's a good sign we haven't heard any catastrophic stories yet but time will tell. That is why I'm waiting :D

wait and see

What the Wolf said.

Car has only been out for a few months and most F/I setups are still in the prototype stage, barely more than a few weeks off the first dyno for most of them.

You're right to worry about reliability and no offense to any of the aftermarket tuners out there but anyone even considering a turbo set up on such a brand new car at this stage of the game is either very rich or very brave to be willing to give up that warranty so quickly.

Baby steps.

12.5cr?

yeep. That's why I said that we won't know until the engines start popping.

The Hyundai/Kias are at 9.5cr if I remember correctly.

I'm going out on a limb here ...

I think you can probably say with an unknown degree of certainty that they might be reliable for maybe approximately 3 weeks, but I could be wrong.

:laughabove:

My line of thinking is that if TRD puts out a supercharger putting down 4 psi of boost then I can run a turbo kit with 4 psi of boost and be within the margin of safety. Wishful thinking.... But a guy can dream.

Compression ratio

I for one will let others be the guinea pigs in finding the limits if the stock engine. :).

I will say I wouldn't invest in a turbo kit right now unless I also had the money to replace major parts of the engine. That's why it scares me when I see people asking if a vendor can finance a turbo kit... What are you going to do when it costs 5K to fix the engine and the warranty is gone?