Cheap Turbo kit on ebay...

Gearbanger 101 said:

I see, so its just a matter of them choosing to use inferior steel in their choice for the kit, not the fact that its made in China that's the problem.

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Correct, I didn't mean to insinuate that Chinese = fail. Rather that it's insanely cheap to get sub-par Chinese 304 SS used for turbo headers and hot sides from China - and this would be a case of that. I can find the thread for ya.

Edit:
http://www.theturboforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=121437.0

http://www.theturboforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=122296.0

Read through later pages to get an idea here. As hard as headers and other parts are to install on a modular, i'd prefer not having to replace them.

I'd only get it for the pre-made tubing, and even then, i'd check the welds.

I would be warry of the turbo. Most of the cheap turbos on ebay have VERY VERY poor quality standards. The 57 trim T04E's you see for 100-400$ are especially bad. Apparently, the oil passages are often not drilled correctly and the turbo will eat it's self within minutes of installation... along with plenty of other problems. I even saw a situation where the compressor housing was 2 seperate halves 'GLUED' together and when it saw boost, it just fell apart. If you can confirm that the turbo is a genuine master craft made in brazil (or wherever they make the real ones), then it would be worth while.
Beleive me, I'm very very tempted to get a cheap turbo from ebay for my 2.3. I'm at the absolute limit of my turbo with exhaust backpressure through the roof and IAT temps way up, but I'm not going to waste my money on cheap new ebay turbo's which seem to have a 50% or higher failure rate.
Maybe buy a proper T4 from turbonetics or precision and you could have a nice setup with this piping kit.

Edit: Once last point....

Q-What power can I expect from the kit?
A- Your car stock should make around 220 wheel horsepower. So the nice thing about a turbocharged application, you can run your choice of boost. The kit at ~8psi( +/- 1psi) will be enough to put you over 400 rear wheel horsepower and nearly double the stock 4.6 power.

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Not a chance can you double your power at 8psi. If you have an extremely efficient intercooler and plenty of octane, you 'might' be able to double the power with 15psi. Sorry, but it is based on airflow. Naturally aspirated, you are sucking in the 14.7psi of atmosheric pressure. Unless you make airflow improvements, you'll need 14.7psi ABOVE atmosheric to double the power, and that's with an amazing intercooler and plenty of octane.

I'm going to have to continue to disagree strongly with you. Anyone that can make 400rwhp with 5psi would clearly need some airflow mods, like a cam and/or ported heads.

Have you ever seen a vacuum gauge on an engine before? When you give it full throttle, the pressure in the intake manifold does infact go to pretty much atmospheric (0"Hg). At least it much less than 1" Hg. That doesn't mean the cylinders are filling to atmospheric pressure on each intake cycle, due to valve timing and the major restrictions at the valves and in the head, but the engine does have atmospheric pressure to draw from. On a boosted engine, you are simply give the engine a higher pressure source to draw from, but the volumetric efficiency does NOT change. You still have the same restrictions in the head and at the valves.

Yes, turbos are efficient, but they do not change the volumetric efficiency of the engine. While turbos are much more efficient than other superchargers, they still add head to the air charge when it is compressed. The best you can do is cool that air to near ambient, which is still higher than a comparable NA engine.

As great as it would be to use your logic, it is flawed. If the stock 4.6 makes ~17 hp per psi of atmoshere (260hp/14.7 psi), then you can say at 5psi, it may make 5*17 = 85hp more than stock... so 345 at the crank. If you were starting with some mild mods, making 330 hp at the crank NA (easy enough, only around 280rwhp), then your multiplier would be 22hp per psi. So the same 5psi would make 5*22=110hp more than 330, so around 440hp. That setup would be good for nearly 400 at the wheels like you were talking about... but becuase of the additional airflow mods. Same engine, but at 10psi... 10*22=220 hp more, so 550hp at the crank. This kind of calculation isn't perfect and your actual results will be LOWER due to heat and insufficient octane/too safe tune, but it gives you an idea how this works.

007 said:

Turbos really do make high numbers with low boost because they are efficient. Guys on here were making about 400rwhp with 5 PSI turbo setups.

BTW You dont have 15PSI differential pressure from the air filter to motor. Atmosphere is 15 PSI above perfect vacuum, your engine doesnt pull anything like that strong a vacuum, so your differential pressure is very much lower than 15PSI.

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