If I was to Sell My Turbo

[nissanman]

Some great points from all.

One thing though, you can't say that a wrx is built to produce power. There are plenty of boxer engines that have let go due to poor tunes, not weak parts.

I've come from the world of Nissan ( owning sr20's, ca18's, rb25) where people blow engines all the time! Due to (mostly) not being tuned or poor tuning or over tuning.

My sr20 put out close to the magic 200rwkw. 160,000kms when I sold it. Didn't blow. Hasn't blown to date.

Currently on my iPhone so can't write too much as it's frustrating with touch screens lol

[lazydog]

Well please explain this:

Everytime you take your car back to Mazda they knock the boost back and run it richer!
Mazda's stock maps are rubbish.

I'm not discrediting your threories, but please tell me why it's always Rod 4 that let's go. I've seen in the flesh twice, and heard it for at least 5 others.

If your telling me that that's due to the PCM map inside the ECU I think you have to take a second look at your the theory.

7 times, the same part of the engine popping.... Surely you can see that it's the engine weak point. That's what i've put it down to.

Further to this, since changing it, I'm now making near 200kw@ the wheels and nothing has gone wrong... no pinging or knock from what I've experienced.

Your right about the tuner... There is only one bloke I will ever take my car back to.

[tricache]

My theory is if your going down this road then Mazda might not be the best place to get it serviced

[lazydog]

Hence the plug for MPS Garage. They do all my servicing!

I was fed up with juniors working on my car!

[kmh001]

If the rods were inherently weak, then the failures would be distributed across all four. The fact that number four has failed multiple times only adds to the likelihood that a cylinder over-pressure condition has occurred as a result of a flaw in the PCM logic.

[t4orce]

This is an interesting discussion as I have a stock turbo that is currently being taken apart for potential hiflowing/upgrading. The one in my car is not loving its seals anymore.

It seems that I should stop the hiflowing/upgrading work as its not a good idea given that possibly:

1. the engines aren't strong enough per Lazydog's experience; and
2. no one can properly tune the Mazda ECU per kmh's experience.

If you accept both positions, either way, its back to stock or go buy another car.... hmm tempting... lol

[kmh001]

I think there is a safe buffer within which you can move in terms of developing more power. I can't remember who said it (but it was someone with some credibility) that 480nm is about the safe limit for a DISI on stock internals.

It makes a lot of sense because torque is related to cylinder pressure and that's where the failure mode is.

Do you know what output your current mods are giving?

[t4orce]

No I don't. I had the car on the dyno but there was no decent strapping point underneath the car and the operator was reluctant to do a power run.

The mods I have on my car have been installed for quite some time without issue. Whether the stock ecu has figured out what's going on now I'm not really sure. I have no startup issues, power is strong, I get the occasional hesitation and now turbo seal failure but nothing unexpected from this motor.

One thing I do know is that it will pull from a stock MPS.

[tone]

This might be going a little off topic, but t4orce. i just had my turbo replaced under wty, had mods to the car done but they approved. just asking. does a new turbo like that need to be run in?

[t4orce]

you serious? I'm out of warranty now and had mods so I never bothered going to my dealer to repair my turbo.

There were clunking noises coming from my suspension and because the car was lowered, they charged me 1K to investigate noise. It turned out that the bolts weren't torqued tight enough. My dealer did not like mods at all and they ran the usual thing, your car is modified, your warranty is stuffed so I gave them the birdie and now have my car serviced at a local tuning house.

[240MPS]

Sort of went of topic a little but still good reading.... Hmmmmmm lots of thinking but again I will say, I will put my trust in Allstar Tuning to do the right thing.....They must know the limits with the race car....

[lazydog]

If the rods were inherently weak, then the failures would be distributed across all four. The fact that number four has failed multiple times only adds to the likelihood that a cylinder over-pressure condition has occurred as a result of a flaw in the PCM logic.

I think you will find that all the rods are weak(or not really weak, but not designed to push the limit's we want to explore).

I highly doubt that there is different pressures on the top of the piston causing it to bend, rather than different loads on the rods and hence rod 4 carrying the most load and hence bending.

My opinion is that the stock ECU is fine, but the stock engine carries limitations that people must be aware of.

The only person I would recommend for tuning is Autotech Engineering in Granville. I've taken my car to 3 different workshops, and he was the only one that hit the nail on the head first go!

And for people tossing up what unit to get tuned, go for the only one that's been designed to handle the direct injection engines - CPE Standback!

---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:07 PM ----------

Just for the record,

I ran a CorkSports FMIC + CAI, CorkSports DP,Custom Cat,CorkSports Cat Back with a standback without blowing my engine.

It's when i took it back and went for big power that it let go!

[2XS]

Does anyone know if this 480nm ceiling is at the flywheel or at the wheels?

I hope it's not at the flywheel. So many people here in Brisbane have over 450nm at the wheels.

[240MPS]

I'm going to ask the boys next time I'm visiting about where my NM are?????

[240MPS]