JDL turbo kit thread

[Shit Luck]

the turbo back 3 inch doesn't have that stupid donut gasket still does it?

[Jesse@JDLAutodesign]

Originally Posted by Shit Luck

the turbo back 3 inch doesn't have that stupid donut gasket still does it?

Nope uses a machined 3" Standard 2-Bolt flange. There is a flex joint added after the flange to allow for movement instead of the donut gasket.

[diss7]

Got a couple of people asking me for updates.

Took my kit around to my mechanic for a pre install inspection and there was a few things he wasn't happy with. In particular, the vband flanges. While some had the usual male to female flanges, so locate together. The ones on the downpipe and over pipe did not have these, and are just the flat type with no locating connection. And they're not even smooth, they're scoured from a linisher; which I've been told was an unnecessary step as the flange should not have warped.

The downpipe to tial turbine housing connection are not the same size. Which is peculiar as the tial housing would have come with the correct male flange to suit it.

After my mechanic pointed these out, I went on a tiki tour around town to a couple of fabricators I know and a performance shop/tuner, and they all shared the same opinion as my mechanic. That using the non locating flanges would almost certainly leak, just as others they'd seen have. All said they wouldn't uses the mismatched sized flanges either. (Exhaust leaks in NZ are something that'll stop me getting the kit certified, and it's also something that's checked at our 6 monthly warrant of fitness checks.

Jesse and I have been playing phone tag regarding this. However, we're in disagreement as to whether these are issues or not. I've decided I'm going to put the correct flanges on regardless, as the overwhelming feedback locally is tell me to do so.

Just quickly on other aspects of the kit. Packaging was excellent, 9.5/10. Welding and finishing quality are both very good, but not as great as the marketing pictures of the kit show. I'd probably rate the welding at 8/10, finishing at 7/10.

I put up a more thorough review once we've dummy fitted the kit next week, with plenty of pics.

I've put a couple of phone pics of the turbine to downpipe flanges up here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...27856684067680

[steveoexige]

My tuner has my car in bits right now and is just about to start building the kit up.

Is there an install guide available for this yet??

Also I don't seem to have any water fittings for the turbo (it is water cooled I guess?!).

[steveoexige]

maybe I'm being a dumbass but my kit is for a GTX3071r turbo, is this watercooled?

[kingkai23]

Gtx yes watercooled..i ordered same turbo as you^

[steveoexige]

Originally Posted by kingkai23

Gtx yes watercooled..i ordered same turbo as you^

Ok.

Ronnie / Jessie - when you send me my fans can you pls make sure to include the water fittings for my turbo choice pls

[AZFA20]

Originally Posted by diss7

Took my kit around to my mechanic for a pre install inspection and there was a few things he wasn't happy with. In particular, the vband flanges. While some had the usual male to female flanges, so locate together. The ones on the downpipe and over pipe did not have these, and are just the flat type with no locating connection. And they're not even smooth, they're scoured from a linisher; which I've been told was an unnecessary step as the flange should not have warped.

The downpipe to tial turbine housing connection are not the same size. Which is peculiar as the tial housing would have come with the correct male flange to suit it.

After my mechanic pointed these out, I went on a tiki tour around town to a couple of fabricators I know and a performance shop/tuner, and they all shared the same opinion as my mechanic. That using the non locating flanges would almost certainly leak, just as others they'd seen have. All said they wouldn't uses the mismatched sized flanges either. (Exhaust leaks in NZ are something that'll stop me getting the kit certified, and it's also something that's checked at our 6 monthly warrant of fitness checks.

Take this for what it's worth but the turbine housing flange to DP flange being the two different sizes is a pretty common practice at least here in the states. The actual mating surfaces of both sides are in complete contact when clamped together even though the outer diameter of the DP flange is physically larger. This is usually done for versatility in potential turbo brand and turbine housing choices that may take place in the future should you ever decide to change. I have worked on a few of the JDL turbo setups now including my own at my shop, none of which have had any signs of exhaust leaks at the flanges.

In regard to the lack of locators and the flange surfaces being linished, again both serve a purpose in my opinion. Remember these are all hand made and with hand made welded products there will likely be slight differences. Locators make life more of a pita than they are worth when fitting the parts to the car. You want some play that can be worked with when installing a turbo kit like this, ESPECIALLY when so many people have so many different variations of other brand products on their cars that the turbo kit likely needs to be able to play nice with. Although, the flanges should not have warped during welding they certainly can and often do so the fact they gave the surfaces any attention tells me they care about the possibility. That process could be considered unnecessary but it's a nice touch to me. The only other way would be to deck the surfaces with a mill but that's getting a little carried away.

All in all I personally think you may have spent more money on getting different flanges put on for basically no real improvement other than peace of mind, which may be worth it. It just sucks though because I really don't think you needed to do that. Once you get it all on and going you will be super happy with the setup. Remember it's always easy for another shop to tear apart another companies product just to make themselves feel better about themselves. Everything and anything can always be improved or done differently in someone elses eyes. I do find it to be somewhat strange that the consensus there seems negative when here its the exact opposite. Different perspectives I suppose.

[xwd]

Yeah it's not like you are taking the stuff apart all the time once it's together. I highly doubt the v-band would leak once it's all together. It's not like you'd be the first one using that configuration. I don't think the Tial turbine comes with the flanges either, you have to buy them separately.

[Jesse@JDLAutodesign]

Originally Posted by diss7

Got a couple of people asking me for updates.

Took my kit around to my mechanic for a pre install inspection and there was a few things he wasn't happy with. In particular, the vband flanges. While some had the usual male to female flanges, so locate together. The ones on the downpipe and over pipe did not have these, and are just the flat type with no locating connection. And they're not even smooth, they're scoured from a linisher; which I've been told was an unnecessary step as the flange should not have warped.

All of our flanges are welded on a corresponding weld fixture plate (v-bands, turbine inlet flanges, head flanges, etc) to prevent warping. Everything is then decked on a belt sander (guessing this is our term for Linisher?). I have done it this way for more than 10 years without issue. That is common practice here and not doing that would be deemed unacceptable at any place i know of here. I've used the male/female vbands before and have seen more issues with them over time than these ones used.

The downpipe to tial turbine housing connection are not the same size. Which is peculiar as the tial housing would have come with the correct male flange to suit it.

You are correct, there is a specific flange from Tial for their housings, it DOES NOT come with the turbo however. In a production turbo kit i have elected to use this one as it works without any issues and allows a bit of flexibility for fitment. In fact it is even machined and purchased from my Garrett/Tial distributor along with the turbos/housings. Once again this is a production kit that we allows for different turbine options for a few different turbo companies (Garrett and Precision). Precision also sells a specific Downpipe flange that is slightly different than this one also, however as with the Tial housing, this one works with the Precision as well.

After my mechanic pointed these out, I went on a tiki tour around town to a couple of fabricators I know and a performance shop/tuner, and they all shared the same opinion as my mechanic. That using the non locating flanges would almost certainly leak, just as others they'd seen have. All said they wouldn't uses the mismatched sized flanges either. (Exhaust leaks in NZ are something that'll stop me getting the kit certified, and it's also something that's checked at our 6 monthly warrant of fitness checks.

Jesse and I have been playing phone tag regarding this. However, we're in disagreement as to whether these are issues or not. I've decided I'm going to put the correct flanges on regardless, as the overwhelming feedback locally is tell me to do so.

While i respect other shops opinions, I wouldn't sell something that wouldn't work. I have used these flanges for a very long time now on countless setups without issues. Myself along with the other fabricators here have over 30 years combined experience doing strictly turbo exhaust fabrication. We don't build suspension parts, we don't do chassis fab, etc. If someone else that has done more exhaust fabrication can show me examples of these leaking I am all ears. In the mean time i will stick with the facts I have that are simply countless cars running with no signs what so ever of exhaust leaks.

Just quickly on other aspects of the kit. Packaging was excellent, 9.5/10. Welding and finishing quality are both very good, but not as great as the marketing pictures of the kit show. I'd probably rate the welding at 8/10, finishing at 7/10.

I put up a more thorough review once we've dummy fitted the kit next week, with plenty of pics.

I've put a couple of phone pics of the turbine to downpipe flanges up here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...27856684067680

Answered a few things in Bold...

Otherwise i appreciate the review so far. I've seen you're posts on these forums for awhile now and what you expect out of the parts you are willing to put on your car and while we disagree on a few things i think the whole industry would benefit if more people had you're mindset. I see too many people ok with putting questionable parts on their cars with really no idea the origins or actual quality of the part.

[Jesse@JDLAutodesign]

On another note, Marin (nelsmar on here) sent us this late last nite. He drove out to Crawford performance the other night after leaving our shop at 1am. The solid redline is his GTX3071 setup running off gate pressure (~9psi). he told me after some more tuning they ended up at 375whp @~9psi on 91 octane. I know he put some e85 in the car and was hooking up the boost controller so we'll see what happens.

[sw20kosh]

Originally Posted by Jesse@JDLAutodesign

On another note, Marin (nelsmar on here) sent us this late last nite. He drove out to Crawford performance the other night after leaving our shop at 1am. The solid redline is his GTX3071 setup running off gate pressure (~9psi). he told me after some more tuning they ended up at 375whp @~9psi on 91 octane. I know he put some e85 in the car and was hooking up the boost controller so we'll see what happens

That dynapack reads extremely high. But even still that's good power on 91!

A stock 86 makes near 200 whp on that thing.

[Jesse@JDLAutodesign]

Originally Posted by sw20kosh

That dynapack reads extremely high. But even still that's good power on 91!

A stock 86 makes near 200 whp on that thing.

So its reading crank hp then...puts it in the 305-320 range which is what i would expect.

Dynapacks are strange...my FR-S stock put down 159whp on the one we have here lol.

[King Tut]

Originally Posted by Jesse@JDLAutodesign

On another note, Marin (nelsmar on here) sent us this late last nite. He drove out to Crawford performance the other night after leaving our shop at 1am. The solid redline is his GTX3071 setup running off gate pressure (~9psi). he told me after some more tuning they ended up at 375whp @~9psi on 91 octane. I know he put some e85 in the car and was hooking up the boost controller so we'll see what happens.

Makes all those Crawford "reported numbers" more understandable, haha. 375 whp @ 9psi on 91 octane.