This thread is basically for people who are searching. Before i bought my turbo i had a few questions, but i couldnt find it anywhere on this board so im gonna post some things that you might wanna know about if you're considering a turbo.

First off, i mainly wanted a turbo for one thing and that was just to add more power to the lancer without significantly adding noise or rattling or anything. I was halfway right. Theres no rattling and the turbo is very solid (RRM IC Kit). Only thing is the wastegate spews out excess exhaust from the front of your car. im sure theres many reasons for this, but when the wastegate (pic 2) opens up at around 3500 rpms its really loud and sounds like a rice burner. There is an easy solution though. Go to any welding shop and have them recirculate the wastegate dump tube (pic 1) back to your stock downpipe and its only about 35-60 dollars!

(See picture 1 for illustration)


Next was the installation. I thought it would be a breeze and maybe 2 day max. Well i was wrong there. Dont get me wrong, installtion was the fun part, but it took longer than i thought. took me about 5 days and i had jay (viciouz) and chris help me install it. Installing this kit is a good idea because incase anything goes wrong you can fix it and youll learn a lot about your car in the process!

Also, make sure you have a shop tap your oil pan because thats the only pain in the *** part of the installation. Getting the pan off then back on and making sure there are no leaks.

Pretty much everything fits great. the turbo, downpipe, uppipe, wastegate assembly (pic 3) was flawless and thats all i could ask for. the pipes were nicely powedercoated red and everything went together nicely. only thing i wish it had was something to secure the filter from jiggling around, but i made something for that.

So, so far all the pipes, accessories and hardware went on flawlessly (this is why i went with rrm) and theres so many places where it looks like they could mess up and i thought they might be, but they werent.


ok intermission-------------------------------------------------

I really wanted to know how many pounds of boost i could run safely for everyday driving. Well i just learned its not about how much PSI youre running, but what temperature your car is at. So you could run as much as you want but your engine would get so hot at that boost that itll blow. keeping it boosting too long without a break will blow a piston also. so get an EGT (exhaust gas temperature) gauge and itll help you see when you're in trouble.


Ok, last part. What other stuff do i need with this kit?

You dont NEED anything extra, but it would be VERY helpful and youd probably end up getting it sooner or later.

Boost gauge - this is self explanatory. Tells you what PSI youre running and when youre getting boost.

EGT Gauge - Like I was saying above, tells you exhaust gas temperature and is a must if you wanna know when youre about to blow.

Breather - this is for your valve cover. your engine will spew trace amounts of oil through it and it may be a good idea to have something covering that hole up. Get a small breaher from kragen for a few bucks.

RRM Header - I wanted to go for a full stock setup, but it was obviously a good idea to get these headers for many reasons. more exhaust getting out quicker to help spool, keeping temperature down and they look a lot nicer. once again, not a must, but very beneficial

Wastegate return - this is a custom job like i was saying above. 35-60 bucks and they will weld your wastegate dump tube to your downpipe. (pic 1) keeps down the noise and you can hear the turbo better. you must have an aftermarket exhaust for this because the stock one is very restricitive and will cause exhaust to go back up the exhaust (which is bad)

This pretty much covers it. If you have anymore questions there are a lot of gurus on this board that will help you out and thats how i got most of my info.

good luck.

 

I also want to add that i used to get 320 Miles per tank, now i get close to that even with spirited driving. I get around 290 and you must be running with the highest octane gas in your area (91 over here)

 

Nice writeup. Just adding a few things. A better gauge to look at getting with be a wideband o2 setup. That will tell you more then anything if your engine is safe or not. By the time an EGT guage responds and shows your too hot, your engine probably already seen too much detenation. also.....something i've never seen anyone comment on:

what about that downpipe that looks like someone took a hammer to it to make clearance and the "J" pipe that isn't even mandrel bent. For the $ RRM charges, they should fix those thing.

ok...thats all.

 

thats so you can screw in this 1 bolt to connect it to the turbo

 

is it good to also get a Intake Manifold and Throttle Body, does that make ur turbo more powerful?

 

heres a picture of the wastegate return. should cost about 50 bucks.

 

I think I might get one of these bad boys... does the wastegate make any noise now? or just pure spooledge?

 

pure wooooooooosh

 

hrm....but i like my car sounding like it does...people call it the "Jet" thats ppl w/ Evos and STis...they say my car sounds like jet plane when i pass by...lol

 

Is it possible to get a boost guage and turbo timer together?

 

from my research, nope

 

im in a rush atm and cant really stay to read this again but im runnin 30k miles on my car and was just wondering how high would it have to be for it to start having stability issues? (i dont have a turbo but was just wondering just incase) if it doesnt make sense ill be back later cya and thnx lol

 

Chances are pretty good that if you can't take the time to do the research yourself, you'll have problems maintaining a turbo setup. If it's not maintained, and if you don't know what you're doing or what warning signs to look for, you will have costly problems sooner or later. On the other hand if you maintain your car, change your oil on time, and run within safe parameters (i.e. not knocking) then the length your engine will last is indefinite. Just as with any car, it's pretty much as reliable as you make it, but the turbo adds a layer of complexity and additional potential failure points.

 

i second that, i was told to watch everything all the time when im turbo, if you aint got time, thats when things(big things) go BOOM.

 

i was reading somewhere on this forum earlier before i posted, about how someone didnt wanna get turbo done cause he has drove his car too much and it may cause problems? or something like that thats why i was a little concerned. about spending time with it? ****.. if i spend that kinda money im gonna spend as much time as i need to whether it makes some ppl mad or not thnx for the replies