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Some more pics while I was investigating the twins -
Secondary turbo is fine. That is hard to get a pic of Turbos with no intake or Y-pipe. Knightsports dual tube downpipe. Ceramic coated blue. I have a modded Y-pipe that has this splitter welded in, this is something the Japanese guys have messed with. I seriously think this made more power and/or response. You can see where the Y-pipe was cut, the splitter was inserted, and welded up. Pre-turbo water injection nozzle on the HKS intake. HPS silicone BOV hoses, these have held up GREAT and are an awesome solution to replace the OEM hoses.
Welcome to the dark side of single turbos Dale! The EFR 8374 is a great choice when going single these days. What EMS are you going to tune/run it with?
You'll love the 8374 Dale. Be prepared for possible boost creep on the IWG, but I've got it solved with a ported turbine/wastegate, and I'm getting good solid range of boost and response with a dual port actuator.
Wow! I never saw that coming. Sorry to hear about the damage to the twins! I suspect next you'll start wearing all that haltech swag you won at DGRR LOL!!!
I was pretty happy with the S257 single I put on. For being a journal bearing turbo the lag was noticeable, but not as bad as I'd imagined. I already have the EFR downpipe I picked up off Ron and will be going 8374 before I have Shawn re-tune the car. I only got 18.5MPG on the way home from DGRR this year but I was probably not going to speed limit, and the car was running richer for sure. The Cast manifold is really a great piece, and the inconel shields are impressive compared to DEI stuff. My only problem at the moment is actually finding an 8374 instock to buy... Let me know if you find someone that has stock!
Oh man, never thought I would see you go single. You have always been one of the most influential and knowledgeable people when it comes to keeping the twins. When mine die, I believe I'll just upgrade to 99's or one of the other twins just for nostalgia purposes. Bummed to hear it but glad to see progress on the car. Can't wait to see what the paint brings.
At this point I have no reason to change ECU's. The PowerFC can handle the new turbo no sweat. Also I have not yet maxed out the fuel system so that will stay as-is.
At this point I'm not going for insanity, 400hp to the ground is CRAZY in an FD. But there's a long way to go before I get there.
With the turbo I think I will also go through the motor. General plan -
- Pull engine
- Crack open and just refresh - new apex seals, make sure side seals are all tight, new springs, new gaskets, etc.
- Possibly mild street port. Going to have to think on that. Engine is stock ports right now.
- FINALLY seal the damn oil pan so it doesn't leak. I have a Chips Motorsports brace to go on. Car has a Garfinkle brace that I installed when I built the engine in 2006 or so and it's leaked ever since. No fault of that brace, just sealing FD oil pans is REALLY REALLY hard.
- I have a set of JDM upper and lower intake manifolds that Paul Yaw ported and flow benched for best flow, bought those like 12 years ago. Get them ceramic coated and installed.
- Ceramic coat the manifold, turbine housing, downpipe.
- Have to fab new intake and new intercooler hot pipe.
- Replace motor mounts, they are most likely shot. Probably going to try and hack FC comp mounts in.
Looking at getting the Turblown kit, I like that it has everything good to go, nice oil hard line, just well engineered from what I see.
I would really like to get my car on the dyno to see what kind of power it's making as-is before I tear into it. Would love to compare the power band before and after. Also curious the power it makes now, it's REALLY damn quick.
Also a tiny update - I have always been bugged by the bobo gas cap on the FD and wanted something a bit better.
Found a carbon fiber stick-on cover on Ebay that looked good and got it. The raised part you grab with your hand is wider than the stock cap so it doesn't fit tightly. Got some JB Weld plastic epoxy, the stuff that's in a log and you cut off what you need, knead it to mix, then stick on. Used that to fill the void up in there. Also painted the body of the cap with black paint.
Stock gas cap Spray painted black. Masked off the threaded part at bottom. Carbon fiber cover installed. It came with 3m double sided tape on the underside to stick on.
I feel you on the external wastegate but that's why I like the new HKS turbo kit on the new redesign they plumbed it back into the downpipe. The BNR stage 1 drop-ins feel great but yeah going single turbo right there with you man. Good luck with the build.
Various twin turbo parts will be sold AFTER or during the turbo conversion process, I'm keeping the car running until that point.
I'd also LOVE to get the car dynoed as-is and then I can compare it to the new setup. I'd love to see the overlap on how the power stacks up.
Yes, you can plumb an external wastegate back into the downpipe, but those pipes have issues with cracking and you still have an external wastegate that's going to have a bad diaphragm, won't work right, will stick, etc. There may be some newer designs that are better but overall an internal gate is just SO much simpler and less to fail.
Also I know NOTHING about that new HKS kit but in general the Japanese kits are pretty old tech with laggy turbo setups.
Going to try and get a little sanding done today and also go help Jason get his FD happy with the new fuel pump.
Always curious to see how a single turbo setup response compares to the sequential twins. It's amazing what an EFR can do these days. Watching with interest.
So, @estevan62274 cleverly let me drive his car with the 8374 Borg Warner a while back. That, folks, was one EXPENSIVE car ride.
Yep, I'm FINALLY going single. Going to do the BW 8374 internal waste gate with the cast manifold.
Now, I'm a HUGE fan of the twins. I've never been a fan of most single turbo setups for many reasons.
- No power under 4000 RPM. That just SUCKS driving around town.
- Crappy external waste gates that leak, fail, stick, overboost, underboost, you name it. And loud screamer pipes.
- Crappy welded stainless manifolds that crack all the damn time.
So the 8374 -
- Power from 2000 RPM, FAT power band, and the power up top is INSANE.
- Internal waste gate that WORKS. And since it's internal no screamer pipe.
- Nice cast exhaust manifold that isn't going to crack
So, yeah, I'm going to do it. I have some other plans too but I will save that for another post. And get a paint job. Boy this is gonna be a lot of work.
You’re the second person that I’ve influenced to swap over to a EFR 8374iwg.
First was Tito and he loves his! It a great Street turbo setup
The twins will ALWAYS out spool and 8374 but the power up top is winning in my book!
And the spool is not bad… I feel it’s not that far behind the twins anyway… my 2cents
Also you get rid of alot of those vacuum hoses and that brick twins manifold.
Let me know if I can assist ya in anyway 👍
Steve
Last edited by estevan62274; May 29, 2023 at 05:27 PM.
Bad news, but, awesome at the same time. Following this for sure. Been running my turbos at 14psi, when they finally go, will proceed with the single conversion.
What fueling do you have currently? Planning to upgrade. Also, how’s the ignition system going with the FC Tweak igniter?
Maybe a little rock got in there from the Airbnb gravel road?
Awesome shopping cart - I would have pitched in on that one. lol
Divided x-over pipe, that's super cool !!!
I'd like to go to DGRR so I could bug you guys all in person.. hahahaha
Sorry to hear about the twins Dale. I also wanted to take a moment to thank you for giving me the idea of painting my car at home. This is someone that I did not think was possible until starting to watch paint society and garage noise on YouTube.
Been working on the FD for several months now on and off and am getting close to the finish line.
I will more than likely start a build thread when I have more time but here are some pics for motivation. It is actually a lot of fun to paint a car. Hopefully you can switch back in a few months.
Bad news, but, awesome at the same time. Following this for sure. Been running my turbos at 14psi, when they finally go, will proceed with the single conversion.
What fueling do you have currently? Planning to upgrade. Also, how’s the ignition system going with the FC Tweak igniter?
Fuelling is Walbro 255 feeding 550cc primaries and bored out 1300cc secondaries. I've been around 70-some percent on duty cycle so I still have head room. Probably around 350hp as it sits.
Been VERY happy with the new igniter, definitely more power and it made the trip to and from Deal's Gap this year with zero issues, drove around 1500 miles that week.
Sorry to hear about the twins Dale. I also wanted to take a moment to thank you for giving me the idea of painting my car at home. This is someone that I did not think was possible until starting to watch paint society and garage noise on YouTube.
Been working on the FD for several months now on and off and am getting close to the finish line.
I will more than likely start a build thread when I have more time but here are some pics for motivation. It is actually a lot of fun to paint a car. Hopefully you can switch back in a few months.
That's some great incentive for me, I gotta get to WORK!
I have some sanding blocks arriving today.
I would LOVE it if you could make a post with how you got there - what tools you used, how you sanded/prepped, etc.
Dale
I’m definitely going to put a detailed build thread together once things get settled. I‘ve been keeping track of the supplies and ‘adjustments’ I’ve had to make through this learning process.
My environment is less than ideal for painting as I do not have a way to have proper ventilation with no doors or windows in my small garage. I just wanted to stress the fact that this is possible with proper planning.
Right now I am super stressed having freshly painted FD parts all over the house on stands just waiting for an accident…
I’m close to reassembling but now quite there yet. Once that’s done I can relax a bit
