Finally THZX is back on the road and I have to say that I am very happy with the turbo upgrade. Still being reasonably carefull for another few hundred k's to monitor oil/water,injector duty cycle etc. For those contemplating installation this is not a straight forward job, apart from fitting straight up to the exhaust manifold everything else requires customising/fabricating. The biggest delay for me was obtaining the HKS actuators for which there was a world-wide shortage for about two months. Researched this a fair bit with the "Haken" installation on TTnet providing a fairly good base. However, I was intent on not compromising the final result and and had all induction pipes/oil return etc cut and rewelded to reproduce factory specs. Would like to acknowledge the assistance of Marek and Graham (Tektrader69) in scoping and preparing some of the components. A massive thank you to Z-Shop for their patience and expertise, Lindsay engaged Miyake(who has had vast experience both here and in Japan on race engines) for this project. His work is remarkable, I am more than happy for anyone to check out my engine bay to see how meticulous this guy is. Ported manifold with EGR plug, thanks to Tektrader Engineering for a top job. New turbos with HKS actuators, brackets were a PITA to get right. Calibrated them at 12psi which took about an hour to synchronise correctly, extremely important that this is done very accurately. Comparison between old and new turbos, BTW I am looking to sell the stock ones which are in fairly good condition with virtually no vertical shaft play. Removed EGR which makes plennum removal a lot easier. A fair bit of work was done with the induction pipes so they look and fit "factory". Compressor inlet pipes require a lot of work to clock correctly, a turbo stud is required after this to due final orientation. My intial impression is that spool up is no worse than stock . Greg Dupree dumps produce a much throatier exhuast note, drivers side dump fits awefully close to starter motor but still sqeezes in. Overall, the upgrade requires a fair bit of finessing but produces a great end result. These turbos with the addition of larger injectors will max out the capacity of a standard internal engine. Cannot recommend Z-Shop highly enough if you want a totally professional result with this upgrade. Tony
wow! congrats on the upgrade! Few questions but... what was the total cost? what sort of power are you pulling now? how long did it take you to do the conversion? hurry up and chuck that baby on the dyno!
They are GP originals (alumised?).> Not going to quote an all up cost (value my marriage), due to a heap of variables. Graham/Tektrader posted a pretty good estimate if you had to pay someone else for total project (can't find post). Turbo's are approx $2k +/- a couple of hundred depending where you source them, HKS actuators are about $320, Greg Dupree dumps about $700. New gaskets about $200, modification/reflanging of existing exhuast system say $300/400. Engine in/out about $1500, the rest is dependent on how much work you can do yourself. Let's put it this way the cost of the turbo's will be be less than a third of the total cost. Not interested in a dyno until I am totally comfortable that engine safety is not compromised through excessive injector duty cycle/detonation with mid/higher range stress on road testing . Had to avoid a cat on the road while taking Graham for a short spin, seat of pants assessment is that power will be pretty awesome. Tony
spent a lot of time looking over your zed while it was at z shop, mine was in & out of there for over 3 weeks getting insurance repairs, & I'll definately attest to the quality of the work carried out on it. Looked bloody nice too!!! great mags, nice side skirts & rear bar & damn if it didnt look menacing in black... & I totally agree about the quality of work produced by z shop, always top notch. cheers, Tim.
i'm almost creaming my pants was about to get new wheels, now i realise looks doesn't matter... its about ponies and that seat of pants assessment
what exactly had to be done on the compressor outlet?? I thought it was only the inlet that needed to be modified.
I had a quick spin in Tony's zed tonight I gotta tell you. I have never had my head thumped back into the head rest like that ever. Reminded me of that ad on the TV where the people get pushed back into the seat and have to unmould themselves. I was stunned. This car goes really hard at 1.1 bar. I am gonna have to redouble efforts on the project zed now. I gotta have mine done urgently now. PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Re: what exactly had to be done on the compressor outlet?? Kyne if you look at Tony's pictures you can see the compressor outlet cast portion leaves the outlet at a different angle than before and points slightly outward. That makes the outlet pipe hard to align to the plenum. See how it was cut, twisted and rewelded to bring the relationship back to how it should be.
Was funny tonight Got in Tony's car and he started off up the street and planted his foot. Its only short street and it came on boost just before we should have been slowing down. The push in the back was AWESOME, I just let out this involutary "FaaaaarK" It was extreme ! I gotta tell you this is the most fantastic bang for the buck ever. AND it was only at 15 psi !!!
what is the thread on the EGR bung in the exhaust manifold? i want to take mine out if i plug that, and the pipes going into the inlet.. and plug the vac lines going to the solenoid.. that should cut it completely out yeah?? i here is gearbox or engine out to remove the actual valve
Damn, that's what it looked like, but I really didn't want to hear it. I think I might see if I can cut and clock the alloy pipe.
You heard wrong Only plenum off to remove EGR. Although it is very tight against the firewall to get the 2x12mm bolts out. Just doable
those exhaust manifolds need a lot more work yet to be truely ported In the closest exhaust runner I can still see a big lump that can be taken out plus it's still not very smooth. When porting the exhaust manifolds you can remove all bumps without breaking through and you should end up with a 1kg of waste material.
