FTO AUSTRALIA

If youre on a budget you dont need to replace the engine management,a fuel cut defencer and extra injector + controller is more than up to the task Beauty is that it doesnt affect the operation of the transmission ecu at all.After using a couple of different turbos in various setups ive found t28bb to be the one that gives the car the best overall performance especially in the area of torque,which now has a nice flat curve from around 3000rpm right upto 8300rpm!

my budget is about roughly..... um... well...... 14k would be stretching it to max limit...

Personally, if I had $14K to spend on it, I'd go AVO and get it done right.

ruchi wrote:Personally, if I had $14K to spend on it, I'd go AVO and get it done right.

and decompression plates
forged pistons / rods

the works

and BOOOOST it !

Also keep in mind three other things which may chew up some money and cause issues:
1) Increased cost of insurance
2) Engineers certificate and further mods required
3) Possible RTA issues

If you want to run 10psi or lower standard pistons will hold together though if going above 7psi you will need a decompression plate.Any more boost than 10psi will definately need forged pistons with a lower compression ratio say around 8.5 to 1 would be a good choice to run around 15psi. I cant recommend AVO highly enough as their work is very good,but as stated before they aint cheap.

if the ECU is tuned right with the proper fuel being used, you should be able to run up to 10psi without too much concerns to the stock pistons. Sure, running decomp plate would help too, but it will compromise off-boost drivability (even more so if you have a larger turbo).

During the initial stages of tuning on my car, we encountered boost control issues that saw us running boost at 9.5psi but it showed no signs of pinging/detonation at all on the factory pistons...

One of the things we learnt during this project was that our main concern lies with the factory rods due to the vast increase of torque generated at the crank. At one stage, torque figures jumped through the roof (about 400-Newtons atw around 4000rpm) :shock: As a result, we had to keep removing some timing as we go to ensure that things do not get out of hand with snapped conrods LoL...

Remember the MIVEC was built to withstand high-rpms therefore the reciprocating parts are relatively lightweight compared to its turbocharged brothers. Once you introduce positive pressure onto the crank, the rods will begin to struggle maintaining its strength while it copes with the added stress (simpy because it was never designed to be turbocharged in the 1st place)...

If the $8.5K fee quoted by AVO incl parts, labour and dyno, then you should invest the remainder of your budget into upgraded internals as well. I have a feeling that the forgies would have to be custom-made so at the end of the day, you could be hit with a hefty invoice beyond your $14K budget, so be prepared for the worst... Cost of parts alone are quite reasonable - it's the cost of labour that kills you!

ok, i think i've blathered on too much... yibida yibida, that's all folks.

Mikey can you answer these questions?

1) how much did your insurance increase by?
2) How much was the engineers certificate and what other mods did you have to do to satisfy this?
3) What issues did you have with the RTA when you told them of the modifications?

Mikey you could probably run 10psi with standard compression with youre setup since your intercooler is so large however having such a large intercooler will add lag since the turbo has to pressurise a large volume,this would also explain why your torque figures are good because effectively youve lengthened the intake runners.Shot peening the rods would be a good idea if youve got concerns.Definately add an oil cooler and transmission cooler too,other wise your engines internal temps will go haywire.

going by rules, the FTO runs a 10:1 compression ratio, which a pretty high in itself.

Running 10PSI would in affect, just to be safe lower the compression ratio a bit.

omg... wow thanks for all the info...

im going to go down to AVO trubo world, and ask them a few questions directly...

but i dont know what questions to ask in regarding the turbo conversion.

what should i ask the guy? what should i be expecting?