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Old 05-30-2018, 06:40 PM   #2
DarkPira7e
Rust bucket enthusiast
 
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Join Date: Feb 2017
Drives: 2013 Turbo Firestorm FRS
Location: Vermont
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I typed all of this on my phone, please forgive typos, it's too hot right now to proofread.

Against my better judgment, I'm going FI on my only car, daily driver (even through Vermont winters) FR-S. I love so many things about this car. I love the seating position, I love rwd, I love the look, the steering feel, the stock ride quality and handling. Honestly though, I don't spend much time "carving canyons" or doing track days (go ahead, try to find a track in Vermont. Try it.) While the handling of the car is wonderful and I do push it sometimes, the car leaves me wanting a bit more in acceleration.

I don't want my tires cording at each chance, I don't want Teslas to fear me in a 1/4. I don't want to BUILD my motor if I can avoid it. Hell, I don't even have a whp goal, I don't have a benchmark I want to reach. Why? I'll let the car respond how it will and enjoy it as such. I plan to run 8-10psi on whatever turbo lasts on the cxracing manifold. It will be dyno tuned, it will have an oil cooler. It will be tuned to build boost higher in the revs, no low rpm nonsense here. It was have a pcv side catch can (already does) and crack case VTA. That's it.

Here is what I'm thinking:
Oil pressure builds by RPM. lower RPM torque means the rods are handling higher forces for longer, and preventing rod failure is one of my paramount concerns with every choice I'm making here (as it is with anyone who doesn't want to build a bomb). My turbo I've ordered is the generic journal bearing T3 T04E 60/63 cxracing makes. What I've found in my research, is that these are the best turbos they make for reliability. "Best" is subjective, so keep reading and hear me out.

Search "cxracing turbo" and no doubt, you'll get horror before praise. This is true of anything. ANYTHING. People are more apt to complain when something goes wrong, than to take time leaving a positive review when they could be out enjoying their product. This is a fact. I'm not going to dispute that the negative connotation associated with CXracing has not been earned; to a degree, it is low tier quality. However, when your goals are not in the clouds, the quality disparity is nothing like you may think with some parts.

Let's talk intercoolers. What is an intercooler? It's a heatsink, essentially. It holds an air charge the turbo forces into your intake and attempts to cool it as much as possible before it reaches the intake. Other than that purpose, it's ONLY JOB is holding the air. To me, quality may be the finish of the piping, it's choice of a BOV flange location, the fitment, blah blah. If you go for BEST OF THE Best and need that, you'll be concerned with pressure drop, with the effectiveness of the intercooler core, the diameter piping. This is where I plant my feet and get ready to meet criticism. The route CXRACING takes for their piping isn't the longest, but it's pretty long compared to other kits. The BOV flange is on a bend, which sucks. The fitment hopefully is good, and I'm assuming it won't leak. My goal is not whp driven, so pressure drop, and cooling effectiveness is really not going to concern me. So long as it cools the charge air, I'm happy.

The manifold. Equal length to me is a nice plus. The welds look decent, collector is OK, it has an EWG flange, and I can have the flanges milled flat if they're not great. I don't care about MAX POWER, I just need them to support the turbo and not leak, seems simple enough.

Word vomit is a skill of mine, if you're still reading you probably should look busy so your boss doesn't catch on.

Anyways, enough hard ass. I still want the car to be fun so it's not like I'll let it run like garbage or only make 210whp either. Let's get onto the other goodies!
Going to run a PTP Turbo blanket and either use header wrap, or get the manifold ceramic coated. Under hood circulation is terrible and I am not interested in venting my hood right now (rain/snow, I don't want the header wrap getting saturated) so minimizing radiant heat will be important.
I think I'll be getting a standard mishimoto oil cooler with a thermostatic adapter, and a stock radiator. Reflective gold tape/sleeving on anything close to the manifold and turbo should also minimize hazard. I still have far from everything and will likely be stagnant for a little while as new parts roll in.

As of today, I have the following:

Cxracing downpipe/manifold
Cxracing intercooler
Grimmspeed header gaskets
Prosport boost/oil temp gauge
OMNI 3bar map sensor
Radium Engineering PCV catch can
Brzedit for tuning

Tomorrow the turbo and oil lines show up!











Aside the collector being a bit grungy, things look great! It's nice that the intercooler piping is flared too. I'll update with more as time goes on! Let me know your thoughts/advice, I welcome all cisms and won't bite your head off if I disagree. Just be aware that bashing the kit in all likelihood won't elicit a response from me at all. Before I forget, I'm buying a new stock oil pan to weld a return into, and I'll get a clutch. Probably ACT with LWFW because chatter doesn't bother me, and I've had success with ACT on other platforms.

Here we go

Car currently is catless with stock catback, dynapack calls it 174whp 140wtq. UEL CNT headers, Megan racing frontpipe, stock overpipe.


Last edited by DarkPira7e; 09-19-2022 at 11:38 AM.
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