Author Archives: Austin

Cxracing, SPA, TCD, BMW E36 OBX Turbo Manifold Review

Cxracing, SPA, TCD, BMW E36 OBX Turbo Manifold Review

I Have 4 Manifolds That I want to Review as You can See Below. First the Tubular! 

I Bought This Manifold, and It Turned Out to Be a Huge Mistake. I used this Manifold for 2 Years 20,000 Miles and It Cracked, so bad Where all the Pipes Merge to the t3 Flange that I just Threw away the Manifold. It Would have been a Difficult Area To Weld. I Finally took off the Manifold after Getting a $95 Exhaust Ticket from My Manifold Being Cracked and Leaking Exhaust Really Loud.  Sometimes the Most Expensive Things are “cheap”. Like Everyone Says, the Tubular Manifolds Crack, Dont Buy Them!

Next I Bought a Cast Manifold Because They are Much Tougher. Well this T3 Flange Casting is really Rough. This Manifold Can Be Ported and will Clean Up Well.  I Would Have to Say That This Turbo Manifold for the E36 is Worth Trying If you are on a Low Budget, and You have some porting tools to Clean it up!

This is the Manifold Everyone on Bimmer Forums is Recommending! BMW E36 SPA Manifold. However, it is Expensive, But It is a very quality Manifold! Even Technica Motorsports use this Manifold with Their BMW Turbo Kit. So You know this Manifold I quality!

bmw e36 spa manifold e36 spa manifold

I Ended Up Buying a TCD Manifold for Around 250$ Used with a Tial Wastegate. I Found Out that This Turned out to be a Bad Decision, Because I Can Only use an On Center Turbine Housing (Which Cost about 300$), Because the Turbo Hits the Frame of the Car, Which Cannot be Altered Without Putting the Safety of the car in Jeopardy.  Here is a look at the TCD Manifold:

TCD Manifold

I Highly Recommend Using a Cast Manifold. Go with the SPA Manifold if You can Afford it. If You Cannot Afford to Buy the SPA Manifold, Then Go with Another Cast Manifold, Just Don’t Go with a Tubular!

Garrett Ball Bearing Oil Restrictor

If You Have a Garrett GT25r, GT28r, GT30r, GT35r series Turbocharger, then You Need a Garrett Ball Bearing Oil Restrictor. This Oil Restrictor Fits Directly into the Ball Bearing Cartridge, and Seals on the Ball Bearing Cage Dowel Pin.  This Fitting Has a -4 an Connection fitting to Adapt Directly To a -4 an Oil Feed line.

Here You Can Buy Garrett Ball Bearing Oil Restrictor.

 

Take Note:  This Fitting is for Garrett Ball Bearing Turbochargers Only. Restrictors Should not be used with any Single Ball Bearing Turbochargers Such As Turbonetics Single Ball Bearing Turbochargers, or any Journal Bearing Turbochargers. This Restrictor Does Work with Precision Ball Bearing Turbos That used GT30r to GT35r Garrett Center Cartridges (Doesnt fit 6262, 6266, ball bearing etc).

2.5″ 3″ 4″ Inch Boost Leak Tester 240sx, WRX

 2.5″ 3″ 4″ Inch Boost Leak Tester 240sx, WRX, DSM, SRT4

Boost Leak Tester

Here Are Some Great Boost Leak Testers That you can Buy. If your Turbo Car Lacks Horsepower, then It is very Likely that You Have a Leak that You Cannot See. In Fact all of Your Couplers could Also Be Tight Too! Here are 2.5″, 3″, 4″ Testers From Right To Left

Common Leaks That You Cannot See Are Often Found In Conditions Like:

  • Corroded Intercooler Pipe
  • Corroded Intercooler (Common for DSM)
  • Not Properly Sealed Intercooler Core. ( I saw this on a New Jeep Liberty Turbo Diesel Once)
  • Leaking Blow Off Valve (Common with Greedy, Blitz, and Factory BOV)
  • Holes in Vacuum Lines
  • Broken Seal Intake Manifold Gaskets
  • Dry Rotted Fuel Injector Seals

Steps Too Boost Leak Testing Your Car:

  • Install Boost Leak Tester On TurboCharger Inlet
  • Fill Up Boost Leak Tester Tire Valve With Air Chuck Until You Reach Your Boost Level (25 psi+)
  • Spray Soapy Water All Over Charge Pipes, Vacuum Lines, and Where Every Boost May Go.
  • Search For Bubbles to find Leaks

 Learn How to Do a Boost Leak Test Here.

 

What Size External Wastegate Spring to Use

Learn What Size External Wastegate Spring to Use With Your Turbo Setup:

what size external wastegate to use.

The Spring Pressure that you Should use is Based on The Boost Level that you plan to Run. The Pressure of your Wastegate Spring should Be Half of the Boost Level that You want to Run.  If You want to Run 30 PSI, You need a 15 PSI Base Pressure Spring.  The Base PSI Spring is the Lowest PSI That You can Run on Your TurboCharger, The Boost Can Be Increase with a Boost Controller but only up to Double the PSI of the Wastegate Spring Pressure.

If You try to Boost More than Double the PSI of your Wastegate Spring, the Boost PSI will Fall off to a Lower PSI, The Reason Why is Because the Higher Pressure of the Engine At Higher RPM will force Open the Wastegate Valve, if the Base Spring PSI is too low. This is the Reason Why you Cannot use a Base Pressure 8 PSI Spring Cannot be used with a Boost Controller to run over 16 psi at Redline.

Usually If you have an 8 PSI Base Pressure Spring and you have the Boost Controller set to 20 PSI, You will Reach Your Target Boost at 20 psi Around 3500 rpm, Then Between 5,500 rpm to Redline, the PSI will Lower to 16 psi. If This is Happening to You, and you Want to run Higher Boost Levels you Need a Higher PSI Spring.

The Downside to Running To High of a PSI Spring is that the Base Pressure of the Spring is the Lowest PSI that You can Run. The Boost Level Cannot be Adjusted less than the Base PSI Spring, The Boost Controller is only Designed to Increase the Boost Pressure. Here You can see What Boost Controller We Recommend.

If You have an Issue of Boosting To High of Boost Levels (Boost Creep), Then You need to Make Sure You have the Right Size External Wastgate, Which You Can Find Here.

Below You can Find Search For Higher PSI Springs to Fit Your Needs.

What Size External Wastegate Size To Use

Learn What Size External Wastegate Size To Use

The Size of the External Wastegate That you Should Use Depends on 2 Major Factor Which are:

  • What Size Engine Do you Have (2.0 liter 4 cylinder, 2.5 liter 6 cylinder, v8 4.4liter etc)
  • What Size Turbo You are Using

Here is How You Use This Information to Determine Which Wastegate You Need to Run:

In Most Cases the 38mm Wastegate Is Sufficient to Control Boost for 4 cylinder  and 6 cylinder engines, if you are running a 60mm turbo or smaller such as GT35r. Sometimes You May See 4 cylinder engines using a very Large turbo and 2 external Wastegates. The Reason Why is Because Your Engine Needs 2 Wastegate or 1 Larger Wastegate is Because When You Run a  Turbo that is 67mm or Larger You Need a Wastegate(s) that can Properly Control Boost Levels at Higher RPM Because of the Increased Amount of Air Flow.

What Size External Wastegate to use

Another Great Example Is If you have a V8 Engine, You need to Run a Large Turbo Even if You are Look for a Small Horsepower Gain, Because You Need to Have a Turbo that will Outflow the Engine at Higher RPM, so the Turbo Doesnt Become a Restriction to the Engine. With a V8 Engine You should be using 1 50mm External Wastegate or (2) 38mm Wastegates. Often the Reason Why People Use (2) External Wastegates is Because They are Using a Twin Scroll Manifold.

Keep in Mind that it isn’t Necessary to Run 2 External Wastegates with a Twinscroll Manifold. You Could use 1 External Wastegate on one side of the Divider, The Wastegate is on the Holsest are only Removing Air Pressure from 1 Scroll of the Turbine Housing From Factory

With all the Said, the Main Reason Why You Would Need a Larger Wastegate or 2 Wastegates is If you Have the Issue Where You Cannot Properly Control Boost. This issue is when Your reach full boost, and Your Wastegate is Wide Open, But Even with the Wastegate Wide Open the Boost Increases Past Your Boost Setting, Meaning that it Cannot Be Controlled Properly. This is Not a Spring issue Because the Wastegate Spring Selection is Based off You The Amount of Boost You Plan to Run. You can Read about Wastegate Spring Selection Here.

Common Wastegate Selections for Applications are:

2.0L or 2.3 liter 4 cylinder GT35r or 6262 or smaller : 38mm External Wastegate

2.0L or 2.3 4 cylinder T67, GT40r, GT42r or similar 44mm External Wastegate

2.5L 6 cylinder GT35R :38mm External Wastegate

v8 with T67 67mm Turbo: (2) 38mm External Wastegate or (1) 44mm or 50mm External Wastegate

Here are some Great Examples of External Wastegate Options that Are Available:

3 Inch V-band Flange and Clamp Set / kit

Here is A 3 Inch V-band Flange and Clamp Set / Kit That I buy all the time for My Customers. 

3 vband Clamp and Flange Set

What I love about this 3″ V band Clamp Kit is that Has a Male and Female end so it interlocks, which prevents the problem of the vbands moving and causing the vbands to lose their seal. Here are some benefits about this vband kit:

  • Easy to weld
  • Interlocking Male Female Ends
  • Strong Vband Clamp
  • Very Affordable
  • Mild Steel Flanges
  • 1100+ Sold

Take Note that Sometimes the vbands have a coating on the. If they do you must blast the coating off of the vband flanges before welding, or it will not weld properly. Other than that, these flanges have always worked out perfect for me.

 

3 vband clamp & flange set

 

 

 

Garrett GT37R Turbo Rebuild Upgrade

Garrett GT37R Turbo Rebuild Upgrade 

  • GT37R Turbine Wheel Replaced
  • T67 66.6 x 84 x 90 Drop In GT37R Billet Compressor Wheel Installed
  • TO4E Seals Replace From This Kit (this whole kit wont be used, just the seals and compressor plate tabs.)
  • Contact us if you want to Know a cost estimate of fixing your GT37R

BW S256 AGP SRT4 Turbo Rebuild

BW S256 AGP SRT4 Turbo Rebuild 

See Result of Machining AGP Turbine Housing to fit New Holset HX40 Turbocharger.

Sometimes these Turbochargers Cannot be Repaired, in Which They must be Replaced, In Cases Like This The BW Bearing Housing is not Available, so it Must be Fixed by Other Means.

Contact us for a Turbo Rebuild Like This