Hey all, I'm looking at getting an FP Red but have a few questions. I know that the turbos are on a huge wait and some of these issues can affect that time, but I'm not in a big hurry for it, probably looking for summer to end of summerish time.

1)I've heard the porting is not worth it. Should I stay away from the porting, or should I get the manifold, turbo and downpipe ported all at the same time or what combination of those? I've been told the turbo porting doesn't do much, but the manifold porting does. What's the best bang for the buck? I eventually am going to do an engine build and bigger turbo, so I won't have this forever.

2)What's the point of the 18 psi actuator and should I get it? I'm planning on doing a dual tune E85/91. Not sure if this matters. Not really sure on the point of it and want to know more about it.

3)I'm guessing it's pretty much a must to get the high flow oil line but just wondering what others have to say, maybe some RED owners.

4)Also saw they have on their website Flow Advancement Port Covers. Looks like compressor housings. Again, not sure what these are and what they do and if they are worth it.

5)Anything else I should know when going this route? I'm pretty mechanically inclined, I'm a career technician, just not as knowledgeable on FPs as I want to be since I just got into the EVO scene.

Thanks to any information you guys can provide, would like to hear from some of the current RED owners as well!!

 

I don't own a red or anything, but I might be able to give some insight...

porting on a turbo usually seems like a waste to me unless you're really looking to max out the efficiency of it. If you're positive you're going to go with a bigger turbo down the line then I wouldn't worry about it.

If you're really going that extreme later on down the line, then the stock manifold will probably end up getting replaced with a tubular setup. Although porting it now will help a little and make it easier to sell later on.

porting the downpipe is a waste. Either way the stock downpipe sucks.

The 18 psi actuator is basically for high boost applications. The stock actuator is like 10 psi I think. It's too weak for people looking to push tons of boost. If you're looking into E85 then it probably wouldn't be bad to go with this option.

not sure on the port covers, but I agree it looks like a compressor housing.

The high flow oil line is pretty much just a larger oil line. Personally I don't think it's really necessary, but I think it all depends on how hard you run your car. If you do alot of road racing, time attack, or generally beating your car for extended periods of time, it couldn't be a bad thing to help with longevity.

The best advice I can give is to figure out what you want the car to be and go that route. If you eventually want to go with a larger turbo then why waste the money putting a red on? Even if you make back what you pay for the parts to do it you'll still end up wasting a ton of money on tuning/labor charges.

 

Thanks for the insight. I currently have a full turbo back exhaust, so the stock O2 housing etc is gone. Main reason for the RED is I'm already going to have to get retuned so I can get an E85/91 tune so I thought might as well spend a little bit more and get a bigger turbo for the time being. The larger turbo in the future is probably a few years away, I'm going to do a full engine build with the bigger turbo so it will be one big setup pretty much, but I wanted something that would hopefully keep me happy for now. The extra tuning costs is actually why I decided to get a RED now, I figured instead of just doing an E85/91 tune why not do a turbo so I don't have to retune and waste the money.

 

well the main reason I say it's probably not worth it is because not only are you going to change your turbo, but you're going to upgrade your fuel system as well. You're going to spend a couple hundred bucks on injectors and another couple hundred on a new fuel pump and both will likely get changed out once you go with a bigger turbo down the line.

heck to be honest, on second thought, go with the red. I doubt that once you get that thing on there that you'll want to go with a bigger turbo afterwards. From what I've seen of the dyno's posted here, the red is capable of around 500whp with corn juice. Personally the red is the biggest I would go before turbo lag started to get on my nerves.

 

Yeah that's another thing, I want to experiment and see how I like it. I doubt it'll be enough for me, but it'll hopefully hold me off for awhile. The turbo lag will def be irritating when/if I go bigger, but by then I'll be building a 2.2L hopefully. That's why I'm not switching until I build the motor and am pretty much trying to squeeze what I can out of this setup, because that will be a ton of money so a ways down the road. 500 AWHP would hold me off pretty good. I don't want too much more than that because I want this still streetable. Maybe 600, or I'll just say F it and go all out who knows.