Get a CBRD FMIC. They use the Garrett 3.8" core, and it doesn't require any cutting to the crash beam or bumper. I guarantee that stock FMIC will heatsoak very fast.

 

Heat soak and pressure drop. If you want to run 28PSI on the OEM intercooler, the stock unit has been tested to about 2PSI drop, meaning that you would need to run over 30PSI just to get 28PSI at the manifold. This would further worsen the heat soaking issue. I purchased an AMS FMIC, the street unit. It has less than 1 PSI pressure drop ( you need SOME pressure drop otherwise you Intercooler isn’t doing anything but letting air go right on by, the pressure drop is the resistance the FMIC exerts with its fins to transfer the heat away). The AMS unit is extremely efficient as it uses a Garret Core and fits well. The Buschur unit is slightly bigger and uses a Garret core as well, chose either one and you are golden, you turbo can run 28.7PSI and get 28PSI so your turbo isn’t over worked, tuning and performance is more consistent as the thing won’t heat soak so your intake temps won’t spike, and your front end looks way cooler.

 

Mod list is in my signature. I think I already experienced heat soak with the evo9 turbo. Knock was so more inconsistent, run after run, than this new turbo. And sometimes the sporadic knock counts weren't just 1 or 2s, they were 3-6s.

 

My fault. Didnt even look.

I can see the inconsistent knock be from being heat soaked. Especially when boost levels increase.

 

28 psi on 93 octane with stock block would be a bit more than I would risk. I run 26.5 psi with 0 knock count. Great to see the gains you have had already over the stock turbo. With a bit more boost and tuning I expect about a 50 whp gain over the stock turbo. I gained 70 whp with BBK-Full/cams over my stock setup with no other changes.

 

Wow, you know a lot about intercoolers. Is the ETS wide body core for the IX any good?

 

I've been reading a bunch of threads where CBRD pushes 28psi on several of clients' cars with stock block, no aftermarket head studs either. What's everyone else's opinions on this? 28psi for quick 1min autox runs? or lower? How much power or torque is the stock block good for anyways?

 

If your just doing autox runs you should be fine. The guys who get in trouble are people doing 4th and 5th gear pulls from 3k onward where your seeing tons of load and high torque over a long period of time.
Most experienced tuners say 425 is 'safe' on a stock block But most of those tuners are drag racing aimed as well.
If you look at cars that have shot rods through the block many were in the 400-460 trq range.Some people have been luckier then that , but personally i dont want to ever see that.

I try to be safe with my torque numbers as i do a lot of HPDE , Hi speed and low speed autox, and like being able to roll hard into the throttle any gear any RPM with no worries.
Im self tuned and keep them around 380WTQ

As far as your boost ?? Ive been running 26-30PSI on many street tunes and havent lifted a head yet , but its cheap insurance (headstuds that is) I run them , and anyone who beats on their car at trackdays and such usually sees their value.

 

So torque is the main number to look at? The BBK turbo makes a lot more hp than torque, so that works out to my advantage. I remember my evo9 turbo making 367/350 during the winter (uncorrected) and I was slipping my oem clutch on launches.

 

Your best thing to do is ask Chad, obviously he has sold & tuned the most BBK turbos out of anyone. Yes, tq is the stock block killer. It seems that 400wtq or less is the sweet spot for stock blocks. With your current setup I don't see you having over 370wtq. Like other people have said, I highly suggest picking up a larger intercooler, mainly with the 3.8 Garrett core. CBRD's FMIC is very nice and fits with the stock crash beam, if that matters to you. There is also Buschur's Race Core or ETS's FMIC with the Garrett core. I have a Buschur Race FMIC, S2 cams, ported intake manifold & TB on my car and on 93 oct. & 27psi, my car made around 415whp & 375wtq on Chad's dyno. Chad had more of a road race tune in the car because the timing was conservative. My car is stock block with head studs.

 

fwiw AMS doesn't use Garrett cores. they use FCP cores which are good also.

I'm getting a CBRD FMIC and BBK-Full installed on my car at CBRD next week. I will post up results.

 

Definitely keep us in the loop. What are your current mods, so I can relate? I'm jealous of you guys with Mivec, as I've tuned several of my buddy's Evo9 and X's, and you can extract so much power under the curve with them!

 

Just basic bolt ons at the moment. Perrin intake, Megan o2, AMS turboback, AMS licp, Walbro 255, Hallman mbc.

I'm getting the CBRD Fmic, BBK Full, injectors, CBRD uicp, 3 port ebcs. I'm hoping to break some 10's with it.

 

I road race my car and although I have ARP studs, I don't run the most aggressive razor edge tune possible. My torque is right at the level I would want on the stock block. 370 tq that comes on very fast and hard is tons of fun and should be safe with the stock bottom end. The BBK-Full does seem to scale hp/tq interestingly. I had almost 400 whp and just over 300 torque at 21.5 psi and gained 4-7 hp and 70 torque raising the boost over 26 psi. I think its right in its efficiency range now.

 

Once you get to this level of power, the numbers are not as close to each other anymore, run after run (like you guys said, probably heat soak from intercooler). Throughout the day tuning, I was getting anywhere between 365-385 peak hp. It's awesome that the peak was always after redline. Who knows what will happen if I keep going to 8-9000rpm (if I had the hardware to do so). Anyways, it's all dialed in for 24psi now. It's hitting 5-6 degrees peak torque, 13 at redline. I'll pull 5 logs this weekend and get averages.

Btw, CRBD was just about dead on when he told me to expect about 150rpms is added lag over the 9 turbo, which in my test cases have translated into a quarter of a second lost going from 2500-4000rpms. I like to benchmark that range because it's used quite often in autocross. .25s sounds like a lot for autocross, but in 2nd gear, it's considerably less, but then again, I have lost by hundredths of a second before, lol.

Here's my strongest pull of no knock for today...378hp / 336tq
That's roughly +50/+10tq for a simple turbo swap, same boost level!



I ordered some MilSpec throttle body seals so I can fix that boost leak and potentially make more power, preferably earlier. I think this is contributing to my lag that I see in comparison to other people's graphs. My peak torque seems to be hitting a few hundred rpms later than a lot of other graphs I see on the board.

I think that leak is getting worse, but for testing purposes, all things have to be equal, so if it was leaking when I had the 9 turbo, it'll be leaking for the BBK Full's averages.