I have been tuning engines for a long time and with that experience I tend to look a bit more at how other people tune their cars and bikes than anyone else. Now this is not true for everyone, but most of you will recognize yourself at some level.
About 25 years ago the level of tuning an ordinary street car would ever see was at most 30% increase in power. (Not true for every car out there, but I'm talking ordinary street cars here)
So if you had an Ford, Volvo or BMW the amount of power you could get would have been in the 150hp range and in some extreme cases 250hp. At this point this was the "limit" of ordinary naturally aspirated engines at that time. Yes there was a lot of racing going on at that time, and some of these race engines did get put into street cars and power levels would have been 300+ hp. But the amount of maintenance these race engines required and the cost to keep them running were too much for most people.
Back then you could not just go into a racing store and buy yourself a set of forged pistons and connecting rods. Let alone camshafts and valves to build your race engine.
With the introduction of turbochargers however the power suddenly increased to levels that are still uncommon in today’s cars. At the beginning people where not really sure how to tune turbo engines and intercoolers where something that most people had never heard of. Silicone hoses where did you get that?
You would have to know someone in the maintenence department that did service on trucks or busses that had turbocharged Diesel engines at the time to buy the simple things like, clamps, hoses, gaskets, oil lines etc. Even something like an external Wastegate that are availiable almost everywhere now today you could not get your hands on. And something like real drag tires where not that common either.
But as time passed by, engine tuners got their hands on more parts, most that had the machines and tools started to make their own intercoolers, wastegates and all the parts that were hard to get and the knowledge and the tuning business took of.
Now it still took some time before engine management systems and electric fuel injection where you could really start to extract power out of engines became common and figure out how to tune the software to make that work. To start if you found someone who could tune these you would have to fork out serious doe to get everything working. Well you still might have to do that today, and serious race teams do spend alot of money to get the electrical side working right. Today there are so many more things you can do with a powerful ECU, like traction control, different boost pressures for low and high gears, launch control, shiftcut etc.. This list is very long.
But before all that came chip tuning and fuel injected turbo engines. What was unheard of just 20 years ago would now become a reality for anyone with a few minutes of tuning. Some of you might know the story of the Ford RS Cosworth, Nissan Skyline, Audi S1 Quattro, Lancia S4 to name a few and other icons of the late 1980 and early 1990. The turbo engines back then would give you 200hp and that is still today 25 years on about the same power level you would get from a new car. However today this is a common power figure for a station wagon. And back in the 80s only a few racing breed turbo engines would give you that.
But with a few changes to the ECU with chip tuning and some larger fuel injectors all that was needed then was to turn up the boost pressure and 350hp where unleashed. The only real limit here was only how much air the standard turbocharger could supply.
Sure there where different levels of basic tuning you could do but the effect was the same, more power.
With more and more tuner friendly cars coming out over the years the power figures are still holding almost the same. Just until recently where the powerfigures have really started to go up and beyond what was thought possible only a few years ago..
But what have really changed today is the huge amount of DIY tuners out there. What engine tuners did 25 years ago have now entered the garage and racing parts have now become widely available to anyone. From the cheap Chinese made turbo exhaust manifolds to wastegates and almost every tuning part you can think of to the pure racing parts like forged pistons and engine management systems on sale that anyone can buy.
So what has happened is anyone with a little background in mechanics can now build their own race engine. Power levels have just gone up and up and up.. It’s not uncommon to see street cars today with 500hp and then there are the ones who have gone even higher, breaking the 1000hp barrier.
The one thing that all these engines have in common to achieve such power levels are of course the turbocharger. Without the turbo it would not have been possible. Well a supercharger or N02 injection could do the job too but that’s another story.
However time and time again people forget the most important parts when tuning cars. I’m talking about safety and racing safety gear. I do see that people buy racing seats and that’s good. But most of the time they don’t buy racing seats because of the added safety. It’s because they think racing seats look good. And what about things like auto racing helmets that keeps your head intact. Most of the time people come to the track without real racing helmets and if it’s street racing that’s taking place, no one seems to bother wearing any kind of racing helmets at all.
I do understand that people feel protected inside their cars and they don’t think they need roll cages and in some cases opt for roll bars instead but you really need to think about this.
Some of the racing safety gear you should look at are the following:
racing suit
racing shoes
racing helmets
racing gloves
This would be the minimum for my liking if your going on a trackday or similar race day event with your tuned car.
In case you don’t have a fuel cell in your car and there is a chance of fire or fuel leak then you should consider racing fire suits also because these will save your life.
Fire is not to be taken lightly. If you have a good fuel system in place to feed your engine and anyone who are looking for power is going to have that. Then you need to understand that at any given time those racing fuel pumps are pumping 2 gallons of fuel every minute. And if you get a leak and have an accident you are in real trouble if the power to the pumps are not cut right away.
So having the right racing safety gear to protect you is always a good choice. Today’s car are much safer than the ones years ago, but you need to understand that when we double and triple the amount of power and turn our 100mph car into a 200mph fire spitting monster of a car you really, really should spend some time and pick out some racing safety gear also.
10 comments:
I'm looking to buy a GT2554 or GT2854. I'm using it on an 82 CID V-Twin motorcycle. I'm confused by the GT2854 turbine map. You state that is has slower response than the GT2554, but the "2854" map starts ar 5 where the "2554" map starts at 8.
It seems the 2854 would build boost sooner. Please explain how this works.
Thank You for the web site and your time
Hi
Thank you for using my site! I can see how these two turbochargers GT2854R and GT2554R can be confusing. Let me try and explain a bit more. First of all most turbo manufacturers like Garrett don't publish full turbine maps. So we don't get all the curves showing shaft RPM and other info.
Someone else said that the GT2554R and GT2854R curves cross over each other at about 13 pounds on the horizontal scale and 1.81 PR on the vertical scale. To the left of this point is the GT2854R curve and is below the GT2554R and to the right its above. I take that to read slightly more trapping efficiency to the left and slightly less restriction to the right of the crossover point..
Other things like the 9 bladed turbine having slightly less innertia than a 11 bladed one makes a difference as well.
I try to look at what other people running these turbochargers in the real world say about them, so when I say "The spool will be a little bit later on the GT2854R but not much". That's what you should expect.
But really because these two turbochargers are so similar, on a 1.6L Miata engine where both turbochargers had been tested it was reported about a 5% difference. The GT2854R runs very much like the GT2554R but with slightly higher top end power. I can't see you go wrong with either of them, if you can find a Garrett GT2854R or GT2554R for a good price then go for it.
Hello, normally the turbos should come with a restrictor fitted. However it is easy to check if you look into the oil inlet you should not be able to see the ball bearing cartridge rotating if it is fitted with a restrictor like you can if you look into the oil outlet on the turbo.
Hello, very good info here!
Regarding restrictor - should be 1mm or 1.8mm?
Also, do you have any info about TB2815 from Nissan S14a?
Hello mihai.anton, the restrictor size depends on how high the engine oil pressure is on your engine. If you are running a normal stock oil pump and not revving the engine too high then you can use a bigger 1.8mm restrictor. The only real problem going too big on the oil restrictor is that the turbo can become slow to spool up due to excessive oil in the bearings. And worst case you can notice some blue smoke or oil start leaking into the compressor housing or boost pipes.
If you however go with too small oil restrictor and don't have enough oil pressure in your engine then you can starve the turbo of oil and damage the bearings. So it is better to go bigger and then go down in size if you are unsure.
As for the Garrett TB2815 turbo it is an older turbo but very similar in size to the GT2860RS turbocharger with a 47.20mm compressor inducer and 53mm turbine. I don't have a compressor map but from the dimensions alone it should support around 350hp. However unlike the more modern GT2860RS turbo the TB2815 turbo use journal bearings, so it will spool slower due to that. On a Nissan S14 engine the TB2815 would probably get to full boost around 3500-4000rpm. And with the ball bearing GT2860RS turbo it would spool up around 500rpm sooner and support a bit more power due to the modern compressor wheel design.
Hello yeliab1, Garrett normally don't sell parts to repair ball bearing turbochargers. They want you to buy a new whole cartridge instead. You can find aftermarket turbine shafts for sale.
The GT28 line have a long 112mm and 109mm shaft but also a shorter 103mm shaft that's used. You need to make sure what length your shaft is first.
You can get turbine parts from Mamba or Kinugawa for a good price. I see turbines for sale from different sellers on aliexpress and ebay also.
This is the long shaft version.
https://shop.mambatek.com/9-Blade-Garrett-GT28R-Flow-turbine-wheel-47-538-Length-112mm-012-0103.htm
You can contact them and ask if it's correct but also make sure the CHRA P/N: and TURBO P/N: are the same for your turbo.
Thank you JD. Extremely useful info here! I have healthy CA18DET with all modes for Stage2, boost 14psi but I will run Stage1 chip because the car is more daily and I want to be safe. In conclusion, is better to use GT2854R than a TB2815 from S14a? For me quick boost is more important than top end power.
Hello mihai.anton, on the CA18DET the GT2854r should make around 1 bar boost / 15 psi at 3000rpm. So they do spool up quick even on smaller engines.
Many thanks, thanks to your advices I can buy the Turbo now with much more confidence! :)
Post a Comment