my turbo'd 6 port, first drive
 

Alright, finally got my damn exhaust leaks taken care of, wastegate installed (didn't have to even notch my frame, woohoo), and running. Alright, here's the setup.

'87 Sport w/6 port engine (duh)
S5 turbo/manifold
Starion FMIC
Walbro 255lph fuel pump
550 primary/720 secondary
Home depot boost controller (at roughly 8psi)

I don't have pictures at the moment, batteries are dead. :(

Installation:
This was a pain in the ass. Sadly the flange I purchased from racing beat was warped, and nearly 1/8th" off on each end! Yikes! I didn't happen to realize this until it was all welded up and ready to install, so I had to spend an extra 3 days flattening it out, waiting for new gaskets/etc. Other than that, the only hard part is getting to all the bolts, with the turbo it surely cramps the space! I kept my K2RD ACV block-off with a bolt in the same place (however both were ground down considerably to make clearance for the Turbo, as well as the turbo's compressor bracket) All in all, it wasn't too hard to mount and fit it in, the hardest part came from running all the damn IC piping. Anyway, past that, what everybody wants to know...

Driving impression/improvements:
Well, I must say my first impression of when the boost hit was surely 'wow'. I'm currently only boosting to 6psi (don't have the MBC set yet), and even at that it feels about 2x faster than before. Just the kick you in your seat and make you hold on for dear life feeling was enough for me.

Alright, now for some numbers. For those of you concerned with grenading your rear-end or blowing your tranny into peices with the stock clutch, good luck. My clutch gives out at 4000rpm, and slips the rest of the way through the rpm range. However, for those of you interested in knowing the gain from before and after (even with the slipping clutch) Here are some g-tech numbers

Before (weight, 3000lbs w/ two passengers), result: 142rwhp

After(weight, 3150lb w/two passengers): 180rwhp

also, as a note, during this 'test' 180rwhp was obtained in 2nd gear around 4300rpm, at which point the clutch gave out and would no longer grip to provide a better reading. Once I get the new clutch in I'll be taking it to a dyno for real numbers, but the gtech with the weight correct is pretty accurate at gauging before and after effect, and let me tell you, you can surely feel it in the ass dyno. Sorry for the rant, just kind of excited and happy that after 3 weeks of bloody knuckles it's all finished!

Congrats on finishing the build- enjoy the boost!

I did, for about all of the 10 seconds the clutch held up, hehe. I'll be posting some pictures tomorrow once i can get some batteries. It's funny at how ugly the car looks, and yet what it's packing under the hood. Definate sleeper. :-D

Excellent news and work SonicRaT! I look forward to seeing some pictures.
Have you driven any stock or modded TII's before? How does your car compare, specifically in the lower-mid RPMS.

Nice to hear you got it done Rat.

If you saw my sig at all, you'd see i've got an '89 TurboII (GXL converted to a TII at least) and to compare, the 6 port spools a HELL of a lot sooner. In the TII (stock turbo/IC, open exhaust) i generally don't see full boost until around 4300rpm or so, in the sport I'm spooling around 3000 and pretty much full at 3300 if not sooner, so while i've still got somewhat of the lag/no power at lower RPM's due to wired 6 ports/etc, it'll start spooling around 2k rpm depending on how much throttle I feed it. I spun the tires so bad the first time I was driving it because I wasn't used to it, couldn't stop spinning them! Was quite the feeling! As for overall top speed, it definatly is pulling harder than my stock setup TII at the same boost, but that extra compression plays a role in that. All in all, i'd say it's a much more enjoyable experience since the turbo starts spooling so quickly.

Oh, some other goodies:
Greddy Type S bov
Techedge wideband diy v2a
2.5" downpipe -> 2.5" resonator -> 2.5" piping all the way back to dual bomz evo (the same setup i had on the N/A)
home depot style TID (it's pretty ghetto to look at, but so is most the entire car, so nothing big there)

Also, i tapped the oil feed on the oil pedistal (1/8th -> 90 degree elbow with 1/4th nipple) running high pressure rubber hose to the turbo. It's holding up great so far. Other than that it was pretty much straightforward. Oh, ratcheting wrenches are you friend in this conversion!

sounds awesome james! BTW the tranny is holding up good-- it took a couple months after it got here to source ther ight parts. Some ignorany ebayer sold the wrong flywheel, and then some ignorant rx7clubber sold the wrong flywheel, finaly a month later i got everything lined up and installed

hope everythign works out on your end :)

Congrats SonicRaT!!

I understand the feeling of a boosted high comp rotor all too well! :)

just be careful of that rubber oil line going to the turbo..
I hope its actually silicone not rubber, my rubber one did not last long at all , split right near the CHRA..

So I went to stainless briad... Just something too keep in mind.. :)

Yeah, I'm actually sourcing stainless lines to swap over to, I just didn't have the money at the time to buy all of that and I needed to get it done quickly. IIRC it was designed for high pressure oil coolers, so it shouldn't break down, but I still don't trust it much and i'm keeping an eye on it.

Re: my turbo'd 6 port, first drive
 

You mentioned not noticing the flange was warped until after the welding. This almost certainly due to the welding itself. I would be EXTREMELY surprised if they actually sold a piece of flat plate that was off by that much. Welding on the other hand will do that quite easily.


Good job on the car, enjoy it.

-Chris

whoops, double-post.

With open exhaust you should get full boost in your TII [i]way[i] before 4300 rpm. have you checked the turbo or your compression?

Congratulations on the swap. Have fun.

That's right. I drove a stock TII and even with its stock little turbo it took a few seconds with my foot ALL the way in it to feel anything resembling the level of acceleration a modded NA gives.

It's good to hear that a turbo NA is not as bad as a turbo tII. I wonder how a centrifugal supercharged NA drives . . . .

Re: Re: my turbo'd 6 port, first drive
 

It was pretty fubar'd to begin with, i think it was just one of the bad ones of theirs, it had quite a few places where the mold/whatever was missing in sections and had to be repaired, and the things are pretty damn thick to warp that much by welding, and it was all in the dead center away from where the welds were, and the other side remained perfectly flat, so I'm pretty sure it was like that when I got it.

Towards $150FC, yeah, engine was just rebuilt around 700 miles ago and compression was 115/118, turbo can't be verified. No matter what I did I could never see full boost in that car until late in the band (around 4000-4300rpm), and it's the only other turbo rx7 I can compare to at the moment.

PICS!!!

buy batteries

I've got batteries, just stuck at work, and I took the GTUs to work since my clutch slips so damn badly in the sport. Any idea's on what I can do for a clutch setup to hold this beast? I was thinking about mazdatrix' race pressure plate with their S/S disc, or am I going to have to go 6 puck on this bitch?

Get a 6 puck, that'll hold you for a while :D

Alright, you've made up my mind. 6 puck it is. For those of you wondering, the greddy type-s sounds like a damn baby fart. Makes me miss my TurboXS RFL :(

Nice work, hope it holds up. Definately get a 6-puck to hold the power, and it should last for awhile. The stock n/a clutch won't even hold the power of a streetported n/a, let alone a turbo'd n/a.

Yeah, I'm in the same boat as aaron, anything over 4psi in 2nd gear and the clutch bails on me. Any specific 6puck you prefer? Or ACT straight up? I'm debating mazdatrix or ACT.

I've got an ACT 6 puck clutch and it's great. Of course I have no boost, but I got the clutch for prep of when I do go turbo or s/c. I can launch at high rpms easily, and this thing grabs like no other. So I'd say go ACT

Make sure you have that BOV adjusted properly. I installed a type-s on my G/Fs Talon last summer, and it took me a little while to get it set correctly. When not set right, it would just "flutter" (or baby fart as you call it :p: ), but after I got it correct, I get a nice chirp out of it. I loosened it until it just started to leak at idle, then tightened it about 1/4 turn. Thats where it worked best for me.

That's pretty much how i've got it, by baby fart I meant the 'chirp' sound. Where as when it was too tight, i was fluttering the poor turbo :(

I don't. Silicone hosing breaks down extremely fast when subjected to petroleum products. Couple this with 70+psi of oil pressure, and you just made a very big mess at the very least, and spun rotor, stationary, and turbo bearings at the worst.