Al-

I finally got my crap together today. I installed my new downpipe, 680cc injectors & 255lph fuel pump. I've now got a Buschur Stage 4 plus a BR440 turbo upgrade. Man, that flash you hooked me up with is a HUGE improvement over the BR Stage 3 flash. The idle with the 264s is rock solid. The spool up of the BR440 is extremely smooth and once it hit boost threshold it pegs to 20psi in an eye blink and stays at 20 all the way to redline with no taper. The thing pulls like a freight train. I feel like an outlaw driving this thing around.

Let me know when your coming back through the DC area on your way back from NOPI. Maybe we can coordninate a custom tune using Ultimate Performance's DynoJet. They're located just west of DC in Virginia.

Mods:
BR Stage 4 w/ HKS 264s & BR440.
Hallman MBC.

 

Awesome setup, hopefully I'll have that myself someday! Can you contrast the spool-up to your previous-setup with the stock turbo, and also if what rpms you hit peak boost.

 

My initial impression with the spool up is that it is just a little later than the stock turbo. It's definately laggy when your below the threshold. I'll have to drive it awhile to get a better feel for the spool but one 4th gear pull I noted that at WOT from 1500RPM, boost began to build around 2500 with 10psi at 3000RPM and full 19psi around 3500, maybe a tad lower. I'm going to be doing some data logging in the next few weeks, so I should have some good graphs showing boost vs rpm.

 

I have been saying for some time now that the Buschur 440 kit is just about the ideal aftermarket turbo for a stock block and pump gas

It spools virtually as fast as stock and it holds the boost right to red line and makes a significant amount of additional power and trq!

I am very happy that you are happy with the stage 4 Buschur Flash !

BTW - call me Monday about 12 - 1 pm at 203-515-4110 and I will let you know my progress on the return trip - we can arrange a custom tune upgrade - dyno is not needed as I usually prefer a street tune but we can do it on the dyno also if you really want your numbers

Thanks for the good review

 

Just to follow up. I've had a chance to get a few more miles under my belt with the BR440. A few things I've noticed:

- According to my logs, peak torque is reached at about 450rpms later than with the stock turbo.

- The peak torque levels I'm seeing are a little weak, only about 5% higher. This might have to do with the safe tune I'm currently using. Perhaps some more aggressive timing will help.

-Top end pull is silly. The "shortwinded" nature of the stock turbo is apparent when compared to how hard this turbo helps the motor pull hard all the way to redline. I've seen the BR Stage 3 estimated at ~320WHP. If that's the case then this configuration with a "mail-in flash" is putting down somewhere ~370WHP.

(I'm not argue about specific torque or HP figures since my "dyno" readings are based on level ground acceleration times and are completely irrelevant to everyone else on this forum. I've never had my car on a "real" dyno so I have no factor to use for the basis of comparison.)

- Peak boost (20psi) is reached at 3,500 rpm

- IMO, the BR440 is MUCH easier to modulate using the throttle at part throttle positions than the stock turbo. The stock turbo is so responsive when above the threshold that it's on and off like a lightbulb even at part throttle. I find I can modulate the boost output at part throttle easier with the BR440. I guess this means a little more lag but it's smoother. Maybe I'll grow to miss the "binary" nature of the stock turbo, we'll see but at this point I like the smoothness and the hard pull in the upper RPM range versus the twitchy, near zero lag of the stock turbo. I think this will translate into better performance on a road course track. I spend most of my time at the track between 4500 and 7700 rpm, well above the boost threshold of the BR440 so lag will be minimal. I'm sure with a ported head and flow modifications the stock turbo could be coaxed into pushing a little harder at high RPMs but you'd have no room to run higher boost levels.

 

great review, thank you

 

Thanks for the detailed information, I am looking for something that will be useful on the street as well as a road course. The Buschur and AMS units have caught my eye so far. I would love to see a shoot-out between the 440, and the AMS GT2871R and GT3076R.

 

at least that old kit of mine is doing something useful! i still wanna ride

 

Absolutely! As soon as Al hooks me up with a proper custom tune. No hard launches tho'. I'm still babying the stock clutch.

 

Here's a bit of a mini-update:

I met up with Big Al last night on his way home from NOPI. Al spent about an hour and a half tweaking the tune for my BR440. Since what I was running with was a base tune guesstimate, AFRs were rich across the board. This was obviously affecting overall power output as well as slowing the spool a bit. Al dialed in the AFRs for WOT and also tweaked the AFRs down near the boost threshold for a better spool up. Over the course of about 6 to 8 third gear highway pulls and numerous hacks to the maps, I think we ended up with AFRs in the 11.5 range with much improved spool up. Then the timing was tweaked and we logged over the course of a few runs. This was done to ensure the motor was riding the knock threshold without crossing over and pulling timing.

Results:
Well, I haven't had enough time since last night to log any data however I can say this thing pulls really, really hard. Certainly harder than it did pre-tuning. As I've said before, the stock turbo spools very quickly and is almost lag free above the threshhold. However the trade off with the stock turbo is that it runs out of steam up top. This turbo pulls hard all the way to the rev limiter. Full boost is still reached by 3500-3600rpms in most situations but it seems that the turbo begins to spool a little earlier. If I recall correctly it's pushing 15psi at 3000 rpm. I can't wait to get this thing out to Summit Point for a couple of track days.

I'm pretty sure there's room to tune some additional power out of this thing. I think some cam gears and some methanol injection could be used to advance the cam timing and ignition timing and avoid detonation. I think this would help the turbo spool a bit sooner and maybe add a couple pounds of boost on 93 octane. I don't know, I'm still learning.

Hey Al, I have your glove.

 

Sweet

 

good work on the turbo upgrade path and using what is known to work awesome on pump gas br440 and the DYNOFLASH A++ job!! And A++ to Al at dynoflash for more impressive flashes