FI, supporting mods and transmission question
 

So I finally decided to FI my BRZ after driving it N/A for 1 year 6 months. The kit is fabricated at a local tune shop, I will post the details after install and tune is done.

I have been following a lot of you for sometime, to see issues, realistic power gains with different lbs of boost, etc.

I want to ask the FI community some questions regarding oil temp, trans fluid temps, and AT transmission longevity.

1. oil temp
Has anyone here run their FI kits without a oil cooler? If so what kind of temperature are you seeing, and at what whp/tq, boost are you running?

Those of you running an oil cooler, what kind of temps are you seeing on the street?

2. Trans fluid/tranny
I run an AT transmission, and swapped out the fluid to red line high performance. What kind of transmission fluid temps are you guys seeing?

Most of you running a tranny cooler? Is the AT tranny more glitchy/slipping after going FI?

Have any of you blown the AT tranny yet?

The biggest concern I have right now is will the AT tranny hold up? Right now, my plan is to install a dual core cooler that can cool the tranny fluid and engine oil in one cooler to save some space/cost.

Any advice will be helpful!

Thank you for your time.

i don't know anything about the auto, but i can help with the oil part. i have yet to upgrade my oil cooler, though it's on my radar. my turbo is a gtx2867r, and i've run from wastegate pressure (7psi) up to 14psi on e85 so far. the weather has cooled off since at about the same rate that i upped the boost, so the data may not be very reliable, but i haven't seen any differences in temps at all. as in they are still the same as before i had a turbo. i see temps in the 230's after 3 or 4 hard pulls in a row, same as when it was stock.

bear in mind that i do not track my car. if you plan to be at high load/revs for extended periods of time you will have cooling issues, probably even with an oil cooler.

Oil cooler will get you in the 180-190s unless you're at the track then you'll get to 200-210. This was in the summer however and it's much colder now so expect lower numbers by 10-25 degrees depending on how long your car has been driving to heat up the car. As you know I don't have a turbo/SC but those won't effect oil temp, only a lead foot will. ;)

Hmm my understanding was that if the turbo shares the oil with the engine, then the oil will heat up over all? I'm pretty noobz when it comes to FI.

I hear different stories but here are the points I understand with the heat issue:

IAT - solved by IC, air-water, air-air. Not so much of an issue with low boost (under 7 psi)

Oil temp - solved by oil cooler, but no cooler will keep it down within safe range during track. Again if the turbo is not working hard (under 7 psi) then heat shouldn't be an issue still?

Tranny fluid - solved by tranny cooler, heat kills the transmission?

AOS/catch can - is this a good idea for any FI kits? I don't see too many people running these, are they just added complications?

My shop is most concerned about the AT transmission since it is the biggest unknown. They say the oil cooler/FMIC is optional at this moment due to low boost, but a tranny cooler is highly recommended.

I am hoping to gradually build up this kit, with adding a water-air inter cooler for my next step once they develop it.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53020

More parts are coming soon including upgraded clutch and replaced tranny fluid. Right now SSP is only selling stage 1 (trans cooler and higher stall tq con). I would say this is a must for turbo autos.

From a turbo AT brz.. fried! :mad0260:

Yea I'm planning on installing a tranny cooler, maybe wait to spring for that since it is below freezing weather in the PNW right now.

Damn is that fried AT from your car? How much boost/whp are you pushing right now?

As for the increased stall/tq converter, I've heard the low end suffers so much that unless it is a drag car, it may not be worth it (pretty much for launch only). If it is not raised too much, it may not be so bad, but what I heard was that the low end RPM power may suffer due to increased "slipping" range before hitting the stall point. That is something to think about, I'm not too concerned about launching too much.

I do want to upgrade my AT in the future after I push more power.

No thank god it wasn't my car lol, I'm in the same position as you, I'm waiting until summer/spring to go FI. It was a BRZ owner who had the turbo for 3,000 miles, can't imagine what it would look like after 10k miles. The higher stall torque converter upgrade for our AT is really meant for the autocross guys who want to get off the line quicker. It only raises it by 500-750 rpm which isn't that much, but will be able to get the wheels to spin and put the power down from a stand still. Not sure if I'll get it myself, my top priorities are the clutch upgrade and cooling unit when I go turbo.

What are your whp/tq goals?

Damn, do you know which owner it was? I'm curious to see what happened to have him fry his tranny that quickly.

I've heard a rumor that this tranny holds up better than the manual regarding increased power (like 400whp or something?) but sounds like an upgraded clutch is needed before driving this car like a race car lol.

I'm actually going FI next week lol.

What turbo kit are you going with?

I'm not sure about whp ratings, usually the trans is rated in torque but yes I've heard this auto can hold 400whp/300tq for a bit. That one turbo brz most likely had between 300-350 whp w/ 280tq but after 3k miles was getting a bit shotty. I'm sure as long as you take it somewhat easy on high boost you should be fine, but for a track day you should probably get the auto trans cooler and new tranny fluid lol. There's actually a factory trans cooler already installed in our cars but it doesn't do $%@#

I'm running a local custom kit using GT3076, initially setting the external wastegate to 5 psi. Realistic numbers will be about 250whp/210tq. I won't be running a BOV just yet, with this boost the surge should be within the safe range. And I get to enjoy the turbo surge flutter too lol. Yea I hope I can talk to the guy from the fried tranny pic, where did you find that? I have a feeling he was launching/tracking his car hard.. There are other FI AT guys that has no issues so far.

I still have time to prep my car for the track, and I am deff getting a trans cooler. There is mixed reviews with the dual core oil/trans cooler but I'm gonna try it out. Also an extra gauge to check the transmission fluid temperature would be nice.

Our ambient temp is about freezing level so I'm hoping that it will have a natural cooling effect this time of the year lol. In the PNW it doesn't get too hot and humidity is always low, so it may be more boost friendly compared to the LA/Vegas/AZ guys.